I’ll try to live blog the day here (cell service permitting). Send me your questions and comments on Twitter @jeffsonderman and watch the #WHtweetup hashtag.

11:52 a.m. Unfortunately, no cell service or wifi in the meeting room this morning. I’ll post updates later when I can.

6:03 p.m. Well, sorry the live blogging didn’t work out during the event. You missed out on some witty comments here and there, but the best parts of the day were captured in photos. See them here.

It doesn’t have to. The Storify site doesn’t yet give you options to customize the look of a widget. But with a few quick tweaks to the CSS of your site, you can make the Storify widget look less like a widget and more like an organic piece of your site.

Below are the before and after examples of how I modified its appearance to fit into my own site. You can use the same framework, substituting whatever fonts and colors are appropriate for your site.

Notice the major differences are the fonts and colors consistent with the rest of the site, and the removal of the widget’s header and borders.

Original Storify look

New Storify look

This paragraph is written in my WordPress blog, but notice how it flows seamlessly into the following one, which is actually the beginning of the Storify widget.

How to do it

Now that you’ve seen what you can do, here is how I did it using CSS. The following lines, substituting your own font/color styles, should be added to a new section in your stylesheet. Note that in several cases you must use the “!important” declaration on the styles because you need to override inline styles that the widget script prints by default.

Hide the entire Storify header

#sfywdgt_header {
display:none!important;
}

Align Storify body text flush with the left margin of the widget. By default it is indented 20px from the border.

#sfywdgt_body {
margin-left:-20px;
}

Remove borders, changes font and font size and background color of Storify body area.

#sfywdgt_body, #sfywdgt_body li, span.sfy_text, .sfy_description {
border:none !important;
font-family: “Helvetica Neue”,Helvetica,Arial,default!important;
background: #FCFCFC!important;
}

Changes color and behavior of links in the Storify body area. Match this to whatever your links look like in normal body text.

#sfywdgt_body a {
color:#000;
text-decoration:underline!important;
}
#sfywdgt_body a:hover {
color:#333;
}

Removes border from Storify footer area. Also increases “Powered by Storify” font size (this last one is just my taste — I felt like they deserve a slightly more prominent credit line since I’m hiding the header and a lot of the other distinctive features).

.sfywdgt_footer {
border:none!important;
background: #FCFCFC!important;
font-size:10pt!important;
}

Depending on how comfortable you are with CSS editing, you can do more advanced customizations. The key things to know are that the widget script creates three main HTML divs — the header (#sfywdgt_header) the body (#sfywdgt_body) and the footer (.sfywdgt_footer). You can modify or hide any of those by playing with the CSS.

Feel free to share links to examples of your own customizations or tips in the comments.

Online retailer Amazon, which leases spare web server capacity to third parties, booted WikiLeaks from its servers. The company cited a violation of its terms of service. However, it was generally understood to be a response to political pressure from U.S. senators. After that WikiLeaks moved to a French web hosting company, and the French are now looking to ban it.

Open-source data visualization program Tableau Public removed WikiLeaks-published visualizations from its site, citing political pressure. The Library of Congress even blocked access to WikiLeaks from its public computers, classifying it as a “malicious” site, which it clearly is not. Then PayPal, owned by eBay Inc., froze WikiLeaks’ account and blocked donations.

Reporters Without Borders condemned such moves as “the first time we have seen an attempt at the international community level to censor a website dedicated to the principle of transparency.”

All of this brings into clear focus a contradiction of the web — a public thing with private owners. It is best described by Ethan Zuckerman, who told CJR:

What’s really hard about this is that we perceive the web to be a public space, a place where you should be able to go and set up your soapbox and say whatever you want to say to the world. The truth is, the web is almost entirely privately held. So what happens here is that we have a normative understanding that we should treat this like public space—that you should have rights to speak, that no one should constrain your rights—but then you discover that, basically, you’re holding a political rally in a shopping mall. This is commercial speech, controlled by commercial rules.

In the late 20th century, the consolidation of major media outlets into the hands of a few major corporations was an issue of great concern and debate. Its importance diminished significantly in the 21st century as online services democratized media production and conversation and displaced the central role of mainstream news media in controlling information flow.

Now, however, we all must realize that these online services are also controlled by corporations with commercial and political interests. Just as GE, Disney, News Corp., Viacom and the like posed a threat to an open marketplace of ideas in mass media, the new corporate lords of the web can pose a threat to online freedoms that have been taken for granted.

eBay Inc. has contributed $3.4 million to federal political committees and spent $13.2 million on lobbying since 1997. Amazon.com has contributed at least $500,000 to federal candidates since 2003, according to OpenSecrets.org. Beyond those involved in WikiLeaks censorship so far, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and Go Daddy (to pick a few) spend millions lobbying in Washington. So when someone like Sen. Joe Lieberman calls to complain about something they’re hosting, they listen.

This is why encoding principles such as net neutrality and an Internet Bill of Rights into national and international law is so important. Commercial and political interests will always find it beneficial to suppress some things from being said or published online — and as the WikiLeaks experience has shown, they are currently able do so without due process or subject to appeal.

* A footnote: I anticipate counterarguments that claim this is an exceptional case because it concerns classified documents, obtained illegally, arguably (though not at all proven to be) damaging to U.S. diplomacy. Even so, it does not follow that the end of removing them justifies the means of corporate and political censorship without due process. Beware that any effort to claim censorship authority always seeks first to use the public’s natural abhorrence of  outlier cases (racism, hate speech, child pornography) to justify giving authority to censor in all cases. The sensitivity of these leaked documents is not the issue — it is the now-demonstrated ease with which political and corporate interests may collude to try to expel something they dislike from the Internet.

(hat tip to Greg Linch who supervised the livestreaming effort from the conference)

Starting from scratch – TBD.com

First came the razor-sharp focus on politics. Now Allbritton Communications, the folks behind Politico, turns its high beam on local news. Jim Brady, Allbritton’s president for digital strategies, and key staff walk us through the genesis, launch — and growing pains — of this much-watched news site in Washington, D.C.
Speaker/Artist(s) Info:

• Jim Brady, TBD
• Erik Wemple, TBD
• Mandy Jenkins, TBD
• Steve Buttry, TBD
• Laura McGann, Nieman Journalism Lab

Rethinking online commenting

With so much negativity and spam in comment sections, how are newsrooms tweaking their engagement policies? Should people be made to give their real names? Should discussions be moderated? How do we elevate the discussion without stifling it? What are we gaining with comment sections, Facebook and other platforms? Led by NPR’s ombudsman, this lively debate will help you navigate these tectonic shifts in the conversation around news.
Speaker/Artist(s) Info:

• Alicia Shepard, NPR
• Andrew Noyes, Facebook
• Adam Clark Estes, Huffington Post

Content sharing through APIs

(Note: Starts around 7:40) More and more newsrooms are opening their vaults and sharing their content. What can you do with other organizations’ content? Should your newsroom be thinking about creating its own APIs, too? Experts explore the operations, business models and more.
Speaker/Artist(s) Info:

• Tim Carlson, USA Today
• Daniel Jacobson, NPR
• Delyn Simons, Mashery
• Daniel Choi, developer

Tools for Crisis Reporting

Citizen, niche and traditional media are using social media and other tools to collaborate on covering international conflicts and disasters. This has made reporting from global hot spots more effective than ever. Learn what these panelists from around the world find work best.
Speaker/Artist(s) Info:

• Solana Larsen, Global Voices Online
• Mark Frohardt, Internews
• Robert Soden, Development Seed
• Robert Baker, Konpa Group (Ushahidi Haiti)

A conversation with AOL’s Tim Armstrong and NPR’s Vivian Schiller.

(Interview begins at 11:00)
A conversation with Vivian Schiller, NPR, and Tim Armstrong, AOL, moderated by Kara Swisher, All Things Digital.
Speaker/Artist(s) Info:

• Tim Armstrong, AOL
• Vivian Schiller, NPR
• Kara Swisher, All Things Digital

DocumentCloud’s first year

(Note: Two video segments for this one. First one starts at about 7:00) DocumentCloud.org has impacted news stories big and small by making primary source materials easier to scour, annotate and share. A look at how the open-source project is solving journalistic and technological hurdles.
Speaker/Artist(s) Info:

• Jeremy Ashkenas, DocumentCloud
• Brian Boyer, Chicago Tribune
• Aron Pilhofer, The New York Times

The next ‘revolution’ for Web design

Note: This one got some pretty bad reviews and I don’t recommend it, but it’s here anyway.
Two of the most prominent newspaper/magazine/website designers of our day discuss the state of news web design, where it’s headed, how it needs to improve, and how open web standards will further change (and complicate) matters.
Speaker/Artist(s) Info:

• Roger Black, Roger Black Studio
• Filipe Fortes, Treesaver

Coders are from Mars, designers are from Venus

More than any other medium, the Web fuses together creative and technical processes. Learn strategies to inspire your right brain while exercising your left brain.
Speaker/Artist(s) Info:

• Tyson Evans, The New York Times
• David Wright, NPR

Go niche

Crackberry. Deadspin. The latest wave of media websites have one thing in common: they cover one topic, but do it hardcore. Hear innovators from niche sites across the country discuss what’s working, what’s not — and bring your own experiences to the discussion.

Speaker/Artist(s) Info:

• Andrew Geiger, SB Nation
• Jonathan Kealing, LJWorld.com, Lawrence Journal-World, 6News
• Matt Thompson, Project Argo, National Public Radio

The New Investigative Journalism Ecosystem

(Note: Video begins around 8:00) The number of global nonprofit reporting organizations has exploded — from three in 1990 to more than 30 today. Most have been created in the past three years. Panelists share which organizations are collaborating, which projects draw eyeballs and where this phenomenon is heading.
Speaker/Artist(s) Info:

• Charles Lewis, Investigative Reporting Workshop, American University
• Lorie Hearn, Watchdog Institute in San Diego
• Kevin Davis, Investigative News Network
• Raney Aronson-Rath, Frontline

Forging Pro-Am Partnerships

(Note: Two parts to this video) With newsrooms cutting staff and journalism schools booming, it was bound to happen – the news industry is collaborating with academe for content in brave new ways. The panel explores how the partnerships work and whether the model applies to your newsroom.
Speaker/Artist(s) Info:

• Joe Bergantino, New England Center for Investigative Reporting
• Rich Jones, New York University, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Initiative
• Josh Meyer, National Security Journalism Initiative, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University

Not available from Friday’s sessions:
Social media storytelling
Law & Order: Special Digital Unit
What’s next for traffic and search?

Saturday’s sessions:

A Wikileaks download

(Note: Panel starts around 6:00) The boundaries of digital journalism were Topic A on July 25, when a little-known Wikileaks released a 92,000-page dump of classified documents relating to the U.S. involvement of the war in Afghanistan. WNYC’s Brooke Gladstone leads the panel in examining what this could mean for journalism and the role of the Internet in news and information.
Speaker/Artist(s) Info:
Brooke Gladstone, On the Media
Gavin MacFadyen, Centre for Investigative Journalism
Jim Michaels, USA TODAY
Clothilde Le Coz, Reporters Without Borders

Creating killer apps with public data

As the government unloads more data — on everything from the stimulus, taxes and spending to the safety of child car seats — developers, designers and journalists have developed show-stopping ways to make the numbers more accessible. See demos, hear cases studies, and learn the secrets of scraping data.
Speaker/Artist(s) Info:
Bill Allison, Sunlight Foundation
Rufus Pollock, Open Knowledge Foundation

Rewiring the ivory tower

(Note: 2 video segments for this one.) Revamping journalism curriculum is a tricky tightrope walk, balancing digital skills, academics and computer science. How do accrediting standards and the arms race for shorter degrees set the boundaries for the new journalism degree? Panelists share what is being lost and what is being gained.
Speaker/Artist(s) Info:

• David Johnson, American University
• Emily Bell, Columbia University
• Rich Gordon, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University
• Mindy McAdams, University of Florida

Android, iPad and Beyond

The web is increasingly moving from the desktop to the palm of your hand. Learn the best practices for creating content for mobile and touch devices.
Speaker/Artist(s) Info:
Jamie Pallot, Conde Nast Digital
Jim Spencer, Newsy
Liesel Kipp, Thomson Reuters
John-Henry Barac, Barac Consulting

News apps: Showcase and strategy

In this rapid-fire session, four speakers show the journalistic and technical highlights from some recent news apps, providing insights into the lessons they’ve learned the hard way so you don’t have to.
Speaker/Artist(s) Info:
Katharine Jarmul, USA TODAY
Matt Waite, St. Petersburg Times
Richard Pope, ScraperWiki.com
Aine McGuire, ScraperWiki.com

Don’t call it UGC

Professional-level input from a sea of amateurs? Community editorial requires finesse, hard work and a lot of respect for your submitters. Get expert advice on how to encourage high-quality content from a staff of strangers.
Speaker/Artist(s) Info:
Laura Brunow Miner, Pictory
Alexis Madrigal, Longshot Magazine
Sarah Rich, Longshot Magazine
Robin Sloan, Twitter

The Onion: Explaining over 250 years of news dominance

(Note: Two video segments for this one.) From the invention of advertorial content to the development of television news, find out how America’s Finest News Source has managed to stay ahead of the competition for the past several hundred years and continues to lead the way with over 4 million social media connections and top ranking mobile applications.
Speaker/Artist(s) Info:

• Marc Lieberman, The Onion
• Baratunde Thurston, The Onion

How to host an ONA meetup

Want to hold an ONA meetup in your town or city? Already have, but want to learn how to do it better? Come and listen to ONADC divas Laura Cochran and Tiffany Shackelford talk about their successful events that not only showcase local talent but bring in sponsors.
Speaker/Artist(s) Info:
Laura Cochran, Gannett
Tiffany Shackelford, Phase2 Technology

Not available from Saturday’s sessions:
Seven deadly sins of data visualization
Ten tech trends in ’10
Lunch with the Knight News Challenge winners
Tips and tricks for shooting video with your DSLR
Turning bits into bucks

Malcolm Gladwell in 2008. Photo by Flickr user Pop!Tech

New Yorker writer and sociologish author Malcolm Gladwell has a new essay out in the New Yorker that seeks to draw a line in the sand between social networks and “real-life” relationships when it comes to producing significant social change.

My first reaction was, this reads like hyperbolically contrarian linkbait — in the vein of “X Is Dead” headlines sprawling the tech blogs today. Maybe that’s true. But I’d like to think he’s serious about this, and so I’d like to give the proper context to the world of networks and action that he frames.

First, let me stipulate that I think Gladwell is basically right about his descriptions of the different functions of weak-tie and strong-tie relationships. He’s right that weak-tie relationships that dominate a sprawling network structure are less likely to produce mass acts of risk-taking “in real life,” such as sit-ins. They are more likely to produce mass amounts of small, online-only participation such as donations or petitioning.

However, Gladwell stops his analysis at stage of strong-tie vs weak-tie, when really that is not the situation “in real life.” My quibbles:

1) The mass amounts of small participation that social networks can produce are not as worthless as Gladwell frames them. He flips Clay Shirky’s example of finding a lost cell phone, and notes that “The Facebook page of the Save Darfur Coalition has 1,282,339 members, who have donated an average of nine cents apiece.” That still adds up to $115,410.51 toward the Darfur cause that wouldn’t be there otherwise. Not to mention the less tangible raising of awareness.

2) Weak ties can grow into strong ties. Your 1,000 Facebook “friends” may not really all be friends, but many are acquaintances who you may never have met without Facebook, and with a few you may over time build a strong-tie relationship that does produce IRL action.

3) Online networks and IRL networks overlap. They aren’t entirely exclusive competing environments. Some portion of the people I connect with on Twitter and Facebook are relatives or good friends who I do have strong ties with and would take “real action” with for a good cause. These networks strengthen strong-ties while also building new weak-ties. They are not, as Gladwell would have you believe, a vast wasteland of weak-tie, pretend friends.

While he accuses innovators of tending to be “solipsists” who “want to cram every stray fact and experience into their new model,” Gladwell is doing the same. He wants to make a point — a fair one — that weak-tie relationships produce different action than strong-tie relationships. But he stretches too far in not recognizing the contributions of weak-tie relationships and mass coordinated action via social networks is of some great value that is still growing and not yet fully measured, and it does not operate exclusive of or in opposition to real-life strong-tie relationships.

UPDATE at 3:08 p.m.: Check out this interview clip from January when Gladwell tells Katie Couric he’s not really interested in social media and doesn’t think he’ll write about it because other people know it better:

Now, I’m on record as not a fan of paywalls online (they’re often considered for the wrong reasons and with a lack of economic understanding). As bad as that is, micropayments are worse.

People who have been paying attention have learned that valuable websites are created through building a loyal community and creating a rewarding user experience. At least a paywall site lets you have a loyal (though small) community with potential for a bonded experience. Micropayments, however, turn the user into a henpecked customer constantly battling doubt and buyer’s remorse. They encourage the shallowest possible interaction with your site, only reading the one or two things you really want to pay for, then get the heck out of there.

