I'm giving back my Mac today.

The contract unequivocally requires property to be returned and so it is that I'm giving the Mac back at some point today. Mind you, about six months ago I'd never used a Mac before and the almost prohibitive price had always kept me at bay. I was the proverbial die-hard PC guy. So when I was offered the Mac -- after I'd burned through one and a half of my own personal PCs at work -- I gladly accepted it out of sheer curiosity.

In the six months since I've had this Mac, I've turned on my PC exactly two times; and both times, it was to try out PC-only software. Suffice it to say the MacBook Pro is sublime. What's not to like? Once you get past the stuff that works differently, you won't imagine how you ever worked on anything else. I think this applies to more than the creative professions: the Mac has not really improved my photography workflow. Rather, I feel like my productivity's been boosted across the board. Maybe it's the more logical OS and UI (and I prefer Tiger to Leopard). Maybe it's because it crashes much less frequently. Maybe it's because you can have close to a gazillion tabs open of Firefox and a bunch of other stuff running at the same time and everything still works. Maybe it's the 3 hour battery life. And maybe it's also "Spaces". The combination of these things and more made it a pleasure to open up the Mac in the morning.

As a quick sidenote, I've often heard it said that Mac would convert most PC users if they gave 30-day trials.

Besides the obvious reluctance of going back to a Vista machine (ie, "Once you go Mac, you can't go back", etc.), I'm now also faced with the time-consuming hassle involved in setting up a workflow that had been perfected on the Mac. Some of it relates to the time it takes to find and install the right extensions for Firefox. Part of it has to do with giving up software that exists only for Mac, like the excellent Skitch. And the other part has to do with software that I had bought and installed, like OmniFocus, and will be unable to use until I get another Mac.

So when will I get another Mac? As soon as I can ... and utimately, a brand new Mac trumps a depreciated one.

"... you've left me with nothing but I have worked with less.” -Ani Difranco.

Update: My PC laptop won't start for some reason, I'll have to get that fixed now and maybe reinstall Vista. I'll lose a bunch of nice software I had installed, though.

Update 2: I got a new MacBook, which is performing better than the MacBook Pro I was using. Maybe it's the clean install. I had considered getting a 20" iMac -- they're amazing -- but I really do need something mobile. The MacBook is even more convenient to carry around than the MacBook Pro.

Note: It's worth clarifying that I'm not associated with Apple or any distributor. Also, I realize in the relative scheme of things, there are many worse things ...

May 13, 2008 in Miscellaneous Stuff | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

On Facebook? Join the Free Burma group

tag: free burma

October 4, 2007 in Miscellaneous Stuff | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

I'm honored to have been invited to teach at the University of Miami as an adjunct professor this fall term. I figure I'll be busier than ever -- what with work at startup Scrapblog and not infrequent travel -- but I'm confident that teaching will be a hugely satisfying experience and I very much look forward to it. The beginning of the semester is fast approaching and the first class will be this Thursday. I had prepared a syllabus a few months ago, but recently revised it since some things had already changed in the 'social media' space. Here is the revised curriculum, with dates. This may move to a class blog or wiki within the next week.

 

School of Communication

University of Miami

 

Web 2.0: Social Media for collaboration, community building and citizen journalism

UM CVJ 596

Fall Semester 2007

Alex de Carvalho

Office location: 2013, please request appointment

 

SYLLABUS

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND PURPOSE:

In a few short years, the Web 2.0 has profoundly changed the communication landscape. With the advent of new social media tools, more and more people are participating and engaging in the conversation online. As former members of the audience become the new creators of content, corporations, institutions and media organizations increasingly lose control of the message. After an overview of how and why we got here, this course will guide you through social networks, blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, media sharing, lifestreams, tagging and other social media tools. Effective communication requires using these tools. Since these services are so new and continually changing, students' prior knowledge about the internet is not relevant.

 

The course will explore the new media landscape in terms of online expression, social networking, identity management, community building and citizen journalism. We will learn from case studies and invited speakers, new effective strategies and applications of social media tools. Required readings expose students to current readings in social media and provide a base from which to explore their interests. Lectures by the instructor resituate these readings in terms of broader concerns, with specific examples and case-studies of emerging technologies and media.

 

COURSE PREREQUISITES:

The class is open to all and there are no prerequisites for this class.

 

MATERIALS FEES:

Students will not be required to purchase any materials or books and all required reading will either be handed out or available online for free.

