Social networking

TechEd 2008

Scott Spradlin — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:00:34 GMT

So this year TechEd is divided into two weeks -- one focused on developers and one on IT Pros -- and I'm going as a representative of INETA. We'll have a spot in the community area. INETA is also a big force behind the BOF sessions. If you haven't been to one of those in the past, try to check them out this year.

On Monday, June 2 from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm we're having an INETA Community Leadership Summit to get the week kicked off right. If you're on Facebook, go add this event.

Technorati Tags: INETA,Conferences

The Cadbury Encounter

Scott Spradlin — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:43:57 GMT

So when I started blogging, I assured myself that I wouldn't waste anyone's time by posting socially irrelevant noise that just added to the spam we all have grown to hate. Without the "Hanselman connection" this post might be considered questionable.

I was in my hotel room, tired and thirsty. It's a fancy hotel you know, so there are no vending machines on the floors where the rooms filled with people are located. You must dress yourself and venture down to the lobby and make a legitimate purchase at the store in the lobby. I'm pulling my warm Diet Coke from the "cooler" and Scott Hanselman is buying some candy.

The candy he is buying for his wife is Cadbury's Flake. He was saying that he always buys them for her when he can find them because they are not sold in the United States. Apparently they are produced in the UK, Australia, and South Africa. I'm not sure how they made it into Canada. I don't think that form I signed at the border prevented me from eating these imported contraband.

As you might expect of a Cadbury product, the chocolate was tasty -- not overly sweet and not waxy. It was incrediby flaky -- no doubt hence the name -- and made a mess in the bed that I felt obligated to clean up.

Interestingly enough, it turns out a Cadbury Flake advertisement was removed from the air in the 1970s in the UK due to complaints about the suggestive manner in which the woman in the ad bit into the bar.

Technorati Tags: Social,Conferences

Facebook at the Party With Palermo

Scott Spradlin — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:43:28 GMT

Another good party with Jeffrey Palermo at DevTeach in Toronto. Always good to meet up with old friends and make new ones.

Jeffrey and I showed up a bit early for the party at Menage. What a great view on the outside patio overlooking the city street. Geeks would be arriving in droves momentarily. Given the typical percentages of male/female attendees at these events and user groups in general, I was surprised when a young woman showed up by herself and sat at a table by herself near the back.

Turns out that her name was Kate and she was there by invitation from a friend that was late. She was feeling like the "odd man out" since she was only one of two or three females in the room so far. Kate mentioned she had a friend that is studying gender in the IT field. (Maybe not that generic...I'll have to get the details later.)

But interestingly enough, Kate was getting her PhD by researching young adult's use of facebook. I thought that was fascinating. Scott Hanselman was in the area and I introduced the two of them -- I thought he might find her field of study interesting.

Maybe we'll get Kate or her friend in front of some Canada user groups to discuss gender issues. Any volunteers?

Technorati Tags: INETA,Social,Conferences

Cosmic Blogging Time

Scott Spradlin — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:21:26 GMT

So there I was, thinking about a new blog post, pondering someone else's blog post I'd just read, installing Windows Live Writer so I can post better blog posts, and it just hit me. Wham! Of all the people I know, if the universe could have back the total number of hours spent on blogging alone, just imagine the possibilities. Plus, add in the time for all the people that I DON'T know who blog. Wow.

Then, I started to enumerate (list) the alternative actions that would be more beneficial to the cosmos. Before I got three items (the minimum in a list) my Live Writer installation completed.

So I'm off to spend more time playing with yet another tool that I need when I spend time blogging instead of playing outside.

...I can mow the grass another day.

Twitter

Scott Spradlin — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 00:21:30 GMT

So, one of my nerdy buddies suggested I join Twitter. So I did. It's a way to send short status messages about your self into the cloud and interested beings can watch your messages. Jeff Atwood calls it the combination of blogging and IM.

There are various way to interact with twitter:

you can do it with your mobile phone, sending and receiving updates as SMS
browse to the mobile version of the web page
you can sent and receive updates using your favorite IM client
you can use the web UI and the RSS feeds
or you can a desktop client like Twhirl

So, if you want to know what I'm doing right now, just go to my personal twitter page twitter.com/scotts, and you might even want to add me as friend in order to get my thoughts and "status updates" delivered as soon as I post them.

Technorati Tags: Social

Facebook

Scott Spradlin — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 00:21:30 GMT

So, I never joined myspace. Just never felt the need. However, this new Facebook phenomenon looks interesting. Yet another social networking vehicle. It's more lightweight and structured than myspace.

Check out my profile over there. Sign up! Be my friend!

Technorati Tags: Social