EchoDitto - conferences, convergences

SXSW Interactive: Create Our Schedule - posted by Cristen Perks

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 15:55:23 -0800

This Friday, I will be flying south to sunny and warm Austin TX, for the SXSW Interactive Festival (SXSWi), accompanied by 4 Dittos and friends. I'm super excited about the opportunity, but I'm a bit overwhelmed by the amount of panels, people, and parties.

As a Ditto I help organizations implement social tools all the time, but "social director" I am not. The folks at SXSWi says that there's never too much of a good thing, but I need to enlist some help... YOURS. Yes, we're crowdsourcing our schedule for SXSWi.

Have you been to SXSWi before? Are you going this year? Are you hosting an event? Are you a panelist? Are you an "interactive rockstar" seeking self-promotional opportunities?

Please help create our schedule! Send Google invites (or any kind of invite) to echosxsw@gmail.com or post events that we should attend in the comment area of this post. :

Tell us what panels and events to attend.
Schedule a time for us to do a spotcast or video interview.
Don't forget the tradeshow and unofficial get-togethers.

Our current schedule looks like this:

If you can't go to SXSWi this year, don't worry - we will be all over SXSWi with cameras and digital recorders, so visit the EchoDitto site for updates from the festival, including my final schedule. For an idea of what to expect, check out some of the spotcasts from previous years.

Strangers in the Living Room at BlogHer08 - posted by Anne Keenan

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:43:30 -0700

This weekend at BlogHer08 I kept thinking that maybe I was going to the wrong panels. They were interesting, and had a few new tidbits, but none of them were giving me the “wow” that you want to leave a conference with. So I decided that I must be doing something wrong, and I should go to something completely different. I went to “Can we take back naked blogging?”

And then, as these things usually are: it was great. I closed my laptop and focused, and wrote notes that I knew would be a blog post.

The premise was this: a panel of three women who had stepped back from the intimacy of their lifeblogs after intimidating or scary experiences when that intimacy was abused. Several of the women on stage and in the audience spoke of their blogs as their “living rooms,” and that when these incidents occurred, they lost their sense of security on the internet, with their blogs. I was captivated.

Now here’s the thing. I worked at Planned Parenthood for eight years, and what I learned there was this: the Internet is a scary place. There are terrible awful people out there, and the minute you reveal one detail about yourself is the day you come home and open your apartment door to find a fundamentalist with a shotgun. No matter where you live, no matter how liberal your city, no matter how safe you think you are, if you tell the Internet anything about your life, we cannot protect you.

While part of this was a command and control attitude (“if you get a call from the press, immediately forward it to the communications manager. Under no circumstances should you talk to the press”), a lot of it was for our safety. I was working at Planned Parenthood when we went through Anthrax threats and all of the mail had to by x-rayed and opened by security guards in masks. I worked there when we had a bomb threat and went into lock down, so that snipers couldn’t kill us as we evacuated. I worked there when Clayton Wagner escaped from jail and threatened that “it doesn’t matter who you are, whether you’re a receptionist or a doctor, I will follow you home and kill you. I will not kill you at work, because at work you are safe; I will kill you at home, where you are more vulnerable.”

I took it seriously, because I worked in the LeAnn Nichols and Shannon Lowney building, because people would take my photo driving into the parking garage to post on a site with dripping blood, because our chief medical officer wore a bulletproof vest to work. In Boston. Yeah, right down the street from B.U. So I never had a sense of security on the web, or ever felt like the Internet was my living room.

Watching the panel, I guess I felt a little jealous. I only started blogging when I got to EchoDitto, and it’s always been professional, for a job. I’ve never posted anything personal about myself, really, and I wonder a little what it would be like to expose my most personal secrets to the public… and get feedback. It seems both liberating and terrifying.

But I don’t think I could ever get there, and it kind of makes me sad. Once, after the fake anthrax attacks to Congress, our CEO at Planned Parenthood said that she was sad because she’d always hoped that there would be a day when we’d get to roll back our security measures and be like other workplaces, but that that world seemed to be going the other way, and other workplaces were having to increase their security to match ours.

It feels a little bit like blogging. I wish the Internet could be a place where we could be our true, full selves all the time, without worrying about death threats, or attacks on our children, or harassing commenters. And I wonder what it will take to get us to that place. Maybe this is where we start, by saying out loud that that is where we want to go.

All dressed up with nowhere to go? How to get Web 2.0 resourced at your organization. - posted by Michael Silberman

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:45:36 -0700

I'm just back from co-leading a 3-day social technology training in Toronto for some incredible nonprofits and social enterprises across North America. And almost everyone attending could be described as their organization's lonely internet person, struggling to get web strategies implemented. If this sounds like you, read on.

Refreshingly, after the strategy and tools conversations on day one and two, we spent almost a full day on the organizational dynamics and "change management" needed to implement smart web strategies.