So why is Google enabling this by developing an industry platform? It’s clear that Google wants to at least appear friendly to newspaper executives, many of whom in the U.S. and Europe have been denouncing the company as a parasite on their hides. So maybe Newspass is just another Fast Flip — a red herring that smells progressy but really advances nothing.

Or, here’s the crazy part, maybe Google is tricking the news publishers. Get them to install the “pay me” buttons they think are a great idea, so that millions of readers will dodge the pay demand and immediately leave the site to search Google for a free version of the story.

Maybe not. Maybe it’s just a bad idea.

A lot of people have been talking about the eventual dominance of mobile. Some people have been planning. How many are truly ready?

We’ll know next year.

I spent a couple hours Wednesday in a “Mobile Media is Here” seminar hosted by folks from Pointabout and Brunner Digital as part of Digital Capital Week (#dcweek), uniting the DC tech community. Two stats leapt out from the slides and discussion:

1) Smartphones will be more common than dumbphones (politely called “feature phones”) by late 2011

2) Smartphone sales will exceed PC sales by 2011

Mobile devices are not just growing, they’re booming. And with that comes millions more people every year accessing and sharing information in new ways. Mobile web usage is expected to exceed desktop web usage by 2013.

Over the next few years, iPhones and the like will stop being fancy early-adopter toys. (AT&T already sells past-generation iPhones for $99 or less) They will be cheaper, widely used, and eventually as common and socially invisible as e-mail. As Clay Shirky says so well, “Communications tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring… It’s when a technology becomes normal, then ubiquitous, and finally so pervasive as to be invisible, that the really profound changes happen.”

If you don’t already have a plan for how your media company, or any other company, will serve mobile consumers and make money in the mobile market — you better get a plan in motion by the end of the year.

Some of the issues to resolve:

• What platforms to develop? Mobile web, iPhone, Android, iPad, Blackberry, Kindle, Symbian, Windows Mobile… where is your community?
• What do your mobile users want? Study the most common use cases for why mobile users seek out your site/app. Finding locations, services, contact info, information, entertainment, etc.
• How to make money. Web ads didn’t work like print ads, and mobile ads don’t work like Web ads. It’s a new, and still quickly evolving marketplace that you need a fresh approach for.
• Redefine relevancy. Desktop content is sorted and targeted in search of topical relevancy. Mobile content adds a new dimension of relevancy — location.
• Many more of course… feel free to add other issues in the comments.

I’m looking forward to meeting a lot of new people and hanging out with some friends I’ve already made among local digiphiles since moving here a month ago. So here’s the place where I’m going to pull it all together. Below are the events I’m attending, and I’ll come back and update this post after the events with summaries, reactions and shoutouts. I’m pulling all the dcweek Flickr photos in to the slideshow here too.

If you want to meetup at one of these events, let me know.

Friday

Opening Party at Long View Gallery. This was a fun event, and a nice way to kick off the week by meeting a lot of participants at once. Highlights: virtual coloring of personal portraits, free drinks, intriguing performance artists. Lowlights: Heat was almost unbearable in the gallery area, no drinking in the alley was very inconvenient, drunk shirtless guy tried to crash the line Shoutouts: I met some great folks, including new co-worker Nathasha Lim who starts Monday as a TBD community host; Connected with Laura Cochran and met Jodi Gersh, both of Gannett; and met Josh Phelps, who manages Affinity Lab in Adams Morgan, and Brandon Minow, whom he is working with to organize the new philanthropic Monument Music & Arts Festival in DC.

Saturday

TBD Brunch at Mie N Yu in Georgetown. Excellent turnout from a number of bloggers, tech folks and others who just wanted to meet some of the TBD team. Highlights: Mimosas and pancakes, fun atmosphere. Lowlights: Parking in Georgetown (should have taken the bus) Shoutouts: Had a great time hanging out with Mary Kong of GirlMeetsFood; Keosha Johnson, online editor of WAMU; Jamel Daugherty of Northern Virginia Magazine; Andrew Hanelly, director of SEO and social media at TMG Custom Media; Krystle Kopacz of HealthCentral; Christen McCluney; Amelia of Gradually Greener; Ethan Klapper; and of course Allbritton Communications head honcho Robert Allbritton.

