Columbus Social Media Cafe #3 Round-up
February 5, 2008
Despite omens of doom from our local meteorologists, the Columbus Social Media Cafe had its third meeting on Wednesday, January 31. About 20 people attended, representing WOSU and COSI, as well as several local bloggers and corporations.
Discussion began with WOSU’s vision of a new site for CSMC, which would serve as a web portal, blog aggregator, social network, and content provider. Someone suggested Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia or Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Inc. as a model for media integration, where a discussion on the web site might be featured on a radio broadcast such as Open Line with an invitation to comment further online.
Another potential use of a CSMC site is as a platform for community projects, helping bring blogging to the community by offering training in social media. Abdi from Bartamaha.com shared about his site’s mission to bring Somali culture to that immigrant community via videos, interviews, and newsfeeds. This led to a discussion about usability and community credibility.
Towards the end of the evening, Walker Evans proposed a different vision altogether for CSMC: a tool-kit for bloggers containing tutorials, widgets, synched calendars, blog topic counters, meet-ups, and social media classes.
As the meeting wrapped up, participants came up with a synthesis of all the purposes discussed. The blog aggregator shows users what’s on “the tip of the tongue.” The “newbie learning area” shows new bloggers the ropes. And for serious bloggers there would be tools for connection and collaboration.
To-do for next meeting (3/6/2008):
- Define central online location for CSMC–likely to be this WordPress page
- Revise name concept–”Voices of Columbus”?
- Connect with potential partners (OCLC, Columbus Metropolitan Library)
Share your thoughts about CSMC’s purpose and direction…new name concepts…partnerships…
Entry Filed under: Blogger Meet-Up, social media. Tags: columbus social media cafe, cosi, meet-up, wosu.
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1.
Rich | February 6, 2008 at 2:51 am
I have not been able to attend but I applaud the effort. Here is a Pageflakes page aggregating many local and regional blogs and news sources:
http://www.pageflakes.com/rjames01/19942561
This or something similar can pull together local voices.
A wiki, like this one — http://columbus2012.wetpaint.com/ –, is another tool for building community.
2.
Rich | February 6, 2008 at 2:56 am
Forgot to mention that Podcamp will be in Columbus in June. See:
http://podcamp.org/
http://www.podcampohio.com/
3.
Jim Ellison | February 6, 2008 at 7:13 pm
CSMC is really picking up steam. There are many great ideas and many positive things we can do for the people in our community as well as opportunities to promote what is great about Columbus and give an outlet for all “voices of Columbus” to be heard. Please come to the next meeting so we can keep this going strong. I will have to miss the March 6th meetiing. I left each of the first three with strong feelings that this really is a great opportunity for Columbus.
4.
slynne | February 12, 2008 at 2:46 am
As a local blogger and social gal, I’d like to join in on the fun. May I? My wordpress is mostly poetry:
soyouthinkican.wordpress.com
and I really like the innitiatives you all are trying to accomplish. I’ve been perusing this website this afternoon, and would like to attend the next meeting.
thanks!
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