• 23:08 IM, wikis, Twitter, blogs, Seesmic, FB and RSS in general *are* the evolution of e-mail, they are the fix. They’re opt-in and they help GTD #
• 23:24 Finally, e-mail’s perfect for archiving + for CYA, but not for communicating + working efficiently. OK, I’ll step off the soapbox now, thx. #
• 10:59 @fakerashida congrats! #
• 11:19 @lci i’ll follow you when you get permalinks, i don’t want to look all over your site for the “breaking news” you’re twittering … bye4now #
• 15:34 Firefox slowed to a crawl, Leopard’s spun the fan and Twitter ate my post … now I’m the one Growling! … reboot, methinks #
• 15:38 @raines i’m at peace with e-mail as a repository for #BACN and good socnet allows users to set the types of BACN they want to receive #
• 15:40 tonight’s the last class of Social Media and the last day of college for many of my students … I remember the feeling, life is waiting … #
• 16:38 What advice would you give to a graduating college senior? Their last class is tonight, in 2 hours … I’ll display your answers to them … #
• 18:14 Thanks for the awesome advice! tinyurl.com/2exev8 #
• 19:44 Wow! Awesome students, wonderful last class, great advice from Twitter friends: good luck and and wear sunscreen! tinyurl.com/2r8gfy #

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I’ve been honored as a first time teacher to have great students for our Social Media class at the University of Miami School of Communication. What a rewarding experience it’s been. Tonight is our last class and it’s also the last class for many of my students who are graduating this semester, so I asked Twitter friends (thank you):

What advice would you give to a graduating college senior? Their last class is tonight, in 2 hours … I’ll display your answers to them …

Here are the responses:

- leahjones  Never be afraid to put on your boots and leave. The path you think you are taking, is not the one you’ll take. Be flexible. 
- leahjones  and wear sunscreen.

- LenEdgerly  Learn as soon as possible to tell and live your own story, gently letting go of the tale others have told about you all these years.

- vicequeenmaria  I would tell the students: have lots of faith in yourself and follow your heart.

- extraface  advice my dad gave me when I moved to Atlanta: Be as open as you can to the opportunities that unfold around you.

- leahjones  Oh and "buy a couch and start living like your gonna stay" don’t live in a new place like a transient, put down roots.

- jenlemen throw "should" out the window right now. the only thing you *have to* do is the idea or dream that totally makes you feel alive.

- markkrupinski network as much as possible…& remember, everyone brings something valuable to the table – this issue is whether you can use it
- markkrupinski oh yeah, look out for #1 and don’t step in #2…

- mikegee Follow your passions, and don’t think that you ever have to settle. Do what you love and make it work.

- Tere_Tere "Get a job!" and "Establish your career before you settle down and have kids".

Awesome. Be safe, live your dreams, good luck … and keep in touch!

• 09:14 RefreshMiami tonight @ 7:30p @ Books & Books Coral Gables w/ Mike Gowen (Scrapblog, Alienware, Tick), BarCampMiami, community announcements #
• 11:33 Doubleclick’s beacon provides anonymous data to advertisers; FB’s Beacon serves up your PURCHASE history in YOUR name to YOUR friends #
• 11:54 Why does the Mercury News want my physical address for me to read an article on their website? grrrr…. #
• 13:51 Books & Books is awesome, they’re lending us audio-visual equipment, everything’s all set for RefreshMiami tonight! #
• 14:57 @strutting thanks for the bugmenot tip www.bugmenot.com/ #
• 16:42 @kaysha sounds like you’re having an awesome time in Brasil, enjoy! #
• 16:43 @davefleet how to get a hold of the UMass report? #
• 18:57 @jasonlbaptiste both @seesmic and twitter would be better if you could thread replies to see the conversation #
• 19:10 Heading over to RefreshMiami and Books & Books Coral Gables #
• 19:55 Books & Books understands community: w/ short notice, they set us up royally in a book reading room, the one you see in CSPAN book club #
• 20:14 “‘Creative freedom’ is an oxymoron” – Mike Gowen; you will always rely on previous work and tools … Constraints are what liberate you #
• 20:25 Thinking that community requirements must be determined way before the design phase; by the time you list page functionality, it’s too late! #
• 20:30 There could be a few user experience iterations / tests built in to the design process to measure desired actions #
• 20:41 Thinking ‘Social Object’ fits w/in initial vision-strategy phase; functionality flows from social object oppty Identfction + problem solving #
• 20:49 Great presentaion by @mikegee, learned lots about how to approach design problems #
• 21:00 @fseixas there may be some here del.icio.us/adecarvalho/tags/fonts #
• 21:15 @jowyang I’d set FB’s NPV at $150 per member. At 50M people, it’s $7.5B; at 150M, it’s $22.5B #
• 21:27 @danrubin gave away a book he co-authored, “Web Standards Creativity”, to @montgomery, who was clearly paying attention tonight #
• 22:20 Talking about the demise of email over dinner with RefreshMiami … It’s a heated debate, people are attached to their inboxes … #
• 23:08 IM, wikis, Twitter, blogs, Seesmic, FB and RSS in general *are* the evolution of e-mail, they are the fix. They’re opt-in and they help GTD #
• 23:24 Finally, e-mail’s perfect for archiving + for CYA, but not for communicating + working efficiently. OK, I’ll step off the soapbox now, thx. #

