Hey everyone, AdTech Miami is coming up in under a month, and we’ve still got some great discount coupons/codes for you all.
So get your 25% off using coupon code: ATMB2A
Thanks,
Brian
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We had a great meetup last night with over 30 participants at the University of Miami’s School of Communication. Notably, the folks from Agency.net AgencyNet.com in Ft. Lauderdale attended for the first time, thanks to Dan Rubin. Hopefully we’ll see more folks from Broward and perhaps we can hold some meetups there as well.
Michael Montgomery spoke to us about “Web Standards for Skeptics” and the advantages of separating content, style and behavior when creating web sites. Rather than summarizing his speech, here’s a link to Michael’s presentation, which he placed online using … web standards!
While responding to a question, Michael referred to an article he’d written on “Copyright Primer for Designers“.
Upcoming stuff:
Posted in Meetings, Site News, event | 3 Comments »
We have a great talk lined up for Wednesday night, in addition to the always-popular casual conversation time — Michael Montgomery will be presenting, and here’s the gist straight from him:
“Web Standards for Skeptics”
The presentation is essentially about web standards as a competitive advantage.
The typical response to web standards goes something like this:
“I don’t care about web standards. I care about revenue, profit, ROI, SEO, fast pages, customers, costs, maintenance, development, scalability, flexibility, liability….”
Questions & Answers (also known as Objections & Excuses):
Check out the Upcoming.org event to let us know you’re coming and get maps/directions to the UM School of Communication.
After a fun and interesting BarCamp in Miami in February, we’re going to hold the second one in September. For more about our first event, here are some links:
http://barcamp.org/Barcamp-Miami
This time, it’s a DemoCampMiami, which is a lighter version of BarCamp. This means that the presentations are consecutive and are limited eight startups, four of which have already signed up. DemoCamp will last about 2:30 hours on Wednesday, September 19th.
We know it’s four months away, but if you think you will make it, please sign up already on the DemoCampMiami page so we can plan for the right sized venue. You may sign up at:
http://www.barcamp.org/DemoCampMiami
The password is c4mp
If you’re not familiar editing wikis, please feel free to message me directly and I’ll add your name to it.
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event//
If you would like to help setup DemoCampMiami and in the process get more closely involved with the RefreshMiami community, please let me know, we could use your help! There’s nothing major to do, but the more people help, the easier it is for everyone.
-Alex
www.scrapblog.com
www.tapio.com
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I have been asked to prepare a course on Social Media for the University of Miami and have developed the following outline. Enrollment is now open, please let me know if you have any questions or topics you would like to see covered. I may be reached at alex [at] decarvalho [dot] net. If you know someone who would be interested in this class, please let them know about it or contact me.
School of Communication, University of Miami
Course CVJ 596 – Fall Semester 2007
The Web, Take 2: online expression, community building and citizen journalism
Course Description and Purpose
This course covers the implications of new media technologies on communities and on the media. Through the practice of online publishing, the course will explore the social and cultural dimensions of the new media landscape including online expression, social networking, identity management, citizen journalism and community-building.
Communities thrive through the passion and shared interest of their members, and we will learn from case studies and invited speakers, new effective strategies and applications that help foster these interests. Students will critically engage contemporary writings in social, cultural and online studies. Required readings expose students to current readings in cyberspace scholarship, and provide a base from which to explore their own interests. Lectures by the instructor resituate these readings in terms of broader sociological concerns and specific examples and case-studies of emerging technologies and media.
Course Prerequisites
The class is open to students from all schools at UM and there are no prerequisites for this class. Preference will be given to students with an interest in media development.
Materials Fees
Students will not be required to purchase any materials or books and all required reading will either be handed out or available online for free. We want to keep readings as current as possible and will regularly assign materials that are not listed on the syllabus. Students will be responsible for keeping up to date with the course’s blogroll. Handouts will be provided in the class and students are responsible for reading assigned materials and the blogroll prior to each class.