 

ASSIGNMENTS/COURSEWORK: 

Weblog - 25% of final grade

Students will start and maintain individual blogs with a minimum of four postings per week, whether text, video or audio or some combination, for the duration of the course.

Content: commentary about a media website. Students will be expected to post comments on each others' blogs. The blog will be evaluated on

• the quality of engagement with themes of the class
• clarity of expression
• cultivation of community through regular posts and comments.

Instruction in creating blogs and in the practice of blogging will be provided.

Pseudonymous blogging is permitted.

 

Wiki– 10% of final grade

Each student will edit an entry in Wikipedia and contribute materially to an existing wiki.

Instruction in creating wikis and editing Wikipedia will be provided.

Pseudonymous Wikipedia editing is permitted.

 

Social Bookmarking – 10% of final grade

Each student will write start and maintain an individual social bookmarking service on either del.icio.us, ma.gnolia.com or tumblr, with a minimum of four postings per week.

Instruction in editing social bookmarking services will be provided.

Pseudonymous social bookmarking is permitted.

 

Lifestreams – 10% of final grade

Each student will write start and maintain a "lifestream" or "microblog" service for the duration of the course on either Twitter, Jaiku or both, with a minimum of four postings per week.

Instruction in editing Twitter and Jaiku will be provided.

Pseudonymous lifestreaming is permitted.

 

Participation - 25% of final grade

Students are expected to do all the required readings for the course, to attend classes regularly, to have completed the reading in advance of classes and to participate actively in discussion. Recognition will be given to those who demonstrate consistent improvement over the course of the term.

 

Presentation - 20% of final grade

Students will choose two readings and present the content of the materials to class in a presentation (10-15 minutes). These presentations will summarize the material and then develop additional themes for further discussion. Students will be graded on the clarity of presentation and the level of understanding of the readings under discussion.

Due Date: end of term

 

TEXTS:

Readings will be as current as possible and the instructor will regularly assign materials. In addition, students will be responsible for keeping up to date with the course's blogroll which will be presented in the beginning of the semester. Handouts may be provided in addition, in the class and students are responsible for reading assigned materials and the blogroll prior to each class.

 

COURSE TOPICS OUTLINE

Week of August 20^th, class session August 23rd

Course introduction, overview and objectives. What has changed online, how and why we got here and what it means for the media, for corporations – and for you.

 

Week of August 27^th, class session August 28th

The read – write web: from consuming media to creating content. Blogging basics, RSS feeds and feedreaders. What information overload? Introducing microblogging and lifestreaming. Creating and maintaining a blog. Wordpress, Typepad, Technorati.

 

Week of August 27^th, class session August 30th

What are wikis and how do they work. Wiki basics and wiki editing. Case stuides and examples of wiki use for reference, for nonprofits and for the media. Wikipedia overview and discussion.

 

Week of September 3rd, class session September 4th

Lifestreams overview and discussion. Peripheral vision, presence and introduction to object-centered sociality.

 

Week of September 3rd, class session September 6th

Media-sharing overview and discussion. How and why YouTube and Flickr got so popular. Case studies, controversies and future directions. What is Pownce and will people use it?

 

Week of September 10th, class session September 11^th

Social Bookmarking overview and basic notions. The role of Firefox and open source extensions. Creating a del.icio.us or tumblr account. Discussion on crowdsourcing and how and why people collaborate.

 

Week of September 10th, class session September 13^th

Social Networking overview and discussion. The Social Graph and social network portability. Mini-feeds. LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, Flickr. Future directions.

 

Week of September 17th, class session September 18^th

The F8 developer platform and Facebook applications.

 

Week of September 17th, class session September 20^th

Other forms of online collaboration. IM, SMS, VoIP, shared documents and mobile social software. Online Identity, reputation, pseudonimity and privacy discussion. OpenID, ClaimID, Ziki. Social network portability revisited.

 

Week of September 24th, class session September 25^th

The rise and rise of Social Media and what it means for corporations, institutions and the mainstream media.

 

Week of September 24th, class session September 27^th

Community building online: case studies from individuals, companies and the media.

 

Week of October 1st, class session October 2^nd

Social Objects and object-centered sociality. What is Social Object? What makes for a good social object and how to create sociality around objects.

 

Week of October 1st, class session October 4^th

Community building: is this the new, new marketing? What is community management? Why is community management important … or can we do without it? Case studies.