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• 09:14 RefreshMiami tonight @ 7:30p @ Books & Books Coral Gables w/ Mike Gowen (Scrapblog, Alienware, Tick), BarCampMiami, community announcements #
• 11:33 Doubleclick’s beacon provides anonymous data to advertisers; FB’s Beacon serves up your PURCHASE history in YOUR name to YOUR friends #
• 11:54 Why does the Mercury News want my physical address for me to read an article on their website? grrrr…. #
• 13:51 Books & Books is awesome, they’re lending us audio-visual equipment, everything’s all set for RefreshMiami tonight! #
• 14:57 @strutting thanks for the bugmenot tip www.bugmenot.com/ #
• 16:42 @kaysha sounds like you’re having an awesome time in Brasil, enjoy! #
• 16:43 @davefleet how to get a hold of the UMass report? #
• 18:57 @jasonlbaptiste both @seesmic and twitter would be better if you could thread replies to see the conversation #
• 19:10 Heading over to RefreshMiami and Books & Books Coral Gables #
• 19:55 Books & Books understands community: w/ short notice, they set us up royally in a book reading room, the one you see in CSPAN book club #
• 20:14 “‘Creative freedom’ is an oxymoron” – Mike Gowen; you will always rely on previous work and tools … Constraints are what liberate you #
• 20:25 Thinking that community requirements must be determined way before the design phase; by the time you list page functionality, it’s too late! #
• 20:30 There could be a few user experience iterations / tests built in to the design process to measure desired actions #
• 20:41 Thinking ‘Social Object’ fits w/in initial vision-strategy phase; functionality flows from social object oppty Identfction + problem solving #
• 20:49 Great presentaion by @mikegee, learned lots about how to approach design problems #
• 21:00 @fseixas there may be some here del.icio.us/adecarvalho/tags/fonts #
• 21:15 @jowyang I’d set FB’s NPV at $150 per member. At 50M people, it’s $7.5B; at 150M, it’s $22.5B #
• 21:27 @danrubin gave away a book he co-authored, “Web Standards Creativity”, to @montgomery, who was clearly paying attention tonight #
• 22:20 Talking about the demise of email over dinner with RefreshMiami … It’s a heated debate, people are attached to their inboxes … #