Course Topics Outline (to be revised)
1. Course introduction and overview. Blogging basics, RSS feeds and feedreaders.
2. Wikipedia overview and discussion. Wikipedia editing basics.
3. Social Bookmarking overview and discussions. Social Bookmarking basics.
4. Lifestreams overview and discussion. Lifestream basics.
5. Media sharing overview and discussion. YouTube; Flickr.
6. Social Networking overview and discussion. LinkedIn, MySpace, Orkut, Flickr.
7. Other forms of online collaboration, including IM, SMS, VoIP, shared documents.
8. Online Identity, pseudonimity and privacy discussion. OpenID, ClaimID, Ziki.
9. Online reputation systems. Ebay, iKarma, TheGorb, the blogosphere.
10. The internet, Take 2: the rise and rise of the social web
11. Community building online: case studies
12. Community building online: creating and cultivating social objects
13. Community building: the new, new marketing
14. Community building: using online tools for better local communities
15. The new world of media: is online the future
16. The new world of media: how media is adapting
17. The new world of media: best practices
18. The new world of media: citizen journalism
19. The new world of media: ethics
20. The new world of media: mashups
21. Digital Storytelling
22. Student presentations and class discussion
23. Student presentations and class discussion
24. Student presentations and class discussion
Posted in Site News | 3 Comments »
MOCAfresh celebration April 28, 12-4pm
Originally uploaded by alexdecarvalho.
MOCA will celebrate the best of young Miami with MOCA Fresh, a special day of art, music, dance, design and technology for teens and young adults. MOCA Fresh will be held on Saturday, April 28 from noon to 4 pm and is free of charge. In conjunction with the final weekend of MOCA’s exhibition Merce Cunningham: Dancing on the Cutting Edge, MOCA Fresh will focus on the central elements of Cunningham’s creative legacy — the convergence of dance, art, music and technology in a spontaneous form to create new ‘fresh’ expression.
Fresh Moves, Fresh Sounds: Continuous live dance and music performances will be offered throughout the day. On stage in MOCA Plaza, Rudy Goblen of The Flipside Kings, will host a B-Boy break dance battle. In the spirit of legendary choreographer Merce Cunningham’s Chance Operations, each dancer will roll dice to determine their dance style. Also performing will be dance students from Norland High School and Charles Drew Middle School. Radio DJ KFoxx of 99 Jamz will host live performances by musical guests and audience members will be invited to join in a karaoke competition.
Fresh Tech: Scrapblog.com, a new tech start-up company based in Coral Gables will be demonstrating their new multimedia software which allows users to create multimedia on-line scrapbooks.
Fresh Forum: Students may explore new forms of expression in three separate interactive technology workshops: Art+Design, Music+Performance and. Anything+Everything. Sign up today for your 15 minutes of fame: mocafresh@mocanomi.org
Fresh Art: Students from Michael Krop Senior High School fine arts magnet program will exhibit their paintings, drawings, photography and sculpture in a special exhibition in MOCA’s Pavilion Gallery.
Fresh Gear: Designer R. Grimes will demonstrate silk-screening methods by creating custom t-shirts. Miami urban boutique, Culture Kings, will direct a sneaker design workshop. Participants are asked to bring their own gear.
Event details:
MOCA North Miami
April 28, 2007,noon to 4pm, FREE of charge
770 NE 125th ST, North Miami, FL 33161
305 893 6211 www.mocanomi.org
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refreshmiami.org anniversary
Originally uploaded by alexdecarvalho.
Well, if you want to be picky about it, the first RefreshMiami occurred on May 4th, 2006, at a Starbuck’s on Alton Road with just a few people. Over the course of the year, Refresh has been an opportunity to meet people, to get involved in the local tech community, to learn about and follow local startups, to hear new speakers, to find a job and to have fun and chat in a relaxed atmosphere.
Over the next year, we hope to grow in new ways, including:
- regular monthly meetings with speakers
- informal bi-weekly or more frequent meetups
- workshops on web 2.0 / social media / design / running a startup
- co-working location discussion and setup
- bootstrap network ideas
- refreshmiami online forum
If you’ve got more ideas on how you would like to see RefreshMiami evolve, please let us know by posting a comment here, in our Facebook group, in the googlegroup or privately to Dan, Kim, Brian, Nick or me.
