blog.gallucci.net

Stephen Colbert Twittering Election

Fri, 7 Nov 2008 17:17:57 -0600

Here’s a clip from Comedy Central’s live election night coverage where Stephen Colbert explains to Jon Stewart that he will be Twittering about the election.

training: blogging strategies part two

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:48:25 -0500

Social Media Strategies with Giovanni Gallucci - Blogging Strategies Part Two

Oultine

* Technorati was tracking over 71 million blogs in May, 2007
* There is no standard reader: It crosses all age groups, all socio-economic groups, and both genders
* Commenting on Blogs

Giovanni Gallucci: A recovering .NET programmer turned tech evangelist who is passionate about telling everyone about Viewzi. Giovanni designed, developed and deployed online communities when MySpace was no one's space, has used a Mac since before the “i” anything, and created vertical search engines when Larry and Sergey were still undergrads.

The nexus of Giovanni's online universe can be found at gallucci.net, his blog is at blog.gallucci.net and his vlogging site at viewzi.tv. Giovanni regularly speaks at national events like ad:tech, GotSocialMedia, The eMarketing Summit, FlashForward, Macworld, PRSA, refresh, and Search Engine Watch Live! and has been covered in a variety of media outlets including AdWeek, Clickz News, CNet, The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, iMediaConnection, Inc., InfoWorld, ITConversations, NBC, The New York Times, The London Telegraph, and USA Today among others.

friend me up! friendfeed.com/giovanni | twitter.com/giovanni | flickr.com/photos/theagencyblog/

Get more great online training classes at http://www.xtrain.com/giovanni

viewzi: iphone wallpapers for viewzi

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 01:06:11 -0500

Here are several iPhone background images for viewzers who are iPhone fans. Our very own Aaron Martin made these. You can check out my flickr account to see/download the others. Enjoy.

new zune mix view is hawt

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:13:20 -0500

Microsoft showed Wired a sneak preview of the Zune 3.0 software it plans to release on Sept. 16 with the latest generation of Zune devices, and what they saw made them call Apple’s brand-spanking new iTunes' simple Genius feature “look like a blast from digital music's past”. While iTunes serves up a text list of recommended songs within your library and from the iTunes store, adding to the more basic recommendations its MiniStore feature used to make, Zune reinvented the recommendation concept by collapsing artists, albums and fans into the same recommendation engine, more accurately mirroring the way people think about music. Read the entire article here.

training: blogging strategies part one

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:41:37 -0500

Social Media Strategies with Giovanni Gallucci - Blogging Strategies Part One

Oultine

* Also “web log”
* A website or online diary where entries are written in chronological order and displayed in chronological order
* Provides commentary, news or information on a particular subject such as food (foodies), politics, local news, or as a personal diary.
* Combines text, images, video and links to other blogs and web pages.
* Most are textual but others focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), videos (vlog), audio (podcasting) and are part of a wider network of social media.

Giovanni Gallucci: A recovering .NET programmer turned tech evangelist who is passionate about telling everyone about Viewzi. Giovanni designed, developed and deployed online communities when MySpace was no one's space, has used a Mac since before the “i” anything, and created vertical search engines when Larry and Sergey were still undergrads.

The nexus of Giovanni's online universe can be found at gallucci.net, his blog is at blog.gallucci.net and his vlogging site at viewzi.tv. Giovanni regularly speaks at national events like ad:tech, GotSocialMedia, The eMarketing Summit, FlashForward, Macworld, PRSA, refresh, and Search Engine Watch Live! and has been covered in a variety of media outlets including AdWeek, Clickz News, CNet, The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, iMediaConnection, Inc., InfoWorld, ITConversations, NBC, The New York Times, The London Telegraph, and USA Today among others.

friend me up! friendfeed.com/giovanni | twitter.com/giovanni | flickr.com/photos/theagencyblog/

Get more great online training classes at http://www.xtrain.com/giovanni

buzz and stealth online marketing

Mon, 1 Sep 2008 23:56:55 -0500

The web has changed the way people communicate, and it is changing the way companies communicate with current and future customers. Your “message” is no longer in your hands - and truth be told, it never really was. There are millions of blogs being created every week, each one searchable by search engines. Anyone - and everyone - can now be a self-published critic of anything – and everything. And of course it’s not just blogs anymore. It’s sites like MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and a thousand others.

The key to working and interacting in the social media arena is honesty. It’s a simple and seemingly obvious tactic that many have avoided to their peril. People don’t like it when companies hide, lie, or pretend to be something they are not. In order to “engage the consumer” as they say these days, it is important that you also not “enrage the consumer.” It’s a tricky balance, but it is achievable.

When looking for a partner in social media you need someone who is on the leading edge of stealth, buzz, online WOM and social media marketing. (hint, that’d be me) The same guiding principles apply: be honest, listen, learn, address and adjust.

press: social media training on adobe tv

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:07:53 -0500

Adobe TV has amazing training videos on design, digital media, etc. Now they have launched some of my social media online training videos from xTrain.com on their site as well. Yummy. Click on the video below to have a look-see.

viewzitv: chris pirillo at gnomedex 8

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:17:25 -0500

Chris Pirillo is the host of the big little conference in Seattle, Gnomedex. We chatted with him during Gnomedex 8.0 in Seattle.

http://viewzi.com change the way you look at search.

Â Photo credit: kk+ http://flickr.com/photos/kk/

audience development

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:06:02 -0500

Just how do you get an audience for a company’s social media productions, be they blogs, podcasts or video podcasts? Moreover, how do you get them to participate in your company-related social networks and groups?

The answer to that question is actually a little too complex for this space, and Giovanni would rather not give away the farm here on his website, but suffice it to say that your audience may not be who you think it is. It is likely far broader than you have previously imagined.

Corporate blogs, company MySpace pages and branded Twitter accounts come and go - and most are simply ignored.

Good, optimized content is one of the keys. And by "good" we don't mean corporate nonsense. It’s not as if NOT having a company blog or vidcast is going to kill your business, but having these elements as part of your web presence will certainly help your business. You may not be able to directly measure a return on your social media efforts in dollars and cents, but in terms of branding and customer relations, these things are more public facing image pieces that can engage your customers directly, offering a two-way communication between you and them.

Creating good content and being actively engaged in the community are foremost. Getting that content in front of people is secondary. I am adept at helping businesses get in front of people in unique and innovative ways through social media and via online communities.

training: instant messaging strategies

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:20:37 -0500

Social Media Strategies with Giovanni Gallucci - Instant Messaging Strategies

Social Media Class : Text
Chapter 6 : Instant Messaging

Description
Requires a client application
Differs from email in that the conversation happens in real time
Owes much to IRC
Most IM applications allow users to set a status and have an image known as a buddy icon.
Includes Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM)

Users
AIM - 53 million
Jabber - Over 40 million
Ebuddy - 35 million
MSN - 27.2 million
Yahoo! Messenger - 22 million
QQ - 221 million (China)
Skype - 9 million
Meebo - 1 million

Marketing Opportunities
Think Buzz Marketing
IMbots?
Relies on the power of the individual and their established network (buddy list)
Will become a standard component of cross-media advertising campaigns
Careful of abuse
Banner/Text Ads are also available

About Giovanni Gallucci

Giovanni Gallucci: A recovering .NET programmer turned tech evangelist who is passionate about telling everyone about Viewzi. Giovanni designed, developed and deployed online communities when MySpace was no one's space, has used a Mac since before the “i” anything, and created vertical search engines when Larry and Sergey were still undergrads.

The nexus of Giovanni's online universe can be found at gallucci.net, his blog is at TheAgencyBlog.com and his vlogging site at viewzi.tv. Giovanni regularly speaks at national events like ad:tech, GotSocialMedia, The eMarketing Summit, FlashForward, Macworld, PRSA, refresh, and Search Engine Watch Live! and has been covered in a variety of media outlets including AdWeek, Clickz News, CNet, The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, iMediaConnection, Inc., InfoWorld, ITConversations, NBC, The New York Times, The London Telegraph, and USA Today among others.

friend me up! friendfeed.com/giovanni | twitter.com/giovanni | flickr.com/photos/theagencyblog/

Get more great online training classes at http://www.xtrain.com/gio

viewzitv: chris brogan at gnomedex 8

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:24:31 -0500

Chris Brogan is a social media and community maven. We chatted with him during Gnomedex 8.0 in Seattle.

http://viewzi.com change the way you look at search.

Photo credit: CC Chapman http://flickr.com/photos/cc_chapman/

events: hfi bbq in austin

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:58:20 -0500

On August 19th at County Line in Austin Human Factors International is bringing in their Eye Tracking Specialist, Andrew Schall, to demo the latest hardware, software and analytics techniques. It’s fascinating to watch… and the food’s good! See details below and let them know if you can make it–they want to get an idea of how much food to order!

Attendance is by advance reservation only and space is limited. Please register online:

http://www.humanfactors.com/austinBQ.asp

Photo Credit: summertx

events: gazing into a more usable design

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:02:09 -0500

User experience designers have an array of tools and techniques to help them understand how users interact with websites. Eye tracking complements these tools and offers objective insight into what people actually see--and what they don't. Eye tracking shows how people move visually through a page and how long they linger on various spots. It's a powerful tool for developing an effective design that will engage your customers.

Used properly, advanced eye tracking methodology and analysis help you uncover specific usability issues in a highly targeted manner. You can see clearly why prominently featured product links can be overlooked, why flash banners are not always effective, and how other usability issues inhibit website performance. Eye tracking is also a key part of HFI's new approach to designing for Persuasion, Emotion, and Trust (PET).

Monday August 18th, 2008
6:00pm to 8:30pm

IMC2
12404 Park Central, Suite 400
Dallas, TX 75251
Get a Map.

In lieu of or own Refresh meeting this month we are combining with the Dallas Usability Professional's Association for:

Presentation:
Gazing Into a More Usable Design (Andrew Schall from HFI on “eye tracking”)

You are warmly invited to a complimentary dinner reception in Dallas hosted by Human Factors International (HFI).

Complimentary dinner provided by HFI

Attendance is by advance reservation only and space is limited. Please register online at http://www.refreshdallas.org

Contact: Sheryll Ryan, 512.433.5916
Contact: Cone Johnson (local) conejohnson at gmail

In Andrew's presentation, you'll learn how eye tracking can help you:

* Get real-time design feedback
* Test visual hierarchy
* Compare different versions of a design
* Understand what attracts (or distracts) users
* Watch as users learn to use your interface

viewzi: top searches 08.17.2008

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:37:54 -0500

Top family-friendly (wags finger) searches on Viewzi.com for the week of August 10, 2008 - August 16, 2008

1. google
2. apple
3. olympics
4. iphone
5. you and me
6. obama
7. cars
8. u2
9. beijing
10. design

comment: searchcamp philly

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:42:48 -0500

Thanks for the comments on the mashable article announcing SearchCamp Philly.

I agree that SearchCamp Philly should be a good one. However, this is not a "camp." To those who have yet to be introduced to the concept, this is not an important point to you personally. It's another marketing conference with decent quality speakers, local to them at an attractive price. To those who have helped build this movement, it a very important point.

The public and private comments on this situation have nothing to do with making the "camp" accessible to corporate marketers or public relations people. While I know that the PR industry is all hot and bothered about topics like social media, consumer generated content, and unconferences but they should have been paying attention two years ago. It's their own fault that they either refused to believe that this was more than a fad or were just negligent in their inattention to the street. By design, unconferences are set up to be more accessible to everyone (not just corporate marketers) than traditional events. Free (when possible), local, speaking slots open for the attendees, wikis used to communicate, etc.

The point is that an unconference, by definition is driven by the participants on the day of the event.

Wikipedia: "An unconference is a facilitated, face-to-face, and participant-driven conference centered around a theme or purpose."

CNN.com: ".. the particular unconference model where 'there is no agenda until .. the attendees made one up.'"

barcamp.org: "BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants."