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• 08:19 @scobleizer ’s brilliantly scathing review of Kindle tinyurl.com/3956ex also pays back this absurdity tinyurl.com/23qexo #
• 08:22 i already thought the #kindle was overpriced, but with such UI and UX, I’ll wait for the 2nd generation product #
• 10:56 New blog post: a friend’s questions on social media tinyurl.com/26kafg #
• 11:10 @waynesutton i would recommend FOWA Miami futureofwebapps.com/2008/miami/ #
• 11:13 this would never fly in the Bay Area www.socialnetworkingconference.com/ but glad to see more conferences in Miami nonetheless #
• 11:14 wish people would stop with the web 3.0 thing … it’s just a developing web, there are no versions, give it a rest #
• 11:24 @nicolau i bet by the time that conference goes to SF it will include speakers from hi5, Facebook, etc #
• 11:28 @balou versioning the web is marketing speak that confuses and obfuscates; “developing new, social media” describes better what’s going on #
• 11:30 @nicolau Facebook Beacon won’t go away, but the privacy will be improved; there will be some big related opportunities with Beacon #
• 12:21 @JasonLBaptiste looks like an attempt to monetize clueless agencies and small businesses … maybe that’s why the major socnets are missing #
• 12:38 gotta love it when your first name is still available as a username on a site www.coveritlive.com/ #
• 13:13 @vicequeenmaria it would be great if you did a class on yoga/massage for geeks at BarCampMiami! All topics are welcome #
• 13:14 @BarCampMiami has 11 sponsors at $250 each; will communicate, invoice and ask for logos this week #
• 13:16 @andersoncosta thanks for the coveritlive link, this seems to make citizen journalism a cinch, I’ll try it out … (valeu!) #
• 14:01 Big props to AT&T customer service, which was very helpful when I asked them to unlock my BlackBerry #
• 14:04 @conniereece good luck with your Twitter presentation … <waves> #
• 14:13 @trentmurdoc I was just mentioning at lunch how now that I’ve gone to MAC, I’ll never go back #
• 14:15 @debs hoping you’ll share what you learn about Beacon from FB #
• 14:50 reading @marshallk’s view on the negative side of the long tail, exemplified by Ticketmaster widgets … fascinating snurl.com/1u9zu #
• 16:29 @jeffheubo coveritlive isn’t acompetitor to @seesmic; it’s a great live blogging tool; a cross b/w Twitter, IM and media sharing for ur blog #
• 16:38 just got a boilerplate product pitch through facebook, heh … is there no safe haven? how ’bout just learning ’bout cool stuff thru FRIENDS #
• 16:44 I wish there were a “quick post to BaseCamp” extension for Firefox #
• 16:48 @als thanks, I’ll check that out … good point … I think I can do that on IMified as well … #
• 17:16 not liking that follow messages on Twitter get broadcast as status updates to Skype and to IMs … wtf!? … luckily DMs don’t seem to! #
• 17:40 i tried out FB Beacon two days ago using the Charlene Li and Ethan Zuckerman examples using Overstock … and it didn’t work for me … #
• 17:56 @mikegee @als @ericaogrady thanks for your help, i can now post to basecamp using IMified.com and i think with the dashboard widget as well #
• 17:57 on my way to Social Media class and to hopefully confirm a room at UMiami for RefreshMiami.org tomorrow night with @mikegee #
• 19:05 trying out coveritlive right now during social media class at UMiami here: www.tapio.com #
• 19:42 that coveritlive session was pretty cool, thanks for your live comments @vicequeenmaria @dayngr @cgranier and christian #
• 20:04 this was the next to last class and I’m surprised at how attached I got … you never forget your first teaching experience, I guess … #
• 20:33 @fanless problem was that I lectured during coveritlive, so I didn’t see your chat until after the lecture; also I didn’t live blog anything #
• 20:34 @fanless normally you would see time-stamped live event coverage and would interact / chat through the comment box …It’s pretty compelling #
• 20:51 @jasonalbrecht thank you, it’s been an honor, it’s been fun and it’s been a growing experience #
• 22:11 @fanless @dearyvette you may get more google juice by having longer-lived domain names, buying for multiple years may pay off that way #
• 22:19 @fanless sure you can renew just before it expires, but from what i understand, Google likes domains that expire far into the future #
• 22:24 @fanless it ends up being a matter of personal budgeting vs how much you want that page rank … not sure how much more PR you get, though #
• 22:35 45s video intros (non-commercial, just branding) seem way long in the age of media snacks … plz shorten, we get the point! kthxbai #

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Having spent many years abroad, one of the most fulfilling things about moving back has been reconnecting with my childhood friends. I had mostly lost contact with them over the years, partly because they’re not even remotely present on social media sites. Many have no idea of what a blog is and most of them have not seen this blog. In many ways, Miami is a "low-tech" city and people tend to work in big, staid industries, including Real Estate and Construction, Tourism and Travel, Banking, Health Care, Media and Professional Services.

Over the weekend, I met up with a friend and spoke about online trends. I have to admire her patience listening to me talk about Social Media, because a few days later I received this email:

"So today I was checking out scrapblog which led me to Tapio.com which led me to Twitter…on and on.  It was a domino effect: one thing led me to another.  Which leads me now to ask many questions; here are a few   Remember, this is all new for me:  (pardon my ignorance)

Social websites: What is the difference between MySpace and Facebook?  The main purpose of these sites is to meet people, right?? How can you trust what people put on their page?  There is a vulnerability to it that makes me a bit uncomfortable….you put so any personal things on there.   When you set up your page can everyone else that is signed up see your page? Isn’t it a bit impersonal?  And what about those that have negative intentions?  My instinct kicks in and I ask myself is it wise for me to put so much information out there and put myself and my family at risk.  Is that silly and/or unrealistic?  You hear many negative aspects of these sites, so what are the positives?  Why should I sign up?

