Tim.McGuinn.es/s

Just spell it out

Doing It Right

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I had a conversation today with a local CEO that runs a media buying agency that only deals with user acquisition campaigns for their clients.  First it was great for me to have a conversation that included the phrases CPM and click-thru, but it was even better to hear a person talk about setting his own schedule and having the opportunity to choose his clients.

Think about this idea of choosing your clients.  So many of us are in the constant state of trying to acquire new clients that it never seems possible that you can have all you can handle or, more importantly, all you want.  The best part is that he can use Binghamton as his base and its easy access to NYC and Boston for working with clients.   Ahh, just sayin’.

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One-Man Foursquare Directory

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St. John's Combo Platter: Pierogi and Holupki

 

I feel like I’m a one-man directory for Foursquare in the Binghamton area — sort of a modern day Lewis without Clark.  It seems like everywhere I go requires that I enter the name and address.  This doesn’t mean that I’m the only local user, far from it. It means I’m the only local user with a kid. While the others are fighting over mayorships at the bars on State Street, I’m commenting on the blueberry cheesecake at Apple Hills and holupki’s at the St. John’s Festival.  That was just yesterday.

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Just 161 Games Away

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CHM First Game

Citi Field - First Game

My tickets for the Red Sox / Yankees on Oct 2 at Fenway came in the mail today — only 161 games away.  The key to getting these was that they were single seats, but directly behind each other in rows 12&13 behind home plate.  Which is cool.  The thing is that the game time is TBD, so I have to hope it is a day game, so we can take the Little Monster to see the Green Monster, though that probably means that it isn’t a big game.  Again just 6 1/2 months away.

The real downside to this is that there is no way I can keep Colleen a Mets fan considering that the first game she went to was a Mets/Nationals battle for last place last September. Now it the Yankees/Red Sox, and I can only dream that it is a battle for last.

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Far Too Long

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Boscov's in Downtown Binghamton, New York

Image via Wikipedia

It has been far too long since my last entry, but the reason is good — we were on the move again. At the end of September, I started a new job in Binghamton, NY. Probably the last place on earth I ever thought that we would be moving.

For the first few months, I drove back-and-forth between Weschester and Binghamton, but we made the move to temporary residence at my parents, and then finally into our own apartment this week. No hurry right now to buy a house, but that will happen soon enough.

I’ve been doing all the moving myself while the rest of the family spent Christmas plus a couple more weeks in Florida. So I’m off to unpack up some more boxes and settle in. Good to be back.

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NY Tech Meetup – Let’s Play Two

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NY Tech Meetup

NY Tech Meetup

A busy day around FIT for the the NY Tech Meetup scene thanks to New York Internet Week. Late in the afternoon the FIT Great Hall hosted 60 NY start-ups and at least 500 people (my estimate) for a showcase event. Attendees had free access to visit all the start-up tables for demos and questions.

From there the action moved into the Auditorium for the monthly Meetup gathering where the program was the standard 5 minutes to demo your product. It was a great a night for the demo teams. I can honestly say that I will try out each of these products, with the exception of the MakerBot. However, it was cool enough that I’ll share it with a brother-in-law who likes these robotic thingies.

Here are some links that you should check out:

– UpNext – If you are in the NYC area or a frequent visitor, you will want this great iPhone app that features a 3-D vision of the city, subway maps, and built in directory all by simple tapping on the map.
– Centrl – Another map-type app for iPhone and BB, but it focuses more on the social networking that pulls in feeds from all the major social platforms.
– Livestream / Procaster — High-quality live video from your lap-top is possible with these simple tools.
– Aviary – Think online Photoshop.
– MakerBot – It was hard for some of us to grasp what was being discussed here, but think of it as a desktop robot builder that grinds out mini objects. Check out the web site and you’ll see.
– NYSenate.gov – The new web site that will bring transparency to NY government. Cool I guess.
– Mahalo 2.0!
— Jason Calacanis showcased the new Mahalo and their plans for sharing the revenues with page owners.

Dirty Hands – Semantic Web Style

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090521_web3-logo Since I’m not having the greatest luck in the Web 2.0 era of the Internet, I decided to skip ahead a generation by attending the Web 3.0 Conference this week. Web 3.0 is a term often applied to my time at Hakia with the driving concept being the Semantic Web or Linked Data. I say “or” because I am not an expert on the subject, so when I am around those that are (or make my eyes gloss over with claims to be), I hear many prospectives on how these terms are used. My perspective is broad, not hands-on, so I tend to group these ideas together as they play themselves out.

The conference program went beyond this broad view of Web 3.0. It included panels on cloud computing and social media from both technical and business angles. Overall I thought the programming offered options for everyone. I focused on topics around monetization and marketing applications, along with a panel on semantic search technology — as you would guess.

One consistent result of these panels is that I get all antsy and want to start building things. So tonight I’m taking my “just good enough to be dangerous” programming skills to the NY Semantic Web Meetup to get a demo of some hands-on tools. Let’s see what I can learn there. Maybe I will be able to post my own little semantic web application here in the next couple weeks — or else, I’ll come back next week and delete this paragraph.

NY Tech Meetup – Tweets Into 2009

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Tuesday night’s NY Tech Meetup was the first with new organizer Nate Westheimer in charge and the crowds still kept growing, filling the IAC lobby hall. After a brief intro from former NYTM organizer and still Meetup CEO Scott Heiferman, Nate took the “oath” of office by placing his right hand on a MacBook held by the original assistant organizer Dawn Barber. Funny, certainly geeky, but a good way to focus all those in attendance about the purpose of the NY Tech Meetup.

You don’t always love all the demos you see at the NYTM, but there are certainly times when you see something that rings a bell and may foster a new idea or application in your mind. Last night there were a couple of these, and I have linked off to Allen Stern’s Center Networks site where he has the video of the presentation.

Co-Tweet — The ability to manage multiple Twitter accounts by multiple people. I know this issue from trying to manage the tweets for my SoccerClub, TimMcGuinness and family tweets. This seems like great tool for agencies and client service groups that have this requirement. See video.

@shakeshack – Whitney McNamara presented a nifty piece of code allows you to send a reply twitter that then gets fed back to all that account followers. He downplayed it as not a big deal, but this is exactly what I want to put into play for Newport Online. Later, he graciously pointed me to where I could find the code on his blog.

Botanicalls – I can’t say I want to get tweets from my plants, but now Botanicalls makes that possible. However when you have a brother-in-law with networking and soldering skills that is involved in a new landscaping project, something like this comes into play. See video.

To throw in a personal story, my first NYTM was in September 2007 when I jumped straight into the fire by presenting the new Hakia browser toolbar. Having never attended a meet-up since I was new to NYC, imagine how scared I was when the first presentation order came out and I was first on the list. Thankfully, by the time of the meeting came around I was down to the #6 slot. However, right before me, was one of the NYC start-up world elite, Kevin Ryan along with Henry Blogget, who were announcing the launch of Silicon Alley Insider. You might say that was a tough act to follow, but I survived.

Oddly, the next time I was on stage to present it was a two-person panel that I happened to share with Nate at a NY Social Media Club gathering. Nate had just done an all nighter to release his BricaBox project. That night for me was special because I was given special permission to keep my phone on since our baby was due later that week. Talk about a new launch that keeps you up all night 🙂 – Tim