We held our second MobileMonday Miami event last week!

Thanks to those who participated and thanks to Myk Willis, CEO and Founder of Myxer, who gave an awesome presentation of this fast-growing  mobile startup. Mobile Monday Miami co-organizer and co-founder Jeffrey Sass (pictured) graciously hosted the event at Myxer’s offices in Deerfield Beach.

MobileMonday is a global community fostering cooperation and business development through networking events to share ideas, best practices and trends in the mobile industry. We’re excited to create a mobile community in Miami and look forward to its continued growth. If you’re into mobile, you’re invited to attend and participate in our free events.

The next one will be on June 9th, 2008 at Nokia’s offices by the Miami Airport. If you’re interested in attending, please RSVP on the Facebook event page, or just get in touch with me.

I’m giving back my Mac today.

The contract unequivocally requires property to be returned and so it is that I’m giving the Mac back at some point today. Mind you, about six months ago I’d never used a Mac before and the almost prohibitive price had always kept me at bay. I was the proverbial die-hard PC guy. So when I was offered the Mac — after I’d burned through one and a half of my own personal PCs at work — I gladly accepted it out of sheer curiosity.

In the six months since I’ve had this Mac, I’ve turned on my PC exactly two times; and both times, it was to try out PC-only software. Suffice it to say the MacBook Pro is sublime. What’s not to like? Once you get past the stuff that works differently, you won’t imagine how you ever worked on anything else. I think this applies to more than the creative professions: the Mac has not really improved my photography workflow. Rather, I feel like my productivity’s been boosted across the board. Maybe it’s the more logical OS and UI (and I prefer Tiger to Leopard). Maybe it’s because it crashes much less frequently. Maybe it’s because you can have close to a gazillion tabs open of Firefox and a bunch of other stuff running at the same time and everything still works. Maybe it’s the 3 hour battery life. And maybe it’s also “Spaces”. The combination of these things and more made it a pleasure to open up the Mac in the morning.

As a quick sidenote, I’ve often heard it said that Mac would convert most PC users if they gave 30-day trials.

Besides the obvious reluctance of going back to a Vista machine (ie, “Once you go Mac, you can’t go back”, etc.), I’m now also faced with the time-consuming hassle involved in setting up a workflow that had been perfected on the Mac. Some of it relates to the time it takes to find and install the right extensions for Firefox. Part of it has to do with giving up software that exists only for Mac, like the excellent Skitch. And the other part has to do with software that I had bought and installed, like OmniFocus, and will be unable to use until I get another Mac.

So when will I get another Mac? As soon as I can … and utimately, a brand new Mac trumps a depreciated one.

“… you’ve left me with nothing but I have worked with less.” -Ani Difranco.

Update: My PC laptop won’t start for some reason, I’ll have to get that fixed now and maybe reinstall Vista. I’ll lose a bunch of nice software I had installed, though.

Update 2: I got a new MacBook, which is performing better than the MacBook Pro I was using. Maybe it’s the clean install. I had considered getting a 20″ iMac — they’re amazing — but I really do need something mobile. The MacBook is even more convenient to carry around than the MacBook Pro.

Note: It’s worth clarifying that I’m not associated with Apple or any distributor. Also, I realize in the relative scheme of things, there are many worse things …

Continuing what has been a stellar year in Miami in terms of online conferences, the The Word of Mouth Marketing University came to town. To welcome some our friends from out of town who came to speak at the event, including Rohit Bhargava, Joseph Jaffe, JC Hutchins and Jason Anello, we organized a blogger dinner last night:

Brian Breslin of infinimedia

Joseph Jaffe of Crayon

Jay Berkowitz of Ten Goden Rules

By the way, Josh Hallett snapped some great photos at WOMMU, some of which appear on WOMMU’s good live blog. Have a look!

