I’ve written before on the power of community and how Social Networks are bringing back the days of the small community within a large world. That’s why I was happy to hear in a recent interview I had with Erin MacLeod of the Toronto Star that BJ Fogg, Professor at Stanford, and teacher of the “Psychology of Facebook” class seemed to be on the same track (Fogg is also author of an excellent book on technology and marketing called “Persuasive Technology“). From the Toronto Star article,

“If you look at the history of civilization, you’re part of a community and as you grow up you stay connected with a community and those past lives and past friends,” Fogg says. “So maybe in some ways Facebook is bringing back what humans have lived with for thousands of years, a persistence of identity and relationships for decades.”

I agree wholeheartedly with Fogg. In the article I mention that it goes even further beyond that though. Technology always adds another layer to something that previously existed in a lesser form. With Social Networks, technology is simply bringing together a massive world of people into a small community-type atmosphere, but at the same time allowing a layer of privacy, giving users control over what that small community sees, and does not see.

It’s true that you will need to be more careful in the future with what you reveal on Social Networks, but the power of these Social Networks is that there are controls in place already to prevent information from getting out. Facebook has friends lists, privacy features, and flags you can enable and disable to control what elements are revealed to what people. You’ll find similar elements in other networks. I imagine even in Twitter (which I argue isn’t necessarily a “Social Network”, but rather a communications platform for Social Networks of people) will develop methods to segregate your friends and communicate only to whom you want.

At the same time, I feel we are becoming more forgiving of one another. We recognize through these mediums that we are all human, with flaws and imperfections, and that’s okay. Social Networks have power to make the world a better place.

Check out Fogg’s Psychology of Facebook class on Facebook here - he Ustreams it live every week!

I mentioned this at the Hackathon in March, but have not had the time to blog about it yet. Thus far all announcements for the Utah Social Media Developers Garage Meetings and Utah Facebook Developers Garage Meetings have been announced either through this blog, or our Facebook Group. I’ve now created a Google Group for us at http://groups.google.com/group/utsmdev. Please sign up there and I’ll issue all announcements via that list. Google Groups provides a more neutral ground in the sense that users don’t have to have an account to use it (to an extent), as compared to the Facebook groups. We’ll keep the Facebook groups around, and depending on membership I’ll still send announcements there as well, but I encourage all to sign up on the Google Group if possible. In addition, having a mailing list will allow us to have more of a discussion. This way if you are working on a project in Facebook, or OpenSocial, or even Wordpress or Twitter or other APIs and you run into issues, you can ask the group and we can work together to solve the problem. I figure this way we’ll be able to all build a strong Social Media Development community here in Utah that others can rely on. Google groups will also give us a page we can tell others about the group, when the next meeting is, etc. If you have some graphics and HTML skills to help with that I am open to volunteers!

Also, I have created a Google Code repository at http://code.google.com/p/utsmdev/. For anyone okay with producing their code under the GPL, this will give you a place to store your code, and collaborate with others on the code, track issues, etc. If you want commit permissions to that repository please contact me and I’ll add you. As Google App Engine gets more integration into these things we’ll also set up a hosting option through Google App Engine to actually host your apps. Hopefully all these options will make it all much easier for everyone to get out and collaborate in their coding. It’s a good time to be a developer…

P.S. - We will continue on in our every-other-month meeting structure now, so our next meeting will be the second Tuesday in May. I’m working on a speaker, so if you know anyone or have ideas let me know!

The hype is out there and it is real. After the launch of Google Apps Engine, everyone is up in arms as to what exactly it is, and who needs to watch out. The truth is, everyone needs to watch out when Google launches something, since because of tight integration with all of their products, a slight tweak in one product could mean cross-integration between others, making it almost impossible for you to compete as a company because all of the sudden your space is being threatened by the new products.

Read more on OpenSocialNow.com…

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 figured after yesterday’s post on Guy Kawasaki’s blog, I’d continue the trend, but this time into Twitter territory. Except this time I’d like to try to truly inspire you.