SearchCampPhilly with it's preset agenda is missing the single most important ingredient necessary to make the event an unconference or a "camp". Just calling this event an "unconference" at best simply doesn't make it so and at worst completely hijacks the ideals and sweat equity of the thousands of people that have put these events on around the world over the past few years. I know other "camps" have preset agendas also...they aren't "camps" either.

Discussions with peers and leaders in the barcamp/unconference movement have generated reactions like

* "call out the troops, ugh",
* "this is ridiculous",
* "I just threw up in my mouth",
* "It's 100% self promotional and it's b*lls*h",
* "it's a shame that there are increasing arguments for having a tool like a trademark to force compliance as the wider BarCamp spreads out from its roots",
* "I'd say it's more of a traditional conference",
* and most damning "As a social experiment, it is interesting to see how willing people are to dismantle the integrity of a good thing for personal gain."

The problem in this specific situation is that we (SEO's, PR, Marketers) already suffer from low reputations in general. This event's outbound communications resemble, as it still appears on the event website, to be nothing more than a typical marketing event with a couple, literally, a couple of words on the homepage that give a faux tip of the hat to the movement. In reality, it's the antithesis of what camps are about. See the .PDF of the press release put out on the event by the Internet Marketers of the Delaware Valley for reference: http://www.searchcampphilly.com/new-online-marketing-conference-launches-in-philly.pdf

So that creates what should be an obvious conflict for the "social media saavy" marketers, seo and pr folks that are trying to brand this event as an unconference. Ironic since we are all communications professionals and should be highly sensitive to the demographic these types of events attract. Instead, it appears that a couple of words have been added in the title tag of the event website "a search somewhat unconference" to claim plausible deniability while pretending that the movement's brand is not being hijacked for its own, conflicting purposes. ...and I still don't know what a "somewhat unconference" means.

As marketers perhaps a better approach would be to create a local event that their local demographic already understands and position it accordingly like "Philly Search Expo" or "Philly Search Strategies." If this were the approach the sister events could still be co-promoted. "Come to the Philly Search Expo being held in conjunction with Podcamp Philly"...

Speaking of Podcamp Philly...how they decided to co-brand themselves with this is beyond me. Either they failed to provide proper direction to the IM-DV during the planning of the event and the outreach or the IM-DV ignored them, at which time Podcamp Philly should have dis-associated themselves from the other conference.

If the camp ideals are what drove the decision to do this and the organizers don't want to separate the event from that then they should make the event a true unconference and educate the demographic they are after (we are professional communicators after all) about what an amazing learning experience camps provide and why they should take a risk and attend. I'd recommend that the organizers embrace the camp in its true form and promote the benefits of this model instead of taking a worldwide, active, vocal movement's idea and bending it beyond recognition to serve our own idea of what they think it should be.

In the end, what I'm hearing is:

1) Some marketers have been to an unconference and it was a great experience;
2) It was such a great experience that they were motivated to create one of their own focused on search;
3) They understand the local search scene and the people they want to attract to this event are old school, traditional, corporate marketing and pr types that won't get the unconference model. Moreover, when the do get it it makes them uncomfortable and they feel intimidated;
4) So, they decide to set up their event to be the exact opposite of the event that motivated them to create this event so the attendees with be more comfortable. But they'll still call it an unconference so the people who wouldn't be served by an unconference will come to their "somewhat" unconference conference;
5) Looking into my magic ball: In the end
a) their attendees will not get the same vibe that they got;
b) the organizers will muddy the waters when it comes to educating the general public about the unconference movement is all about by giving them an incorrect impression of what an unconference is;
c) the organizers will contribute to either the slow death of the movement that fired them up in to do this in the first place up;
d) and do the attendees a disservice by having them leave with a typical experience rather than what they should have experienced.

There's no doubt that some, perhaps a lot, will leave w/o all the warm squishy good feeling in their tummies. But that's true of any event. And especially with camps. They're not for everyone. With that said, getting the juice from the brand shouldn't be more important than protecting the ideals that made the brand/movement so attractive to the event's organizers and motivated them to try to recreate the experience themselves.

