I just realized I was missing about a week’s worth of comments from this blog. It looks like Google Reader at some point stopped tracking the comments (which is how I knew you were commenting), and I missed a few great ones, including one from BJ Fogg, whom I look up to. My apologies if it has taken awhile for me to respond to your comments.

If you want to track any of the comments feeds for any particular article, simply view the article, and append, “/feed” to the end and add it to your favorite RSS Reader. It will then send you updates of all comments for that article. Or, you can just click the checkbox next to, “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail” below the Captcha and it will e-mail you updates.

My apologies if I have not responded very quickly lately - that should be fixed now.

I’m sitting in here at the Blogger Lounge at Web 2.0 Expo, and have been working on a cool little gadget I think you may like. Mari Smith yesterday Tweeted that she and others wished there was a way they could “turn off” Facebook chat. Right now there are privacy controls to block people and keep people from chatting with you, but there is no real way to turn off the Chat feature in Facebook.

So I created a simple little Greasemonkey script (works in Firefox only, sorry) under the GPL v.2, in conjunction with SocialToo.com’s “Social Companion to the Web” theme, that I call, “Facebook Chat-B-Gone”. Go ahead and download and install Greasemonkey here, then click here to download “Facebook Chat-B-Gone”.

Enjoy! And be sure to sign up for SocialToo.com for more cool “companion” features like this in the future!

http://staynalive.com/wp-content/themes/revvedup-158/fbchatbegone.user.js

I’d like to announce that SocialOptimize, my Social Media Development and Consulting and Apps Agency is being dissolved. I will now be assuming business under the name, “Stay N’ Alive Productions, LLC”. This, at least for now, will remain the main blog and website for my new business. What does this mean for my Social Efforts?

As you know, I have written 2 books, one on Facebook for Business and Personal Life (ranked #96 under “Job Hunting” on Amazon!) called, “I’m On Facebook–Now What???“, and another, published by O’Reilly, called “FBML Essentials” which focuses on Facebook Development from a software development perspective. (FBML Essentials should go to print around May) Recently I was featured by Guy Kawasaki on his blog, http://blog.guykawasaki.com - I encourage you to check out Stay N’ Alive, the blog, on http://socialmedia.alltop.com! I’m On Facebook–Now What??? has been listed (thanks to my co-author, Jason Alba) in the New York Times, US News and World Report, and I am receiving interview and speaking engagement requests on almost a weekly or more basis. I have consulted for some of the top 100 Facebook applications, including Paul Allen’s “We’re Related” Application (one of my favorites on Facebook!), and continue to get requests for consulting and development. That altogether takes up about 1/2 of my time - I have openings for April if you’re interested in an interview or speaker for your event!

In addition to my consulting, I would like to announce that I have teamed up with a development agency (more to be announced later) which will be able to provide development for those projects I consult on. If your company has development needs please contact me and I will introduce you to them and stay with you through the process.

For the second 1/2 of my time, I am building a network of communities on Facebook. I am working with several budding startup companies, along with a few apps I am building currently, to integrate into a large network of niche communities, all 100,000 users or less, perhaps a few with more, that cross-integrate and share features with each other. I will work with those in the network to provide consulting and development, at cost (and some less than cost depending on need and what we can work out), and in exchange you will get access to cross-promote, and gain access to many of the tools we will be providing, along with a great brand we will be building to promote the network. My goal is to make each application in our network as successful as possible according to your business needs. If you have an application you would like to include in my network, or need a way to build up your app further on a small budget, please contact me via the links on the right and we can discuss further how to best include you.

You’ll also see me doing several activities on a volunteer basis that I think will bring more of a focus to benefiting society through Social Media. Stay tuned for some of that, and in the meantime, visit Beth Kanter’s blog for a good resource.

So whether you’re looking to build up your small business under a budget, or need consulting, development, interviews, or speakers for your event, despite that I am no longer with SocialOptimize, I am still very much involved, and alive in the Social Media and Networking space. I am still “The Social Media Guru”. Give me a ring and let’s talk!

I’m proud to announce the new design of the Stay N’ Alive blog. Yes, that is me on a Segway, a little slouched, but my real, geeky self, having fun. I’m tempted to subtitle the blog, “A Developer, Having Fun!” Really, that is what being a developer is all about - if you’re not having fun, find something else! I sincerely love what I do - at heart, I will always be a developer, a Geek at heart.

Another geek at heart, Bill Gates, gave his final keynote address at CES last night. He left a hilarious, yet touching video making fun of what his final day could be like. I have to admit, as a Linux and Mac user primarily (I use Windows for my Entertainment Center experience), I was a little choked up after this. I became a programmer because of Bill Gates, working on MS DOS machines, Windows 1 (came on a 5″ floppy), 2, 3, 3.1, and 95 way before I was ever a Linux user. I owe much of my experience as a programmer to this man - while we make fun of him, he is an inspiration to us all:

I’ve been considering doing this for awhile - we’ll see how long it lasts and when my wife puts an end to it. If you look in the upper-left corner of the blog, you’ll see the “Ask Jesse” Show stream. If I’m online, when you click play you’ll see me, live, as you are on the blog!

Here’s how I did it:

1. Create an account at Ustream.tv
2. Click on “My Shows” - there you can configure the look and feel of your show page if you want
3. Click on the “Go to Show URL” link next to the “Broadcast Now” button
4. You’ll now see an “Embed Stream” html snippet in the lower right of the page - copy this, then paste into your html layout for your blog
5. Click “Broadcast Now”, and you’re live for all your voyeuristic viewers to see!

