Ned Ludd Lives!

Once in a while the term Luddite enters the conversation. We who presume ourselves to be on the cutting edge all things social and techie are occasionally floored by a remark or observation from a Luddite – or neo-luddite, or as I referred to them in a 2010 post, Luddite 2.0, a term coined my friend and deep thinker, Bill Wendel.  I have worked hard  since I wrote that post to avoid the Luddite mantle, and I can hold my own with most of the Gen-X, Y, Z or whatever Gen folks I encounter, because, as Brian Solis points out  Generation-C transcends age.  And that C is about being Connected.

TechCamp Memphis (5/12/2010) featured some of the area’s best minds in  social media, internet marketing and strategy, and an array of developer specialties.  I will admit that the developer stuff is way beyond me, but a big part of being Generation- C is having a good handle on just how much you want to be connected.     One attendee told me that her co-workers are not only not “connected”, but they don’t do very well un-connected either. “Most of them don’t know how to create a folder in Windows to put their files into.”  I wondered later if she was talking about electronic files or paper files.  I see that type of thing in my business a lot: “No, I don’t have a scanner; I’ll just bring you the contract.”  These are probably the same folks who fear the internet because someone might grab their private information; who find it easier to say NO to social media, Google, and in some cases email, rather than looking into how those things could possibly enhance their lives and make lots of things easier for them.  Having adopted the use of the telephone, they still carry pagers. Luddites 2.0.

Remember studying Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in Sociology 101?  Look at how closely the upper 2 levels (and possibly 3) of the pyramid reflect what most of us are accomplishing, in a large part, online today through being connected.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

I am not saying that’s good or bad, but think about it.  Once you are there can you go back?  Can you give up that connection?  Do you see a day when technology will evolve to the point that you will draw a line in the sand and say, “I’m a Luddite now.”?

-Images via http://en.wikipedia.org

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What is TechCamp?

TechCamp Memphis the bi-annual Memphis tech, social & online marketing conference. Spring ’12 TechCamp will be held May 12, 2012 in the Bornblum Library at Southwest Tennessee Community College (Macon Campus). Doors open at 7:30 am, with the conference running 8:30 am to 4:30 pm.

The Spring ’12 TechCamp has 3 tracks: Developers, Content Creators & Curators, and Online Marketing. Session topics can be found HERE. Click on titles for descriptions of sessions.

How do I register?

Registration is through Eventbrite there may still be a few discount tokens available. Use “joe” for the coupon/discount code, while it lasts.  You can also register at the door.

I will be presenting

Not that it’s any huge deal, but I will be participating on a panel with Liz Jostes and Beth Sanders on Social Media Strategy.  I will also be prepared to do a short Introduction to Google Plus.  You may have noticed that I am advocating (maybe even evangelizing) Google Plus.  I figure when prominent social media folks like Brogan, Scoble and Kawasaki are strong proponents, Google + deserves a closer look.

Networking

I have been to a lot of  ”camps”, and I can guarantee you 2 things: 1) You will learn things that will improve your business, your knowledge, or just make you a better person; and 2) You will benefit from NETWORKING with everyone who interests you.  There are no elitists at TechCamp, so feel free to approach anyone, discuss your ideas,  and get to know them better.

See you there!

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Bob Dylan and the Band – Mid-South Coliseum 1-23-1974, a photo by joespake on Flickr.

Posterized due to lighting and focus on this shot. You can recognize Levon Helm by his posture, and Dylan is Dylan. Here’s the Set List. More of my photos of Dylan and the ’70s at in Flickr.

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Somewhere in South Arkansas

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 Tech Camp Memphis happens Saturday May 12, 8:30AM-4:30PM.

This is not your marshmallows around the campfire kind of camp, but more along the lines of  of BarCamp, an open-format, UN-conference, driven by volunteers.  TechCamp Memphis will have a little more structure with 3  pre-defined tracks running simultaneously.  There will be something for Memphis techies across the spectrum, from newbies to developers.

The Tracks

Developers – for the true geeks, topics could include  sessions like: Data encryption, Developing against SQL injection and other hacks, Mobile payment development, jQuery primer, .Net, PHP, Native mobile apps, etc.

Content Creators, Curators, and Consumers – Bloggers, podcasters, musicians, film makers, photographers – those who create and those who sift through the infinite amount of content on the web and try to make sense of it all.

Small Business Builders – Online marketing across a wide spectrum of skill and experience levels, including the most popular social media platforms; geared to small business do-it-yourselfers,  those managing online engagement for others, and  individuals wanting to learn more about social media and online marketing.

 Sponsors Needed

Does your company want to sponsor a cool even, targeted to Memphis’ tech community?  Sponsorships are available at all levels.

Presenters

Are you knowledgeable in a tech topic, advanced or basic?  Would you like to volunteer to present or facilitate, let us know. Click here to volunteer

Location

The beautiful Library at Southwest Tennessee Community College! Thanks STCC!

5983 Macon Cove
Memphis, TN 38134

Time: 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. Doors open at 7:30 am.

Stay in touch

Follow us on Twitter @techcampmemphis and our  Twitter Hashtag #TCMEM for the latest information.  On Facebook  at Facebook.com/TechCampMemphis .   Google+ or the  Website - http://techcampmemphis.com

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Earl Scruggs at WLYX - 1974 (C)Joe Spake -all rights reserved

I first heard Earl Scruggs playing on TV for Martha White Flour with long time partner Lester Flatt – The Flatt and Scruggs show came on on Saturday evenings in the 1950s and 1960s, I believe. Even though I was too young to really appreciate the music fully, I was glued to the old TV set.  All these years later, that Martha White jingle is still top of mind.

Even though Earl’s progressive Bluegrass style created a milestone in American music, He went on to do some more progressive music with his sons in the Earl Scruggs Review in the mid 1970s.  I met him, interviewed him, and he spent a lot of time with us at WLYX-FM, Southwestern College’s (now Rhodes) Radio Station (picture above).

You may know his music from 1960s movie, Bonnie and Clyde or the theme from the Beverly Hillbillies, but Earl Scruggs 3-finger style was completely unique and revolutionized banjo music and the Bluegrass genre.  Here’s an example from the old Flatt and Scruggs Show.

By the way, if my Father had lived he would have been the same age as Earl.  They were from the same home town, Shelby, North Carolina.  I wonder if they knew each other.

Oh, and you might not believe this, but that skinny kid with Earl Scruggs in this pic is me.

(c) Joe Spake - all rights reserved

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(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am writing a new state song for Tennessee.  The title of this post is is the first line.  I have never written a song before, but somehow I am inspired.  Join me with your lines in the comments of this blog and  and let’s crowd source this thing.

This move comes in the wake of the  Tennessee senate passing a bill which, in part, would encourage teachers to present the “scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses” of “controversial” topics such as “biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning.”  The house has already passed their version. It’s being called the Monkey Bill by opponents. Full story via the National Center for Science Education.

Tennessee obviously didn’t learn much from the events and results of the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925.  I wonder who will be the 2013 replacements for  William Jennings Bryan, three-time presidential candidate for the Democrats, who argued for the prosecution, and Clarence Darrow, who represented John Scopes in his defense for mentioning Evolution in a Dayton, TN school.

Here’s some lyrics from a 1931 song  by the Carolina Buddies that might help inspire your lyric contribution for our state song.

From  My Evolution Girl

…..And she says we came from monkeys
Many many years gone by
But I know she’ll need a Saviour
When her time shall come to die……

Don’t believe in false teaching
For the truth to you I’ve told
Don’t believe in evolution
For the devil will get your soul.

So get those creative juices flowing and include your lines in the comments of this post.  Oh and try to work in Inherit the Wind somewhere.

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Magnetic calendars, soccer schedules, thing-to-do lists, clippings of things you want to buy, obituaries, family pictures, wedding announcements – they all end up stuck to the refrigerator door.  Now the web’s all abuzz with the latest social media fad, the internet version of the refrigerator door, Pinterest.   Although this picture/video curation site has been around since 2010, it seems to have caught fire in the last few months as folks are making little virtual bulletin boards and “pinning” images from the web that interest them (get it? P+Interest), just like sticking stuff to the family’s refrigerator door.

For those of you who may have heard of  Pinterest but not yet explored it, I will share a few questions I had before becoming  a not-so-dedicated user.

