For anyone attending the Berkman@10 Conference today and tomorrow, make sure to head over to the cocktail party tonight to check out Wiffiti!

All of you visiting from far-off places, at least you get a nice day in Cambridge (well, until I hit publish and it starts pouring).

If you’re not heading to Berkman@10, and you’re a Boston-area tech lover, I’ll assume you’ll be hobnobbing at POPSignal.  It’s sold out, but you can often scoot into the overflow space once the night wears on… Check it out at Tequila Rain over by Fenway.  Sox are in Baltimore, so at least you have a chance of not suffocating to death on the T ride home.

[tags]The Web Outside, Berkman@10, Harvard, Berkman Center, Conferences, popsignal, tequila rain, Boston, Cambridge, tech meet-ups[/tags]

After following up with the folks I met (and re-met) this year, it’s clear that the Digital Signage Expo in Vegas was a huge win for everyone. This is our third year in attendance, and every year it trumps the previous show in both size and quality. It’s always well run, and the ExpoNation team sure is patient… I know how many questions that I lob at Colin Berry and Chris Gibbs, so I can only imagine the stuffed inboxes they wade through getting ready for the show.

They’re now offering a Digital Signage Expo East in Philly this September. I’d love to get an idea of who’s going and who’s waiting until Vegas ‘09. What’s the word? Who’s down for a high-res, interactive cheesesteak?

[tags] The Web Outside, LocaModa, Digital Signage Expo, Digital Signage Expo East, ExpoNation, digital signage, conferences, trade shows[/tags]

All of us LocaModans are back from the Digital Signage Expo out in Vegas. This was our third year exhibiting, and certifiably the best one yet. The energy and interest levels were running high, and I only partially attribute that to the perpetual mega-line at the convention center Starbucks.

For great show wrap-ups, visit Dave Haynes, Barnaby Page (who I wanted to meet, but we unfortunately failed to cross paths), and Digital Signage Today.

As for a post show wrap-up, I will say that the Beatles Love Cirque de Soleil trumped even Panasonic’s 103-inch plasma (even though I spent a good part of two days ogling it). Please see below for my debut as a true Beatles wanna-be (at least from a signage perspective). Now how about getting a little Wiffiti action in that rainbow hallway?

[tags]The Web Outside, LocaModa, Digital Signage Expo, Digital Signage, Las Vegas, Beatles Love, Cirque de Soleil, Dave Haynes, Barnaby Page, Digital Signage Today, Wiffiti[/tags]

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending the Ethos Roundtable held at The Charles Hotel in Harvard Square. The topic of “Text Messaging and Civic Engagement” brought about lively discussions of censorship, location personalities, digital signage in public spaces, and best methods for using technology to foster social change…. Not to mention some fun Wiffiti banter.

Always nice to see a great group of people from a number of different backgrounds come together for rapid-fire discussion! I encourage any interested Boston-area folks to keep up with their blog and attend when you can.

[tags]The Web Outside, Ethos Roundtable, Harvard Square, mobile, text messaging, SMS, discussion groups, What’s Up Boston, BHIC[/tags]

Okay, so in yesterday’s post I promised a wrap-up of the Google Android talk; forgive me, but I’m going to need to reneg. As evidenced by the awesomely informative and detailed picture above, being 5′2″ at a stand-up lecture isn’t quite conducive to…um… hearing and seeing things. (And, sadly enough, that pic was taken with my hand stretched above my head.) Combine that with two poorly-mic’ed speakers (yea, yea, fine, I’ve also been told I have “hearing deficiencies”), and you wind up with one frustrated listener – on her tiptoes. Here’s hoping Mobile Monday Boston posts a transcript of some sort, because I’m going to be of little worth in that department. If any readers were able to snap a few pics that aren’t of the backs of people’s heads, or get their hands on the PowerPoint deck of the presentation, please send them along. The talk surely looked interesting…

[tags]The Web Outside, Android, Mobile Monday, Mobile Internet World[/tags]

I’m headed to a Mobile Monday event tonight, held in conjunction with the Mobile Internet World Conference at Hynes Convention Center. The guest speakers are David Carson and Alan Blount from Google, slated to talk about Android and the Open Handset Alliance. If that’s not enticing enough, the last hour is devoted to “schmoozing and demos.” In particular, I’m psyched to try out Vlingo and RoboCal.

If you haven’t already, go sign up… it’s free (thanks to dotMobi) when you register for either the conference or the expo!

I’m also planning to attend the keynote tomorrow afternoon, Is An Open Platform the Future of the Mobile Internet? (open to all attendees), so I’ll be back with a round-up post later in the week.