The Camera I’m using is the Logitech Quickcam Communicate STX. It has great picture, includes a built-in microphone that detects how far you are, and the camera comes in with built-in software that follows where your face is (or two faces if you’re more than one person). I’m half-way across the room, and you can still hear me well, and the streaming results are almost real-time! (Scott Lemon says it took just 14 seconds from him Twittering to me saying I received the Twitter)

Some issues to watch out for:

• Make sure you’re appropriate when your camera is on! Put a sign up or something reminding those entering the camera area that they are being recorded.
• Be careful if you talk to sensitive business clients. You may want to mute, or stop the stream altogether so sensitive information isn’t broadcast out to the entire world
• Be sure your router can handle the bandwidth. I use a Gigabit Linksys WRT350N Router, and my Comcast connection has 8 Mb down, and about 3 or 4 up (at times). Search for “Comcast Speed” in the search box in the upper-right for some tips on how to speed up your home internet

My big prediction for 2008 is it will be the year of streaming video, and you’ll see more and more people embracing such technologies. I think I’ll try this for a bit - I think this can be a great way to drive people to stay on your blog longer. People are naturally voyeuristic, and want to know more about the person whose writing they are reading. If they can actually see them and chat with them, they are likely to stay longer, bringing more traffic to your site.

Merry Christmas to all my Stay N’ Alive readers! May your Christmas be a safe, comfortable, social, and happy Christmas. May your Christmas not be like the drunk guy that drove his car into my house the other day (he was okay, so is the house):

On a related note, is your Facebook app using this? (yes, I’ve confirmed it is a real tag!): http://www.jessestay.com/articles/2007/12/19/fbis-it-christmas/

I am the CSO, or Chief Social Officer for my new company, SNAPlicate. I have interpreted it to be a mashup of a CTO, with a social twist. I am in charge of ensuring my company stays up on social technologies, has communication and networking with other Social developers, and keeping an overall social direction for the company. As a Social Development and Innovation company, I think companies like SNAPlicate need positions like mine to keep them in a forward-moving direction. I wonder how many other social-related positions will be created from this new wave of platform development.

I guess I should use this opportunity to tell a little about SNAPlicate. We’re a social development and innovations firm, perhaps somewhat similar to RockYou, or Slide that also outsources work for other companies desiring a social direction. I am starting this company with my partner, Allan Young (our COO), and already we have applications such as our Holy Rolls suite of meta-religious apps, the SAC App, the GrandCentral App, and several other apps currently in development I will announce shortly. Several of the apps we have developed have tens of thousands of users on them, and we have consulted and helped architect other applications with millions of users. I’ll be updating snaplicate.com soon with more details, so stay tuned!

I’ve been twittering for awhile now about a “big announcement”. I’m proud to say this is that big announcement! In my first successful exit from a Social application, a private, LDS Non-Profit has acquired the Facebook LDS App from my Social Apps incubator, Snaplicate. This is one of the first few apps to be sold on Facebook, so this is big news! Today we signed the final document and the news is official! I’m very excited for this, as it will mean immediate help for the LDS App and strong progress in its development. Managing this on my own has been difficult. I have high regard for the organization taking over, and I know they will do very good things for it. I’ll announce the name of the organization and more details as we finalize the press release (hopefully tomorrow!) and agree on what details will be released.

If you are a user of the LDS App, you have nothing to worry about. While I have no final control over what happens, the organization that has acquired the app is non-profit, which means it should continue to be free, without advertising or subscription charges. They have made it known to me that they have intentions to keep it this way, and hearing of their plans of where to take it in the future, it fits in well with where I was going to take it. If they let me, I will continue to volunteer my time in development on the app as well.

What will I do next? I have retained rights to the code, which is currently being used on the Catholic App, and will continue to expand to other religions as I enhance the code base. Feel free to tell your Catholic friends about the Catholic App! I am also focusing on some other big projects which you will hear of very soon.

In the next day or two we should have a press release finalized and more details should be released. Stay tuned!…

Well, I’ve officially made the plunge! As of today I have announced my resignation at UnitedHealth Group and will very soon be completely self-employed, working on your business’s projects full time under my consulting business, Stay N’ Alive Productions. If you have a project of any caliber, I am giving short-term (that could become long-term) contracts first priority, but will consider anything.

I mentioned previously about my friend Thom Allen being a Facebook developer. Well, I’ve let him have the limelight for long enough and now it’s my turn! I am a Utah Facebook Developer. I currently have 4 applications written, one with near 10,000 users and growing. I also have been doing Facebook consulting since almost the launch of the Facebook platform. I have taught classes on Facebook and am definitely your man if you need some consulting or projects based on the Facebook platform.

So if you need any work, give me a ring via the GrandCentral “Call Me” button down on the right of this page and we can work on a bid or estimate for consulting work. You can also read through this blog to understand what I know and how I can help you. Feel free to blog or Twitter about me as well! I need all the help I can get to get this off the ground!

Thom Allen inspired me to take some pictures of my blogging station. Looking at some of the others out there, mine’s not quite as simple. I guess when it comes down to it, the Mac in the middle is all I really use to blog, but everything else plays such a large part in the content of my blogs that I thought I’d include it. Some of the pictures are a bit blurry, but in them, you’ll see 3 laptops (a Linux, a MacBook, and a Windows laptop), a Windows Vista (64-bit) desktop, a Ham Radio station, a picture of my wife, an iPhone, 2 scanners, and a printer. I should have also included the Digital Rebel XT I shot the pictures with (that I forgot to turn on my flash or use a tripod obviously) as well, as that has been used in several of the posts I’ve written. For your enjoyment, here is my blog station - how many bloggers can say they have a Single Side Band Ham Radio Tranceiver as part of their set up?: