In the Web 2.0 world, market capital flows from having high social capital. Without Whuffie you lose your connections and any recommendation you make will be seen as spam, met with negative reactions and a loss of social capital. Tara Hunt, author of her new book The Whuffie Factor, will dig into some Whuffie in her Friday morning keynote on “Makin’ Whuffie: Why You Should Raise Social Capital in Online Communities”
Tara is no stranger to the magic of social media — she co-founded Citizen Agency in 2006 with the mission of teaching her clients how to work more effectively with the communities they serve, how to embrace and adjust to all of the changes in culture businesses are facing, and has more recently moved onto Intuit to lead the marketing efforts for their partner platform.
In his session on “The Future of Work,” Raymond King of AboutUs.org discusses how the art of working with total strangers requires new rules of engagement. First, Assume Good Faith—planning for constructive collaboration is a better strategy than building walls to keep the bad guys out. Then work transparently and, better still, use your real name. Do work that matters and find others who wish to do the same. Be bold and remember, that change is cheap. Using various examples from the wiki world, Raymond will examine changes in the way we work today and make some predictions for the future.
Vanessa Fox, the creator of Google’s Webmaster Central, rolls up her sleeves and digs into the crunchy “Future of Organic Search” in her Thursday, May 21 session. She’ll illustrate that being found in search engines is quickly moving from being a bonus acquisition channel to being a primary one. If you aren’t found in search engines, then you don’t exist for many potential customers. Learn about where search is going next: blended search results, personalized search, enhanced search results, browse within search, and searcher input are just the beginning. Get the scoop on where search is heading and ensure you’re not left behind.
WebVisions is coming next month and to get things heated up, we want to start a war. A Twitter War that is! Here’s how it works:
Panels of the brightest and loudest technological minds at Beer and Blog will debate against one another with winners decided by viewers via Twitter. Each topic will have a panel of 4 participants. The topics are:
* #Javascript vs. #Flash
* #Wordpress vs #Drupal
* #Firefox vs. #Safari
* #Facebook vs. #Twitter
* #Bridgeport vs. #Deschutes
Each panelist will have one minute to state their case, followed by 3 minutes of free-for-all. People can comment and vote via twitter the entire time. The judges are Brad Smith, Executive Director; Stephanie Wagner, WebVisions Board Member; and Chris Alan from Enact Development. They will be pulling new tweets every 10-15 seconds, and showing ones the judges likes. Judges will determine the best panelist and the best audience comment to win a free pass to WebVisions! If you already have a pass, sorry the prize is not available to you. Second place winners will receive a WebVisions T-shirt.
The Webvisionary Awards recognizes outstanding work in categories that range from web apps to community sites. But more importantly, it’s a chance to strut your stuff in front of a panel of big-name judges and your peers. The cost is only $25 per entry, so submit your project today and take home some metal for your mantle. Entries will be accepted through May 8th, but don’t wait until the last minute.
The Webvisionary Awards ceremony will be held at the Bagdad Theatre on Thursday, May 21st from 7:30-9:00pm. Join our special guests, play presentation karaoke and more! The awards are sponsored by two of our favorite companies: WebTrends and 52 Ltd.
WebVisions and Open Source Bridge explore the future of web design, technology, online communities, start-ups and, of course, open source software. Let’s not forget all of the networking activities, parties and gatherings that naturally spring up around such great events. And you can attend both events for only $300 – a savings of over $100 off the price when purchased separately. Find out more or call Brad or Dana at (503) 230-2058 to sign up!
Author and CSS expert Christopher Schmitt explores the decision process and steps involved in converting a finished graphic design into a sensible, valid XHTML+CSS Web document in his informative, half-hour workshop on “From PSD to XHTML+CSS 4TW!.” Christopher will also unlock the mysteries of creating beautiful web forms in his session “Designing Our Way Through Web Forms” on Thurs., May 21st.