Here are some key take-aways from a workshop I led entitled, "Getting Web 2.0 Resourced at Your Brick-and-Mortar Organization." As I see it, the biggest challenge with all this new media and technology stuff is getting it implemented; there are too many smart and well-meaning staffers at organizations and businesses who have their car but can't seem to get the engine started or shift into the fast lane.

Our mission: figure out the top obstacles and solutions to developing and implementing smart, integrated online strategies and campaigns.

Common Obstacles

Money :: budget for online operations too small to support the goals/objectives
Staff :: not enough people (or the right people) to support the goals/objectives
Unrealistic expectations :: Incomplete knowledge or acceptance of appropriate timeline or resources needed to implement online strategy or technology solution
Multiple stakeholders :: too many cooks in the kitchen delays or impedes implementation
Commitment to old investments / sunk costs :: inability or unwillingness to replace earlier investments in staff or infrastructure that are no longer good matches to the work ahead
Incomplete knowledge, lack of education :: Decision-makers making bad decisions (or refusing to make decisions) due to incomplete breadth of knowledge
Lack of buy-in :: Despite approvals, organization lacks will to fully engage in change
Shiny object syndrome :: Ability to implement coherent strategy is derailed or overshadowed by obsession with latest tools or buzzwords (e.g. "my boss just read an article about someone using [insert web 2.0 tool or website] to [raise money / build list / get traffic] so now we have to do that instead")
Mixed/competing priorities :: Other major organizational priorities, campaigns, or fire-drills getting in the way of progress toward implementing components of online plan. Or it's not clear how your online objectives map to your organizational priorities.
Thinking tech will solve all / one size fits all :: Avoiding larger strategizing or decision-making in hopes that new website or other tech tools will solve broader challenges with communications, organizing, fundraising, etc.
Silos preventing shared, integrated internet approach :: Despite cross-cutting impact of internet strategy, departmentalization (e.g. communications, field, policy, development) prevents genuine collaboration toward an integrated approach, limiting potential impact.

Solutions!

Accepting your warrior role :: As the online guy or gal, it's not in your job description to educate the entire organization on the basics of online strategy or Web 2.0, but let's be honest, you're probably going to have to spend a percentage of your time fighting for resources or helping others understand the connection between effective internet strategy and fulfilling the organization's mission.
Setting realistic budget and objectives :: There's lots of free stuff on the 'net, but the internet is not free. Don't confuse sending free emails via Outlook with the real costs of bulk email tools needed to manage your list. Sure, there are plenty of free tools and applications emerging every day, but they don't replace the need for staff or technology infrastructure.
Establishing a "Change Team" :: Identify a diverse group from across the organization to work with you in developing your organization's Web 2.0 plan or online strategy. Your team might include a consultant or two, but the majority should be staff. Find out who your internet allies are across the organization, and invite them to join you. This will help educate the rest of the organization, and establish some useful buy-in -- and hopefully take some of the weight off of your shoulders. The change team should also invest time in showing departments how the internet can serve and bolster their efforts.
Educate :: Bring your organization with you on the journey, and help others get conversant with the online world. The internet affects all aspects of your organization, from communications/marketing to fundraising/sales, so don't let it get isolated or relegated to a sideshow. Consider sending weekly summaries of your web and online engagement stats out to the entire staff; share blog posts mentioning your organization or your work with the rest of the staff and explain why they matter; and claim a few moments at your staff meeting to share something interest and relevant from your web or online community building work that's relevant to the entire group.
Strategy over tools :: Focus on the great potential of an effective online strategy that fully supports your mission, then figure out what's needed to get there. Don't let the available tools drive the decision-making.
"Power mapping" :: Who holds the power within your organization, and who's whispering in the ears of the decision-makers? Who do you need to target to get their buy-in and support? Who are your natural allies? If you do advocacy work, you're probably familiar with this from running public campaigns, so now you need to turn those same campaigning skills inward.
Hire the right staff (vs consultants) :: Sounds like a no-brainer, but it's easily overlooked even as the workload for your online person expands exponentially. Make it a priority to figure out who you need to support your online operations, what their titles and job descriptions should be, and how to properly budget for them. Be clear about what work can or can't realistically be done without those additional staffers. (See our guide, "Building a Successful Online Team")

Hope this was helpful. What's missing? Leave a comment below and I'll do my best to keep this post updated.

Back to the Big Easy - posted by Cristen Perks

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:02:35 -0700

In about 3 hours, I'll be boarding a plane to head back to the Big Easy - New Orleans, that is. Unlike last month, Brian Reich and I are headed that direction to attend this year's Nonprofit Technology Conference held by the Nonprofit Technology Network, better known as NTEN.

If you're heading that way or know someone who is, please don't hesitate to flag us down - or you can follow us on twitter to find out where we'll be.

