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	<title>Must. Be. AWESOME!!! &#187; twtrcon</title>
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		<title>Station Ident: I Got To Freak, I Got To Flow</title>
		<link>http://www.mustbeawesome.com/2011/05/station-ident-i-got-to-freak-i-got-to-flow/</link>
		<comments>http://www.mustbeawesome.com/2011/05/station-ident-i-got-to-freak-i-got-to-flow/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 May 2011 18:00:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Du4</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.mustbeawesome.com/?p=1532</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Apologies to all you good people for the lack of substantial new content lately. Work at @Du4.llc has taken off in the past couple months, and a smattering of other esoteria has also begun vying for my time. Instead of whining about it though, I figured I&#8217;d post a quick update on what&#8217;s new in [...]]]></description>
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<p>Apologies to all you good people for the lack of substantial new content lately. Work at @Du4.llc has taken off in the past couple months, and a smattering of other esoteria has also begun vying for my time. Instead of whining about it though, I figured I&#8217;d post a quick update on what&#8217;s new in <strong><em>AWESOME</em></strong>-Land.</p>
<ul>
<li>I&#8217;m hard at work on what I&#8217;m publicly calling <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23thebigbookthing" target="_blank">#TheBigBookThing on Twitter</a>. It&#8217;s a novel-like narrative that addresses a lot of my investigations into posthumanity and transhumanism here on the blog, but its design for publication will be anything but traditional book. Speaking of which, I&#8217;m looking for creative app developers that are interested in pushing the boundaries of traditional narrative storytelling on tablet devices. If that&#8217;s you, please send me a note.</li>
<li>My friend <a href="http://mountainrunner.us/2011/03/matt_armstrong_executive_director_public_diplomacy_commission.html" target="_blank">Matt Armstrong has just assumed the Executive Directorship of the Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy</a>. If you&#8217;re in the DC area, I highly recommend you come by one of the public meetings of the commission to see what they&#8217;re up to and add your 2 cents.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.momentsplacesintl.com/" target="_blank">Moments Places International</a>, a <a class="zem_slink" title="Fort Worth, Texas" rel="geolocation" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=32.7573583333,-97.3331805556&amp;spn=0.1,0.1&amp;q=32.7573583333,-97.3331805556 (Fort%20Worth%2C%20Texas)&amp;t=h">Fort Worth, Texas</a>-based bed and breakfast company, just retained my services for some web redesign and social media work. I&#8217;m seeking feedback from anyone who wants to comment on what may make their site better seen and better found.</li>
<li>I&#8217;m finally getting back into the music business. A couple friends and I have started up a new rock and roll project to gig in the DC / <a class="zem_slink" title="Northern Virginia" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Virginia">North Virginia</a> area, so I&#8217;ve had my head down and my headphones on learning lyrics. Stay tuned to <a href="http://twitter.com/Du4" target="_blank">my Twitter feed</a> and the <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23Facemelters" target="_blank">hashtag #Facemelters</a> for more updates on songs and forthcoming venues. Spoiler alert: there will be Oasis.</li>
<li>I&#8217;ll be at <a href="http://www.ignite-dc.com/" target="_blank">Ignite DC #7</a> as a guest of the fine fellas at the <a href="http://www.whitecanvasgroup.com/" target="_blank">White Canvas Group</a>. Grab a ticket, come by, and say hi.</li>
<li><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/osama-bin-laden-killed/story?id=13505703" target="_blank">A tremendous dick is finally out of the way</a>, and we should all just move on.</li>
<li>I highly encourage you to come to <a href="http://therealtimereport.com/ny11/" target="_blank">Realtime NY on June 6</a>, the event formerly known as <a class="zem_slink" title="TWTRCON" rel="homepage" href="http://twtrcon.com/">TWTRCON</a>. The lads and lasses at Modern Media put on a GREAT show with lots of usable, valuable info.</li>
<li>I&#8217;m still on the schedule to speak in London for the <a href="http://www.iqpc.com/Event.aspx?id=476082" target="_blank">Information Operations Europe 2011 conference</a>, travel arrangements allowing. Guess I should finish that slide deck.</li>
<li>Please consider joining me for a great <a href="http://www.sister-cities.org/regionalconference/" target="_blank">regional Sister Cities conference in Riverside, California</a>, September 30 to October 1. If you can&#8217;t go, consider sponsoring a young professional or youth enthusiast who may be interested in contributing to citizen diplomacy efforts like Sister Cities.</li>
<li>My Queen of Wifely <strong><em>AWESOMENESS</em></strong> and I are finally planning our honeymoon, a 2-week adventure from <a class="zem_slink" title="Florence" rel="geolocation" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=43.7833333333,11.25&amp;spn=1.0,1.0&amp;q=43.7833333333,11.25 (Florence)&amp;t=h">Florence, Italy</a> through the South of France to Paris. Hotels, travel tips, and recommendations are always appreciated.</li>
<li>More <strong><em>AWESOME</em></strong> travel coming up too to <a class="zem_slink" title="New Orleans" rel="geolocation" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=29.9647222222,-90.0705555556&amp;spn=0.1,0.1&amp;q=29.9647222222,-90.0705555556 (New%20Orleans)&amp;t=h">New Orleans</a>, Fort Worth, Riverside, Houston, <a class="zem_slink" title="New York" rel="geolocation" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=43.0,-75.0&amp;spn=3.0,3.0&amp;q=43.0,-75.0 (New%20York)&amp;t=h">New York</a>, the <a class="zem_slink" title="United Kingdom" rel="geolocation" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.5,-0.116666666667&amp;spn=10.0,10.0&amp;q=51.5,-0.116666666667 (United%20Kingdom)&amp;t=h">UK</a>, and &#8211; with luck &#8211; a cross country road trip down memory lane to <a class="zem_slink" title="Hattiesburg, Mississippi" rel="geolocation" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=31.3158333333,-89.3086111111&amp;spn=0.1,0.1&amp;q=31.3158333333,-89.3086111111 (Hattiesburg%2C%20Mississippi)&amp;t=h">Hattiesburg, Mississippi</a>, where I spent four <strong><em>AWESOME</em></strong> years with my Dad before he died.</li>
<li>Current obsessions: <a href="http://masseffect.bioware.com/agegate/?url=%2F" target="_blank">Mass Effect 2</a>, <a class="zem_slink" title="L.A. Noire" rel="homepage" href="http://www.rockstargames.com/lanoire/">L.A. Noire</a>, <a href="http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/Deadliest-Catch-Season-1/70062534#height973" target="_blank"><em>Deadliest Catch</em> on Netflix streaming</a>, <em><a class="zem_slink" title="Breaking Bad" rel="hulu" href="http://www.hulu.com/breaking-bad">Breaking Bad</a></em> on AMC, the <a href="http://wastinglight.foofighters.com/" target="_blank">Foo Fighters&#8217; new album <em>Wasting Light</em></a>, <a href="https://digital.darkhorse.com/" target="_blank">Dark Horse Digital Comics</a>, <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scrabble-for-ipad/id363306776?mt=8" target="_blank">Scrabble for iPad</a>, Animal Planet&#8217;s <em><a href="http://animal.discovery.com/tv/my-cat-from-hell/" target="_blank">My Cat From Hell</a></em>.</li>
