Summer travel is over and I’m back on the airwaves with Amber.

Beta is my new Maltipoo (Maltese/Poodle) puppy. He’s 8 weeks old and loves people.

Tags: beta, puppy, dog

What the deuce is an “internet rockstar”?

An internet rockstar is someone who doesn’t surf the series of tubes, they shred it. They have street cred. Their posse is def and their peeps roll deep.

If none of that makes sense to you: they rock out on the internet. Sometimes they jet around to conferences and parties and all that jazz. Sometimes they blog from their den at home when the kids are at school. But they always rock out, however they do it.

Fun and Good Causes

Let’s have more fun with our blogs. Every week or so we’ll pick a topic, and each create one piece of media. One week we could talk about our favorite drink to sip whilst blogging, the next week it could be about a social cause. I like the idea of using our collective audience to bring attention to good causes, in addition to just having fun. I’m also totally open to suggestions, so we can make this more and more rad as time goes on.

b5media will aggregate excerpts of our posts and use them to drive traffic to our sites. In return, they get to say they have some wicked cool people in their network. I get a bunch of cool peeps to chat with regularly. Everyone wins!

Beer me that application

Holla back at will@willpate.org to big up yourself or someone else as an internet rockstar. We’d like to launch the channel in the next week or two, with with 10-15 blogs and grow it from there.

All that we ask is that you participate in the conversation, and put a little “internet rockstar” badge on the sidebar of your blog.

b5media can run advertising if you want to make more money on your blog. They will do a 50/50 revenue split with you on the ads they sell on your site. If you don’t want to run advertising, that’s totally fine too. This project is for fun, if we can help make some bloggers some extra dough that’s great too.

What’s the catch?

You may have to explain some parts of your new rockstar lifestyle to your mother. You’re on your own with that.

Haha, my colleagues and friends at Raincity Studios made a hilarious video of their exploits at this year’s South by Southwest festival. I miss my days at Raincity and each and every person in the company, especially after watching this video. I guess I’ll just have to be happy as a co-founder, instead of an active member of the team. The world called me to other projects, but the emotional investment remains the same.

RCS CEO and 1/3 of our co-founding team, Robert Scales, a few RCS folks will be in Toronto from May 10th to 13th. If any TorCampers want to meet a badass Canadian new media entrepreneur – let me know. I’m sure we can setup a dinner and drinks in his honor.

technorati tags:robertscales, raincitystudios, rcs, newmedia, sxsw

Don’t worry, I’m staying safe as possible. We have great people on the ground here who are helping me navigate the local scene, and be a positive force instead of a typical muzungu (whitey foreigner). I’ve been stretching my language skills too; so far I’ve had to pick up some conversational German, Spanish and Swahili.

Much love from Africa!

technorati tags:africa, arusha, tanzania

A lot of people have been asking what my latest project is and why I’m going to Africa, and it’s time to come clean

My latest project is called Mazava. We’ve got seed funding to try and create a some beta social software to help manage and prevent infectious disease outbreaks in Africa. The CEO Jay challenged me to take what I know about social software and online community, and apply it to a new problem – reducing harm and saving lives. I’ve accepted his challenge, and I’ll need your help in the coming months to succeed.

I’m headed for my first trip to Africa tonight. I don’t know where I’m going yet, it’s part of the adventure. Jay wants me to learn how to cope with not having all the information. Someone once said the key to success in Africa is being like Columbo, you don’t have any answers – but you’ve always got “just one more question”

To all my friends, I’ll miss you dearly. I’ll be taking pictures and video as much as I can. And yes, I’ll try not to get eaten by lions.

technorati tags:africa, travel, mazava

Will Pate, Community Ambassador, Flock/Rockstar
Out of all the evangelists out there, I’m likely to be the most jealous of Will Pate. Not because of his dashing good looks, (or so my wife tells me) or that he’s constantly surrounded by the ladies, or stylish garb, it’s because he makes it look so easy. I recently caught up with Will at the Community Next conference in Palo Alto and he described his role at Flock to be part community advocate, and part company evangelists. He helped to bring the requirements together, connect them, and build a better product. Today, Will can be found in Toronto, and he’s switched to a part time role at Flock, what’s next for Will? Greatness I’m sure.

If I make it look easy Jeremy, it’s only because being the community guy fits my personality so well. I’ve tried a lot of roles in the tech industry, and the “community guy” one just sings for me, personally and professionally.

As for what’s next for me, well I’ve got cool news coming on that very soon.

Plan for a day worth celebrating:

• interview on CBC radio pei
• travel immunization round one
• chatting about saving lives with social software
• French food (I’m Acadian by blood)
• being little brother and uncle Will

Thanks to everyone, online and everywhere else. It’s been great having so many buds.

It’s not all bad though. I did grow a sweet beard, quit smoking while losing the 5 pounds I put on over the holidays, and my abs are in better shape than ever. Sickness: it’s the new Hollywood diet.