Robert Scoble (Scobelizer) and Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine Library TV) were both in the nations capital today which is a good enough cause for the DC tech community to hold a bash! The Capitol Valley Media group managed to pull together a great event at MCCXXIII on Connecticut Avenue. With nearly 500 expected guests, the place was packed with passionate DC technologists and social media gurus. I caught up with a few friends and managed to have a word or two with New Media Jim and Robert Scoble.
Social mixers aren’t really my thing so I ducked out early to catch the metro home to Glenmont. I hope I didn’t miss anything but it was great to see how big the tech community is in DC. 500 people just to see two famous Internet people, wow!
The Filipino Cultural Association, which Kristina is a part of (and therefore me too), had their annual end-of-year picnic this past Sunday. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day as there were no clouds in sight and the sun was out in full force. Maybe the sun was a little too forceful as I forgot to put sunblock on my arms and face which were burnt to a crisp.
Everyone met at Centennial Park, Maryland, for food and games. There were plenty of burgers, hot dogs, and hungry college students but our poor chef Casper couldn’t cook them fast enough on the tiny charcoal park grill.
A life size hot dog with ketchup makes you feel like you were actually there.
Kristina put together a series of games dividing everyone up into 5 color “families”. The events included:
Balloon Toss – Passing a water balloon back and forth with a partner until there was only one team left. After each successful toss the teams would take a step back.
The Three Legged Race
Pie Eating Contest
Balloon Stomp – Where each team member had a balloon tied around their ankle as they tried to pop other peoples balloons.
An Obstacle Course/Race – Consisting of spinning around a bat 10 times, a human wheelbarrow race, and a mad dash carrying an egg on a spoon.
Paolo prepares to catch a water-filled balloon.
Bits and pieces on his glasses were all that was left of Daryl’s Apple pie.
Jen races to the finish line carrying an egg on a spoon.
An FCA picnic wouldn’t be complete without a tug-of-war match between the upper classmen and the lower classmen. It is tradition for the upper classmen to win and immediately tie an underclassmen to a nearby tree. This year sure didn’t disappoint, all in good fun of course!
Upperclassmen vs. lowerclassmen in tug-o-war.
They say it’s an honor to be tied to the tree.
At the end of the games everyone was too tired to care who won (it was the red team if you must know). Everyone had a good day out in the sun, laughing, having fun, and eating picnic food. This is Kristina’s last year in college so we probably won’t be back next year. Atleast we have these memories and the 495 pictures I took of the day, which was more fun for me than getting worked up over picnic games.
This past weekend I had the great pleasure of attending the very first PodCamp DC. PodCamp is a new media unconference, meaning the participants decide the schedule of events and topics on the day of the conference rather than in advance. There was quite a diverse set of topics ranging from the nuts and bolts of podcasting in Podcasting 101 to an interactive discussion on the future of Social Media and New Journalism. The attendees were just as diverse as the topics from the young techies like myself all the way up to retired grandparents.
One thing that really surprised me was the number of senior citizens at the event. I saw a guy typing away on his Acer laptop running Ubuntu and another lady who looked to be a grandmother wearing a Red Hat Linux baseball cap. I thought the people that attended these things were mostly young computer nerds though I was pleasantly surprised to see people of all gender, color and creed.
Her Flip video camera (atleast that is what I think it is) matched her glasses.
Probably the most insightful talk of the conference was given by Gretchen Vogelzang of the MommyCast. She talked about how her and a friend turned a simple podcast about motherhood into a six-figure business attracting big name advertisers like Dixie, National Geographic, and Warner Independent films. Gretchen and Paige put a lot of research into their work and it shows with a loyal following that rivals that of a major media property.
Gretchen Vogelzang gave on of the best talks of the conference about how the MommyCast got where it is today.
Social Media and New Journalism was a great talk with old media veterans Jim Long (NBC News) and Andy Carvin (NPR) discussing how new media was shaking things up in the traditional news space. They covered the mass propagation of information via Twitter citing the recent Illinois earthquake which quickly spread around the Twitterverse before any traditional news team even had a clue about what was going on.
