Last night we celebrated another great year of RefreshMiami meetups (slideshow here).

During the year, our membership doubled as we accomodated about 35 presentations by South Florida new media startups, entrepreneurs, and freelance professionals. Our meetups were attended on average by 50 people, with some events drawing about 100. We’re particularly grateful to Yahoo! Hispanic Americas and to Brikolodge for hosting most of our meetups, as well as to our sponsors for providing the catering.

What’s in store for next year?

As the new media community continues to grow, we plan on providing more services throughout the year. This means we’ll look into incorporating as a non-profit early in the year, building a team, and setting objectives. It has been a rewarding adventure so far, and we look forward to our next stage of growth.

Thanks for taking part!

• Wednesday’s RefreshMiami is oversubscribed, please plan to arrive early. http://tinyurl.com/3vs4ey #

• @mikegee Good pics of SocialMediaCamp Miami! http://ping.fm/2VeUN #

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.

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

• 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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• 09:30 @ikepigott More than just lazy, it’s also sleazy, slanted and sensationalist journalism. Whatever sells, right? tinyurl.com/6xjyvn #
• 09:34 Coldplay’s song is not entirely free, they’re collecting your email. I wonder what they’ll do with it. www.coldplay.com/song.html #
• 09:45 Retweeting @jamesbuck Free mohammed, send an eCard to the consul attiyashakran@hotmail.com tinyurl.com/6m4dcn #
• 12:36 Wine wholesaler fell thru! Need new sponsor for RefreshMiami 2yr partytomorrow: ~$150 for wine, 50people attending tinyurl.com/6ocf6h #
• 13:00 @lsal77 Thanks for the Flipshake sponsorship of RefreshMiami! w00t! flipshake.com/ #
• 13:27 @quiverandquill @gregoire mapovino.com/ @montgomery @onajide Thanks for your offers and tips, it’s very much appreciated. #
• 13:30 @quiverandquill Kudos for “Rubber Chicken Social Club” in Boston! tinyurl.com/5t7kpq Informal meetups are generally the best kind. #
• 13:50 Without a moment’s hesitation and nary a doubt, he swiftly declared RSS bankruptcy and breathed a sigh of relief. #
• 13:56 @rrodgers On the contrary, it means I clicked the “Mark all as read” button. A refreshingly blank slate (screen, rather) stared back. #
• 14:01 @rrodgers Blog posts unread may rest in peace. They’re gone for good … unless someone links to them from Twitter, that is #
• 15:35 I love Twistori twistori.com/ #
• 16:35 @jpostman Visually stunning style, congrats. But I don’t agree w/ communist/socialist theme to describe social media is.gd/aaI #
• 17:05 Pre-ordered @missrogue ’s “Whuffie Factor” tinyurl.com/6bt2n9 & ordered @cshirky ’s “Here Comes Everybody” tinyurl.com/5w3r49 #
• 17:26 @jpostman It certainly makes a bold statement and will get some attention Good luck with your new consultancy, you’ll do well. #
• 17:29 @thorpus @yourdon I look forward to reading Clay’s book. I’m halfway through Groundswell – the Technographics chapter is very good #
• 17:33 Mobile Monday Miami at Myxer’s office on May 12th. The following one’s at Nokia’s on June 9th. Thanks @sass and @michaeltangeman . Rock on. #
• 17:36 @PelleB Agreed. I understand it’s meant tongue-in-cheek: twitter.com/jpostman/statuses/799845488 Take it up with @jpostman #
• 21:27 It’s really too bad you can’t customize the style of Google Reader shared items page, they all look the same tinyurl.com/4gov23 #
• 21:36 @kingsley2 I’ve got Tumblr, just added you tapio.tumblr.com/ #
• 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? #

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