Brian will be speaking tomorrow on how social networking fits into communications strategy and on Friday, he'll be discussing his recent book "Media Rules."

The agenda is packed and the list of attendees is impressive, so I'm looking forward to taking it all in. Check it out - if there's anything, you think looks especially great let me know and I'll try to report back.

E-commerce Done Right - posted by Matt Stempeck

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:53:55 -0700

What happens when you take all of the money you were going to spend on marketing and advertising and pour it into customer service instead? Well, first of all, customer service becomes a core value rather than an isolated department.

Zappos is an online shoe store born during the dot-com heyday. Their creation story isn't particularly inspiring: they saw people selling stuff like pet food online and figured shoes would work, too. But they've since evolved into a manifestation of everything that is good about e-commerce (or online shopping, for those who swore off adding e- to everything).

I know Zappos from the boxes that come in and out of our office as my colleague Chris tries on shoes via overnight shipping. He's loves sneakers, and Zappos exists for people like him. They don't go after the bargain hunters and aren't trying to be everything to everyone. They've just taken some big risks to attract and keep the kind of customer they want to serve it's paid off. Zappos will hit $1 billion in revenue this year.

Listening to the presentation, it's not immediately clear how. Everything they've done has been a short-term financial sacrifice in favor of long-term investment. In short, their accounting department must be used to hearing the word 'no'.

Some examples of customer-friendly policies:

Free shipping both ways
Surprise most customers with free upgrade to overnight shipping
Pay more to run factory 24/7 to process faster
365 day return policy
Sending exchanged items before actually receiving the return slip

Their call center sounds like a place you might actually want to call. You'll actually find the phone number, because it's at the top of every page on the site. They don't measure average call time, they don't up-sell, they refer to competitors, and everyone who answers the phone is already authorized to do what it takes to make you happy (even if that means, in one case, looking up local pizza parlors).

It's a bold strategy. Their entire model consists of pleasing customers and creating "story-worthy moments". These moments ideally become organic word of mouth marketing. Ever the online organizer, I asked if Zappos had considered any explicit online word of mouth campaigns or tools. Outside of a basic tell-a-friend tool, they have not. They just please people as thoroughly as possible and count on them to spread the good word.

(CEO Tony Hsieh presented)

And they're picky. In two ways:
1. Picky with customers: They took the hyped promise of the Internet (sell to anyone, anywhere) and converted it (sell to some people, anywhere).
2: Picky with employees: Not just in the traditional sense. In fact, they turn down a lot of quality candidates who might do the company a lot of good. They do this because they work on the belief that company culture is paramount to everything else.

It's generally agreed that culture is critical to any great company. But when you're growing quickly, how do you maintain the culture that makes your company what it is?

You make your company values more than a plaque on the wall. They make up 50% of performance reviews and reasonable grounds for firing (or not hiring) someone. Employees must walk the talk, starting the first day with their 5-week training program, which consists of working the warehouse and answering the phone for weeks at a time. That includes senior management.

So, to summarize, Zappos' short-term profit loses to investments in culture and thrilling customers.

I'm way too excited that this works for them and that the Internet enables it to happen.

UPDATE: Cristen has found that Zappos does in fact provide online word-of-mouth tools by integrating with Facebook:

<br>(click for full size image)

Unconferencing You In - posted by Anne Keenan

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:13:00 -0800

I have to admit that the idea of an “unconference” made me a little uncomfortable. No set agenda? No prepared presentations? No experts? What was there to prevent the entire thing from dissolving into chit chat about the best Woot items and JLo’s babies? The answer, I discovered, is a good-sized group of smart, thoughtful people with a variety of experience, who are willing to share new projects, discuss best practices, and admit to not knowing all of the answers.

So what did those smart people say? Here are 5 insights--one per session.

Session One: Online Communities for Social Change
This session started my conference with macro questions: how do people negotiate identities online, and how do these on- and off-line identities influence online activism? (It made me think a lot about Danah Boyd’s article on Friendster and negotiating complex identities in an online space that wants to flatten people into profiles.)

Also, when we’re building campaigns should we seek to aggregate activist campaigns into one central place (“I care about the environment and human rights and Darfur--and want one place where I can go for updates/action” or “We are building a Progressive Movement”) or should we continue to build separate online communities for each cause (“I care about the environment, but I’m a Republican and don’t want to be bombarded by leftist propaganda” or “we need a diverse group of supporters to pass this legislation”)? Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and every campaign requires different tactics.

Session Two: OpenID
This session was more traditional, with an expert and lots of questions. I have to admit it was my first time learning about OpenID and I spent a fair amount of the session searching for terms on wikipedia (RSA, SAML, etc.). My biggest take-away was the idea of switching from a Customer-Relationship Management (CRM) model to a Vendor Relationship Management (VRM) model where the user is the center.

