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NetSquared blogs
Introducing Steve McMahon
Like many Internet activists, I wear many hats:
Introductions
Just wanted to introduce myself to the netsquared community - I'm the co-founder of the free forum hosting service, lefora.com. Before this I was part of meetro - the location-aware friend finder. Prior to meetro I was at IBM, where I was helping to shape social software within the enterprise.
I'm originally from nyc, been out here for almost 3 years now, absolutely loving everything the bay area has to offer, from technology and open competition, to remote get-aways just a ferry ride away.
How I'm helping...
Products Design in Sustainable Agriculture
The main problems in Peru as poverty, low productivity, inadequate infrastructure and poorly integrated markets are often exacerbated by an under-developed agro-industrial sector. Little attention has usually been paid to the value chain through which agricultural commodities and products reach the final consumers in Peru and abroad.
According to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO, 2007), while high-income countries add US$180 of value by processing one tonne of agricultural products, developing countries generate only US$40. Moreover, while 98 percent of agricultural production in high-income countries undergoes industrial processing, barely 30 percent is processed in developing countries.
Deadline to Register for the NetSquared Conference is May 16
Just a quick reminder that the deadline to register for the NetSquared Conference (N2Y3) is tomorrow, Friday, May 16th. The Conference will be held at Cisco Systems' Vineyard Conference Center in San Jose, California on May 27 and 28.
Check out the N2Y3 Working Agenda, the 21 NetSquared Mashup Challenge Projects whose work will be featured at the Conference, and register today!
We've extended the deadline to book rooms at the Hilton Santa Clara for the $129 rate until May 16 2008. Book online or call 408.330.000.
You can find a ride or room to share on the N2Y3 Ride Share and Room Share Wiki.
Questions? Email net2@techsoup.org.
A Big Thanks to Our Sponsors
We couldn't do the work we do at NetSquared without the support of our generous sponsors. Help us say thanks by giving their sites a click, and read more about their work on our Netsquared Sponsors page. If you'd like to partner with NetSquared, contact Kris Sowalla at ksowolla@techsoup.org
Your Mapper Project Lead - Ted Ko
Your Mapper has a Project Lead now and his name is Ted Ko. Ted was matched up with Your Mapper through the efforts of the NetSquared team and Billy, and brings some great small business experience and project planning skills to Your Mapper.
Here's an overview of some of Ted's background:
Your Mapper Team Member - Ben Peskoe
I'd like to announce a new member of the Your Mapper team, Ben Peskoe, who will be our Development Manager. Ben will be attending the NetSquared conference so everyone will get to meet him there.
Ben has a stong background in web programming and development and brings some small buisiness and interface design experience to the project. He currently runs Sierra Interactive, a turnkey web solution for realtors, located at sierrainteractive.com.
N2Y3 Ride Share and Room Share Wiki
We've posted a Ride Share and Room Share Wiki up on wikispaces to help folks coordinate rides and room for the NetSquared Conference.
If you're a local and have a ride or room to share, please let folks know.
If you're coming in from out of town, or just coming down from San Francisco, and need a ride, or a room list it.
We can't guarantee you'll find a match, but it's worth a try, right?
The deadline to register for the NetSquared Conference is this Friday, May 16. We have extended the deadline to book a room at the Hilton Santa Clara for the $129 rate until May 16. Book online or call 408.330.0001.
Flickr photo credit: Carpool uploaded by MIke Licht.
Advice From Last Year's Featured Projects - N2Y2
Flickr photo credit: Advice by Laughlin Elkind.
As a representative of one of the N2Y3 featured projects (the KnowMore.org Firefox Extension), I thought it would be helpful to e-mail all of the N2Y2 featured projects and ask them for their best piece of advice for this year's featured projects. WOW! Over the last few days, I got some AMAZING responses from 11 of last year's featured projects – including last year's top three prize winners! They're both practical and inspiring and definitely worth checking out - even if you're not a N2Y3 featured project!