</ul>
<p>Depending on how the summer shapes up, there may very well may be some professional work changes to report. Despite my love of the freedom of independent consulting, Sean Connery said it best: &#8220;<a class="zem_slink" title="Never Say Never Again [Blu-ray]" rel="amazon" href="http://www.amazon.com/Never-Say-Again-Blu-ray/dp/B001R10BM8%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dzemanta-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB001R10BM8">Never say never again</a>.&#8221;</p>
<p>This is Must. Be. <strong><em>AWESOME</em></strong>!!! Dot com.</p>
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		<title>The SXSW Experience</title>
		<link>http://www.mustbeawesome.com/2011/03/the-sxsw-experience/</link>
		<comments>http://www.mustbeawesome.com/2011/03/the-sxsw-experience/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:22:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Du4</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.mustbeawesome.com/?p=1362</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I tried to document as many of my ongoing thoughts as I could over on my Posterous feed during SXSW, but I thought I&#8217;d take some time to try and make some coherent sense of the week-long insanity I put myself through. Location, Location, Location There didn&#8217;t seem to be any consensus on a single [...]]]></description>
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<p>I tried to document as many of my ongoing thoughts as I could over <a href="http://du4.posterous.com" target="_blank">on my Posterous feed</a> during <a class="zem_slink" title="SXSW" rel="homepage" href="http://sxsw.com/">SXSW</a>, but I thought I&#8217;d take some time to try and make some coherent sense of the week-long insanity I put myself through.</p>
<h1>Location, Location, Location</h1>
<p>There didn&#8217;t seem to be any consensus on a single new technology or app that debuted or blew up SXSW this year. However, plenty of existing ones brought immense marketing campaigns to <a class="zem_slink freebase/en/austin" title="Austin, Texas" rel="homepage" href="http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/">Austin</a>, and the majority of those seemed to be location-based services. <a class="zem_slink freebase/en/gowalla" title="Gowalla" rel="homepage" href="http://gowalla.com">Gowalla</a>, in my opinion, severely dropped the ball by not preparing local Austin businesses for the influx of SXSW geeks galvanized by the Gowalla passport scavenger hunt. <a class="zem_slink" title="Foursquare" rel="homepage" href="http://www.foursquare.com/">Foursquare</a>, on the other hand, ruled the day by deploying 2000 virtual &#8220;Golden Tickets&#8221; into specific checkin spots in Austin that unlocked free tickets to their <a class="zem_slink freebase/en/big_boi" title="Big Boi" rel="homepage" href="http://bigboi.com">Big Boi</a> headliner show. So many more location-based companies littered the landfalls in Austin as well, each with some zany promotional campaign to get people to download and use their app.</p>
<div id="attachment_1368" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 500px"><a href="http://www.mustbeawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/IMG_0336.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1368 " title="IMG_0336" src="http://www.mustbeawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/IMG_0336.jpg" alt="" width="490" height="490" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">David Armano&#39;s Allhat3 at Guero&#39;s.</p></div>
<p>For my money, Foursquare was the clear popularity winner here. Their partnership with Pepsi &#8211; where they created an actual competitive foursquare court near the Austin Convention Center &#8211; culminated with an <strong><em>AWESOME</em></strong> party at the Seaholm Power Plant, where all sorts of people got to chill with <a class="zem_slink" title="Dennis Crowley" rel="twitter" href="http://twitter.com/dens">Dennis Crowley</a> and his Foursquare army to the tunes of Locksley, The Sounds, and Big Boi.</p>
<h1>App Discovery of SXSW: Roqbot</h1>
<p>Roqbot is an app-based service that allows you to take control of online-enabled jukeboxes in bars, clubs, restaurants, and other locations featuring these types of music services. Once you download the app, you develop a DJ profile of your favorite music and check into whatever location you happen upon that has one of these net-enabled jukeboxes. From there, you&#8217;re able to control the music playlist emanating from the box. Don&#8217;t like Lady Gaga? Spend a couple Roqbot credits to put some Oasis on higher in the music queue. You also earn free credits to play by unlocking various checkin rewards or you can just connect Roqbot to a Paypal account and buy songs directly. It&#8217;s SUCH a great a control solution for jukeboxes in places. I can&#8217;t wait till they expand their services into the DC/NOVA region.</p>
<h1><a href="http://www.mustbeawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/IMG_0317.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-1369 aligncenter" title="IMG_0317" src="http://www.mustbeawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/IMG_0317-764x1024.jpg" alt="" width="458" height="614" /></a></h1>
<h1>DC Represents</h1>
<p>I was caught off-guard by the massive DC presence at SXSW. From government rockstars like <a href="http://twitter.com/amandare" target="_blank">Amanda Eamich</a> from USDA to nonprofit supercolliders like <a href="http://twitter.com/foridagirlindc" target="_blank">Tammy Gordon of AARP</a>, DC&#8217;s varied social media community descended on Austin in force. I hung out with<a href="http://twitter.com/mikeschaffer" target="_blank"> Mike Schaffer</a>, Director for Social Media at <a href="http://iostudio.com" target="_blank">iostudio</a> the most, and lamented that despite having met and living near DC, we never hang out like we did at SXSW. I&#8217;m making a pledge to change that behavior on my part now that I&#8217;m home, and I want to invite any and all DC/NOVA peeps to call me on any antisocial leanings I may display from this point forward.</p>
<p><a href="http://twitter.com/margienewman" target="_blank">Margie</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/groovysoup" target="_blank">Dave Newman</a>, masterminds of the <a href="http://www.meetup.com/DC-PR-Flacks/" target="_blank">DC Flacks Meetup group</a>, created an on-the-fly &#8220;<a href="http://twitter.com/#!/DCxSW" target="_blank">DCxSW</a>&#8221; Twitter handle and hash for all of us while in Austin. They also organized an impromptu meetup of these DCists at the Driskill Hotel one night where I had the best networking conversations of the week. I met a lot of folks i only knew through Twitter here, and I am super-excited to build upon those relationships in the future.</p>