For example--I move across the county and want to change my address universally. The current system makes me do all the work, changing my address with any number of companies. With VRM, I put the data out once, and enterprises I have relationships/accounts with can choose to pull this data in. In the future, users might broadcast their desires to companies, to be marketed to (“do you notice how much paper I’m buying? sell me paper at a lower cost!”). Read more about all of this at projectvrm.org.

Session Three: Social Shopping
In his amazing book, Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, Paco Underhill reveals that the more time you spend in a store, the more you spend. And how do you get people to spend more time in a store? By making it a social experience--preferably with two women shopping together. (For more insights on the gendered dynamics of shopping, you should immediately buy this book with your Amazon Prime.) So how does this translate to the online world? Customer reviews, affiliate programs, facebook apps, and more. But, this was a moment when an expert would have been really handy. Who has data on the actual value of reviews? Do they really sell more things? Our consensus was that they must since Amazon pushes you so hard to review your purchases, but... maybe you know?

Session Four: Mobile Communities
After we went over the reasons why mobile technology is so mediocre in the US (no standardization, multiple platforms and providers, no widespread access to high-speed connections, carriers with veto power over content), this was a session for dreaming of what mobile could be. For instance, it could take advantage of all of the properties that make mobile unique: geographic data, voice access, and the sheer number of mobile devices: Travel services could hook you up with instant recommendations of places to visit, along with audio tours of them. Social networks could let you know if any of your friends were nearby. Billboards could be interactive... it’s all so amazing. In the meantime, we’ll have to content ourselves with this cool audio blogging site: http://www.utterz.com/

Session Five: Identify, Engage, Recognize
It was a long day, so thank goodness that the last session of the day was so amazing. Sean O’Driscoll gave a great presentation of Microsoft’s MVP program--how they find, recognize and reward their users. Something that struck me was his idea that there are three groups of people: “I like you” (satisfaction level) is 90% of your base, “I love you” (loyalty level) is 9% of your base, “I defend you” (affinity level) is 1% of your base.

So at Microsoft, he asked “what are the drivers that move people between these levels?” One of the answers that came back was that co-creation is one of the main drivers. The more people were engaged in the process of development, the more tied the felt to the outcome. I can think of, oh, about a million applications for this idea.

Phew! I really did try to limit it to one idea from each session, and there are still so many more things to talk about. Maybe I’ll host an unconference of my own. Maybe at my house. Maybe over dinner and wine. Maybe I’ll call it a dinner party. Who’s in?

Come for the swag, Stay for ideas - posted by Matt Stempeck

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:36:54 -0800

Friends, conference season is upon us. The month of March holds great promise for the schmoozers among us, as well as those just looking to learn. In the next two weeks alone, you'll find Dittos at WeMedia in Miami, DrupalCon in Boston, IPDI's Politics Online in DC, and of course, South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin (more on that soon).

But as we tracked all of these great opportunities, we realized others might want to know about some of the same events. So we created a calendar that you can consult at http://www.echoditto.com/conferences.

Just like us, these conferences cover the myriad intersections of social change, politics, technology, and new media. And it's likely that we left out some good ones, so if you'd like to suggest something for the calendar, just email conferences@echoditto.com with the name, date, and a link to the event's website.

It's powered by the ever-extensible online calendar 30 Boxes, which I've had a crush on for a couple of years now. You can also subscribe to this calendar via RSS, iCal, or CSV. Or, add it to iGoogle or Yahoo!.

Let the card-swapping begin!

(for local events, we highly recommend DC Tech Events)

Video Games for Social Change - posted by Matt Stempeck

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 08:41:04 -0800

It's no secret that we are overwhelmed with media. We feel guilt that we're not using our Netflix subscription to its full potential. We feel guilt when we haven't taken our turn in Scrabulous in a few days. And columnists keep telling me that I have 500 channels of cable programming (even though I only have about 100). Through this noise, an altruistic subset of the creative class attempts to bring our attention to the issues and causes that desperately need our attention.

We know many of the causes already. We've been asked to sign the petitions, to write our representatives, and to dig deeper than the nightly news dares to. And for a while it worked. When I was 8, I made my dad call the phone number in the credits at the end of Free Willy and adopt a whale (I sincerely hope the nation of Japan respects our $20 pledge). After a certain number of appeals, though, we learn to put up a wall between the few areas we feel we can do something about and the vast array of causes that cry for that attention. But documentaries have a way of inspiring the jaded and engaging the blissfully ignorant. Who would have ever predicted that a film about Al Gore's slideshow could serve as the catalyst for a global movement?

As our media landscape changes at the speed that earthquakes change physical landscapes, social changemakers are keeping up. Online, a short video conveys what a cluttered homepage cannot. An emerging catalog of "games for change" are attempting to bring the real world significance of documentaries to a medium best known for Italian plumbers and hijacking cars. But video games for social change have upped the ante. Several speakers at the Making Your Media Matter conference I attended last week posited that the immersive nature of rich simulations allow the player to gain new perspectives and understand the complex systems underlying so many of the world's problems in far less time than reading about them in the news.

