There was some great brainstorming going on, but not nearly enough time to discuss the massive changes and shifts happening on the Internet.  Thus, the reason I was inspired to share some ideas about what I see coming.

And while many organizations and face-to-face meetings are still important, from an online standpoint, I cannot tell you how radically things are currently changing right before our eyes when it comes to marketing and social networking.

Are chamber of commerce groups important-yes. Will there always be a need for television ads and print material such as newspapers-for some.

But at the same time, future generations are not going to want yesterday’s news once a day, and DVRs are already becoming the kiss of death for TV advertising.  What I see is that conversations are becoming the new way that we talk about businesses, products, and services.

Recently, I attended WordCamp San Francisco, and one of the themes I heard from various speakers was community, groups, and relationships.  And based on that, I wrote “conversations” on one of the tablets which asked “what does WordPress mean to you in one word.”

I know this is going to sounds extremely cliché, but social networking tools such as blogging, videos, FaceBook, and Twitter are where we’re heading.

Will some of these be around in the future? Maybe and maybe not.  But it’s not so much the forum, but the tool itself.  Blogs are not going away.  Videos are not going to disappear.  And maybe new social networking sites will replace FaceBook or Twitter, but the concepts will still be the same.

Both online and face-to-face communities, groups, and relationships will be the new evangelists, advertisers, and mavens.

What I would recommend is instead of brushing off these new technologies and trends, embrace them for what they are now, so you can stay ahead of the game in the future and maximize the potential for your business, while others are left to try and figure it out later and try to catch up.

And if you’re interested in the Bakersfield Business Referral Network Meetup group, you can find more information here about signing up.  It’s a great group of people who are trying to stay ahead of the curve, and are sharing ideas on how to survive in the future economy.

What I mean is that while I find myself using iPhone applications such as Tweetie and FaceBook to quickly upload some content, that doesn’t work when taking pictures with my SLR, shooting video with the Vado, or recording audio with my iRiver.

So until I have a device that has both quality and the ability to instantly upload to the cloud in an easy way, I’m going to have to focus of making myself process the content.

And one thing I have realized when it comes to processing content, is the longer I wait to deal with it, the less chance this task has of being completed.

In other words, for me, what I’ve found that works best is to transfer and upload the content as soon as possible afterwards.  If I wait longer than 2-3 weeks I usually won’t deal with it.

For example, WordCamp San Francisco was almost 3 weeks ago as of this writing, so unless I process the audio and video I captured this coming weekend, more than likely it will never get done.

I guess this is not much different from other tasks in life–but it just seems like with so many devices and content becoming part of our daily lives, it makes it seem so overwhelming sometimes.  So how do you deal with content overload?

The site interface is simple, and one of the first things I did as a new visitor was search for proposals from schools in my area.  By typing Bakersfield in the search box, I found several local schools who had active proposals.

In addition to the site, Social Actions Labs created a WordPress plugin called Possible Related Classroom Projects which displays donorschoose.org campaigns at the bottom of posts based on content.  Clay Burell did a nice job of summarizing donorschoose.org and the WordPress plugin here.

And while I like the idea of the plugin, I have a couple of recommendations as to enhancements.  First, why not offer an option to embed the project campaign links into the sidebar?  I understand sidebar real estate is limited, but it would allow for an educational-focused website (such as a PTA or school parent club) to display the information in a more prominent position.

Secondly, instead of showing proposals related to content, why not allow keywords to be included–similar to donorschoose.org website search results?  For example, only showing Bakersfield-related projects.  I realize this limits the results, but again, if I’m supporting a Bakersfield educational-related website, I probably don’t want proposals from other areas to be displayed.  Not to mention the kinds of results that may be displayed based on my content.  I noticed there is a way to not display related proposals in a post using a variable, but this does not seem ideal.

Again, I think the donorschoose.org concept is great!  What a neat way to support educational projects–both at the national and local level.  And no doubt the WordPress plugin can enhance the ability to support those projects, but I think the plugin could be enhanced to offer multiple placement options, and the ability to focus on local search results.

UPDATE:After being contacted by someone at donorschoose.org regarding the enhancements I mentioned, I was informed that the website allows the ability to create custom RSS feeds and widgets. By using the SpringWidgets creator, you can get code for multiple scenarios.

After doing a search for Bakersfield, I used the options from SpringWidgets to export the widget into html, which I then embeded into a WordPress sidebar widget and bingo. You could also embed into a single post, which might be a useful solution if the post is specific for education campaigns and not the entire focus of the website.

Meanwhile, I recorded some audio from the event, including Matt Mullenweg’s The State of the Word session, and this weekend I finally got around to processing it. 

Although John’s video from The State of the Word is the real deal, if you are interested, you can download the audio portion of the talk here, or you can play it below.

As for the specs, I recorded it using an iRiver iFP-890 (internal mic), sent it through Levelator, and exported it using Audacity. 

I wrote an article earlier this year about using WordPress as a digital scrapbook.  Although it has been a while, I finally put an example together based on my original thought. 

My son and I recently went camping, so I put some of the content from the trip together in a post.  The elements of the post included using an embedded Google map based on the GPS location I took at the campsite;  an information balloon within the map that contains information about the campsite, weather during the trip, and links to a Picasa album; scanned PDF of the campsite map; and a narrative of our trip and some highlights.

Below is the Google map and a link to the campsite map.  I used the Google Maps Quicktag by Daniel Denk, as I regularly use the Google My Maps and this plugin was the easiest to incorporate the embed link to display the map.

View Larger Map

Here’s a slideshow:

To take the digital scrapbook idea to another level, you could create a My Maps of a larger area (say the United States) with markers of event locations that would link to smaller focus maps.

By combining available content such as pictures, video, GPS coordinates, and Google maps within WordPress, you can easily create a digital scrapbook to capture life events in a format available to family and friends.

Below is a narrative of day one of the camping trip.
 

Carson and I went camping to Sequoia National Park on June 20, 2008

We had reservations at the Lodgepole Campground.  The park was quite full, and I knew it was going to be, as I had made the reservations online about three months before, and even then there were only a handful of spots left.  So although our campsite was nice, it was slim pickings. 

Carson fought a nap the whole way from Bakersfield and during the last 15 minutes of the trip he finally dozed off, which is about how long we had been in the forest.  He woke up after his catnap when we arrived at the park entrance and talked to the ranger.

The entire park and its staff remind you all of the time about the situation with food and bears, and they were very strict about not even leaving food out unless it’s only an arm-length away.

Day One:

Carson was very excited when we finally got to our campsite and was ready to explore, but I told him we needed to set up camp.  He had so many questions.  I had packed way more stuff then we probably needed (supplies and food), and it made for what seemed long a long and laborious camp setup.  We had a new larger tent and I was anxious to see how big it was.  I was happy with it and it did well the entire trip.

After setting up camp, we went down to the river, which was located about 30 yards south of the campsite.  Carson and I threw rocks for a little bit, and then he wanted to put his feet in the water.  We took our shoes off and put our feet in the water and it was extremely cold.  No doubt you could tell this was recent snow pack melt.  Both of us could not keep our feet in the water for longer than a few minutes.

After checking out the river, we had some snacks and then headed over to the Lodgepole market to get some firewood and snacks.  After that we stopped by the visitor’s center, but it was already closed as by now it was getting to be late afternoon.  Carson wanted to explore some more but I wasn’t sure when it would get dark and I wanted to be prepared to make dinner and make a fire.  As we headed back, we used a payphone to call mommy and left her a message letting her know we made it okay.

After heading back to camp, Carson wanted to go back to the river.  We went and threw more rocks and did a little more  exploring.  He was curious about the rainbow trout we could see in the river, the rocks, plants, etc.  He wanted to even try and go out in the river but it was running way too fast, and especially with how cold the water was.

We headed back to the campsite and next Carson and I took a quick bike ride.  I didn’t bring my bike so I walked while Carson rode.  The campsite was completely sold out and there were a lot of families and kids around doing the same, riding bikes and taking walks.

On the eastern end of the campground loop we were located on, we could see people coming back from a hike on the Tokopah Falls trail.  Carson asked where they were coming from and I did my best to explain what they were doing.  This greatly intrigued Carson and he told my straightaway that he wanted to go on a hike.  I told him it was too late this day but that maybe tomorrow we could go hiking.

