February 2005

Julia Tenney alerted me to this interesting event called the Art of the Can contest and exhibition that is coming up in Boston on February 26th at the Artists for Humanity EpiCenter. Red Bull sponsored an art competition that involved making artsy things out of their beverage containers. What a cool way to combine marketing and art in a non-lame way. More info on the event listing at Exploit Boston! and the contest and exhibition website.

Update June 27, 2005: December 2004 through February 2005 I was part of Marqui’s “Pay to Blog” program. I wrote about them and linked to them once a week. During the three-month program I had this icon displayed on my site in the right sidebar area.

J. D. Lassica wrote an article about Marqui’s “Pay Bloggers” program for the Online Journalism Review. Stephen King, Marqui’s CEO and President, had this to say in the article:

King said that in the next round of blogging for dollars, some of the current bloggers will be dropped and others added. �One of the things we�re learning is that for bloggers to write regularly about us, they need to be closer to our market,� he said. �We�d like them to look at the product. They can interview customers, they can interview people around the subject � it just has to remain interesting, and in that sense they�re acting as amateur journalists.�

Today Peter Caputa and I were talking on IM about my frustration with finding contributors for my Exploit Boston! event guide/calendar website. People are generally very psyched to learn about the website and indicate that they’d like to get involved; but enthusiasm doesn’t seem to last long enough to get to the point of contributing actual content. I’m not in a position to pay writers and photographers. Not at this time anyway. I’ve thought about sharing Google AdSense proceeds from the pages that a contributor’s content appears on and might try to see how that can be set up sometime soon. Of course, the site needs to be updated much more frequently so it’s making cash from the AdSense program again. I’m going to give the project as much of my spare time as possible. It’s 2005 or bust! A nice motivator is the #2 spot on that big search engine for “Boston events.”

In the meantime, I’m trying to frame the opportunity better and reach out to more people. Especially people who are not paid, professional writers.

My fellow Boston bloggers, I can help you get into events for free. Did a concert you wanted to go to sell out? How about a review ticket from the event’s press person? Or maybe a photo pass? What about a pre or post-event interview?

You don’t need to work for The Boston Globe, The Boston Phoenix or The Improper Bostonian to get into these events. However, if bloggers were to individually contact press people for access, it would be a disaster. If the requests come through a central location such as Exploit Boston!, it’s a more effective approach.

Peter pointed out that people want money for their contributions. I understand that if you are a professional writer or photographer — you wouldn’t waste your time with Exploit Boston!. But what about the rest of us “amateurs”? We’d go to these events and blog about them anyway, why not join forces?

I sent out the following email earlier to the mailing list for the bostonblogs.com site that I run. If any blogger in the Boston area would like to sign up for the list and participate in this contributor experiment, that would be awesome. Let me know?

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Update June 27, 2005: December 2004 through February 2005 I was part of Marqui’s “Pay to Blog” program. I wrote about them and linked to them once a week. During the three-month program I had this icon displayed on my site in the right sidebar area.

Check number two of three arrived in the mail yesterday from Marqui, the company that pays me to include them in my blog until the end of February. I am curious to learn how the program has worked for Marqui. Will they be hiring a new batch of bloggers? Will the format, requirements and payment arrangements change?

tags: communications management system, CMS, paid bloggers

Shimon Rura took a few photos at the Genius Workshop dinner that we hosted last night at Henrietta’s Table in Harvard Square. We’ve been talking about doing this event for a couple months so it was exciting to see the first event actually take place. A few people asked us why the word “genius” is used in the event name. The idea is not to suggest that there is some sort of ego involved. And it is not a MENSA meeting. Our goal is to gather together a small group of smart (or so we think) people who are developing new tech/software/web ideas and the smart people who like to offer feedback. Shimon and I need to work out the ground rules and blog policy. If people are going to feel comfortable talking about new tech projects, they need to know the conversations won’t be transcribed for the web and at the same time, we should all feel comfortable writing about it in general on our weblogs.

Peter Caputa wrote a recap of last night’s dinner, including this tidbit:

We talked about a lot of stuff with a special emphasis on not talking about blogging. Content management systems, online fake cries for help and deception, each of our projects, how we each got where we are, what we are looking to do next, getting comp’d at big tech events, microsoft’s love affair with usenet.

tags: Genius Workshop, Shimon Rura

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve done a live broadcast of my internet radio station so I thought I’d test it out tonight and see if my computer can handle it while I’m also using other applications. I’m playing newish tunes from Rose Polenzani, Van Elk and then an assortment of other Boston bands. Check it out and let me know what you think? I probably won’t do any talking tonight since one of my office mates is having a meeting. But if this works reasonably well I’ll probably schedule a live broadcast every week or so. I appreciate feedback on the sound quality, if it’s dropping connection, etc. Listen up!

Michael just sent me a link to an article at the Boston Globe’s website about the FleetCenter’s naming rights going up for auction on eBay after Bank of America decided to pay a small pocket of change (about $3M) to get out of the buiding’s naming rights contract that they inherited after acquiring Fleet Bank. Proceeds from each of the single day naming rights will go to charity. There’s no mention of specific charities in the article. As of the time I’m writing this, there are six days days up for auction with the highest bid at $3,050.

The highest bidders won’t get to change the giant FleetCenter sign overlooking the highway. But they will get an assortment of perks, including their names on the FleetCenter’s website, its Jumbotron, and a message for callers to the automated phone system, which will say ”Thank you for calling the ‘YourCenter.’ They also will get four tickets to the day’s game or show, and a framed photo collage and a certificate, and a ‘’special surprise gift package.”

Update:The fine print on each of the listings mentions that “net proceeds will go to FleetCenter Neighborhood Charities (FCNC), a 501(c)(3) non-profit private foundation that benefits outreach initiatives focused on children and families in the Greater Boston area.”

A very reliable source mentioned to me today that The Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub is getting WiFi. This is great news for Central Square where there is also complimentary/free WiFi at Harvest Co-Op and Toscanini’s. Hopefully there will be more info soon.

Gregor’s weblog entry quoting Mark Forster about action versus activity reminded me of something I should add to my list of 2005 aspirations: picking projects and collaborations that involve action and not just being busy. It’s difficult sometimes (oh, who am I kidding: all of the time!) to figure out what projects I should focus on so that I’m moving forward in the right direction and not just filling up the hours in the day with things to keep me “busy.” Thanks for the (indirect) reminder, Gregor!

Update June 27, 2005: December 2004 through February 2005 I was part of Marqui’s “Pay to Blog” program. I wrote about them and linked to them once a week. During the three-month program I had this icon displayed on my site in the right sidebar area.

I’ve been unable to ping entries on Marqui’s blog and I’m not sure what’s up. I posted a comment on their blog but haven’t heard back. I have never seen this error until trying to ping a Marqui entry last week. Maybe trackbacks are not configured properly in their Movable Type “weblog config” area?

This is the error I get when I try to ping them:

Ping ‘http://blog.marqui.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/12′ failed: HTTP error: 404 Object Not Found

Here’s a rant about trackbacks or crapbacks.