Intro: Jen Consalvo, COO, Tech Cocktail

Demo 1: Marci Harris, CEO, Pop Vox

Demo 2: Lisa Morales-Hellebo, CEO, Shop Suey

Demo 3: Phyllis Klein Founder, Fab Lab DC

Demo 4: Jennifer O’Keefe, VP Product, Personal

Demo 5: Geraldine Le Roux, Marketing Manager, Hello Wallet

Demo 6:  Jessy Kate Schingler, Developer, Ad Hoc Networking

Panel:

Q/A:

I started making websites back in the late 90′s. My first major site was Scott’s Ska Haven. I catalogued every band, every fan site, every related piece of content to the music that I loved, that I played in a band called Tanzlokal and later Skacrates (my screen name at the time). It got a lot of traffic as far as ska sites went (at the height of the Mighyt Mighty Bosstones and Cherry Poppin’ Daddies Craze). In college I developed flash sites and diddled with java. And then I dropped it all as my TV life got larger and my web life got smaller.

At the pinnacle of my TV career – as previously mentioned in my post “10th Year Televersary” – I got roped back in by Jonny Goldstein and Andy Carvin via DC Media Makers after my interest was piqued during coverage of the 2006 Midterm Elections when we had bloggers from all over converge on Washington, D.C. at Cafe Tryst in Adams Morgan to join us in covering the event. What’s happened since then? A lot…

Jonny’s Partay
Not knowing exactly what I wanted to do, I joined Jonny Goldstein in his fight for the rights of puppies and children with Jonny’s Partay, a weekly web show (that has been hosted on a variety of services from Operator11.com, to Blog.tv, to UStream.com, and finally rested at Mogulus.com) showcasing social media types, marketing types, bloggers, vloggers, comic strip writers, life coaches, venture capitalists, a professional trampoline coach, cancer survivors and fighters, mobile (i.e. Jeff Hibbard from his truck) life casters, and a slew of others. The show was about making connections. The most incredible aspect of the show was (for example) having someone trying to start a business, and then having someone who might be a competitor of sorts in the chat throwing out suggestions to them on how to succeed, how to implement their idea, how to move forward. The spirit of the Partay, of the Partay-cipants, and the guests is just a testament to what Jonny Goldstein is really all about. He is a connector and I’m glad that I was able to connect with him and all of the people that came with him and the Partay. And now he’s moving on to Philly and we’ll just have to see what the future holds in the Post Partay Era.

Videoblogging
I really, really like making videos. What I’ve learned over the past year:

All in all – if I could find a job somewhere making video for the web, be it for an organization, making show based content, or just going to conferences and interviewing people – I think I’d be happy. Thanks to all of you for some seven thousand views of the good, the beautiful, the bad, and the ugly stuff I’ve put up on this thing.

Documentary Club
This is my first attempt at building an online community. Thanks to Doc Pop for spurring this idea along with a simple blog post. I’m really enjoying the conversation that we’ve all started over there; it’s just really nice to watch content that stirs up intelligent conversation. It’s far more motivating than my usual, “So did you see what happened on that rerun of Charmed today?”

Twitter
I’m approaching 1000 followers. I will probably break it this month. Does this mean anything? Probably not. I like to think that if I have something important to say more people hear it. I like to think that in me following approximately the same amount of people (and I shockingly in one way or another have directly conversed with most of them) I am opening myself up to more conversations and dialogues, interesting links, different perspectives, and a pool of information that I would otherwise be missing (cause lord knows I don’t check my Google reader enough). I’ve forged some really great friendships with folks on there and I’m glad to have been sucked in. If you plan on going to a conference anytime soon make sure you stop on over to the TwitterWhore store and get your tee with your @yourtwitternamehere on it – so I can identify you. Seriously, a lot of you DO NOT look like your avatars (especially after the whole Manga incident of 2008).

Reviews/Beta Testing
I wrote my first review of something that I’ve beta tested recently (see “Chi.mp“. I really liked doing it. I beta test a lot of stuff. I really like writing. This just makes sense. If you’d like to me to test something for you. I will. I will be honest. Real honest. Hopefully I like your stuff. If it’s awesome I will. Nuff’ said.

Rapping/Nerdcore
I have had a lot of fun with this. Thanks Doc Pop again for fueling it. All the pistons of my creative engine are revving when I’m rapping. I have now done two. The Ze Frank Color Wars rap and the RZA Wuchess Rap Challenge. Hopefully there will be more in my future. Hopefully you like it.

Activism
I add this as the last installment to this already ridiculously long 100th post. I went to a Jesuit college. We protested a lot. We had causes. I haven’t had a real “cause” since college. I talk about things that I like and dislike, but I’d like to be more vocal about them going forward. I really enjoyed covering the SEIU McCain Protest in Virginia. I’m enjoying helping out Jason Barnett and The UpTake with their efforts in helping to bolster citizen journalism. And lately this whole Brian Conley and the Baghdad Brian 6 incident in Beijing has made me think a lot about all of the people that are using social media to fight the good fight. We all blog because we can, because we have free speech. And I’m not suggesting that we have to use it to fight for Free Speech around the world, or that we need to get arrested to prove a point – but I assume saying that we need to use it. There is a lot of stuff going on out there that doesn’t make it into the living rooms of Americans because the networks are too busy reporting fluff and regurgitating AP wires. It’s our job to use this platform, our blogs, and our voices to make sure that the ‘important’ stories still get told. That’s why I’ve gone out of my way to try and help our friends in Beijing. I hope that we all realize the amount of power and potential that we hold with these tools and these freedoms. Every bit of attention that we can bring to their situation will help get them out of detention and back to the states. If you care about human rights and free expression please Digg this article. *Steps off of soap box.*

Thank you for putting up with that rant. Thank you for reading my blog. Thank you for being a part of my community. Thank you for watching my videos. Thank you times a hundred.

Cheers,
Scott