New tools like Qik let you stream live video over the Internet from your cell phone. While the quality is low there is the ability for people watching the stream to chat and send comments straight to the cell phone creating a new dynamic between producer and consumer. You can see their whole talk which as recorded using Qik below.
Another product mentioned called Utterz lets you call a phone number and leave a voicemail which will be converted and uploaded to the Internet and pushed out as a podcast. Interactive tools like Qik and Utterz make covering an event in near-realtime a possibility.
This dynamic duo talked about how New Media is disrupting journalism. They demoed Qik and Utterz and sparked lots of good ideas from the packed crowd. See the footage from their talk below.
When lots of geeks get together, a gadget meet-and-greet is sure to happen. I saw a Nokia N810 Internet tablet and Asus Eee PC. Both were small, portable devices for surfing the web in a Wifi-heavy area.
Lots of gadget gawking going on at a geekfest like PodCampDC
The rest of the time was about meeting new people and trading ideas. I helped answer a few questions for a guy named Andrew who wanted to run a blog and video podcast all from his Blackberry. Using WordPress and Postie he can accomplish this as he travels around the country. Everyone seemed to be all abuzz about Twitter and I found a few more people to follow although it is getting harder and harder to keep up with all of my followers. I think I will be cutting back some.
There was so much discussion and exchange of ideas going on.
All in all, PodCamp DC was light on content but heavy on people. I heard a few complaints about the lack of technical podcasting instruction like the New Media Expo of late last year, but that’s what you get with a free, local conference. I know there will be a whole lot more presentations next year! I still had a great time hanging out with fellow web nerds.
You can see the rest of the photos from the day on my Flickr page. And if you want to see all of the pictures from the event just search for the tag ‘podcampdc‘
If you missed out on this unconference, there is the Social Dev Camp East coming up in 3 weeks. It is on May 10th, 2008, in Baltimore. I’ll be there and if you’ll be there do say hello.
On March 21st, 2008, Kristina and I have been together for 7 years. Most of our anniversaries were spent apart while I was in college up in Philadelphia and Kristina was studying in Maryland. This year we wanted to mark the occasion in a special way by going to a bed and breakfast in Baltimore.
The Inn
After weeding through the several different options available we chose the 1840’s Carrollton Inn just outside of the inner harbor. We stayed in the Independence suite which has burgundy walls, French Bonaparte furnishings, and a whirlpool tub. Upon entering our suite I was in awe. Kristina was really happy with our selection too. In fact we were both so pleased with the room that we cancelled our dinner reservations at Aldo’s and ordered in from Velleggia’s.
The Washington D.C. Metrorail system is the second busiest public transit system in the U.S. But when it comes to producing viral videos, Metro is probably the second worst (this video is probably #1) as evidence by this little gem:
You’ve got to give the people working at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority some credit for reaching out to the people through their own medium, YouTube. Although I think people are passing it around for a good laugh at how cheesy it is and not on how informative it might be.
The following is a brief synopsis of information reported to the Prince George’s County Police:
INCIDENT: Attempt Bank Robbery/Note OCCURRED: February 29th at 12:40p.m. LOCATION: 7406 Baltimore Avenue/Chevy Chase Bank PGPD case #: 08-060-0765
On 02-29-08 @ 12:40p.m. the suspect entered the Chevy Chase Bank located at 7406 Baltimore Ave. College Park, MD.
The suspect approached the victim teller and passed a handwritten note to the victim. The victim advised that the note stated “$3000 NOW.” The victim advised that she acted confused by the suspects note and asked him for his account number. The suspect advised that he did not have one and in a low threatening tone stated “just give me the money.” The victim then asked the manager to come over and assist. The manager/witness came over to assist and asked the suspect some questions. The suspect then changed his story and advised that he wanted a cash advance. The suspect walked out of the bank and turned left, fleeing on foot.
