A "Multi-Social Media" Event

I like to use various social media tools at once whenever possible.  On September 17 I was fortunate enough to launch what I like to call a "multi-social media" event in honor of Hispanic heritage month.  Dr. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Chairman Emeritus IBM Academy of Technology, joined me for a live sit-down interview that was broadcasted simultaneously on Livestream and Facebook.com.

Dr. Wladawsky-Berger described his experiences growing up as a teenager in Cuba and how he succesfully transitioned to a new life in the United States.

“My parents both were so supportive.  They kept telling me how wonderful it was to be good at math and that sort pushed me along,” he claimed. “If you’re growing up and you don’t have models that say you can be good in math and science or whatever you do then you don’t know where to look.”

Livestream.com provided our online viewers the opportunity to ask questions in real-time via its virtual chatroom.  Questions were also posted on Facebook.com/latinosatibm and were asked live during the webcast. 

Dr. Wladawsky-Berger retired from IBM in 2007 after 37 years with the company.  He was co-chair of President Clinton’s Information Technology Advisory Committee and more recently served in President Obama’s Technology Innovation and Government Reform Policy Transition Group.

Having a live audience during the event was great, but the best part was combinging Facebook and Livestream to create an effective "multi-social media" experience.

Rhapsody App for the iPhone

Rhapsody’s app for the iPhone finally became available for download earlier this week.

Many doubted the app would be approved by Apple since Rhapsody is widely considered to be an iTunes competitor.  Rhapsody, which is a subscription based music service, allows users who pay a monthly fee to stream entire albums and customize playlists from its 8 million song catalogue.  This means the need to purchase music greatly decreases since Rhapsody members are free from the iTunes model of paying for each individual song.

I’ve been a Rhapsody subscriber and fan since April of this year and the app has been a wonderful way to access my catalogue on the go.  I actually downloaded the app during a short train ride to Manhattan and was immediately able to stream music saved on my Rhapsody account. 

Names of artists I save for future listening are neatly catalogued and alphabetized:

By tapping on the selection I would like to hear, its corresponding album cover appears

above the music controls:

To receive the best service I recommend using Rhapsody while connected to a WiFi connection instead of a 3G signal.

Other music services like Pandora and Last.fm have great apps as well but do not provide me with the convenience of saving entire albums.  Their functions closely resemble a radio station.  Rhapsody is more like a box of records I can carry with me everywhere. 

Hit Me on My Twitter

Do you love Twitter enough to make a rap video about it?

Is there any way to make a rap song about Twitter without sounding corny?

A Commercial Worth Sitting Through

I found this commercial promoting Jay-Z's new album "The Blueprint 3" on Youtube and immediately shared it with as many people as I could. 

Even if you're not a Jay-Z fan I think you may appreciate how amazing this commercial looks as he recreates his album covers from the past:

You can listen to Jay-Z's new album "The Blueprint 3" on Rhapsody here:

 http://play.rhapsody.com/jay-z-2/the-blueprint-3--explicit

Want to Save Cell Phone Minutes? There's an App for That

As you may have already heard, the FCC was not too happy with the App Store's reviewal process after a Google Voice App was allegedly declined by Apple.  Many developers were also unhappy with Apple and found the reviewal process highly ineffective.  Facebook developer Joe Hewitt expressed his own discontent in a blog post by claiming that Apple's "review process needs to be eliminated completely."

The Google Voice App is a huge competitor to AT&T's business which relies on the old fashioned model of making money by charging users by the minute.

After learning some of the benefits a Google Voice App would have provided iPhone users its easy to see why Apple and/or AT&T were so hesitant about approving the app.  Some of these benefits were listed by Andy Kessler in a recent Wall Street Journal article:

"You can screen calls, listen in before answering, record calls, read transcripts of your voicemails, and do free conference calls. Domestic calls and texting are free, and international calls to Europe are two cents a minute. In other words, a unified voice system, something a real phone company should have offered years ago."

I thought the idea of making free calls using VIOP on a cell phone was ingenious. 

Recently I found a cost-effective alternative to Google Voice in order to save minutes and money while making domestic and international calls: Skype App for the iPhone.

While you can make free Skype-to-Skype Calls, your calls to landlines and cellphones can be made at incredibly low rates.  The payment process is quick and simple: sign up for a Skype account and purchase "Skype Credit" at a $10.00 minimum. 

I have been using The Skype app for weeks now and it has proven to be extremely helpful  in the following scenarios:

* To make international calls from my cell phone at really low rates

* To call landlines from my cellphone without using my minutes.

Skype does not have more bells and whistles than Google Voice but for the moment it has saved me a lot of money and a lot of minutes on my phone plan.

Wetoku.com

One of my favorite social media tools at the moment can be found at Wetoku.com. By using Wetoku you can create and record interviews using webcams and embed the recording on your blog for later viewing. Wetoku's video quality is impressive and I greatly enjoy having both interviewer and interviewee appear on the screen simultaneously. Wetoku will be very useful as it reduces the need for you to travel in order to interview someone in a different location than yours.

An added feature from Wetoku that helps make it more valuable especially to bloggers is the embed code it provides after each recording.  I was able to embed the following interview with social networking entrepeneur Guy Kawasaki by simply pasting the HTML code provided by Wetoku:

Blogging Basics

An interesting aspect of social media is that it constantly reverses the roles between authors and readers.  Visitors and authors of online blogs can choose to leave the blog’s content as is or to exchange videos, links, photos, and comments.

A great way to diversify the content that you can provide your blog readers is to add widgets or badges to your page.  “Widgets" are excellent tools that provide easy access to all of your social media content such as videos from Youtube, photos from Flickr, presentations from Slideshare and live Twitter streams.  Think of your blog as a central repository for all the social media content created by YOU.  Your audience can view a variety of content directly on your blog and immediately provide you their feedback on your comments page.  A widget I specifically would like to draw attention to here is the “Add This” or “Share This” widget.

The "Add This" (also known as "Share This"), when placed on your blog, will help audiences share your content with a variety of social networking sites such as Digg, Friendfeed, Facebook and Twitter.  With a simple click, your readers can choose a social networking site they would like to post your content on for their readers to see.  This simplifies the sharing process and provides more opportunities to increase traffic on your blog.

There is no better way to re-live an event than by seeing it unfold again right before your eyes.  Creating a Flickr to upload pictures, and placing a Flickr badge on your blog is a great idea.  Any photos you upload to Flickr will be immediately uploaded to your blog.  Creating a group on Flickr will allow your audiences to add their own photos to your group for a great collaboration experience.

Youtube has a badge similar to the Flickr one described above.  I really like the design of Youtube’s badge as it allows users to watch videos directly on your blog without having to visit Youtube.com.

Twitter is widely recognized as a valuable tool used to receive information in real-time.

A lot of bloggers have conveniently placed their personal twitter streams  directly on their blog and you can too.

Just like Youtube and Flickr, Slideshare allows you to upload presentations and place them directly on your blog.  This embed feature lets readers flip through and donwnload any presentations you place in your Slideshare account.

The badges described in this post can be found here:

Add This - http://www.addthis.com/?utm_source=hm&utm_medium=img&utm_content=ATLogo_orig&utm_campaign=AT_main

Youtube - http://www.google.com/uds/solutions/wizards/videobar.html

Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/badge.gne

Slideshare - http://www.slideshare.net/widgets

Twitter - http://twitter.com/widgets 

Lollapalooza 2009 Schedule

 My brother Bryan and I just finished a Skype video call and created the schedule of acts we will see at Lollapalooza this year.  Lollapalooza is a 3 day concert festival so we created a schedule that lists the band names we will watch in order by stage names and timeslots.

Creating the schedule was easy for the most part but we had to compromise on a few acts: I asked him to watch White Lies with me (a group he’s never listened to) and he asked me to watch Kings of Leon with him (a group I never bothered to check out).

The lineup for Lollapalooza this year was exciting enough to make me buy my ticket and flight so I can be there in person.  Some of the great bands that will play this year include headliners Depeche Mode, The Killers, and Kings of Leon on the “Budweiser” Main Stage.  Indie acts like Cold War Kids, Animal Collective, and Ra Ra Riot will also perform, while electronica artists like The Bloody Beetroots, Simian Mobile Disco, and Boys Noize will spin at “Perry’s Tent.”

If you won’t attend Lollapalooza this year don’t worry, you can listen to a nice playlist I made for you at the top of this page featuring some of its best acts.

The schedule of acts Bryan and I created is included below. One thing that appears to be missing from the list though, is the time we are going to grab a bite to eat :)

Friday

White Lies 2pm – 3pm: Budweiser Stage

The Virgins 330pm – 430pm: City Stage

The Bloody Beetroots 445pm – 515pm: Perry’s

Kings of Leon  (go to stage early at 5:15 to get to the front) 815pm – close: Budweiser

Saturday

Miike Snow 130 – 230pm (Leave Early): Vitamin Water

Los Campesinos! 230 – 330pm: Budweiser

Arctic Monkeys 430 – 530pm: Budweiser

LA Riots 600 – 6:30pm: Perry’s

Animal Collective 730 – 830pm : Vitamin Water

Sunday

Friendly Fires 1230 – 130pm : Budweiser

Kaiser Chiefs 230pm – 330pm : Budweiser

Cold War Kids 530 – 630pm : Vitamin Water

The Killers 830 – 10pm: Chicago 2016

Have you seen the full lineup of artists? Who would you want to see live in concert?

Q-Tip and Chester French LIVE

Q-Tip needs no introduction.  But I have to say that the legendary leader of A Tribe Called Quest is one of the greatest hip hop artists ever.   I was honored to attend one of his live performances last week and let me tell you.. he may be a hip hop icon but that Saturday afternoon he played like a rock star.

I expected Q-Tip's concert to maintain a chilled/jazzy/groovy hip hop vibe throught the day.  After all, his songs "We've Got the Jazz" "Electric Relaxation" and "Bonita Applebaum" are very very chilled tunes.. I was really really wrong.  Q-Tip's performance was electrifying from the second he stepped on stage with help from DJ Scratch's amazing intro:

Needless to say.. I was blown away by Q-Tip's performance.... Chester French on the other hand, is without a doubt the worst band I have ever seen live.  But, don't take my word for it.. listen to them yourself and watch the banana that gets thrown at them at the 0:25 mark:

 (Video taken by: http://www.youtube.com/user/Kngkoor1)

So other than Chester French's atrocious performance, this SummerStage concert was really an excellent event.  There are only a couple of shows left as of today in the SummerStage series but I am confident next year's will be great once again.

Enhancing Your Tweets

Twitter's popularity has turned the microblogging social network into a go-to site for sharing news and information in real-time. Unfortunately, Twitter users are only relying on this service and disregarding the countless social media tools available to them on the web.  The effectiveness of using social media comes not by using one specific tool, but rather by combining various ones together.

 

Volume 1

Bloggers should always have something interesting to say.

That is why I created this blog to share with you two things I know really well that you may find of interest: Social Media and Music.

I've had the fortune to have first hand experience in implementing social media tools to connect various people with their audiences.  I really believe you can benefit from many of the tools you will see me blog about in this page.  Examples of how new social media tools are being implemented can help you decide how you can utilize them in the future.

Growing up in a musical household I realized music can help change the atmosphere of any situation.  I promise to only blog about music worth your time visiting this page.

 If there is a social media tool you especially like or just want to say hello be sure to drop me a line in the comments section! 

Sincerely,

- Mauricio Godoy:  @mauricioswg