Every entertainment medium, from the novel to cinema, has initially faced accusations of hastening the end of civilization, and conveying difficult messages in games has awakened plenty of detractors. The creator of the Columbine game was present at the conference, having survived the media firestorm that followed his creation a few years ago. He offered an important perspective he had picked up along the way: "Art doesn't take exit polls". This is an extreme example, but given that so much of our existing entertainment is escapist and video games are such a new part of our media culture, we are certainly still having trouble swallowing real-life examples being used in video games.

Except it's already being done. In the ultimate dystopian fusion of our ever-expanding military and entertainment options, game producers are moving into current conflict zones. Besides causing diplomatic rows with the countries serving as the background for quasi-fictional CIA invasions, these games don't appear to do much to progress our understanding past the classic "kill the bad guys" model.

It's time to accept the place of video games not just as an entertainment product rivaling Hollywood's box office, but as a medium with unique capabilities to make the world better.*

And because they can be hard to find, here are some games for change:

World Without Oil - Simulation of the alternate reality that might ensue in the event of a global oil crisis - lots of neat user-generated content: videos, blogs, images, comics, faux newscasts of the fallout of gas hitting $8 a gallon.

ICED: I Can End Deportation - teaches players about harsh US immigration laws by putting the player in the shoes of an asylum seeker, Green Card holder, student with an expired visa, and so on. Here's a tip: if you report that domestic abuse you're going to attract unwanted attention. Launches online on 2/18.

PeaceMaker - Takes the "play the news" angle and applies it to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, although as the name states, does so with loftier goals than most shoot 'em ups. They distributed 100,000 copies have been distributed in Israel and Palestinian territories. The makers of the game have opened the engine up to a Play the News platform where you can set up your own scenarios and predict what will happen in reality. If you want to join beta community, email beta@impactgames.com.

A Force More Powerful - Single player strategy game where you are the leader of a nonviolent movement. Like Sim City but with strikes, boycotts, street protests, and hunger strikes. You can create your own scenarios and import JPEGs of politicians from your country! This one has seen big demand in North Korea and Myanmar, where people can use it as a (thinly-veiled) tool for other plans.

Darfur is Dying - 2 million players in its first year.

*A stronger lobbying presence in Washington, DC probably won't hurt either.

Nawlins-Bound - posted by Matt Stempeck

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 07:58:22 -0800

If you look into the sky this Tuesday evening you may see a mid-winter migration of Dittos along the East Coast. Jets leaving from Boston, New York and Washington DC will converge in New Orleans, Louisiana for our annual retreat (and beignets). We'll plug in our Wiis, Xboxes and DDR mats in a historic (albeit haunted) home in the Garden District mere blocks from the Mardis Gras parade route.

We'll take a break from our usual online community building for a little offline service: painting and gutting Katrina-devastated homes in the 9th Ward with ACORN.

With our destructive urges satiated, we'll turn inwards and focus on providing better, bolder services to our clients and the world they serve. We'll learn more about processes, communications, and each other. And, as in past years, we'll also fit in some intense rounds of Pictionary:

We'll be back in our offices on Monday, February 4th, having forged ties strong enough to withstand a Patriots vs. Giants Superbowl.

And since we're not the postcard-from-the-airport type, you can check out our pictures as we upload them from our iPhones here (might want to give that link a couple of days to populate).

Poli-influWHAT? - posted by Cristen Perks

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:04:10 -0800

Last Thursday, I pulled myself away from my desk for a field-trip to Yahoo!'s "Rise of Citizen 2.0" event. It was pretty freakin' cool. Ok, #1 - it's Yahoo! Granted, our shrine for Yahoo! is significantly dwarfed by Google's, but come on. Besides, they did have best party at SxSW so expectations were high!

The main part of the afternoon event was, of course, listening to Karl Rove talk about the internet and politics. For an invite-only event, the crowd was much smaller and more intimate than I thought it would be. Ingeniously, Yahoo! never actually published the agenda anywhere (that I could find) prior to the event so there was no sneaking in at the last minute for the big show!

The first hour of the event was spent talking about some research recently done by Yahoo! that built upon the framework they established when producing the Poli-influentials report with IPDI. Interesting? Yes. Groundbreaking? No. Check out the slideshow:

| View | Upload your own

Personally, I'm not a Karl Rove fan and believe me I won't be moving over to the dark side any time soon, but there's no denying that he was well-informed about the web and politics. It was pretty scripted and they only accepted one audience question, but interesting nonetheless. I was also slightly underwhelmed by the presence of secret service. Well, until it was time for him to leave the cocktail party and then they were everywhere. Speaking of cocktail party, Karl Rove actually hung out and socialized following the event. With a little prompting, he even sent a text message to Tom Matzzie of MoveOn.org letting Tom know that he'd "taken his name in vain" during the presentation. Priceless!

