Journey

Jamaica Pegasus Tweetup, The Second Edition

// September 4th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Cool Stuff, Life, Technology

The Jamaica Pegasus has done it again! They have staged the second successful Tweetup in Jamaica. A tweetup is a social event for twitter users to meet, mingle and socialise in person. The Pegasus first hosted a tweetup on June 18, 2010, it was the first event of it’s kind in Jamaica and was a huge success. Jamaican twitter users all over were talking about the event for months, wait, correction we are still talking about the event. When the second event was announced it took only 8 hours to fill the 250 person cap for the event, the previous event took 3 weeks (only 150 people). In total over 300 people actually attended.

Was it better than the last one? Definitely! The food was good, and Capt. Collin Hinds kept the music juggling. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, people were actually dancing on the dance floor. One thing to note was that people were actually socialising, in person, and not just tweeting away on their phones. Marcia Forbes, twitter’s Jamaican media queen, prepared a survey for attendees to fill out on twitter usage and demographics, I can’t wait to see the results in her upcoming book. Mrs. Prudence Simpson, head tweeter for @JamaicaPegasus was also out and about greeting everyone. Corve Dacosta recently interviewed Mrs. Simpson for his The Last Word series on his blog, take a read. A tonne of prizes were also being given away, my friends @persephone101, @byrumjr and @wabamonsta were all winners, as well as @sweetpersona who always seems to win something as well. There were several other winners as well for prizes like a weekend for two at Secrets Resorts, which is another twitter-friendly hotel.

I was glad to meet with a lot of tweeples (twitter people) at the event, the list is big so I won’t call names, but thank you all! Due to the larger venue I don’t think people mingled quite as much as the last one, but it was absolutely necessary given the volume of people. After the event a group of us ended up going to the 24/7 Cafe on premises to enjoy some Bailey’s Milkshakes and Sandwiches. We didn’t end up leaving The Pegasus until after 2 AM! My only disappointment in the night was that nobody jumped in the kiddies pool, I was betting on that next time I guess? I would like to thank The Jamaica Pegasus for organising a great event, I had a great time! Please see some photos below:

Tweet

The Jamaican Blogger Project

// August 27th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Cool Stuff, Technology

Yesterday Morning Nicky McFarlane came up with the idea of Jamaican Bloggers using the hashtag #jamaicanblogger to make blogs easier to find. Well, this is a prime case for social media, within an hour the hashtag was being shared heavily on twitter, and within a few hours over 45 blogs were tracked. I am currently tracking the term #jamaicanblogger, #jamaicanbloggers, “jamaican blogger” online to see how much it is used. Please see the widget below:

Also you can follow these bloggers on my twitter list: http://twitter.com/utenjm/jamaican-bloggers

To get listed please tweet your url and #jamaicanblogger also please encourage friends to share so we can get a full listing of Jamaican blogs. Eventually I will aggregate the data and post it online, so we can have a central library of Jamaican blogs. Also please share in the comments below how using the hashtag has helped you get more visitors, better search engine ranking or new twitter followers! Thanks

Tweet

Kingston Beta: The Town Hall Meeting

// August 27th, 2010 // 7 Comments » // Cool Stuff, Life, Technology

Kingston Beta is the bimonthly networking event and Startup pitch platform where Jamaican and Caribbean tech/internet/mobile/business professionals, entrepreneurs and enthusiasts come To Learn. To Be Inspired. To Network.

It was founded by Ingrid Riley, entrepreneur, blogger and tech evangelist in 2007. Since then,  Kingston Beta has seen hundreds of attendees and scores of startup pitches from Jamaica, plus Caribbean startups from the region and the United States.

Today’s meeting was different than I expected. I had never been to a Kingston Beta meeting before and somewhat expected a hollywood style frenzy of the who’s who in tech. Ok so I was a bit imaginative, the who’s who of tech was there but it was a lot more down to earth than expected. The theme of the event was a Town Hall Meeting. The main discussion was supposed to take place after a Skype conference call with a guest speaker, but ninjas kept stealing the wireless signal and we had to abandon hope.

The discussion was vibrant and informative, unfortunately the habit of introducing people came mid-way discussion, so if you attended please add comments below so I can give kudos where due.

Ingrid Riley, Founder of Kingston Beta

The initial topic was how Digicel’s 4G is going to help spur entrepreneur-ism in Jamaica. The general consensus is that nobody could say how it would help directly, however greater internet access would aid development, especially in the form of jobs and web applications. Ingrid also pointed out that Facebook now has over four hundred thousand (400,000) Jamaican users. These statistics show just how much potential there is in social media and web development, since there is a large user base to interact with.

