Contributing to Your Community

I must say, I consistently find great content from Chris Brogan.  I was reading a post he wrote the other day titled "The Community Ecosystem" .  His post was basically aimed at social media  and contributing, but as I read, I saw how his points also fit into contributing to the community you find yourself in.  Now I want to be careful here with my use of the term "community".  I wrote a post the other day and as I do in many of my posts used the term DC Tech Community.  Ross over at Ross Notes noted that sometimes many of us tend to use that term loosely and in doing so leave out a large number of other groups, so I want to be careful in noting that I am speaking of a large community or a small subset of that larger realm in a generic sense.

But in this case I think it applies to the community you find yourself in, or an ecosystem as Chris calls it.  Here are a few of his highlights:

1.  Contribute Where You Can

Like I said, Chris is aiming at social media, but I think this is also appropriate other circumstances.  I liken it to the complimentary services idea that was in an earlier post.  Help out where you can in your community and the results with multiply.  Chris mentions a person Brian Solis, who attends events and takes lots of pics and then share them out via Creative Commons.  As I read this I could help but be reminded of our friend here in DC, Nahum.  He is a great guy and a great photographer who aattends events with us and takes terrific portrait type shots of all the people.  He will then upload them to flickr and email everyone to let them know.  It is funny, because after he does this, you see a changing of everyones avatars in all their social media accounts.

2.  Communicate When You Can
Visiting people’s websites and/or just reading their RSS feed isn’t enough all the time. Make a point of commenting, of saying “I see you.”

I think this is totally valid as it pertains to the ecosystem here.  There is a great niche and many of us frequent each other blogs and leave good feedback on the post and continue conversations we have had recently as it pertains to that post or article.

So when you can, share a little “I see you” with the places where you interact. Because it will matter. It does come back to you. People do care.

3.  Create What You Can

Some ways to create are to build things for people who don’t necessarily have the skills but you can see their need. Another way is to add value by contributing to an existing project. Other times, it’s as simple as organizing a gathering (either online or in the real world) of people with like interests, such that you can help catalyze the conversations and the shared experience. Create. Make. Do. And share.

I am not sure what to add to this, it speaks for itself and it ties back in to the idea of complimentary services we spoke about previously.  It seems all of these things he mentions, we are doing here locally in our various communities with great results.

Can you add anything else to his thoughts ?

Anyone Up For A Cherry Blossom Photowalk ?

I must admit, it kind of snuck up on me this year, but this coming weekend is the start of Cherry Blossom season.  And how better to celebrate than to get out and take some pics ?

So I want to put the feelers out there to see who may join me for a Cherry Blossom Photowalk.  Anyone interested ?

Here is the link to the Park Service page with all the blossom information.  Forecast is for rain on Saturday, but Sunday is supposed to be nicer with a high around 60 or so.

So what do you say, you in ?  Stop by and give me a handshake over at WhyGoSolo

Event: Refresh DC March Happy Hour

RefreshDC is having a Happy Hour this week in DC.  Many of you are aware of the great job RefreshDC does in the DC area
 

Refresh is a community of web designers, developers, and other new media professionals working together to refresh the creative, technical, and professional aspects of their trades in the Washington, DC, area. Our goal is simple: bring together the best and brightest new media professionals in the DC metro area so that we may learn from one another. Our industry is too rich for any one person to "know it all." That's where we come in.

They hold some great events and this month decided to have laid back happy hour for all to get together.  Here is the Upcoming Event page for the meetup and here are the details for you as well.

Capitol City Brewery

TECH cocktail Returning to DC

Just caught wind of this over at Justin Thorp's blog and wanted to pass along the news.  TECH cocktail is coming back to the DC area for another go around.  I was not there for the first visit here, but I heard it was a great time .

So Frank Gruber and Eric Olson  are bringing the event back in late April.  Here are the details of the event.

Date: Thursday, April 24, 2008
Time: 6:30pm - 9pm
Venue: MCCXXIII: 1223 Connecticut Avenue, NW - Washington, DC 20036 (Map)
Cost: $0 - It’s free!
RSVP: techcocktaildc2.eventbrite.com

There are sponsorship and demo opportunities available.  Here are those details

TECH cocktail DC 2 will be sponsored by AOL and Viget Labs. If you are interested in sponsoring TECH cocktail DC 2 we still have spots open so please contact us as soon as possible - more information on sponsoring is here. We run these events to break even and would love to do so on this second event. Also if you are interested in demoing your startup product or service please contact us. See you there!