We headed back to the campsite and started getting ready for the evening.  For dinner I made spaghetti and Carson was quite hungry and ate two big bowls. 

I forgot how much work was involved with cooking and cleaning while camping, especially trying to keep Carson busy as I was flying solo.  I remembered that I had brought the older Sony cybershot digital camera for him so I let him go to it.  Many of the pictures in the album were taken by Carson.

After dinner I started the fire.  Even though it was starting to get dark, Carson was having a hard time not doing anything for any of amount of time.  As twig light arrived, a huge amount of bats came out to snack on the larger insects flying around.  It was quickly getting dark and Carson had no other choice but to rest.  As soon as the sun dropped it started getting cold.  I wondered if being near the river would make it even colder at night, and it turned out it sure seemed like it did.

I had brought stuff to make s’mores and I was hoping Carson would be excited about this.  He had fun cooking his own marshmallows but he really didn’t care for them, nor the graham crackers, which was surprising because he eats them at home.  So it turned out the chocolate was the only thing he ate.

With all the excitement, Carson had not taken his usual nap.  He was so tired that pretty much after s’mores we got ready for bed.  By now it was so dark you could really see the stars.  Carson was pretty amazed and how many you could see. I got the portable DVD player out of the car, and set it up in the tent.  Carson wanted to watch the Cat and the Hat movie.  The funny thing about that was the next morning, when Carson told me that after I turned on the movie, he fell asleep before the cat made an appearance in the movie–he was so tired.  That was it for day one.

Audio Listener Feedback – My original thought was that getting a toll-free number would open the floodgates for listeners to call in and leave feedback, but it turns out that is a lot easier said than done.  Even though the call was free, it was tough to get listeners to call in and leave feedback.  At the time (at least for this podcast), we found people were much more willing to leave feedback using email vs. calling in.  I even personally found this to be true when one time I left audio feedback for the Daily Source Code podcast.  FYI–I used Kall8 as our toll-free provider, and the service was excellent.

Consistency – Based on NASCAR news, we found that Tuesday evening was the best day for Stockcarzone to be released.  However, on the one or two occasions that the show came out later than usual, we noticed a drop in downloads of that episode.  Listeners expect to be able to download and listen to the show on a consistent basis, and this will maximize the number of listeners.  However, see the next paragraph for the exact opposite type of listener.

Listener Catchup – We found that some podcast listeners are extremely loyal, in that there were those who would go back and catchup on episodes they missed.  We mainly knew this by looking at downloads of shows which were one or more weeks old.  We also know this phenomenon to be true because listeners would leave feedback about an older episode consistently tell us that they were catching up.

Hosting Content – We used Libsyn to host our podcast, and it was worth every penny we spent.  The uptime was generally rock solid, and when a new episode was released, it would always handle the load.  Even when the podcast was highlighted by websites like Yahoo and we got a huge spike in listeners, Libsyn never hiccuped.  I would fully recommend the service.

iTunes Presence – I cannot stress how important it is to have a podcast presence on iTunes.  Throughout the 2+ years of Stockcarzone, listeners always averaged at least 60% (and usually more like 70%) of our total subscribers.  I don’t think We would have ever lasted as long as we did if we did not have the podcast on iTunes.  I realize there are other options besides iTunes for podcasts, but it’s obviously a preferred method for many listeners.

Overall the Stockcarzone podcast was a great project, although not profitable.  Corey and I both learned a lot about independently created content, and we met a bunch of great listeners and NASCAR fans.  Hopefully the information in this article will help if you are interested in podcasting and creating your own content.

And I’ve got content–but how to organize it and what to do with all of it?That’s where I think WordPress can fill a void in this regard.  Creating posts in WordPress allows individual moments to be collected and captured in a timeline fashion.  Then, throw in some plugins that manage audio, photo, and videos, and you have a great way to not only capture a summary of the events using words, but with content.

There are definitely privacy concerns to think about.  You may not want to put your life happenings online for everyone to see, but this can be handled with using the user registration feature in WordPress.  At the same time, this also allows you to grant access to those family members and friends who you do want to have access.