¡Viva la Barça, y Viva la Drupalcon! - posted by Phil Lamb

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 06:10:22 -0700

I just flew in from Barcelona, and boy are my arms tired!

Well, not really - actually I got back about two weeks ago, but what with finalizing development and launching President Clinton's newest site and the Bears beating the Packers, I haven't had a lot of time to collect my thoughts and set them down via an interblag. Well, now that things have calmed down slightly, I figured I'd give it a shot.

First of all, Barcelona is an amazing city. It's incredibly metropolitan - sort of like New York on a smaller scale and with more spanish, although most people with whom I interacted spoke great English. It's really easy to get around, which was good since the conference was taking place at CitiLab Cornélia, on the outskirts of the city.

The overnight flight was not nearly as sleepy as I would have liked. Older planes apparently don't cool off much during flight, which is bad for me, as I really prefer to sleep in a cold room with lots of blankets. I also prefer to sleep lying down, which, as any of you who've experienced transatlantic travel in coach know, is basically impossible in a 747.

Anyway, what that all amounted to was me getting in at about 9:30 and wishing I could have slept. Thankfully I was able to adjust fairly quickly to the new schedule, and things were aces from there.

It was interesting to meet in real life so many of the people with whom I had interacted via IRC and forums. A lot of them were really cool people, which was great since I had come as the sole representative of EchoDitto and didn't exactly have any guarantee of social interaction. About two days into the conference I met up with ExoDitto Justin Miller, who was there with a group of people from the DoD. They're doing some really cool open-source stuff which I'm not sure I can talk about here, but needless to say the move towards open-source is one which I think would benefit a number of existing government agencies.

The days were PACKED and to my chagrin a number of talks I wanted to attend were scheduled for the same timeslot, but someone had the brilliant idea of recording most of the sessions and posting them online, and I'd definitely recommend checking them out.

It wouldn't be feasible for me to talk in depth about every session I attended, so instead I'll just focus on the one that interested me the most: the Agile Development method.

Why did this one strike me? Well, for the most part there weren't many technical surprises at DC07, with maybe the exception of Dave Cohen's presentation on Drupal for Facebook, which shows some real promise for melding the two platforms. One of the reasons I was sent out to Barcelona was for self-improvement, and as many developers out there know, getting a great development process going is one area where many people find themselves stuck. The Agile process, to me, represents a great solution - one that will almost certainly keep the client happy and the developer sane, and that combination leads to faster development, less overhead, and more client leads.

Here's the general idea behind Agile software development:

Customer satisfaction by rapid, continuous delivery of useful software
Working software is delivered frequently (weeks rather than months)
Working software is the principal measure of progress
Even late changes in requirements are welcomed
Close, daily, cooperation between business people and developers
Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication
Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
Simplicity
Self-organizing teams
Regular adaptation to changing circumstances

- wikipedia

EchoDitto's development process is already composed of some of these ideas, but lately we've been starting to take a look at adopting a majority of them.

All in all, DC07 was an incredibly beneficial experience, reinforcing things I already knew and teaching me things I didn't. I'm not entirely sure where the next DrupalCon will be held (some are saying Stuttgart), but if you get the chance - GO!

Who Wants to Storm the Men's Bathroom with Me?* - posted by Gisele Toueg

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 20:11:45 -0700

*Overheard while waiting in line for the ladies' room at BlogHer 2007

The third annual BlogHer conference kicked off on Friday at Chicago's Navy Pier. As BlogHer founders Jory Des Jardins, Lisa Stone and Elisa Camahort told a packed auditorium during the opening session, this year's conference drew 800 particpants, making it the largest gathering of bloggers ever (regardless of gender). Wow. And what a gathering it was. Bloggers from all over the country and around the world came together to discuss the latest trends in technology, the art of self-promotion, effective strategies for building community online, and how blogs help all of us express ourselves and explore our personal and professional identities.

Personally, I was amazed at how many nametages belonged to people whose blogs I'd read before. In fact, the first breakout session I attended, called "The Life Stages of Online Communities," was moderated by Betsy Aoki, one of my former freelancers from my days as an editor at Amazon.com. Betsy founded the Seattle chapter of Webgrrls back when there weren't too many of us in this space. It was so inspiring to hear her and Webgrrls founder Aliza Sherman speak to a packed room of women (and a few men) about how to grow and nuture a successful online community.

Other BlogHer highlights included a session where participants worked together to create a voter manifesto for the upcoming presidential election, moderated by Morra Aarons, a track devoted to helping bloggers hone their public speaking skills and gain recognition as experts in their chosen fields, and a parralel conference in Second Life. Personally, I really enjoyed strolling through the exhibition hall, where I picked up a Butterball potholder and a t shirt from scrapblog, a very cool new company that brings the fun of scrapbooking to the Web. Oh, and I would be lying if I said I didn't eat four tins of free jelly beans at the Yahoo-sponsored Internet Cafe.