 

Week of October 8th, class session October 9^th

Community building: social media tools for building better and more engaged local communities. Social web tools and services for non-profits, for disaster relief and for local news reporting.

 

Week of October 8th, class session October 11^th

The new world of media: is online the future or is it already here? What are the current winning models? How is mainstream media affected by the social web?

 

Week of October 15th, class session October 16^th

The new world of media: case studies from new initiatives as well as from the mainstream media

 

Week of October 15th, class session October 18^th

The new world of media: best practices, resources, collaboration and ethics in online journalism. Mashups and Open Source.

 

Week of October 22nd, class session October 23^rd

The new world of media: initiatives in citizen journalism. Case studies on Now Public, Newsvine, OhMyNews and other sites.

 

Week of October 22nd, class session October 25^th

The new world of media: opinion leaders and influencers. Other initiatives in citizen journalism.

 

Week of October 29th, class session October 30^th

The new world of media: online collaboration in gaming and mmorpgs. What lessons can be applied to the world of work.

 

Week of October 29th, class session November 1^st

The new world of media: case studies in mobile services and tools for citizen journalism.

 

Week of November 5th, class session November 6^th

The new world of media: open discussion on citizen journalism. What does the news organization of the future look like? Is there a role for citizen journalists? How can social media tools be used more effectively? 

 

Week of November 5th, class session November 8^th

The new world of media: continued open discussion on citizen journalism. What does the news organization of the future look like? Is there a role for citizen journalists? How can social media tools be used more effectively? 

 

Week of November 12th, class session November 13^th

The new world of media: continued open discussion on citizen journalism. What does the news organization of the future look like? Is there a role for citizen journalists? How can social media tools be used more effectively? 

 

Week of November 12th, class session November 15^th

The new world of media: continued open discussion on citizen journalism. What does the news organization of the future look like? Is there a role for citizen journalists? How can social media tools be used more effectively? 

 

Week of November 19th, class session November 20^th

Student presentations and class discussion

 

Week of November 26th, class session November 27^th

Student presentations and class discussion

 

Week of November 26th, class session November 29^th

Student presentations and class discussion

 

FINAL EXAM PERIOD:  Thursday December 6^th 8:00-10:30pm

August 21, 2007 in Miscellaneous Stuff | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

I have not blogged in a long while ... Our member base has grown significantly since the relaunch of Scrapblog in early April and the role and tasks related to community evangelism have grown accordingly (check out Jeremiah's new "community of community marketers" group on Facebook). I have found it much easier to update Twitter and Facebook and to post photos to Flickr.

So I always feel a momentary shock when I return to my blog: "is that really what it looks like? Nah ... can't be!". Thankfully styling doesn't come through in RSS feeds!

Even though I'm not a designer, my way back to blogging has always been to fix the CSS first to something I can feel comfortable with for the next half year.

So if you've happened to visit here, please bear with me while I shape up the styling ... and I already know where my weekend's going to be spent!

By the way, what's with all the recent spam on Typepad? I wish there were Akismet ... one more reason to migrate to Wordpress one day ...

July 20, 2007 in Miscellaneous Stuff | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

View full size to see the Mother's Day for Peace video. Created with Scrapblog.com. Technorati Tags: scrapblog, mother's day

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May 14, 2007 in Miscellaneous Stuff | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

This is another placeholder, I'll repost the Scrapblog slideshow I created when we open up our firewall again in a few days.

March 21, 2007 in Miscellaneous Stuff, Starting up, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Less than a week after Webreakstuff posted about the tags people had used to categorize them on del.icio.us, Brian of webpl.us has created a tool to allow anyone to do the same.

Tastytag.com uses the del.icio.us API to fetch the top ten tags people have used to categorize any URL.

This is similar to the Strategy Canvas, by Professors Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, faculty at Insead. According to them, "The first step in developing a strategy canvas is to identify the factors that affect competition within your industry." Except with Tastytag, your users tell you what they value and how they perceive your brand.

There's a difference in author-tagging, compared to user-tagging, and unfortunately, people may not perceive us the way we want them to, despite the effort and money spent on branding, advertising and PR.  As Chris points out here and here (see also this):

A certain level of trust about the content of an article can be established when others tag a souce. This is not possible when relying on the author alone.

