Several months ago, I had a conversation with Zach Wilson of Gulo Solutions about whether associations really needed to incorporate social media into their programs or not. My conclusion is it depends on what your audience is like, however it is definitely worth building capacity because in the future this stuff will simply be the way it is.  Read more »

Since I was in New York City visiting with some of my chapter people there, I took the opportunity to go to the ProBlogger Meetup hosted by Darren Rowse. It was a great time, and I met lots of people.  Read more »

So I usually don't get caught up in hype-y stuff, at least that's what I tell myself to assuage my postmodern sensitivities. However, I just bought the single "Mine Again," by a group called Black Lab off iTunes. Here's the case for doing so yourself. And, today's the day!

Update: Disappointing outcome. Here is an analysis from blogger Nick O'Neill.

I've been sitting on this awhile, but I need to throw it out there. There is a new website called Nurse Linkup, that appears to put a professional face and focus on the 2.0 space. Since I work in a healthcare organization, I can tell you that nurses are highly fragmented but also that there are like a gazillion of them (all numbers approximate). The community is run by a for-profit company, itLinkz, based in Pennsylvania. So this is an interesting thing to throw out there. I'm gonna try to interview these folks one of these days. Seriously, I have to respect this.  Read more »

Great treatment of the economics of attention over at Read/Write Web. Quote:

"The founders of AttentionTrust succeeded in defining a simple, elegant, yet encompassing set of principles that define the rules of the game, by outlining the basic consumer rights in the AttentionEconomy:  Read more »

So, I found out from SimpleBits that AIGA (that's the "professional association for design") has lauched a new website design. It's beautiful, and I really like how it organizes the group's offerings. It aligns the group with how a lot of designers' sites are organized, which has to help the members feel at home.

Links to the pundits:  Read more »

My friend, Tim Spalding, from LibraryThing sent me an email inviting me to a network for "Social Catalogers," or people who make social cataloging applications. (This is because Katherine and I run the website RecipeThing). He used Ning to set it up, in essence, creating a professional association with a few mouseclicks.

If you don't know, Ning is a web 2.0 that started in 2004, although it's getting some serious trade press right now in TechCrunch, etc. Its goal is to enable anyone to create a social network, i.e., to form an association.  Read more »