All-in-all, BlogHer 2007 was a rousing success, and totally worth spending twelve hours stuck at JFK and O'Hare airports, waiting for the weather to clear up and planes to depart. For those of you who couldn't make it to the conference, check out blogher.org, which is filled with posts from partipants detailing the events of the weekend.

The Flattening of Politics - posted by Sofie Leon

Wed, 23 May 2007 12:40:56 -0700

The theme for this year’s Personal Democracy Forum was “The Flattening of Politics” but the agenda was anything but flat. I was thrilled to attend and really excited EchoDitto was a sponsor. The whole day was full of excellent speakers and really interesting applications of technology to the political world. By lunchtime, we’d already heard from Larry Lessig, Thomas Friedman, Eric Schmidt, and a host of other key actors in the conversation about the role of technology in flattening the political conversation. (Seth Godin was fantastic speaker. Very engaging and certainly the best person to slot in before lunch!)

As Phil twittered away, I felt rather un-techie writing in my little Tibetan store notebook… but then I gave in and opened up my computer too, checking out the live chat where attendees were commenting on the speakers real-time. By lunchtime I was most excited about danah boyd’s Digital Handshakes on virtual receiving lines, where she suggested politicians block out time to make the one-to-one connections online—they set aside time to make phone calls, go to people’s homes and shake their hands in person, so why not reach out to the under-30 crew and make them feel special, crossing the rope line online too? We expanded further on the presidential campaigns in the afternoon as PDF closed with e-campaign directors for 5 of the presidential candidates! Will the next person in the White House be a tech president…and what does that mean? From the audience there were calls for authentic connectivity with the candidates…and questions were posed about the extent to which the future president of the United States will be active online. Joe Trippi gave us examples from the Dean campaign (e.g. the tuna fish example), and as people clamor for moments to get to know candidates’ genuinely, it made me think of Rosie O’Donnell’s video blogs.

Other highlights included Brian Dear talking about organizing on eventful, Ben Rattray gracefully handle a few technical difficulties (he was on a PC and not a mac, of course) as he presented on Change.org. I was personally really excited to see Gina Glantz presenting on Qvisory.org (seeing the live chat comments about Qvisory up on the big screen behind the presenters was pretty cool, though slightly distracting). I’ve been working on Qvisory and was pretty stoked to see the video EchoDitto made for the new website.

Till next year’s PDF, I’ll be visiting TechPresident and the PDF site often.

P.S. I won a 2 year free subscription to TypePad at the breakout session on Race, Ethnicity, and Identity Online. Rad :)

"Cutting-Edge Campaigning" - posted by Michael Silberman

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 06:55:05 -0700

Great news! On Thursday night, two EchoDitto projects were recognized at the 2007 Golden Dot Awards Ceremony, sponsored by GWU's Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet.

We tend to get shy around here when it comes to talking about our work, but we couldn't hold back on this one. The Golden Dot Awards honor "innovative, revolutionary uses of the Internet as a political tool. The 2007 Golden Dot award winners truly represent the movers and shakers of cutting-edge campaigning.” Alright!

Since Sliced Bread was awarded the Best Online Community Response Effort, which is given to a "campaign that used technology to solve a local or civic problem." And Pearl Harbor Stories was honored for Best Podcast Series. You can read more about our work on these projects here and here.

We're really proud of our work on both projects -- they were truly successful partnerships with our clients and labors of love by our entire team.

So, a huge thanks to both the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) here in DC and the Pearl Harbor Memorial Fund out in Honolulu for their creativity and willingness to experiment with us. We're pretty darn lucky to be able to work with organizations like these, committed to surfacing and supporting the greatest citizen-generated ideas for America and, in the case of the Pear Harbor Memorial Fund, to creating a much needed oral and living history of the attacks on Pearl Harbor.

Also, a special shout out to PRsolutions and MacWilliams Robinson our talented media partners on SinceSlicedBread. And the same to both Trellon and our friends at Brodeur, without whom the Pearl Harbor project wouldn't be nearly the success it is!

South By Superlatives - posted by Tom Lee

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 15:13:06 -0700

Cross-posted from sxsw.echoditto.com. For more of our South By Southwest coverage, head over there.

It's all over. Amidst the haze of beer, URLs and nicotine hand lotion (available in every conventioneer's bag!), who had the most memorable presence? Well, with the caveats that I couldn't see as many panels or people as I would've liked (particularly since my flight left Tuesday morning), here are some overall impressions of SXSW.

