WPC09: Day 0

Hello Everyone, today was my first day and the Microsoft World Partner Conference 2009. I call it day 0 because technically WPC hasn't started yet but they did have some events and registration today. So now to tell you all about my day at WPC.

First let me begin with yesterday: I have never flown commercially before. So I was kind of excited and kind of nervous. I arrived a little later than I wanted to (About 28 minutes before the plane took off) but we were in Fargo so security really isn't much of an issue. I did get this picture of fog going through the valleys below us:

I thought it was a really cool picture. Either way we flew from Fargo to O'Hare and then sat there for quite a while. We did get to spin a wheel for prizes. I won a bottle of water. W00t. Either way here is Ken and I hanging out in the airport:

You can tell how excited I look about the world. After all of that we finally made it to New Orleans and I ate, a lot. Then I slept.

We finally get to the fun stuff now. My true experience at WPC09. The first thing I had to do this morning was register. For being here you get a one gig USB drive, a decent pen, and a pretty sweet bag as you can see here from my expression:

Man you can't help but love swag. Now the other big excitement at WPC09 this year is that there are Microsoft Surfaces everywhere! They are really fun to play with they gave us cards that have an IR tag on the bag that allows you to drop the card on the Surface, put your info on the screen and then get other peoples info from their cards. All at the tips of your fingers, literally! It was quite fun other than it wouldn't magically connect to my phone.

I highly suggest clicking on that picture so you can see the super cool UI. It was quite impressive the only downfall is that it had the ability to have your WPC09 schedule but you had to put it in all over again. It sadly didn't sync with DigitalWPC. Minor fail but that is ok just because it is super awesome.

Another cool thing we found walking around were the Microsoft lounges. These are cool little areas to meet up with Microsoft employees and just sit and chat. I found free software in one and so I grabbed a one of those. Also cool to notice that they are blue. Really Blue.

Yes I know, a pair of converse and shorts is pretty nerdtastic but sometimes comfort comes before style. Now because we are in New Orleans everything is very, very carvinal-y so there were random people running around, juggling, and giving out beads. Oh yeah and then there was this:

Yes, it is true I was very surprised and confused when she leaned on my head. That one picture pretty much sums up the evening nicely though. A whole lot of crazy stuff that got me way too excited for my own good. I hope everyone else at WPC is having a good time! For all of you not here you can live precariously through me!

Microsoft World Partner Conference 2009

I will be leaving at approximately 6:00 am tomorrow for New Orleans! I am going to the Microsoft World Partner Conference and I am pretty excited. So just so everyone knows I will most likely be writing daily posts about what I am doing, what I have learned, and hopefully have a pile of pictures!

If you want to keep track of me you can either follow me on twitter or just subscribe to my RSS feed and you will know pretty much my every move.

Also if you are going to the conference get a hold of me on twitter or just leave me a comment and maybe I will see you there!

North Dakota's Ultimate Internet Opportunity

I think North Dakota has the ultimate set up for a perfect internet infrastructure. At this point we have something called the STAGEnet system. You can read all about it but the basic idea of it is a statewide network. At this point it consists of a 2.5 gigabit fiber optic network that connects every public school and government building.

At this point we are paying taxes here in ND to keep the STAGEnet system up and running. I think we could easily make this system into a public internet for the whole state. Pay a little extra taxes to get it to everyone and we now have an excellent resource. Let me tell you, this needs to be done soon. At this point many people in the state either do not see the advantage of broadband or do not have broadband available to them.

I think the next step would be to hook the STAGEnet system into the current TV broadcast infrastucture. With this system you could create a publicly available wireless internet. From this point we could then use wireless IP phones and all said and told North Dakota would become a geek haven.

Of course I see the a few problems with this wonderfully amazing idea. The first is of course our state is run by a bunch of really old people. These people have not quite figured out the concept of the internet. Also we all know about the Greenlight situation and how ISP's are just plain bullies.

So what do you think? Do you think a publicly funded ISP is a horrible idea? Do you now want to move to ND and help me lobby the idea? Tell me in the comments!

Social Networking Lessons from Small Town Living

For the last few days I have been hanging out in Maddock, ND. It's a small town out in the boonies of North Dakota. I grew up in a small town but for some reason this place just feels smaller than my hometown of Hunter, ND. I can't place my finger on it but it seems to be the community.

People around here seem to know everyone and your mom. It is amazing how everyone here seems to know everyone else's name or their aunt or went to school with your grandmother's nanny. I think it's amazing how well connected everyone is and how genuinely interested the next person is in their fellow man.

I think the internet and social networking could take a lesson from this small group of old people. Learn to be genuinely interested in each other. Learn to know every one else's name. All in all learn to be a part of the community, you may not bring food to the pot luck but you should try to bring information to the table.

Posted via email from Cameron's posterous

Tweetmeme: For people who really digg Twitter

Tweetmeme is a service that aggregates links placed on Twitter and gives you a page of the most popular links on Twitter at the time based on retweets. Think of it as Digg only instead of hitting the digg button you just retweet the link or put the link in any conversation and Tweetmeme keeps track of it. It is the equivalent of voting by word of mouth.

I think Tweetmeme is a very powerful tool for getting information from Twitter. I use it every day to keep track of some of the more popular things floating around on twitter. It also is more reliable than just looking at Twitter trends because you get the full link plus the context. Not just a bunch of people spamming the ever living hell out of a keyword.

The biggest issue I have with Tweetmeme is how over run it is by Mashable. Yes the site has excellent news but seriously. I want to see someone else's perspective not just Pete Cashmore's. The only reason this bugs me is because every time I go on Tweetmeme at least two of the front page links have Mashable on it. As of writing this blog post 3 or the 15 front page retweets were Mashable. (I can't complain too much though, I am linking to the site aren't I.)

I think everyone should go out and get on Tweetmeme. As long as you have a Twitter account you have a Tweetmeme account. It is also great to see who is promoting your links without you even knowing it!

What Will You Do With Your 50 Extra Twitter API Requests?

Many people are noticing that you can now make 150 API requests on twitter! Yay!

Here are 5 things I am going to do with those extra requests:

1. Send tweets letter by letter on Tweetdeck...by the end I will still have 10 requests left!

2. DM my mom (@crazeoldlady) as much as she DM's me!

3. Use my blackberry (ubertwitter) and Tweetdeck at the same time!

4. Promote my blog even more.

5. Annoy everyone 50 more times...per hour!

So what will you do with your extra twitter requests? Tell me in the comments!

Woopra: The Fun Analytics

Woopra is a really fun web analytics system. I personally like it because it is very live. And by live I mean you can watch people pop in and out to the second. It is excellent and very time consuming. At this point I think Woopra will be a great contender for your web statistics soon. But not quite yet.

Woopra has a few really great features such as Live Chat with Visitors, a great desktop app, and great ways to find out where your traffic is really coming from. The biggest issue I have though is one of those great features (Live Chat with Visitors) doesn't work. Well, it is supposed to work in one of the older versions but is being "reconstructed" at the moment. I want to be able to use that feature, ESPECIALLY if you advertise it.

All in all, I like Woopra. I think it will someday be an excellent product. At this point though it needs some work. If you want to though, check it out, I would apply now though because the approval process does take a while.