Apr 30, 2008 | blog
Hey everyone, we finally have concrete news on the next Twin Cities Social Media Breakfast. SMB-TC3 will be held at Concordia University in St. Paul on May 16th.
After the fantastic turnout & and small space of the last event, we’ve been looking for a better space for the next one. It seems like there aren’t a lot of places that had what we seem to need for our event. Namely, larger space for 20 or more people, WiFi, centrally located, access to public transportation, and food/coffee.
All the spaces that did have enough space were actual conference facilities that start costing real money. Since this is a free event, we have no good way of paying of a larger space.
So, luckily, a number of people offered to check with the places they work at and we suddenly had a few options. The one that worked out first was at Concordia. Jason DeBoer-Moran works in the IT department at Concordia and was able to arrange a true, full-featured conference room for us to use. It meets all the needs of the group, save the one thing that makes for a good breakfast… food.
So, we’ll be bringing in food ourselves. Anyone who would like to donate a box of bagels, doughnuts, coffee, or fruit tray is welcome to bring it with you, or contact me to coordinate making that happen. Simply direct-message me via Twitter, email me (rickmahn at gmail.com), or message me via the MSBMSP Ning site if you want to “donate-a-doughnut”.
Agenda
So what’s going on at this event? Quite a bit for sure! Since there is open WiFi, space, projection equipment, and (did I mention) space we can do quite a bit.
- Demo of Cullect by Garrick Van Buren
- Shared Feeds & the need for better filters
- What exactly is Social Media – a continuing discussion
- We’ll have a live video feed and will be include the remote folks via the overhead projection. At least we’ll try and hope it works.
- YOUR IDEAS HERE! 🙂
Location
You can RSVP at: http://smbmsp.ning.com/events/event/show?id=2029643%3AEvent%3A1382 (requires simple registration)
We’ll be in the Library Technology Center Room 215 for the event. Here’s the location information:
The Concordia University Library Technology Center is located on the north side of the campus, near Concordia Avenue and directly east of the Pearson Theater. The Library Technology Center’s physical address is 1282 Concordia Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104
Campus map:
Get an (original) copy of the campus map at: http://www.csp.edu/AboutUs/maps/color_campus_map.gif
On this map, The Library Technology Center is building 25, and parking can be found in lots A, B, E, & H.
I look forward to seeing everyone there! Our Social Media Breakfast Network at http://smbmsp.ning.com now has 50 members and I’d love to see as many people make it in person or via video as possible.
UPDATE: Fixed the date above, the real date is May 16th. Sorry for any confusion!
Apr 30, 2008 | happiness
Travel. Thinking about what’s involved and how the invigorating feeling of adventure accentuates the senses.
Apr 29, 2008 | happiness
What a wonder – a bit of sunshine and all is right with the world.
Apr 28, 2008 | happiness
Creativity! What are you waiting for?
Apr 27, 2008 | blog
It’s something that I’ve been thinking about recently. For how much all these nifty tools have helped us become more productive, I think there is a percentage of creativity or inspiration that we give up. All productivity tools are things that can do harm to our work habits as much as they simplify a task.
Maybe it’s that most of these tools are single-task automation or simplification utilities and from that perspective are inefficient solutions. Take a close look at all your “social media†or “Web 2.0†tools and services – I bet most really only solve one real task with a few frivolous extras sprinkled on top.
I’m not sure what to do about this, but I look at my productivity today and compare it to a year ago. Back then I was chewing through thousands more feeds, had more ideas and, it seems, more time to write posts for my blog.
Today, I have client software installed that automatically checks my Twitter and FriendFeed accounts for updates. It notifies me with a pleasant tone that triggers me to quickly switch windows and check out the latest possible news like a rabbit hitting the feeder bar for a food pellet.
How is this productive? How is this helping me? I have Twhirl updating the main Twitter feed every 2 minutes – how many times am I interrupted in an hour? Right. 30! Think about that. Now add FriendFeed into the mix on its own (similar) updates schedule. How many times can you be interrupted in a day without losing focus?
Now I don’t mean to beat up on Twitter and FriendFeed – heck, I can come up with dozens of reasons why they help more than hinder my daily life. Email used to be the same. I used to use Microsoft Outlook. If the computer was on, so was Outlook – and what was that nice feature introduced in Outlook 2003? Pop-up notification… great. So that is where that bad habit was developed for me. Since changing to web-based email about three months ago, I find myself checking email much less often. I’m no less effective or timely in my communication either.
So it’s really how we use the tools – their convenience allows us to lean on them for help. Sometimes a little too much. As we’re creatures of habit it’s up to us to develop, groom, and manage those habits. If we start developing bad habits, it’s ourselves that needs to correct them.
So that’s what I personally need to do. Simply change how I use Twitter and FriendFeed. There are others, but those are the two that I really need to manage my time with the most.
How about you? What are your tricks & tips in managing these productivity tools?
Photo credit: Kate Tomlinson