From the initial discussion we moved on to the value of social media, after the town’s Doubting Thomas, who’s real name is David Clayton, asked who was making money from social media. A long discussion ensued going over the difference between using social media to make money and making money from social media. This discussion drew contributions from nearly everyone, it was quite informative. As one of the last people to hold the mic, I summarised that to make money from social media you either need to be a social media marketer, a company using social media marketing, a content generator/developer, a content distributor, or a data harvester. Everyone who makes money from or as a result of social media falls into one of those 5 categories.

Foursquare, my favourite topic was also discussed. The question came up about who used it, what it was about, how does it benefit businesses? Of the 15 or so people in the room, about 5 were on Foursquare, we were referred to as the early adopters. Earlier in a twitter discussion with one of my followers we figured there were around 100 Foursquare users in Jamaica. I am beginning to think there are many more. Foursquare is a geolocation social networking application that allows users to compete for points and mayorships. In essence it is a game that allows venues to reward users by offering specials. Users who share their Foursquare activity with Facebook and Twitter then help to build presence for the venue they are checked in at. It was also noted that there are serious privacy concerns for a new user, however once someone understands that it is not always best to check in, or share your location then they can proceed to becoming mayor of their most frequented venues. I also managed to testify on the increased discussion levels online for Chilitos Mexican Restaurant because of their Foursquare special.

My Elite Grocer’s Gale Peart confronted the developers at the meeting by asking why there were not more local smart-phone and web applications, especially for Facebook. She emphasised local media houses had good content that needed create mediums for sharing it. Also corporate Jamaica could use these applications for better service and support. Hey with 400,000 Facebook users, if 10,000 of them paid US$1 for an application then that is the equivalent of a young programmer’s salary for a year.

Overall the event was good, had a long discussion afterwards as well with some of the attendees. I will definately try to attend the next one, I hear there are big plans for it being part of an international entrepreneurs week. Please comment below if I have left out anything.

Twitter users who attended:

@yorkali @ingridriley @persephone101 @chrysalisceo @forresterod @myelitegrocer @moniquepowell @top5jamaica @marciaforbes @CRAC16 these are just the usernames I know, please comment if I forgot you. Thanks! ’til next time!

Tweet

Foursquare – The next big thing?

// August 6th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Cool Stuff, Technology

Have you ever heard about Foursquare? By definition it is a geo-location social networking application. For the rest of us, it means it tracks your activities at venues, as a game between friends. There is also a leader board where you can compete with friends each week to see who has gained the most points. Points are given based on how many check-ins you have done that day, if it’s your first time, if you are adding a venue etc. As part of the game, you can also unlock badges and at crowded venues (like a conference) view who else is there.

So how does it help? Well I have been using it for some time now and it is fun! You can become the mayor of venues by signing in the most at a venue within the past 60 days. Want to go out on a Friday night? Just check your friends and see where they have signed in to help choose a destination. Do you like a particular product or service at the venue? Leave a tip for other users! Tips show up when you sign in at a venue, so sign in before you order/purchase. Additionally some venues are partnering with Foursquare to put on specials, so on your third sign in you get a free drink, or when you are a mayor you get a discount on your bill. So far I know the following Jamaican venues offer specials: Chilitos, Fiction Lounge and more are coming!

Is it secure? With Foursquare you have to approve friends to share your location with. Also you can sign in off-grid which allows you to receive points and badges without sharing your location with your friends or the venue you have signed in with. With the right security settings you never have to share you don’t have to worry about sharing your location with anyone.

Who can use it? Anyone with an Iphone, Blackberry or Android powered phone. You will also need a mobile data plan to connect to Foursquare’s servers online. Plus Foursquare can already find friends using the service by connecting to Facebook and Twitter!

In the coming weeks I will be writing more about Foursquare, so stay tuned!

Edit: please also see Video below:

How to use one Gmail address for multiple Twitter accounts the efficient way!

// July 29th, 2010 // No Comments » // Cool Stuff, Social Media Marketing

Earlier I saw the following tweet in my feed from Ingrid Riley:

fedora.org hacked!

// December 14th, 2008 // No Comments » // Cool Stuff, Humour, Technology

seems like http://fedora.org got om nom nom nom nom

Did you know?

// December 14th, 2008 // No Comments » // Cool Stuff, Life, Technology

mad rally crash

// December 11th, 2008 // No Comments » // Cool Stuff

Cars and motorcycle videos

Hilarious geek rapping

// November 28th, 2008 // No Comments » // Cool Stuff, Humour, Technology

Ubuntu? I am going to learn, ubuntu?

// November 22nd, 2008 // No Comments » // Cool Stuff, Humour

The Matrix runs on Windows

hilarious video, its a must watch