On Wednesday, May 2nd, we celebrated the two-year anniversary of RefreshMiami! When a few of us first met at a Starbuck’s in South Beach on May 5th, 2006 (Brian Breslin, Chris and Rebecca Saylor, Robert Murray and I), little did we know how significantly the RefreshMiami community would impact our lives. As Brian writes on the RefreshMiami blog:

"So its been 2 years. Wow. In the last 2 years I have either met or interacted with hundreds of great people in the south florida tech community. Lots of people have gotten jobs, made friends, and had a great time. So with that in mind, I think its time we celebrate."

Celebrate we did! Here are some photos. Michael Tangeman compares RefreshMiami to the First Tuesdays and such of the early dot.com days (see also comments on his post):

"It is so refreshingly unlike the dot.com days here in Miami. No suits, no VCs just flown in from the Valley, no investment bankers looking to take somebody public, no lawyers handing out cards and wanting to get in on the deals. The talk is about technology and apps and projects and what people are up to, not about shares and options and exit strategies."

If you’re new to Miami and looking to meet and connect with other web entrepreneurs, developers and designers in South Florida, here’s how to participate:

1) join the 220 member strong RefreshMiami Google Group for discussion on local tech issues, job postings and more;

2) join our group on Facebook;

3) if you’re on LinkedIn, we just started a group there. Here’s the link to join;

4) Subscribe to the RefreshMiami blog;

5) Come to our next meetup! Our next event is on May 28th in Coconut Grove … see you there!

Blogging about not blogging …

So I haven’t blogged in a while … or rather I’ve been on Twitter alot.  As it turns out, to rephrase Hugh MacLeod, "Blogging Tweeting is a great way to make things happen indirectlydirectly."

David Berkowitz blogged how Twitter makes blogging better … and in one way worse:

"One prominent blogger, who I won’t call out here, includes a daily summary of his Twitter posts on his blog. Very few of those posts are worth syndicating. They only make sense if you follow him. I find myself reading his blog less now because of it."

I’m not the "prominent" blogger in question ;)  but as those of you reading the feed know, I’m equally guilty of reposting daily tweets here. The postings were archived and did not show up on the front page of this blog, but were regularly shipped out on the feed. This served a few purposes, including:

• Using the blog as a journaling and archiving system so that years from now I could look back and find what I was doing on any particular day, through the archived daily tweets here. Twitter has no archiving mechanism and it’s currently very difficult to find your tweets from any single day: you have to scroll back in your twitterstream to do so.
• Posting daily tweets to my blog helped keep this blog going at a time when I’ve been particularly busy and haven’t found the time to blog. The last three months have been very hectic, starting from before organizing  BarCampMiami, to leaving Scrapblog, to the various things I’m doing today and which I’ll describe in upcoming posts.
• In addition to keeping the blog alive with content, the daily postings kept Google’s spiders crawling and indexing this site for these past few months.

However, daily postings of tweets are difficult and/or boring to read and as David points out, they only make sense if you’re following them on Twitter as they occur, in which case it’s redundant to see them on Twitter, on the blog and aggregated with my other activity on socialthing! and FriendFeed.

I’ve been active elsewhere

Speaking of which, I’ve been active on many other services as well. I’ve added the social networks and sharing services I use most to my blog’s navigation and sidebar and have thus reclaimed my blog as a central identity hub from which to find me online. These services are listed under my picture on the sidebar, and are reposted below. If you’d like to connect on any of these services, please leave a brief comment describing how we know each other or why you’d like to be connected (see note below*):

Updates on Twitter
Facebook profile
Flickr photos
LinkedIn profile
del.icio.us links
Upcoming events
Tumblr lifestream
Trips on Dopplr
Dugg items
Shared on Google Reader
LastFM radio
Jaiku lifestream
Skitch screenshots
Presentations on Slideshare
MyBlogLog communities
Friendfeed lifestream
Technorati profile
ClaimID identity
Netvibes universe

*Note: I accept most friend requests, although I connect mostly with people I already know or have met on Facebook, Dopplr, Tumblr, Jaiku Google Reader, NetVibes, ClaimID, LastFM, SlideShare, del.icio.us and Upcoming. I’m more open with connections on Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, MyBlogLog, FriendFeed and Flickr, although I reserve the right to not connect for whatever reason - please don’t take it personally if I don’t reciprocate a connection request.