<p>So here&#8217;s a big public shout-out to all my DCxSW peeps: Margie, Dave, Schaffer, <a href="http://twitter.com/gabehilado" target="_blank">Gabe Hilado</a>, Amandare!, <a href="http://twitter.com/frijolita" target="_blank">Alejandra Owens</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/corbett3000" target="_blank">Peter Corbett</a>, Tammy Gordon, <a href="http://twitter.com/tammyportnoy" target="_blank">Tammy Portnoy</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/dceventjunkie" target="_blank">Lisa Byrne</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/aarpatti" target="_blank">Patti Shea</a>, and all the rest of you <strong><em>AWESOME</em></strong> DC peeps. It was also great meeting a bunch of non-DC folks like <a href="http://twitter.com/jeffespo" target="_blank">Jeff Esposito</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/tmcantwell" target="_blank">Teresa Cantwell</a>, and old friends <a href="http://twitter.com/anneweiskopf" target="_blank">Anne Weiskopf</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/tonia_reis" target="_blank">Tonia Reis</a> (<a href="http://therealtimereport.com/?redirected_from=twtrcon.com" target="_blank">formerly of TWTRCON fame, now The Realtime Report</a></p>
<div id="attachment_1367" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 500px"><a href="http://www.mustbeawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/IMG_0316.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1367 " title="IMG_0316" src="http://www.mustbeawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/IMG_0316.jpg" alt="" width="490" height="490" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">&quot;You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.&quot; --Davy Crockett</p></div>
<p>).</p>
<h1>Walking in Your Footsteps</h1>
<p>Much of the research I performed in prep for this massive undertaking panned out well. I intend to do up a fuller post on the travel hacks I came with on the fly, but the basics came down to comfortable shoes and clothing at all times. I can&#8217;t tell you how many times I just had to <em>sit down</em> because my feet hurt so bad from walking around so much. People recommended Converse as the go-to shoes for SXSW, but I have to put in a plug for the much comfier and supportive Merrel&#8217;s that I brought.</p>
<h1>Panels &amp; Speakers</h1>
<p>For the mot part, I found SXSW panels pedantic and freshman. The only ones that piqued my interest and delivered a good conversation were a panel on The Singularity and another with <a class="zem_slink freebase/en/john_hagel_iii" title="John Hagel III" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hagel_III">John Hagel III</a> on shaping the future. The Singularity panel brought together experts like <a class="zem_slink freebase/en/michael_vassar" title="Michael Vassar" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Vassar">Michael Vassar</a> from the Singularity Institute and <a class="zem_slink freebase/en/natasha_vita-more" title="Natasha Vita-More" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natasha_Vita-More">Natasha Vita-More</a> from Humanity+ for a <strong><em>SUPER-AWESOME</em></strong> discussion about the ethical limits of transhumanism and posthumanity. I&#8217;m stll processing a lot of the info from this panel, but be sure to check out the convo archived on the <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23singularity" target="_blank">#singularity hashtag</a>. That conversation is still going on, so feel free to jump in and add your thoughts.</p>
<div id="attachment_1370" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 500px"><a href="http://www.mustbeawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/IMG_0348.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1370 " title="IMG_0348" src="http://www.mustbeawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/IMG_0348.jpg" alt="" width="490" height="490" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Seaholm Power Plant, site of the Foursquare/PepsiMax party.</p></div>
<p>I missed Seth Priebatsch&#8217;s keynote on the gamification of marketing and education, but I heard it was cool. I also missed <a class="zem_slink freebase/en/4chan" title="4chan" rel="homepage" href="http://www.4chan.org/">Christopher Poole</a>, aka moot of 4chan, who gave a keynote on social communities online and how their influence will continue to grow in the future. I heard good things about both of these keynotes but just couldn&#8217;y sync schedules to make them</p>
<h1>Getting Your Groove On</h1>
<p>I was most disappointed by the party situation. I RSVP&#8217;d for several parties specifically to hang out with or meet people that were throwing them. Unfortunately, every party is oversold, leading to massive numbers of people often crowding into small clubs, all trying to figure out who&#8217;s there that&#8217;s important or famous. What&#8217;s worse, I got the distinct impression at many of these parties that pre-existing community relationships led to a degree of &#8220;cliquey-ness&#8221; that isolated a lot of outsiders. This bothered me mainly because a lot of folks like myself stood in these long-ass lines for long periods of time to get into cool parties that only turned out to be fun for the cool kids.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_1372" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 501px"><a href="http://www.mustbeawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/IMG_0376.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-1372  " title="IMG_0376" src="http://www.mustbeawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/IMG_0376-1024x764.jpg" alt="" width="491" height="366" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Ogilvy Notes, a cool attempt to make visual sense out of all the information overloading SXSW&#39;s attendees.</p></div>
<p>There were literally so many people at many of these parties that you would get interrupted talking to someone of note, and they would never come back to you due to successive interruptions. It&#8217;s damned hard to connect with someone in this fashion, and you can damn sure bet I&#8217;ll be working on a SXSW Guide to Party Ethics for 2012.</p>
<p>Even worse, most of the Interactive parties featured some of the worst, most annoying DJs on the planet. Note to party organizers of the future: they don&#8217;t call Austin the &#8220;<a class="zem_slink freebase/en/austin" title="Austin, Texas" rel="geolocation" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=30.25,-97.75&amp;spn=0.1,0.1&amp;q=30.25,-97.75 (Austin%2C%20Texas)&amp;t=h">Live Music Capital of the World</a>&#8221; for nothing. If you want to throw a SXSW party next time, do some fucking due diligence and get a couple of inexpensive but <strong><em>AWESOME</em></strong> live acts instead of a bunch of douchy DJ pricks.</p>
<h1>Music vs. Interactive</h1>
<p>SXSW should really be broken up into two conferences for Music and Interactive because virtually everyone from the Interactive festival popped smoke when the Music festival began. It was SUCH a sea change in personalities too: I joked to a buddy that all the Interactive geeks stayed inside the Convention Center for Interactive where Austin had to shut down streets to accommodate the influx of Music nerds.</p>