For those unaware with what Twitter is, in a sentence it is a mass communications tool which lets you post the status of what you’re doing, see what others, on a global scale are doing, and track certain terms within those global statuses. All of Twitter works either from the web at Twitter.com, from a desktop (similar to IM chat) client like Twhirl, or even from your cell phone. Not a user of Twitter and want to follow what I’m doing and discussing throughout the day simply via your cell phone? Text “follow JesseStay” to 40404 on your cell phone and you’ll see what I mean. (to turn them off just send “off JesseStay” to 40404)

Here are 5 inspiring uses for Twitter I have seen that in my opinion have in various ways, truly changed the world:

1. Track Earthquakes — send “track earthquake” to 40404 on your cell phone, or via Twitter if you have an account, and every time anyone mentions an earthquake, you’ll get updates sent right to your cell phone or IM client with what people are experiencing at the time.

   This may not seem like much, but a month or so ago, I received an update for this tracked item from a user saying something to the effect of “woah - was that an earthquake?”. Suddenly I was receiving update after update on my cell phone, almost crashing my cell phone quickly showing there was a very noticeable earthquake somewhere in the world. Doing some research on each of the usernames, I quickly found out that there was an earthquake in the U.K. and I was getting updates from every single person in the United Kingdom that was experiencing the earthquake, at the time it happened. A search on USGS did not even show anything when I found out from Twitter. Twitter told me the news first.

2. Help out in an emergency — I recently just started tracking the term, “911″ on Twitter. I get a lot of updates from people talking about the date/event of 9/11, but what if someone was truly in an emergency asking for Twitter followers to dial 911? I could quickly be one of the first “Twitter emergency responders” on the scene to help out. 911 is a fairly common term, but what if collectively we all came up with a “Twitter Emergency Number”? We could use something that is not going to be used elsewhere, like the letter combination, “xzq”, and those following would be able to help out in an emergency. Join the Twitter rescue squad and “track 911″!
3. Fight Forest Fires — @Rumford (Rodney Rumford, my good buddy from FaceReviews.com) reminded me the other day about the use of Twitter back in the Fires in the L.A./San Diego area. Twitter was used to point out the status of the fires, locate where they were, and collaborate amongst those affected or threatened by the fires. A strong threat to peoples homes and lives quickly became a very personal event to the entire world using Twitter.
4. Alert others and coordinate during child abductions — recently a young child was abducted and brutally murdered here in Salt Lake City. During the time of the child’s disappearance, I began thinking of suggesting Twitter as a tool to coordinate during the abduction. The abduction could be broadcast worldwide to alert the world in the event the child ventured any further than the home of the child, and at the same time volunteers could easily coordinate via cell phone and computer to track and update what areas had been searched, possible sightings, and more. I can only imagine what it would have been like if Twitter were around during the Elizabeth Smart abduction! One way of helping out in such efforts is to “track amber alert”.
5. Raise awareness for Breast Cancer — one of the most inspiring uses for Twitter I have seen thus far has been during the diagnosis and experiences of Twitter user, @susanreynolds, who was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and Twittered it live to her Twitter follows. She shared her experience, and the pains she went through as they poked, prodded, and even performed surgery on the cancerous areas of her body. She used a bag of Peas to ease the pain, and as a sort of comic relief (and sign of her strong character), posted a picture of herself and the bag of peas.

   Quickly a movement of “Peas” spread through Twitter. Everyone began posting peas in their profile pictures in support of her fight with Breast Cancer. A fund was set up in her name, and Twitter users everywhere donated to the fund to raise money for Breast Cancer. Susan Reynolds inspired us all, through just 140 characters or less.

I have quite a few more of these examples I’ll post in a follow-up post, including a great mention by @DrBaher about the Twitter account, @makechange. Are there any inspiring examples you have seen through the use of Twitter?

It’s a Boy! Yes, we gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby boy last night, March 19th, 2008, at 3:24am. He was 6lbs 4oz, at 19″. We’re still figuring out a name - it’s now between “Jesse III” (after my grandfather, continuing his legacy), “Joshua Timothy”, and “Joshua Gregory” (my Dad’s name is Gregory).