 Is it a chick thing?

The first question I had about Pinterest was “is it a chick thing?”  Your first look might will probably expose you to classy women’s shoes, finely decorated rooms, food delights, women’s clothing, and pictures of cute kittens. My friend, Janice Person wonders if guys on Pinterest need to turn in their man cards.  Another blog points out that women are visual, and yet another calls Pinterest catnip to women. Even Quora addresses the proportion of Pinterest users who are women.  There is guy stuff on there too, and as more businesses see the value of pinning their products, audiences will certainly be targeted.  It’s just that I see more women’s shoe and cupcakes than I see men’s shoes and socket wrench sets. I have many files of clippings going decades back.  Too many for the refrigerator.  Maybe I should scan them.

Is it a porn site?

You can find some R-rated pictures on Pinterest if you are really looking for them.  More than you would find on most family refrigerator doors; but that is a very small fraction of the content.  I guess porn is in the eye of the beholder, and if it hasn’t already happened, I guess we can expect a porn pinning site.

Is there spam?

Any open online forum lends itself to spammer abuse.  You can pin (and repin the pins of others) as much as you want, so you will see a lot of redundant/tedious stuff, and the pins contain a link to the most recent source, so I guess there is a lot of backlink potential for  SEO savvy folks.  I seem to find more and more folks making .jpg files out of text to pin. [That technique is being used on Facebook too, because pictures have more weight on FB than just plain text. If I can ever write something about FB edge rank that makes sense, I will certainly post it.]

What about Copyright issues?

The Internet’s just one big old Kumbayah bunch of love, trust, and sharing, right?  Keep sharing that copyrighted material that you are not quite sure of the source and don’t really think you need permission to share, and see how Kumbayah that letter from the high-powered big city attorney sounds.  The copyright thing has caused a lot of early Pinterest adopters to remove their pins and boards and start over clean or just quit pinning altogether.  I am now pinning only content I create, or Public Domain, or Creative Commons licensed material.

Terms of Service

Terms of Service?  Sounds vaguely familiar.  You know, that’s the little box you check when you open an account with an online platform that says you have read the terms and fully understand them.  There has been a lot written about Pinterest’s Terms of Service – your intellectual property rights and responsibilities.  I am not an attorney, so I will leave that for you to Google.

Happy pinning!  Don’t stick yourself.

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Set your clocks forward 1 hour Saturday night

Daylight Savings Time really sneaked up on me again this year.  Don’t  forget to set your time keeping devices ahead one hour when you got to bed Saturday night (3/10)  and enjoy that extra hour of daylight at the end of the day.  Daylight savings time officially begins Sunday, 3/11 at 2 AM.  Enjoy the extra daylight!

Image via Wikipedia

This is also a great time to remember to change the batteries in all the smoke detectors in your house, whether you think they need it or not.

Happy Spring and Summer!

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On March 25, 2011, the roof of the neglected building at 118 Madison, in the heart of Downtown Memphis, collapsed, causing the Fire Department to close Madison due to structural issues with the Building.  After 4 months, not much progress had been made and I posted In a Real City on 7/5/2011, picking up on a quote from Downtown Memphis Commission President Paul Morris.  Here’s the way the building looked then, 4 months after the collapse.

Progress on 118 Madison 8/10/11 - 4 months after collapse (8/11/2011)

When I posted again about the building in August, 2011 – In a real city – revisited -  still no progress had been made on repairing or demolishing the building.  Not wanting to turn this into the Downtown Neglect Blog, I observed but didn’t post about the building again.

So what’s up now?  Here is a photo I took of the “progress” on March 3, 2012

118 Madison (March 3,2012)

See any difference?  Just the  wall of huge blocks built around the Madison side and the alley to the west.  This bunker-like structure has been there for months. Auto traffic moves on Madison, even with one lane closed, and the Trolley carries tourists and commuters past this scene that looks more like Downtown Fallujah  than Downtown Memphis.

Wall around 118 Madison - March, 2012

So does the City of Memphis think that ignoring this situation will make it go away, that this mess will somehow blend in with the the cityscape?  Are the powers that be waiting for it to fall down on its own?  Downtown is full of neglected buildings.  How will Memphis handle the next collapse?  And the next?

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