First Net Tuesday in Twin Cities
We had the first Net Tuesday meeting in the Twin Cities last night. It was great, had quite a few attendees, and a lot of us got to meet each other and talk about what we're doing. I'm looking forward to many more.
The Open Municipal Geodata Standard Organization Website
I'd like to announce a new website that I'm starting up called The Open Municipal Geodata Standard Organization Website, or OMG Standard for short, at www.omgstandard.com. The idea behind it is to have an open forum to discuss and collaborate on how to involve governments to effectively release their public data to communities.
The goals at the moment are to:
1 create an open standard for the structuring of municipal data
2 convince governments it's in their best interest to make the data easily available
3 provide tools to let this happen efficiently
What are Your Favorite Online Polling and Survey Tools?
Looking for recommendations for web-based polling and survey tools. What are you favorites?
Flickr Photo Credit: Family Feud Video Game uploaded by omiksemaj
Your Mapper Logo Contest Winner
I've just awarded the prize to EastSideDesigns.biz for his submission of logo #158 . Congrats! Thanks to everyone who talked with me or sent me messages about the designs they liked. It was really helpful to get some community feedback for this.
Avoid Shooting Yourself in your Social Media Foot with an Uzi
Social media practitioners must understand what not to do in the space, as the grassroots are extraordinarily unforgiving and interconnected. Don't be a weed. To wit, I received a message from a friend on Facebook, and immediately it struck me that he was shooting himself in the social media foot with an uzi. The message which I received was sent to 18 persons whose first name begins with the letter R. One can only assume that this instance of his message recurred many times, hence the uzi. It comes across as spam, however well-targeted it might be. It is a formula for failure.
Follow Us on Givvy Blog
See our posts at http://blog.givvy.com
Three Deadlines: Net2ThinkTank, N2Y3 Registration, DonateNow Mashup Challenge
We've got 3 deadlines coming up. Please pass them on to interested folks:
May 16: Deadline to register for the 2008 NetSquared Conference (N2Y3). The NetSquared Conference will take place May 27th – 28th, 2008 (just after Memorial Day) at the Cisco Systems’ Vineyard Conference Center in San Jose, California. Check out the Working Agenda and register today!
May 19: Deadline to submit your idea for how to mashup the Network for Good donation processing service with other services to make it easier for nonprofits to raise money online.
Getting in the mood for the NetSquared Mashup Challenge with Oneworld Connect
In my third year coming to NetSquared, I find myself in a new role: as one of 21 designated "project leads" who will be trying to connect the featured projects with the developers ready to work on an NGO project.
I'm working with Roshani Kothari and Michael Litz of the Oneworld Connect project, and together we've started a wiki page with what we'd like to work on. I'm posting the story here too: please help us develop this further, shape our thoughts, and connect our ambitions to the endless possibilities :-)
GreenDevCamp May 31 at the Green Building Exchange
Saturday, May 31st, "green geeks" will get together at GreenDevCamp at the Green Building Exchange in Redwood City, CA to talk about:
* How can companies, big and small, make their operations, code, practices, etc. more sustainable?
* In what ways can technology make our lives more green?
They are also hoping to walk away with concrete projects:
Vancouver's 3rd Net Tuesday: Welcome to the Widget Revolution!
Vancouver had its first Net Tuesday in February and its second in March. Its third and latest event happened this past Tuesday and was a great success! Presenters included Jason Mogus of Communicopia.com, Scott Nelson of FearlessCity, and Keith Grennan of Sprout. Our host for the evening was Sarah Pullman.
Yahoo! Green Award
Last year, NetSquared Featured Project, FamilyFarmed.org received the Yahoo! Green Award for its potential to use Web 2.0 tools to benefit the environment by connecting everyday consumers with their local farmers.
This year, Yahoo! is looking for innovative “green mashups” that will inspire people to use social technology to help the environment.
Yahoo! will review the project submissions included in the “Environment” Cause Area of the NetSquared Project Gallery. Using Yahoo! APIs is a plus, but not necessary. The most innovative green mashup will receive a $5,000 Yahoo! Search Marketing award.
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