Collaborpedia

Pennsylvania based RJB Technical Consulting has announced a seminar to be held next Wednesday. The topic will be leveraging social media within the SharePoint platform in the hopes of improving your organization, expanding corporate reach, and lowering costs in a down economy.

The Benefits of Social Media and How it Can Lower Your Organization’s Costs.
July 8th, 2009 (9:00 AM - 12:00 PM)

This seminar will focus on the benefits of social media within SharePoint and how it can help lower your organization’s costs.
Join RJB Technical Consulting and take advantage of this opportunity to learn how to improve your organization by lowering costs while expanding your reach.

Speaker - Russ Basiura

Recommended Audiences:
Technology Executives, IT Managers, Business Executives, Vice Presidents, CEO, CIO, COO, CTO, CFO, IT Directors, Business Managers, Business Owner, Business Professionals, Controller, Business Decision Maker, Technical Decision Makers

Click Here to Reserve Your Spot

Agenda
8:30 AM Breakfast and Registration
9:00 AM Introduction of Social Media
9:30 AM The Benefits of Social Media & How it Can Lower Your Costs
11:00 AM MySites and Social Media Within SharePoint
11:30 AM Panel Discussion, Q & A, and Raffle
12:00 PM Lunch

Registration is FREE, but space is limited. Register now to reserve your seat

Location:
45 Liberty Blvd.
Great Valley Corporate Ctr, Suite 210
Malvern, PA 19355

Phone:
610.834.3900

Register HERE

Host: Business Wire

Speaker: John Blossom, author of Content Nation: Surviving and Thriving as Social Media Changes Our Work, Our Lives, and Our Future.

Bonus: Chris Phenner will show some new “Mobile Virtual Goods” from NYC developer ThumbPlay

The fifth annual Corporate Venture Capital Summit is hosting over 24 Corporate Investors that have volunteered to share their knowledge, perspectives, and standards for those in attendance.

The event is becoming quickly recognized as the premier location for startups to network directly with venture capitalists and Corporate Development Officers.

When:
Tuesday February 24, 2009

Where:
British Consulate
One Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA 02142

Speakers include (but not limited to):
Patrick Chung Managing Director SK Telecom Ventures
Dave Schulte Principal Kaiser Permanente Ventures
Tara D. Butler, M.D. Investment Director Ascension Health Ventures

Early registration save attendees $200 off the at the door fee.
Register Here

Agenda:
(Source Youngstartup.com)
1:00 pm CONFERENCE REGISTRATION & NETWORKING

1:30 pm WELCOME REMARKS & KEYNOTE

Joe Benjamin
Founder & CEO
youngStartup Ventures

2:00 pm BEYOND THE MONEY

This session will explore the benefits of raising Corporate VC and how it yields important dividends that are “beyond the bottom line,” both for the investor and for the startup firm.

Panelists:

Rajeev Dadoo, Ph.D.
Principal
SR One

Mathew George, CFA
Vice President
TELUS Ventures

Julie Gerstenberger
Director, External Alliances
Kodak Ventures

Alan J. Koenning
Fund Manager
UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund

David Nanto
Director of Venture Development
NEC Corporation of America

Ira Nydick
Senior Technology Analyst
Panasonic Venture Group

Lauren Silverman, Ph.D.
Managing Director
Novartis BioVentures

2:50 pm BREAK

3:00 pm COMPANY PRESENTATIONS – ROUND I

3:40 pm
INVESTING IN OUTSIDE INNOVATION: WHAT ARE CORPORATE VCs LOOKING TO FUND AND UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS?

Just as all companies have different strategic goals and interests, so to their Corporate VC divisions have highly varied strategies and approaches. Still, all involve some balance or mix of strategic corporate goals and financial ROI. This session will explore why certain deals and ventures have been historically of interest to corporate VC’s and how this is playing out in the current market space.

Panelists:

Tara D. Butler, M.D.
Investment Director
Ascension Health Ventures

Dan Keoppel
Executive Director, Strategic Investments
Verizon Communications

Jeffrey B. Moore
Vice President
MP Healthcare Venture Management

Jim Peters
Partner
Geisinger Ventures

Jennifer Scholze
Partner
SAP Ventures

Tom Whiteaker
AVP
Hartford Ventures

Kuk Yi
Managing Partner
Best Buy Capital

4:30 pm BREAK

4:40 pm COMPANY PRESENTATIONS – ROUND II

5:10 pm BUILDING THE BRIDGE – CORPORATE & TRADITIONAL CAPITAL

While close to 20% of all venture-backed firms have corporate VC’s on board, it is unusual for a venture to be backed by corporate VC alone. When other investors are required corporate VC interests must be balanced with those of other investors, while at the same time ensuring that the venture moves forward and remains robust. This session will examine these different pieces to the Corporate Venture puzzle and how to best leverage the roles of all players involved.

