CSMC Meet up Tonight

Hey ya. Ryan Hoke with Wild Goose Creative will be at the beginning of our meeting to fill us in on their endevours. Just a note…they’re working on wireless but aren’t there yet. We’re also happy to have Angelo from PodCamp Ohio 2.0 joining us tonight. He’ll share what’s in store for this year’s podcamp. If you have a suggestion for a topic or a speaker, I hear it’s not too late to make a recommendation! Please come with your questions and ideas!

Finally, we’ll talk about the Columbus Corners project and anything else on people’s minds. So if you have a burning question/issue you’re currently facing with your blog or any other social media tool, tonight is your night! We’ll see you at 6:30!

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Making the local connection

Reposted from Andrew-Miller.com

"Thanks AmyD for the sweet scarf I won from Ryan!"

An interesting thing has been happening in my online circles as of late. People are holding contests and giving out prizes. Why are contests and prizes interesting? Well, in this case it is because the people giving them away are doing so primarily for altruistic reasons.

Jeff Johnson of Urban Infill is giving away a months COTA bus pass as a way of promoting local public transit. He doesn’t work for COTA, he is merely interested in giving someone else a chance at using (and thus growing) the public transit system here in Columbus. Ryan Morgan, an insurance specialist, has taken it upon himself to gather various local made gifts which he is giving away via Twitter trivia contests. He doesn’t work for the businesses he’s promoting, he just thinks it is important that we support local business. Alvin Borromeo raffled off tickets to COSI, similarly he doesn’t work for COSI he just thought it would be nice to support a local organization. He’s yet another blogger doing something good for the community.

Now I’m not naive enough to believe that these contests weren’t also going to raise the profile of these individuals and their own projects but I don’t think that matters in this case. The prizes that they were offering are specific; they relate to building, supporting, sustaining the kind of community they believe in. When McDonald’s has their Monopoly Game every year they aren’t trying to promote community, they’re merely looking for increased sales. Bloggers could surely do something similar, and certainly they have at times, but instead of focusing only on increasing site visits these folks are focused on making a change.

Gandhi is famous for saying “Be the change you wish to see” (sorry, paraphrasing) and while I hardly want to elevate every blogger to Gandhi like status I think that is essentially what drives most solo bloggers. This desire to try and shape the digital world in the way that is most pleasing to us. For some of us we are now finding a way to extend that to our analog world as well. For some of us there is no difference between analog and digital worlds.

So what does this mean for you?

Last update for December potluck

For those of who have not visted us at WOSU yet…

The parking is on the south side of the Fawcett Center, 2400 Olentangy River Rd. There are two main sets of doors on the South side. It’s easier to enter on the Eastern set of glass doors (for those of you who are geographically challenged, this would be on your right).

You will enter the main area of the Fawcett Center. Go straight ahead for several yards, and then go down the stairs. You will start to see WOSU signs. At the bottom of the stairs, make a hard 180 degree left, and then an immediate right down the hallway.

Tours of our new radio facility will be offered just for the asking…

- Scott

New CSMC Domain

The purchase and configuration of the new CSMC blog domain (columbussocialmediacafe.org) has been completed. The blog is still hosted by WordPress, and can still be found using the old domain (socialmediacafe.wordpress.com). The user login address (socialmediacafe.wordpress.com/wp-login.php) remains the same. Blog on.

Personalized Health Care National Conference

At the Columbus Social Media Cafe meeting for October, Wendy Phillips of the OSU Medical Center not only shared the some of the center’s efforts to reach the Columbus community through social media, but from passionate discussion with CSMC members, was given suggestions on how to improve the center’s efforts. One such suggestion was to provide a “weather report” of immediate health concerns affecting the community.

Wendy said recent efforts have been made to educate the public about the advancements in bioinformatics and how gene-based information is being used to understand a person’s individual requirements for the maintenance of their health, prevention of disease, and therapy tailored to their genetic uniqueness. The center is hosting the Personalized Health Care National Conference on October 16-17 at the Biomedical Research Tower Auditorium. Consumers and patients are invited to attend and can find registration options on the conference website.

Video from 9/30 meet-up

As a former videographer, I feel compelled to apologize for the quality of the video and sound. yes, we should have had people wearing wireless mics. Yes, I should have had a tripod. Yes, I should have found a way to frame the shots better. But the content is worth it, I hope.

Shaun Holloway’s bit:

Ted Hattemer’s bit:

Wendy Phillip’s bit:

Wanted: Minutes Takers

Hi gang,

Just a note from Scott Gowans, WOSU’s web guy. For the meeting on September 30, Jamison has volunteered to take photos and upload thme to the Flickr side, and I’ll videotape and post to YouTube. (I will also take written notes and put them onto this site, as well.)

We’re asking for a few volunteers for the next few meetings to take notes, blog, twitter, record some video, take a few stills, etc. It would be enormously helpful for us if these chores were designated before the meeting, and could be passed around, just so the same 2/3 people don’t get stuck (er…I mean…honored) with this task.

Thanks, y’all.

– Scott

The August Meet-Up Review

We had a great meeting last month, primarily because we saw our mission coming to life before us: we used social media tools to address a community problem.

The great folks from Ganthers Place joined us to share their vision of what life in Columbus looks in their neighborhood. In short, Ganthers Place is the area located east of Parsons Avenue and consists of Whittier Street, Reinhard Avenue, and Seibert Street, ending at Heyl Avenue. The community consists of a group of residents that strives to make a difference in their neighborhood.

Thus far, they’ve been spreading the word about their community through pretty “traditional” means of communication: printed newsletters and the best of the best–face-to-face communication! We introduced them to social media tools that might help them as they build their community.

We took at look at Twitter (Ganthers Place); we created a word press site with them, we showed them how to use Utterz and Flickr. The Ganthers Place folks took to social media like ducks to water! We also talked about some of the challenges of social media with them, i.e., sustainability. Once they start twittering and blogging, who will keep the impulse going? Another challenge for them is that their community isn’t entirely online: not everyone has computers. But still, twittering about what they are doing, using Utterz to call attention to problems that need resolution…they’re definitely ahead of the game.

They’ll be back for the October meeting to let us know how things are going for them!

The next meeting is September 30, 6:30-8:30 at the Upper Arlington Library.

 

 

Muppetcast and This Woman’s Work Blogger at WOSU Public Media Digital Days

Two wonderful folks have answered the call for bloggers at this Saturday’s FREE Digital Days. I’m pleased to share with you that Steve, of Muppetcast and Dawn, of This Woman’s Work will be at WOSU@COSI this Saturday to share their insights and experiences. And there’s still room for more! Here’s more information…

Hear and see what is a blog, how to create an account for starting a blog, why people blog at WOSU Public Media’s Digital Day on Saturday, August 16 from 10:30am to noon with Muppetcast blogger  and 12:30pm to 2:00pm with This Woman’s Work blogger.

• What is a blog?
• How do I create a blog (i.e., get an account)?
• Why do people blog and who reads them?
• Other fun/interesting stuff about blogging!

Oh, and if you already know the ends and outs of blogging but can’t seem to handle your home video recorder, come down at noon or 2:00pm for a mini presentation on tips and tricks to shooting home videos and bring your camera! While at WOSU@COSI, also hear how you can help older adults make it through the digital transition.