<p>What&#8217;s funny about the disparity between Music and Interactive attendees (and the lurking Film festival geeks too), is that they could all stand to spend time in each other&#8217;s sessions. So much inspiration flowed out of musical performances that I think would have benefited Interactive attendees, particularly the PR and marketing types who were hard-charging the entire time selling and jiving versus soaking up the people&#8217;s culture.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_1375" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 500px"><a href="http://www.mustbeawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/IMG_0395.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1375 " title="IMG_0395" src="http://www.mustbeawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/IMG_0395.jpg" alt="" width="490" height="490" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Emmylou Harris performing solo on the Radio Day Stage.</p></div>
<p>I&#8217;ll do up a separate post later on the musical discoveries I made. Those are stories in and of themselves.</p>
<h1><a class="zem_slink freebase/en/omni_hotels" title="Omni Hotels &amp; Resorts" rel="homepage" href="http://www.omnihotels.com/">Omni Hotels</a> Continue to Rock</h1>
<p>Not only did my lovely friends at Omni Hotels hook me up with a couple free drinks and grab bag of SXSW necessities, I also found that the Omni&#8217;s parking situation far outweighed any other in downtown Austin. Where other lots were jacking prices up to $10 and $20 at a time, the Omni kept a moderate $7 a day parking charge for <a class="zem_slink" title="SXSW Interactive" rel="homepage" href="http://sxsw.com/interactive">SXSWi</a>. What&#8217;s more, you could avoid that charge completely if you returned for your car after midnight, where they opened the garage. GREAT customer service from Omni, especially for people who weren&#8217;t even staying at their hotel for SXSW. Thanks again for the stops along the way!</p>
<p><em>(Pro-tip: The Omni also had the cleanest bathrooms in town. At about midnight when those tacos are kicking in, ain&#8217;t nothing better than a spotless and empty bathroom!)</em></p>
<h1>Where Do We Go From Here?</h1>
<p style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_1376" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 468px"><a href="http://www.mustbeawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/IMG_0401.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-1376 " title="IMG_0401" src="http://www.mustbeawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/IMG_0401-764x1024.jpg" alt="" width="458" height="614" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">The Macallan 15, proud sponsor of SXSW and drunk-asses everywhere.</p></div>
<p>SXSW was a worthy event, but I&#8217;m not sure I can do it all in one sitting again. It was a great time, and I enjoyed it, but had it not been for the people I met there, it could have been a big old bust. I brought back with me a ton of great ideas and content that I have to work with, so I hope to see some heavy return on investment soon. In that vein, keep your eyes peeled for successive posts about different SXSW aspects that I couldn&#8217;t fit into this one.</p>
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<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.downtheavenue.com/2011/03/seth-priebatsch-on-gamification-lbs-education-meaning-at-sxsw.html">Seth Priebatsch on Gamification, LBS, Education &amp; Meaning at SXSW</a> (downtheavenue.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://cash-bandit.com/2011/03/16/sxsw-2011-winners-foursquare-and-hashable/">SXSW 2011 &#8220;Winners&#8221;: Foursquare and Hashable</a> (cash-bandit.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.blog.jessicamalnik.com/2011/03/final-thoughts-from-a-sxsw-newbie/">Final Thoughts From A SXSW Newbie</a> (blog.jessicamalnik.com)</li>
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<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/23/foursquare-sxsw/">Foursquare&#8217;s SXSW Plan: &#8220;NEW APP + NEW BADGES + PARTIES + CONCERT + MOAR&#8221;</a> (techcrunch.com)</li>
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		<title>Station Ident: How DARE You Not Be AWESOME!</title>
		<link>http://www.mustbeawesome.com/2010/06/station-ident-how-dare-you-not-be-awesome/</link>
		<comments>http://www.mustbeawesome.com/2010/06/station-ident-how-dare-you-not-be-awesome/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:08:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Du4</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Station Ident]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.mustbeawesome.com/?p=551</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Mentally, physically, emotionally, and gubernatorially EXHAUSTED from the AWESOMENESS of this week. TWTRCON, the Corporate Social Media Summit, and #140conference DC have strung me out. On the road soon for a relaxing weekend in Charlottesville. Hope you have AWESOME plans for the weekend as well. In the interim, I&#8217;d like to leave you with a [...]]]></description>
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<p>Mentally, physically, emotionally, and gubernatorially EXHAUSTED from the <em><strong>AWESOMENESS</strong></em> of this week. <a class="zem_slink" title="TWTRCON" rel="homepage" href="http://twtrcon.com/">TWTRCON</a>, the <a href="http://usefulsocialmedia.com/" target="_blank">Corporate Social Media Summit</a>, and <a href="http://dc.140conf.com/" target="_blank">#140conference DC</a> have strung me out. On the road soon for a relaxing weekend in <a class="zem_slink freebase/en/charlottesville" title="Charlottesville, Virginia" rel="homepage" href="http://www.charlottesville.org/">Charlottesville</a>. Hope you have AWESOME plans for the weekend as well.</p>
<p>In the interim, I&#8217;d like to leave you with a meditation on <em><strong>AWESOME</strong></em> from <a class="zem_slink" title="Laura Fitton" rel="twitter" href="http://twitter.com/pistachio">Laura Fitton</a>, creator of <a href="http://oneforty.com" target="_blank">http://oneforty.com</a> (a bank for Twitter apps). Laura spoke at TWTRCON NYC this week and rocked it with a really fun Twitter 101 preso. In this preso, she mashes that 101 course up with a challenge for all of us to be more <em><strong>AWESOME</strong></em>.</p>
<div id="__ss_2310094" style="width: 425px;"><strong><a title="How DARE You Not Be Awesome? (formatted)" href="http://www.slideshare.net/pistachio/how-dare-you-not-be-awesome-formatted">How DARE You Not Be Awesome? (formatted)</a></strong><object id="__sse2310094" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="425" height="355" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=bwefittonkeynotedeck-ppt-091021103625-phpapp01&amp;stripped_title=how-dare-you-not-be-awesome-formatted" /><param name="name" value="__sse2310094" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed id="__sse2310094" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="355" src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=bwefittonkeynotedeck-ppt-091021103625-phpapp01&amp;stripped_title=how-dare-you-not-be-awesome-formatted" name="__sse2310094" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></p>
