Social media isn’t all about the numbers and it’s not about pleasing everyone. Stopping worrying so much about who is or isn’t following you, reading your blog posts or friending you on various social networks (that I don’t belong to, btw).

It’s about finding people that are relevant or interesting to you and establishing a relationship. Why sift through all the noise to find the relevant chunks? Remove the noise and begin to see things more clearly.

I describe my current process for keeping things relevant. Are you ready? It’s time to start trimming the fat from your social media diet.

Read the rest of this entry »

Even though there has been a big emphasis lately on building relationships online, it is still important to foster your offline relationships, too. It shouldn’t be about quantity of connections as tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. would train us to believe.

Instead, it should be about the quality of the connections you have with people. Those relationships can be helped by taking time to meet with those people offline and in small groups. I present a specific challenge to you to do just that.

Read the rest of this entry »

Foursquare is a location-based application for discovering people and places in your city. They award points, badges and mayorships when you check in at a venue and encourage the growth of local businesses and community. Many people in Phoenix are already making use of Foursquare as a tool for community growth, are you?

Read the rest of this entry »

Brian Shaler recently release a new site for Phoenix technology and business events called Eventification. Phoenix OpenCoffee has already made the switch to scheduling our events on the site and hopefully other event organizers will too. It gives you the ability to browse by topics and date as well as subscribe to events through RSS and iCal.

There are many ways the Phoenix community can help promote new initiatives like this and I explore a few of those in this post. What are you doing to support Phoenix?

Read the rest of this entry »

Local Phoenix artist and photographer, Tyson Crosbie, has self published two fine art photography books entitled, Phoenix 20 and Phoenix 21. They contain photographs he has taken while exploring downtown Phoenix and allows you to experience the world through the eyes of an artist.

Now, he’s offering you the chance to exhibit a Phoenix 21 image in your home. Find out what you need to do in order to qualify!

Read the rest of this entry »

The Phoenix startup community is difficult to nail down, but there are many efforts under way to change this. Curtis Miller and Chris Chandler of Flatterline are committed to helping Phoenix startups get off the ground. From offering web application development for startups to organizing, promoting and attending entrepreneurial events in Phoenix.

Our intent is to help the Phoenix entrepreneurial community grow and thrive. Find out about the events we’re organizing and let us know how we can help you.

Read the rest of this entry »

Update
Sadly, CollabLab closed and Mike moved on to other pursuits.
If you’re still looking for a great coworking space in Phoenix, then give CO+HOOTS creative coworking a try. It’s centrally located in a historic building and is a great place to work!

On Wednesday, February 18th, Phoenix is getting a new coworking space: [...]

Read the rest of this entry »

The transition team for Obama is doing a pretty good job keeping things transparent and open, but they need your input to truly effect change. I submitted on Change.gov a while ago, but kept the transcript of what I submitted:

As a software engineer, I appreciate your focus on technology and how it has helped shaped [...]

Read the rest of this entry »

Hacknight is a great way to meet new people in the Phoenix area with which to collaborate, brainstorm or just have fun with. We’re all tech geeks looking to meet other like-minded people.

Whether you have a project or are looking to collaborate on one, this is the place to be. Hacknight happens every Wednesday night, so come down and participate in growing the Phoenix community.

Read the rest of this entry »

I need some new music to add to my collection. I’ve been listening to the same couple of CDs for the last 4 months. Please help me by recommending your current favorite!
Leave your suggestions in the comments, I’ll post my purchases here afterward.
The Purchase
So after much time spent listening to samples from the recommendations I [...]

Read the rest of this entry »