Having said all that …

… I’m blogging again

• 11:27 Twitterpoll: do u find it anoying when someone reposts their tweets to their blog? @davidberkowitz doesn’t like it tinyurl.com/6ahxb4 #
• 11:35 @nateritter @hmason @jrwoodward @charris1980 @alexdesigns Thanks. However, blog is a good CMS for journaling tweets by dayand Twitter isn’t #
• 11:37 I suppose compromise would be to start another blog just to send daily summary tweets to, to keep daily / weekly / monthly archive of doings #
• 11:41 @alexdesigns FriendFeed + Socialthing won’t store ur stuff forever.How do u search by date? A blog is safer. And a blog may be a lifestream! #
• 11:43 @jtnt @mailourmilitary Thanks … so far the response has been overwhelmingly against reposting daily summary of tweets to the blog #
• 11:52 @mailourmilitary Loudtwitter ships a daily summary of tweets to your blog. Tweeterboard will give you links posted by users. #
• 11:55 @swhitley For instance, you can favorite your own important tweets and then grab the RSS feed for it … #
• 12:02 @mailourmilitary Yeah, tweeterboard only gives you the last 30 you’ve posted. You’ve got to grab the RSS for it. #
• 12:13 @swhitley Also, while on the favorites page, the RSS feed is an auto-discovery that’s twitter.com/favorites/[[some number]].atom #
• 12:15 @devinreams Point well taken. I’m starting a new blog — for my own benefit — to capture a daily / weekly / monthly archive of my tweets #
• 12:16 If Twitter scratches Ruby for PHP, let’s hope they’ll fix some of the annoying stuff along the way and give us new features as well #
• 12:18 My wishlist for Twitter: better contact management; grouping, sorting and tagging features; private and public tweets; archival process #
• 12:22 @newmediajim Dunno … I saw it on TechCrunch tinyurl.com/6g93om but Twitter’s denying it twitter.com/ev/statuses/801530348 #
• 12:30 @glowbird By private, I mean I’d like to send private tweets to a *group* - not to an individual. I’d like to do so w/o using GroupTweet #
• 12:33 @_nateritter For posterity. When older, sitting by fireside, I’d like to see what I was up to on a particular day. Twitter is good for that. #
• 12:40 @couch Indeed, the combination of Twitter, Flickr and blog makes for an interesting historical archive … a new autobiography of sorts … #
• 12:43 @nateritter Wow … Have you checked with @extraface though? He might have setup a non-hasthag retweet of your tweets on @__nateritter #
• 12:48 @couch @aerodi Most dramatically, airplane crash affected lots of Brazilians on Orkut. Suddenly accounts became historical archives-Very sad #
• 13:04 @davidberkowitz Thanks for bringing it up! And everyone agrees with you tinyurl.com/699879 and tinyurl.com/6rdd8d #
• 13:14 @reboot10 I’m glad there’s a 10th edition, I look forward to it. It’ll be my fourth time there: always been great. Will it be free? Lol #
• 18:56 TGIF. What a day … I sure am ready for the weekend to start. Hope you’ll have a good one. #
• 22:08 Think about it: a perfected Twitter-like service would display your threaded conversations, wouldn’t it? Well, dream on. #
• 22:16 @silkcharm Mobile IRC! Why not? Hope you’re well, must be a great experience there #