Monday

Mediabistro and Social Times cocktail party at 19th Bar. Nice to rub elbows with a lot of DC media types I haven’t met before. Highlights: Nice bar, with open floorspace and natural light. Decent drink specials and some complimentary appetizers. Lowlights: None really. Shoutouts: A lot of good ones here. I finally met some tweeps I’ve been following for a while, including Alex Howard (@digiphile) of O’Reilly Media, Dr. Mark Drapeau (@cheeky_geeky) of Microsoft and Andy Carvin (@acarvin) of NPR. Others included CNN social media guru Eric Kuhn, Patch regional publisher Daniel Kelly, Liz de Bagara of Boz Communications, Kiera Wiatrak, Erica Hendry. Marlene Hall, and Najeema of Hell in a Handbag.

Tuesday

Social and Traditional Media - 9:30 at Grosvenor Auditorium at National Geographic. A good panel featuring Andy Carvin of NPR (who I met Monday); Benet Wilson, Online Managing Editor for Aviation Week’s Business Aviation; Brian Dresher, Manager of Social Media and Digital Partnerships for USA TODAY; and Robert Michael Murray – VP of Social Media for National Geographic. Basic reaction: This was a good discussion of why social media use by journalists is important, and some ideas about how to do it. I would have appreciated a more forward-looking discussion about emerging social platforms, especially mobile and location-aware systems. Murray and Carvin are very ambitious thinkers who I recommend paying attention to. See some good summaries of the panel here and here.

The State of Now with Jeff Pulver – 11 at Grosvenor Auditorium at National Geographic. Jeff blows people away with his engaging manner and his clearly authentic appreciation and understanding of social relationships (online and off). He gave an interesting talk, the major theme being that for the first time in history every individual’s voice can gain power and influence through social networks. He also announced his new project JustCoz.org, which let’s Twitter users lend their “voice” to a good cause by allowing it to tweet through them once a day.

The Future of Media (panel) – 2 at Grosvenor Auditorium at National Geographic. A bit disappointing, and broadly criticized on the Twitter backchannel. Basic problem, 75% of the panel was from AOL, Washington Post and CNN — not that they aren’t doing anything online, but they’re certainly not at the cutting edge and had little to say about the “future.” Rather than rehash it myself, I’ll point you to Glenn Luther’s summary, which includes many quoted tweets.

Wednesday

Mobile Media is here – 11:30 at 1410 Q St NW

Uncovering the Social Media Data Trail – 1 p.m. at 2000 K Street, N.W.

Thursday

Tech Cocktail DC (TBD has a table, come see us) at Lux Lounge

Friday

When Failure and Criticism are Public – 1 p.m. at 900 Massachusetts Ave., NW

Mobile Madness – 2:15 at 900 Massachusetts Ave., NW

mediabistro.com & Social Times Cocktail Party Skye Loung… 15 Minute Accessibility Reviews Martin Lut… Assistive Technology Overviews (JAWS, Dragon Naturally Speaking, etc.) Martin Lut…

7:00 PM:

DC Drupal Meetup Stetsons B…

8:00 PM:

Playback Theatre Improv Performance COOLEY GOD…

Tuesday June 15

9:30 AM:

Media 2.0 Day Grosvenor… Social and Traditional Media: How News and Media Organizations are Getting Socia… Grosvenor…

11:00 AM:

The ‘State of Now’ with Jeff Pulver – Hosted by USA TODAY Grosvenor…

11:30 AM:

Mastery is the Message. Engaging, entertaining, and educating audiences through… Fleishman…

1:30 PM:

Online Engagement for Sustainable Urban Mobility World Reso…

2:00 PM:

The Future of Media Grosvenor…

3:00 PM:

‘Social Media Law: Online Libel, Online Copyright and Online Fun with Legal Issu… TBD

4:00 PM:

Public Health: What’s Digital got to do with it? Pew Resear…

5:00 PM:

RCR Local Washington DC PRTM Corpo…

6:00 PM:

NVTC Social Media Awards kstreet lo… YAFCEA Bethesda Socially Conscience Social Media HH to Benefit Street Sense Current Su… Hacking Social Networks in Real Life 1410Q.com Marketing Social Media to Professional Service Providers (PSPs) Busboys an… Section 508 E&IT Standards and the Section 255 Guidelines Refresh Martin Lut…

6:30 PM:

Progressive Happy Hour Science Cl… Sweets and Tweets Hamiltonia… Digital Schmooze Cruise A boat! Black Tech Blazers Martin Lut… Metro Music Source – DC Musician/ Industry Networking Event Bar Louie

Wednesday June 16

8:30 AM:

Buzz 2010: Open Leadership with Charlene Li Clyde’s of…

9:15 AM:

Social Media & Gov 2.0 Metropolit…

10:30 AM:

Healthcare Communication Strategies Spectrum S…

11:30 AM:

Developing an IP Plan that Protects Your Digital Media TBD Mobile Media is Here 1410Q.com

12:00 PM:

SaucaMobile UMC Confer… Gov & Org 2.0 Day UMC Confer…

1:00 PM:

Advocacy 2.0: how technology is impacting grassroots – communications – marketin… UMC Confer… Computer Drive UMC Confer… Energizing your Base and Online Community Organizing UMC Confer… Opening Government with Ruby UMC Confer… Pro Bono Consulting Lounge sponsored by Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide | 360… UMC Confer… The Data We’ve All Left Behind: Uncovering The Social Media Data Trail Spectrum S… Transparency on the Social Web: How the Facebook Generation is Ushering in a New… UMC Confer… Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to Increase Citizen Participation UMC Confer…

2:15 PM:

Accounting & Technology for ecommerce companies UMC Confer… DC’s Office of the CTO: Past, Present and Future Gov 2.0 Leadership UMC Confer… Mobile Fundraising & Advocacy UMC Confer… Social Media 202: an advanced discussion in online community building UMC Confer… Social Media in Education UMC Confer…

3:30 PM:

Is There Really an App for That? Non-Profit Leaders Debate Online’s Real Impact UMC Confer… ONA DC presents: Digital Podcasting 101 NPR Open Model for Citizen Engagement UMC Confer… Privacy in a Clouded World UMC Confer… Social Media ROI UMC Confer…

4:45 PM:

Getting Strategic With Social Media – Combining the Right Approach with Integrat… UMC Confer… Improv for Creative Collaboration: Principles and Practices of Improvisational T… UMC Confer… Mobile Technology’s Use in 21st Century Statecraft UMC Confer… Social Media For Social Good UMC Confer… Using Social Media Tools Effectively for Orgs and Nonprofits UMC Confer…

6:00 PM:

Ignite DC #4 Town Dance…

6:30 PM:

Social Media Learning + Comedy Show Recessions VolunTweet: Recording, Sharing & Tracking Volunteer Impact 0

7:00 PM:

NoMa Summer Screen NoMa Summe…

Thursday June 17

9:00 AM:

Digital Advertising 101 Greenfield…

10:00 AM:

The Food Revolution: One Byte at a Time Spectrum S…

1:00 PM:

#140conf DC UMC Confer… Social Media Education World Café Roundtables MLK Librar…

1:30 PM:

Social Media for NonTraditional Users; Overcoming the New Digital Divide MLK Librar…

4:00 PM:

Can I Tweet That? A Discussion of User-Generated Content and the Law (Social Med… Spectrum S…

5:00 PM:

Art Ventures on H Street H Street,…

5:30 PM:

AppShare @ TechCocktail Lux Lounge Social Media & Money: Can it help you save more, spend less? AARP Offic…

7:00 PM:

TECH cocktail DC Lux Lounge

Friday June 18

9:00 AM:

Blogging While Brown 2010 Walter E…. Social Media Breakfast DC Week Edition: Save Screen on the Green Busboys an… Digital Garage Day 1 UMC Confer… HotStart a Business in a Day UMC Confer…

12:00 PM:

Emancipating information to make government more effective Brownbag (Demo, Case… Affinity L… SMCDC Blogger Lounge UMC Confer…

1:00 PM:

Advertising: For the People, by the People UMC Confer… Interaction Design: Making the Complex Seem Simple UMC Confer… Rapid Fire Startup Demos UMC Confer… Speed Funding Consultation UMC Confer… When Failure and Criticism Are Public UMC Confer…

1:30 PM:

Apps and Animation – All things Interactive UMC Confer…

2:00 PM:

Unlock Your Creative Power: tips & techniques to rattle the old brain, involve t… Environmen…

2:15 PM:

Combating HIV in DC through New Media UMC Confer… Green Ventures UMC Confer… Innovating Around Happiness: From iPhone Apps to Company Culture and Other Findi… UMC Confer… Mobile Madness UMC Confer… Search for Start-ups UMC Confer… Upgrade Your Social Media Presence with NMS UMC Confer…

2:45 PM:

Sweetflow Mobile @ Digital Garage Day 1 UMC Confer…

3:30 PM:

PR in a Digital World Workshop UMC Confer… Secrets of Seed Funding UMC Confer… Women Entrepreneurs UMC Confer…

5:30 PM:

‘I Fought the Law’ Happy Hour Bar 7

6:00 PM:

Content Economy Unconference Affinity L… Show, Tell, Hire! UMC Confer…

9:00 PM:

Wonder Emporium Warehouse

Saturday June 19

8:30 AM:

Women Grow Business Boot Camp Steptoe &…

9:00 AM:

Washington DC’s Amazing Scavenger Hunt The Distri… Blogging While Brown 2010 Walter E….

9:30 AM:

Classes in MLK Computer Lab MLK Librar…

10:00 AM:

Fourth Annual Community Computer Day Byte Back

12:00 PM:

SMCDC Blogger Lounge UMC Confer… Digital Garage Day 2 UMC Confer…

1:00 PM:

District 5- Creative Panel UMC Confer… Vlogger and Shorts Mini-Film Fest UMC Confer…

2:15 PM:

Fashion & Technology UMC Confer…

3:30 PM:

Money & Technology UMC Confer… Performing Artists Clinic- How to Use the Web to Your Advantage UMC Confer…

4:45 PM:

Cities Unwired UMC Confer… DCWEEK Project Lab Showcase UMC Confer… DCWeek Remix UMC Confer… HacDC Lightning Talks @DCWeek UMC Confer…

10:00 PM:

Closing Party 9:30 Club

Sunday June 20

1:00 PM:

DC Week Flash Picnic on the Mall The Nation… Classes in MLK Computer Lab MLK Librar…

6:00 PM:

Apps4Ben’s Contest Finale Ben’s Next…

iStrategyLabs ShinyHeart

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Here is a summary of my advice to him:

Don’t act like an institution

One big challenge is that the personal voice works better than the institutional voice on Twitter and in general social networking. An account identified with a person’s name, or at least a person’s image, also seems to be more appealing to users than one named for an institution and using a logo.

I think this is a reason the Chicago Tribune went with “Colonel Tribune,” to try to personalize themselves. Their institutional account, @ChicagoTribune, has far fewer followers.

Anything you can do to use the institutional account in a personal way — conversation, replies, asking questions — will help. The more engagement you send out by retweeting others and replying to people, the more you will get back.

You may want to keep the “institution” username but change the “real name” on the account to the tweeter’s name. Also say in the account bio who actually does the Tweeting. In short, act like a social human and be identifiable as one, while still being related to the institute’s important work.

Be insanely useful

Beyond that, the most important way to get new followers is to be useful. You get some exposure by following other people, and then they check your profile to see if they want to follow you. But most people will stumble across your account through someone’s retweet or otherwise, and they will look at the recent tweets to see if they are useful, engaging, entertaining.

Be sure to fill your Twitter stream with useful content for the audience you’re seeking, including tips, tools, links to blogs and news.

Give people a chance to discover you

Once you’re doing all that well, it just takes time and exposure to let people discover you. You can help that by getting your Twitter account linked from everything else your institution does — the web site, e-mails, newsletters, conference materials, etc.

Big jumps in followers come on days when something you post to Twitter goes viral, and that’s often done by getting users who already have big follower counts to retweet you or your work. You can find some niche leaders by looking through MrTweet.com, WeFollow.com, and other directories, and get to know the most-followed people in the categories you want to rise in.

Also, in-person contact helps a ton. People who actually work with your institution or come to conferences are the easiest recruits.

Was this useful? Then follow me on Twitter.

– More AdSense transparency. Google will “consider” disclosing the revenue split numbers behind the AdSense program.

– Dissing the iPad. “You might want to tell me what the difference is between a large phone and a tablet,” Schmidt said.

– Apps are everything. “The phone is defined by the apps.”

– The economy is back. “The recession is very much behind us.”

– Focus on display ads. “Display (ads) is likely to be our next really big business globally.”

– Partner with newspapers. Marissa Mayer promises better ads and support for pay systems.

– YouTube is profitable. (no details)