By the way, Brian recently sent out a survey, please respond by next week so he can compile the results. We’ve already learned that word of mouth brings in over half of new participants … so tell your friends!
Posted in Site News | 1 Comment »
It’s that time again, so let’s get right to it: Our next meeting is going to be a totally casual gathering, in part to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of Refresh Miami, and so everyone can just chill out, relax, and share with our fellow Refreshers.
This month’s Refresh will be held Wednesday, April 25th @ 7:30pm at the Rathskeller on the UM campus in Coral Gables (need directions? here’s the location on Yahoo! Maps: http://tinyurl.com/26ttmk).
There’s wireless access, and the Rathskeller is open until 10pm, so we’ll all have plenty of time to chat with everyone 
Oh behalf of Brian, Nick, Alex and everyone else who’s helped make this first year happen, thanks for participating — Refresh is nothing without you!
See you all next week!
Posted in Meetings, event | 1 Comment »
To try and get Refresh on more calendars (and get more people showing up each month) we’ve scheduled meeting dates and secured the room at the University of Miami (thanks Kim!) for the following dates:
We’ll still post reminders each month, but now you can get the dates on your calendars and plan ahead — even invite someone to a future meeting!
Now, what we really need your help with are the speakers and topics: The format of the meetings will be changing slightly, with more time for casual conversation, but we still want to have main topics for each meeting, and speakers whenever possible.
To that end, please send me any topics or speakers you would like to see at Refresh, and I’ll get on organizing things pronto. I’m already working on rescheduling Paul Scrivens (from 9rules), and have been talking with a few other folks who would be happy to come down and speak (if anyone’s interested in hearing from Dan Benjamin of Cork’d and Hivelogic fame, let me know), but I’d love to match speakers with the topics you all want to hear about.
Thanks for helping make Refresh Miami better!
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Some days just feel like a wild ride in a rodeo! Without the gloves!
Sure, Scrapblog had been TechCrunched before, but not like this: The Real Scrapblog is Here … Finally. Previously, either we were still open with the first version, or we had put on the “bubble wrap” as we prepared for launch.
Except, of course, we haven’t launched yet!
We had been handing out a preview URL (www.scrapblog.com/preview) to friends and previous users of Scrapblog, to help us kick the tires, adjust the mirrors and rev up the engine before we got on the highway.
Despite our plans, it didn’t quite work out that way and once TechCrunch posted URL, bloggers picked it up and word started to get out.
Thankfully, our advisors, including Shel, David and Tara, and our peers, including Jeremiah, Hyku, Douglas Karr, and Ryan Stewart pitched in with their respective megaphones to point out that we’re still tidying up around here 
And lost in the excitement was a bit of heroism by our developers, who had already been pushed to the max. As Tara and Ryan
describe, Omar and his team stepped up to the plate to collaborate with
Adobe’s Apollo team, who wanted to demo a kick-ass application. Since
Scrapblog is built in Flex, Omar downloaded the Apollo SDK and stitched
together a demoable application for the platform. With a bit more work,
we can be ready for Apollo, which is “totally” cool for a whole bunch
of reasons I won’t go into. As a bonus, it runs on the laptop as well,
so now we can demo Scrapblog without being connected to the “innernets”
Anyway, having advisors, mentors and peers to count on is critical for a startup. But so is having a great bunch of friends, from a great local community. And RefreshMiami was there for us through this, with Brian, Kim, Jason and others pitching in with comments today.
Looking at it from 30,000 feet, though, RefreshMiami counts even more for us. It has been a focal point of inspiration, learning and fraternizing, as we help each other grow the web in Miami. The web 2.0 and the web of friendships.
Remind you of a Beatles song?
Technorati Tags: scrapblog, techcrunch, david parmet, shel israel, tara hunt, jeremiah owyang, hyku, douglas karr, ryan stewart
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