<div style="padding: 5px 0 12px;">View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/">presentations</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/pistachio">pistachio</a>.</div>
<div style="padding: 5px 0 12px;">This is Must. Be. <em><strong>AWESOME!!! </strong></em>Dot com.</div>
</div>
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		<title>Station Ident: TWTRCON NYC Bound</title>
		<link>http://www.mustbeawesome.com/2010/06/station-ident-twtrcon-nyc-bound/</link>
		<comments>http://www.mustbeawesome.com/2010/06/station-ident-twtrcon-nyc-bound/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 12 Jun 2010 16:13:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Du4</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.mustbeawesome.com/?p=546</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m a little behind with commentary on the tweet-storms and blog-bangs about the Twitter Gov Liaison job. Lots of interesting discussion punctuated by occasional drumbeats of douchebaggery. I&#8217;ll try to get caught up with my writing on the train to New York Sunday as I depart DC for TWTRCON NYC! I had a great time [...]]]></description>
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<p>I&#8217;m a little behind with commentary on the tweet-storms and blog-bangs about the Twitter Gov Liaison job. Lots of interesting discussion punctuated by occasional drumbeats of douchebaggery. I&#8217;ll try to get caught up with my writing on the train to New York Sunday as I depart DC for <a class="zem_slink" title="TWTRCON" rel="homepage" href="http://twtrcon.com/">TWTRCON</a> NYC!</p>
<p>I had a great time at TWTRCON DC last year, so this outing should be superfly TNT, especially with the last minute addition of <a href="http://twitter.com/bpterry" target="_blank">BPTerry</a> (he of the hilarious <a href="http://twitter.com/bpglobalpr" target="_blank">BPGlobalPR</a> Twitter satire). I&#8217;ll also be attending the <a href="http://usefulsocialmedia.com/" target="_blank">Corporate Media Summit </a>on Tuesday and Wednesday on behalf of The Rendon Group. If you happen to be in the neighborhood, shoot me a holla so we can connect.</p>
<p>On a completely unrelated note, I leave you with this unreleased piece of <em><strong>AWESOME</strong></em> from my favorite (and sadly defunct) band, Oasis.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="480" height="385" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Cds0ZaZSKCo&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="385" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Cds0ZaZSKCo&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></p>
<p>This is Must. Be. <em><strong>AWESOME!!!</strong></em> Dot com.</p>
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		<title>Hey, Twitter! Government Liaison? How &#8216;Bout AWESOME Government Liaison?!</title>
		<link>http://www.mustbeawesome.com/2010/06/hey-twitter-government-liaison-how-bout-awesome-government-liaison/</link>
		<comments>http://www.mustbeawesome.com/2010/06/hey-twitter-government-liaison-how-bout-awesome-government-liaison/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jun 2010 12:28:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Du4</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.mustbeawesome.com/?p=509</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So I decided to do it: I applied for Twitter&#8217;s Government Liaison job. Despite how much I&#8217;ve shat on government in the past, I&#8217;m really excited about the prospect of being &#8220;the Twitter guy&#8221; in DC. I have a lot of fun on Twitter. I like the short, true-to-life conversational aspect of the form. Twitter [...]]]></description>
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<p>So I decided to do it: I applied for <a href="http://twitter.com/job.html?jvi=oBbkVfwL,Job" target="_blank">Twitter&#8217;s Government Liaison job</a>.</p>
<p>Despite how much I&#8217;ve shat on government in the past, I&#8217;m really excited about the prospect of being &#8220;the Twitter guy&#8221; in DC. I have a lot of fun on Twitter. I like the short, true-to-life conversational aspect of the form. Twitter is such an ideal, simple cannon for quick, bite-sized bombs of <em><strong>AWESOME</strong></em>. All of us peeps in DC need a little more <em><strong>AWESOME</strong></em>, and I see Twitter as an objective delivery device more and more every day.</p>
<p>Now, this is a public policy position. It&#8217;s obvious from the job description that Twitter wants to develop an influential presence amongst policymakers in our fair government. There is a huge opportunity here to build some connective tissue between legislators, policymakers, commercial folks, a host of non-governmental organizations, state and local government, and <em>citizens</em>. I want to show Congress how <em><strong>AWESOME</strong></em> we can make our global communities. I want to show people some of the <em><strong>AWESOME</strong></em> things happening in government they never get to see or hear about. I want to connect with more people, more often, mo&#8217; bettah.</p>
<p>Can Twitter provide that connective tissue? You bet your ass. And for those of you following me on Twitter, you know how much I love it. Twitter is <em><strong>AWESOME</strong></em>. It is insanely great, to use <a class="zem_slink" title="Umair Haque" rel="homepage" href="http://bubblegeneration.com/">Umair Haque</a>&#8216;s manifesto. I want to show more people how to use it to help them achieve great things. <em>That&#8217;s</em> why I&#8217;ve put my hat into the ring for Twitter&#8217;s Government Liaison job.</p>
<p>But who just applies for a job and leaves it to fate? Not this guy.</p>
<p>I would LOVE having people&#8217;s support on this. If this isn&#8217;t worth doing big and <em><strong>AWESOME</strong></em>, it ain&#8217;t worth doing. So I&#8217;m asking for YOUR HELP. Here&#8217;s what we&#8217;ve gotta do:</p>
<ul>
<li>First, <a href="http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Tweet" target="_blank">get a Twitter handle</a> if you don&#8217;t have one.</li>
<li>Show your support by tweeting &#8220;@Du4 for Twitter Government Liaison!&#8221; or something like that.</li>
<li>Tag all your tweets with this hash: #Du4TwitterGov</li>
<li>Link back to <a href="http://mustbeawesome.com" target="_blank">http://mustbeawesome.com</a>.</li>
<li>Participate in the coming discussions on <em>Must. Be.</em> <em><strong>AWESOME!!!</strong></em> about the job.</li>
<li>Tell your friends and family on other social networks.</li>
</ul>
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 522px"><img class=" " title="followme" src="http://zoominfoblogger.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/twitter-bird-pic.jpg" alt="" width="512" height="307" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Image courtesy of zoominfo.</p></div>
<p>I&#8217;ll start churning out thoughts, discussion, pingbacks, and other commentary that&#8217;s beginning to surface about Twitter&#8217;s entry into the gov arena here at <em>Must. Be. <strong>AWESOME!!! </strong></em>Campaign Headquarters. To start, check out <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewPWilson" target="_blank">Andrew Wilson&#8217;s</a> <a href="http://andrewpwilson.posterous.com/top-10-requests-for-the-new-government-liaiso" target="_blank">Top 10 Request for the New Twitter Gov Liaison</a>. I&#8217;ll comment specifically on Andrew&#8217;s call to action in a subsequent post. Wouldn&#8217;t it be SUPERCOOL if this started as a simple job application but BLEW UP into a movement of some kind?</p>
