New SitePoint Article
My first SitePoint article in nearly 3 and 1/2 years has been published. It’s called Develop Effective Forum Leadership.
April 2008 Posts
WLKF Radio Appearance Pushed Back
My appearance on WLKF will not be happening tomorrow morning as planned. I believe we’ll probably reschedule and I’ll post something when I have the new date. Sorry for the confusion.
The Book’s Publication Date Arrives
It’s not really all that meaningful, since the book has been available for almost a month now, but today is the book’s official publication date: April 28, 2008.
Though not in function, it’s still a meaningful day in sentimentality, I suppose. I had the idea for the book in 2003. I signed with my agent, Neil Salkind at Studio B on October 10, 2005. I signed with AMACOM to publish the book on May 4, 2007. And the book is officially published on April 28, 2008.
It’s been a long road and I’m thankful to everyone who has helped me to reach this point. Now, we need to get it into as many hands as possible!
RSVP for Free Teleseminar on May 1; Plus “Managing Online Forums” on the Radio and More Book Coverage
On May 1 at 1:00 PM ET, I’ll be doing a free live teleseminar with Thomas Myer of Triple Dog Dare Media. The registration deadline is April 30, so if you’d like listen in, please RSVP now.
I’ll be on Mayhem In The AM on the Talk 1430 (WLKF) radio station out of Lakeland, Florida, on April 29, somewhere around 8:10 and 8:20 AM ET talking about the book, as well. You can listen online on their website. The link is about half way down in the right menu. Look for “Click the meter to listen to Mayhem in the A.M.”
I’ve done a bunch of podcast interviews in the last week or so and they are all online now and available for listening. I appeared on Copyright 2.0 (one of the co-hosts, Jonathan Bailey, posted about it on his blog), The Interactive Internet, phpbbireland and System Showdown. I have to thank all of the hosts for having me and for the warm reception that they gave me and the book. It was a lot of fun!
Ethan Kwassman of myEDI Media and co-host of System Showdown posted a review of the book on their website. Thanks again, Ethan.
Finally, Wendy Piersall, CEO of Sparkplugging, gave the book a nice plug (pun intended!) on her blog using the terms I created for the book, “adverquestions” and “introtisements”. But, that’s not all. She recently gave a talk on “Building a Community” at the Small Business Marketing Unleased Conference in Houston, Texas. She told me that she talked about the book during her presentation and, according to David Wallace at Search Engine Guide, she used the terms during her talk, as well! Excellent, that made my day.
I met Wendy at SXSW (thank you ProBlogger Beer Bus and b5media Blog Network Camp). Super nice and I greatly appreciate the support. She’ll be posting a review of the book on her blog, so I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for that. Thanks, Wendy.
Follow Up to My UPS Story
Just a follow up to the UPS story I posted. Turns out that, despite making arrangements, UPS shipping the package back to Sean John, afterall. Argh.
Interview Update
Just a quick update: my interview on System Showdown is actually at 6:30 PM ET and not 7:30 PM ET. You can watch live video on Ustream.tv.
I Have a UPS Story
I placed an order with Sean John awhile back and was expecting it soon. I went to my P.O. box on Monday (not where it was going, as far as I knew) and found a card in my mailbox from UPS saying that the package had been shipped to the P.O. box so, of course, they could not deliver it. I could pick it up at the address on the card (around 40 minutes away from my home) or call the number for more info.
So, I called the number and it sounded to me like I had to pick it up or had no other options. So, I hung up the phone* and proceeded to play catch with it, with myself, as I often do. I have a portable phone and I throw it up and down and all that. So, anyway, after maybe a minute and a half of doing that, the phone makes a noise and I put my ear to the receive and I hear “Hello?” The guy didn’t sound super angry, but a little perturbed. Thinking I may have picked it up my accident when someone was calling, I asked who I was speaking with. “This is UPS.” Wow.
So, he explains that he was going to help me with my package and, after I apologize, I give him some info and he tells me they can deliver it to my house. I give him the address, he set it up. He was polite and professional. Before he hangs up, I apologize again “for not knowing how to hang up a telephone”. He laughs and we hang up. (Finally).
I thought that was pretty cool service from UPS, a company I already like thanks to my frequent Amazon.com shipments. I see my UPS guy more than I see most members of my family. I think it’s important to highlight not only bad customer service experiences, but good ones. So, good job UPS.
* – or so I thought.
Collegiate Women’s Water Polo, Fencing and Bowling Reach Immense Levels of Popularity
Tim Arango at The New York Times has an article on the tension between sports bloggers and the teams and leagues they cover. I laughed when I read this:
The limits of coverage is a hot issue in athletics at the college level as well. The National Collegiate Athletic Association issued new guidelines this year: in women’s water polo, bloggers are allowed three posts a quarter and one at halftime; in fencing or bowling, 10 posts are allowed for each day or session.
With absolutely no disrespect meant toward these sports or the people who play them (I enjoy bowling), are collegiate women’s water polo, fencing and bowling so popular that they should discourage interest in their sport in such a way? I mean, how many people seriously and closely blog about women’s water polo as compared to, say, the New York Yankees baseball team. If I’m in charge of those things and people are actually interested in them, I say “heck yeah!” Those sports should be doing whatever they can to maintain as much interest as is humanly possible.
Of course, this ignores the obvious absurdity of the rule in not understanding blogging. You can edit a blog post. Tha is what a live blog is, usually. Updating the same post.
They don’t have huge fan bases, at least not compared to other sports and someone blogging about them is almost certainly a fan. Why would you do that?
Via Ben.
Live Interviews Coming Up
Update: The interview on System Showdown is at 6:30 PM ET.
I have a couple of live interviews in the next few days, so I wanted to mention them in case you might be able to listen in. I’ll be on The Interactive Internet tonight at 6:00 PM ET. And then I’ll be on System Showdown at 7:30 PM ET on Wednesday, April 23. The plan for the System Showdown date is to do video, as well. I hope that you’ll listen and let me know what you think. Thanks!
Looking for Community/Forums Related SXSW Panel Ideas
This March, I visited South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive for the first time. I spoke, met a ton of people and had an awesome time. I’m already thinking about next year (the dates have already been set: March 13 through 17). I’ve decided that I’d like to try to get on at least one panel. It’s definitely not too early to be thinking about it – they start accepting ideas on June 2 and close on July 11, so we’re not that far away.
I’m talking with Jonathan Bailey of PlagiarismToday about doing something, but I am also talking with Martin Reed of CommunitySpark about putting a panel together, as well. He’s aiming to come to SXSW next year and we share a lot of similar knowledge and experience. I think it’d be great. So, we agreed that we’d put it out their to our blog readers to see what ideas they might have for a panel. What do you think? What would you like us to talk about? It should be community/forums related.
Please let us know what thoughts you might have. Thanks!
Edit: Martin has a post up now, as well.
Patrick O'Keefe
Managing online communities for 17 years. Author. Speaker.
