[Hidden-tech] Re: ? about self-promo

[Bill Bither]

I suggest looking at CommunityServer for functionality to really bring
the HT community together online, and give the community more of an
online presence with blogging.  They have a hosted version, or a version
that can be installed locally.  We use it at our company for blogging
and the forums.  The Western Mass .NET Users Group uses it.  It's easy
to run and maintain (even easier if hosted).

www.communityserver.com for the hosted version
www.communityserver.org for the local version, free for non-commercial
use

Best Regards,
Bill Bither
Atalasoft, Inc.
www.atalasoft.com

-----Original Message-----
From: hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net
[mailto:hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net] On Behalf Of
Michael Muller
Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2007 4:05 PM
To: gsilverman at rocketranchdesign.com
Cc: Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
Subject: Re: [Hidden-tech] Re: ? about self-promo

   ** The author of this post was a Good Dobee.
   ** You too can help the group
   ** Fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
   ** If you did, we all thank you.



Giannina,

Wow. That site rocks. I'm impressed. From a software point of view there
are several things in there that I've been thinking of doing to my
directory function for a long time, and many more things that I now want
to do now that I see them. It's really well done, and I almost think we
should lift what they're doing and use it for HT. I mean... wow.
Definitely, send me an invitation.

And all this conversation is not to say that HT isn't great and hasn't
done good things. It is great, and it holds many excellent seminars and
networking opportunities. But if we're talking about making HT better,
here's a website model that makes me sit up and get excited. It seems to
drive the organization, rather than the website being a glimpse of what
the organization is about.  This is natural, of course, since HT started
as a group of people who wanted to network, and not as a website that
wanted to network and promote people.

For a refresher, here's the HT "about" page:
http://hidden-tech.net/about.html

And here's BizNik's "manifesto" page:
http://biznik.com/about/manifesto.html


BTW, It looks like there was an HT meeting in September to vote on a
Steering Committee. What was the outcome of that meeting?

Michael



At 12:21 PM 1/4/2007, Giannina Granata Silverman wrote:
>Michael,
>
>Thank you for your excellent insights.
>
>My thoughts mirror your own. While Hidden-tech has been great for me to
meet people in a live setting (the offline events have been great), the
site does not do any heavy lifting in terms of leveraging our community
and our expertise.
>
>I am going to send you an example of a community I belong to in Seattle
that is similar to Hidden-tech, it's made of small solopreneur types and
indie businesses, but it uses a social networking model. I wish the
Hidden-tech site was more like this! It's a self-promotional killer
app!!
>
>It is: www.biznik.com
>
>The Biznik community is Seattle-based but anyone can join, and there
are members from all over the world who are starting their own local
"chapters". And non-members can look within the member directory for
people they want to work with. The founders closely manage the site and
the vision of the community, but anyone can contribute by putting on a
seminar in their area (you get a cut of every seminar you put on) or
hosting a networking happy-hour in your area. The more you contribute,
or show up, or post on the message board, or bring in new members, the
higher you rank in searches. And, you can pay $100 a year to be a
supporting member, which buys you a higher search rank and and revolving
ads, but otherwise the site is free. I am a non-paying member and my
profile gets about 50-80 views a month.
>
>What's great about this network is that they've figured out how to use
the internet to it's ultimate advantage.
>The site also has links to member blogs so people can self-promote to
their hearts content.
>
>BTW, if anyone wants an invitation to Biznik, let me know via email and
I'll invite ya! Or you can sign up on your own.
>Thanks! Hope you're all well!!
>-g
>
>-- 
>Giannina Granata Silverman
>Rocket Ranch Design + Advertising
>gsilverman at rocketranchdesign.com
>
>Seattle: 425.939.6823
>Mass: 413.303.9453
>Cell: 425.780.1693
>
>www.rocketranchdesign.com
>
>
>

--------
Michael Muller
Muller Technologies
24 3rd Street
Turners Falls, MA 01376
work:  (413) 863-0030
cell:   (413) 320-5336
skype: michaelBmuller
http://support.MullerTech.com

Eschew Obfuscation


_______________________________________________
Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net
Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net

You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion
list.
If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members   
page on the Hidden Tech Web site.
http://www.hidden-tech.net/members