Using plugins such as PodPress would be a great way to incorporate audio and video clips.  For pictures, there are a plethora of plugins available, and some are as easy as pointing to a Flickr feed which many people may already be using.  There are also many Google inline map plugins where you could add a marker of destinations of events such as trips and vacations.  Create a couple of information bubbles, throw some content or links inside, and pretty soon you can see where WordPress can become a very powerfull tool when it comes to capturing special moments in life.

Although using WordPress as a scrapbook, digital or otherwise, is not a magic bullet, it does have appeal as to its options, especially as to plugins. With the availability and easy to use plugins, you could almost incorporate any type of recorded media as a historical record of the event.  Not only can you share your story with current friends and family, the hope is that some day it can work as a historical reference to memorable events.

Google LBC made adding a listing very simple.  You’ll need a Google account to sign-up, and if you do not already have one, I highly recommend it.  You’ll never receive spam and it allows you to take advantage of all the other great Google apps, such as Documents and Spreadsheets, Gmail, and Calendar. 

After initially submitting your company’s location information, LBC will attempt to match it with a listing already in its database.  If it’s not listed, choose the my “business doesn’t appear here” at the bottom of the page.  If your business is listed make sure you verify the information and map location of your company.  LBCA also gives you the option to change the map marker location if it’s not right on.

Next, regardless if you are editing an existing listing or creating a new one, take advantage of choosing categories and custom attributes which are specific to your business.  Google allows you to choose up to five categories and attributes, and the choices are very detailed.  These categories and attributes will correspond with Google’s search results.  And if in the future you find these are not generating any contacts, you can go back and choose others.

Another neat option of LBC is adding a custom coupon to your map listing.  The coupon link appears alongside your listing on Google maps.  The coupon is very customizable and allows you to include an offer code, set an expiration date, and even specify which locations the coupon can be used.

Once you submit and approve your map listing, Google validates it by sending you a postcard with a specific PIN number and instructions on how to activate your listing.  After you receive the postcard, log back into LBC and enter the PIN in the box next to the listing.  Google then informs you of the approximate update cycles as to listings–at this writing it was approximately four weeks.

And knowing Google, there are certainly going to be future innovations using this data.  One area that is very promising and becoming more usable is search results via cell phones.  Although it didn’t appear to be a Google map, during the recent iPhone demonstration demonstration, Steve Jobs showed how he could search for Starbucks in the local area, and using a map he called a specific location at the touch of his finger.

Map search results via cell phone may not be everyday technology yet, but it’s obviously on the horizon.  And if Google becomes a frontrunner in this area, a listing in LBC will make your business even more accessible.

Google’s LBC is a great resource for any company that wants to increase mapped-based search results of their business and services.  With mapping becoming more and more popular, and upcoming innovations on the horizon, it’s a no brainer for any local business to take advantage of a Google maps listing.

I realized I had to update my website, especially with all the web 2.0 hype.  My previous site was static HTML, no CSS, very plain-Jane, and very outdated.  As a small-business owner, I fit into the categories of limited budget and resources, like free and easy to use.

After searching customer and content management systems (CMS) via google, low and behold, WP showed up as a possible solution.  I say that because some may consider WP as only a blogging application, but soon, I found many articles related to other small businesses and nonprofit organizations whom were searching for the same solution.

After doing further research and finding how robust the WordPress forums were, I decided it was time to do some sandbox testing.  I’ve been hooked since.  I use WP in all my sites and I’ve been impressed with the development of the platform and the huge community of WP users.

I have to admit that WP is not for the beginner or faint of heart, however, after the initial setup, along with some training and documentation, many ORGs could use WP as a solution to getting rid of sites that cannot be changed without some sort of second-hand party, and billing.  (No offense to web designers/developers, but things are changing!)

Besides the great WP community that is available, the platform has recently gone through some major renovations as to admin interface changes, and the ability to include widgets.  In my opinion, widgets are the closest things to easy buttons when it comes to offering customized solutions.

In a future article, I will highlight some WP plugins which I feel would benefit many ORGs and NPOs within their website, such as the ability to include a google map; using a calendar for events; showcase event pictures; and receive donations.

Overall, I feel applications such as WP,  Drupal, and Joomla are paving the way for ORGs to embrace content that can be created by end users who do not have much experience, which is up-to-date and interactive.