I'd recommend going to amazon and purchasing these books:

http://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Cool-Standing-Cluttered-Marketplace/dp/0743497090/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218742603&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Coolhunting-Chasing-Down-Next-Thing/dp/0814473865/ref=pd_bbs_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218742603&sr=8-5

And reading a bit from these sites:

http://barcamp.org
http://www.identitywoman.com
http://www.unconference.net

With all I've said here, Li (SearchCamp Philly's point of contact for me in regards to this issue) has said that there are going to be several open tracks available at SearchCamp Philly, but the website still does not reflect this well and it does nothing to educate those who are uncomfortable with the unconference concept. The site still looks like the event is an SES-lite or a PRSA Summit. This misrepresents the camp ideals and the event that Li has said will actually take place.

We have pledged to be a sponsor of the event and I'm pitching in to help in general, by filling some empty speaking slots and doing whatever else I can to assist. We are passionate about building community and know that it's important to protect this unique incubator for new ideas in the local community.

Li's been patient with the unconference hippies and I appreciate her willingness to hear us out. After she punches me in the belly for being such a pain in the arse about all this, we'll talk about all our points of view, concerns and objectives. I'll give some direction with the evangelism part when I'm there to help those passionate about camps to get the word out while keeping the magic in the event. End game, Philly's 1000 attendee unconference.

Then SearchCamp Philly's organizers will have a whole new set of issues to deal with. :-)

I'm expecting Philly to be a great, eye-opening trip for lots of folks.

See everyone in September.

training: txt-based social media strategies

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 01:29:45 -0500

viewzitv: blake burris - iphonedevcamp2

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:25:24 -0500

Blake Burris does http://www.goalcamp.com, facebook and social apps. He is an entrepreneur, entertainer, people connector, homebrewer, and iPhoneDevCamp organizer.

http://viewzi.com change the way you look at search.

Photo credit: Amit Gupta http://www.amitgupta.com/

viewzitv: raven zachary - iphonedevcamp2

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:31:13 -0500

Raven Zachary

…is driven to create, and has an overactive imagination (often prone to headaches). This creative drive is currently focused on professional pursuits in the open source sector and experimenting with electronic music composition. He was born Zachary Harman (Zach Harman), but changed his name to Raven Zachary after a bizarre encounter with a mad Italian monk. His dream was to focus on music composition, but he dropped out of music school in Iowa and moved to the desert to work on a project called toolCards. This lead to starting an Internet company back in late 1993.

Raven is the Open Source Research Director for The 451 Group, an IT Analyst firm. He blogs on the topic of open source at 451 CAOS Theory.

When he’s not working with The 451 Group, Raven is probably involved in another project. In the meantime, Raven is an obsessive music collector and can be found discussing or contemplating music, science, and mysticism over a fine green tea. The graphic in the upper-right corner is Raven’s tuko (a personal symbol or icon). He has been using it since 1990 and it also manifests itself as his tattoo.

Various interests: open source, Apple technology, music, Vegan food, mysticism, mock monastic living, aesthetics, creativity, gravity and all attempts to escape its mighty grasp, patterns, illumination, sincerity, the transformative effects of sound, contrasting colors, the palette of existence, etcetera, etcetera…

Zen monk trapped in the 21st century.

Photo Credit: Blake Burris http://blakestar.net/

viewzitv: will pate - austin summer mashable tour

Sat, 9 Aug 2008 14:16:29 -0500

Will Pate, community manager and co-host of CommandN.TV joined Viewzi.TV for a few minutes during the Mashable Summer Tour 2008 in Austin to talk community, nano-tech and search.

Photo credit: Kris Krug http://www.staticphotography.com/

training: chat rooms - social media strategies

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 12:37:17 -0500

viewzitv: erica ogrady - summer mashable tour

Thu, 7 Aug 2008 12:40:08 -0500

Erica O'Grady sat down with ViewziTV durng the Mashable Summer Tour in Austin to talk with us about her favorite people, social media & marketing, and search.