Photographing the unboxing of a product is a big deal in the blogosphere. Kristina must have picked up on this fact because this year for Valentines Day she wanted to take a picture of me opening every single gift that she gave to me.
The Goods. All lined up and ready to be unwrapped. I really liked the alligator box which required me to rip out it’s teeth in order to open it.
It has been nearly a month and I thought I would update everyone about the last Zune in the DC area. I managed to sell the digital media player on the Amazon Marketplace for $329.99, a 32% markup over the original price. I still needed an MP3 player for my daily commute and with the profit I decided to buy another Zune 80 online via Amazon.com instead of in person at Target. In this situation buying online was a much better deal for the following reasons:
Buying the player in person results in sales tax being tacked on. Here in Maryland, the sales tax is 5% so that would add an additional $12.50. Amazon.com doesn’t charge sales tax for Maryland residents.
Amazon.com offers a 30 day price match on it’s own products. If the price drops within 30 days of a purchase, Amazon will refund the difference. When I ordered the player on December 2nd, it was $249.00. Today it is being sold for $239.99, a difference of $9.00. Claiming a refund is easy. Just go to Amazon.com/refunds and send customer service an e-mail. If you don’t want to keep track of the price differences yourself, check out PriceProtectr.com which will send you an e-mail if there is any drop.
Both Amazon.com and any local store are sold out of the device, so I would have to wait either way. I don’t mind waiting which is why I decided to sell my first one when the demand was high.
Here is a final breakdown of the math:
1st Zune Bought at Target
$249.99
+$12.50 Sales Tax = $262.49 Total
Sold on Amazon.com Marketplace
$329.99 Price Sold
+$7.48 Shipping Credit from Amazon.com
– $10.35 Actual Shipping Cost (Added insurance to the cost)
-$28.14 Amazon Fee
– $262.49 Cost to Acquire = $36.49 Profit
2nd Zune Bought on Amazon.com
$248.99
+$5.58 Shipping and Handling
-$5.58 Free Super Saver Shipping
-$9.00 Price Difference Refund = $239.99
Final price for my Zune
$239.99 for 2nd Zune
-$36.49 Profit From 1st Zune = $203.50
Not bad for waiting a little bit longer and taking advantage of a unique situation.
All season I have been photographing the University of Maryland boys and girls Filipino flag football team. I learned a lot along the way and took over 1700+ photos on the day of the big tournament. All of this was in hopes of capturing a winning shot for the Canon Football Photo contest! The grand prize wins a trip to the Football Hall of Fame where the winning photo will be displayed in addition to a trip to the Super Bowl in February. The submission deadline is December 2nd, which means I need to pick the 10 best shots to submit in a hurry!
So here they are on Facebook, the 29 best shots. Let me know which ones are your favorite so I can narrow down a winner. If you don’t have a Facebook account, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments of this blog entry with links to your favorite ones.
My 60 GB Creative Zen Vision:M recently died and I have bee looking for a worthy replacement for the past month. The 2nd generation Zune, known as the Zune 80, is the best digital media player out there. I started looking online for a site that has the player in stock and came out with nothing. Then on a whim I looked for Target stores in my area that might have a Zune 80 available and there was only one left at the Target at Route 198 and 295. The customer service rep I talked with said they weren’t selling that well, HA! I rushed out and picked it up.
You are probably thinking that is where the story ends? I got the player I wanted and everything is grande! But this is the first time I have an item that is in frenzied demand. Such a high demand that people are willing to pay more than retail in order to get it before it comes back in stock, which could take 2-6 weeks. So I listed it on Amazon and made a post on the DC area Craigslist with a hearty markup. If it doesn’t sell in a couple of days, then I will open it up and use it, but if I can find a buyer I have no problem waiting a couple weeks to get a Zune 80 at the regular price.
running 
and 
. Both were small, portable devices for surfing the web in a Wifi-heavy area.
instead of in person at Target. In this situation buying online was a much better deal for the following reasons:
