Entries Tagged 'Web 2.0' ↓

Schwaggin’ Wagon is back! We are donating completely to Operation Gratitude this time and we will be at both  Twiistup 4 and Mashable’s Summer Mash LA to collect unwanted schwag. It all gets sent to the troops overseas, rather than the back of your closet or a landfill.

We are dedicated to highlighting Green and Eco-Conscious products and services for the LA area and around the U.S., in addition to our usual goal of raising awareness of Schwag-wastefulness. Here’s an excerpt from my post on The Schwaggin’ Wagon blog (consider this a cross-posting of sorts):

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Did you ever think you’d hear us say we are The Schwaggin’ SUV? For this Tech-Event-Week in Los Angeles, we are proud to team up with Eco-Limo to create the Schwaggin’ Eco-Wagon! We will be ridin’ around Los Angeles in a Bio-Diesel Ford Excursion SUV, compliments of our sponsor, Eco-Limo.

Why are we so pleased at this sponsorship/partnership? It’s not because they were chosen to service the Academy Awards for the last four years. It’s that Eco-Limo is one of only 6 companies in California featured on Google’s Google Green site, and last year they received the Grand Prize in Sustainability by the City of Santa Monica, recognized as well by the California State Senate and Assembly! In short, they rock the eco-world. They are exactly what we were looking for in terms of transportation.

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Recently I started working at Blankspaces. This is a coworking office environment designed for freelancers and independent professionals who work solo, but who want to do so with others in an office environment. This can be a temporary, or somewhat more permanent solution to the isolation of working from one’s home. It’s a fantastic idea that embodies the best aspects of collaborative work and the potential for cross-pollination of ideas.  The proximity encourages conversations that might only arise seldomly at a cafe or cocktail party, thereby increasing chances of serendipity in one’s business and life.

Blankspaces is the paradigmatic example of the intersection between physical and online space–they have an online community that compliments and augments the offline community. Some of my graduate school work looked at examples of synchronous and asynchronous online/offline collaboration; I’ve been looking for more examples ever since. Continue reading →

It is not often that I tell people they “must read” something. Bill McKibben eloquently tells us in this article why it is necessary for us to act now to make sure our governments collaborate on climate change agreements in the next 3 years.

I will say this at the outset– I believe him. I believe the scientist Rajendra Pachauri who McKibben quotes as giving humanity a hard deadline of 2012 — if we do not begin actions to lower emissions before that date, we will set off irrecoverable chain reactions in the environment.

The goal is to roll back our CO2 emissions from 385 to 350ppm (parts per million).

A few of us have just launched a new campaign, 350.org. Its only goal is to spread this number around the world in the next 18 months, via art and music and ruckuses of all kinds, in the hope that it will push those post-Kyoto negotiations in the direction of reality.

If ever there were a time for me to proclaim “this is the paradigmatic example of why social and collaborative media are crucial,” now would be it. If you’ve ever asked, “what’s the point of Web 2.0?”, here is Continue reading →

Consulting to businesses on how they will incorporate Web 2.0 strategy and outreach via social media is a highly rewarding endeavor. I get to witness, first-hand, the means by which businesses are coping with this fundamental shift in our culture, our economy, how we make decisions, and how we market our goods and services to each other, among other transformative practices. I’m particuarly fond of assisting startup companies as they grapple with what creates community and fosters collaborative behavior among their users. Continue reading →

When we first created this show, we had visions of promoting it by tapping into the natural fanbase of hackers, geeks, and enthusiasts found all over the Internet. The uber-talented cast–Chris Nickerson, Luke McOmie (Pyr0), and Ryan Jones–have friends far and wide both within the hacker community and beyond. That alone, with almost no effort, was enough to gain fan interest and much press when the show premiered last year. Within a few days we had a wikipedia entry, we were rising up on Digg, and other kinds of social and collaborative media were used to embrace the show, primarily because it struck a nerve with actual security professionals. They are so used to inauthentic portrayals of hacking, that when they find something real, they love it. Continue reading →

My latest post on the Schwaggin’ Wagon site is about Flash Philanthropy. In this post an attempt was made to provide perspective on what we engaged in during the conference and in the days leading up to it. Beyond our obvious intentions–reclaiming items that would be wasted or unused, as well as drawing attention to the practices of the promotional and marketing industry–my team was a living, breathing example of social media outreach, social media collaboration, small group collaboration, and even some ad-hoc practices. We embodied the practices and attitudes we ask our clients to exude, and we did it rather non self-consciously. I am so proud of what this team accomplished that I will probably use this example for years to come. The question now is: What’s next? The team is in discussion on this, and we are open to listening to the needs of conference attendees everywhere.

Before you read any further, you might as well find out what The Schwaggin’ Wagon is all about.

It is gratifying to have an idea come to fruition in just a few short days. Were it not for Marjorie Kase of Blogger Reps, David Preciado of Social Rocket, Andy Sternberg of Netzoo, Kyra Reed Author of Blog 101 Book, and Daniel Hartman Esq. and others, there is no way the event that is this wagon would be in existence. Continue reading →