Yea, I went there; I quoted Churchill in a post about digital signage.

Why? Well, aside from deep-seated psychological issues, it’s because the application above almost never came to fruition. Well, until they called LocaModa. *brushes shoulders off*
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In our grueling quest to “connect people and places,” a group of industrious LocaModans (and friends) headed out to check out the Boston digital signage scene…

I only wish I had taken a picture when we had 3 MacBooks crowding our cocktail table (sadly, I’m serious).

[tags]LocaModa, The Web Outside, MacBooks, digital signage, Boston, tech geeks, digital out-of-home[/tags]

It started downpouring in Cambridge yesterday around 3:45pm, which was stellar timing for me to get soaked while I headed over to the Ethos Roundtable at the Charles Hotel.

Was it worth it?  Totally.
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First off… no, I’m not going to launch into a hypersyllabic erudite-fest of Lacanian identity theory (you would need to give me a glass of wine first).

In this case, I pose the question in a media sales sense.

Riddle me this:

Let’s say you have 300,000 social locations in the US (bars, restaurants, etc). Each of these locations hosts an average of 200 patrons per night. Now say an advertiser is promoting his brand via OOH digital signage in 300 of these locations. That would give him 60,000 visitors (but not “absolute uniques”).
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I was lured in by Dan Ariely’s keynote, but the highlight of the conference turned out to be finally meeting some of my favorite Tweeters and Bloggers in person.

To name a few:

Chris Brogan. I’ve been told by many’a blogger that Chris is someone I should meet (and now I agree). When I congratulated Chris on a great break-out session, he responded with “Usually, when I speak, people walk away saying, ‘wow, that Chris Brogan guy, he’s nice…’ Not ‘he knows his stuff,’ but more ‘hmm…he seems friendly’.” Chris, I can personally vouch for the fact that you also clearly know your stuff.

And also that you’re nice.
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It’s not all fun and games at LocaModa, but do we have our decent share…

Exhibit A:
Our recent off-site meeting at F1 Racing in Braintree.

Umm… those things go fast. A big congratulations to Bill Nast (VP Biz Dev) and Steve King (VP Sales) for kicking our asses all over the track. I will also mention that CTO Steve An had the fastest lap time of the day. Clearly upper management is upper management for a reason.

I also learned that I am a terrible go-kart driver, which surely surprises no one who has ever seen me maneuver my huuuuge and unwieldy Dodge Neon.
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I’ve had my Chumby since last November, anxiously waiting for it (him?) to wow me.
Although the wowing was somewhat anticlimactic, it happened yesterday.

For anyone unfamiliar with the magical plush world of Chumby, think soft alarm clock that displays your choice of widgets. (Here’s a decent primer.) Until now, my Chumby has been loaded up with Red Sox scores, a cuckoo clock, word-of-the-day, multiple tech-geek feeds, standards like the Huff Post, a reel of morphing Mona Lisa facial expressions, and classic artwork feeds like Stuff on My Mutt.
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As a follow-up to my recent posts about Ethos Roundtable and the Berkman Center, I wanted to reintroduce MobileActive.org, another group that I’ve blogged about a few times in the past. (They continue to take on more and more ambitious and inspiring projects every time I check back with them!)

Not only are they a great resource for global mobile news and statistics, but their blog (written mainly by Katrin Verclas) brings together a well-informed community of activists in the tech space. I had the pleasure of meeting Katrin a couple years ago when I attended the NTEN Conference for the first time, and her passion for mobile/social advocacy proves why she’s an emerging thought-leader in the space. I urge you to check out their blog and website and get involved.
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It’s always remarkable to watch the early-adopter tech community get caught in its own hamster wheel (no pointing fingers here… I’m admittedly being self-reflective). The tools that are quickly embraced are just as quickly critiqued. We’re not being fickle or needy, simply realistic. In a sphere defined by fast-paced conversation, we need our communication tools to work, and work well. Or we move on.

Case in point: This week’s Twitter outages (as if you didn’t know where I was going here…)
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Back in February, I spoke at a roundtable discussion about the intersection of new media (specifically Wikipedia) and social change.  A fun and diverse group of techies, nonprofiteers, and social media junkies came together to chat about ways that new technologies can be leveraged to encourage social activism.

One surprising discovery came when –amongst a crew of self-proclaimed advocacy nerds– we admitted that very few of us had actually edited a Wikipedia page.  The general diagnosis?  There is still an invisible hand reigning over the Wiki model; and until this is dissolved (likely as a gradual epistemic change), some semblance of a traditional authorial hierarchy will remain.
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