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Category: Books

Yes, Portland, you can has Cheezburger… and Teh Itteh Bitteh Book of Kittehs

I Can Has Cheezburger and its wonderful world of LOLcats and the LOLrus. And this Thursday the CEO of all things Cheezburger, Ben Huh, will be making an appearance at Powell’s. Even better? You’re invited.

So here’s the startup idea. Let’s take pictures of cats… wait not only cats. Cats and every once in awhile? A walrus. Or maybe a bunny. Okay, so let’s take those pictures and then allow people to write things on them. With really really bad grammar. And then they can share them with their friends. And the world.

What do you mean you’re not going to fund that? Well, too bad. Because that? That’s the biggest WordPress implementation of them all, I Can Has Cheezburger and its wonderful world of LOLcats and the LOLrus. And this Thursday the CEO of all things Cheezburger, Ben Huh, will be making an appearance at Powell’s. Even better? You’re invited. Read More

Paperbacking Portland geogeeking: Adam DuVander releases Map Scripting 101

Yes, I realize “paperbacking” isn’t a word. But you hip kids Google and Skype and whatnot. I thought you would give me a little leeway. Or something. What’s that? Whoa whoa whoa. “Geogeeking” is so a word. Is so. Is so!

I think we’re just going to have to agree to disagree. (Is SO!) Because I’ve got more important fish to fry here. You see, one of our favorite Portland tech types—Adam DuVander—has finished his tome to geogeeking (is SO!), Map Scripting 101: An Example-Driven Guide to Building Interactive Maps with Bing, Yahoo!, and Google Maps. And we’re not talking any eBook here. We’re talking real dead tree stuff. And that, my friends, deserves a Map Scripting 101 launch party. Read More

Gary Vaynerchuk planning to swing back by Portland on the Crush It! book tour

[HTML1]Usually, I’m pretty last minute about letting you know when relevant authors are in town. I was pretty tardy with the news on dooce speaking in Portland. And I didn’t do much better with a heads up on Sarah Lacy’s user generated book tour stop.

But this time, I feel like I’m actually going to give you fair warning: Gary Vaynerchuk—affectionately known as @garyvee—will be stopping by Powell’s Downtown as part of the junket for his new book, Crush It! But not until October 19—so you’ve got plenty of time to prep. Read More

Hey Portland! How’s your whuffie? Don’t know? Tara Hunt may be able to help

And no one knows the topic better than Tara “@missrogue” Hunt, who has written the definitive book on the topic, The Whuffie Factor. What’s more she’ll be speaking on the topic in Portland twice this week.

That’s right, Portland. I asked how your whuffie was doing. Your whuffie. Your… wait a second. Let me step back.

What’s whuffie, you ask? Well according to Wikipedia, “Whuffie is the ephemeral, reputation-based currency of Cory Doctorow‘s science fiction novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.”

So what’s that got to do with you? Well, whuffie has also become a way of describing your goodwill—your social media capital, as it were—online and elsewhere in your life. What you give and what you get from your interactions with others.

And no one knows the topic better than Tara “@missrogue” Hunt, who has written the definitive book on the topic, The Whuffie Factor. What’s more she’ll be speaking on the topic in Portland twice this week. So get ready to talk whuffie. Read More

Companies and Communities: Participating without being sleazy

Dawn FosterWhen it comes to social media and community management, few folks in Portland—arguably few folks in the world—understand it as well as Dawn Foster, @geekygirldawn.

For those of you who haven’t had a chance to meet her, Dawn is a community management powerhouse. She has more than 13 years of experience in technology and software with expertise in open source software, web 2.0, social media, blogging, and community building, working at companies like Intel and Jive Software. She’s also a co-founder and board member for Legion of Tech. Dawn currently consults on social media and community management and serves as the community manager for Shizzow.

So when I heard she was working on a book that was going to give me access to some of her insights, I got a wee bit giddy.

And now, it’s available.

Entitled Companies and Communities: Participating without being sleazy, the 80-page eBook touches on topics like blogging, Twitter, social networks, and customer-centric corporate communities.

Companies and Communities is focused on helping your company get real business value out of participating in online communities and social media. This 80 page eBook contains practical advice and suggestions for how companies can engage with online communities and social media sites.

How practical? Well, it’s full of things which we—as individual social media participants—may think are obvious, but are far from it. Especially for corporations. Things like:

Not all about you

Social media is a conversation, which is by definition two-way. In other words, it is not all about you, your company, your products or your agenda. It involves listening and participating in the broader community of people. Don’t just expect people to help you; jump in and help other people in areas where you have some expertise. If all you do is pimp your products without adding to the broader conversation, people will lose interest in you pretty quickly.

The eBook is delivered in PDF format. It’s available for $19.99. To purchase your copy, visit Dawn’s Fast Wonder Blog eBook section. Or, if you want to test drive it first, there’s an excerpt available.

I’m already thumbing through my own copy. Now, I just have to figure out how to get the author to autograph an eBook.

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