If you know someone who is trying to figure out what this whole “online community” thing is all about, send them to register for CommunityNext. On February 10th at Stanford University, the people I’ve learned from will be laying down the truth on how to do it right. If you want to get your brand in front of a small group of influential online gatekeepers and tastemakers, may I suggest sponsorship.

I’ve been to enough conferences to have a pretty good idea ahead of time when one is going to be really special. I’m even considering paying out of my own pocket to go, if this blog post doesn’t convince a few of you to sign up or sponsor and tell em Will Pate sent you.

It’s no surprise to me that such a conference is being run by my friend Noah Kagan, who was part of the early Facebook team, after stints at Intel and Microsoft. Noah’s putting on the exact conference, with the same speakers that I’d want to put on if I was in his shoes.

Hope I see you there

technorati tags:communitynext, community, conference

Opera Software has hired a community leader as their first Technical Evangelist. Since October 2004, Daniel Goldman has been writing the Opera Watch weblog. I’ve been reading Opera Watch since I joined Flock in March and he does a great job. I’m sure he’ll continue to do so in his new role.

One of the advantages of meeting and speaking to many Opera users is that I’ll get the feel of what features users want added or modified in the browser. I’ll have direct access to our development teams, and I’ll work hard at making sure those features that our users dream of, turn into reality.

Joining Opera Software as a Technical Evangelist » Opera Watch

That’s one of my favorite and the most important parts of my job as Community Ambassador at Flock, Daniel. I hope it’s as enjoyable for you too.

So with all the major web browsers now having “community” people, and my respected colleague Jeremiah even saying that the Internet Explorer team gets community one question comes to mind. Has there ever been a better time to use a web browser? We’re all listening.

technorati tags:opera, operawatch, danielgoldman, browser, community
Blogged with Flock

This is just wicked cool, there is no other way to say it.

technorati tags:video, japan, art
Blogged with Flock

Community can make or break a bricks and mortar company, just like they can web company.

Tower USED to be about community around music, and enabling that community through stores that felt like they catered to your desire as a music fan. The Brea Tower was amazingly fun, and at any point you’d find skate punks outside, hipsters inside, awesome music playing and people geeking out in the video section about some anime. Then they moved it to a two story “Borders like” space in “Downtown Brea” (sarcasm intended) which sucked the living soul out of the experience. You don’t want escalators at Tower. No, the Tower lesson isn’t about the Internet destroying brick/mortar, its about loosing a sense of community.

Ethan Kaplan: Lessons to be Learned From Tower Records

technorati tags:music, towerrecords, community, marketing, business
Blogged with Flock

Bay Area Flock peeps! Come meet some Flockers and fellow Flockstars next week at one of our two Bay Area meetups. We’ve got on in San Francisco and one in Mountain View so we can meet as many of you as possible. Click the links to sign up on Upcoming.

San Francisco Flock Meetup
Tuesday, August 29, 2006 (7:00 PM)
Crepes on Cole @ 100 Carl St. (at Cole Street), San Francisco

South Bay Flock Meetup
Wednesday, August 30, 2006 (7:00 PM)
St Stephens Green @ 223 Castro Street, Mountain View

technorati tags:flock, sanfrancisco, meetup
Blogged with Flock