<p>There&#8217;s probably someone insanely more qualified for this job, but <em><strong>I WANT IT</strong></em>. I want it like I want <em>OASIS TO GET BACK TOGETHER</em>. Like I want <em>JOHN LENNON TO COME BACK FROM THE DEAD AND DO BATTLE WITH SARAH PALIN</em>. This could be SO. COOL.</p>
<p>I hope you&#8217;re as excited about it as I am.</p>
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<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/06/twitter-looking-to-hire-a-government-liaison-for-its-push-into-politics/">Twitter Looking To Hire A Government Liaison For Its Push Into Politics</a> (socialtimes.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://business.financialpost.com/2010/06/08/fp-tech-desk-twitter-plans-to-hire-washington-liaison/">Twitter plans to hire Washington liaison</a> (business.financialpost.com)</li>
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<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://michellemalkin.com/2010/06/08/help-wanted/">Help Wanted: Twitter Seeks Tweeter to Help Company Cozy Up to the Government</a> (michellemalkin.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://socialmedia.globalthoughtz.com/index.php/twitter-to-hire-government-liason-in-washington-dc/">Twitter to Hire &#8216;Government Liason&#8217; in Washington DC</a> (socialmedia.globalthoughtz.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.mustbeawesome.com/2010/06/holy-crap-this-looks-like-an-awesome-job/">Holy Crap, This Looks Like an AWESOME Job</a> (mustbeawesome.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://r.zemanta.com/?u=http%3A//www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/7810311/Twitter-to-hire-White-House-liaison-to-help-policymakers-tweet-more-effectively.html&amp;a=19162005&amp;rid=c20676d1-d4e1-4794-9124-6c502a557942&amp;e=2a1c51dbbeb1fa5e600d8f4fc5f9816d">Twitter to hire White House liaison to help policymakers &#8216;tweet more effectively&#8217;</a> (telegraph.co.uk)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/07/twitter-looking-to-hire-a-government-liaison-in-washington-d-c/">Twitter Looking To Hire A Government Liaison In Washington D.C.</a> (techcrunch.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2010/06/026165.htm">Twitter to hire Government Liaison</a> (textually.org)</li>
</ul>
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		<title>Holy Crap, This Looks Like an AWESOME Job</title>
		<link>http://www.mustbeawesome.com/2010/06/holy-crap-this-looks-like-an-awesome-job/</link>
		<comments>http://www.mustbeawesome.com/2010/06/holy-crap-this-looks-like-an-awesome-job/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Jun 2010 19:26:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Du4</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[awesome]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cool]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[du4]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gov 2.0]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[interagency]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[twtrcon]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.mustbeawesome.com/?p=500</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This job announcement from Twitter just went live. The salient bits are here: Twitter is looking for an experienced, entreprenurial person to make Twitter better for policymakers, political organizations and government officials and agencies. You&#8217;ll be our first D.C. -based employee and the closest point of contact with a variety of important people and organizations [...]]]></description>
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<p><a href="http://twitter.com/job.html?jvi=oBbkVfwL,Job" target="_blank">This job announcement</a> from <a class="zem_slink freebase/en/twitter" title="Twitter" rel="homepage" href="http://twitter.com">Twitter</a> just went live. The salient bits are here:</p>
<blockquote><p>Twitter is looking for an experienced, entreprenurial person to make Twitter better for policymakers, political organizations and government officials and agencies. You&#8217;ll be our first D.C. -based employee and the closest point of contact with a variety of important people and organizations looking to get the most out of Twitter on both strategic and highly tactical levels. You&#8217;ll help Twitter understand what we can do to better serve candidates and policymakers across party and geographical lines. You&#8217;ll support policymakers use of Twitter to help them communicate and interact with their constituents and the world. You&#8217;ll work with nearly every group at the company and at every level to pursue your vision for how Twitter ought to be. You&#8217;ll help set the culture and approach of a fledgling public policy department and be an important part of our very small company.</p></blockquote>
<div class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 240px"><img title="tweet" src="http://zoominfoblogger.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/twitter-bird-pic.jpg" alt="" width="230" height="138" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Image courtesy of zoominfo</p></div>
<p>I could totally do this. It&#8217;s actually the one thing that sounds insanely fun about working in DC: showing government folks how they can use Twitter for <em><strong>AWESOME</strong></em> purposes. Connecting legislators to their constituents (and each other). Connecting soldiers with families. <em>Connecting</em>. <em><strong>CONNECTING</strong></em>.</p>
<p>Even though I&#8217;m already gainfully employed and stretched thinner than <a class="zem_slink freebase/en/plastic_man" title="Plastic Man" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_Man">Plastic Man</a> in a God-sized tug-o-war&#8230; I am <em>really</em> giving some serious thought to applying for this gig.</p>
<p>What do y&#8217;all think??? Should I go for it?</p>
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		<title>Station Ident: On the Move</title>
		<link>http://www.mustbeawesome.com/2010/04/station-ident-on-the-move/</link>
		<comments>http://www.mustbeawesome.com/2010/04/station-ident-on-the-move/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:24:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Du4</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Station Ident]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[gov 2.0]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[new thinking]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[social business design]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[SOCOM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[strategic communication]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[twtrcon]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.mustbeawesome.com/?p=354</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Phew! Lots of conferences, workshops, and summits lately. Given that I love connecting and networking with people, I find that even the least relevant of conferences can yield super positive experiences. Still, time is a commodity, and it&#8217;s sometimes hard to determine what&#8217;s worth your while. I used to work for a government program manager [...]]]></description>
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<p><a href="http://www.gov2expo.com"><br />
<img class="alignleft" style="border: 0px initial initial;" title="Gov 2.0 Expo 2010" src="http://assets.en.oreilly.com/1/event/38/gov2expo_spkr_120x240.gif" border="0" alt="Gov 2.0 Expo 2010" width="120" height="240" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gov2expo.com"> </a></p>
<p>Phew! Lots of conferences, workshops, and summits lately. Given that I love connecting and networking with people, I find that even the least relevant of conferences can yield super positive experiences.</p>
<p>Still, time is a commodity, and it&#8217;s sometimes hard to determine what&#8217;s worth your while. I used to work for a government program manager who used to tell me that meetings and conferences were a waste of time; that you spend more time trying to determine if the event is worthwhile than actually working. We always butted heads about this because my view was that even at the most time-wasting event, you can still find value if you know where to look and you have an objective.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m getting ready to board a train to New York for the <a href="http://www.edgewards.com" target="_blank">Social Business Edge</a> conference put on by <a class="zem_slink" title="Stowe Boyd" rel="homepage" href="http://stoweboyd.com/">Stowe Boyd</a>. Despite missing all of The <a class="zem_slink" title="Dachis Group" rel="homepage" href="http://www.dachisgroup.com">Dachis Group</a>&#8216;s Social Business Summits this year, I&#8217;m still convinced that social business is the new big concept for strategic thinkers and planners. Since this is a path on which I intend to take <em><strong>@Du4.llc</strong></em>, I&#8217;m willing to &#8220;waste&#8221; a little time and money connecting with this community, integrating some of their skills into my business offerings, and, hopefully, booking some work.</p>
<p>Here are a couple places you can catch me over the next couple months. Feel free to holler at me if you want to connect in person in and around any of these events:</p>
<ul>
<li>New York, April 18-20 (Social Business Edge)</li>
<li>Los Angeles, May 2-4 (super secret squirrel engagements!)</li>
<li>Washington, DC, May 10-14 (reporting on and conducting workshop seminars linked to <a href="http://www.crows.org/the-io-institute/infowarcon-2010-agenda.html" target="_blank">InfoWarCon 2010</a>)</li>
<li>Washington, DC, May 25-27 (presenting at <a href="http://gov2expo.com" target="_blank">Gov 2.o Expo</a>)</li>
<li>New York, June 2-5 (tentatively attending <a class="zem_slink freebase/en/personal_democracy_forum" title="Personal Democracy Forum" rel="homepage" href="http://www.personaldemocracy.com/">Personal Democracy Forum</a> 2010)</li>
<li>New York, June 13-14 (<a href="http://twtrcon.com" target="_blank">TWTRCON 2010</a>)</li>
<li>New York, June 15-16 (<a href="http://usefulsocialmedia.com/" target="_blank">Corporate Media Summit</a>)</li>
<li>Albuquerque, July 28-31 (<a href="http://www.sister-cities.org/">Sister Cities International</a> <a href="http://www.sister-cities.org/conference/albuquerque2010/index.cfm" target="_blank">Annual Conference</a>&#8230; where I hope to be elected to the board of directors!)</li>
</ul>
<p>Thanks for reading and participating. This is Must. Be. <em><strong>AWESOME!!!</strong></em> Dot com.</p>
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<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2010/01/29/o%25e2%2580%2599reilly-webcast-social-business-taking-%25e2%2580%259csocial%25e2%2580%259d-to-the-core-of-your-organization/">O&#8217;Reilly Webcast Social Business: Taking &#8220;Social&#8221; to the Core of Your Organization</a> (web-strategist.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.beingpeterkim.com/2010/04/hinchcliffe-joins-dg.html">Dion Hinchcliffe joins Dachis Group</a> (beingpeterkim.com)</li>
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<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/Jeffreydachis/social-business-summit-2010-sydney">Social Business Summit 2010 Sydney</a> (slideshare.net)</li>
</ul>
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		<title>TWTRCON DC: A Reverie</title>
		<link>http://www.mustbeawesome.com/2009/10/twtrcon-dc-a-reverie/</link>
		<comments>http://www.mustbeawesome.com/2009/10/twtrcon-dc-a-reverie/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:31:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Du4</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Communication]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.mustbeawesome.com/?p=116</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[TWTRCON DC invaded the Grand Hyatt last Thursday to a rousing rabble of rock stars. My biggest concern about the event &#8211; that it would feature merely a poo-poo load of social media jerks wanking each other off &#8211; proved to be completely unfounded. In fact, I met a host of cool cats with whom [...]]]></description>
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<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 522px"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vincentgallegos/4043283463/sizes/o/"><img class="  " title="TWTRCON" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3509/4043283463_75ef83bdf9_o.jpg" alt="Du4 &amp; fellow Open Mike winners" width="512" height="340" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Du4 &amp; fellow Open Mike winners</p></div>
<p><a href="http://twtrcon.com">TWTRCON DC</a> invaded the Grand Hyatt last Thursday to a rousing rabble of rock stars. My biggest concern about the event &#8211; that it would feature merely a poo-poo load of social media jerks wanking each other off &#8211; proved to be completely unfounded. In fact, I met a host of cool cats with whom I hope to continue rocking.</p>
<p>Instead of rehashing everything you can glean for yourselves from the <a href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23twtrcon" target="_blank">#twtrcon hash</a>, I shall instead focus on the things that I found most moving, helpful, and <em><strong>AWESOME </strong></em>about the event.</p>
<p>What I really dug about this event was how learnable everything was. The speakers, combined with relevant and targeted questions from attendees, produced a live narrative that, to me, is the new 21st century version of academic case studies and symposia: realtime, rapid fire analyses of business experiments in microcommunications. Every single discussion revealed a takeaway&#8230; some a little more hard to identify than others, but all just as helpful.</p>