Panelists:

Patrick Chung
Managing Director
SK Telecom Ventures

Andrew T. Jay
Managing Partner
Siemens Venture Capital

Stephen Knight, M.D.
Managing Partner
Fidelity BioSciences

Lucy Mcquilken
Director
Intel Capital

Jim Sanger
General Partner
ABS Ventures

Dave Schulte
Principal
Kaiser Permanente Ventures

Spencer Tall
Managing Director
Allegis Capital

6:00 pm CAPSTONE PRESENTATION & CLOSING REMARKS

6:15 pm COCKTAIL RECEPTION

8:00 pm SUMMIT ADJOURNS

Jared Goralnick’s presentation centered around A Little Bit of Productivity for a Great Bit of Happiness which fits in perfectly with Collaborpedia’s “Remember the Big Picture” approach to the changes at large within our respective communities. The presentation was quite insightful as were many at Ignite Baltimore’s second event.

Ignite Baltimore is one event where you cannot take the RSVP for granted as it was a waiting list for the standing room only crowd for the second gathering of entrepreneurs, intellectuals, techies, and political figures for a round of 16 speakers sharing their ideas ranging from art changing the world to being more happy and productive.

The Windup Space on W. North Ave was a great host, pizza was served for all, and the attendees were eager to chat, mingle, and make connections offline with many of the greater Baltimore area’s brightest minds.

I think that Ignite is one of the better examples of keeping the “big picture in perspective” alongside entrepreneurial pursuits and the rage that is social media. The networking aspect was a good touch and Ignite kept the “human element” that people are what make a great community in the forefront.

The variety of topics that bounced from each speaker kept the event fresh. The automatically changing slides every 15 seconds maintains the element of surprise.
Collaborpedia was in the building filming in coverage and support of Ignite Baltimore and later on today we will begin to debut the footage from the event.
Proposals are already pouring in for speakers to head up Session #3 which will be held in June.

When: Sat, 2/21/2009

Where:
Microsoft New York Metro District: New York, NY
1290 Avenue of the Americas, Sixth Floor
New York, NY 10104
Phone: (212) 245-2100
Fax: (212) 245-3290

SharePoint Saturday is a great FREE event hosted in various locations around the US to help immerse SharePoint professionals (including the merely curious) into the world of SharePoint.
Sessions include Protect and Defend Your Data, Site Templates vs. Site Definitions, Which is Best?, 5 Ways to Enhance SharePoint Site Usability and More!

Tracks are broken down in Admin/ Developer/ End User/ Special Interest

Register HERE

Join SharePoint architects, developers, and other professionals that work with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for ‘SharePoint Saturday’, on Saturday, February 21st, 2009 at the Microsoft Office on Avenue of the Americas in New York City. SharePoint Saturday will be an educational, informative & lively day filled with sessions from respected SharePoint professionals & MVPs, covering a wide variety of SharePoint-orientated topics. SharePoint Saturday is FREE, open to the public and is your local chance to immerse yourself in SharePoint! Click on the Registration tab to sign up now!

Event Giveaways

10 slots to the “Case Studies in SharePoint Dashboards” online workshop ($1290 value) courtesy of EndUserSharePoint.com
Free SharePoint training ($3000 value) courtesy of Learning Tree International
SharePoint books courtesy of O’Reilly

Sponsors
B and R Business Solutions

AvePoint

Microsoft

End User SharePoint.com

SharePoint Reviews

Learning Tree International

O’Reilly

Outlet Baltimore will be kicking off its first event on the 28th of January at Rocket to Venusin Hampden.

What is Outlet Baltimore
It’s an opportunity for people in and around the Greater Baltimore’s New Media (creative/tech/etc) community to get together, enjoy each other’s company, and put some faces to the names behind Twitter feeds, blogs, websites. It’s about making connections and developing relationships, thereby strengthening the community as a whole.

Event Details HERE

If the weather holds up, Collaborpedia will be in the building for Outlet Baltimore.

Mesh U, Toronto’s annual Web Conference dedicated to the discussion of building projects online for designers, developers, and analysts has announced that Ryan Singer of 37signals and Chris Wanstrath of Githhub.