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• 00:19 RefreshMiami & @brbreslin thanks for enabling connections, exchange of ideas and more than a fair share of serendipity over the past 2 tears #
• 00:20 And that would of course be years, not tears #
• 13:21 Met with a local startup in stealth mode with an innovative e-commerce concept and revenue model. Miami can haz tech. #
• 14:34 Reading new comment thread on BusinessWeek listing companies using Twitter tinyurl.com/5ncmpp #
• 14:43 “The result is the mass amateurization of efforts previously reserved for media professionals” -Clay Shirky, in “Here Comes Everybody” #
• 14:57 @andrewhyde You know it! But Twitter’s still unknown to most. A consumer web startup recently asked me: “should we be on Twitter?” #
• 15:09 Uploaded first set of RefreshMiami pictures from last night’s party, have about 10 more to upload tinyurl.com/57e976 #
• 15:23 @michaeltangeman writes a great post about Miami tech, incl. RefreshMiami, BarCampMiami, coworking at Brikolodge tinyurl.com/5hbkha #
• 17:08 Posted last night’s RefreshMiami anniversary photos incl. Lola, our mascot tinyurl.com/47yah9 Thanks everyone! #
• 17:47 @jrwoodward Why do you suppose golfing is embracing twitter? Know of other sports into Twitter? @pgagolf @2008players #
• 18:40 This is so cool … but I wonder how it got on @Mashable? invites.mashable.com/site/startpr @kristennicole2 #
• 19:50 Stunning sunset! Hope a local Flickrer captuted it … #
• 20:49 @brightkite You can check in but you can never leave? (ie., you can leave a place by phone but not through the website?) #

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• 23:36 @ashleyb33 Good point! You can comment shared items on Bloglines, but not on Google Reader. Seems like an obvious feature to have, right? #
• 06:01 Took a friend to the airport and now working early at the office: no traffic for once #
• 10:00 @shelisrael Surely due to an online shift of ad and direct marketing budgets … #
• 10:31 Brightkite looks neat … does anyone have a spare invite? Would appreciate it! www.brightkite.com/ #
• 10:33 @martinbowling Thank you! It’s alex@alexdc.org #
• 10:51 @martinbowling Thanks for the Brightkite invite, I’m signing up now. Thx @onajide @pbacgrad @jbruin @pcarles I’ll see you on the other side. #
• 10:55 @MarkTap @pcarles There must be a way to set privacy. By the way, I see the usual suspects & super-early adopter set is alreadyhere;) #
• 11:07 Brightkite’s orange bubble looks much like Plazes’ blue bubble. Lifestreams / microblogs and geo-location go together like hand in glove #
• 11:13 Brightkite is cool. For some reason I thought FireEagle was going to have similar features … #
• 11:20 @enzobalc My single invite just went out … No GPS required b/c you manually enter in your location #
• 11:27 Obviously Brightkite should repost our tweets inside Brightkite … and I’m quickly turning off the post to Twitter from Brightkite! Doh! #
• 11:30 @enzobalc LOL. Looky here twitter.com/nateritter/statuses/800441455 via @nateritter #
• 11:31 @pbacgrad I got suckered by Brightkite into posting my exact location to Twitter. Doh! It’s in your account settings: careful w/ ur privacy! #
• 11:36 @DevBear Choosing GTA4 over 2 year anniversary of RefreshMiami tonight? Come to think of it, GTA4 is prolly safer than driving in Miami #
• 11:44 Retweeting @strategicast: Trying to get an invite to brightkite. Does anyone have an invite to spare? It would be much appreciated. Thanks. #
• 11:55 @brightkite The privacy option should be on “locked” by default, I just tweeted my location to Twitter by mistake (not happy about that). #
• 12:53 @brightkite Publicly tweeting exact address details is for teh suck! Rather, you should enable our tweets *within* Brightkite. #
• 12:59 @brightkite Well, I’ve deleted by now, haven’t it? I syndicate tweets to FriendFeed Tumblr FB Jaiku. Dude, mistakes are 2 easy w/ brightkite #
• 13:07 @brightkite Indeed I did. The privacy settings are on a separate page from Twitter settings. It’s too easy to make the same mistake I did. #
• 13:17 @brightkite I completed first step of wizard and clicked out. I suppose I should read instructions when assembling Ikea furniture as well? #
• 13:36 @brightkite Thanks, I wish that had already been in place. Good luck with your service, looks promising. #
• 18:28 @macaia Did you see Brazil’s now upgraded to investment grade? tinyurl.com/5ojfuj Parity’s not unrealistic! tinyurl.com/67m59v #
• 18:32 Heading to RefreshMiami two-year party at the Brikolodge, see you there! tinyurl.com/6ocf6h #
• 18:51 “Woman and child” memorable still from One Water, the movie tinyurl.com/6yl55a @1h2o now has a Flickr group tinyurl.com/5elxx8 #

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• 08:34 May 10 is Pangea Day - Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Rio will be linked to produce powerful films: tinyurl.com/6bhp9c #
• 09:28 @shashib thanks for this picture of me, I’ll start using it as my new avatar flickr.com/photos/adc/2448343265/ #
• 09:33 Finally updated my ClaimID page, looking more like it should now: claimid.com/alexdc #
• 13:07 Listening to “Social networking and social marketing in the digital age” on NPR live.friendsofwlrn.org/ #
• 13:38 So the next Mobile Monday Miami is May 12th, hosted by @sass / Myxer. Please tell your non-Twitter mobile friends tinyurl.com/4zx7or #
• 14:10 It’s misguided put the word communityin quotes and in the same sentence w/ “consumer marketing arena” tinyurl.com/3qn4xo #borg #
• 14:12 <rant>Your “consumers” in their “communities” certainly don’t think of such spaces as”consumer marketing arenas”; neither should y … #
• 14:21 @bendtheweb I’d follow you here after hearing you on NPR but you’re not engaging in conversations, just sending out links to your own site. #
• 15:02 @lindasherman I haven’t given PD much thought … maybe I can do something for it with @1h2o www.flickr.com/groups/onewater/ #
• 15:34 This is verbatim: “Now, for the most *IMPORTANT* part of the community: buying that outfit” tinyurl.com/6hnlzr #
• 15:37 @cgranier @montgomery In same vein as revolutiontheme.com/ there’s also premiumnewstheme.com/ and quommunication.com/ #
• 15:44 @robertmurray LOL! You’re right - don’t ask @JamesatBabySpot I wonder whether Wet Seal did some market research before building this #
• 16:29 @aureliusmaximus @JamesatBabySpot Good post, we’re addressing a part of that with StartPR.com tinyurl.com/3f5rka #
• 16:30 @FreeRangeMom Precisely why I don’t spend much time at the mall #
• 16:54 @briansolis Congrats for this tinyurl.com/6xftuw #
• 18:21 Puzzled to see that over half of the ASUS eee PC’s home page is links to other sites? What’s the point? eeepc.asus.com/us/index.htm #
• 19:17 Looking forward to Refresh Miami two-year anniversary on Wednesday tinyurl.com/6ocf6h #
• 20:08 “I suspect that there’s a whole lot of clicking without a lot of thinking,” -Mary Madden, Pew Research Re: FB apps tinyurl.com/3lktqd #
• 21:43 Counting down about nine and a half hours to download “Violet Hill,” the new free Coldplay song www.coldplay.com/song.html #
• 21:45 The Coldplay site is all about a free song, show and site … and a nice bit of artwork, “Viva la Vida!” www.coldplay.com/index.html #
• 22:04 @loiclemeur Glad you and yours are fine #

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• 10:58 @GeoffLiving Agreed. Also, more fine-grained privacy control, app-request blocking and the new chat have breathed a lot of new life into FB. #
• 10:59 @montgomery @brbreslin You can figure out reciprocal follows by using “Twitter Karma”; Google it to find it. #
• 11:08 @BarbarKB No one disputes RL is more vital On the other hand, there’s arguably greater chance of serendipity online. A balance b/w both? #
• 11:13 @brbreslin Understood, I was responding more to @montgomery. Twubble partly does what you’re looking for, though not exactly. #
• 17:50 Nice, brief summary of the evolution of the Miami web-tech community, by @brbreslin tinyurl.com/3vw635 It’s been fun! @refreshmiami #
• 19:55 Will the Brazilian Real be on a par with the US Dollar in a year or two? (click on 5-yr graph) tinyurl.com/5oftpe #
• 20:28 @RichardAult If I think far back enough, I think I could have done this too www.flickr.com/photos/ault/1278303843 (great shot!) #

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