Twitter: Don’t really understand, why would you sign up for this as well as all the other sites?  You just make comments and everyone that is signed up sees what you write?  Or do you control whom you communicate with?  Why should you sign up for this site as well as the others?  Can’t you just make comments/blogs in the other sites too?  So you make the same comments on all the different sites?

Scrapblog: This site is really cool.  I didn’t go through the whole thing but I did a little bit of the tour.   For example, if I do a scrapbook of the pictures I took on my boating trip yesterday and wanted to share it with everyone that was on the boat would they also need to sign up?  Do I send them (email) a copy of the scrapbook??  Do they put comments/blogs about it? How about for the holiday’s can I send out a scrapblog to everyone instead of sending cards in the mail?

As you can see I’m lost and confused??  Hope you don’t mind all the questions????"

A lot of us take these for granted, but they are legitimate questions that deserve a proper answer. And of course there are pitfalls to be avoided, as illustrated in this video on privacy created by the Canadian Government (via Jax Rant). These issues are not trivial, but they are manageable:

But this series of questions above also underscores the Digital Divide between the new "digerati" and the "left behind" and applies to most companies and individuals. My take is:

- The gap keeps growing as social media tools become more sophisticated and more personal (ie., Twitter, Seesmic, Facebook …);
- There is an unavoidable experience curve and you’re not likely to understand it unless you use it;
- Whatever your objectives, results will not be immediate and it takes months to build up your presence, brand and community;
- Social Media is here to stay (see how many of these deeper Trendwatching trends apply to what’s going on online);
- Social Media is disruptive on a granular level and with care, persistence and consistency, you and your company may reap benefits beyond your expectations.

Incidentally and on a lighter note, I got into a snowball fight this morning with two separate friends; one by e-mail with an ex-work colleague and one in Facebook with an online friend in Germany I have not met. Last year snowballs were being thrown inside World of Warcraft. Whether by email or online or in a virtual world, the urge to play and connect with others remains the same. Media was always meant to be social and now you too can participate.

But watch out, I may throw a snowball at you next

• 09:13 Monday morning rush hour: this is when I’d like Twitter updates on my windshield. Beats fumbling with the BlackBerry … #
• 09:17 @martinvars a big tip can be fair compensation. What’s the alternative … a pay raise? #
• 09:25 @conniereece now following DougH #
• 13:27 @vicequeenmaria Nice! Is Miami Beach wi-fi free? Does it cover all of South Beach? #
• 14:00 Great! I’ll get back to you later today. Thanks #
• 14:01 Oops, last tweet should have been a dm … #
• 16:55 thinking Slideshare does’nt like Leopard, I can’t see view their slideshows, not even my own embed on my own blog … #
• 19:52 Looking forward to RefreshMiami on Wednesday, @mikegee will talk about design; I’ll give an update on BarCampMiami #

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• 14:33 Enjoying last day off, it’s been a delicious, relaxing and invigorating long weekend. #
• 19:20 To the movies: Love in the Time of Cholera #

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• 09:52 Morning, twitterati. I posted to “just three words” and am thinking how insanely social Facebook has become: a big social media playroom #
• 10:45 @peterkim have you tried Facebook for Blackberry tinyurl.com/2aoux7 #
• 12:01 Halfway through the long weekend and it’s been great so far. Now meeting friends for brunch and heading to the beach later #
• 14:36 I don’t mind the bacn, but I do mind the beacon civ.moveon.org/facebookprivacy/ #
• 15:25 Ok … I’m omw … eta 3:45 #
• 15:36 @dayngr objects may contain valuable memories and associations; gifts, for example, may trigger memories and emotions #
• 15:55 Great weather at the beach! Sitting outside, ordered a mahi-mahi #
• 16:00 Guess what! They’ve got free wi-fi here … who knew? Webbing under the palm trees, nice! #
• 18:21 @shelisrael please share how to follow a topic on Twitter … Is it not the ‘track’ function? #
• 18:33 Tracking keywords on Twitter is akin to a del.icio.us for conversations … tags lead to serendipitous discoveries … #
• 19:16 Having Prosecco with Miami Twitterati on a stretch of land that may be underwater in 30 years … priceless … #

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