[tags]The Web Outside, Mobile Internet World Conference, Hynes Convention Center, Mobile Monday, Boston, dotMobi, Vlingo, RoboCal, Android, Open Handset Alliance, David Carson, Alan Blount[/tags]

A New Spin on The Web Outside

Thanks to the Metro Silicon Valley Marathon Corporate Challenge held this past Sunday, the world had the rare experience of watching Apple finish last in something. What’s more– the Google team also failed to burn rubber, finishing second to last.

The Corporate Challenge, sponsored by Comerica Bank, requires that five team members complete either the 5K, half-marathon, or marathon distance. The top three half-marathon times from each team are tallied, and the winning team is lauded as the “Fastest Company in Silicon Valley.”

This year, Ernst & Young nabbed the title, just barely edging out Sandisk. Other top contenders included the teams from Comerica, Cisco, Adobe, and Sun Microsystems. Yahoo! posted a decent showing, finishing ninth.

Is this proof that you can’t be on the fast track in the tech world and on the racing circuit? Maybe it’s all that Google cafeteria food…

[tags]The Web Outside, PRNewsWire, Google, Apple, Comerica Corporate Challenge, results, Metro Silicon Valley Marathon Corporate Challenge, Cisco, Adobe, Sun Microsystems, corporate races[/tags]

Harbinger of a Healthy Social Operating System?

When Facebook announced their open platform back in May, they urged their partners to refrain from using the words “MySpace” or “social network” in reference to the launch. Why the selectively tight lips? My best guess is that they were trying to establish themselves as the thought leaders in defining the Social Operating System; in the crowded SN space, follower has become a dirty word.

Unfortunately for Facebook (but fortunately for the developer community), MySpace now appears primed to flesh out the still incipient “Social OS” concept themselves.

Read/WriteWeb details MySpace’s plans in their recap of yesterday’s Web 2.0 Summit. The agenda starts innocuously enough: a catalog of available widgets and tools, industry standard APIs coming within a few months, an opt-in beta program for end users, and the rise of a widgetocracy– in which users can vote their favorite apps to the top of the pile.

Ok, fine…
It’s the next step concerns me: “MySpace will formally introduce the best widgets into the community, with what they term highly developed integration.”

Ehm? Does this sound eerily like another famous MS to anyone else?
Right… the “Ya’ll Create…We’ll Tweak and Take Credit” Model.

Not to be overly pessimistic and paranoid… There are certainly bright spots in this that even a doubting Jayne can’t downplay. Not incidentally, it’s the social aspect of it all that has me eying that shiny lining. Go figure, eh?

Case in point: As Richard MacManus of R/WW writes of the commingling of “geeks and media,” I can’t help but get giddy.

MacManus describes the Summit’s gala social event:

At tonight’s party it was a strange experience seeing geeks with glasses (I was one of them) mixing with trendy and beautiful people. a.k.a. technology mixing with media. Perhaps that’s a sign of things to come with the MySpace platform.

Jouissance v.2.0, oui? As long as MySpace keeps social issues in the forefront of their Social OS roll-out plan, I’ll attempt to hush my paranoia. Sounds like a given… but I’m not yet convinced.

[tags]The Web Outside, Read/WriteWeb, Richard Macmanus, Social Operating System, social networking, widgets, open platform, MySpace, Facebook[/tags]

In a fantastic display of collaboration, twenty digital signage companies have banded together to champion MacMillan Cancer Support. This effort represents the largest multi-network OOH ad campaign ever in the UK.

Running on donated airtime from major players in the signage world, and with content created by Amigo Digital, the campaign has been running on screens throughout the UK since September: from bars to hair salons, from gas stations (I’m sorry… petrol) to post offices. The campaign also incorporates a Second Life component (which, I must say, seems extraneous– and even potentially distracting).

The project aims to to raise an ambitious 14.2m for cancer research. Truly an excellent (and charitable) presentation of the power of the industry.

[via aka.tv]

[tags]The Web Outside, MacMillan Cancer Support, Amigo Digital, digital signage, OOH networks, London[/tags]

Just caught wind of this conference from Katrin over at MobileActive (who will be a speaker this year, btw).

According to the Pop!Tech site, the conference brings together “eclectic network of industry leaders, scientists, technologies, social change agents, artists, educators, the press, bloggers, explorers and one-of-a-kind thought-leaders from a huge variety of fields and number of different places – bound together by an intense curiosity about the forces, challenges and opportunities shaping our future.”

Held mid-October in Camden, Maine, this event looks like anything but your typical techcentric convention. A quaint seaside town replaces the usual Silicon Valley locale, and high-energy networking gets swapped out for a “relaxed and informal” vibe. Definitely worth checking out, if only for a new take on a 2.0-type gathering.