When:
April 7th and 8th, 2009

Tickets
Tickets are $469 + GST. 30 student tickets will be offered for $50 each + GST; post-secondary student ID must be provided to qualify.

Mesh U 2009 Organizers
• Mark Evans – Director of Community, PlanetEye Inc.
• Mathew Ingram - technology and business writer, Globe & Mail
• Mike McDerment - CEO, FreshBooks Online Invoicing
• Rob Hyndman - business lawyer, Hyndman | Law
• Stuart MacDonald - entrepreneur, marketer, founder Expedia.ca

Register Here

Subscribe to MeshU Blog

Right on time with the swearing in of our country’s 44th president, the White House has a new design and web presence witht the launch of the White House Blog.

Log onto: to receive the latest news and updates from the White House.

There were many questions on whether or not Barack was going to continue to feed and maintain his online presence, which was a key strategy in his winning the election over John McCain.

Blog posts currently on the site include the following offerings:

A National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation

Honoring Dr. King’s Legacy and Serving America

White House.gov caters to the “on-demand” generation as well by providing a full-text of President Obama’s Inaugural Address.

What are your impressions of the blog? If you were the White House’s Chief online strategist, what would be your four year plan for the Obama administration and the White House in general?

Social networking sites can build up a false sense of relevance for those individuals and businesses who invest time and energy building up their profiles through consistent content updates, blogging, and increasing their profile’s community by adding more and more friends.

The question we will examine in this post is: What is a social networking friend?

What do we expect from them?
Is there a way to measure a “return” from our online friends?
What are some ways that a passionate, engaged network can benefit your brand?
How do you determine whether you have empty “friendships” online or a real community?
Super-charging your communities online

Friends Offline vs. Friends Online
True friends (offline in the “real world”) define us as people. They are the individuals who laugh, cry, and help us to learn the great lessons of our lifetime. If you get married, your friends will be your best man or your bride’s maids. When you fall, your friends pick you back up and when you win, your friends are there to celebrate. We need friends and as social creatures, human beings need interaction with others.

Online friends (typically) are people who gravatate to your online profile through either common interest or geographic proximity. In many cases, you may never met this individual face-to-face, and if you did, the interactions tend to be awkward at first because they typically are based on a perception (not necessarily a lie) based online.

Is there a way to measure a “return” from our friends?
The main characteristic of an offline friend is answering the call when needed. As a brand, information provider, charismatic individual, musician, or celeb, why can’t I do request the same from my online community? The key determinant of a “return” from your online community is action. Does your community respond to your requests?

Here are but a few reasons why your online communities may be filled with “empty profiles”

There was no foundation or ground rules set when the member joined
You haven’t asked your community to take action
Your update schedule is undefined, rare and/or unpredictable
You don’t “qualify” your friends (I’ll discuss this in greater detail)
You haven’t made them feel welcome or set a level of community/expectation when they
joined

What are some ways that a passionate, engaged network can benefit your brand?
An engaged network can provide phenomenal word-of-mouth promotion for an upcoming product or release from your company. Great friends can provide reviews, serve as site administrators, volunteers, and help you reach your goal towards online dominance in your area of interest.
Most importantly, a great online community is in place to strengthen your offline efforts including meetups, gatherings, and events in targeted markets.

Investing in Online Friendships
I expect my offline friends to want me to be involved in their lives, sporting events, and social gatherings. I expect to be invited and badgered to attend and celebrated when I arrive.
Likewise, in my online communities, I want my friends to share links to events, send me e-vites to gatherings that would enrich my life experience, and share photos of their triumphs in their particular field.

Super-charging Your Communities Online

So you’ve gotten to the point where you have “friends” but they are not active.
Provide active content, encourage sharing.
Send out a notice that you will be deleting “inactive profiles” from the site

Note: If you are not consistent in providing content, it is within the same vein of not practicing what you preach. If you want “me” the member of your site to contribute, then you as the site owner should provide a halfway compelling reason.
There are different schools of thought on deleting inactive profiles, but on profile driven sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Ning, Collective X etc. , it doesn’t benefit the owner to simply have a large network of people. Action is the key.

Your online friends should grow to become actual friendships that you cherish and enjoy if you provide clarity in your profile’s objective, and qualify your community through action and call-to-response.
Share your thoughts in the comments section about strategies that you utilize to maintain online relationships in your communities.