Hope to see you all there !

I Say Cooper, The New York Times Says Copper …

Now I will be the first to admit, sometimes my spelling and grammar skills on my blog posts leave a little to be desired.  But heh, who am I, some schmoe writing about the DC tech scene.  

So I always like when I find someone else's screw up, especially when it is on the New Your Times BlogRunner aggregation page.  I was up early this am checking out the news and came across this, see picture.

As I started to read, I was thinking to myself who is Anderson Copper  ?

I thought to myself, I always thought his name was Anderson Cooper  ?

As it turns out, it is Cooper.  Seems the copy editor missed this little typo.

See everyone makes mistakes, even the big boys

Do We Lack Cohesion ?

As many of you are well aware, I think very highly of the new tech community that is starting to bud here in the DC area.  But I often wonder, as others do, do we lack cohesion.  By this I mean that I see many fragmented groups in the area, all doing good things and having nice events, but they all seem to fall on the same night …

I wonder if theses fragments are holding back the larger growth of the community.  I mean just this week, on Wed night there were two really good events, one I attended and one I did not.  The one I was at was the DC New Media Technology groups happy hour at Lotus Lounge.  It was great, but at the same time across town was the Washington Blogger Meetup at RFD.  See what I am getting at ?  We have so many great groups blossoming in the region.  There is the Social Media Club, Refresh DC, The DC Bloggers Meetup, and so on.  I am curious if there shouldn't be some type of overarching organization ??  I know this is a hard topic, but if we continue to step on each others toes, we will remain in the current state we find ourselves in today.

I think one good step would be for everyone who is planning on having an event check out the DC Tech Events maintained my Ross Karcher.  He has even gone so far as to set up Facebook and LinkedIn groups  and also a Twitter feed to follow as well.  Maybe organizers can swing by and see a good open night for their event ?  I know sometimes this is not feasible, but I cant help but think that if we could all get on the same page we can start to reign in some of those fragments and build a more cohesive community.

Photo:  By picadillywilson

CountryWide Mortgage is Screwing Its Customers

This is not the usual DC tech post here, rather a message that I need your help in spreading.  I have a story to tell and I would like all of your help to let Countrywide Mortgage understand the power of social media these days.
So here is my story in a nutshell … Last fall I received a letter from Countrywide informing me that FEMA had redrawn he flood elevation maps and that my property is inside the new flood zone, which is a story into itself, but that is for another time.  In the letter Countrywide informed me that as of Dec 15th they would provide insurance at a cots of $2,700.  I thought wow, that is a lot of money for !  At once I contacted my insurance company and asked to pursue a flood insurance policy.  They told me in order for FEMA to give a flood rate back to them, I needed to have a survey of my property done.  I thought, "this is odd, how come I have to provide FEMA with a elevation report ?  Did Countrywide have to do the same ?".  I decided to find out. 
I called Countrywide and asked and asked until I got to the right person.  He worked for a company that Countrywide contracted to determine if the property was in a flood zone or not.  I asked about how they determined the flood insurance rate and was informed that Countrywide did not look at that, they said either you are or not and then charged you the MAX amount.  Great.  So it was upon me to find my elevation and submit to FEMA to actually determine my insurance rate.  This cost me $500 for this alone.  After my insurance company filed the paperwork, it was determined that my yearly policy was going to cost $594, according to FEMA rates.  Quite a bit more than the $2700 Countrywide was charging.  This leads to my first legal/ethical question. 
How can Countrywide charge you the max rate and not be held to the same standards as us consumers are ?  I still do not know the answer to this question.  How can they legally levy an arbitrary maximum amount to your policy, when as a consumer I could not obtain anything until I had the proper elevation reports done ?
After I received my policy I forwarded it to Countrywide as proof so they could cancel their provided insurance.  Today I got home to a letter from Countrywide saying they had cancelled their policy, but I still owed them a pro-rated amount for 3 months of $672 !  More than FEMA states an entire year policy should cost.  I called their insurance department today to ask if they thought it odd that a full year policy cost $594 and i owed them $672 for just three months ?  As usual it was like talking to a robot. 
This has to stop, these companies need to be help accountable for their actions as well as being held to the same standards as the consumers.  Sounds like a class action lawsuit waiting to happen.