Photo credit: techzulu http://flickr.com/people/techzulu/

viewzitv: josh ulm of adobe part five

Wed, 6 Aug 2008 14:18:53 -0500

This is part five of a five part interview we did with Josh Ulm at the Adaptive Path conference in San Francisco. Josh is the director of experience design for Adobe Systems, Inc. He is responsible for the mobile, dynamic media, and platform departments. He works with the mobile and devices group to define the mobile experience platform, while interacting directly with developers and customers to create engaging Flash Lite experiences. Josh's work has driven the successful adoption of many products and technologies for companies and their customers, as he is frequently asked to develop a company's specific experience vision. He is an active and respected veteran within the Flash and mobile developer communities.

Before joining Macromedia, he founded ioResearch Studios, Inc., a completely interactive production studio based in Marin County, CA. The studio fostered a broad client base, ranging from museum and cultural institutions to software and technology leaders.

About MX

As the business value of design becomes clearer, creative managers building the next generation of products and services are confronted with an increasingly demanding set of challenges. MX brings thought leaders from IDEO, Google, The Mayo Clinic, Cisco, and many others, to show you what it takes to get great experiences out into the world. MX goes beyond typical design management discussions that remain focused on traditional concerns of print and brand, toward a new frontier of innovative products and service-oriented experiences.

Photo credit: Joe Pemberton http://flickr.com/photos/joepemberton/

viewzitv: josh ulm of adobe part four

Tue, 5 Aug 2008 14:20:32 -0500

This is part four of a five part interview we did with Josh Ulm at the Adaptive Path conference in San Francisco. Josh is the director of experience design for Adobe Systems, Inc. He is responsible for the mobile, dynamic media, and platform departments. He works with the mobile and devices group to define the mobile experience platform, while interacting directly with developers and customers to create engaging Flash Lite experiences. Josh's work has driven the successful adoption of many products and technologies for companies and their customers, as he is frequently asked to develop a company's specific experience vision. He is an active and respected veteran within the Flash and mobile developer communities.

Before joining Macromedia, he founded ioResearch Studios, Inc., a completely interactive production studio based in Marin County, CA. The studio fostered a broad client base, ranging from museum and cultural institutions to software and technology leaders.

About MX

As the business value of design becomes clearer, creative managers building the next generation of products and services are confronted with an increasingly demanding set of challenges. MX brings thought leaders from IDEO, Google, The Mayo Clinic, Cisco, and many others, to show you what it takes to get great experiences out into the world. MX goes beyond typical design management discussions that remain focused on traditional concerns of print and brand, toward a new frontier of innovative products and service-oriented experiences.

Photo credit: Matt Snow http://flickr.com/people/mattsnow/

viewzitv: josh ulm of adobe part three

Mon, 4 Aug 2008 14:23:28 -0500

This is part three of a five part interview we did with Josh Ulm at the Adaptive Path conference in San Francisco. Josh is the director of experience design for Adobe Systems, Inc. He is responsible for the mobile, dynamic media, and platform departments. He works with the mobile and devices group to define the mobile experience platform, while interacting directly with developers and customers to create engaging Flash Lite experiences. Josh's work has driven the successful adoption of many products and technologies for companies and their customers, as he is frequently asked to develop a company's specific experience vision. He is an active and respected veteran within the Flash and mobile developer communities.

Before joining Macromedia, he founded ioResearch Studios, Inc., a completely interactive production studio based in Marin County, CA. The studio fostered a broad client base, ranging from museum and cultural institutions to software and technology leaders.

About MX

As the business value of design becomes clearer, creative managers building the next generation of products and services are confronted with an increasingly demanding set of challenges. MX brings thought leaders from IDEO, Google, The Mayo Clinic, Cisco, and many others, to show you what it takes to get great experiences out into the world. MX goes beyond typical design management discussions that remain focused on traditional concerns of print and brand, toward a new frontier of innovative products and service-oriented experiences.

Photo credit: Matt Snow http://flickr.com/photos/mattsnow/