We pulled out full stops for this birth Socially. I believe, except for maybe Scoble, it was the first full, “live” birth broadcast on Twitter. Twitter was an easy way to get the word out, and since the hospital had wifi I could use Twhirl to update Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, and Facebook all at the same time. We also live-broadcasted parts, including a few heavy contractions by Rebecca (SFW - just turn the sound down because she’s loud!), all via Ustream.tv. The Twittergrams and ustreams were all taken just right as the baby was born - you were there when it happened! I also posted items and pictures to Facebook. The baby’s nickname right now is “Twitter”. I had to have hundred of my Twitter friends and family wishing us luck, wishes, and congratulations last night so I can’t thank you all individually. Thank you for your wonderful wishes!

We’ll continue doing a few live streams via Ustream.tv, and you can keep track of when we go live, what’s going on in Baby 4.0’s life all by following me at http://twitter.com/jessestay, or typing “follow jessestay” and sending to 40404 on your cell phone. Here are a few videos to tide you over:

You can also check out the pictures on Picasaweb:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jessestay/20080319Baby40?authkey=f197LRVdBWM

Today, on the Twitter developer’s mailing list, in response to the question:

“it would be cool to have Twitter groups so you could @group and d group”

It was answered by one of Twitter’s Engineers:

” This is on our radar, and third party developers have already done
several different implementations of this feature.”

This is on our Radar… Does this mean Twitter is looking to add group functionality in the future?  I have heard rumors, but never a confirmation like this.  This also brings to mind the question of what about other developers writing apps to provide this functionality?  Should Twitter leave this functionality out, and instead allow developers to create their own solutions?

Many of you are currently using SocialToo.com for auto-following those that follow you on Twitter.  Well, I just added 2 new features to the site that might warrant you wanting to log in again and seeing what’s there.  The first feature is Facebook profile redirects - now, “yoursocialtoouser.socialtoo.com” will redirect to your Facebook profile if you click on a link on your SocialToo! dashboard (after logging in).  See my Facebook profile here and add me as a friend!: http://jessestay.socialtoo.com BTW, this is just one more example of how you can integrate the Facebook API outside of Facebook itself.
Also, I just added a UI to the blacklisting functionality I’ve talked about before.  This will allow you to specify specific users you don’t want the SocialToo! Twitter Auto-Follow script to follow.  You will of course have to unfollow them if you are already following them, but from then on they will no longer be followed by SocialToo!

These are just a few of many integrated Social Tools I’ll be adding in the future.  Stay tuned here and I’ll keep you updated (I’ll also shoot you a quick Twitter DM for the big ones like this!).  Let me know if you run into troubles.  Enjoy!

You can also read more about it on FacebookAdvice.com here: http://facebookadvice.com/2008/03/01/socialtoocom-your-companion-to-facebook-and-the-social-web/

As I was blogging about emergencies yesterday, I saw an amazing thing happen today.  I mentioned I am tracking the term, “earthquake” on Twitter.  This evening I started receiving a large influx of Twitters on my cellphone, almost non-stop that an earthquake had hit London.  It was almost immediate, and turning to the news revealed nothing - Twitter had beat the masses that there was truly a 4.7 earthquake in London.

What’s most amazing is that even the USGS’s “real time earthquake tracker” had not yet updated with the information.  Twitter proved an invaluable communication method in the event of a potential disaster, while only 4.7, to let the world know something big was going on.

I’m proud to announce a new website I’ve been working on.  You may have heard me Twitter about it a few times.  The site is called OpensocialNow!, and will be your source for OpenSocial News, Reviews, and info.  We’ll cover the Orkut launch, the Myspace launch, Hi5, and LinkedIn, as well as general things you can do with OpenSocial.  This is the first blog of its kind, and as OpenSocial launches in the next week or two I’m sure you’ll see many more like it.  It’s my hope that you’ll subscribe to the site via rss and make it your Official source for all things related to the popular social networking platform, OpenSocial.  You can read more about it right on the website here:

http://opensocialnow.com/2008/02/26/welcome-to-opensocialnow/

Oh, and stay tuned to OpensocialNow.com.  I have one more big announcement about a change in the OpenSocial launch coming up tonight!