Please forward this and Digg it, Stumble It, whatever we can do to spread the word of this type of business practice.

Event: SocialMatchBox, Part Duex

On the heels of a successful first go at the SocialMatchBox, which gathers local startups and prospective workers together, they are holding another event. 

Participating companies this time will be

• Clearspring
• comScore
• FOLIOfn
• Intridea, Inc
• Positive Energy
• Viget Labs
• Siteworx
• Zadby.com
• and others to come

According to the event page

The event brings in members from around the DC startup and technology community for what some like to call an open mic night for hiring teams and entrepreneurs.  The open format is a fusion of resume clinic, startup job fair and networking event.  Attendees include hiring teams representing top startup companies from around the DC area, job seekers, founders with entrepreneurial ideas looking for others to join them, and people interested in getting into the mix.

If you have any interest in supporting the event, shoot them an email , otherwise head to the event page to register.

See you all there.

I Blog, You Blog, But Why ?

Today seemed to be an all about blogging day … first I saw a good post by Anthony LaFauce over at The Social Times titled "Playing the Bog Market"  and then a piece from The New York Times called "So You Want To Be A Blogging Star".

Anthony's take was that bloggers can be broken into 2 catagories if you will

Blogging is like collecting coins vs playing the stock market.

Some of us write as we are playing the stock market, hoping for a return while others do it as a hobby, like collecting a coin.  I though he had some really good points and I particularly enjoyed this one

Write about what you enjoy, never force a story in the hopes of getting a quick return, and you will be writing for years.

The Times piece had some great advice as well.  Here are a few of them

1. Don’t expect to get rich.
2. Write about what you want to write about, in your own voice
3. Fit blogging into the holes in your schedule
4. Join the community, such as it is

An interesting one to me was #3, Fit Blogging into her Schedule, a very interesting point.  As many of you know technology can be quite captive.  Don't let it take over you, rather fit it in with the rest of your life.  Words of wisdom I often forget to be honest.

So why do I blog ?  To me it is a hobby, a passion.  I enjoy writing and creating content if you will that people enjoy reading.  I enjoy showcasing the talents and events we have around us here in the DC area.  But to be honest, blogging, microblogging and otherwise, has allowed me to build so many great relationships with great people.  I would have never imagined that I would meet and become friends with so many people that I met ONLINE.  This is why I write.

Why do you write ?

Event Recap: DC New Media Technology

Tonight I ventured down to the Lotus Lounge for the DC New Media Technology happy hour.  It was sponsored by Voxant and was a good time.  As usual we are starting to see the beginnings of good things happening on the area and the roots of a core of people that are here in DC to bring the area to tech life.  Nick O'Neill form The Social Times was there and we had some really good talks between us and Andrew Wright and others as to the state off affairs here in DC with regards to tech.  It was a good time.  Nick obviosuly has a lot of irons on the fire and it is always good to catch up with him.

I actaully had a bit of a "double date" thanks to our friends over at WhyGoSolo.  I had set up a listing for the event and got a "handshake" form 2 people, David Patton (@dcpatton ) and Keith Casey (look Keith No Quote !!).  I tried to keep them both unaware I was 2timing them, but in the end they found out about each other :(  Needless to say, I went home alone

There was one guy, whose card I did not get, but is a young man form Boston who was down to check out the DC startup scene.  Of course Nick and I gave him an earful and I think he was kind of impressed with what is happening in DC.  My friend Jeremy Epstein of Microsoft was there fresh off the birth of his little girl and enjoying the web social scene.

I was also fortunate to finally get a chance to meet up with Bob and his wife Julliane (hope i got the speeling right) of JobMatchBox.com.  He has another SocialMatchBox coming up next week (more to come on this).  We will be looking to co sponsor  some things in the Rockville area to get some of those startups out into the light as well with JobMatchBox in the near future.
The events keep getting bigger and better and is a great way to get out and meetup with some great people.  See you all at the next one !

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