Most Buzzed-About: Twitter (by a mile)

This one's easy. The folks from Obvious Corp were determined to make a splash, putting up Twitterified plasma screens, handing out t-shirts (text: "wearing my twitter shirt") and approaching panelists about their service. Honestly, they didn't have to bother: if a panelist wanted to namedrop an exciting new technology, they almost always chose Twitter. It was fun to watch our friend Alex, who's just been hired by Twitter after doing some contract work, enjoy his new company's success with contented bafflement.

In fact, Twitter was such a runaway hit that you can already see the backlash against it forming. Maybe it was just the lack of other compelling new technologies, but at the moment Twitter is the standard-bearer for Web 2.0 enthusiasm — and that's a perilous place for a service founded on simplicity to be, no matter how good it is.

But there's no question that their moment in the sun has only just started — and it's a fun (if overwhelming) service run by some very smart people. They deserve the accolades, if not the responsibility that people will inevitably assign to them. Consider this a preemptive backlask to the backlash.

Best Session: Matt Mullenweg

I really enjoyed Phil Torrone and Limor Fried's keynote, and I heard very positive reviews of Dan Rather's interview. But of the regular sessions, Wordpress.com's Matt Mullenweg was probably the best-prepared and most inspirational. I came in late to the session and predisposed to dislike it — the darkened room and solitary figure pacing the stage seemed a bit Magnolia-ish (the movie, not the social bookmarking site) for my tastes. But with humor and obvious thoughtfulness he won me and the rest of the crowd over.

I really liked Jay Allen's solo performance, too, but Emily eventually convinced me that some of his points about the "invisible blogosphere" may be a bit suspect. But his overall point (there are lots of blogs our industry isn't aware of) was well-taken and excellently-presented. Also good: everyone on the panel moderated by Ted Rheingold, Ryan Carson's illuminating financial panel, the first of the two mapping panels and Treewave's mumbled but awfully-cool electronic art.

Life Of The Party: Yahoo!

Yahoo's been doing a lot of cool stuff in the past couple of years. The company acquired Flickr and del.icio.us and became relevant again overnight. Now they've got an excellent mapping product as well as the just-launched Pipes, a service that would charm even the most hard-hearted technologist. But judging by the generous party they threw and the fantastic swag they gave away at it (glowing icecubes!) the company still has a chip on its shoulder when it comes to everyone thinking the cool kids all work in Mountain View. Well, they needn't worry — although if that thirst for geek cred continues to translate into open bars and free t-shirts, I'll try not to be too reassuring toward them. There's only one thing tempering my gratefulness for their generosity: everyone I met from Yahoo looked healthy and well-rested. What kind of a tech company are they running over there?

Most Friendly: Technorati

I can't recall a party sponsorship and I didn't go to any panels with Technorati people on them, but the company had a sizable presence — their folks were everywhere, hanging out at parties, asking helpful questions in panels and exuding a sense of quiet excitement about what they do. Even better, everyone I met from the company was extremely nice.

Most Popular: Ze Frank

He seemed pretty accessible, too. Of all the inter-celebrities present (and not in hiding), he seemed to have the most star power. I'm not a big video podcast user — Kevin Rose and the MAKE crew left me a bit more star-struck — but Ze definitely attracted a crowd at the Yahoo party.

Most Like A High School Quarterback: Second Life

Okay, it may seem like a strained analogy, but hear me out. There's no question that Second Life continues to tower over Geek High — I heard questions that amounted to "when will life be like Snow Crash?" in at least three panels. But I increasingly get the sense that, like the aforementioned high school quarterback, SL's glory days may already be behind it. Second Life was mentioned in a lot of panels, but frequently either as an aside or in the context of a discussion of griefing or other problems with the online world. The experience seems unlikely to get dramatically better, and there's still no real application for it beyond showing how cutting-edge your company is (speaking of which, have you visited EchoDitto Island in SL yet?). Can it hack it in the pros, so to speak? Only if there's some kind of breakthrough. I didn't see much indication of that this year, despite listening to multiple panels with speakers from firms that are considered to be at the forefront of SL development.

Best Sponsorship: MAKE and CRAFT Magazine

These guys seemed to be everywhere, manning a trade show booth, sponsoring the Dorkbot presentation, delivering a keynote and making themselves available (particularly Bre Pettis, who I saw chatting with lots of folks). This may just be a bit of hero-worship on my part, though — I really like MAKE.

Best Trade Show Swag: Opera

Yahoo would win this, but all of their swag appeared at their party. Within the conference center Opera seemed to have the best stuff: t-shirts, pens and lanyards. Some folks seemed to like the US Army squeezable foam grenades, but most of us were just afraid of picking up a brochure and suddenly finding themselves writing CSS in Tikrit (paypal's squishy foam dollar signs made an acceptable substitute). I didn't realize it at the time, but apparently the Firefox folks were giving away t-shirts if you put a temporary tattoo on your face. The t-shirts looked good — maybe I'm giving them short shrift.