Mr.Shadeed -

Did you start blogging as a New Year’s resolution only to find yourself short on motivation midway through January? Starting to think blogging was a “mistake” and that you’re too busy, tired, distracted to keep it going? You are not alone. In this blog post today, we’ll get the fire re-lit on your blogging habits and get your blog back up and running strong through 2009.

Look for the Reason, Not the Result

You decided to start this blog for specific reasons. In order to regain that focus and motivation to keep your blog afloat, don’t look too far ahead to the future. Instead, look inward and reconnect with the reasons you wanted to kick off the new year in a blogging fury!

What if I didn’t have any specific goals?

Answer the following questions to uncover your motivation:

What are the reasons I started my blog?

What skills and tips do I have to share with my community?

What areas of expertise do I feel comfortable writing about?

Tips to get you back up and running

“Script Your Posts”

This is a great way for me personally to keep blogging when time is limited or motivation could be higher. Simply enter the title of your potential post and save it as a draft. Once you have the title, you can brainstorm ways to put it together throughout your day.

Keep It Short

Keeping it short refers to literally 1-3 paragraphs (or less) on a topic in order to”stay in touch” with your blog. Provide an intro on the topic and add a few links. The End. What I’ve found consistent amongst the best blogs is that there is no specific word count that equals a great blog post. Providing value for your readers is the best litmus test.

Blogs From Around the Web

Create a blog post consisting of helpful links that you’ve found around the web on other sites. It helps your readers by providing them with resources and may help the sites gain new readers. Everybody wins.

Caption This

Utilize photos in your blogging by incorporating a caption to a picture you come across on the web. Inviting readers to provide captions is a community builder that will help new bloggers remain motivated as well.

Bottom Line

January is a month where many new committments to a better lifestyle and increased productivity are in abundance. You may fall off the wagon but keeping a realistic approach and staying in touch with your blog will help you stay afloat and steadily maintain your blogging efforts in 2009.

New bloggers, leave a comment with your name and bloglink so that I may check out your blog and leave feedback on your progress. - Mr. Shadeed

Did your favorite football team make the playoffs this year? Gearing up for the record crowds and hype and hysteria surrounding the inauguration? Is there an annual event that draws tourist traffic from around the world?

What you have with each of these scenarios is the opportunity to build communities around your brand and to associate your business with that particular event. In this blog post, I’ll focus on sports and community and provide some basic tips on what virtually any entity ranging from brick and mortar businesses to a blog authored by an individual can do to position themselves as the official ___________ (brand description here) of your city or town.
The most important thing to remember is that you can easily build brand recognition without buying space on a billboard.

Leveraging Sporting Events to Build Community
Nothing energizes a city more than the hometown team making the playoffs. The playoffs offer a renewed sense of hope that even if the team barely squeaked into the big tournament, everyone involved has a chance to win it all.

Here are a few inexpensive tips.

Tips
1.Giveaways. Partner up with a local sportsbar to do a giveaway of your product or service.
This can also be done in true guerilla fashion by simply handing out material in tailgating areas or in popular downtown districts in your area.

2.Discounts using trivia of renowed sports heroes or discount for wearing jersey in your establishment. Note: For online businesses, a simple promotion using photos of your customers wearing jerseys would do as well.

3.Online Photo Galleries
Time to unleash your inner photographer to help build your brand in your community.
Simply utilize a digital camera to take snapshots of various game-related events, using an online photo sharing service to store photos online. Have fans, viewers vote for the best photo and award a giveaway prize.
Add small watermark with company logo or site URL to the photo.
Submit photos to local newspaper, they might be used as more and more traditional media outlets are accepting a format of user generated content.

Using Web Video - If you are a video blogger, here are some tips to incorporate a hometown feel into your videos.
Film segments using a well-known landmark within your city as a background
Put on a team jersey during your segments
Add the team theme music as your intro song
Use fans as B-Roll for your clips

Why This Works
1. People will be more willing to participate in a cause or idea that supports the local team.
2. Video and photo galleries enable fans to be ‘celebs’ within the local sports community.

What If I Don’t Know Where to Go and Find People??
Turn on the radio for the station that bills itself as “Official Radio Station of your favorite team” and listen for events and make a note to attend.

As a business, brand, blog or enterprise, utilize the events around you to build enhance your business reputation within your community. Slowly but surely, your enterprise will become the official brand utilizing inexpensive tactics to associate yourself with the “big game”.

How do you utilize big events to build your brand recognition???
Leave comments and let’s start the discussion.