<p><img class="alignleft" title="charitywater" src="http://easterbunnybarhop.org/hav3.jpg" alt="" width="389" height="280" />Possibly the most <em><strong>AWESOME</strong></em> of the bunch was Scott Harrison from <a href="http://www.charitywater.org/" target="_blank">charity: water</a>. Donations made to this cause fund construction of clean water wells. How Scott and his handful of people go about raising money for this charity is quite remarkable. Charity: water organized &#8220;twestivals&#8221; in over 200 cities. These events drew in certain communities (knitters, for example) who donated what they could. But the focus of these events was on what the communities cared about, whether it was knitting, drinking, or music. This draws in the people who in turn donate as little as $5 for, say, an event fee. This added up to over $250,000 that charity: water gave back 100% to their constituents.</p>
<p>As <strong><em>AWESOME </em></strong>as that sounds, it gets better. Scott gave some no-shit measurable &#8220;do&#8217;s and don&#8217;ts&#8221; about using Twitter (and social media in general). While these reflected his experience with a nonprofit, they were perfectly transferable to businesses and government. Themes like transparency to donors, design sense, the art of surprise, and trust all wove in and out of Scott&#8217;s preso. It got me both excited and concerned, which should be an objective of virtually any modern influence campaign.</p>
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><img class="  " title="Real-Time Orgs" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2778/4043271053_3102204587.jpg" alt="Armano modding the Real-Time Organizations Panel. Captain Chris is rocking the fatigues." width="500" height="332" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Armano moderating the Real-Time Organizations Panel. Captain Chris is rocking the fatigues alongside FEMA&#39;s own John Shea.</p></div>
<p>Also of note was <a href="http://twitter.com/csukach" target="_blank">U.S. Air Force Captain Chris Sukach</a>&#8216;s <em>very impressive</em> admission that in social media, &#8220;if you&#8217;re not failing, you&#8217;re not trying.&#8221; I hardly ever hear that type of honesty from government representatives in this town, much less those in uniform. We expect so little from our government because we&#8217;ve been conditioned to think of it as a maintenance mechanism for status quo, and this often translates to <em>lameness</em>. Chris is the type of change agent we need more of in DC.</p>
<p>I do want to thank everybody at TWTRCON who voted for me as part of the Open Mike Contest. I am a shameless ham, and any chance to get up in front of people and entertain flips my shitbiscuits. That said, I did mean what I said about being <em><strong>AWESOME</strong></em>: keeping it simple often kills innovation and coolness. (More on the shittiness of the KISS principle in future posts.)</p>
<p>I want to spend a little time giving some props to the peeps I hung with on this very rocking of days. <a href="http://twitter.com/chickdowntown" target="_blank">Amy</a>, Ira, and Kim of  <a href="http://chickdowntown.com" target="_blank">Chickdowntown</a> were GREAT fun at Brasserie Beck (check out the website for some cool fashion deals and TWTRCON pics). Had a great conversation with <a href="http://twitter.com/dunkindonuts" target="_blank">David Puner</a> of Dunkin&#8217; Donuts about their social media strategy, which was enlightening and cool. Many thanks to <a href="http://twitter.com/blockrealestate" target="_blank">Brian Block</a> for the iPhone charger (he&#8217;s using Twitter for real estate and <em>epically winning</em>). Had a great time laff-testing material with my tablemates <a href="http://twitter.com/andreajm" target="_blank">Andrea Meier</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/arlong509" target="_blank">Ali Long</a>, and <a href="http://twitter.com/nooneyouknow" target="_blank">Adam Zand</a>. Chris and Rachel from <a href="http://socialware.com" target="_blank">Socialware</a> (a TWTRCON sponsor) were supercool&#8211; I expect an invitation to come rock it out with you guys in Austin <strong>SOON</strong>. Lovely connecting at last with Ogilvy rock star <a href="http://twitter.com/rohitbhargava" target="_blank">Rohit Bhargava</a> who did a great job manhandling Steve Rubel on the Real-Time Business panel. I&#8217;d also like to implore people to visit <a href="http://www.orphanbracelet.org" target="_blank">OrphanBracelet.org</a>, a charity benefiting children orphaned by HIV/AIDS which crusader <a href="http://twitter.com/moniquew" target="_blank">Monique Watkins</a> turned me onto. And of course, the inimitable <a href="http://twitter.com/armano" target="_blank">David Armano</a>&#8211; who appropriately knocked Du4 around for sounding like a used car salesman with an aptly delivered: <em>&#8220;Own it!&#8221;</em></p>
<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 360px"><img title="brands panel" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2706/4043259851_4dd1c81cfe.jpg" alt="The Real-Time Brands Panel" width="350" height="232" /><p class="wp-caption-text">The Real-Time Brands Panel</p></div>
<p>You can find all the presos and a list of other con reports and media <a href="http://twtrcon.com/" target="_blank">here</a>. I have to give <a href="http://twitter.com/tonia_ries" target="_blank">Tonia</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/AnneWeiskopf" target="_blank">Anne</a>, and <a href="http://twitter.com/chriscarson" target="_blank">Chris </a>super-kudos for putting such a worthwhile and fun event together. I had a great time funnin&#8217; with everyone. I highly encourage everyone to stay engaged in the TWTRCON conversation and help keep it relevant, fun, and engaging for everyone.</p>
<p><em>[TWTRCON pics courtesy of </em><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vincentgallegos/" target="_blank"><em>@vincentgallegos</em></a><em>]</em></p>
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		<title>Station Ident: I AM TWTRCON</title>
		<link>http://www.mustbeawesome.com/2009/10/station-ident-i-am-twtrcon/</link>
		<comments>http://www.mustbeawesome.com/2009/10/station-ident-i-am-twtrcon/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:32:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Du4</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Nicely done, Twitter peeps. Full report to follow but suffice to day, TWTRCON DC 09 was a rousing success. Very useful collection of people, discussions, and studies. Met a shitload of great people and even won the Open Mike Contest. Great meeting everybody, and thanks to all who voted for lil&#8217; ole&#8217; me. I love [...]]]></description>
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<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 410px"><img title="twtrcon" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2679/4035341180_a737392e26.jpg" alt="Courtesy of vincentgallegos" width="400" height="300" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Courtesy of vincentgallegos</p></div>
<p>Nicely done, Twitter peeps. Full report to follow but suffice to day, <a href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=twtrcon" target="_blank">TWTRCON DC 09</a> was a rousing success. Very useful collection of people, discussions, and studies. Met a shitload of great people and even won the Open Mike Contest.</p>
<p>Great meeting everybody, and thanks to all who voted for lil&#8217; ole&#8217; me. I love you longtime. More to follow.</p>
<p>This is Must. Be. AWESOME. Dot com.</p>
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