Stewart Butterfiled makes a similar point about tagging photos on Flickr:

First, going back to the del.icio.us comparison for a second, we were definitely directly inspired by del.icio.us. There's an interesting difference, though: because people are adding URLs to del.icio.us, and many people can add the same URL, you end up with multiple ways of tagging the same thing--different people's vocabulary for the same item. On the other hand, each photo a user uploads to Flickr is unique and belongs to them; however, more than one person can tag it. (For people who have large personal networks in Flickr, they definitely find that they upload a photo and go to sleep, and in the morning there are tags all over it.)

Anyway, try it out and if you find some fun searches, please let me know.

Technorati Tags: tastytag, delicious, flickr, folksonomy, socialmedia, collaboration, tag, tagging, brand, blue+ocean, strategy+canvas, value+curve, chan+kim, renee+mauborgne, seo

February 6, 2007 in Miscellaneous Stuff | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

According to Manola and Rick (in  the comments), there have a couple of attempts last year to bring local Miami bloggers together for a dinner.

For some reason, it seems like the geek dinners had a disappointing turnout, despite the free wine. Maybe it's because the first one was called "Le Geek c'est chic" and you had to dress all in white for it ... and the second one was to watch the last episode of the Apprentice? There may have been another attempt, at Tobacco Road, not sure.

Be that as it may, Scrapblog, where I work, is organizing (but not hosting) a dinner, for bloggers ... yes, in Miami, down by Sunset. Most of the attendees are from out of town and have arrived for the We Media conference (discount code here). There are only a few places left, if you'd like to come.

 

Oh, and there may even be some local bloggers there ... But we won't mention that :)

Technorati Tags: miami, blogger, dinner, wemedia, we+media, scrapblog

February 2, 2007 in Miscellaneous Stuff, Starting up, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Brian Breslin tagged me once again, this time by e-mail, with some questions about doing business in Miami:

1. What do you see as the primary benefits to doing business in Miami?

Miami has always been a hub for South American business and ties are being made to the Old Continent through a growing community of Europeans. Miami's attractions include the outstanding weather, the facilities and infrastructure, the many options for entertainment, the great boating and watersports and the dynamic, multicultural, latin population. Miami's financial center, ports, airport, free-trade zone and top hotels and conference facilities make it easy to conduct business here and attract investment.

2. What downsides/obstacles have you encountered as a businesman in Miami?

More so than ever, Miami seems to be going through growing pains as the city booms. The resulting inconveniences include frustratingly slow traffic during rush hours or downpours and many eyesore constructions sites. Friends of mine have counted up to 30 tower cranes just North and South of the downtown area. The real estate market also seems to be saturated and overpriced as supply has outstripped demand for the first time in a decade. Of course, these things will correct themselves with time and traffic is not a real problem for locals who know the ins and outs of Miami.

3. How has being in Miami affected your company's short term and long term strategies?

Apart for a few notable companies in Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton, South Florida is not considered a technology center. This means that for those of us working in the internet or telecoms, it is harder to find talent, interest, or investment. This has started to change over the past year or so and we are seeing new initiatives and conferences that will help organize and hopefully galvanize the web/tech scene.

4. Where do you see the most growth in Miami over the next 5 years? 10?

Because of the attractiveness of Miami mentioned above, construction and real estate values will continue to grow. As the city grows, there will be more interest in art and culture and we will see more top notch performances at the Carnival and Knight Centers for the Performing Arts and other, new cultural venues. The other top industries in South Florida will hold steady, including import-export (which is heavily dependent on South American politics and trade restrictions), healthcare, and finance. Finally, hopefully web/tech/telecoms related industries will make significant headway in Miami in the next 5 to 10 years.

5. What would you like to see in Miami in relations to the web and business?

A wish list would include better cellphone coverage, more choices in smartphones, greater broadband speeds and municipal wi-fi or WiMax deployment. This would foster innovation ... but this would presuppose easier access to high-tech venture capital.

I tag Alesh, Nick, and Monica.

Technorati Tags: miami, business, criticalmiami, geektastik, nick+dominguez, brian+breslin

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January 23, 2007 in Miscellaneous Stuff, Starting up | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A dinner has been planned on Feb 7th, 2007 for South Florida bloggers,
designers, developers, techies and geeks, in the company of Shel Israel, David Parmet, Jeremiah Owyang and other We Media conference participants. If you're interested in joining, you can sign up at Scrapblog.


Technorati Tags: wemedia scrapblog geekdinner

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January 22, 2007 in Miscellaneous Stuff | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack