The Jeff Pulver Blog: media 2.0 Archives

July 04, 2009

Happy 4th of July!

Happy and Safe 4th of July to all those who are celebrating today. :)

Posted by jeff at 02:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 01, 2009

Congratulations to the Ben Gurion University of the Negev Class of 2009:

Earlier today I had an opportunity to visit and speak at Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) on the day that members of the graduating class presented their senior projects. I first visited BGU on their 2007 Senior Projects Day and was looking forward to once again catching up with some of the future leaders of the Israeli Hi-Tech industry.

Being on campus at BGU was an amazing experience and I was totally blown away by the people I met and senior projects presented, including a number of robots which were demonstrated. I enjoyed talking with a number of the students and having a chance to ask them what they learned during the past year while they were working on their one year projects. In my eyes these were not really students, but rather groups of micro CEOs given the challenge that in one year they need to deliver on the project assigned to them. And while not everyone in every team was able to complete their project, it really didn’t matter. What many of these students learned is that sometimes it is the journey that is more important than where they started from or ended up. And that on that road from inception and creation of a project to the eventual fulfillment and delivery, the knowledge that they picked up and the things which they experienced can be just as important contribution to their future as anything they could possibly learn from attending classes.

While Israel may not have much oil amongst it’s natural resources, being at BGU was a reminder that in Israel, there are oil wells being born every day. The students at BGU represent a cross sampling of people whose presence will be felt in the Hi-Tech industries in the days, months and years ahead. It was an honor to have a chance to experience Israeli innovation first hand.

The time spent at BGU made it clear to me that one of the reasons why innovation is alive and well in Israel has to do with the great work of Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

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Tags: Yossi Vardi, Gilad Zirkel Friedman, Beer Sheva, Israel, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 30, 2009

TechCrunch: Sense Of Fashion Is A Social Marketplace For Indie Fashion

"Sense of Fashion is an Israeli startup that aims to be a marketplace for both Indie fashion designers to sell their designs and for consumers to be able to access clothes made by aspiring designers. The site also serves a social purpose—it lets any user create a fashion homepage of sorts where you can add photos of what you wear your favorite clothes and designs. Designers can create storefronts on this platform as well."

Click here to read the entire story.

Nice to see Sense of Fashion recognized by TechCrunch.

For related story see: Spotlight on: Sense of Fashion

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Tags: Sense of Fashion, StartUp, Tel Aviv,Israel, Daria Shualy, Social Media, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 29, 2009

Event: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Tel Aviv (today)

This morning I am in Tel Aviv, Israel and hosting another edition of “Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and Friends)” in Tel Aviv, this time at Tel Aviv University.

I am looking forward to hosting my 14th breakfast of the year and my 3rd in Tel Aviv this year. Special thanks to Sharon Kuper for helping to make this breakfast happen.

Friends attending today's breakfast are asked to include #09BWF14 in the title of their Facebook photo albums.

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Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, Tel Aviv, social media, facebook, Social Media Breakfast, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

June 28, 2009

Are you a Character?

I am looking for a new "Cast of Characters" for the 140 Characters Conference: LA (Oct 27/28) and 140 Characters Conference: London (Nov 10/11).

If you are a character or would like to nominate someone, you can either contact me directly by sending email to: jeff@pulver.com or tweet your nomination and include #140conf. The casting call will end on July 24th.

For more information regarding the 140 Characters Conference, please visit: http://140conf.com

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 07:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 27, 2009

140conf Rebroadcast - June 29 and June 30th

Friends are invited to participate in the re-broadcast of the 140 Characters Conference which will be taking place on June 29th and June 30th.

This will be a “Director’s Cut” re-broadcast as some of the speakers will be tweeting while their session is being re-broadcast.

The broadcast starts at 11 AM (EST) each day.

To watch the re-broadcast, visit http://140conf.com/watch

Hope you can join us on Monday and Tuesday for the re-broadcast. Please include #140conf when you tweet about the content you are watching.

———————————————————————-
The 140 Character Conference - Day 1 Rebroadcast Schedule
———————————————————————–

June 29th Schedule: (Time is EST)
====================

1. 11:00 AM - Jeff Keni Pulver (@jeffpulver), creator/founder/host #140conf
“The State of NOW”

2. 11:15 AM - Jack Dorsey (@jack) - creator, co-founder & Chairman, twitter

3. 11:27 AM - Tim O’Reilly (@timoreilly) - Founder and CEO, O’Reilly Media.
“What twitter has taught me”

4. 11:43 AM - Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) - is a VC and principal of Union Square Ventures:
“The Power of Passed Links and Earned Media”

5. 11:53 AM - John Borthwick - CEO of betaworks
“The twitter Ecosystem”

6. 12:05 AM - avid Saranga (@DavidSaranga) - Consul for Media and Public Affairs at the Israeli Consulate in New York
“The use of Twitter in Public Diplomacy”

7. 12:19 AM twitter: Newspapers
“The effect of twitter on Newspapers”

Participants:
John Boitnott (@jboitnott) - Social Media strategist, Village Voice
Erick Schonfeld (@erickschonfeld) - co-editor, TechCrunch
Etan Horowitz (@etanowitz) - Technology writer, Orlando Sentinel
Patrick LaForge (@palafo) - Director of the Copy Desks, The New York Times
Peter A. McKay (@peteramckay) - Writer, Wall Street Journal

8. 12:42 AM - Howard Lindzon (@howardlindzon) - Wallstrip Creator, Hedge Fund Manager, Venture Fund Manager and StockTwits.com
“Living in a twitter world.”

9. 12:50 AM - twitter: TV
“what twitter means to TV shows and their producers”

Participants:
Caissie St.Onge (@Caissie) - Writer/Producer, Best Week Ever
Craig Engler (@Craigatscifi) - SVP and GM of Sci Fi Digital.
Gavin Purcell (@gavinpurcell) - co-producer, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon
Shelly Palmer (@shelly_palmer) - Host, MediaBytes. President, NATAS–NY and the Emmy Awards. Author, Television Disrupted

10. 1:12 PM - Liz Strauss (@lizstrauss)”
Marketing for the eavesdroppers in the tridimensional conversation”

11. 1:22 PM - Stowe Boyd (@stoweboyd)
“The evolution of Microsyntax”

12. 1:33 PM - “The effects of twitter on My Business
or how things are different now because of twitter. The corporate perspective”

Participants:
Brian Solis (@briansolis) - Principal of FutureWorks
Brook Lundy (@someecards) - Co-Founder and Head Writer, someecards
Marcel LeBrun (@lebrun) - CEO, Radian6
Tony Hsieh (@zappos) - CEO, Zappos.com

13. 1:54 PM - Maegan Carberry (@maegancarberry) - Blogger, Huffington Post // CauseCast // Lifehack; co-host Variety’s Wilshire and Washington, Managing Editor, truuconfessions.com.
“Politics: possibilities of bipartisanship and/or post-partisanship on Twitter. “

14. 2:05 PM - “twitter as a News Gathering Tool”

Participants:
Ann Curry (@AnnCurry) - News Anchor on NBC’s Today Show and host of Dateline NBC
Rick Sanchez (@ricksanchezcnn) - Host of the 3PM weekday edition of CNN Newsroom
Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer)
Ryan Osborn (@todayshow) - Producer, NBC Today Show

15. 2:41 PM - John A. Byrne (@JohnAByrne) - Editor in Chief, BusinessWeek.com
“The Business Week perspective on twitter”

16. 3:04 PM - James Cox (@imajes)
“The story behind CNNBRK”

17. 3:14 PM - Moeed Ahmad (@moeed) - Head of New Media Technology and Future Media Department Technology Division, Al Jazeera Network
“The Al Jazeera Twitter Strategy”

18. 3:26 PM - Jeremy Epstein (@jer979) - Marketing Navigator, Never Stop Marketing
“How I followed Jeff Pulver on Twitter for 16 Months and Ended Up on This Stage: Twitter as a Strategic Relationship Building Tool”

19. 3:38 PM - Christopher R. Weingarten (@1000TimesYes) - Music Writer, RollingStone.com and Village Voice
“Twitter and the End Of Music Criticism”

20. 3:49 PM - Jeffrey Hayzlett (@JeffreyHayzlett) - Chief Marketing Officer, Kodak
“Kodak and twitter: What we are learning”

21. 4:10 PM - Kevin Slavin - founder area/code
“Things that twitter”

22. 4:21 PM - twitter: Music
“Exploring the use of twitter in the Music Industry”

Participants:
Jim Jones (@jimjonescapo) - Recording artist
Leslie Hall (@dollyhall) - Principal, ICED Media
Ted Cohen (@TAGStrategic) - Managing Partner
Xavier Jernigan (@xjernigan) - Director, Digital Marketing & Strategy at Universal Motown Republic Group

23. 4:40PM twitter: Sports
“A look at how twitter is used in Pro Sports”

Participants:
ESPN Katie Richman (@ESPN_ProdGirl)
Jeramie McPeek (@SunsWebmaster) - Webmaster, Phoenix Suns
Kathleen Hessert (@kathleenhessert) - President, Sports Media Challenge
troy murphy (@troy_murphy) - Forward, Indiana Pacers

24. 4:57 PM - Musicians, Bloggers and Twitter
“The new Artist / Fan Relationship”

Participants:
BarbaraJones (@BarbaraJones)
Diane Birch (@dianebirch) - Recording Artist
Steve Greenberg (@steviegpro) - founder & CEO, S-Curve Records
(includes a performance by Diane Birch)

25. 5:19 PM - twitter: Moms
“Exploring the way Moms use twitter”

Participants:
Audrey McClelland (@AudreyMcClellan) - Co-owner of MomGenerations.com
Jessica Gottlieb (@JessicaGottlieb)
Lindsay Maines (@rockandrollmama)
Maya Bisineer (@thinkmaya)

26. 5:43 PM - Laura Fitton (@Pistachio) - Founder, oneforty inc. and co-Author Twitter for Dummies
“twitter: A Love Story”

27. 5:54 PM - Sharon Glassman (@sharonglassman) - Funny-smart author, HuffPost blogger, performing speaker
“Geek, Dorks, Nerds: How to make your most “uncool” self your Tweetest asset.”

28. 6:01 PM - twitter and Mad Men
“A look at the story behind the story about MadMen who twitter. Surprise Mad Man will be unveiled at #140Conf!”

Participants:
Carri Bugbee (@peggyolson)
Helen Klein Ross (@bettydraper)

29. 6:18 PM - Brad Fidler (@brad_fidler)
“Twitter Freedoms”

30. 6:30 PM - Andrew Keen (@ajkeen)
“Twitter and power”

31. 6:41 PM - twitter Celebs
“the making of a twitter celebrity”

Participants:
adventuregirl (@adventuregirl)
Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) - President, New Marking Labs
Julia Roy (@juliaroy) - Senior Agent of Social Life™ at Undercurrent and Creator/Host of Tweet Week, a weekly vlog about Twitter youtube.com/tweetweek
Justine (@ijustine)

32. 7:02 PM - Rajesh Setty (@UpbeatNow) - Entrepreneur, Author and Speaker
“ThinkTweet: Books that tweet”

33. 7:13 PM - “twitter: For the Social Good”

Participants:
Adam Hirsch (@adamhirsch) - COO, Mashable.com
Amanda Rose (@amanda) - Founder, @twestival
drew olanoff (@drew) - #BlameDrewsCancer
Liane Thompson (@missilecitykids)
StaceyMonk (@StaceyMonk) - Founder of Epic Change and TweetsGiving.

———————————————————————-
Day 2 Rebroadcast Schedule
———————————————————————–

June 30th Schedule: (Time is EST)
====================

1. 11:00 AM - Mike Koehler (@mkokc) - New Media Director for STF | PR, creator of #OKstorms, #OKice; former multimedia guru at NewsOK/Opubco
“Using twitter for Public Safety”

2. 11:13 AM - Eric Peterson (@erictpeterson)
“twitter Stats”

3. 11:24 AM - Mahesh Murthy (@maheshmurthy) - Founder, Pinstorm
“twitter’s role in an integrated digital marketing plan”

4. 11:35 AM - Steve Rubel (@steverubel) - SVP, Director of Insights, Edelman Digital
“twitter and PR”

5. 11:47 AM - twitter: Book Publishing
“Lies My Twitter Never Told Me” - Twitter Rocks Publishing; Authors Crush It!

Participants:
Debbie Stier (@debbiestier) - SVP, Associate Publisher, Harper Studio
Kaylie Jones (@KaylieJones) - Novelist. Her upcoming memoir is: “Lies My Mother Never Told Me.” Her bestsellig novel: “A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries” (Merchant Ivory film)
Kevin Heisler (@KevinHeisler) - Literary Executor
Ron Hogan (@RonHogan) - Curator, Beatrice.com

6. 12:05 PM - Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) - President, New Marking Labs
“twitter and Trust Agents”

7. 12:27 PM - “twitter as the GPS for the Greater Social Media Mesh”

Participants:
Aaron Strout (@AaronStrout) - CMO, Powered, Inc.
Brian Morrissey (@bmorrissey) - Digital Editor at Adweek
David Berkowitz (@dberkowitz) - Emerging Media Director, 360i
Hadley Stern (@hadleystern) - Vice-President, Fidelity Labs
Peter Fasano (@pfasano) - Principal/Lead Catalyst, Mass+Logic

8. 12:49 PM - “twitter and Serendipity”
Sol Lipman, (@solster), co-founder 12 Seconds.TV

9. 1:00 PM - “twitter: Video”

Participants:
Christian Payne (@Documentally)
Jeffrey Hayzlett (@JeffreyHayzlett) - CMO, Kodak
Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield)
Sukhjit Ghag (@sukhjit)

10. 1:21 PM - Bronwen Clune (@bronwen) - CEO, Norg Media
“Twitter, the media and chaos theory”

11. 1:32 PM - “White House Correspondency in the Age of Twitter”

Participants:
Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox) - National Correspondent for Air America radio
Jason Linkins (@dceiver) - Editor of the Huffington Post’s “Eat The Press” blog.
Jim Long (@newmediajim) - photojournalist, NBC News
Mike Madden (@mikemadden) - Salon.com Washington correspondent

12. 1:54 PM - “twitter and Brands: Lessons learned and learning”

Participants:
Jeff Simmermon (@jeffTWC) - Director Digital Communications
jeffTWC (@jeffTWC) - Director Digital Communications
Jennifer Cisney (@kodakCB) - Kodak’s Chief Blogger
John Bell (@jbell99) - Managing Director, Ogilvy’s 360 Digital Influence practice
John Wolf (@MarriottIntl) - Senior Director, Public Relations, Marriott Intl

13. 2:12 PM - Marlooz (@marlooz) - Filmmaker and internetjunkie
“Love 2.0″

14. 2:28 PM - “twitter: Publishing
People Get Real: forward-thinking publishing experts discuss twitter and how it is loved & feared in-industry and what this means for you”

Participants:
Ami Greko (@ami_with_an_i) - Digital Marketing Manager, Macmillan.
Colleen Lindsay (@ColleenLindsay) - Literary Agent, FinePrint
Richard Nash (@R_Nash) - former publisher of Soft Skull Press; publishing guru
Russ Marshalek (@russmarshalek) - Freelance book publicist
Ryan Chapman (@chapmanchapman) - Digital Marketing, Macmillan

15. 2:44 PM - Hjortur Smarason (@hjortur) - Editor in chief: IMinnovation.org; Co-founder: IfTheWorldCouldVote.com
“How I became a twitter character - rules of engagement”

16. 2:56 PM - Scott Porad (@scottporad) - Cheezburger Technology Officer; Company: I Can Has Cheezburger?
“Follow Friday”

17. 3:06 PM - “twitter and Science”

Participants:
Deborah Berebichez (@thesciencebabe)
Michelle Gill (@jayhawkbabe)

18. 3:18 PM - twitter: Apps
“A look at twitter apps and their road ahead”

Participants:
Adam Ostrow (@adamostrow)
Adarsh Pallian (@pallian)
Bernard Desarnauts (@bernard_d) - SVP International & GM Europe, Glam Media
Iain Dodsworth (@iaindodsworth)
Jodee Rich (@WingDude)

19. 3:40 PM - Heather Gold (@heathr)
“Being “Private” in Public”

20. 3:51 PM - Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee)
“Scaling and Caring”

21. 4:02 PM - “twitter: The Interview”

Chris Sacca interviews multi-platinum musician, actor, and producer Wyclef Jean about what Twitter means to him and the impact he sees it having on the entertainment industry.

Participants:
Chris Sacca (@sacca)
Wyclef Jean (@wyclef) - multi-platinum Haitian-American musician, actor, producer and former-member of the hip hop trio The Fugees. Wyclef has sold more than 31 million albums.

22. 4:27 PM - “Digital Diplomacy and Cultural Collaboration”

Participants:
Andrew Kneale (@andrewkneale) - Transatlantic Project Coordinator. British Council
Evan M. O’Neil (@gpi) - Global Policy Innovations Magazine
Joshua Fouts (@josholalia) - Senior Fellow, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs; Senior Fellow, Digital Media and Public Policy, The Center for the Study of the Presidency Chief Global Strategist, Dancing Ink Productions, LLC
Michael Jay Friedman (@americagovprint) - U.S. Dept. of State (IIP/PUBP)
Rita J. King (@RitaJKing) - CEO and Creative Director, Dancing Ink Productions

23. 4:36 PM - JP Rangaswami (@jobsworth) - Managing Director, BT Design
“twitter in the Enterprise”

24. 4:58 PM - “Designing User Experiences for Twitter”

Participants:
Jayson Elliot (@JaysonElliot) - Director of User Experience, Wunderman
Jeff Dachis (@jeffdachis) - CEO, Dachis Corporation; Senior Partner, Bond Art + Science
Karen McGrane (@karenmcgrane) - Senior Partner, Bond Art + Science
Whitney Hess (@whitneyhess) - Independent user experience designer

25. 5:10 PM - Sudha Jamthe (@sujamthe)
“BottomUp innovation”

26. 5:22 PM - Stephanie Agresta (@StephAgresta) - EVP, Global Director of Digital Strategy and Social Media at Porter Novelli.
“twitter: Affiliate Marketing”

27. 5:39 PM - “twitter and Small Business”

Participants:
Aliza Sherman (@alizasherman)
Brian Moran (@BrianMoran) - Founder/Pres Moran Media Group
Rieva Lesonsky (@Rieva) - Founder/CEO of Grow Biz Media.

28. 5:59 PM - “Twitter & The Effect Of Social Media on Fashion Brands & Retailers”

Participants:
Macala Wright (@Macala) - Director of Online Marketing, 1928 Jewelry
Yuli Ziv (@YuliZ) - co-Founder of My”It”Things

29. 6:11 PM - “Across the pond - UK Media Panel
Open forum with journalists, authors and microbloggers from the UK looking at how twitter is shaping and disrupting across different media and news projects.”

Participants:
Ande Gregson (@media140) - founder, media140
Kate AG (@RadioKate) - Microblogger/Project Catalyst BBC
Paul Carr (@paulcarr) - Author and Guardian columnist

30. 6:32 PM - “The Wisdom of Twitter”

Participants:
Dean Landsman (@DeanLand)
Howard Greenstein (@howardgr)

31. 6:46 PM - Callie Kimball (@calindrome) - Project Manager, Media Works at NBC Universal, and Playwright.
“All the Web’s A Stage: The arts as a shared experience on Twitter.”

32. 6:56 PM - Jeffrey Sass (@sass) - VP Biz Dev, Myxer
“Everything I Know About Twitter I Learned In Grade School”

33. 7:08 PM - Melissa Pierce (@melissapierce) - Producer, Life In Perpetual Beta Film Series
“The Documentary that happened because of twitter”

34. 7:19 PM - Marah (@marahverse)
“twitter: poetry”

Watch: http://blip.tv/file/2269437

35. 7:29 PM - James Gross (@TheJames) - Vice President, Federated Media
“Advertising with twitter”

36. 7:42 PM - “A look at twitter services, apps and what’s next”

Participants:
Albert Maruggi (@AlbertMaruggi)
Mario Menti (@mario) - twitterfeed.com founder
+ special guests

Posted by jeff at 04:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 26, 2009

Jeff Pulver and #140conf on CNBC:

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

June 25, 2009

Event: Jeff Pulver will be a guest on “Gadgets and Games” with Clayton Morris on Fox News (Friday, 2-3PM EST)

Tomorrow afternoon I will be a guest on “Gadgets and Games” with Clayton Morris on Fox News from 2PM to 3PM (EST). I will be joining Robert Scoble and Gary Vaynerchuk to talk about the future of social media.

I am looking forward to being part of an hour of what I believe will be “Must watch Social Media TV.” :)

- - -

Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

June 24, 2009

Watch 33 Sessions from Day 1 of 140conf:

The 140 Characters Conference (#140conf) took place June 16-17 in New York City. Follow the links below to watch any of the 33 sessions from the first day of the event

----------------------------------------------------------------------
The 140 Character Conference Video Library - Day 1 Video Recap
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Jeff Keni Pulver (@jeffpulver), creator/founder/host #140conf

Watch: “The State of NOW”

--------------------------------------------------------------

2. Jack Dorsey (@jack) - creator, co-founder & Chairman, twitter

Watch: http://blip.tv/file/2250926>the twitter story

--------------------------------------------------------------

3. Tim O'Reilly (@timoreilly) - Founder and CEO, O'Reilly Media.

Watch: “What twitter has taught me”

--------------------------------------------------------------

4. Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) - is a VC and principal of Union Square Ventures:

Watch: “The Power of Passed Links and Earned Media”

--------------------------------------------------------------

5. John Borthwick (@johnborthwick) - CEO of betaworks

Watch: “The twitter Ecosystem”

--------------------------------------------------------------

6. David Saranga (@DavidSaranga) - Consul for Media and Public Affairs at the Israeli Consulate in New York

Watch: “The use of Twitter in Public Diplomacy”

--------------------------------------------------------------

7. twitter: Newspapers

Watch: “The effect of twitter on Newspapers”

--------------------------------------------------------------

8. Howard Lindzon (@howardlindzon) - Wallstrip Creator, Hedge Fund Manager, Venture Fund Manager and StockTwits.com

Watch: “Living in a twitter world.”

--------------------------------------------------------------

9. twitter: TV

Watch: “what twitter means to TV shows and their producers”

--------------------------------------------------------------

10. Liz Strauss (@lizstrauss)

Watch: "Marketing for the eavesdroppers in the tridimensional conversation”

--------------------------------------------------------------

11. Stowe Boyd (@stoweboyd)

Watch: “The evolution of Microsyntax”

--------------------------------------------------------------

12. “The effects of twitter on My Business
or how things are different now because of twitter. The corporate perspective”

Watch: The effects of twitter on My Business

--------------------------------------------------------------

13. Maegan Carberry (@maegancarberry) - Blogger, Huffington Post // CauseCast // Lifehack; co-host Variety's Wilshire and Washington, Managing Editor, truuconfessions.com.

Watch: “Politics: possibilities of bipartisanship and/or post-partisanship on Twitter."

--------------------------------------------------------------

14. “twitter as a News Gathering Tool”

Participants:
Ann Curry (@AnnCurry) - News Anchor on NBC's Today Show and host of Dateline NBC
Rick Sanchez (@ricksanchezcnn) - Host of the 3PM weekday edition of CNN Newsroom
Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer)
Ryan Osborn (@todayshow) - Producer, NBC Today Show

Watch: “twitter as a News Gathering Tool” (Part 1)
Watch: “twitter as a News Gathering Tool” (Part 2)

--------------------------------------------------------------

15. John A. Byrne (johnabyrne>@JohnAByrne) - Editor in Chief, BusinessWeek.com

Watch: “The Business Week perspective on twitter”

--------------------------------------------------------------

16. James Cox (@imajes)

Watch: “The story behind CNNBRK”

--------------------------------------------------------------

17. Moeed Ahmad (moeed>@moeed) - Head of New Media Technology and Future Media Department Technology Division, Al Jazeera Network

Watch: “The Al Jazeera Twitter Strategy”

--------------------------------------------------------------

18. Jeremy Epstein (@jer979) - Marketing Navigator, Never Stop Marketing

Watch: “How I followed Jeff Pulver on Twitter for 16 Months and Ended Up on This Stage: Twitter as a Strategic Relationship Building Tool”

--------------------------------------------------------------

19. Christopher R. Weingarten (@1000TimesYes) - Music Writer, RollingStone.com and Village Voice

Watch: “Twitter and the End Of Music Criticism”

--------------------------------------------------------------

20. Jeffrey Hayzlett (@JeffreyHayzlett) - Chief Marketing Officer, Kodak

Watch: “Kodak and twitter: What we are learning”

--------------------------------------------------------------

21. Kevin Slavin (@slavin) - founder area/code

Watch: “Things that twitter”

--------------------------------------------------------------

22. twitter: Music

Watch: “Exploring the use of twitter in the Music Industry”

--------------------------------------------------------------

23. twitter: Sports

Watch: “A look at how twitter is used in Pro Sports”

--------------------------------------------------------------

24. Musicians, Bloggers and Twitter

Participants:
BarbaraJones (@BarbaraJones)
Diane Birch (@dianebirch) - Recording Artist
Steve Greenberg (@steviegpro) - founder & CEO, S-Curve Records

Watch: “The new Artist / Fan Relationship”
(includes a performance by Diane Birch)

--------------------------------------------------------------

25. twitter: Moms

Participants:
Audrey McClelland (@AudreyMcClellan) - Co-owner of MomGenerations.com
Jessica Gottlieb (@JessicaGottlieb)
Lindsay Maines (@rockandrollmama)
Maya Bisineer (@thinkmaya)

Watch: “Exploring the way Moms use twitter”

--------------------------------------------------------------

26. Laura Fitton (@Pistachio) - Founder, oneforty inc. and co-Author Twitter for Dummies

Watch: “twitter: A Love Story”

--------------------------------------------------------------

27. Sharon Glassman (@sharonglassman) - Funny-smart author, HuffPost blogger, performing speaker

Watch: "Geek, Dorks, Nerds: How to make your most "uncool" self your Tweetest asset."

--------------------------------------------------------------

28. twitter and Mad Men

“A look at the story behind the story about MadMen who twitter. Surprise Mad Man will be unveiled at #140Conf!”

Participants:
Carri Bugbee (@peggyolson)
Helen Klein Ross (@bettydraper)

Watch: twitter and Mad Men

--------------------------------------------------------------

29. Brad Fidler (@brad_fidler)

Watch: “Twitter Freedoms”

--------------------------------------------------------------

30. Andrew Keen (@ajkeen)

Watch: “Twitter and power”

--------------------------------------------------------------

31. twitter Celebs

Watch: “the making of a twitter celebrity”

--------------------------------------------------------------

32. Rajesh Setty (@UpbeatNow) - Entrepreneur, Author and Speaker

Watch: “ThinkTweet: Books that tweet”

--------------------------------------------------------------

33. “twitter: For the Social Good”

Watch: “twitter: For the Social Good”

- - -

Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 07:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 23, 2009

Jeff Pulver on the 140 Characters Conference

It was during the following interview that I realized that June 16, 2009 was one of the best days of my life. Special thanks to Open University for being a part of #140conf. And please follow this link to their coverage of this story.

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 07:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

June 22, 2009

Recap: 140 Characters Conference - June 16/17 in NYC

In the end, the 140 Characters Conference (#140conf) turned out to be two of the best days of my life. There was an energy present in the room which was pretty amazing. Just watch part II of “twitter of a News Gathering Tool” to get a feel of what I am referring to. Feel free to browse some of the blog posts and news stories posted to: http://140conf.com/news to hear what some of the attending delegates had to say about the event.

#140conf brought together a community of people with diverse backgrounds from across multiple industries from literally around the world. There are too many people to thank for their individual contributions but I just wanted everyone to know that their contributions were appreciated and I look forward to working with them again.

One of my goals of creating and producing #140conf was to in effect enable what could be best described as: “Social Media Heterosis” (hybrid vigor in the social media space) and cross connect communities which are all using twitter as a platform to communicate for their business but would have otherwise have never had any reason to meet each or connect with each other. (Special thanks to Becky McCray for introducing me to the word “hybrid vigor”)

I first started creating / hosting / producing events in 1996. Over the years the formats of my events have evolved and what 500 people experienced last week at New World Stages was my new recipe for producing events. I believe most events suffer from too-many-breakout-sesion-itis. My solution to this problem is to offer everyone the same shared common experience. This is a chance for everyone who chooses to be in the room to hear what everyone else is saying. This is a chance for a community to bond together and a chance for a voice to resonate. This is why I choose to produce the event on an off-Broadway stage and why I ran everything in the same room.

I believe that everyone IS a Character. That every voice is important and should be heard. While I hope my guests enjoyed hearing from some of the people they knew of before they attended #140conf, I also hope they brought home the voices of some of the people who they didn’t know before but discovered at #140conf. (Personally, I thought Christopher R. Weingarten from RollingStone.com was just amazing. Watch his performance at: http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/008954.html)

The introduction of the 10 minute speaker format (see #140conf schedule) mostly worked and offered an opportunity for the discovery of more people and more information than can happen in a traditional conference setting. If you would like to view some of the 69 recorded video sessions from #140conf, you can request viewing access by visiting: http://140conf.com/mailing-list.

I believe the “State of NOW” represents a big shift in the nature of how we will use the Internet and I look at just about everyone who is a member of the #140conf community to be a pioneer in this new field. I believe I achieved my stated goal of “producing an event that explored the use of twitter as a platform and looked at the effects of twitter on: Celebrity, The Media, Advertising and Politics.”

The goal wasn’t to be “just a twitter conference” but rather look at how a diverse group of people are being effected by twitter and provide a platform for people to listen, learn and connect with the people who were sharing their voices and perspectives.

As my short conference format evolves, I am sure it will offer more time for interactive questions. I did ask each of the Characters who spoke to make it a point to stay around and talk with everyone. I thank everyone who listened and I hope more will take this request to heart at future events. When we take questions from the audience, I will ask that questions and/or statements are done in 140 characters or less to allow more time for interaction.

Based on the success of #140conf, I have already started work on two additional events, #140conf: LA and #140conf: London. It is my intention for each event to build upon the characteristics of the city which is located in while continuing to add to the diversity of the communities represented.

I’m happy to announce that Kodak has come forward to be the title sponsor of both #140conf: LA and #140conf: London. This said, I am looking for other companies interested in sponsoring as well as companies which would like to be part of the #140conf Application Showcase.

I am also looking for people to nominate “Characters” for these events. The nomination process is already underway. The deadline for nominations is: July 24th. (If you have any questions about this process, please feel free to contact me directly.)

Special thanks to Social Approach and the work they continue to put into http://live.140conf.com. You can use their platform to subscribe to all of the characters from #140conf.

Special thanks also to our #140conf exhibitors:

- 140Ware
- Chatterbox
- CoTweet
- Glam Media - Tinker
- hootsuite
- Keenkong
- Kodak
- PeopleBrowsr

Special thanks also to Porter Novelli who sponsored our VIP Reception on June 15th and to Partners 1993, Inc. who sponsored our Networking Party on June 16th.

Please visit http://140conf.com to receive updates regarding future events. Please also follow @140conf on twitter.

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

June 21, 2009

Christopher R. Weingarten from RollingStone.com at the 140 Characters Conference:

Christopher R. Weingarten (@1000TimesYes) - Music Writer, RollingStone.com and Village Voice spoke at The 140 Characters Conference in New York on June 16, 2009.

I really enjoyed his talk about “Twitter and the End Of Music Criticism.”

One of my favorite memories from the 140 Characters Conference, Chris Sacca (@sacca) and Wyclef Jean (@wyclef):

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Rolling Stone, Christopher R. Weingarten , Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Event: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Tel Aviv on June 29th

On Monday, June 29th I will be in Tel Aviv and hosting my third Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and Friends) in Tel Aviv this year from 0830 to 1100. I am looking forward to catching up with my friends.

To RSVP, please visit this event on Facebook and please also RSVP over at: http://www.amiando.com/09BWJ14.html and bring your printed confirmation to gain access to the event.

As Aroma is not charging us for use of their facility, the minimum purchase is 20nis. Coffee and a baked good will be offered at that price or order whatever you like but the cashiers will be charging 20nis as a minimum for all attendees.

Everyone attending this breakfast will receive a "Personal Social Networking Toolkit." Friends can learn more about my “Personal Social Networking Toolkit” by watching the video below:

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Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, Tel Aviv, social media, facebook, Social Media Breakfast, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 19, 2009

The 140 Characters Conference: twitter as a News Gathering Tool

Since 1996 I have created / hosted / produced many different events. Of everything I’ve ever been associated with, this panel discussion stands out as an amazing and magical moment in time. It is no coincidence that shortly after this session, @AnnCurry was added to twitters “Suggested Followers List.”

I thank Ryan Olsen (@todayshow) for suggesting that I add this topic to 140Conf and Ann Curry for coming to #140conf and sharing her perspective the way she did. (Ann, you were just amazing!)

(Part 2)

(Part 1) (this starts off with the end of Maegan Carberry (@maegancarberry) session)

Special thanks to: Ann Curry (@AnnCurry) - News Anchor on NBC's Today Show and host of Dateline NBC;Rick Sanchez (@ricksanchezcnn) - Host of the 3PM weekday edition of CNN Newsroom; Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer); Ryan Osborn (@todayshow) - Producer, NBC Today Show and Clayton Morris (@ClaytonMorris). Anchor Fox and Friends Anchor Fox for being a part of this session.

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Rick Sanchez, Ann Curry, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 02:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

June 18, 2009

Chris Sacca and Wyclef Jean at 140 Characters Conference

One of my favorite memories from the 140 Characters Conference, Chris Sacca (@sacca) and Wyclef Jean (@wyclef):

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Chris Sacca, Wyclef Jean, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

June 17, 2009

Jeff Pulver at 140 Characters Conference: "The State of NOW"

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Follow #140conf on live.140conf.com

Keep up wit Day2 of the 140 Characters Conference by watching: http://live.140conf.com

Posted by jeff at 08:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 16, 2009

140 Characters Conference - starts today!

Having worked on the 140 Characters Conference more or less non-stop since the end of March, putting in something like 90 to 110 hours a week and maybe more, I’m really looking forward to the event starting at 08:45AM in the morning.

While this conference was announced at the end of this past March, it feels like I’ve been working on this conference for some time. Maybe it is just my years of experience in creating / hosting / producing events, but there is something really special happening at #140conf. The reality is that twitter is the common bond amongst a group of people that have just about nothing else in common.

During my morning talk I hope to share some of my thoughts about the “State of NOW.” I will be announcing two follow on events, #140conf: London and #140conf: LA which are both scheduled to in October 2009. A formal “Casting Call” for the next set of Characters is forthcoming.

This morning when I will stand in front of the attending audience, I will be a humble person. Things are different now. Better in many ways and had I not experienced some of things I did since March, 2008, I would not appreciate this moment as much as I do. I am quite impressed by both the number of people who are attending and what great distance some of my guests have traveled to be a part of the #140conf experience.

I don’t think words alone could share how special and amazing I know tomorrow will be. Who would know that Time Magazine would put twitter on their cover in one week and the following weekend twitter would become the platform of choice to find out news and information from the #IranElection.

I don’t know if there will be enough time for me to share my appreciation for everyone who has contributed directly to the success of the event. I always wanted to produce a conference which had wide enough appeal to bring in reporters from both Rolling Stone and Sports illustrated to Business Week and Forbes and the 140 Characters Conference is such an event.

Special thanks to everyone who has come out and who has helped me spread the word about #140conf.

You can watch the entire broadcast of #140conf by visiting: http://140conf.com/watch. (Broadcasting LIVE on both June 16th and 17th).

You can also track all of the tweets and media created from the event by watching http://live.140conf.com

View the mobile site over at: http://m.140conf.com

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 06:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

June 14, 2009

Tweet To Win Free Ticket to #140conf: Today!

140 Characters Conference is starting on Tuesday. There are just a handful of seats still available for sale. I am holding on to two tickets to give away today.

For a chance to win one of the tickets

1. Tweet out the reason you’d like a free conference pass, in the following format:

@140conf I’d like to attend #140conf because…

2. Make sure you’re following @140conf, so you can be notified via Direct Message if you win.

The most creative Tweets will win. Winners will be notified via direct message by midnight ET tonight, June 14th. Travel and accommodation are not included.

Best of luck!

Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Who is Who: Jeff Pulver on #140conf

Ulrike Reinhard from the who is blog recently interviewed me about the upcoming 140 Characters Conference.

(What I didn't realize was that the video was being recorded. I just thought the audio soundtrack would be used in a story to be published.)

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There are just a handful of tickets still available for next weeks "140 Characters Conference." Click here to register.

Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

June 13, 2009

Feeling the "Blur" Leading up to #140conf

With the 140 Characters Conference taking place starting Tuesday, during the past few days I have felt the "Blur" generated by this event. It has been a long time since I was sitting in from of my laotop from 6AM to 4PM and didn't have time to write a blog post.

It has been that kind of intense few days.

I decided to take a break and I just recorded the following video:

Special thanks to Chris Brogan for turning me onto twitter back in January, 2007. Special thanks to EVERYONE who has contributed to this event. Looking forward to hosting/producing #140conf next week.

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There are just a handful of tickets still available for next weeks "140 Characters Conference." Click here to register.

Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 04:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

June 12, 2009

#140Conf: In the News

The New York Observer: Who is Jeff Pulver and Why Is He Hosting a Conference About Twitter?

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There are just a handful of tickets still available for next weeks "140 Characters Conference." Click here to register.

Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

June 10, 2009

Event: The 140 Characters Conference - Networking Party

On the evening of June 16th, I am hosting the 140 Characters Conference Networking Party.

Friends are invited to join me and the "cast of characters" who are in town from around the world for my < A HREF=http://140conf.com>140 Characters Conference for a networking / cocktail party

The cost is: $50 in advance and $75 at the door.

Click here to register and be sure to select “140 Conf: Networking Party Only (June 16th)”

This will be a great evening of networking and the biggest networking event of it kind so far this year in New York City.

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

June 09, 2009

Tweet to Become a Character at #140conf!

A week from today the 140 Characters Conference will be taking place at New World Stages in New York City.

After sending out RSVP confirmations to the existing Cast of Characters, I learned that I had two openings in the Cast to fill.

The “Cast of Characters” at #140conf will have full VIP access at the event. There is no speaking role being offered but cast members will be selected to help introduce some of the speakers during the course of the conference.

To be considered as a possible candidate Character to join the cast:

1. Tweet out the reason you are a character, in the following suggested format:

- @140conf I am a Character. I want to be at #140conf because... (yes, you can improvise if needed. After all you are a Character!)

As an alternative approach, record a short video and make your case on video why you are a character. (12seconds is the recommended platform). When promoting a supporting video, use the format:

- @140conf I am a Character and should be considered for cast of #140conf. Watch (link to video)

2. Make sure you’re following @140conf, so you can be notified via Direct Message if you win.

Two Characters will win. Winners will be notified via direct message by midnight ET on Tuesday June 9th. Travel and accommodation are not included.

I look forward to catching up with all of the Characters at the 140 Characters Conference next week in New York City.

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 07:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

June 08, 2009

Start to Understand the State of NOW. Join 140Conf in NYC next week

Every once in a long while, something BIG happens on the internet can be felt around the world, across multiple industries. Something which will end up being very disruptive to some industries while creating opportunities in others. Today we are in the very early days of the next BIG thing, the Real-time Internet. This is something which has been brewing for some time and during the past number of months the table was set for the real-time, NOW Internet to emerge.

Whether or not you use twitter, or FriendFeed or update your status on Facebook, there are enough people who are doing this at a fast enough frequency that collectively they have had the effect of ushering us into something new, something which I am calling the “State of NOW.”

To better understand the State of NOW, the 140 Characters Conference is bringing together a pretty amazing worldwide twitter community June 16th and 17th in New York City. Collectively the people speaking at the 140 Characters Conference are some of the people helping to pioneer the emergence of the real-time Internet based on the way they are using and taking advantage of twitter as a platform. The 140 Characters conference is NOT just a “tech event” but rather a gathering bringing together people representing multiple disciplines from a number of industries. We are an unique gathering of people representing a special moment in time in the history of the Internet.

If you want to understand the unintended consequences of the “State of NOW” on your business, or start to see new opportunities emerge for you to take advantage of, there is no better place to be than the 140 Characters Conference taking place in NYC next week.

The cost to attend both days (June 16th and 17th) is: US$ 895. To attend on only June 16th the cost is $595. The remaining seating is limited. To register, please visit: http://140conf.com/register

Hope to see you in NYC next week.

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

June 07, 2009

One week to go before the 140 Characters Conference: Exploring the State of NOW

140 Characters Conference is taking place in just about a week and I wanted to capture and share some of my thoughts about the upcoming event.

What is your take on the real-time Internet?

Hope you can join me in New York City June 16th and 17th.

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 05, 2009

Life in 140 Characters. Living in the state of NOW.

I love living in the future.

When I was a kid I was promised: flying cars, jet packs and moon bases together with intrusive Jetson-style video conferencing.

Weirdly all that stuff now feels incredibly retro even though it didn't come to pass (yet).

We somehow leapfrogged the future we were supposed to have into one which it in it’s own right is pretty amazing.

I have enjoyed living on the Internet since 1993. Everyone once in a long while there have been tectonic shifts in the fabric of the Internet itself. And it turns out that most recent tectonic shift is one which has been powered by the people who are on platforms such as: FriendFeed, the people who update their status on Facebook and those who are living with twitter have collectively ushered in the era of the real-time internet.

I have enjoyed having twitter as part of my life the past 2 1/2 years. These past few months I have enjoyed watching twitter reach a tipping point and enter the mainstream and be felt in Pop Culture. However, if you pull back from that, I think Twitter itself was a tipping point. A platform that enables us to leapfrog past words like “the social media” or web 2.0. The internet as we knew it has changed. Welcome to the NOW Internet.

How did this happen? By a number of things. But one of them was the accidental genius was in asking Twitter users one simple question: “What are you doing?”

The millions of answers to that question reflect the real-time social sculpture of the Internet. The answers change by the millisecond. These answers are powered by individuals and not servers. It's like the simplicity of the Google search box but in reverse. We went from asking questions to answering them. And by answering these questions we helped to define new “now” and the era of the real-time social Internet.

At the moment I am writing this, I am flying on board Virgin America flight 404 from LAX to JFK. Sitting next to me is someone who saw I was on twitter and we just had a conversation about how the tweets of their friends are often more than a bit mundane. “I'm making coffee”, “I'm going to bed”, “I'm watching TV”, “I’m flying today on @VirginAmerica flight 404 from LAX to JFK” - but the great thing is that those are the answers that remind us we're all in this together. And when someone I know via Twitter does something special, I acknowledge them on and am in turn I am inspired to do more.

And while the effects of large number of people just answering the question of “What are you doing?” has already disrupted a number of industries, this will continue to disrupt other industries in the near future.

The future IS now. Friendships are strengthened because of the immediacy that a 'disruptive' platform can bring. If it's technology like Twitter that shakes up the old world, then good. It's about time. Seems I have been waiting a lifetime for this to happen.

When I started working on the 140 Characters Conference, I like to think that I am pretty clued up about Twitter and what it means to business, but when I look at some of the people on the schedule at the 140 Characters Conference, then I know I've only scratched the surface. And that's as it should be. Twitter is people powered - each of those people has more ideas than any of us can index. I'm happy to have the opportunity to dip into just a fraction of that and be encouraged and inspired.

It's not about what happens next - it's about what is happening NOW. There's the place I have decided to focus. And this is why the new tag line for 140 Characters Conference tag line is: “Exploring the State of NOW.”

Turns out, the 140 Characters Conference is not just about Twitter - it is really all about us.

I hope you can join me in New York City on June 16th and 17th where I am hosting / producing the first 140 Characters Conference and where together we will explore “the State of NOW.”

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

June 04, 2009

Are you a Character? Send your “shout out” to the 140 Characters Conference

The 140 Characters Conference, taking place June 16th and 17th in New York City has attracted a very dynamic cast of characters.

This is an open “casting call” looking for people who are on twitter who would like to record a “shout out” to the people who will be joining me in New York City at the 140 Characters conference. These “shout out” videos will be shown during the breaks in the conference program.

If you are character and would like to be seen and heard at the 140 Characters Conference, please use 12Seconds to record your “shout out” to the people attending the 140 Characters Conference.

Please be sure to include your name and location in your 12Seconds video. Once you have recorded your video, please tweet it with #140conf hash tag.

The deadline to have your “shout out” video considered is June 11th.

Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

June 02, 2009

Congrats to Jay Moonah, winner of the "I'm a Character" Contest

Jay Moonah, @jmoonah entry came in first place in the 140 Characters Conference, "I'm a Character" contest.

Second place went to @FrankAdman and third place was awarded to the following people: @roald, @ladyleet, @dudetodad, @KwanzaHall, @scandalous.

I look forward to catching with these characters at the 140 Characters Conference taking place in New York City on June 16/17th.

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 06:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 01, 2009

29 things Doug Mohney learned at the HD Communications Summit:

Source: Doug Mohney - Summary: 29 things I learned at the HD Communications Summit

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"1) Jeff Pulver can still pull over 100 of the “right people” to an event just after InterOp and just before the U.S. Memorial Day weekend.

2) The baseline for a PSTN/POTS phone call hasn’t changed since 1937 or so – unlike everything else in the modern world.

3) Pulver plans an FCC petition this fall to upgrade PSTN to HD; digital TV provides a case justification to move to a new technology.

4) Frequency range for a PSTN call is 300-3000 Hz

5) AudioCodes Google Search on “HD Voice/VoIP” – Past 10 years, 190,000 hits. Past 12 months, 82,000 hits, so the trend line is going up and to the right.

6) Depending on who’s talking, HD audio would use a range between 100-7000 Hz. Diminishing returns after 7000 Hz delivery.

7) The tighter PSTN clips consonants.

8) FM radio sounds better than a PSTN call.

9) HD Connect is the working name of the HD Communications trade association Pulver is starting because a) Polycomm has a trademark on HD Voice and b) AudioCodes has a trademark on HD VoIP

10) Everyone wants a “HD Connect” logo to put on their boxes

11) When HD voice (generic) happens [in North America], it will happen really really fast, predicts everyone.

12) But right now, [North American] service providers are on the fence waiting to see who jumps first.

13) Nobody can agree on a single HD codec, but most agree we need fewer codecs and there seems to be sufficient codecs out there

14) More codecs = more part cost, more support costs, so the fewer, the better

15) Ain’t no such thing as a “free” codec. Support costs and potential indemnification issues lurk.

16) Wireless and wireline will likely use different codecs because the cellular carriers need to get the most out of their leased spectrum (i.e. spectral efficiency)

17) Transcoding will be necessary to move between HD codecs; AudioCodes is happy.

18) North American cable companies are getting ready for HD, but until the business case is clear (i.e. “Show me the money”), they aren’t in any rush.

19) Cable may have a leg up by locking in DECT CAT-iq as a standard so service providers can provide an end-to-end experience without transcoding or other tweaking.

20) The Europeans are ahead of us (again). BT, France Telecom, T-Mobile are all deploying HD today in their respective territories.

21) France Telecom expects to be able to exchange HD voice calls with other carriers by the end of the year.

22) Enterprises are likely to be the earliest adopters of HD. They control their own infrastructure, are deploying VoIP, HD gets rolled out as “just another app” onto the existing infrastructure.

23) Avaya has incorporated wideband codecs in all of its phones; Polycom is adding wideband codecs to all of its phones.

24) HD is a “killer app” when it comes to talking to a non-native language speaker and you can’t understand his/her accent. The broader range means you can understand what someone is saying rather than having to work at interpreting (i.e. filling in the blanks) as to what they are really saying.

25) HD on cell phones is happening – in Europe. France Telecom is (once again) leading the way with mobile HD.

26) Truphone says it is working with HD in the lab and is ready to roll when the time is right.

27) Qualcomm has done demos/field trials of HD on cellular.

28) In the trials, Qualcomm used the Swiss-army-knife of IP telephony – Digium’s Asterisk – to transcode between its 4GV-WB codec and G.722.

29) Qualcomm is still trying to fight the EVDO/LTE battle."

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If you are interested in HD VoIP, I highly recommend subscribing to Doug's new blog, Doug on IP Comm – An independent voice on VoIP, telecom, and IP Communication.

Tags: VoIP, HD Communications, HD VoIP, Doug Mohney

Posted by jeff at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

May 31, 2009

Exploring: “The State of Now”

Since announcing the 140 Characters Conference, while working on the event, I have been thinking about the moment in time we are experiencing, in what feels like the early days of something new and different.

Living and experiencing information in The Now is just different when compared to the way we are used to experiencing things. Since the launch of the commercial internet in 1993 we may have been on-line in real-time, but we experienced access to information that was slightly old to ancient. Today access to information has changed so much in the past year that today we are now living in “The State of Now.”

And while the event is called the 140 Characters Conference and is bringing together a worldwide twitter community together, the phenomena of The State of Now is much bigger than twitter. I believe when we think about what businesses have been effected by the disruption caused with the ability for just about anyone to be able to experience information in real-time isn’t something that is going away anytime soon, regardless of what eventually may happen to who ends up owning the twitter platform. We are not about to go back in time, but only forward and I look forward to having a chance to better understand the way things are and the way they may become because of the change agent known as twitter.

Some thoughts about #140conf and exploring the “State of Now” in my mind:

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Please feel free to share your comments and thoughts below:

Posted by jeff at 08:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

May 30, 2009

Some of the entries from the #140conf "I am a Character" Contest:

During the past week I have a received a number of entries from Characters in the "I am a Character" contest.

Some of the videos being considered this weekend include:

From: @FrankAdman:

@FrankAdman on twitter from Frank Adman on Vimeo.

From: @jmoonah

From: @roald

From: @ladyleet

I have fallen in love with a conference... the 140 Characters Conference from LadyLeet on Vimeo.

From: @dudetodad

From: @KwanzaHall

From: @scandalous

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Special thanks to everyone who took the time to enter the contest. The winner will be contacted by June 1st and announced on or before June 2nd.

"Winners will be selected on the basis of (1) content (25%), (2) creativity (25%), (3) technique (25%), and (4) humor (25 %)."

This said, feel free to take a moment and vote on YOUR favorite video:

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 04:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 29, 2009

Moments Matter.

Every once in a while you owe it to yourself to stop what you are doing, look around and enjoy your moment in time.

Posted by jeff at 06:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 28, 2009

Next up on my schedule: Silicon Summit 2009 and The Israel Conference

Next week I will be spending time on the West Coast as I will be attending and participating at two Venture focused conferences: Silicon Summit 2009 and The Israel Conference.

On Wednesday June 3rd I will be in Palo Alto and speaking at Silicon Summit 2009 on the ”Early Stage Investment: Where do we go from here?” panel together with: Ken Elefant, Opus Capital; Eitan Bek, Pitango Venture Capital; Ryan Floyd, Storm Ventures; Jennifer Fonstad, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Josh Green, Mohr Davidow Ventures.

On Thursday June 4th I will be in Los Angeles and helping at The Israel Conference where I will be providing commentary during their five minute “Fast and Cool” company presentations.

Both of these conferences are bringing together Venture Capital together with some pretty amazing Israeli Technology companies and some pretty amazing people. I am looking forward to being a part of both events and catching up with friends who will be in attendance.

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Tags: The Israel Conference, Silicon Summit 2009, Israel, startups, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 05:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 27, 2009

A Second Chance for VoIP:

On May 21, 2009 something special happened in New York City at the HD Communications Summit when the VoIP Industry started to rebooted itself. If not the entire industry, at least the 100+ people who were in attendance who represented elements of the HD VoIP ecosystem. It is my belief that HD VoIP represents a second chance for my original vision of "purple minutes" to actually happen and a chance for VoIP technologies to finally help redefine how voice communications is heard over IP networks. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_minutes for definition of purple minutes)

News Flash: VoIP will be cool again. It will be colored purple and will help lead to the eventual restoration of the market caps within the worldwide telecoms sector and in time will generate billions of dollars of revenue from both equipment sales and voice services by those companies who decide to invest in HD VoIP technologies.

Since 1937 the voice quality of a phone call has not improved. The advent of HD Communications will change the way people expect their voice communication to sound like and over time we will reboot the telecom industry. Orange France is leading the world with their work in helping to redefine what a phone call sounds like and is the first major carrier in the world to roll out HD Voice communications.

I believe that over the next 5 to 7 years there are billions of dollars of revenue at stake for the equipment vendors who are successful in selling their HD VoIP vision. Service providers should also see renewed revenue opportunities as consumers discover what they can experience with HD Communications.

May 26, 2009

Call for Speakers: The HD Communications Summit - Sep 15/16 2009

As a follow up to the success of last week’s HD Communications Summit, an event which explored issues associated with the widespread deployment of HD VoIP, I am happy to announce the next HD Communications Summit will be taking place September 15-16, 2009.

I believe HD voice holds the same promise for the telecom industry as format changes in the entertainment industry. With enough interest, together we can trigger a replacement cycle like the one observed currently with HDTV.

At the HD Communications Summit there will be vendors demonstrating their products and their platforms and we will take a look at the issues and challenges for the transformation of the existing communications infrastructure into one which supports HD.

From mobile handsets and Enterprise desktop phones to the core infrastructure that drives the communication network, the advent of HD VoIP can and will transform communications. If we dont invest the time to change the communications infrastructure, traditional communication networks will be at risk of becoming disintermediated as better sounding means of communication naturally evolve without the restrictions imposed by the legacy of the AT&T network.

There has been no substantial improvement of voice quality on telephony networks since 1937. It is about time for change to happen and to be implemented.

There is a lot of work ahead for all of us. From helping to educate the worldwide consumers about the promise of HD VoIP to the issues surrounding widespread adoption and implementation issues.

One thing is clear to me - if we as an industry to sit idle and not address this topic, nothing will happen and it will be another generation or two before there is a chance to introduce HD VoIP into the communications network. After the events last week in New York City I am convinced there is now a core group of people who together can and will effect change.

So Im putting out this Call for Speakers and looking for creative, out-of-the-box thinkers to come forward and pitch me about a HD VoIP topic they are passionate about and would like to speak about. (Practical talks are also welcome.)

So please think about what YOU could contribute to the dialog regardless of where you see yourself inside the ecosystem - be it - end user / handset maker / carrier / telecom equipment maker / next generation services provider and pitch me to have your voice heard at this event.

What I hope to do is once again bring together is a gathering of people with a variety of backgrounds and together explore the future of where things are going and what business models will be used to provide the dollar returns needed to get us there.

If you are interested in speaking at the next HD Communications Summit, and or would like to suggest a speaker, please contact me ASAP. The deadline for speaking proposals is Friday, June 19th but the first to approach me will be the first I consider for the event. (Sponsors and exhibitors are also welcome to contact me.)

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Tags: HDVoIP, HD Communications Summit, voip, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 25, 2009

4 Ways to Attend the 140 Characters Conference:

The 140 Characters Conference will be taking place in New York City June 16th and 17th. This event has evolved into the “Davos of twitter” and will be a worldwide gathering of people whom collectively are the pioneers who are amongst the first to use twitter for business.

- If you would like to attend, you can REGISTER right now.

- You can apply for a conference scholarship. Up to 30 scholarships will be awarded prior to the commencement of the event.

- Enter (and win) the “I am a Character” contest. (Entries due by May 29th).

- If you are a startup, you can apply for our “equity=cash” option.

Note: If you are affiliated with a University, please ask about discounts available to Universities.

I hope to see you in New York City in June.

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 05:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 24, 2009

Spotlight on: Sense of Fashion

I enjoy feeling the passion of entrepreneurs who dream about doing their own startup. During the past few years, during my trips to Israel, I have met with quite a number of entrepreneurs and have made investments in a number of early-early stage startups.

In 2007 when I first met fashionista and part time indie-fashion designer, Daria Shualy while she was telling me about the problem she saw with online experience of Fashion, when I started to feel the passion she used to tell her story, I felt she was onto something that could become BIG. Daria explained to me that while in the offline world, indie fashion was very much a social experience, where friends go shopping together, shoppers become trendsetter as they wear and promote their favorite designers, and where young designers are also shoppers themselves, the online experience remained segregated and incomplete. In the online world you either had selling platforms, or platforms for fashionistas showing off, or groups within existing platform which were UGC, but lacked the tools they needed. And so the idea came to her head, to imitate the very organic and live experience of offline indie-fashion, in the online world, by creating a home to indie-fashion fans and designers, a place where everyone can show, sell, buy, and interact freely.

After hearing her pitch I told Daria that I was interested in helping her get her startup started and Sense of Fashion was born. As a result, I made an investment and I am happy to have Sense of Fashion as part of my active portfolio of Israeli Hi-Tech startups.

If you were to ask Daria to describe what Sense of Fashion has evolved into since she first pitched me in 2007, Sense of Fashion “...is now a place where anyone can open a page, add a limitless amount of fashion photos – from what you wear, your favorite fashion items, fashionable people in the street, and of course you're designs if you're a designer – and everyone can shop, and sell (for a small sales commission).

Everyone on Sense of Fashion is a trendsetter, showing off their style and promoting any designer they wish. The designers get a real live clientèle base, which responds quickly and freely to their designs, and all users get the social shopping experience, using such unique features as Fashion Emergency, enabling you to ask all friends to vote and help you decide which dress looks better on you, or which of two sneakers to buy.”

Daria's two co-founders are the CTO, Yariv Habot – which was the sole founder of Israblog – Israel's first and most successful to date blog service, which was sold to Netvision in 2006. And Yael Givon – who was former VP of Product and Marketing for Speedbit and Director of Marketing for AOL (in ICQ).

Daria herself has experience as creative director for content on the Web, print media and TV.

The Sense of Fashion web site was launched a month ago, and already has been recognized by killerstartups.com and on Sao Paulo Fashion Week website.

I congratulate Daria and her team for just completing their second round of seed funding. I look forward to watching the Sense of Fashion grow in significance within the fashion industry.

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Tags: Sense of Fashion, StartUp, Tel Aviv,Israel, Daria Shualy, Social Media, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

May 23, 2009

Closing thoughts after the Media140 Conference:

On Wednesday, May 20th I had the pleasure to be one of the speakers (via Skype) at the Media140 conference in London. A few hours after my presentation I captured some of my thoughts about Social Media and “The Media” in the following video clip:

After watching the clip, please feel free to share your answers to the questions raised in the comments below.

Kate Day: Media140: Truth versus speed

Kevin Anderson : media140: Twitter and local news

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Tags: 140conf, social media, Media140, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 22, 2009

The day the VoIP Industry Rebooted

Looking back, I believe May 21, 2009 will be known as a milestone date in the history of the VoIP Industry. For certain it was one of the most significant gatherings of the communications industry in 2009. It was a day that 100+ people from: Across the United States, Israel, Canada, France, Germany and Russia gathered to explore the state of the HD VoIP ecosystem.

Special thanks goes to Daniel Berninger who helped organize the event and the support our sponsors: AudioCodes, Global IP Sound, Gigaset, Polycom, Snom and the DECT Forum. Thanks also to all the speakers who each shared their HD VoIP Pearls of Wisdom while they were on stage. And thanks also goes to everyone who took the time to twitter the event and share their experience with others who were not able to be with us in New York City.

Yesterday at the first HD Communications Summit was a moment in time when the VoIP Industry got together, compared notes, explored the state of HD VoIP and started a down a path I believe will have a positive effect for the future of the industry as a whole. Yesterday ushered in an era of coopitition in the HD VoIP space, a time where competitors realized it was time to work together to promote a common goal. Together we forged a bond which us take us forward as HD VoIP gains widespread adoption.

While I had strong feelings about the possible significance of the day, I was never really sure how to express this reality while promoting the HD Communications Summit. I was certain whatever I said would have been looked at as promotional language in support of the event and not heard in terms of the possible historical significance of what the day represented.

I opened the day by sharing some of my thoughts about “Hyper Communications” and the absolute need for HD Voice to become the norm. Along the way I announced the formation of a new HD VoIP marketing association, HD Connect and our plans to go to Wall Street and help educate the Buy Side and Sell Side about the possibilities of HD Voice. I also shared my plans to reach out to the FCC later this year in support of a High Definition Voice / HDV initiative and I announced the next HD Communications Summit will be taking place September 15-16th. Plans are also underway for both a European and an Asia Pac event for later this year.

On a personal note yesterday was a reunion of sorts for me. For the first time in a number of years, some of the pioneers from the early days of VoIP gathered again and while it was great to reminisce about the past, the conversations quickly moved to the future and the open possibilities of what we can help make happen.

So it turns out that the “purple minutes” I first spoke about at Spring 2002 VON are really HD VoIP Minutes. It took seven years to get there, but I left the day feeling positive about the future of VoIP and feeling re-energized. It turns out that sometimes the answers we are looking for are sometimes hiding in plain sight..and sometimes the answers we seek are hiding in our own denial. For the communications industry I believe the way we will see the restoration of billions of dollars in both market cap and (eventually) in sales is the embracing of HD VoIP technologies and the realization that this represents a future of things to come.

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Related Blog Posts:

Doug Mohney: HD Communications Summit: Pulver announces HD marketing association, FCC petition, fall event

APB Blog: HD Communications the Turning Point for VoIP

Tags: VoIP, HD Communications, HD VoIP, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 03:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 21, 2009

Special offer for Startups looking to attend 140 Characters Conference:

Since 1999, over the years, I have offered qualifying startups wishing to register to my conferences, sponsor and/or exhibit at my events an alternative payment option, something I called the "Equity=Cash"(tm) option.

I did this back in 1999 to help support the nascent VoIP industry and I am back with a similar offer to show my support for the people involved in helping to define the social media ecosystem.

Starting today, I am once again offering a new payment method for: delegates, exhibitors and sponsors who wish to be involved the 140 Character conference.

What’s the catch? The startups that qualify for this alternative payment method are determined solely at my personal discretion. Second, equity can only be used to pay for up to 50% of the amount due.

Over the years, I've been asked by a number of start-up CEOs to consider an alternative payment method for our conference delegates (and exhibitors). By taking advantage of this payment option, additional start-ups will be able to take advantage of the business networking opportunities the 140 Characters Conference will be known for.

If you are interested in learning more about this, please contact: jeff@pulver.com

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 11:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 20, 2009

Join Jeff Pulver at the 140 Characters Conference

Join Jeff Pulver and friends in NYC on June 16-17 as he will be exploring the state of twitter and it's effect on: Celebrity, The Media, Advertising and Politics. For more information and to register, please visit: http://140conf.com.

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 19, 2009

The Future of Communications will be heard in NYC at the HD Communications Summit

What started out as a one day summit focused on the state of HD Communications has turned into a reunion of sorts for some of the people directly responsible for disrupting the state of the telecom industry during the past 15 years.

Looking at the names of the people who are speaking and those who are attending, this will be an international gathering of people who together have helped shape the communications industry. At the HD Communications Summit there will be people visiting New York City from across the United States, Canada, Germany, Israel and Russia. I believe that together we can chart a course for the future which will help restore billions of dollars of market cap in the Telecom sector and start to take the actions necessary which in turn will help generate what I expect will be billions of dollar of revenue over the next 5 to 7 years ahead in Telecom.

I plan to use Thursday, May 21st as my opportunity to share my theory about the evolution of communications and what happens next.

Friends who have a vested interested in the future of communications should consider coming to New York City and joining the discussion.

For more information and to register, please visit: www.HDComms.com.

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Related Blog Posts:

- Guest Blogger: Daniel Berninger - “The HD Connect Manifesto”

- HD Communications Summit: Can You Hear Me Now

Tags: VoIP, HD Communications, HD VoIP, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 18, 2009

Announcing: 140 Characters Conference - “The Davos of twitter”

The 140 Characters Conference will be taking place in New York City June 16-17, 2009. I have managed to bring together some of the most interesting people involved in: Media, Business and Marketing to talk about how they are using twitter and what this means to business.

Never before has such a fusion between thought leaders, forward thinkers and the people who get their fingers dirty in utilizing twitter as a platform happened.

Some of the people who are part of our “Cast of 140 Characters” include:

John Bell, 360° Digital Influence team, Ogilvy
Diane Birch, Recording Artist
Chris Brogan, President, New Marketing Labs
John A. Byrne, Editor in Chief, BusinessWeek.com
Ana Marie Cox, National Corresponded, Air America
Steve Greenberg, Founder, S-Curve Records
Jeffrey Hayzlett, Chief Marketing Officer, Kodak
Jim Jones, Recording Artist
Jason Linkins, Political Reporter Huffington Post
Natalie Gulbis, Professional Golfer, LPGA Tour
Peter McKay, Writer, Wall Street Journal
Troy Murphy, Forward, Indiana Pacers
Tim O'Reilly, Founder and CEO, O'Reilly Media.
Shelly Palmer, President of the Emmy Awards in NY
Gavin Purcell, co-producer, “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon”
Lindsey Reed, “Rock and Roll Mama”, Mommy Blogger
David Saranga, Consul for Media and Public Affairs, Israeli Consulate
Fred Wilson, Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures

(see: http://www.140conf.com/characters to review the entire “cast of characters”)

Click here to see the event schedule.

Register today to attend 140 Character Conference and take advantage of this unique opportunity to meet and network with people across multiple industries who are pioneering the way twitter is being used in business.

I hope to see you in New York City in June.

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Opportunity: Tel Aviv VP R&D

A promising and funded startup based in Tel Aviv is seeking a qualified VP R&D to join its exciting & innovative team.

Strong people skills and web development experience is mandatory to tackle ever growing challenges.

In addition, such candidate should have .NET background (Hands-on as needed).

Working experience managing Agile/Scrum methodologies & previous experience working on scalable backend is a big advantage.

Interested? Please feel free to contact me and I will forward your details.

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Tags: Tel Aviv, VP R&D, startup, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

May 17, 2009

More photos from KinnernetUSA09:

May 16, 2009

Last Weekend at KinnernetUSA:

Ever since attending Kinnernet for the first time in 2006, I have felt that if I could only travel to one event a year, (if invited), it would be to Kinnernet. For me, the Kinnernet experience provides digital food for my soul and is something to be experienced to be understood.

Influenced by Tim O’Reilly’s Foo Camp, Yossi Vardi’s Kinnernet is all about “bottom up” community, “bottom up” content and offers the people who make up the community the opportunity for “extreme social networking” in a non-virtual sense and in the end provides an opportunity for ideas to be exchanged, friends to meet, friends to socialize and an opportunity to learn something new, inspire someone, get inspired and in the end leave with a new perspective on a wide range of topics and some new friends.

It took a year of planning and preparation and the efforts of Yossi Vardi and a number of dedicated volunteers to make it happen, but last weekend the magic of Kinnernet was shared with the 100+ people from Israel, United States, Canada, Finland and Germany who gathered together for the first time in Potomac, MD for KinnernetUSA.

I enjoyed having the honor of co-hosting the event with Yossi and having a chance to connect with some very interesting people for the first time and share the Kinnernet experience with friends. Some of the planned highlights of KinnerentUSA included: Gadgethon, Midnight Cooking Madness, Extraganza. Music, Discussions and Workshops.

Kinnernet USA had some great content and I enjoyed sharing thoughts about the state of social media in the “Living with 140 Characters and 5,000 Friends” session I hosted. It was during this session that I had the thoughts I shared earlier this week in my twitter: For Legacy and Family blog post.

One thing KinnernetUSA will be known for is the introduction by Jimmy Wales of the game Werewolf into the Kinnernet culture.

It turns out that in a world of hyper connectivity, there is still nothing that replaces the experience of face to face interactions. Phrases like: “I am just a Villager” and “I am not a Werewolf” were heard throughout the night. While I participated in one of the first games played on Friday Night, about one third of the camp took place in Werewolf game playing on Saturday evening. Some of these people become so connected with the game that they played the entire night and until about 10 AM on Sunday morning. Why did people stay up the entire night playing? From what I can tell from their passion for the game and the reality that each time you played a round of Werewolf you learned something new about the people you were playing with and maybe something new about yourself too. Werewolf can be a pretty intense game which brings out the emotions of a great poker game but it is played without chips and without a board and just people who form a village and go at it. Despite all of the advances in technology that I have observed, I do not think there will ever be a replacement to sharing face-to-face experiences like what is felt by those who played Werewolf during KinnernetUSA.

Special thanks to our sponsors: Best Buy, Mintz Levin and the other sponsors whose contributions helped make this event possible but who asked to remain anonymous.

KinnernetUSA was a lot of fun and I am already looking forward to the opportunity to co-host KinnernetUSA again in 2010.

May 15, 2009

Announcing: The "I am a Character" Contest

The 140 Characters Conference is hosting a contest and looking for inspired people to create video clips that says to anyone who watches the video that "I am a Character." If you are interested in participating, please be sure to mention the 140 Characters Conference in your submission. (You might also want to reference twitter in your video.)

To get started, record your video clip (or episode of your Internet TV Show) and then Submit your Contest Entry and be sure to include a link to 140 Character Conference (http://140conf.com) in the show's notes. tweet the entry (including #140conf) before 11:59PM (ET) on May 29, 2009, and you'll be entered into the contest. Winners will be announced around June 2nd and we expect all of the winners will make it a point to attend the 140 Character Conference June 16-17 in New York City. (Winning prizes are not transferable.)

GRAND PRIZE: VIP Access to 140 Characters Conference + Round Trip transportation from any jetBlue or Virgin America city to NYC. (up to US $2,000 value)

SECOND PRIZE: VIP Access to 140 Characters Conference (US$ 1,200 value)

THIRD PRIZE: Full Conference Access to 140 Characters Conference (US$ 900 value)

For more information, please see the "Contest Rules" page.

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

HD Communications Summit: HD Innovations Not Optional

Daniel Berninger's recent GigaOM column, “HD offers a way to save wireline argues high definition voice can restore interest in wireline. It seems strange there even exists a need to point out bad things happen to industries that do not innovate. The lack of innovation translates to stagnant or shrinking revenue and layoffs like in the case of BT and the dismantling of Nortel. The bright spots that exist happen to be areas enjoying rapid innovation, in particular, new modes of communication like Twitter and the still growing iPhone ecosystem.

The Twitter phenomena illustrates the tremendous unmet demand for communication. Telco's pitch telephone calls as the means to reduce travel costs, but where are the voice quality improvements making telephone calls better approximations for in-person meetings? The telecom industry can start investing in voice quality improvements or suffer the same fate as the automobile industry. Innovation is optional only to the extent customers lack alternatives. Japan gave car buyers alternatives. The Internet provides communication alternatives.

We will be exploring the progress and prospects for voice quality innovation at the HD Communication Summit on May 21st in NYC. Please consider joining the 25 companies and 50 leading experts working to make innovation the basis for a newly prosperous telecom industry.

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Related Blog Posts:

- Guest Blogger: Daniel Berninger - “The HD Connect Manifesto”

- HD Communications Summit: Can You Hear Me Now

Tags: VoIP, HD Communications, HD VoIP, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 14, 2009

The 140 Characters Conference: Promo Video #1

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 07:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 13, 2009

Talking VoIP: SIP URI's as HD Callsign

The world of telephone numbers remains stuck in standard definition mode, so I have started to assemble a directory of SIP URI's to connect people that have HD enabled IP Phones. The prospect of reaching several billion end points and the ubiquitous 12 digit keypad has meant almost no use of SIP URI addressing (name@domain.com). However, URI's represent the only option for connecting HD devices and offer the added benefit of unmetered termination to any Internet connected endpoint.

Readers of this blog know my passion for communication technology started with ham radio at an early age. The ham radio callsign provided an identity and means to have conversations with people around the world. I believe the HD usage can spread in the same way using SIP URI's as callsign and identity. Navigating by URI's remains awkward at the moment, but it can be done through web based mechanisms. My Polycom Soundpoint IP 550 supports SIP URI's as entries in the address book. Increased adoption of SIP URI's should quickly yield web based apps and accommodations by device manufacturers.

The continued domination of telephone numbers represents a significant drag on communication nirvana. The world wide web would never have become the world wide web if website navigation meant dialing IP addresses. The headache of finding and managing telephone numbers does no exist to the same degree in the case of email and web addresses given their more human friendly form. Unlike in the case of telephone numbers, one can even usually guess Internet addresses.

Telephone numbers were introduced as a means to eliminate telephone operators, not for the benefit of end users. Telephone numbers have long outlasted whatever technological constraints led to their creation. The HD SIP URI directory I have in mind is not a listing of people and their respective HD SIP URI. I am looking to assemble a list of domains that support HD end points and a description of the URI construction rules for the domain. I want document how to reach each of the HD end points at ibm.com, hp.com, etc. As with email, there exist a relatively small number of ways to construct a SIP URI - jpulver@pulver.com, jeff@pulver.com, jeff.pulver@pulver.com, etc.

The directory can also list nick names, but I am particularly interested in using SIP URI's as the catalyst to interconnect the millions of already deployed HD end points among Fortune 500 companies. As in the early days of email, people need to push their
IT departments to provide SIP URI's as an option for connecting their HD capable Polycom, Snom, or AudioCodes IP phones. Figure out your SIP URI and send it along. Your SIP URI callsign represents the key to accessing the world of HD communication.

Please tune into the Audiocodes sponsored webinar scheduled for tomorrow (May 14th) at 11:00 AM ET where I will be discussing SIP URI's and other HD topics together with Alan Percy of AudioCodes.

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Related Blog Posts:

- Guest Blogger: Daniel Berninger - “The HD Connect Manifesto”

- HD Communications Summit: Can You Hear Me Now

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Tags: VoIP, HD Communications, HD VoIP, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 12, 2009

twitter: For Legacy and Family

This past weekend I hosted a session: “Living with 140 Characters and 5,000 Friends” at Kinnernet USA. One of the points which I wanted to make but ran out of time about was using twitter “for legacy and family.”

How we approach using twitter is all about our perspective and approach. For almost everyone these days, twitter is used to share “the NOW.” And most of the time when we tweet, we don’t think about what any specific update will look like tomorrow, let alone 5 or 10 years from now.

Like it or not, the use of social media platforms like twitter will define our online legacy. The words we say over time will shape and frame the person we are from a digital perspective. Now imagine if some of the people who are reading your tweets will not read them for 5 or 10 years or longer.

How many of us have kids who are growing up at the moment who we would like to be able to talk to about things going on in our own lives but just can’t because they are not old enough to understand and appreciate what it is we would like to share with them? And when our kids come of age, how will they react to the things we said about them on platforms like twitter, in podcasts or in our blogs?

Or what about yourself? How would you like to wake up in 4 years and read something you tweeted about years before and be inspired? You can. It all comes from your own approach and perspective how this information is captured and shared.

The sooner you realize your use of social media will have lasting effect on defining your digital legacy, the sooner you may want to take proactive action to leverage these platforms differently. Or at least use them with full knowledge of your choices.

I am someone who believes that life’s moments matters. And given the opportunity to capture a moment in time in the form a word or a 140 characters provides us all with the ability to in effect send ourselves a digital postcard from the present to the future while capturing our past.

Shortly after my father died in 1998, whenever I saw a photo of him as a child I asked myself: “What was the photographer thinking when he took this photo?” and then I would ask “what was my dad thinking about when he was sitting in that chair getting his photo taken?” And maybe I am the only kid in the world who wished he had a chance to get to ask his dad these questions and know his father better but somehow I don’t think so. What I know about my dad is based mostly on my own experiences as his kid and a little based on what my relatives shared with me about him over time. My dad never blogged. And as far as I know he didn’t write any books and he didn’t leave any digital information for me to discover. In the end he was just a dad who will be remembered in memories and in photographs and a few videos.

I believe the kids of the future will have a much better chance to get to know their parents and grandparents in their own words and will have a chance to experience them from a much different perspective than generations in the past. This in turn will change the way they think about us and their future relationships with us. I’m not sure if this is for the better but this is something that is already happening and something there is no getting away from.

When you have a chance, take a moment and tweet yourself a digital postcard to be read in the future. You may be surprised when the words you say today makes your day in the future.

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Readers of my blog are invited to follow me on twitter and drop by as often as they like. :)

Tags: social media, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

May 11, 2009

twitter Basics: Reach out and say Hi! to someone you follow

The next time you visit twitter, please consider reaching out to one or more of the people you follow and just say hi. Start the conversation with an @reply. If the person is active on twitter around the time when you send your message, the odds are much greater in your favor that they will respond than if the person was offline. And if the person you were hoping to start a conversation with doesn’t respond, pick another person and try again.

Reaching out will open a dialog that most likely would not of otherwise happened.

The next time you see someone you want to connect with, just do it. And you may end up making a new friend in the process.

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Readers of my blog are invited to follow me on twitter and say hi as often as they like. :)

Tags: social media, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 07, 2009

Entrepreneurship: 305 - Leveraging your Success into Access and Resources

As an Entrepreneur launching a new business, your ability to attract both people, capital and attention is a function of who you are, your reputation, who you know, your track record and so on. In cases when you are just starting out and you don’t know many people and have no track record to speak of, chances are your ability to hire great people and raise capital may be a bit challenging. There is a natural evolution associated with your growth and the success of your business. Over time, you will have an ability to leverage your success into access to more people and access to more resources.

Scott Heiferman (CEO, Meetup) recently reminded me about this fact during lunch earlier this week. Scott spoke about recognizing when you and/or your company has reached a high point and being self aware enough to “leverage your success with access.” In his case he used his opportunity to attract new board members. What you actually decide to do is up to you. There are times when you might want to leverage your success with an opportunity to raise more capital at a higher valuation. Maybe meet someone you always wanted to but never had access to that person before. Or maybe recognize it as an opportunity to take some money off the table.

While very few people will become icons of their industries and/or have an impact on pop culture, the point that Scott was trying to make was that regardless of the fame and the viability, it doesn’t last forever and you should take advantage of the visibility while you have it.

Taking it down a number of notches, I believe his advice can be applied to just about anyone. The point is that when you achieve relative success you might be distracted by so many other things to act on it, but these are the times in your professional business career when you should be thinking about who you can now contact who you never really could before and think about how to put yourself in situations which were never before practical or possible. And while your situation will vary, just being aware of the new opportunities is the key.

Tags: leadership, Entrepreneur, Scott Heiferman, Jeff Keni Pulver

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Please consider leaving a comment. Please feel free to share your experiences at being an Entrepreneur. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? What did you do when you had the chance? What advise would you offer to a first time Entrepreneur?

Posted by jeff at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

May 06, 2009

Entrepreneur 101: Words of advice to a future Entrepreneur

Just because you want to become an Entrepreneur doesn’t mean that it is something that can just happen overnight. Once you make the decision to go out on your own, to believe in yourself and to chart the course of your own future, you have made the first of many steps to come.

You should know that being an Entrepreneur isn’t always easy. In fact for many of us, there are times when it can be a very hard lifestyle. The time you put into your work doesn’t always immediately turn into either success or profits. There will be ups and downs and sometimes more downs than ups. While failure is never an option, I have generally learned more from my own failures than any of my successes.

When someone is successful it is easy for others to quickly say “they got lucky” which in my book is just fine. What looks like luck to one person can be the results of years of diligent hard work and effort and energy by someone else. Don’t ever feel defensive if someone says you found success because you were just lucky. Say thank you and share a smile. :)

One of the biggest life lessons I have learned to date about being an Entrepreneur is that when things are not going well, these are the times when you need to be strong. And to not only be strong but to act strong too. This isn’t about being obnoxious or pushy but rather being humble and keeping a positive face on no matter what is really going on in your world and in your mind.

It turns out that when you are facing challenging times, you have a much better chance to turn the corner and to be successful again if you don’t tell anyone about the issues you are dealing with. Word travels fast. And in almost any industry there are no secrets.
The moment you open up to someone who you are trying to do business with your story, your actions may introduce FUD into your business relationship. FUD as in Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. By staying strong and focused you have a better chance to maintain the status quo and move on and get yourself across to your next success without having to rehash stories which will only cause you mental anguish and distract you and the conversation you were going to have.

Lesson to be learned: Successful people like to do business with other successful people. Don’t do anything intentional to otherwise introduce fear, uncertainty and doubt into someone’s mind about YOU.

I have made the mistake of opening up and telling someone too much information about a personal hardship at a time when I was looking for a favor and a break from someone I had a business relationship with. Looking back, while I am not sure I ever could have gotten what I was trying to achieve, sharing my (sad) story at that moment only created a distraction from the reason that I originally called on the person and in the end nothing good came of it.

If you feel you must tell someone about what you are feeling and experiencing, tell yourself. Write yourself an email and capture the moment in time and you will then have a chance to go back to it at a future time. Maybe use it as a chapter in a book you may write one day. And if you are fortunate to have close friends and confidants who care about you and your journey and your life, well by all means share as much as you feel comfortable sharing. But do avoid the mistake of telling someone who otherwise doesn’t care about you or your journey or your life.

One more thing. Never be afraid to make a mistake. Sometimes a “good mistake” becomes someone elses big discovery and innovation and contribution to the world. Many of the things discovered during the past 100 years came not because someone was out to discover them but because someone was trying to do something else and their “failure” lead to the creation of a very good mistake.

So go out and be an Entrepreneur. And remember to drop by from time to time and share your stories and share your advise with others.

Tags: leadership, Entrepreneur, Jeff Pulver

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Please consider leaving a comment. Please feel free to share your experiences at being an Entrepreneur and what you have learned from the process. What advise would you offer to someone who is thinking about becoming an Entrepreneur for the first time?

Posted by jeff at 09:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)

May 05, 2009

New York Moment: Lunch with twitter and Friends

A New York Moment: Lunch with Fred Wilson (@fredwilson), Scott Heiferman (@heif), Maria Thomas (@pesmou) together with @Ev and @Biz. Taken at josie’s West at 2PM on May 5, 2009

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Tags: social media, twitter, Fred Wilson, Scott Heiferman, Fred Wilson, Maria Thomas, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

May 04, 2009

Entrepreneur 101: Finding the courage to make your move

Becoming an entrepreneur is not easy. Generally speaking there are no sure bets and nothing works out exactly the way you hoped it would. But when you are an entrepreneur you are in charge of your destiny. You are the one who sets your daily agenda. You have a chance to once again be directly in control of your life. Where you go and how you get there can happen in many ways and is only really bound by your own imagination.

However, becoming an entrepreneur requires one of the hardest steps you will take in your business life. Regardless of anything else, it is the time for YOU to believe in YOU.

There will be times in your business life when you know deep inside yourself that it is time to make a change. It is your choice. You can let things continue with the way they are and hope for the best. Or you can leave what you are doing and try to get a new job at a different company. And then there will be people who in similar circumstances use this moment as their opportunity to go out and become their own boss.

Finding the courage to put yourself out and take action is sometimes difficult and is usually life changing. But this is something only you can do for yourself.

Sometimes your next big success is just a few steps away.

In order to achieve success you need to find the courage to get up and start walking in a new direction. Not everything you do will always turn out great, but one thing is for sure: If you don’t take any action, you will never know what it would have meant to make that change and become an Entrepreneur.

Tags: leadership, Entrepreneur, Jeff Pulver

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Posted by jeff at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

May 03, 2009

Violinist in the Metro:

(Just discovered this story today. I believe the lesson to be learned is still a good one two years later.)

From April 11, 2007 - NPR:All Things Considered

“Virtuoso concert violinist Joshua Bell plays more than 200 international bookings a year. But in January, he found himself performing during rush hour for morning commuters at a metro station in Washington, D.C.

Bell, who on Tuesday won the Avery Fisher Prize for outstanding achievement in classical music, talks to Michele Norris about the stunt, an experiment concocted by The Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten.

During the 40 minutes he played, Bell says only seven people stopped to listen — and only one person recognized him. “ - listen to this NPR story here.

Click here to read Gene Weingarten’s story in the Washington Post.

Posted by jeff at 09:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

May 02, 2009

Announcing the “140 Character Conference Scholarships” Program

Of all the events I have been involved with since 1996, I am especially looking forward to being in New York City on June 16-17 for the 140 Character Conference. (#140conf) I feel very fortunate to have been able to bring together a world-class "cast of characters.” from around the globe representing multiple industries and disciplines. At #140conf, the one thing everyone speaking will have in common is their passion for twitter.

Given the current state of the economy, I have decided to extend an offer for up to 30 people who would have liked to attended #140conf but due to circumstances beyond their control, could not justify the costs to join us.

If you would like to apply for a “#140conf Scholarship”, please send me a message via email in 140 words or less on “Why YOU would like to attend #140conf.” Extra consideration will be given to those people who also post their entry in their blogs and share a pointer to their blog post on twitter and include the #140conf hash tag.

This offer starts today and will continue until each scholarship is awarded. The winners be awarded on an individual basis and access to the event is not transferable. It will be up to each respective winner to get to New York City to attend #140conf as travel costs are not included. I hope this scholarship program will provide access for a group of people who will benefit from the experience and who will contribute to the event.

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 02:40 PM | Permalink

Taking the Road Less Traveled

Yesterday afternoon I drove from Long Island to Manchester, Vermont. And the trip that might have taken about four hours took I did in about six and a half. About 100 miles into this trip of driving on only the highway, I made a wrong turn that turned into a right move and I was reminded about the benefits of “taking the road less traveled.” As a result I drove about 125 miles on country roads and had a chance to see small towns in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont that I most likely never would have seen. I had a chance to experience moments of Americana and take in some amazing scenery.

I accidentally became liberated during my journey because I lost cell phone service for a majority of the drive. I was reminded of a time when I didn’t have a cell phone and a time when it wasn’t expect for us to respond immediately to a text message or an email. It was a moment in our lives when we had more time for ourselves but didn’t appreciate it at the time.

Turns out it is ok not to check and react to every email that comes in when you are driving. And you can afford to miss a call or two.

Yesterday I choose to take the road less traveled. Looking back this gave me a rare chance to relax and enjoy the drive much more than I would have if I spent the entire time my car driving on the highway and not looking outside at the world around me. It also gave me a chance to reflect and make it a point to not always be in a rush to get someplace. Yes, life is a journey. And yesterday was a gentle reminder to myself to spent time on the side roads and enjoy more of the experiences along the way. :)

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, leadership, Entrepreneur, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 07:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

May 01, 2009

Current TV: Brain's of Israel's Silicon Valley

This video was made last summer and starts off at a Garage Geeks meeting in Holon, Israel where I am briefly interviewed and then catches up with my friend Kfir Pravda, Wix, Save an Alien, Nuconomy and some of my other friends from Tel Aviv who are involved in the Israeli Hi-Tech industry.

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Tags: Tel Aviv, startup, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:53 PM | Permalink

April 30, 2009

Open Mobile Summit (Early bird ends this Friday ): Unleashing the Internet - the end of an carrier-dominated era

When I was in London earlier this month, I met with an old friend Robin Batt, who explained the rationale for her conference, the Open Mobile Summit, which is coming up in London in June. I believe Robin is on to something special and I wanted to make sure her work is known by the people who read my blog.

Robin explained how over the past 2 years there have been great strides towards open-ness in mobile. That all of these different initiatives, opening the iPhone to third party development, the mobile broadband explosion in Europe driven by opening access to the Internet from mobile devices, the moves from Google, LiMo and Symbian to open the mobile OS, Verizon’s open announcement last year – are all part of an open mobile revolution.

The revolution is taking place as Internet and wireless worlds continue to collide. There are echoes here of the first Internet revolution, and its impact on both telecoms and content / media. Until now mobile Internet hasn’t taken off, because the value chain has been tightly dominated by the carriers (sound familiar?). And no one likes to play in a walled garden, especially me. :)

Now a number of factors are breaking down these barriers and paving the way for an open, Internet –style ecosystem on wireless. That means huge disruption to the existing value chain, business models and relationships. And huge opportunity for those able to leverage it.

Robin’s an industry consultant who decided to organise this event last year when she realized that all the ‘mobile web’ events were missing the mark. Mainly because they just look at the mobile web companies and applications.

Whereas what is happening affects the entire mobile and converging Internet ecosystem…from carriers through to handset OEMs, PC and consumer electronics manufacturers, wireless software companies, Internet giants, media companies, mobile web and applications companies.

The open mobile revolution is tearing apart the very fabric of the multi million dollar mobile communications industry…and a new ecosystem needs to be built - and monetized – in it’s place.

So, the Open Mobile Summit was born. It brings together just about all the players across these converging worlds – at the senior business strategist level – to explore the changing dynamics of the mobile industry, Internet content and indeed the emergence of mobile as the next mass media.

The first event ran in San Francisco last November – and sold out, despite the downturn and industry-wide travel freezes in effect. The next event is in London, 10-11 June.

My advise for friends who hope to generate revenues from mobile ‘anything’ to get to this event….for a critical perspective into where the value is going to lie in mobile. And to meet with some of the most powerful people in the converging industry.

The early bird expires this Friday May 1st. There are also 4 remaining heavily-discounted passes for ‘friends of Jef.f’ To take advantage, just use VIP code FOJ when you register.

This is a going to be a great event. Hope you can make it.

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Tags: OpenMobileSummit, Mobile Internet, Robin Batt

Posted by jeff at 12:04 AM | Permalink

April 29, 2009

A few tweets of advise to someone new to twitter:

A few tweets of advice from @jeffpulver to someone new to twitter.

“ The best way to get someone's attention on twitter is to talk to them. Start with an @reply. It works.”

“When you try to connect with someone, just because you can DM them doesn't mean they are listening there for you. @Reply works”

“Celebrities who make the investment to follow and engage (some) people will get more out of twitter than those who don't.”

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Tags: social media, twitter, Celebrity, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

April 28, 2009

HD Communications Summit: Why only one telephone voice quality?

Every technology on Earth from copy machines and computers to automobiles and expresso machines sells at a range of price points - except one - telephone service. The CEO of IBM can travel via Gulfstream GV and Mercedes limousine while listening to a high-end sound system from Bose, but Mr. Palmisano's deal making suffers the same mediocre telephone voice quality as two teens planning a party after school. It seems unlikely matching quality to the application and willingness to pay makes less sense in telecom than transportation and consumer electronics.

Needs and ability to pay vary as widely in the case of telephone calls as any other product. However, monopolies operated telephone networks for most of the 133 years since 1876. Profit maximization in the good ole days meant one level of service as the legacy circuit switched telephone network supported only one level of service. Bell Labs performed studies in the 1950's to figure out minimum requirements for intelligibility, but the research did not address whether or not there might exist demand for more than one level of voice quality. In other words, the strangely egalitarian state of telephone voice quality (more precisely, lack of voice quality) owes to conditions that no
longer exist.

The Bell Labs engineers deemed 300 to 3300hz sufficient frequency response, but voice energy exists in frequencies from 30 to 13000hz. Dropping over half the energy associated with voice means the loss of intimacy and emotional nuance in speech. Successful telephone usage demands carefully pronouncing words, speaking slowly, repeating as necessary, and the military phonic alphabet (e.g. "A" as in alpha). This does not even address applications of the telephone for conveying other types of audio. Mobility does not erase the need for voice quality. Callers have two options in suffering the frustration of misunderstanding or not using the telephone at all.

Inertia remains significant even if it seems self-evident nothing makes telecom an exception to the rule regarding consumer choice. Some telco execs insist they need to see market research before considering HD even as interest in their aged product declines. What doubt remains that improving the quality of a telephone call translates directly into improved productivity and expanding the range of addressable applications? Voice quality represents the entire reason for a telephone company to exist. Doing nothing presumes mediocre voice quality exhausts all possible demand. The conversation feels like explaining water to a fish, but enough people understand
the promise of HD to justify optimism.

The 25 companies participating in the May 21, 2009 HD Communication Summit in NYC are making the investments that will finally allow a break with the past. The event represents the most comprehensive assembly of HD experts anywhere in the world to date. Sponsors Polycom, Audiocodes, Snom, and Gigaset Communications already offer HD enabled IP phones. Global IP Solutions powers the HD offers available from GTalk and Nimbuzz. The DECT Forum is sponsoring lunch to draw attention to the CAT-iq standard that HD enables cordless phones. The VIP dinner is already sold out, so register soon or risk missing telecom's new beginning.

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Related Blog Posts:

- Guest Blogger: Daniel Berninger - “The HD Connect Manifesto”

- HD Communications Summit: Can You Hear Me Now

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Tags: VoIP, HD Communications, HD VoIP, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The 140 Characters Conference: It is ALL about the people

For more than a month I have been personally consumed (o.k., obsessed) with the development of the 140 Characters Conference taking place at New World Stages in New York City on June 16-17, 2009. (#140conf). Going into this event, I had an idea of the kinds of sessions I wanted to see and some of the people I thought I wanted to hear from. What started out as an event focused on exploring “the effects of twitter on: Celebrity, The Media, Advertising (and Politics)” has expanded to cover the evolving twitter ecosystem. For me this has meant a chance to expand outside the comfort of my tech circles and into other areas of interest I am also passionate about. Thanks to twitter, I am now connected with an amazing group of people with different backgrounds and from different industries from around the world and whose story I hope to share at this conference.

Yesterday afternoon a milestone was reached with the launch the event website, http://140conf.com. At the moment I am working on the event schedule which will be a mixture of both individual talks and panel discussions. I will be posting an updated conference schedule in the near future.

To get a feel of the diversity of the people whose presence will be shared at the conference, feel free to review the evolving “Cast of Characters.” Some of these people will be traveling a great distance to share their story in June when they visit New York City.

If you are planning on attending this event, please consider registering soon. There are only a limited number of available seats for this event.

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Announcing Partnership with O’Reilly Media: In support of twitter Bootcamp and the 140 Characters Conference

The 140 Conference (#140conf) recently entered into a working relationship with O’Reilly Media. Our relationship covers our respective events taking place June 15th to June 17th at New World Stages in New York City. Delegates attending #140conf now can attend: twitter Bootcamp ($399 value) and the 140 Character Conference ($895 value) for only $1100. Click here for more information.

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, twitter Bootcamp, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 07:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

April 27, 2009

A Piece of Personal Communications History: Two passengers (Jeff Pulver and Kara Weber) on two different Virgin America flights (VX 22 and VX 924) used twitter to communicate with each other in real-time.

On Thursday, April 23rd, while flying from SFO to JFK on WiFi enabled Virgin America flight 22, I noticed a tweet from Kara Weber who was also in the air and flying on WiFi enabled Virgin America flight 924 from SFO to LAX.

“@jeffpulver hi Jeff - thought I'd send you my first Virgin-to-Virgin tweet (currently @ 39k ft on SFO -> LAX). #virginrocks 1:45 PM Apr 23rd from TwitterFon in reply to jeffpulver”

As soon as I noticed Kara’s tweet I returned the tweet and acknowledged the inter-flight communication.

“@KaraWeber Trey cool! You are my first Virgin-to-Virgin tweet. :) Sending this from 35,000 ft heading from SFO to JFK.1:53 PM Apr 23rd from web in reply to KaraWeber”

I’m not sure if this was the first time two random passengers flying on two different WiFi enabled flights tweeted with each other in real-time, but it was the first for me. Reflecting back on the moment, of my 16,548 tweets to date, this is one that I will remember for some time to come.

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Tags: social media, Virgin America, Kara Weber, SFO, LAX, JFK, twitter, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

April 26, 2009

Looking for "Balance" in my Social Media Life

“I go to extremes.” - Billy Joel.

“me too.” - Jeff Pulver

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Since launching this blog on July 6, 2003, despite my sometimes hectic travel schedule, somehow I found a way to have at least one story posted each and every day until earlier this year. Never did I miss posting two days in a row when I was not in transit or otherwise traveling. NEVER. Until now. And for me, the ironic part of my lack of blogging comes from being caught up with other things taking up the time I used to have to think about what to write about and what to share in this blog.

There is just so much time available to us during the day to get things done. For myself, this is time that I sometimes balance between being mobile and being on broadband. When I am mobile it means I will try to review incoming messages, respond to the most urgent of them and otherwise try to remember the people who I want to respond to once I am on broadband again. I don’t see or respond to all of these messages but I try to do my best to respond to those that I can. When I’m mobile it has been rare that I would attempt to write a blog post on a mobile device, but there have been times where a blog thought was started on my Blackberry. I usually leave the writing to when I am home, connected and in front of a laptop.

Since the Spring of 2007 I have been active on both twitter and Facebook. Never did I think one of the “costs” of becoming active on social media platforms was that I would one day have to choose where and how to spend my time. When it comes to social media, there have been times where I know I have gone to extremes.

There have been mornings where the conversations on twitter have been compelling enough to me that what time felt like a blink of an eye was in real life three hours and all of my available time to do anything more online was just gone. There have been times I have been on Facebook in the morning spending time responding to messages while I also made an effort to wish friends a “Happy Birthday.” Again, what felt like just minutes were actually hours. And who hasn’t gotten tied up while writing and reviewing their emails? And during all this time I was obsessed with keeping the continuity of my blog, if for no other reason than it was something I took pride in and something that I felt I had to do. So I did so. Until now.

The past couple of days I have been searching for the magical, mystical balance point that will provide parity in my social media life. The points where I know I have put in just enough time on twitter, Facebook and my blog so that I feel comfortable with what I’m doing rather than feeling compromised with my thinking and my thoughts. And while I haven’t found the right mix yet, I do know the cost of going to social media extremes. Spend too much time on twitter means I am not spending the same quality time on Facebook. Spending too much time on Facebook and twitter and I don’t have time to write. Spend too much time thinking about what I want to write about and I disappear from both Facebook and twitter.

It is easy to start to rationalize things make excuses for the actions taken, but when you are doing things for yourself, the only person who you short change with such thinking is YOU.

As I start this new week, I am more focused and more aware about how I like to spend my available online time. My challenge remains to discover the balance while knowing it is fine to go to extremes when needed as long as in the end I up up slightly left of center but on course for the next something.

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What about YOU? Do you find yourself going to extremes? How do you balance the time you spend in social media? Where are your limits? Have you noticed your habits have changed in recent times? If you blog, are you spending more or less time writing blog posts when you are otherwise engaged on the social media platforms that are meaningful for you?

Tags: twitter, Facebook, Social Media, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

April 23, 2009

HD Communications Summit: Can You Hear Me Now

The shrinking demand for traditional voice services represents the only evidence necessary to justify deploying high definition (HD) voice. The decision to deploy HD does not require market research any more than Intel's investment in the next generation processor. The proliferation of Internet enabled options makes survival a matter of continuous improvement. HD voice is not a feature that may or may not appeal to end users. HD represents a long overdue improvement to a voice offering that has remained unchanged for over 50 years

The 1974 arrival of TCP/IP transport protocol made the Internet possible, but the network of networks remained an academic exercise for 15 years until 1989. The world wide web did not get started until Tim Berners Lee combined HTML as a standard way to represent information and HTTP as an easy means to navigate information. History appears poised to repeat as HD voice (representation) combines with SIP (transport) and SIP URI's (navigation) to provide a new basis for world wide communication.

Voice quality improvements associated with HD allow telephone calls to better approximate the intimacy an in-person meeting. HD voice diminishes the risk of confusion that can plague telephone calls associated with collaboration and commerce. A trial assembled by T-Mobile and Ericsson in Germany showed significantly longer average call durations among people using HD devices. It follows that HD will also mean more calls. In addition, the most promising benefit of continuous improvement, even if less quantifiable, remains the new applications HD makes possible.

Millions of people at enterprises with IP Phones from Polycom, Audiocodes, and Snom can already access HD voice along with click-to-connect navigation and global unmetered termination associated with SIP URI's. SIP URI's based on the same name@mydomain.com framework of email addresses represent the new toll free numbers. Gigaset Communications includes HD and SIP URI functionality with millions of cordless phones sold in Europe (and soon the US). Softphones like GTalk and Nimbuzz offer HD options.

The world wide web and HD world wide communication share the same growth driver as expanding audience attracts content and expanding content attracts audience. HD presently suffers the same awareness and ease of use obstacles as the early web, but, therein lies the opportunity for startups and service provider innovation. The developments associated with HD need not require a commitment to pay more for communication services. By definition, continuous improvement means offering more without charging more. The web already provides ample evidence people prefer fixed upfront expenses that enable unlimited usage to the metered status quo of traditional telcom.

Five ways to learn more and experience HD Communication:

1. HD Communication Summit taking place on May 21, 2009 in New York City. Register for the most comprehensive gathering of HD experts ever held - at http://www.HDComms.com

2. HD Connect - Join Polycom, Snom, Audiocodes, and Gigaset on the HD Connect interoperability list - contact Dave Frankel at dfrankel@zipdx.com

3. SiptoSip.net - Send contributions to the siptosip.net HD content and applications directory - contact Daniel Berninger at dan@danielberninger.com

4. SIP URI's - Get a SIP URI for your HD IP phone via the FWD HD trial email to fwd@pulver.com

5. HD Resources - Visit HD resource pages of the HD Communication
Summit sponsors:

* Global IP Solutions - http://www.gipscorp.com/wp
* Polycom - http://www.polycom.com/hdvoice
* Audiocodes - http://www.audiocodes.com/hdvoip
* Snom - http://www.snom.com/en/products/accessories/snom-klarvoice-handset/
* Gigaset Communications - =http://www.gigaset-sound.com/

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Tags: VoIP, HD Communications, HD VoIP, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

April 22, 2009

Oprah on twitter: The Race to 5 million followers

On Sunday night, after one show and a weekend, @Oprah had 350,000 followers. In a few hours she will pass 500,000 followers. Oprah may have not been the first person to get to a million followers but she will be the person to get to 5 million and more.

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Tags: social media, twitter, Oprah, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My kids are now on twitter

In the future we may end up differentiating ourselves as either being part of the OTBO group (on twitter BEFORE @Oprah) and the OTAO group (on twitter AFTER @Oprah.)

In the past week my 15 year old twin sons Dylan and Jake both joined twitter. But their reason for being on twitter is a lot different than my own. My kids are using twitter to follow some of the celebrities they are fans of and to watch and something engage in the random chatter between the celebrities themselves and their fans. twitter is quickly become some which is part of their everyday live.

Since joining twitter both my sons have already had a few random chats with people whom they are fans of. I believe the ability for twitter to offer a live, real-time, “real” and interactive way for fans to connect directly with celebrities will create an experience that has never before really available on a 24/7 basis. I am not aware of any other moment in our history where it was possible to connect with random celebrities in such an open way. This isn’t any hosted chat or big web event. There are no screeners or handlers (except if a celebrity is tweeting with the help of another person.)

As a parent I do worry about the interactions and the connections but I also trust my kids to be smart about the people they follow and the conversations they engage in. Twitter now provides people with the chance to connect with someone they are a fan of during their everyday life and during YOUR everyday life. I do not know how long the twitter:Celebrity experience will last, but as more than more celebrities continue to appear on twitter, I believe more and more people will join twitter just have that opportunity to connect with celebrities.

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Tags: social media, twitter, Oprah, Celebrity, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 21, 2009

Flying at 35,000 ft and staying connected on social media

The last time I had reliable WiFi access while flying was in December, 2006. Since then I have lost track of how many flights I have been on, but for today at last I feel like I'm back in 2006. Back then I wasn't on Facebook nor on twitter so being on WiFi when flying meant web surfing and checking on email. Oh, and accessing my Sling Box which worked quite well back then.

So far on my flight I've enjoyed being in a number of Facebook and twitter conversations and staying caught up on my email. While I could have spent the entire flight either resting or just watching the inflight TV, knowing there was WiFi access meant that it was something I had to try out. And I enjoyed the moment when I sent my first tweet at 35,000 ft.

While it is just a matter of time for WiFi to become expected when we fly, there is something cool about being online and feeling connected at a time I normally don't feel connected. On the other hand, the price that I may pay is the brainstorming that sometimes happens at 35,000 ft when there is nothing else to do other than rest my eyes and think.

(@earcos encouraged me to take a photo to remember this flight. The photo was taken from seat 10C on board Virgin America flight 23 enroute from JFK to San Francisco. [posted while flying])

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Tags: social media, Virgin America, San Francicsco, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 02:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

April 20, 2009

Old Media + New Media = NOW Media

Old Media + New Media = NOW Media. NOW Media is the fusion of Old Media and New Media.

As it turned out, after the investment of Billions of Dollars, the advent of New Media never replaced Old Media. New Media is different and while it means different things to different people, as my friend Shelly Palmer pointed out during his talk at SocComm back in February, in the end the people who are on the outside of the Gates (New Media) really wants to be on the inside of those Gates where Old Media is. And once you are on the inside you will discover a much different world and perspective on things than when you are on the outside.

Since being part of the CNN / Facebook experience during President Obama’s Inauguration, I have been thinking about about something which I have been calling: NOW Media. At first I thought it New Media should just be rebranded as NOW Media. But I was wrong. NOW Media is different. It represents the fusion of both platforms more than just a rebranding of one or the other. And a week after the world discovered Susan Boyle and a week which included a “Race to a Million” followers on twitter between Aston Kutcher and CNN, I believe none of these things would not have happened if it wasn’t for the advent of NOW Media.

Looking back, it was the July 2nd 2005 AOL Live 8 Broadcast was one of the first events of recent memory that was a NOW Media moment for me. As a consumer I had the chance to watch the concert live on MTV and Vh1 but also via their website. And on the web I could choose which of the 8 stages I wanted to watch and be my own director of the event. This allowed some of us to watch live the reunion of Pink Floyd while others on cable had a different viewing experience.

New Media empowers Ashton Kutcher with platforms like UStream and Qik and twitpic and he uses them to connect directly to people for free. And Ashton knows how to leverage these platforms to promote a cause, to make a point and to be heard. And it isn’t just Ashton who uses these platforms, they are there for anyone who has broadband access to take advantage of. But mix UStream or Qik with Old Media and something special can and sometimes does happen.

Susan Boyle’s original video from Britain’s Got Talent reached now has over 33 million views (and counting.) Five days ago that same video was at 4 million views. And when I first saw the video on Sunday, April 12th it had about 65,000 views. What happened? And what caused Susan Boyle to become an overnight sensation heard around the world? I believe a lot of the success of this video has come from the messages it carries in addition to the amazing voice that is heard on it. Susan Boyle’s video reminds us to be humble and not to jump to conclusions and not to judge. She also brings out an emotion that is just not felt in many of our everyday lives and her video shares the humanity in it all with regard to what happens when someone when you least expect it opens their mouth and can really sing. Each time I watch her video I can’t help but feel both a chill and a tear. The lyrics from Les Miserables which she sang just made the captured moments even more ironic. Susan had a dream and after all these years the world now knows who Susan Boyle really is. And regardless about the outcome of the competition on Britain’s Got Talent, Susan Boyle has already won.

I believe that the advent of NOW Media contributed greatly to Susan Boyle getting discovered by the world..

Within hours of placing the producers of Britain’s Got Talent placing the Susan Bole video on YouTube, the embedded video (when that was allowed) started appearing on blogs around the world. This in turn started a video linking sharing frenzy on Facebook and twitter and on email which fueled the initial momentum. And within a day or so, traditional media outlets around the world could not help but notice the traction Susan Boyle’s video was getting so they started reporting it. This in turn generated another frenzy of people sharing this information on the internet. And so on. And this frenzy repeated itself with newspaper coverage and broadcast media coverage and even more internet coverage. The two worlds of Old Media and New Media need each other and have for a long time. Despite what some friends of mine may preach, I do not seeing one world will replacing the other. Each will have their own influence but when Old Media and New Media can be catalysts for each other, amazing things can and will happen. And this is where my concept of NOW media sits. Now Media is the fusion of Old Media and New Media.

After just one show where Oprah spoke about twitter and had on Ashton Kutcher and twitter CEO Ev Williams, she is has more than 350,000 followers. While at the moment Oprah seems to be communicating with just the people who she follows, when she realizes how she can listen to the world trying to connect with her, Oprah can directly contribute to the next wave of growth on twitter. twitter and Oprah together are another example of NOW media at play. (I have to admit that on Friday I was enjoying watching the twitter conversations taking place in real-time during the taping of Oprah’s show.)

Last Friday’s Larry King CNN show about twitter is a great example of NOW media in content even though this wasn’t mentioned directly during the broadcast. What I especially enjoyed was Ashton's UStream Interview with Larry King right after the show.

We are living in a NOW Media World. Look out for future NOW Media moments.

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Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments below. And please feel free to share other NOW Media Moments.

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Tags: NOW Media, Old Media, New Media, social media, Qik, UStream, Susan Boyle, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

April 19, 2009

Jeff Pulver interview: “The Evolution of Social Media” from SXSW 2009

During SXSW 2009, a team from 100 Interviews decided to interview 100 people from the world of social media.

During this interview I shared my perspective on the evolution of social media, where things are and where they may be going. A lot of material was covered during this short interview.

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Tags: SXSW, Social Media, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 18, 2009

Event: Jeff & Shelly’s Social Media Networking Party in San Francisco on Apr 21st

Friends are invited to attend a free networking party hosted by Shelly Palmer and myself.

The event is taking place on April 21st from 6:30PM to 8:30PM at: Orson, 508 4th St in San Francisco.

"If you are into technology, media, entertainment, social media or if you just want to meet people who are thinking about communicating with each other in the 21st century, we promise you'll have a good time."

This is going to be an "old school" networking event where the lights will be up, the music will be low and you will have a chance to both see the people you are talking to and hear them. I realize it may be retro for some of my friends, but I promise it will be an effective way to network, connect and make new friends.

If you are interested in attending, please RSVP to this event on Facebook so your friends will know that you are attending. And if you want to secure your ticket, please also RSVP here.

Hope to see you on April 21st.

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Tags: social media, Shelly Palmer, San Francicsco, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 16, 2009

The 140 Character Conference: (Update #1)

Since announcing on March 23rd “The 140 Character Conference” (#140conf) taking place at New World Stages in New York City on June 16/17, I have been humbled by the people who have come forward to be a part of this event. I thank everyone who has either contacted me directly or posted their nomination for someone on twitter. (I am trying to get back to everyone.)

I am in the process of inviting and confirming the “cast of 140 characters” whose presence will help define this event. These cast members are flying in from around the world to be at the event. And while not all members of the cast will have formal speaking roles, many will. The cast members joining us will be coming from as far as away as: Perth, Australia and Doha, Qatar as well as from across North America, Europe and the Middle East. This will be a gathering of people with a variety of backgrounds and the one thing everyone who will be there has in common is twitter.

While the original scope of the event was to explore “the effects of twitter on: Celebrity, “The Media”, Advertising and (maybe) Politics”, the scope of the event has expanded and I will be covering these topics and a lot more. #140conf will be taking a look at twitter as a platform and will be taking a look at some of the industries which have been disrupted by the advent of twitter.

For all the events I have been involved with since 1996 the schedule for this two day event will be unique and fast paced. It is my intention to provide a platform for as many people as possible to share their thoughts and engage in conversation with the attending delegates.

I believe that the knowledge shared and learned at this event will help bring more people into the twitter community. The take aways from this event will provide the attending delegates knowledge, perspectives and insights to the next wave of effects twitter will have on business.

While I have been working on confirming the “cast of characters”, others have been working on the event website. I expect the 140Conf website to be launching early next week. (Right now you can see a copy of the blog post announcing this event.)

I am also looking for sponsors and for exhibitors to be part of our twitter showcase. My goal is to have a special section of the show just for twitter applications and a Best Of Show Award for killer twitter apps. For more information about sponsoring and exhibiting, please send email to: jeff@pulver.com or just find me on twitter. And thanks to everyone for helping to make this event happen.

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 03:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 15, 2009

Catch up with the Israel Web Tour when it arrives in Silicon Valley next week.

If you will be in Silicon Valley on April 22nd, and if you are interested in technology innovation, you might want to consider catching up with the 11 Israeli Companies who were selected to be on the 2009 Israel Web Tour.

During my visits to Tel Aviv I have had an opportunity to meet with a number of these great companies. And in fact I happen to be an early investor in one of them, Semantinet.

The companies participating in the 2009 Israel Web Tour include: Conduit, ContextIn, EyeView Digital, Footbo, SemantiNet (also see: Twitter gets a Semantic Web boost from Headup.com), SundaySky, Superfish, SweetIM, Triond, WorkLight.

Click here to sign up for the only public showcase of the Israel Web Tour which is taking place on April 22nd at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto from 1:45 to 6:30pm.

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Tags: Israel Web Tour, Shuly Galili, Israel, startups, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 03:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

April 13, 2009

Guest Blogger: Daniel Berninger - “The HD Connect Manifesto”

The growing adoption of text in the form of email, texting, and microblogging as the dominate mode of communication represents a remarkable development. It avenges the long ago defeat of the telegraph by the telephone. The underlying cause of declining interest voice communication represents a familar story. There exists no difference between the end user experience of a telephone call in 1959 and 2009. The wireless industry made telephone calls mobile. The VoIP industry made telephone calls cheap. Yet, every penny of voice revenue requires the sale of a 1950 quality telephone call.

The inherent advantages voice enjoys over text did not eliminate the need for innovation. Reversing the declining fortunes of voice requires the industry to finally get around to improving voice quality. High Definition (HD) voice can do for the voice industry what it did for the video industry in triggering the replacement cycle that follows format changes. Faith in the status quo remains a significant obstacle in spite of the fact AM radio offers better audio quality than telephones and telephones do not support over half the frequencies associated with human voice.

Voice can convey information that goes well beyond the words spoken to the extent there exist sufficient quality. The cues reflecting emotional state necessary for establishing intimacy get lost with traditional telephone calls. The precision of language disappears along with the high frequencies necessary to convey consonant sounds and low frequencies associate with vowel sounds (hence reliance on A as in alpha type codes.) Communication with non-native speakers becomes nearly impossible without adequate voice quality.

The obstacles to achieving higher levels of voice quality in 1950 no longer exist. A number of recent standards (e.g. 3GPP, 4G, Packet Cable, CAT-iq) incorporate HD options. The current generation of chips available from Broadcom, Texas Instruments, and Infineon all incorporate HD capability. Polycom, Siemens Gigaset, Snom, and Audiocodes offer HD capable IP phones. HD voice represents another application of broadband Internet. The cause of HD benefits from faster and cheaper processing components like everything else in the infotech ecosystem.

The maturity of VoIP technologies provide a number of efficient options for delivering HD voice. The SIP standard enables codec negotiation on a call by call basis. This provides for a greatest common denominator mode where callers enjoy the highest quality shared by their respective devices. There exist at least a half dozen different HD codecs from Global IP Solutions and other companies. Achieving a critical mass of HD devices will take time, but the nework effect issue can get addressed as they did in the case of fax and email.

Efforts to reverse the declining demand for voice services should also co-opt some of the successful aspects of text communication. Touch tone dialing traces to the 1940's. Telephone numbers suffer the same disadvantages that led to the domain name system as a means to protect end users from IP addresses. Adoption of SIP URI's (@sip.myserviceprovider.com) allows service providers to offer the same click-to-connect options as the web and an email like addressing framework. SIP URI's offer a unified addressing framework for passing calls between networks.

Competing with text requires preserving the unmetered global termination associated with the Internet via an the open interconnection policy between voice networks. Resisting interconnection in order to preserve business models that depend on metering voice minutes represents a doomed strategy. Skype, Vonage, and the cableco digital phone offers could easily interconnect with each other and independent SIP networks rather than through the telephone network. The search for alternative business models remains on going, but demand for services charging usage based fees will continue to disappear with or without interconnection.

HD audio quality, click-to-connect, and unmetered global termination or collectively - HD Connect - can serve as the basis for a resurgent voice industry.

Please register for Jeff Pulver's HD Communication Summit planned for May 21, 2009 in NYC to hear from the people and companies leading the transformation of communication from text back to voice.

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Daniel Berninger is CEO, FWD. His bio can be seen here.

Tags: VoIP,HD Communications, Daniel Berninger, HD VoIP, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

April 11, 2009

TechTLV: “Can you hear me now? The operator-centric mobile model is over”

Gil Dibner wrote: “Last week, T-Mobile Germany made some waves by banning Skype for the iPhone. Some might read this as a long overdue reassertion of operator power, but I disagree. A few months ago, I learned from a reliable source that a major operator was deliberately not shipping a very popular mobile phone model that they knew their customers wanted because the phone didn’t give them enough control over what the customer does. The phone was too open. This is exactly what Google was talking about back in 2007 when it insisted on openness as a condition to bidding in the FCC’s spectrum auction.

Ten years ago, when I covered mobile operators on Wall Street, they used to cite their vast capital expenditure on building on their cellular networks as their core differentiators. This was the reality behind Verizon’s amusing “can you hear me now?” campaign.

Today, operators have recognized that, for the most part, coverage is not a differentiator. It’s a “must have” but it’s not really enough to keep a customer from switching providers if the new cool phone is being offered somewhere else. What do you call a business with massive capital expenditures, an entirely commoditized service, high customer support costs, even high customer acquisition costs, and no customer loyalty? I don’t know, but that’s not a business I want to be in.

Neither do the operators, it seems – and for years they have been doing everything in their power to ensure that Wall Street doesn’t figure out that their business model has run out of juice. The operators have invested untold sums of money in acquiring content, services, and software in an effort to “leverage” their relationship with their customers. The examples are endless. Verizon’s VCast music service. Vodafone’s acquisition of ZYB’s social network. Orange France’s acquisition of Cityvox, The list goes on. There are literally hundreds of start-ups operators today that share the same essential vision: “I will sell the operators on my ability to help them avoid their fate as a dumb pipe.” I have no doubt that this vision is an appealing one for operators – and I am rarely skeptical or surprised when such start-ups demonstrate “significant interest” or even deployment deals from operators. In some cases, these “value added services” can make money and drive value – but they rarely do. I don’t want VodaFone’s social network, I want Facebook. I don’t want Verizon’s music service, I want Pandora. History is inexorably moving in this direction – towards increased openness and away from the operator-centric models.

T-Mobile’s decision to ban Skype is not a sign of power – it’s a sign of weakness. We are witnessing the last gasp (or one of the last gasps) of a dying model. Like it or not, mobile operators are going to increasingly find themselves relegated to “dumb pipe” status. They fought number portability. They’ve tightly controlled the type and capability of devices sold to their customers. They’ve blocked access to software that users clearly want. I can’t think of any examples of industries surviving by banning law-abiding customers from doing things that they clearly want to do and should be able to do. “

Click here to read the entire story

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Tags: Gil Dibner, T-Mobile, TechTLV, voip, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 06:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Playboy Playmates on twitter

While doing research about Celebrities on twitter related to my upcoming #140conf event in June, I discovered a number of Playboy Playmates who are now on twitter. (I also discovered a number of music artists and actors.)

Most of these Playmates do not have a large twitter following (yet) but it may be only a matter of time for their respective fans to discover them. Seems twitter has become the new frontier for Playmates after MySpace and Facebook. And if you look at some of their tweets, you can pick up on some inter-playmate conversations.

If you are aware of other Playmates who are on twitter, please feel free to add to this list.

Playboy Playmates on twitter
(as of April 11, 2009)

Jan 2002: Nicole Narain - @Nicole_Narain

Jul 2004: Stephanie Glasson - @Steph_Glasson

Feb 2005: Amber Campisi - @ambercampisi

May 2007: Shannon James - @shannon_james
Jun 2007: Brittany Binger - @BrittanyBinger

Jan 2008: Jayde Nicole - @Jayde_Nicole (Playmate Year for 2008)
Jun 2008: Juliette Frette - @JulietteFrette
Aug 2008: Kayla Colins - @kaylacollins

Feb 2009: Jessica Burciaga - @JessicaBurciaga
Mar 2009: Jennifer Perhing - @JennPershing
Apr 2009: Hope Dworaczyk - @hopedworaczyk
May 2009: Crystal Mccahill - @CrystalMcCahill
Jun 2009: Candice Cassidy - @candicecassidy

In the Playboy "Family":

Playboy - @playboy
Playboy UK - @playboyuk

Stacy Burke - @StacyBurke
Traci Coulter - @tracicoulter

Ashley Alan-Lee - @AshleyAlanLee
Amy Lynn Grover - @amylynngrover - YouTube search winner
Crystal Harris - @CrystalHarris
Jo Garcia - @gamernextdoor (Playboy's Cyber Girl of the Year for 2008)
Mandy Lynn - @ModelMandyLynn
Holly Madison - @hollymadison123
Mary Piemonte - @marypiemonte
Alison Reynolds - @BigAlPeoplesPal
Mindi Smith - @mindismith
The Shannon Twins - @ShannonTwins

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Tags: Playboy, Playmates, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

April 10, 2009

Alan Reiter - HD VoIP: Removing Our Audio Mufflers

A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed by Alan Reiter and shared my passion for HD VoIP. What follows is his story about HD VoIP.

HD VoIP: Removing Our Audio Mufflers

"We live in a world of surround sound, but we still wallow in the same muffled audio telephony that was standardized decades ago when American Telephone & Telegraph was the phone company. It's time to remove the woolen mufflers from around our ears and hear the world more closely to how it truly sounds. It's time for high-definition VoIP.

HD VoIP (or HD Voice as it's sometimes called) typically sounds at least as good as landline telephone voice. But the revolutionary aspect is that it can sound better than landlines. The quality of landline audio has been fixed for more than 50 years (300 Hz to 3.4 KHz) and it's highly unlikely to change. But audio on the Internet isn't limited by previous standards. By employing wideband codecs, HD VoIP can use at least twice as much (50 Hz to 7 KHz) bandwidth and twice the sampling rate (16 KHz versus 8 KHz) compared to traditional telephony and regular VoIP, notes Eyal Zach, director of marketing, HD VoIP solutions, for AudioCodes. You hear more high and low frequencies, and the sound is much clearer.

VoIP pioneer Jeff Pulver says the difference is greater than the quality of FM radio over AM. If you want to get a tiny taste of the difference, check out AudioCodes' brief MP3 files for traditional VoIP and HD VoIP. You also might have heard superior audio quality when using Polycom Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM)'s HD phones and speakerphones and Skype Ltd. in peer-to-peer mode.

If you think existing audio quality is "good enough," think again. For example:

* Conference calls and Web audio/slide presentations: Whether you're listening to a conference call on a landline phone or, worse, a speakerphone, you know how difficult it can be to understand some discussions.

* Financial institutions: It's crucial for bankers and stockbrokers to clearly understand numbers that are discussed.

* Customer support: How many times have you received customer support from someone in another country and found him/her difficult to understand?

* Police and other security-related calls: Police/fire/medical dispatchers can better understand a caller who is extremely upset and speaking quickly during an emergency. Security officers can better listen for background conversations, noises, etc., on calls (and wiretaps) that could aid investigations.

* Understanding nuances: Humans pick up on various audio "clues," such as voices that become louder or softer, higher or lower pitched, or faster or slower."

Read the entire story here.

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Interested in HD VoIP? Register TODAY for the HD Communications Summit taking place in New York City on May 21st.

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Tags: HDCommunicationsSummit, HDComms, HD Communications, voip, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 02:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 09, 2009

Become a FOJ at the Open Mobile Summit in London June 10/11

Robin Batt writes:

"Great to catch up when you were in London. As you know our second Open Mobile Summit is coming up this London in June. This is a board-level conference, exploring the disruption and opportunity created by the open mobile revolution.

It should be of interest to anyone in mobile, looking to make sense of the disruption. And anyone in the Internet / media space looking to take advantage and understand how the rules of the game for mobile services / apps are changing. The next 12-18 months will be critical.

We have a killer line-up – with some of the most powerful people from the leading mobile operators, handset manufacturers, software, Internet and media companies speaking. All the major operators are not only there, but at the most senior level – direct reports to the group CEOs of Voda, T-Mobile, Orange/ France Telecom, O2/Telefonica, 3. Plus handset OEMs Nokia, LG, Acer, RIM and Motorola. The head of the Symbian foundation. Investment banks. Google, Yahoo, Disney, Opera. etc.

So, I know you know all the best people, which is why I’ve set you up with some seriously discounted guest passes. 10 x ‘Friends of Jeff’ registering with VIP code FOJ before 1 May can save £500 on the entrance price. The conference information is here http://www.openmobilesummit.com.

Also, note this is a closed networking forum – only 200 places – and 60 speakers – for intimate networking."

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So there you have it. If you would like to have FOJ access at the Open Mobile Summit, be one of the 10 people to save £500 on the entrance price when you use the code FOJ before May 1st.

This is a going to be a great event. Hope you can make it.

Tags: OpenMobileSummit, Mobile Internet, Robin Batt

Posted by jeff at 03:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 07, 2009

Reminder: Nomination Deadline for #140Conf is Friday April 10th

On June 16-17th in New York City I am producing a new event, The 140 Characters Conference, an event that will explore the effects of twitter on: Celebrity, The Media and Advertising.

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I am looking for creative, out-of-the-box thinkers to come forward and pitch me something relevant they would like to discuss from inside the respective worlds of: Celebrity, “The Media” and Advertising. Politics is another area which may be covered, depending upon how this event shapes up.

My hope is to attract not only established celebrities, members of the media and advertising thought leaders who are now using twitter, but those who have become a celebrity, and a brand in their own right, through the creative and disruptive application that twitter continues to be.

I’m looking for first-hand accounts of how twitter is being used and the impact it is happening in the industry sectors this event is focusing on. My goal is to bring together the right group of characters to both lead and contribute to the discussions. We will be exploring twitter as both a platform and as a disruptive change agent.

I genuinely believe that 140 of the right characters can impact 140,000 online participants to the event. And I believe that the knowledge shared and learned at this event will help bring more people into the twitter community. The take aways from this event will provide the attending delegates knowledge, perspectives and insights to the next wave of effects twitter will have on business.

So please, think about what YOU could contribute to the dialog, and who you may know who would be interested in being part of this event. #140conf is the twitter hashtag for the event. I would appreciate your help in spreading awareness of this new conference.

What I hope to bring together is a gathering of people with a variety of backgrounds and together explore the future of where things are going and how to best prepare the community at large to get there.

If you are interested in speaking at: 140 Characters Conference, and or would like to suggest a speaker, please tweet your nomination to #140conf. I will be checking the twitter stream on a regular basis for nominations. You can also contact me by sending email to: jeff@pulver.com. The deadline for speaking proposals is: Friday, April 10th.

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 07:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

comScore: Twitter Traffic Explodes...And Not Being Driven by the Usual Suspects!

"Twitter seems to be just about everywhere these days, infiltrating pop culture and challenging traditional communication channels as people answer the simple Twitter question, “What are you doing?” Many people have hopped on the Twitter bandwagon - from businesses to celebrities to professional sports players to President Obama.

Over the past several months, we at comScore have watched how quickly traffic to Twitter has exploded. Worldwide visitors to Twitter approached 10 million in February, up an impressive 700+% vs. year ago. The past two months alone have seen worldwide visitors climb more than 5 million visitors. U.S. traffic growth has been just as dramatic, with Twitter reaching 4 million visitors in February, up more than 1,000% from a year ago."

Source - comScore: Twitter Traffic Explodes...And Not Being Driven by the Usual Suspects!

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Tags: social media, twitter, comScore

Posted by jeff at 07:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

April 06, 2009

Announcing: The HD Communications Summit - May 21 2009 in NYC

At The HD Communications Summit we will be exploring the issues associated with the widespread deployment of HD VoIP,

I believe HD voice holds the same promise for the telecom industry as format changes in the entertainment industry. With enough interest, together we can trigger a worldwide replacement cycle like the one observed currently with HDTV. This is an opportunity that can not be ignored and one that will get the attention of the entire telecom ecosystem.

The road ahead isn’t going to be easy. There is a lot of work ahead for all of us. From helping to educate the worldwide consumers about the promise of HD VoIP to the issues surrounding widespread adoption and implementation issues. But the underlying technology we need already exists and from my perspective it is just a matter of time. Eventually the telecom industry will adopt and support the widespread use of HD Voice. With the right support and attention we can be a catalyst for change and make a difference and make something inevitable, happen NOW. In the process we will have a chance to reboot Telecom.

And this reboot process will start on May 21st at the HD Communications Summit.

Below is the working (draft) agenda for the event:

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HD Communications Summit
New World Stages
340 West 50th Street, New York, New York

(Special thanks to our sponsors: AudioCodes, Global IP Sound, Polycom, Siemens and Snom.)

8:30 - 9:30 - Registration / Networking
9:30 - 9:40 - Welcome
9:40 -10:00 - Jeff Pulver - “HD Telecom Reboot”

State of the Art:
10:00 - 10:20 - Yehuda Herscovici, VP Systems, AudioCodes

10:20 - 10:40 - Rod Keller, CEO, Siemens North America

10:40 - 11:00 - (Morning break)

11:00 - 11:20 - Jan Linden, VP Engineering, Global IP Solutions

11:20 - 11:50 - HD Codec Panel:
- Jason Johnson, VP Licensing, Dolby Labs
- Jan Linden, VP Engineering, Global IP Solutions
- Stefan Karapetkov, Director Emerging Technology, Polycom

11:50 - 12:10 - Jeff Rodman, co-founder, CTO Voice Division, Polycom

12:10 - 12:40 - HD Audio Quality Panel:
- Donald Bowen, MTS, AT&T Labs
- Jeff Rodman, co-founder, CTO Voice Division, Polycom
- Eric Diethorn, MTS, Avaya Labs

12:40 - 2:00 - (Lunch)

Deployment:
2:00 - 2:20 - Christian Stredicke, founder and CEO, Snom

2:20 - 2:40 - HD Broadband Telco Panel:
- John Hendry, CTO, M5 Networks
- William Bumbernick, CEO, Alteva
- Alan Bugos, VP, Engineering, iBasis

2:40 - 3:10 - HD Digital Phone Cable Panel:
- Dave Burstein, Editor, DOCSYS Report
- Mike Jablon, Sr Dir, Product Strategy, Time Warner
- Eric Rosenfeld, VP, Network Architecture, Cablelabs (invited)

3:10 - 3:30 - Georges Penalver, Sr Exec VP, Group Strategic Marketing, FT-Orange

3:30 - 4:00 - HD Cellular Panel:
- Jean-Marc Harion, VP Development FT-Orange America
- James Tagg, Chief Architect, Truphone
- Mahesh Makhijani, Director Technical Marketing, Qualcom

4:00 - 4:20 - (Afternoon break)

4:20 - 4:40 - Terry Robinson, UCS Solutions Management, Avaya

4:40 - 5:10 - HD Enterprise Panel:
- Jai Sudharsan, VP Global Strategy and Offers, Avaya
- Mike Storella, Director Business Development, Snom
- Eyal Zach, Marketing Director, HDVoIP Solutions, AudioCodes

5:10 - 5:40 - HD Interconnection Panel:
- Mike Stanford, former Director, VoIP Strategy, Intel
- Jonathan Christensen, GM Audio and Video, Skype
- Dave Frankel, CEO, ZipDX
- Alon Cohen, CTO, Phone.com

5:40 - 6:00 - wrap up

6:00 - 7:30 - Cocktail Reception / Networking / Demos

(Schedule Subject to Change without Notice)

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Registration for the HD Communications Summit is now open. Seating is limited. Register today and join us as we explore HD Communications and together set the agenda on how we can reboot Telecom.

Sponsored by: AudioCodes, Global IP Sound | Polycom | Siemens | Snom.

Note: At the HD Communications Summit there will be vendors demonstrating their products and their platforms and we will take a look at the issues and challenges for the transformation of the existing communications infrastructure into one which supports HD. If you are interested in exhibiting and/or sponsoring this event, please send email to: jeff@pulver.com.

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Related Media Coverage:

Telephony: Jeff Pulver: HD VoIP is the Next Big Thing

Fierce VoIP: Pulver: Time to reboot the communications industry

Tags: HDCommunicationsSummit, HDComms, HD Communications, voip, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

April 05, 2009

Phil Campbell interviews Jeff Pulver @ SXSW

Last month, during SXSW, I had a chance to catch with Phil Campbell. During the interview I shared some thoughts about SXSW and some of the other things on my mind.

Special thanks to Phil for posting this interview:

A Chat with Jeff Pulver @ sxswi (south by southwest) in austin, tx [6:39] from Phil Campbell - England on Vimeo.

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Tags: SXSW, social media, Phjil Campbell, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What are the 3 URLs on Your Mind today?

When I travel, I try to make it a point when catching up with friends in various cities to ask them about the 3 URLs on their mind at that moment. I use this technique as a way to discover websites and technologies which I would have otherwise never known about.

While there are times when these interviews just prove that we are living in a flat world where everyone seems to be experiencing the same thing at the same time, there are also opportunities to discover the local flair from within the community I am visiting with at the moment.

Below is a video interview I did with Pat Phelan and a few others as they were leaving the “Breakfast Brainstorm” that Paul Walsh co-hosted with me in London.

Pat’s 3 URLs were: Pikchur.com, QiK and TechCrunch. Other sites mentioned in the video include: SpinVox and AudioBoo.

So what are the 3 URLs on YOUR mind today? (please leave in the comments below)

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Tags: breakfast, London, social media, Pat Phelan, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 06:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

April 04, 2009

Scene from "Breakfast Brainstorm" in Lonon - April 2nd

Loren Feldman (@1938media), JP Rangaswami (@jobsworth), Pat Phelan (@patphelan), Paul Walsh (@PaulWalsh)

(Taken in London on April 2, 2009)

Posted by jeff at 11:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 03, 2009

twitter is in play (again)

As I was getting ready to leave my hotel in London and head to Heathrow to catch a flight back to the States, I woke up to the news reported on TechCrunch: Sources: Google In Late Stage Talks To Acquire Twitter (Updated).

I invested in twitter because it is a platform which engages me and a place where I have been an active member of the community since February, 2007. During 2008 something magical happened to twitter and while their latest funding round placed a 250 million dollar valuation on the company, my gut feeling was that their real value to a strategic investor was at least a billion dollars and most likely more. On paper with VCs it might be that one can rationalize just so much between investors, but for a possible strategic acquisition, there is no real cap on where the true value may be.

One of the true values of twitter is their real-time search engine. The early acquisition of summize by twitter locked in one of their true value propositions. As more and more people contribute to the twitter stream, there is more and more information available on a real-time basis for immediate analysis. Neither Google nor Microsoft nor Yahoo! or AOL have a real-time search engine connected to an active and engaged community. twitter does. And because of this, if one or more of these companies want to be a player in search in the future, they will either have to figure out a way to replicate the magic embedded in twitter or they will need to acquire it. Ownership of twitter is strategic for each of these companies. As such, I would not be surprised if this sparks a bidding war.

A dark horse candidate as a possible acquisition candidate would be a telco, most likely a wireless carrier. Back in the days after the AOL acquisition of ICQ I remember hearing that both AT&T and Telia were interested in owning ICQ. Flash forward 11 years and over time I have to believe that the widespread success of twitter will generate A LOT of SMS traffic and a wireless provider like Vodaphone could see a windfall if they were the owners of the platform.

By earning a place in our pop culture, twitter has gained immediate respect and more attention then some brands which invest hundreds of millions of dollars try to achieve. The difference here is that twitter has gotten all of this recognition for basically for free.

Each time a member of the media chooses to promote their twitter stream they are once again adding to the brand known as twitter.

The transformation of the use of twitter by the geek community to the mainstream celebrity community is another indication of a technology tipping point, and something we haven’t seen in quite some time. There is something much bigger at play here and twitter happens to be an enabling catalyst of this change.

And somewhere here is the reason why I decided to produce the “140 Characters Conference (#140Conf) on June 16/17 in New York City. #!40Conf will be taking a hard look of the effects of twitter on: Celebrity, “The Media”, Advertising and Politics from both the perspective as a platform and an enabler of change. Since announcing this event despite the fact that I’ve been on the road, I have already confirmed the first 20 Characters who will be at the event.

What I hope to bring together is a gathering of people with a variety of backgrounds and together explore the future of where things are going and how to best prepare the community at large to get there.

The “Call for Speakers” is open until April 10th. If you are interested in speaking and/or would like to suggest a speaker, please tweet your nomination to #140conf. I will be checking the twitter stream on a regular basis for nominations. You can also contact me by sending email to: jeff@pulver.com.

It is great to see twitter in play (again). I look forward to see what happens next.

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 02:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Reminder: Call for Speakers: The HD Communications Summit - May 21 2009

Just a reminder that I am producing a new event, The HD ~~VoIP~~ Communications Summit, an event which will explore issues associated with the widespread deployment of HD VoIP in New York City on May 21st. Today is the deadline to send me your speaking proposals. I will be posting a draft agenda for the conference on Monday.

There is a lot of work ahead for all of us. From helping to educate the worldwide consumers about the promise of HD VoIP to the issues surrounding widespread adoption and implementation issues.

I continue to look for creative, out-of-the-box thinkers to come forward and pitch me about a HD VoIP topic they are passionate about and would like to speak about. (Practical talks are also welcome.)

What I am bringing together is a gathering of people with a variety of backgrounds and together explore the future of where things are going and what business models will be used to provide the dollar returns needed to get us there.

If you are interested in speaking at HD VoIP Summit, and or would like to suggest a speaker, please contact me ASAP. The deadline for speaking proposals is today, Friday, April 3rd.

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Tags: HDVoIPSummit, HDComms, HD Communications, voip, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

April 02, 2009

Guest Blog: Bronwen Clune - “Time for corporates to embrace the common good”

A few months ago I got a phone call from a journalist friend of mine, who edits the film section of the newspaper where I live, telling me that he thought I should make my way to a restaurant where he was in a fascinating meeting. I arrived without any further details to find a group of people having a conversation about how the internet was creating opportunities for people in the film industry. It was a conversation I had many times, but this meeting was quite different - these were film people. I was introduced as the "internet guru", a title I didn't mind so much as the pressure that put on me to come up with some amazing insider knowledge. I met David Elfick, one of Australia's most well-accomplished producers and Rai Fazio, a local identity who had worked with Elfick to bring his autobiographical story Two Fists One Heart (a boxing film) to cinematic life. They wanted to look at ways to get the word out on the film through the internet and had come to realize that just putting the trailer up on YouTube was not really an "online campaign".  

 Better still they were willing and open to doing some experimental things. Disney Australia, through Buena Vista International, were distributing the film and handling all the publicity. I was happy to give them some ideas but suspected Disney's involvement might actually work against any creative campaign because often large companies, even creative ones, can be difficult to work with. Everything has to be approved by three or four departments, everyone wants their say and essentially a lot of energy can be lost just by having to go through the approval exercise. But thankfully I was wrong.   

What we had going for us was the fact that Elfick, the film's producer, was very passionate about his industry and was determined to use the web to promote the film in new and engaging ways. I came up with a couple of ideas that we could implement including a series of instructional boxing videos featuring Rai Fazio, whose story the film is based on - you can find them at Howtothrowapunch.com.  

As successful as the videos were, I really felt we weren't really pushing the envelope as far as marketing was concerned. It's not often you get the ear of major film players and I had always believed that creative commons was an under-utilised concept in the commercial film industry, so I saw this as an opportunity to prove that the web and its culture of sharing and share-alike was a good thing for creative industries.   

Elfick had mentioned to me they had a lot of great footage they weren't able to use in the film - more than usual - and I suggested to him we not let it be wasted and release it for anyone to mashup and play with. To me, the thought of footage being unused when someone could make something really creative with it was a real shame. There are so many creative people out there, cutting great videos and posting them on YouTube, but the biggest barrier is often having the footage to play with. This way we could give them something to use - and the footage is what professional editors deal with - and promote the film at the same time. It was a win-win for everyone. And so the campaign Cut Your own Scene was born - with Disney's final blessing.  

I understand a lot of money and creativity goes into any film, so companies are reluctant to give their work away, but I'm hoping they'll see the value of sharing here. 

 Producer David Elfick had this to say about the project:  “ One of the things I enjoy most about making films is meeting emerging filmmakers. Now being able to give such filmmakers access to exciting footage from scenes in a big dramatic action packed film like TWO FISTS ONE HEART is terrific opportunity for filmmakers all over the world .The beauty of posting our selected rushes ( daillies ) on the world wide web is that anyone anywhere can have some creative fun with our feature film images. I am very much looking forward to viewing the results. Who knows it may be the first step for a great film career!” 

 We have released five scenes of different rushes or dailies (the technical term for the uncoloured raw footage), and there is a mix of drama and action. There is enough footage there for someone to cut their own short film if they like and we have also made some of the musical score available.  

 Gary Hayes from Personalized Media put it very well in his post Letting Audiences play with your pieces, on how this approach is really empowering for the audience (audience of course, denotes passive involvement, but for the ease of writing I'll use it).

An easier and more enpowering way in for the co-creative community is to give them ‘great’ assets to create great content - it gives them a big kick-start. Giving them the same stuff that the pros get generates the real big incentive - it lets them show how ‘they’ are as good, if not better, than the pros! It also shows a willingness on the part of the usually out of reach ‘creative production’ to expose some of the real behind the scenes’ness and draw communities into the brand firstly from a ‘trust’ perspective. Secondly as the ‘creative audience’ members themselves will be spending many hours with the assets and this creates very strong brand/story loyalty. Often these creative types are pretty active influencers on the web anyhow and will draw their own communities into the brand. The list of benefits goes on.

 We've also put together a competition with the release of the footage. The details can be found here.

Of course, there are lots of fabulous examples of people doing great and similar things - Hayes points to a few in his post, but this is the first commercial film I know of that is doing this (but I'd love to hear of any others doing something like this). I do hope that we get as many people as we can behind us and prove the power of creative commons to bigger movie studios . It's certainly an interesting time for anyone working in creative industries, so let's get creative.

Please feel free to contact me bronwen at norg dot com dot au and of course add me on twitter, I also blog at bronwenclune.com  

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About Bronwen Clune:

Bronwen Clune is a former journalist who now runs a media company in Australia with the goal to create truly people-powered news sites. She also puts her creative talents to use by 'nonsulting' (as she like to call it) to creative industries looking to experiment with the internet. She's always happy to chat to people about her experiences running an online media company and help out where she can. She blogs at bronwenclune.com and @bronwen is her Twitter name.

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Tags: Bronwen Clune, Australia, David Elfick, Disney, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 02:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

April 01, 2009

Recent Jeff Pulver tweets from the Heart and the Soul

Every once in a while a phrase comes into my mind that I end up sharing share on twitter.

While I can say that each of the following tweets are an original thought, chances are that someone else may have said something very similar in the past. But from my perspective, the following tweets are both original and were said from the heart.

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- “There are times when you need to believe in yourself regardless of what others may say or make you feel.”

- "Sometimes a "thank you" makes all the difference in the world."

- "There will be times when you need to be your own best friend."

- "Sometime today make an effort and show your appreciation for someone who you otherwise take for granted."

- "Sometimes when you least expect it, amazing things can and will happen."

- "There will be times when you will discover people believe in you before you believe in yourself."

- "Change your mind. Change your life."

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Want more? Follow Jeff Keni Pulver on twitter.

Tags: twitter, affirmation, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 31, 2009

Event: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Tel Aviv (today)

This morning I am in Tel Aviv, Israel and hosting another edition of “Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and Friends)” in Tel Aviv.

I am looking forward to hosting my 12th breakfast of the year and what will be one of my largest breakfasts to date in Tel Aviv. (At last check, 447 people have RSVP'ed for this event.) Friends attending today's breakfast are asked to include #09BWF12 in the title of their Facebook photo albums.

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Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, Tel Aviv, social media, facebook, Social Media Breakfast, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 30, 2009

Diet Coke and Mentos at Kinnernet 2009:

Friends attending Kinnernet 2009 had a chance to take part in what had to have been the largest Diet Coke and Mentos “experiment” in Israel to date.

Moments before the Diet Coke and Mentos “Grand Finale:”

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Tags: Kinnernet, Diet Code and Mentos, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 04:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Invitation to Attend: Yahoo! Developer Session (in Hertzeliya, Israel)

I was just asked my friend Yaron Orenstein to help promote the Yahoo! Developer Session taking place on Tuesday (March 31st) starting at 19:00 at the IDC in Hertzeliya.

“In this session, we will be diving into the technologies & platforms that comprise Yahoo!'s Open Strategy including YQL (Yahoo!'s successor to the popular Pipes tool), OAuth, Yahoo! Application Platform and flickr. We’ll be including worked code examples and it is a perfect opportunity to ask technical questions.”

Please note that this meeting is for developers.

Please RSVP by visiting: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=55777892780.
 

Posted by jeff at 04:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 29, 2009

Loren Feldman (1938 Media) interview of Jeff Pulver

Loren Feldman recently interviewed me at a Garage Geeks event.

You can watch the entire interview here

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Tags: Social Media, Loren Feldman, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 27, 2009

World Premiere of "Mustard Sally" at Kinnernet 2009

Earlier today "Mustard Sally" had it's world premiere at Kinnernet 2009.

About 11 years ago "Mustang Sally" became the song that was played at just about all of the VON parties I ever produced and it was fun it see my friends having with this song.

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Tags: Kinnernet, Social Media, Mustang Sally, Mel Rosenberg, Dror Gill, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 04:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 26, 2009

Announcing the Launch of: twitshitters

The development team of twitshitters just announced the launch of their new innovative service today at Kinnernet 2009. The inspiration behind this product was to deliver a new service that was a reflection of the acceptance of twitter into our popular culture. It turns out that the core members of team can’t seem to go a minute without putting out a tweet or checking out their friend’s tweets so that they thought it would be symbolic fun to monitor the outdoor bathroom activities at Kinnernet and broadcast their observations to the world in real-time.

In all seriousness, this is an effort to demonstrate a real-time twitter based monitoring system which has a set of Analog to Digital converters. Their core technology may one day be deployed on factory floors to monitor manufacturing activities on a real-time basis. The team plans to contribute their work to the open source community. More information will be available on the Garage Geeks website.

Congrats to the twitshitters team: Zviker Netter, (@ZvikaNetter), Tal Chalozin (@chalozin), Ohad Eder-Pressman (@ohadpr), Yuval Tal (@YuvalT), Gil Hirsch (@_birsch), Lior Shavel, and Tal Yaniv (@talyaniv).

Please show your support for this twitter-innovation by following @twitshitters and send your feedback about this project to the members of the team by sending your @reply comments to them.

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Tags: Kinnernet, Social Media, twitshitters, twitter, Garage Geeks, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 02:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Ami BenBassat and the Magic of Kinnernet

Earlier today I had a chance to catch up with Ami BenBassat who explained to me the magic of Kinnernet.

Tags: Kinnernet, Kinnernet09, Israel, Yossi Vardi, Ami Benbassat, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Call for Speakers, Sponsors and Exhibitors:

During May and June I am producing a number of events in New York City. I am currently looking for speakers for each of these events as well as sponsors and exhibitors.

Speaking Proposal Deadlines:

March 27th: Speaking DEADLINE for SocComm II. Click here for details.

April 3rd: Speaking DEADLINE for the HD Communications Summit. Click here for details.

April 10th: Speaking DEADLINE for the “140 Characters Conference”.

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Upcoming Events

May 21 - HD Communications Summit
June 16/17 - 140 Characters Conference
June 23/24 - SocComm II

At the moment I am also looking for sponsors for all of these events and people who would like to exhibit at these events. I would appreciate hearing from people interested in supporting these activities. The best ways to reach me include: Facebook, twitter and email.

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Tags: SocComm, Social Media, HDVoIP, HDComms, HDComms, 140conf, twitter, Social Communications, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 07:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 25, 2009

Telephony Online: HD VoIP is the next 'Big Thing'

Last Friday I sat down and gave two interviews with two people whose coverage in the communications space I greatly respect. Doug Mohney at FierceVoIP and Carol Wilson at Telephony. The topic - HD VoIP and my upcoming event that will focus on it. Below is the story written by Carol Wilson.

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Telephony Online: HD VoIP is the next 'Big Thing' - By Carol Wilson

"VoIP industry visionary Jeff Pulver, who once created what became a VON event empire, is now betting on a new technology horse: HDVoice. At a new one-day conference, the HD Communications Summit, May 21 in New York City, Pulver is hoping to galvanize an effort to bring a new level of quality to voice communications and, in the process, make wireline voice worth paying for once more.

“I believe it is going to be the most significant event in telecom in 2009,” said Pulver, in his usual understated way. “This is the dawn of a new era as we define new ways to communicate. We believe it will be empowering – people will feel positive about the prospect of revenue and opportunity in an industry that continues to feel doom and gloom. The purpose of this event is to bring together a leadership team, built around vision and change, and bring together telecom catalysts to effect this change to the future that is inevitable but should happen sooner rather than later.”

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Read the entire story here

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Tags: HDComms, voip, Carol Wilson, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

March 24, 2009

Pulver: Time to reboot the communications industry

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Pulver: Time to reboot the communications industry - by Doug Mohney

“Scorning the status quo of PSTN and mobile phone call quality, industry pundit Jeff Pulver says he is on nothing less than a mission to "reboot" the communications industry around high-definition communications--regardless of how a call is made. "Just because someone at AT&T defined [voice calls] as between 300 and 3000 Hz means we have to settle for that sixty years later?" Pulver said. "[WTF]? We have technology, we can make it better."

Pulver described his efforts to rally all the stakeholders in high definition communications--including voice and video--as a "quest." While he may sound a bit like Don Quixote at times, the purple pundit of VoIP has garnered the support of Polycom, Siemens, GIPS and AudioCodes to his cause for his HD Communications summit in New York City on May 21.

"The timing can not be better," Pulver continued. "With the rescheduling of SuperComm, what we're doing may be the most significant event in communications this year... Now is a great opportunity to do this when everyone else is standing still and wondering what to do next. If we're successful, we'll provide hope and new jobs for people providing the reboot of telecom around the world."

Why HD voice? Pulver cited several reasons why the technology should be significant. VoIP has dramatically brought down the cost of phone calls, so margins are non-existent. Deploying HD voice services on both landline and mobile systems would provide carriers with a service differentiator and a product with a price premium people are willing to pay for.

HD voice has the potential to reverse the trend of declining landline sales, Pulver asserted. "People will start to purchase home lines again because it sounds so damn good," he said.

And there's no excuse to settle for anything less than the best voice quality in mobile communications, either. "We've grown up [with mobile] living in an idiocracy of communications," said Pulver. "We've been taught that mobility meant that voice quality doesn't matter because you're mobile, we've been brainwashed that mobility means low quality. The marketing folks at these carriers have been lowering communications IQ."

Click here to read the entire story.

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Tags: HDComms, voip, Doug Mohney, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 23, 2009

A Call for Speakers (and Characters): The 140 Characters Conference: June 16/17 in NYC

Today I am announcing a new event, The 140 Characters Conference, an event that will explore the effects of twitter on: Celebrity, The Media and Advertising. 140 Characters Conference will be taking place June 16-17 at New World Stages in New York City.

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I have been a fan of twitter since I started using it in February 2007, and for the past year I’ve been thinking about producing an event which had a core focus about twitter.

During the past year, twitter continued to have a profound effect in a number of areas, and rather than just being an observer of such trends I thought the time was right to invite up to 140 Characters (people) to come forward and participate in the discussion.

With today’s “Call for Speakers” I am looking for creative, out-of-the-box thinkers to come forward and pitch me something relevant they would like to discuss from inside the respective worlds of: Celebrity, “The Media” and Advertising. Politics is another area which may be covered, depending upon how this event shapes up.

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Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)

Jeff Pulver: My Talk at Social Media Jungle Boston

On March 10th I hosted and produced “Social Media Jungle: Boston.” The event worked because everyone who came to speak at Social Media Jungle had not only something to say, but something to share that they were passionate about. I thank the speakers for sharing themselves and giving my causal conference structure a try. Special thanks to: C.C. Chapman, Richard Dale, Joe Cascio, Doug Levin, Jason Jacobs, Leah Busque, Laura Fitton, Steve Garfield, Justin Levy, Chris Penn, Steven Dill, Leslie Poston, Matthew Mamet, Maria Thurrell (and her friend Alexa) and Mike Lanford.

Jeff Glasson from PerkettPR was kind enough to video each of the sessions. Below is my talk from Social Media Jungle: Boston. (Thanks Jeff!)

Upcoming Social Media Jungle Events:

Social Media Jungle: San Francisco - April 23rd
Social Media Jungle: DC - April 27th

Tags: social media, Social Media Jungle, SMJBOS, Doug Levin, Steve Garfield, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 07:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 22, 2009

Event: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Tel Aviv on March 31st

On Tuesday, March 31st I will be in Tel Aviv and hosting my second Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and Friends) in Tel Aviv this year from 0830 to 1000. I am looking forward to catching up with my friends.

To RSVP, please visit this event on Facebook.

Everyone attending this breakfast will receive a "Personal Social Networking Toolkit." Friends can learn more about my “Personal Social Networking Toolkit” by watching the video below:

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Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, Tel Aviv, social media, facebook, Social Media Breakfast, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (28)

March 21, 2009

Looking forward to Kinnernet 2009

On Monday night I will be leaving for Israel and later in the week I will be amongst a group of people attending, contributing to and participating in Kinnernet 2009. If I could only travel to one event a year, (if invited), it would be to Kinnernet. Kinnernet provides digital food for the soul and is something to be experienced.

The genius behind Kinnernet is my friend Yossi Vardi and the eclectic group of his friends who are invited to be part of the dynamic Kinnernet community. Personally I’m honored to be invited and have the opportunity to participate and contribute to the experience.

Kinnernet is all about “bottom up” community, “bottom up” content and offers the people who make up the community the opportunity for “extreme social networking” in a non-virtual sense and in the end provides an opportunity for ideas to be exchanged, friends to meet, friends to socialize and an opportunity to learn something new, inspire someone, get inspired and in the end leave with a new perspective on a wide range of topics and some new friends.

Last year was as a lot of fun. I had a chance to: spend time hanging upside down; Watching a friend build a $500 “Spy Satellite”; The Kinnernet Freeze; Pentamino; Watching a R/C Plane with a Jet Engine; Gil Rimon and Poetry 2.0. Since first attending my first Kinnernet in 2006, I have met a number of people who are now part of my life. This year I'm looking forward to leading a workshop and participating in a number of activities.

For a sense of what one can expect to experience at Kinnernet, please take a look at the letter my 2006 bunk mate Tom Evslin wrote back to his Mom during Kinnernet 2006.

Tags: Israel, Tom Evslin, Yossi Vardi, Kinnernet, Kinnernet2009, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 05:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

March 20, 2009

Reminder: Call for Speakers: The HD VoIP Summit - May 21 2009

Just a reminder that I am producing a new event, The HD VoIP Summit, an event which will explore issues associated with the widespread deployment of HD VoIP on May 21st.

At the HD VoIP Summit there will be vendors demonstrating their products and their platforms and we will take a look at the issues and challenges for the transformation of the existing communications infrastructure into one which supports HD.

There is a lot of work ahead for all of us. From helping to educate the worldwide consumers about the promise of HD VoIP to the issues surrounding widespread adoption and implementation issues.

I am looking for creative, out-of-the-box thinkers to come forward and pitch me about a HD VoIP topic they are passionate about and would like to speak about. (Practical talks are also welcome.)

What I hope to bring together is a gathering of people with a variety of backgrounds and together explore the future of where things are going and what business models will be used to provide the dollar returns needed to get us there.

If you are interested in speaking at HD VoIP Summit, and or would like to suggest a speaker, please contact me ASAP. The deadline for speaking proposals is Friday, April 3rd but the first to approach me will be the first I consider for the event.

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Tags: HDVoIPSummit, voip, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

March 18, 2009

SXSW: It is All About the People

I had a great time at SXSW. As someone who has lived most of his life being on the outside, every once in a while it is great to feel like you are in the inside.

I arrived in Austin, Texas last Thursday, the evening before South by Southwest 2009 opened up. From the moment I boarded jetBlue flight 1065 to Austin from JFK I knew I was in for a different kind of experience when I ran into a number of people I know on twitter from the metro NYC area on my flight. Then things became a little surreal when @jetBlue introduced himself and sat down next to me and we spoke for awhile. And when we landed, the Captain announced: “Make sure you twitter your safe arrival.”

Walking around the Austin airport I ran into more familiar faces and this would end up becoming a reoccurring theme of SXSW for me. Getting a chance to spend time with the people I know. Sometimes it is those chance meetings with someone that can help make your day and/or your trip that much more worthwhile. And I believe there is something to be said about having face to face meetings after spending a majority of our time online.

While it was back in 2007 at SXSW that twitter broke big, this year twitter was the default communication network for (almost) everyone attending SXSW Interactive.

When I walked into the lobby of the Austin Hilton, I had a flash back to a scene in “Almost Famous” when William Miller walked into the lobby of the “Riot Hyatt.” It just seemed that I recognized an endless number of people from across the world of social media and more. Some people I said hi to, some I just acknowledged and there were people (like @Garyvee) holding court in various parts of the lobby during the entire time I was in SXSW. Whenever I looked there was someone who either was someone who I knew or someone I had never met but whose face I knew from twitter.

On Friday after having breakfast at Magnolia Cafe (a place I highly recommend for a great Austin breakfast) I spent what felt like a few hours catching up with friends in the corner of the floor where the escalator from the first floor ended. What started out as an attempted to have a cup of coffee with C.C. Chapman, ended up being an almost endless reunion for a growing number of people of catching up with each other and others who we would casually run into while we were standing at that corner.

On Friday I somehow never did manage to visit the TechSet Bloggers lounge as it took me until Saturday to discover the special back of the convention first floor to third floor escalator. When I got to the Bloggers Lounge it was a micro media circus. There were people taking photos, shooting videos, blogging, twittering, updating their Facebook status and some people where actually talking with each other. What I enjoyed the most about the Bloggers Lounge was the comfortable feeling I had the moment I walked in the door. While I didn’t really know that many people in the room, I felt like I belonged and that feeling of belonging, once you have it is something that goes a long way to making connections and networking so much easier. And it was in the bloggers lounge that I realized, for at least myself, SXSW was about the people. The content may have been great (at times) but it was conversations I had and the chance to both meet some of the faces I knew and catch up with friends that made the moments so much worthwhile for me.

I attended two breakfasts during SXSW. One hosted by Ewan Spence at Magnolia Cafe (South) and the other by Shashi Bellamkonda at Moonshine. The conversations that took place during these breakfasts and the people I met made the entire trip to Austin worthwhile. (Maybe I just enjoy social media breakfast conversations.)

I spent part of Saturday walking around the show floor for SXSW Interactive with my friend Jeff Sass (@SASS. It was a pretty productive walk-thru as I met a few companies who expressed an interest in both supporting and exhibiting at SocComm: The Social Communications Summit in June.

There were times during SXSW that I felt for my friend Chris Brogan. It seemed his schedule required him to be in quite a number of places (almost at the same time) and I could feel him being pulled in many directions. I often experienced that feeling at VON and I never really knew how to best deal with the situation.

During SXSW I was invited to attend a number of social events but I quickly remembered I was not a fan of going to places where I have to deal with “shoulder to shoulder” networking. Seems I was in the minority. Seeing friendly faces is one thing but I would rather be in a place where I can see and talk to someone rather than just rub shoulders in order to move thru the crowd. After attending a few “shoulder to shoulder” events I made an effort to avoid other such gatherings on purpose.

While there were quite a number of amazing hosts at the SXSW events I attended, I want to thank both Brian Solis and Stephanie Agresta for everything they did to contribute to the comfortableness everyone had at their events. They just happen to be great event hosts and understand perhaps better than most people what it takes to produce a successful tech event.

Oh, and on Monday morning I finally had a chance to catch up with C.C. Chapman. As luck would have it I was walking out of the Hilton lobby looking for a place for breakfast and CC was there to have a breakfast meeting. I ended up getting invited to his breakfast meeting and really enjoyed the conversation that followed.

Before leaving Austin I co-hosted/moderated “Social Media for the Social Good” at Stubbs BBQ together with Tikva Morowati. The panelists were: David Armano, Scott Goodstein, Beth Kanter, Stacey Monk, James Young and Randi Zuckerberg. I am still processing what I heard and was thinking during the session and I will be reflecting about this in a future blog post.

One of my personal highlights of SXSW happened on Sunday afternoon when I ended up playing "Livin' on a Prayer” on Rockband 2 in the bloggers lounge in a group that included @jasonfalls on vocals and @sMoRTy71 drums and myself on guitar. It was at that moment that I knew I was in the right place at the right time and for as long as I could, I would end up revisiting the bloggers lounge and enjoy the moments and try to make a memory. ( You can watch watch this on YouTube. But sometimes a memory is better off left alone.)

My bottom line - SXSW Interactive is a place I look forward to returning to next year. And for me, SXSW is all about the people.

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Tags: SXSW, Social Media, Jason Falls, C.C. Chapman, Chris Brogan, Brian Solis, Jeff Sass, Gary Vaynerchuk, Ewan Spence, Stephanie Agresta , Shashi Bellamkonda, Jeff Pulver

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Where you at SXSW? How was your experience? Please feel free to share your thoughs / comments below.

Posted by jeff at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

March 17, 2009

Looking for friends to help Tag these SXSW photos:

If you and/or your friends were in Austin, Texas at SXSW, when you have a moment please take a look at my Facebook photo albums from SXSW 09 and please tag yourself and/or the people you recognize.

SXSW Breakfast with Ewan Spencer at Magnolia Cafe

TechSet Lounge at SXSW - Day2

SXSW Day 2 in the Afternoon

SXSW Day 3 - Book 1

SXSW Day 3 - Book 2

Social Media for the Social Good (at SXSW)

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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.

Tags: SXSW, Social Media, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 06:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 16, 2009

Event: Social Media for the Social Good (today) at SXSW

I am looking forward to co-hosting “Social Media for the Social Good” salon taking place from 11:30 AM to 2PM today at Stubb's BBQ (801 Red River St).

I am someone who believes that "the next person you meet may change your life" and I would like to believe that it is a session like the one I am co-hosting today which could have such a profound effect on someone attending SXSW.

When I was given the opportunity to create the event, I reached out to some of my friends who I look up to for their role and impact i n using Social Media for Social Good / Social Media for Social Change. As a result, I am looking forward to welcoming: David Armano, Scott Goodstein, Beth Kanter, Stacey Monk, James Young and Randi Zuckerberg as our panelists. Tikva Morowati and I will be moderating the discussion which I expect will be both informative and entertaining. And I am looking forward to having widespread audience interaction.

I am looking forward to what I expect to be my personal highlight of SXSW this year.

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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.

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Tags: SXSW, Social Media, Porter Novelli, Tikva Morowati, James Young, Scott Goldstein, David Armano, Beth Kanter, Randi Zuckerberg, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)

Event: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Haifa on March 25th

On Wednesday, March 25th I will be in Haifa and hosting my first (ever) Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and Friends) in Haifa from 0900-1100. I am looking forward to catching up with my friends.

To RSVP, please visit this event on Facebook.

Everyone attending this breakfast will receive a "Personal Social Networking Toolkit." Friends can learn more about my “Personal Social Networking Toolkit” by watching the video below:

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Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, Haifa, social media, facebook, Social Media Breakfast, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 14, 2009

Jeff Pulver interviewed by Ezra Butler / Startup Lucky

Ezra Butler interviewed me at a Tel Aviv tweetup I attended during my recent trip to Israel.

The interview gave me a chance to talk about some of the things I like to look for in the companies which I invest in, people who have a dream. When investing in early-early stage opportunities, I look for people who’s “karma I can feel” and are absolutely driven who are doing something absolutely disruptive and or crazy (or both.)

For more information about StartupLucky, please visit StartupLucky.

Tags: Tel Aviv, Ezra Butler, startup, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)

March 13, 2009

Event: Social Media Jungle - New York City (Update #2)

Social Media Jungle NYC will be taking place on March 19, 2009 at New World Stages in New York City.

Social Media Jungle: NYC will address how social media is changing the way we work and live. A full day of program sessions includes discussions about social media from both a personal perspective and business perspective. Delegates attending Social Media Jungle:Boston will get a candid look at how companies can motivate consumers through social media to drive product sales without increasing costs.

The Social Media Jungle events bring together people with diverse backgrounds. The one thing many of the delegates have in common is their passion for social media and a desire to better understand how to leverage social media in their business and in some cases on a personal basis. Attending delegates in the past have included executives responsible for: Marketing, Advertising, PR, Strategy, Operations, as well as company presidents and CXOs.

This one day summit has unique format which I have developed based on my 13+ years experience producing events and conferences.

At Social Media Jungle, there are no “speakers” but rather Discussion Leaders. The discussion leaders have been told the event will be a “Powerpoint Free Zone.” These pretty amazing people were not invited to talk about their company, product, service or application, but rather the topic in the area of Social Media which they were the most passionate about. And from the proposals received, I acted as the “editor” and put together what I believe to be a great event.

At Social Media Jungle, our discussion leaders will be presenting their talk as if they were sharing a blog post. And the people in the room will be asked to provide immediate comments to the content being shared which in turn will start a conversation. In other words, our event will be filled with an engaged audience and a group of people who will have a great opportunity to explore a variety of related topics inside of the social media space.

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Social Media Jungle: NYC Agenda
March 19, 2009
(as of Mar 13th)

8:15 - 9:15 - Registration + Real-Time Social Networking
9:15 - 9:20 - Introduction / Welcome to the Social Media Jungle
9:20 - 9:40 - Jeff Pulver, “Some of the things I have learned by having 5,000 friends on Facebook for a year.”
9:40 - 10:00 - Jeremy Epstein - “What social media means for the future of marketing to customers and consumers.”
10:00 - 10:20 - Ben Grossman - “How to get a Return on Brand Investment in Social Media”
10:20 - 10:40 - Jonathan Ezor - “Risks associated with pitching products using Social Media”
10:40 - 11:00 - Yaron Samid - “Brainstorming: Build a Social Media Business”
11:00 - 11:20 - [Morning Break]
11:20 - 11:40 - Sarah Cooley - “Where do we draw the line between personal and brand?"
11:40 - 12:00 - Melanie Notkin - “Aren't You Curious? -How Social Media enables leaders to listen, learn and innovate”
12:00 - 12:30 - Howard Greenstein and Dean Landsman - “New Media Strategy in Challenging Times: Conquering the 3 Screen World”

12:30 - 2:00 - [Lunch Break / Social Media Pizza]

2:00 - 2:20 - Jonathan Fields - “When Worlds Collide - lessons learned from the collision of social media and internet info-marketing”
2:20 - 2:50 - Shelly Palmer - “twitter and the Media”
2:50 - 3:10 - Marshall Sponder: “Leveraging Political, Professional and Personal Virtual Connections”
3:10 - 3:30 - Roger Toennis - "Emergence! Self-Organizing, Social Media Solutions to The Economic Crisis"
3:30 - 3:50 - Christine Cavalier, TBA
3:50 - 4:10 - Eugene Borukhovich - "Social Media and Heathcare 2.0"
4:10 - 4:40 - Oz Sultan and Israel Mirsky - “Shifts in the social graph”
4:40 - 5:00 - Geo Geller - “Social Media and the Social Sculpture of the Net”
5:00 - 5:30 - Wrap up
5:30 - Event Ends

(schedule subject to change without notice)

Registration for Social Media Jungle: NYC is now open. Registration costs $195. Register for this event by clicking here.

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Tags: social media, SMJNYC, Social Media Jungle, Jeremy Epstein, Ben Grossman, Jonathan Ezor, Yaron Samid,
Sarah Cooley , Melanie Notkin, Howard Greenstein, Howard Greenstein and Dean Landsman , Jonathan Fields, Shelly Palmer , Marshall Sponder, Roger Toennis , Christine Cavalier , Eugene Borukhovich, Oz Sultan, Israel Mirsky, Geo Geller,Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)

March 12, 2009

Get Lucky: Put Yourself IN MOTION

Want to get lucky? Put yourself in Motion.

I’m not here trying to sell anything. Just to share some friendly advise from someone who discovered that one of the secrets of “getting lucky” is to take an active role in putting yourself in the right place at the right time.

While some opportunities may just appear out of thin air, most of the time, you need to put yourself in motion before you have a chance to be lucky / get lucky.

If you are looking for a job, after doing everything you can think of to get yourself a job, if you are still looking, you might try putting yourself in a location where you might get discovered by someone who is in a position to hire you. Depending upon the industry you worked in (or are working in) there is usually a trade show and/or conference where the major players from the industry make an effort to show up at. It is up to you to research who these people are and what they look like. LinkedIn / Facebook / twitter are usually good sources for such profile photos.

Depending upon the venue of the event, especially if the event is taking place in a hotel, most of the time you can plant yourself in the hotel lobby or hotel cafe and look for the opportunity to “accidently” meet someone who can help you. Sometimes you need to be more subtle and “accidently” meet the person in the hotel elevator or in the hallway on the way to the event. While I am not advocating the concept of “trade show stalking” I am suggesting that if you want to get a job you NEED to make an effort of not only doing what everyone else is doing but to go the extra mile and extend yourself and put yourself in a position where you can “get lucky.”

Another technique that may work is to look at the event schedule and take a note of when lunch is scheduled. Something I learned from producing VON is that on average only 78% of the people attending the event stay for lunch. If you are feeling lucky, you might want to show up at the hotel cafe or a nearby resturant for the chance that the person you want to meet is amongst the 22% of the people who go offsite for a lunch meeting.

(These same techniques can also work if you are employed and you are involved in a BizDev role.)

I am a strong believer that the next person you meet may change your life. I also believe YOU may be the person who changes the life of the next person you meet. I also believe that only when you make an effort to do something, do you have a chance in making that something happen.

So while sometimes opportunities may just appear, invest in your luck and do what it takes to put yourself in motion and keep yourself in motion. It is more likely that YOU will become lucky if you put yourself into the stream of opportunity.

Tags: Entrepreneurship, leadership, Entrepreneur, Jeff Pulver

Have you had a similar experience? Please feel share your comments and thoughts below:

Posted by jeff at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Jeff Pulver: Upcoming Events and Speaking Opportunities for YOU and/or Your Clients

So far during 2009 I have produced two Social Media Jungle events, SocComm and I have hosted 10 breakfast in 10 cities around the world. At the moment I am looking for speakers for: The HD VoIP Summit (May 21) and SocComm II (June 23/24). I am also always looking for interesting people passionate about an element of Social Media to add to the agenda of an upcoming Social Media Jungle event or to invite to speak at a future breakfast event.

Whether you represent yourself or work for an agency and have clients looking for speaking opportunities at events like mine, it is up to YOU to contact me if you would like to be a part of the event. While I am proactive in reaching out to some people to speak at these events, I rely on others to reach out and contact me.

The best ways to reach me include: Facebook, twitter and email.

Sometimes it may be easier to make it a point to attend one of my future social networking events and just introduce yourself in person.

March 2009 Upcoming Events and Speaking Opportunities / Deadlines:

March 16th: “Social Media for the Social Good” - @ SXSW in Austin, Texas
March 18th: ”Jeff & Shelly’s Social Media Networking Party in NYC”
March 19th: Social Media Jungle: NYC
March 25th: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Haifa
March 27th: Speaking DEADLINE for SocComm II. Click here for details
March 31st: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Tel Aviv
April 3rd: Speaking DEADLINE for the HD Voice Summit. Click here for details.

(Additional events and speaking opportunities will be posted in the near future)

At the moment I am also looking for sponsors for all of my events and people who would like to exhibit at these events. I would appreciate hearing from people interested in supporting my ongoing activities.

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Tags: SocComm, Social Media, HDVoIP, HDComms, Social Communications, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Special thanks to Everyone who was a part of at Social Media Jungle: Boston

Social Media Jungle: Boston took place on March 10, 2009 in Waltham, MA. This was the third Social Media Jungle event that I have produced and it was the largest event to date. About 100 people attended the event which included about 30 people from Intuit.

This one day summit has unique format which I have developed based on my 13+ years experience producing events and conferences.

At Social Media Jungle, there are no “speakers” but rather Discussion Leaders. The discussion leaders are told the event will be a “Powerpoint Free Zone.” These pretty amazing people were not invited to talk about their company, product, service or application, but rather the topic in the area of Social Media which they were the most passionate about. And from the proposals received, I acted as the “editor” and put together what I believe to be a great event.

At Social Media Jungle, the discussion leaders presented their talks as if they were sharing a blog post. And the people in the room were asked to provide immediate comments to the content being shared. Sometimes this resulted in the conversations which took place. The end result was an engaged audience and a group of people who exploreD a variety of related topics inside of the social media space.

I opened the conference talking about some of the things I learned about myself and about managing and editing my social graph during the past year that I’ve had 5,000 friends on Facebook. I tried to share some of my feelings about the need to be vulnerable when connecting with people on twitter and Facebook. I ended up sharing a shorter story about what it felt like to grow up on the ham radio and the connection I feel between ham radio and using twitter. I would have liked to have shared some more information which would have helped some of the people in the room better understand where I was coming from but I will that for a future Social Media Jungle event.

I’m not exactly sure what the inspiration behind my prediction was, but I did suggest that in 18 months or less twitter would be sold to Microsoft or Google for somewhere between 2 to 4 Billion dollars.

There are a number of people I would like to thank for helping to make the event happen and I will start with Alex Chriss and Cheryl Dyer from Intuit, It was Intuit who came in at the last minute as the venue / event sponsor and breakfast sponsor. Cheryl was the first person in the room and the last person to leave. I enjoyed listening to Alex’s talk about Intuit and their approach to Social Media and I look forward to inviting Alex to speak at a future event where I hope he will share some more of how they are leveraging social media in an 8,000 person company.

I thank the speakers for sharing themselves and giving my causal conference structure a try. Special thanks to: C.C. Chapman, Richard Dale, Joe Cascio, Doug Levin, Jason Jacobs, Leah Busque, Laura Fitton, Steve Garfield, Justin Levy, Chris Penn, Steven Dill, Leslie Poston, Matthew Mamet, Maria Thurrell (and her friend Alexa) and Mike Lanford.

Early in the day, #smjbos became the #1 trending topic of the day on twitter and we kept the #1 to #3 spots most of the day.

Thanks for being a part of the conversation. Whether you were a speaker or someone in the audience or someone online who re-tweeted what you saw coming from the room, it was great to see the free flowing discussions taking place both in the back of the room as well as the interaction between the discussion leaders and everyone sitting in the chairs.

The following blog posts were written by the people who joined us at Social Media Jungle Boston. This posts are from both speakers and attending delegates:

Eric Guerin: Welcome to the Jungle: Quick Notes from Jeff Pulver’s Social Media Jungle Boston 2009

Maria Thurrell: Social Media Jungle Boston

Doug Levin: Panel at Social Media Jungle: Boston

Doug Haslam: Social Media Jungle Boston: A Snapshot

Debra Murphy: Social Media Jungle - Event Wrapup

Leah Busque: Life in the jungle … the Social Media Jungle

George Snell: Observations from Social Media Jungle Boston

Steve Garfield: New Media Tools (I really enjoyed Professor Steve’s session)

Jake Cacciapaglia: Social Media Jungle Boston

Richard Dale: Report from the Jungle

Armen Chakmakjian: Social Media Jungle Wrapup

Stuart Foster: SMJ Boston Recap

It turns out when you have room full of people who are active and focused on twitter, one of the benefits is that in a relative short period of time it is possible to become the #1 trending topic on twitter. Special thanks to everyone who helped make this happen at #smjbos.

Review the twitter buzz at #smjbos by reviewing this link

Friends are invited to join the Social Media Jungle Group on Facebook.

The next Social Media Jungle event will be taking place in New York City on March 19th. For details - see: http://www.amiando.com/smjnyc.html

If you were a member of the Social Media Jungle: Boston community, I would appreciate hearing from you and hearing your feedback from the event. I am planning on returning to Boston in June to produce another Social Media Jungle event. If you are interested in speaking at this event or would like to suggest someone to be invited to speak, please feel free to contact me.

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Tags: social media, Social Media Jungle, SMJBOS, Doug Levin, Doug Haslam, Debra Murphy, Leah Busque, George Snell, Steve Garfield, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 06:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

March 11, 2009

Recap - Social Media Jungle: Boston - from the people who where there.

Social Media Jungle: Boston took place on March 10, 2009 in Waltham, MA. About 100 people attended the event during the course of the day.

While I am still processing the conversations which took place during the event, the following people who were members of the event community shared their feedback about the event in these reflective blog posts:

Eric Guerin: Welcome to the Jungle: Quick Notes from Jeff Pulver’s Social Media Jungle Boston 2009

Maria Thurrell: Social Media Jungle Boston

Doug Levin: Panel at Social Media Jungle: Boston

Doug Haslam: Social Media Jungle Boston: A Snapshot

Debra Murphy: Social Media Jungle - Event Wrapup

Leah Busque: Life in the jungle … the Social Media Jungle

George Snell: Observations from Social Media Jungle Boston

Steve Garfield: New Media Tools

Jake Cacciapaglia: Social Media Jungle Boston

Richard Dale: Report from the Jungle

Armen Chakmakjian: Social Media Jungle Wrapup

Stuart Foster: SMJ Boston Recap

Review the twitter buzz from Social Media Jungle Boston

Join the Social Media Jungle group on Facebook.

The next Social Media Jungle event will be place place in New York City on March 19th.

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Tags: social media, Social Media Jungle, SMJBOS, Doug Levin, Doug Haslam, Debra Murphy, Leah Busque, George Snell, Steve Garfield, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Event: Jeff & Shelly’s Social Media Networking Party in NYC on March 18th

Friends are invited to attend a free networking party hosted by Shelly Palmer and myself.

The event is taking place on March 18th from 6:30PM to 8:30PM at: New World Stages 340 West 50th Street in New York City.

If you are interested in attending, please RSVP to this event on Facebook so your friends will know that you are attending. And if you want to secure your ticket, please also RSVP here.

You can also purchase a ticket for the VIP Dinner hosted by Jeff & Shelly immediately following the event by clicking: here

Hope to see you on March 18th.

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Tags: social media, Shelly Palmer, NYC, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 07:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 09, 2009

Twitter gets a Semantic Web boost from Headup.com

At my recent breakfast in Tel Aviv, I was pleasantly surprised to meet some friends from the SemantiNet team. SemanitNet has been part of my Israeli hi-tech startup portfolio since early 2007 and I've been a friend of the company since I first met Tal Muskal in 2006. At the time I was impressed by their goal of delivering on the promise of the Semantic Web, and after seeing the progress they already have made with Headup, their Semantic Web Firefox plug-in, I am now really impressed.

What I like even more is that I am not the only one. Last week, Professor James Hendler (@jahendler), one of the worlds’ foremost Semantic Web researchers, and Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s co-author on one of the most important articles on the subject, said the following about Headup: "I'm rapidly becoming a big fan of @headup - very cool little app! Great example of "a little semantics goes a long way!"

I think Headup’s boost for Twitter is a great example for this exact point.

On Twitter it seems a little semantics goes a long way

twitter is a part of my life. Friends can find me on twitter at various hours just about every day of the year. I liked twitter so much that I also became an investor but sometimes I wish it was easier to discover more about people than is currently possible under the existing limitations of the Twitter platform. This is where Headup’s Twitter boost really shines by revealing a wealth of information about members of the twitter community that would be nearly impossible to discover in any other way.

Headup discovers a wealth of content about members of the twitter community. In this case an interview with my friend Chris Brogan.

Headup’s Semantic Web engine scouts the web in real-time taking only seconds to retrieve other Twitter users’ social network identities and the content they’ve uploaded.

So how does it work? To find out yourself:

1. Visit http://Headup.com and install the plug-in.
2. Go to Twitter.
3. See how people’s user-names are now marked by dashed orange underlines?
This means Headup is correctly installed on your computer.

Headup’s icon appears above @chrisbrogan when I hover my mouse above Chris's user-name

4. Hover above underlined user-names and Headup’s icon will appear.
5. Click the icon to launch the Headup panel.

and that's it. :)

One last note - my friends at SemantiNet recommend that to really get the most from Headup that you personalize it with to the social services you’re subscribed to. This enables Headup to retrieve a greater amount of information about the people you’re in touch with and improves it’s understanding of your interests.

I've said this before and I will say it again. Of all the startup companies I’ve met with and know about in Israel, I believe SemantiNet has what it takes to be a leader in the world of the Semantic Web and one day may be known as the Google of Israel.

Disclosure: As mentioned above, I am one of the early investors in both SemantiNet and in twitter. I use both their platforms and wanted to share something I thought would be of interest to my friends.

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Tags: SemantiNet, Social Media, Tal Muskal, Semantic Search, twitter, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

March 08, 2009

Announcing the “Social Media Jungle Scholarships” Program

I am looking forward to being in Boston on Tuesday (March 10th) for SMJ: Boston and in New York City for SMJ: New York City on March 19th.

I have been fortunate to bring together a great group of speakers at both events. Together I look forward to exploring how social media is changing the way we work and live. In both Boston and New York City there is a full day of program sessions which include discussions about social media from both a personal perspective and business perspective. Delegates attending the event will get a candid look at how companies can motivate consumers through social media to drive product sales without increasing costs.

Given the current state of the economy, I am extending an offer to up to 10 people to join us at each event who would have liked to attended the Social Media Jungle events but due to circumstances beyond their control, could not justify the costs to joining us.

If you would like to apply for a “Social Media Jungle Scholarship”, please send me a message via email or as a DM on twitter and let me know why you would like to attend Social Media Jungle. My hope is that your presence at Social Media Jungle will add to the event so only apply if you are prepared to have your voice heard and presence felt.

I continue to believe that 2009 will end up being a great year for business development. It will be the relationships we create and extend this year that will have a positive effect on our work in the future. And I hope those who join us at the Social Media Jungle events will have an opportunity to jump start new business opportunities inside the emerging world of social media.

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Tags: Social Media Jungle, social media, SMJBOS, SMJNYC, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 07, 2009

Social Media Jungle: Boston - Update #2

Social Media Jungle Boston will be taking place on March 10, 2009 in Waltham, MA.

Social Media Jungle: Boston will address how social media is changing the way we work and live. A full day of program sessions includes discussions about social media from both a personal perspective and business perspective. Delegates attending Social Media Jungle:Boston will get a candid look at how companies can motivate consumers through social media to drive product sales without increasing costs.

This one day summit has unique format which I have developed based on my 13+ years experience producing events and conferences.

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SMJ Boston: Agenda
March 10, 2009
(as of Mar 6, 2009)

11:20 - 11:40 - Morning break

11:40 - 12:00 - Steve Garfield - "New Media Tools you can use to tell your story RIGHT NOW!"
12:00 - 12:20 - Justin Levy - “ How Small Business can use Inbound Marketing/Social Media to Help Increase Their Business”
12:20 - 12: 40 - Alex Chriss, Intuit - TBA

12:40 - 2:00 - Lunch Break

2:00 - 2:20 - Chris Penn - "It IS a numbers game - thinking about what numbers actually matter"
2:20 - 2:40 - Steven Dill - “Social Media Lessons Learned: From the perspective of a skeptical Online Marketer”
2:40 - 3:00 - Leslie Poston -”Bringing Generations Together For Success In The New Millennium”
3:00 - 3:20 - Matthew Mamet - "Using online video to strengthen your relationship with your online community."
3:20 - 3:40 - Maria Thurrell - “Social Media: Make new friends but keep the old ones.”
3:40 - 4:00 - Mike Lanford - “The evolution of conversation”
4:00 - 4:30 - Wrap up
4:30 - End of Day
(subject to change without notice)

** Special thanks to Intuit for being our venue sponsor. **

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Registration before costs $195. There are a limited number of seats still available. To register, please click here.

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Tags: social media, Social Media Jungle, SMJBOS, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 06, 2009

Looking forward to “Social Media for the Social Good” @ SXSW on March 16th

I am looking forward to attending SXSW for the first time this year. While I had wanted to attend SXSW in the past, the dates for SXSW seemed to always conflict with something else going on in my life so I was never able to attend, until this year.

While there are a number of sessions and events at SXSW I am looking forward to, I am most excited about the “Social Media for the Social Good” salon session taking place from 11:30 AM to 2PM at Stubb's BBQ (801 Red River St) on March 16th which I have been working on together with my friends at Porter Novelli.

If you are attending SXSW, please seek me out and we can try to meet.

Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.

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Tags: SXSW, Social Media, Porter Novelli, Tikva Morowati, James Young, Scott Goldstein, David Armano, Beth Kanter, Randi Zuckerberg, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

March 05, 2009

Breakfast Link of the Week: What kind of Brand are You?

Udi Oz: What Kind of Brand Are You?

"A few days ago I was attending one of Jeff Pulver's Breakfasts. At some point, Jeff stood up and said a few words. He talked about how today in the social media era, each and every one of us is actually a brand. Yes, a brand.

Long gone are the days when the term "brand" was associated only with a company, product or celebrity. Today, everyone of us can be and actually is a brand. Social media gives the individual the right tools to create and build his or her own identity and message. Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, Digg, StumbleUpon, and LinkedIn are just few examples of the many services that enable people to create profiles and connect with each other. And when we use these tools, we can have people following us, tracking what we say, do, love and share.

Why do you need to care about this? Because as you read, all kinds of people are looking for you and trying to get information about you. It can be friends, colleagues, customers, users, the HR manager that is going to interview you tomorrow or a someone who is considering doing business with you. You can easily be found, and the way that you choose to position yourself will determine the impressions that others will get."

Click here to read the entire story.

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Tags: Udi Oz, Social Media, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 04, 2009

Announcing: Social Media Jungle - New York City

Social Media Jungle Boston will be taking place on March 19, 2009 at Sun Microsystems in New York City.

This one day summit has unique format which I have developed based on my 13+ years experience producing events and conferences.

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Social Media Jungle: NYC Agenda
March 19, 2009
(as of Mar 4, 2009)

8:30 - 9:30 - Registration + Real-Time Social Networking
9:30 - 10:00 - Jeff Pulver, “Some of the things I have learned by having 5,000 friends on Facebook for a year.”
10:00 - 10:30 - Jeremy Epstein - “What social media means for the future of marketing to customers and consumers.”
10:30 - 11:00 - Ben Grossman - “How to get a Return on Brand Investment in Social Media”
11:00 - 11:30 - Jonathan Ezor - “Risks associated with pitching products using Social Media”
11:30 - 12:00 - Sarah Cooley - “Where do we draw the line between personal and brand?"
12:00 - 12:30 - Melanie Notkin - “Aren't You Curious? -How Social Media enables leaders to listen, learn and innovate”
12:30 - 2:00 - Lunch Break
2:00 - 2:30 - Joe Cascio - “Convergence of Messaging Modalities”
2:30 - 3:00 - Howard Greenstein and Dean Landsman - “New Media Strategy in Challenging Times: Conquering the 3 Screen World”
3:00 - 3:30 - Roger Toennis - "Emergence! Self-Organizing, Social Media Solutions to The Economic Crisis"
3:30 - 4:00 - Marshall Sponder
4:00 - 4:30 - Oz Sultan and Israel Mirsky - “Shifts in the social graph”
4:30 - 5:00 - Wrap up
5:00 - Event Ends
(subject to change without notice)

Special thanks to Sun Microsystems for being our venue sponsor

Registration for Social Media Jungle: NYC is now open. Register for this event by clicking here.

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Tags: social media, SMJNYC, Social Media Jungle, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

March 03, 2009

Call for Speakers: The HD VoIP Summit - May 21 2009 in New York City

Today I am announcing a new event, The HD VoIP Summit, an event which will explore issues associated with the widespread deployment of HD VoIP.

There is a lot of work ahead for all of us. From helping to educate the worldwide consumers about the promise of HD VoIP to the issues surrounding widespread adoption and implementation issues.

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Tags: HDVoIPSummit, voip, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

March 01, 2009

Guest Blogger: Daniel Berninger - “The Promise of High Definition Voice Beyond Skype”

Skype's high definition (HD) voice and unmetered global termination offers remain at odds with a revenue model sacrificing both of these attributes. Skype's success and strategy mirror the pre-world wide web AOL. The future of Skype like AOL looks bright only until there exists a open communications alternative. This requires an un-Skype
leveraging open interconnection, open protocols, and unlocked devices. The global SIP ecosystem already includes a substantial number of end points between devices sold to enterprises and consumers. Enabling HD represents a very compelling reason to end the fragmentation that leaves SIP networks mere standard definition (SD) on-ramps to the telephone network.

Tying revenue to the telephone network encourages companies to hold users captive. Skype can ignore the cautionary tale of AOL as long as the SIP ecosystem retains the telephone network dependencies. Free World Dialup will do its part by encouraging existing members to adopt HD, making HD the focus of new membership outreach efforts, and working to find compelling HD content. However, not much will happen until the movement gains participation of other SIP networks as well as the rest of the companies in the infotech value chain.

Telephone network voice quality remains unchanged since the 1950's when the current encoding standards were established. The basis for an Internet HD voice ecosystem already exists in broadband connections and SIP devices supporting the G.722 wideband codec (e.g see Polycom and Siemens Gigaset). Obstacles in ease of use and content associated with HD voice remain significant, but they do not differ substantially in magnitude from challenges end users suffered in early days of the
world wide web.

Creating demand for HD requires only getting end users to experience HD (see the Siemens Gigaset demo ). SD drops the two thirds of voice energy that lies outside the 3khz frequency response of traditional telephones. People exposed to HD voice will no more likely to settle for SD than in the case of HD formats for entertainment. Experiencing HD requires compatible equipment on both sides of a connection, so the people adopting HD have an incentive to encourage everyone they call to get HD devices.

HD will displace standard definition in some contexts, but the primary opportunity lies in creating new types of communication content. HD will make it easier for the hearing impaired to use telephones. It will improve the productivity of conference calls. HD means never having to spell out letters via the military alphabet code (A as in Alpha). The mediocre quality of SD does not convey the nuances that carry the emotional content of voice. HD ends the repetition of words necessary to overcome the ambiguity of sounds in SD (e.g. 15 versus 50) .

A format change from HD to SD promises to trigger a replacement cycle and sales growth for the presently shrinking telecom equipment industry. The communication equivalent of the world wide web awaits an open Internet communication alternative to Skype.

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Daniel Berninger is CEO, FWD. His bio can be seen here.

Tags: VoIP, Daniel Berninger, HD VoIP, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 05:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Social Media Jungle: New York City (Update #1)

On March 19th I will be hosting The Social Media Jungle: Leveraging Social Media for YOU (and your business) in New York City. I thank Sun Microsystems for being the venue host for this event.

I am in the process of confirming the discussion leaders for this event and a working draft of the schedule will be posted shortly.

At each of the schedule Social Media Jungle events, discussion leaders will be asked to open their session as if they had written a blog post about the topic. The discussion leaders will be given an average of 7 to 10 minutes to make their point(s) and then will be asked to lead the follow on discussion that one could view as live comments to a blog post. And for the next 8 to 10 minutes the discussion leader will be responsible for responding to the feedback and drawing more people into the discussion and then leading the session to a logical conclusion.

When one topic is finished, the next discussion leader will come to the front of the room and will take the lead for their session. I will be asking each of the discussion leaders to respect the time and to help share the space with everyone who was invited to lead a discussion.

I am looking forward to catching up everyone at Social Media Jungle: New York City.

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Tags: social media, SMJNYC, Social Media Jungle, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The Amdocs iPhone Harmonica Band: Yesterday

Under the direction of conductor Tal Givoly at the Amdocs Innovation Camp, the Amdocs iPhone Harmonica Band performs "Yesterday."

Tags: AmdocsInnovationCamp, Harmonica, Tal Givoly, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 26, 2009

PR Vibes Review of SocComm: The Social Communications Summit

"The event drew about 175 people from across the United States and Canada, and it seems like almost all of them blogged or twittered about SocComm. In fact, SocComm was the #1 search term on Twitter at various times during the day.

How do you judge if an event like SocComm was successful? The number of bloggers that write about and link to it? The number of tweets and re-tweets it generates? What about the number of friends on Facebook? Just a few years ago, those metrics wouldn’t count. Today, they really do. For B2B companies, it is imperative to keep pace as Social Communication continues to evolve.

Having personally attended, I think the success of this event can be defined in a few ways:

1. Anything Jeff Pulver touches is tinged with gold, so to see Jeff back in action is something the whole telecom industry has been waiting for. Will he be able to monetize it for himself? Will he help other companies learn how to monetize it?

2. Definition and leadership – there is no clear definition of “social communications,” social media or social networking as the latter evolves. It’s good to see someone attempting to do this.

3. What happens next? Who will go to the next SocComm? What will the agenda be? How will the feedback and interest of this first one affect the next one?

4. What will companies (real companies) do with this information? Will they get on the bandwagon? Will they accept social communications as a fact of life and stop being scared of it? Will they dip their toe or plunge in? (Will they understand that Jeff Pulver’s association with the topic creates instant credibility for it?)

5. Will it stop being an area for the “fringe” of society and more (as Shelly Palmer said) for the insiders? The Wall Street Journal is not going to die, but will it embrace social communications as a tool to help them be more successful?

Finally, one complaint I have is that the inaugural SocComm focused almost exclusively on business-to-consumer players (including a Digital Mommies panel!?). What about the business-to-business players? It would have been nice if the conference had included some panels on how B2B companies can benefit from social media. It will become increasingly imperative for them to embrace social communications as a way to communicate with their customers and empower their businesses.

The next SocComm will be held in New York City in June, 2009"

Click here to read the entire story.

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Tags: SocComm, social media, Social Communications, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 11:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jeff Pulver Tel Aviv Breakfast Video by: Idan Gazit

Jeff Pulver Social Media Breakfast - Feb 2009 from Idan Gazit on Vimeo.

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Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, Tel Aviv, social media, Idan Gazit, Social Media Breakfast, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

February 25, 2009

Niv Calderon: Social Media Is Power: The Jeff Pulver Talk at the TLV Breakfast

"At another great breakfast, Jeff mainly spoke about how social media changes our lives. His most important words were that how we communicate changes how we make business and that the way we communicate change other people's lives. At the event attended IMHO around 250-350 people, and it was a sunny and wonderful morning with many Israeli entrepreneurs, investors and consultants from all sorts in Tel Aviv. Another thing Jeff said was about how he uses his social graph to find people and create business opportunities, and he gave the example of how he found Leo Dicaprio."

You can read the rest of the story: here

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Tags: Niv Calderon, Social Media, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

February 24, 2009

Call for Speakers: Social Media Summit - Israel - March 29, 2009

On March 29, 2009 in cooperation with The Marker’s COM.vention, I am hosting/producing: “Social Media Summit: Israel” which will explore the state of Social Media, where things are headed in the future and where the money is today and will be tomorrow.

The topics at Social Media Summit: Israel will spanned across: Media / Internet / Communications / Entertainment, something I call the "MICE" space.

I am looking for creative, out-of-the-box thinkers to come forward and pitch me about a topics they are passionate about and would like to speak about. (Practical talks are also welcome.) I am also open to being pitched about panel discussions that cover a wide range of related topics.

The advent of Social Media will have a profound effect on business. What I hope to bring together is a gathering of people with a variety of backgrounds and industries and together explore the future of where social media is going and what business models will be used to provide the dollar returns needed to get us there.

If you are interested in speaking at Social Media Summit: Israel, and or would like to suggest a speaker, please contact me via email (jeffp @ pulver.com) or on Facebook ASAP. My goal is to put together a draft agenda for the event over the next 10 days. (I would have announced this sooner but the opportunity for the event only presented itself today.)

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Tags: The Marker, Israel,Social Media, COM.vention, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Back in the Hi-Tech Startup Capital of the World: Tel Aviv

I’m spending this week in Tel Aviv and I look forward to spending time catching up with a number of (early) early-stage startups and the Israel venture community.

About eight months ago I co-founded a stealth mode company in the social media space which is based in Tel Aviv. The company has not yet been formally announced and my role is CVO as in “Chief Visionary Officer.” While I am in Tel Aviv this week we are having our first set of meetings with possible investors.

Tomorrow I am hosting my first “Real-Time Social Networking Breakfast” event in Tel Aviv this year. This will be my largest breakfast so far in 2009 (out of 9 others that I have hosted in 9 cities) as over 400 people are registered for the event. Tomorrow afternoon I am working with a friend of mine on a parody music video for Kinnernet followed by a a set of non-stop back-to-back meetings with mostly early-early stage startups.

I am not aware of any other city anywhere in the world where one can smell entrepreneurship in the air. Regardless of the state of the global economy, each time I visit Tel Aviv I continue to be amazed by: the people I meet; the ideas I hear about; the innovation which is happening; and by the “can do” energy in the air. Just about anything and everything is possible. All it takes is an open mind, vision, inspiration and opportunity.

I enjoy visiting Tel Aviv and the chance to catch up with friends who continue to the source of inspiration for a lot of the work that I do. These are some of the people who have helped establish Tel Aviv as the Hi-Tech Startup Capital of the World.

Tags: Tel Aviv, startup, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

February 23, 2009

Ben Atlas: The Five Question Interview - Jeff Keni Pulver

Ben Atlas recently asked me the following 5 Questions:

1. You have mastered online tools to build your business and at the same time your conferences and breakfasts are all about real life human contact. Does your online presence turbocharge the offline people connections or your real life connections turbocharge you online and business persona?

2. You have an amazing intuition for the next big thing. What part of it is luck and what part of it is a persistent vision?

3. You are an “east coast boy” yet you travel all over the world. Have you ever though of moving (where and why)?

4. Voice over IP was a disruption, yet the old Telcos took control of the exploding mobile market. Do you think Shelly Palmer is right and the old media has the muscle to swallow the new media?

5. Gary Vaynerchuk says that he is curious about people and loves to connect to people. You are a genius connector, how do you explain your people skills?

Click here to read my answers.

Tags: Ben Atlas, Social Media, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Rick Liebling: The Periodic Table of Social Media Elements

“Social Media really is a lot like chemistry. There is a huge pool of elements you can choose from and an infinite variety of combinations you can create. Twitter + sharing + commenting will give you a different result than blogging + LinkedIn + Flickr. Then of course there are the active ingredients - the people. A dash of Chris Brogan plus a big helping of David Armano and the whole thing changes again.

Well, this got me to thinking. It would be handy to have a Periodic Table of the Social Media Elements. So, I created one:” (the Jp on the chart is me)

You can read the entire Blog post here

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Tags: facebook, Social Media, Rick Liebling

Posted by jeff at 08:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

February 22, 2009

Introducing: BloggersBase

I enjoy feeling the passion of entrepreneurs who dream about doing their own startup, especially when it is in a area I can understand and/or otherwise relate to. During the past couple of years, during my trips to Israel, I have met with quite a number of entrepreneurs and have made investments in a number of early-early stage startups.

Last year when I was in Tel Aviv and I met with Dan Barak and members of his team, I knew within minutes of hearing their pitch that this was a startup that could grow into something interesting. As a result, I made an investment and I am happy to have BloggersBase as part of my active portfolio of Israeli Hi-Tech startups.

I am now trying to help get BloggersBase discovered and I am asking friends to take a look and give BloggersBase a try.

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Rather than just explain BloggersBase in my own words, I thought it would be more interesting to have BloggersBase explained by BloggersBase CEO and co-founder Dan Barak.

Q: “What was the inspiration behind BloggersBase?”

Dan Barak: “It is becoming harder and harder to sift through the vast amount of user-generated online content to find quality material. Realizing this, the founders of BloggersBase sought to make the Internet a better place by delivering quality content to the masses. The solution? A competition-based discovery platform that rewards talented bloggers and brings readers professional, relevant and quality content on the Web, personalized according to their social connections and preferences.”

Q: “So what exactly is Bloggers Base?”

Dan Barak: “BloggersBase takes the form of an online magazine made up of multi-authored blogs that cover a variety of popular topics. The content of these blogs is moderated by algorithm-enhanced crowd wisdom, which means our users can find high quality content within each topic, with some help from our algorithms and the ratings of their fellow readers.

At BloggersBase readers reign supreme, rating content submitted by bloggers on everything from professionalism and presentation to value and imaginativeness. The more accurately you rate, the higher your influence becomes in deciding which content makes it to the top!

As a blogger, not only can you take advantage of the unique opportunity to reach a targeted reader base instantly and receive ratings and critique from your readers, you can monetize on your talent as well in weekly competitions. At the end of each week the three most acclaimed bloggers in each category earn the honor of co-authoring the main blog for their topic, resulting in respect and exposure, as well as cash and special prizes.

BloggersBase is bringing bloggers and readers together in an entirely new way and bringing the world an easy way to find quality content on the Web.”

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With this said, please drop by BloggersBase and give it a try. And when you have a moment, please share your feedback and suggestions with Dan Barak by sending email to: Dan @ bloggersbase.com.

(Dan Barak and Michael Arrington @ DLD09)

Tags: BloggersBase, StartUp, Israel, Dan Barak, Social Media, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

February 21, 2009

Announcing: Social Media Jungle - Boston

Social Media Jungle Boston will be taking place on March 10, 2009 at Sun Microsystems in Burlington, MA.

This one day summit has unique format which I have developed based on my 13+ years experience producing events and conferences.

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SMJ Boston: Agenda
March 10, 2009
(as of Feb 21, 2009)

08:30 - 09:20 - Registration + “Real-time Social Networking”
09:20 - 09:40 - Jeff Pulver - “ Sometimes You need to be Vulnerable”
09:40 - 10:00 - C.C. Chapman - "It isn't a numbers game. The human side of social media"
10:00 - 10:20 - Richard Dale - “Twitter as the universal information stream: What if the Twitter stream told us every time a can of soda is sold?”
10:20 - 10:40 - Joe Cascio - “The Compuserve Era of Social Media - when and how will it end?”
10:40 - 11:00 - Doug Levin - “Social commerce, sometimes referred to as R-commerce (relationship commerce).”
11:00 - 11:20 - Laura Fitton - “Social Media for Social Good”
11:20 - 11:40 - Morning break
11:40 - 12:00 - Steve Garfield - "New Media Tools you can use to tell your story RIGHT NOW!"
12:00 - 12:20 - Justin Levy - “ How Small Business can use Inbound Marketing/Social Media to Help Increase Their Business”
12:20 - 12: 40 - [TBA]
12:40 - 2: 00 - Lunch
2:00 - 2:20 - Chris Penn - "It IS a numbers game - thinking about what numbers actually matter"
2:20 - 2:40 - Steven Dill - “Social Media Lessons Learned: From the perspective of a skeptical Online Marketer”
2:40 - 3:00 - Leslie Poston -”Bringing Generations Together For Success In The New Millennium”
3:00 - 3:20 - Matthew Mamet - "Using online video to strengthen your relationship with your online community."
3:20 - 3:40 - Maria Thurrell - “Social Media: Make new friends but keep the old ones.”
3:40 - 4:00 - Mike Lanford - “The evolution of conversation”
4:00 - 4:30 - Wrap up
4:30 - End of Day

(subject to change without notice)

Special thanks to Sun Microsystems for being our venue sponsor

Registration for Social Media Jungle: Boston is now open. Register for this event by clicking here.

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Tags: social media, Social Media Jungle, SMJBOS, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

twitter Morning Affirmation: February 21, 2009

"A good day is what you make of it. Too often we waste our days waiting for other things to happen. Own the moment and make it your own." - Jeff Pulver

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Tags: twitter, affirmation, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 20, 2009

New Beginnings: Sunrise

"Take a moment today and make it your own"

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Tags: sunrise, Miami Beach, Jeff Pulver

(photo taken on February 19, 2009 with a Nikon D90 and a 28-200mm lens)

Posted by jeff at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Social Media Insider: Friends who update their Facebook Status are just MORE Interesting

A new trend for 2009 that I have recently picked up on are Facebook friends who in the past rarely (if ever) updated their Facebook status have started to do so.

As a result, I feel at times more connected with friends who update their Facebook status than those who don’t. Mostly because by sharing random moments in time with friends, my friends are in effect contributing to the social sculpture of the Internet and sharing something about their lives that would have otherwise never be shared. And in my book, moments matter.

For a long time I believed that Presence would one day become a multi-Billion dollar industry and this trend is a positive sign that in 2009 Presence is gaining traction and the sharing of personal presence is growing.

And like it or not, from the perspective of someone who has 5,000 friends on Facebook, Friends who update their Facebook Status are just more interesting than those who don’t.

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Tags: Presence, Facebook status, social media, facebook, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 04:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

February 19, 2009

Call for Speakers: SocComm II - The Social Communications Summit - June 23/24 2009 in New York City

On June 23-24, 2009 in New York City, I am producing SocComm II: The Social Communications Summit.

On February 10th 2009 at the 3LD Art and Technology Center in New York City, I successfully produced the first SocComm which explored “the state of Social Communications, where things are headed in the future and where the money is today and will be tomorrow.”

The topics at SocComm spanned across: Media / Internet / Communications / Entertainment, something I call the "MICE" space. SocComm had a mixture of individual talks, on-stage interviews / conversations and a number of group chat sessions.

For a recap of the blog posts written about SocComm I, click here

The SocComm discussion will continue in June 2009 when SocComm II takes place.

I am looking for creative, out-of-the-box thinkers to come forward and pitch me about a topic they are passionate about and would like to speak about. (Practical talks are also welcome.) I am also open to being pitched about panel discussions that cover a wide range related topics. SocComm II will once again take place in one room and will have both individual talks, panel discussions as well as Q&A sessions with the goal of establishing and maintaining audience wide participation.

The advent of Social Communications will have a profound effect on business. What I hope to bring together is a gathering of people with a variety of backgrounds and industries and together explore the future of where social communications is going and what business models will be used to provide the dollar returns needed to get us there.

If you are interested in speaking at SocComm, and or would like to suggest a speaker, please contact me via email (jeffp@pulver.com) or on Facebook ASAP. The deadline for speaking proposals is March 27th but the first to approach will be the first considered for the event.

More information about SocComm can be found on the SocComm website - http://www.soccomm.com.

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Tags: SocComm, Social Media, Social Communications, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

February 18, 2009

A DC Breakfast Link: Day 138: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends)

From: Julie Minevich - Day 138: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends)

"...Jeff made a point I found particularly interesting:

There is now an entire generation growing up digitally who - because it’s so easy to communicate online - won’t have the opportunity to develop people skills the way individuals did before the Internet and will, consequently, find it challenging to communicate in person."

Read the entire blog post here

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Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, Washington, D.C., social media, facebook, Social Media Breakfast, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 06:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Special Hi-Tech Birthright Israel Trip (for Jewish Hi-Tech professionals aged 22-26)

Danny Sack from Mayanot, a non-profit educational organisation in Israel recently contacted me and asked for help in finding people aged 22-26 who would be interested in being part of a free 10 day “Hi-Tech” focused Birthright trip to Israel which is scheduled tentatively for June.

In addition to visiting the usual spots that Birthright visits, the intention is to introduce people to the Israeli Hi-Tech world and Danny plans to hold meetings with some of the people responsible for the new and innovative technologies that have come out of Israel.

Danny’s intention with this trip is to showcase a different and unique side of Israel, and hope to make a difference when these young people return to their respective homes/jobs and share this side of Israel that most don't see on CNN.

Birthright applications open on February 19th and will only be open 3 weeks so Danny is trying to spread the word now as quickly as possible. I offered to help Danny get the world out to young Jewish Professionals in Hi-Tech who haven’t visited Israel before.

If you know of possible candidates, please share this blog post with them.

Thanks!

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Experience Israel's "Silicon Valley" - FREE trip to Israel for Jewish High-Tech professionals aged 22-26, with Taglit-Birthright Israel:Mayanot

“Goals: From our perspective, ie. Mayanot and Birthright:

Our hope for the future is that the participants of this trip will take part in improving US and Israeli relationships through the high-tech field, and ultimately help steer world opinion of Israel toward its positive contributions to society. With a rapidly increasing prevalence of Israeli technology in the world market, we feel it extremely important to ensure that some of the young and future leaders in the US high-tech field are given an opportunity to see the great potential of the State of Israel, and connect to their Jewish Heritage. The positive effects of such a trip are amplified when experienced within a group of like-minded participants from a wide range of backgrounds.

From participants perspective:

Our hope is that in addition to an amazing and inspiring FREE vacation in Israel, the participants on this special trip will gain unique insights into Israel's "oil well" – the High-Tech industry, and utilize the given networking opportunities to build lasting connections.”

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Taglit-Birthright Israel: Mayanot High-Tech Israel Experience:

This free and unique ten-day trip to Israel is geared towards young professionals working in the High-Tech industry and students studying in High-Tech related fields (including all areas of technology - science, internet, computers, energy, etc.).

What:
In addition to the exciting sites and activities that all our Taglit-Birthright Israel trips enjoy, this tour will include visits to prominent Israeli High-Tech firms and meetings with industry leaders and CEOs from the Israeli High-Tech community.

Who:
Young professionals working in the Israeli High-Tech industry aged 22-26 from North America will be joined by like minded young Israelis, creating invaluable networking opportunities .

When:
This trip is tentatively scheduled for June 2009, but applications are open NOW at www.mayanotisrael.com

Where do I sign up?

For complete eligibility guidelines and to sign up please visit http://www.mayanotisrael.com and join the Summer Email Update List. Official registration will open on February 19th and close on March 4th at http://www.mayanotisrael.com.

For more information please contact Danny Sack, danny at mayanotisrael.com.

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Tags: Israel, Birthright, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 06:07 PM | Permalink

February 17, 2009

SocComm: Recap and Feedback from the Community

A week ago, on February 10, 2009 I produced SocComm, "The Social Communications Summit" in New York City which brought together about 175 people from across the United States and Canada.

At SocComm, we explored the state of Social Communications, where things are headed in the future and what it means to the world of: Media / Internet / Communications / Entertainment.

Presence was a big part of SocComm. And the future of presence and the state of presence as it effects the Media / Internet / Communications / Entertainment industry was explored and will continue to be explored. Presence was spoken about, not always by name but it was always there. As was other intangible elements that are helping to define the future of communications.

Never in the 13+ years of producing events did I ever have as a diverse group of speakers and audience than the people who spoke and joined us at SocComm. I appreciate everyone who came out and joined us for the event.

From my perspective, SocComm was entertaining. It was fun. And it was raw in the sense I believe this is just the beginning of what happens next in a world where broadband is widely available and people are migrating away from using telephones as a primary communication tool. In a world where communication systems are just software applications, anything becomes possible and those in the communication business who deny this will see themselves become marginalized over the next 5-10 years.

Connect with the people who were at SocComm and I believe you will realize that if you weren't there, that you missed out on something special that has the potential to define for the next generation a space which fits my need of something where "Fear, Greed and Disruption" lives. I have plans to produce a follow up event in June and I'm currently looking for sponsors / exhibitors for this next event.

As far as coverage, the buzz from twitter is documented. We were the #1 search term on Twitter at various times last Tuesday. (Thank you twitter team - you rocked!). The conversations from SocComm continue today. Follow this link to check out the twitter buzz: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=soccomm

As far as blog coverage goes, the coverage continues. The following are the links I am currently aware of:

Fred Wilson: truth

Marshall Sponder: Jeff Pulver David Kirkpatrick and Fred Wilson dicuss social networking and communications

Marshall Sponder: Soccomm 2 gary vaynerchuk and kenny miller from mtv

Marshall Sponder: SocComm 3 - Jeff Jarvis

Marshall Sponder: SocComm - will Law and Policy kill Social Communications

Marshall Sponder: SocComm Mommy Blogger Panel

Marshall Sponder: SocComm - Shelly Palmer - Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC

Marshall Sponder: SocComm - SoMo, a look at the future of the Social Mobile space

Marshall Sponder: SocComm - Social Media & Multiple Personality Disorder

MediaPost: Industry Leaders Discuss TV, Facebook At Social Summit

Rock and Roll Mama: Thoughts on Soccomm Panel

Prevential: Shelly Palmer: Why You Need to Translate Value Into Wealth

Howard Greenstein: Presence is the new dialtone

Justin Kownacki: 10 Things I Learned at SocComm

Ben Atlas: jeff pulver launches soccomm

Buzz Marketing Daily: SocComm: As Seen in the Eyes of a Social Marketer

Primetime Parenting: Mama's Day Out at SocComm NYC

Doug Levin: SocComm: The State of Social Networking Now! And In Your Facebook

Jeff Pulver: Social Media Insider: Sometimes You Need to be Vulnerable

Shidan Gouran: SocComm

Sarah Cooley: Social Communications Summit Ideas

Ari Rabban: SocComm and MICE...Remember these "Words"

Jonny Goldstein: Visual Notes from SocComm (each note is a work of art)

Shelly Palmer: The Tweet Is Mightier Than The Pen: How Micro-Fame, Micro-Bloggers And Micro-Events Will Change The World

Illsa Miller: SocComm and Thought on Social Media / Marketing Tools

Tish Grier: A few late words on SocComm

Ely Rosenstock: Reflections from SocComm

And to hear my own reflections about SocComm, just watch this video on YouTube.

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The next SocComm will be taking place in June 2009 in New York City. I am at the early stages of seeking: ideas / speakers / topics / people to be a part of SocComm. I would appreciate hearing from friends and hearing their suggestions and feedback.

Tags: SocComm, social media, Social Communications, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Social Media Insider: Introducing twitterTV

twitterTV defined: When one catches the plot lines of a TV show by using the twitter search engine by searching for a keyword (i.e. #heroes ), quickly scans the results and then presses refresh to read the next set of results during the time the TV show is airing in real-time and repeats this process until the show is over.

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Heroes is one of the only television shows I try to watch when a new episode is airing. And when I’m not near a television and can not experience the show live, my back up strategy is something which I have been calling in my mind, “twitter TV.” So whether I’m at dinner, in an airport lounge, or in a supermarket, all anyone sees me doing is what appears to be is reading messages on my blackberry, but in reality I am catching up with the plot lines of one of my favorite television shows. And while I wasn’t able to catch Heroes live last night I pretty much feel as if I know exactly what happened due to the hundreds (or more) of people who shared their Heroes moments on twitter last night.

(This experience isn’t something entirely new to me. I’m one of the people who used to hang out on IRC in the #xfiles and/or #x-files room during and after the show and explored elements of the plot in real time.)

twitter TV is made possible simply due to the fact that in 2009 there is a critical mass number of Heroes fans who take the time to share their real-time reaction to the show on twitter. Personally I find it interesting how it is possible to reply on a group of strangers to extract plot lines from a TV show and just share them.

And while I enjoy twitterTV:Heroes, I am confident other popular prime time television shows can be consumed like this. (i.e. twitterTV: House, twitterTV:Lost, twitterTV:Monk).

When I look to the future of television, I believe what I am experiencing can be expected to be supported in the future when the major TV studios enable what might be called: “Social TV.”

A word of caution: Do not try to explain to anyone watching you use your mobile device (or laptop) that you are actually experiencing TV in your mind; that by simply reading text from your web browser you are keeping track of what is happening on a TV show that you are a fan of. This is one geeky experience better left unexplained. Especially to the people who think they know you. ;-)

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What about you? Are there any shows which you watch and twitter about in real-time? Please share your comments and thoughts below.

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Tags: twitter TV, social media, twitter, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

February 15, 2009

Shelly Palmer: The Tweet Is Mightier Than The Pen

Shelly Palmer: "The Tweet Is Mightier Than The Pen: How Micro-Fame, Micro-Bloggers And Micro-Events Will Change The World"

“Earlier this week, I was invited to speak at Jeff Pulver’s Social Communications Summit #SocComm. It was one of the most fascinating events I have ever attended. First, there were a group of extraordinary speakers including: @garyvee, @jeffjarvis, @kenbot and @chrisbrogan. But, as extraordinary as the speakers were, the attendees were more so. Everyone I spoke with during the day was extremely optimistic about the future and the opportunities that social media technologies will afford them. But, more importantly, everyone seemed to be energized and empowered in a way that I truly have never seen. The source of the empowerment was obvious — they felt that they had a voice.

What a remarkable day.”

Click here to read the entire story. And click here to follow Shelly Palmer on twitter.

(Shelly Palmer, Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group, LLC)

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Tags: SocComm, social media, Shelly Palmer, twitter, Social Communications, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 06:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Morning Twitter Affirmation: Feb 15, 2009

"Good Morning! Hope your week is a great one. Just remember - You can make a difference. Nothing is impossible. Your voice really does matter" (see the original tweet)

Tags: sunrise, Miami Beach, Jeff Pulver

(photo taken on February 15, 2009 with a Nikon D90 and a 28-200mm lens)

Posted by jeff at 09:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Jonny Goldstein's "Visual Notes" from SocComm

My friend Jonny Goldstein just published his "Visual Notes" from SocComm.

This is his visual note from my SocComm talk:

Jonny's complete set of SocComm notes can be found here.

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Tags: SocComm, social media, Jonny Goldstein, Social Communications, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Event: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Tel Aviv on Feb 25th

On Wednesday, February 25th I will be in Tel Aviv and hosting my first Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and Friends) in Tel Aviv this year from 0900-1100. I am looking forward to catching up with my friends.

To RSVP, please visit this event on Facebook.

Everyone attending this breakfast will receive a "Personal Social Networking Toolkit." Friends can learn more about my “Personal Social Networking Toolkit” by watching the video below:

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Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, Tel Aviv, social media, facebook, Social Media Breakfast, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Looking for Early Stage Hi-Tech Israeli Start-ups:

If you are aware of any early stage Hi-Tech Israeli start-ups that I should be aware of, please feel free to contact me.

I will be in Tel Aviv in about a week and I will be meeting with a number of early-stage startups during my trip.

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Tags: Tel Aviv, startup, Israel, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 14, 2009

SocComm: Reflections

I’ve been thinking a lot about SocComm for the past few days. The video below captures some of these thoughts. As a proponent of “now Media”, I thought it was better to share these thoughts in video (for a change) rather than in just words.

The next SocComm will be taking place in June, 2009 in New York City. Please feel free to join the SocComm Group on Facebook if you would like to learn more about future SocComm events.

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Tags: SocComm, social media, Social Communications, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 05:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

February 13, 2009

What I expect from the new FCC Chairman:

While attending DLD09, I saw down for an interview with Jennifer Schenker. This was a follow up to my blog post: VoIP Still Isn’t Dead - Part II

from: VOIP Pioneer Jeff Pulver: What I Expect From the New FCC Chief

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Tags: voip, Kevin Martin, Presence, FCC, public policy, Internet TV, Michael Powell, IP Communications, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 02:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Congrats to the twitter team on their Funding Announcement

As an active member of the twitter community, reading about twitter’s funding announcement today in their ”Opportunity Knocks” blog post made me smile.

Today twitter announced they raised a new round of funding from Benchmark and IVP.

twitter’s major existing investors include Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital and exiting investors also includes CRV, Digital Garage (from Japan), and an great group of angels (which I am also proud to be part of.)

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Tags: twitter, social media Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 02:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

February 12, 2009

To my friend Jon Arnold: SocComm is right for these times

This blog post is in response to the blog post my friend Jon Arnold wrote from afar about SocComm.

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SocComm brought together about 175 people from across the United States and Canada. If that is how you define a "localized" audience, cool. Relative to the diversity of the people who used to come to the VON events, you made a good point. But in reality there was nothing local about the content or the people who attended SocComm. More than half the audience traveled to be there.

SocComm was an example of a time when "Content needs to be experienced." We are a defining moment in time in the future of communications and if you think that SocComm was only about social media, I think you missed the point about the first event. But no worries since there is a follow on event currently being planned. Never in the 14 years of producing events did we ever have as a diverse group of speakers and audience than the 34 people who spoke at SocComm.

SocComm was entertaining. It was fun. And it was raw in the sense that this is just the beginning of what happens next in a world where broadband is widely available and people are migrating away from using telephones as a primary communication tool. In a world where communication systems are just software applications, anything becomes possible and those in the communication business who deny this will see themselves become marginalized over the next 5-10 years.

In hindsight you may discover that there was more meaningful content covered in one day at SocComm than you will experience just about any other event in the communications space. Having 14 years experience developing relationships and content does have its advantages. But if you are looking for a reunion of friends who are trying to find themselves and define their own future, I know of events where you can find this.

Talk to the people who were at SocComm and I believe you will start to feel that you missed out on something special that has the potential to define for the next generation a space which fits my need of something where "Fear, Greed and Disruption" lives.

As far as coverage, the buzz from twitter is documented. We were the #1 search term on Twitter at various times on Tuesday. (Thank you twitter team - you rocked!)

As far as blog coverage goes, sometimes you need to look for things to find them. I'm not sure what tools you use to track block posts but this is what I found in about 5 minutes of searching.

Here are some links:

Buzz Marketing Daily: SocComm: As Seen in the Eyes of a Social Marketer (watch the video)

Shelly Palmer: MediaBytes - Wednesday February 11, 2009

MediaPost: Industry Leaders Discuss TV, Facebook At Social Summit

Doug Levin: ocComm: The State of Social Networking Now! And In Your Facebook

Primetime Parenting: Mama’s Day Out at SocComm NYC

Marshall Sponder: SocComm - Social Media & Multiple Personality Disorder

Marshall Sponder: SocComm - SoMo, a look at the future of the Social Mobile space

Marshall Sponder: SocComm - Shelly Palmer - Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC

Marshall Sponder: SocComm Mommy Blogger Panel

Marshall Sponder: SocComm - willLaw and Policy kill Social Communications

Marshall Sponder: SocComm 3 - Jeff Jarvis

Marshall Sponder: Soccomm 2 gary vaynerchuk and kenny miller from mtv

Marshall Sponder: Jeff Pulver David Kirkpatrick and Fred Wilson dicuss social networking and communications

Howard Greenstein: Presence is the new dialtone

Justin Kownacki: 10 things I learned at SocComm

Ben Atlas: jeff pulver launches soccommJeff Pulver launches SocComm

Prevential: Shelly Palmer: Why You Need to Translate Value Into Wealth

Rock and Roll Mama: Thoughts on Soccomm Panel

Fred Wilson: truth

Watch for the announcement for the follow up event. Please feel free to pitch me on a topic you would like to lead and/or moderate. Your voice would be welcome at SocComm.

This is just a heads up to anyone who might see this that there is now a venue and a platform for people who actually want to explore the future of social communications. And it is called SocComm. I hope to see you there.

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Tags: SocComm, Jon Arnold, social media, Social Communications, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Today is the Fifth Anniversary of the FCC's "Pulver Order"

Five years ago today, the FCC granted the "Pulver Order", declaring voice communications services that do not touch the public-switched telephone network to be "Information Services" not "Telecom Services." At the time, I and others advocating on behalf of Internet-based communications considered it to be the first positive regulatory statement on the unregulated nature of Internet communications in the United States.

I have to admit it was kind of cool having my last name become a subject noun amongst telecom lawyers in Washington, D.C. One of the things I learned from the process which ended up with the declaration of the Pulver Order was that “Nothing is Impossible.” This is neither a cliche nor just a tag line for Nike. For me, “Nothing is Impossible” was a life lesson. As improbable it was that the FCC would put my original petition out for public comment, sometime when you least expect it, good things will happen. And in my case, it was my continued passion for the future of internet communications that drove me to follow up and pursue the granting of my petition.

But that was 2004 and it is now 2009 and a lot has happened since then. To the extent that communication continues to evolve without the need to connect with the legacy public telephone network, such that broadband empowered consumers have ways to directly communicate with each other, the Pulver Order has provided clarity as to the regulatory treatment of such services in the United States and provides a model for many other regulators around the world. Over the past five years we have seen the commercialization of VoIP shift into high gear, as well as the launch of quite a number of companies and services all focused on helping to make end-to-end IP a reality.

In my opinion, the near future for VoIP in America to some extent rests on the decision of who is selected to become the New FCC Chairman and whether or not they will attempt to unwind the regulatory burden Chairman Martin’s FCC placed on the VoIP Industry. It would also matter how supportive the new Chairman will be toward communication innovation in America. With the right approach to public policy, the new FCC Chairman will be able to put a shot of adrenaline into the arm of the VoIP Industry and jump start a new generation of communication innovation.

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Tags: Pulver Order, Public Policy, voip, SocComm, FCC, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

February 11, 2009

SocComm: The Speakers

SocComm: The Social Communications Summit took place on February 10, 2009 at 3LD in New York City.

The following people spoke at the event:

(Jeff Pulver)

(David Kirkpatrick, Senior Editor, Fortune Magazine)

(Fred Wilson, Partner, Union Square Ventures)

(Gary Vaynerchuk, Wine Library TV)

(Kenny Miller, EVP, MTV Networks Global Digital Media)

(Steve Greenberg CEO and Founder, S-Curve records and Chairman of Nabbr, former President, Columbia Records)

(Jeff Jarvis, Associate Professor and Director of the Interactive Journalism program at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.)

(“Being a Mom in the Digital Social Evolution” - Katja Presnal, Audrey McClelland, Beth Feldman, Lindsay Maines))

(“Will Law and Policy Kill the Social Communications Revolution Before It Starts?” - Brock N. Meeks, Center for Democracy & Technology; Peter Corbett, CEO, iStrategyLabs; Beau Phillips, Partner, CLS; Glenn Manishin, Partner, Duane Morris LLP)

(Shelly Palmer, Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group, LLC)

(“SoMo: A look at the future of Social Mobile Space” - Nihal Mehta, CEO, Buzzd; Matthew Snyder, CEO, ADObjects; Justin Segal, CEO, Mocospace, Dean Landsman, CEO, Landsman Communications Group.)

(Peter Hirschberg, co-founder + Chairman, The Conversation Group)

(“Advertising & Social Communications: Demonstrating value to Big Advertisers” - Anthony Pitts, Director of Strategic Analysis, Burst Direct; Vanessa Branco, CEO, Versa 9;Jeff Greenfield, COO & Co-Founder, C3 Metrics)

(Chris Brogan, President of New Marketing Labs, “They Shall Know Us by Our Dialtone”)

(“Social Media & Multiple Personality Disorder” - Sandra Fathi, President, Affect Strategies; Rob Key, Converseon)

(“Exploring the effects of Social Media on the future of Communications” [Alon Cohen, Aswath Rao, Doug Levin, Howard Greenstein])

(Laura Roeder, “Running the online world of a Real-World celebrity”)

(Social Gaming: Kevin Slavin, Area / Code; Monty Sharma, co-founder, Vivox; Jeff Pulver)

(“The Audience”)

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Tags: SocComm, SocComm09, Social Communications, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SocComm: Sometimes Content Needs to be Experienced

Special thanks to EVERYONE who contributed to the success of SocComm yesterday in New York City. I am still processing the words I heard and the content that I absorbed during the day.

There are times when “content needs to be experienced.” And yesterday was such an experience.

Of all the events both large and small that I have been associated with since 1996, (and there have been many), yesterday felt real special to me on a number of levels. There was a lot of positive, driven energy in the room. The audience was diverse and represented a cross sampling of people and industries from across the United States and Canada.

While sharing 34 speakers in one day in one track at any event can be challenging, it was great to be part of the experience. I appreciate the reality that just about all of the sessions could have been double in length and we still would not have had enough time to cover all of the questions from the audience.

One thing which became clear to me during the course of the day was that SocComm is a space where “Fear, Greed and Disruption” lives. I believe the advent of “Social Communications” is something which will have a strong impact across the worlds of: Media / Internet / Communications / Entertainment in the months and years ahead.

During my opening remarks I spoke about the need to be vulnerable in social media. This blog post is an example of what I meant. I will go into more detail in a future blog post.

I am now working on producing the next SocComm. I would appreciate help in suggesting ideas / topics / speakers as well as possible sponsors and exhibitors for a follow on event. The formal “Call for Speakers” will be posted in a few days.

I thank everyone who came out to SocComm and made it part of their day. Friends are invited to join the SocComm Group on Facebook.

I look forward to what happens next. :)

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Tags: SocComm, SocComm09, Social Communications, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

February 10, 2009

Back from SocComm...

Special thanks to everyone who came out to SocComm today in New York City from across the United States and Canada. All-in there were about 175 people who helped define the SocComm community.

Click here to review the SocComm “twitter buzz.”

(I will be posting photos and commentary at a later time)

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Tags: SocComm, SocComm09, Social Communications, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 11:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 09, 2009

SocComm Summit Agenda (Update #5)

On February 10th 2009 at the 3LD Art and Technology Center in New York City, I am producing SocComm - The Social Communications Summit. At SocComm, we will explore the state of “Social Communications”, where things are headed in the future and where the money is today and will be tomorrow.

The topics at SocComm will span across: Media / Internet / Communications / Entertainment, something I call the "MICE" space. SocComm will have a mixture of individual talks, on-stage interviews / conversations and a number of “group chat” sessions.

SocComm Summit Agenda
(as of Feb 9, 2009)

Feb 9th: 6:30 - 9:30 PM - VIP Dinner (for Speakers + VIP Delegates)

Feb 10th

7:30 - Registration Opens
8:00 - 9:00 - Coffee / Tea + “Real-Time Social Networking” (Watch the video before attending)
9:00 - 9:20 - Jeff Pulver, founder SocComm, “Connected Culture"
9:20 - 9:40 - (M) David Kirkpatrick, Senior Editor, Fortune Magazine
9:40 - 10:00 - (I) Fred Wilson, Partner, Union Square Ventures
10:00 - 10:20 - (E) Gary Vaynerchuk, Wine Library TV
10:20 - 10:40 - (E) Kenny Miller, EVP, MTV Networks Global Digital Media.
10:40 - 11:00 - (E) Steve Greenberg CEO and Founder, S-Curve records and Chairman of Nabbr, former President, Columbia Records
11:00 - 11:20 - Morning Break
11:20 - 11:40 - (M) Jeff Jarvis, Associate Professor and Director of the Interactive Journalism program at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.
11:40 - 12:10 - “Will Law and Policy Kill the Social Communications Revolution Before It Starts?” - Glenn Manishin, Partner, Duane Morris LLP; Brock N. Meeks, Center for Democracy & Technology; Peter Corbett, CEO, iStrategyLabs; Beau Phillips, Partner, CLS.
12:10 - 12:40 - (I) “Being a Mom in the Digital Social Evolution” - Lindsay Maines, Katja Presnal, Audrey McClelland, Beth Feldman
12:40 - 2:00 - Lunch
2:00 - 2:20 - (E) Shelly Palmer, Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group, LLC
2:20 - 2:50 - “SoMo: A look at the future of Social Mobile Space” - Matthew Snyder, CEO, ADObjects; Nihal Mehta, CEO, Buzzd; Justin Segal, CEO, Mocospace, Dean Landsman, CEO, Landsman Communications Group.
2:50 - 3:10 - (I) Peter Hirschberg, co-founder + Chairman, The Conversation Group
3:10 - 3:40 - (M) “Advertising & Social Communications: Demonstrating value to Big Advertisers” - Jeff Greenfield, COO & Co-Founder, C3 Metrics; Anthony Pitts, Director of Strategic Analysis, Burst Direct; Vanessa Branco, CEO, Versa 9
3:40 - 4:00 - (I) Chris Brogan, President of New Marketing Labs, “They Shall Know Us by Our Dialtone”
4:00 - 4:25 - (I) “Social Media & Multiple Personality Disorder” - Sandra Fathi, President, Affect Strategies; Rob Key, Converseon
4:25 - 4:45 - Afternoon break
4:45 - 5:15 - (C) “Exploring the effects of Social Media on the future of Communications” (Howard Greenstein, Alon Cohen, Doug Levin, Aswath Rao)
5:15 - 5:35 - (E) Laura Roeder, “Running the online world of a Real-World celebrity”
5:35 - 6:00 - (E) Social Gaming: Kevin Slavin, Area / Code; Monty Sharma, co-founder, Vivox
6:00 - 8:00 - SocComm Cocktail Party

Note: (M) = Media / (I) = Internet / (C) = Communications / (E) = Entertainment

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(note: schedule subject to change without notice)

To REGISTER, click here. The cost is US$ 495 before the event and US$ 595 On-site. Seating is limited.

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Related Blog Posts:

Bill Sobel: Jeff Pulver Presents: Socomm 09 The Social Communications Summit

Trefor Davies: Defining Moment In Social Networking

Ari Rabban: What is SocComm?

Ilissa Miller: SocComm - An Event that is Exploring the State of Social Media

Sarah Cooley: Social Media Week

Deepak Das: What is Social Communications and how to leverage it?

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Tags: SocComm, SocComm09, Social Communications, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

February 08, 2009

Looking back at my recent breakfasts in Philly and Washington DC

During the past week I hosted breakfast in Philadelphia on what ended up being a snow day followed by a breakfast in Washington, D.C. on one of the coldest days of the year in the district.

At each breakfast I took a moment to talk about the inspiration behind the creation of the “Real-time Social Networking Toolkit” and shared a little bit about myself and my background.

What I enjoyed the most from both these breakfasts were the people who came out for the events. One common theme that I continue to experience is that the “next person you meet may be the person who changes your life.” This may sound like a cliche, but this is something I continue to experience. Sometimes YOU are the one who changes someone life and sometimes it is the person you are talking to who will have an effect on your life.

While I’m confident there are people who don’t understand why I have made it a point to travel the world and host the breakfasts in the way and style that I do, one of the benefits of not being understood is that there is also no competition. From my perspective I am continuing to enjoy meeting many of the people whom I have gotten to know on both twitter and Facebook and having a chance to connect with others.

Below are some of the “breakfast links” from my recent events. I thank everyone who took the time to take photos, take video and blog about the breakfasts.

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Washington, DC:

Justin Thorp: Jeff Pulver and Making Friends via Sharing Social Objects

Scott Stead: Jeff Pulver: “Disrupting Telecom Since 1995″

Philadelphia:

Seth Horwitz: Jeff Pulver and tag tags

Steven Lubetkin: Jeff Pulver Welcoming Remarks, Philadelphia Real-World Social Media Tagging Breakfast, 2/5/09

and from my recent London Breakfast:

Trefor Davies: Jeff Pulver Social Networking Breakfast & The Death Of Email

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Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, Philadelphia, Washington, DC,London, social media, facebook, Social Media Breakfast, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

February 07, 2009

Event: SocComm: Cocktail Reception - Feb 10th in NYC

Friends who will be in NYC area the evening of February 10th are invited to join myself and the 3LD team for a post-SocComm Cocktail Reception from 6-8 PM. (23 and older, please).

RSVP by clicking here.

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Tags: SocComm, SocComm09, Social Communications, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 04:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 06, 2009

Special thanks to the SocComm Event Sponsors

I’d like to take a moment and thank the teams at: TechCrunch (Media Sponsor) and ZiXi, Vivox, Ripple6, Phone.com and Pathable.com for being event sponsors of SocComm.

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Tags: SocComm, SocComm09, Social Communications, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 05, 2009

Back in Washington, D.C. - Breakfast with USTelecom

Tonight I’m back in the Washington, D.C. area and I’m looking forward to hosting a breakfast tomorrow morning. Friends of mine who are familiar with my history of disrupting the telecom industry might be a little surprised to learn that the breakfast is being hosted by USTelecom: The Broadband Association.

So it is with a little bit of irony that I will be heading to downtown Washington, D.C. tomorrow morning, together with my “real-time social networking toolkits” to host my ninth breakfast meeting of 2009.

I’m not sure if my new friends at USTelecom have watched this video and plan on dropping by and saying hi, but it should be a fun experience for everyone. Especially if we have a chance to talk about telecom policy and the need to support disruptive communication technologies in America in 2009.

Politics aside, I am looking forward to hosting the first of what I hope to be a series of breakfasts in the DC area in 2009.

Friends who are in the DC area are welcome to join us from 8 AM to 10 AM on Thursday, January 5th at USTelecom, 607 14th Street, NW, Suite 400, Washington, D.C.

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Tags: voip, FCC, public policy, Internet TV, IP Communications, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 03, 2009

SocComm Summit Agenda (Update #4)

SocComm Summit Agenda
(as of Feb 2, 2009)

Feb 9th: 6:30 - 9:30 PM - VIP Dinner (for Speakers + VIP Delegates)

Feb 10th

7:30 - Registration Opens
8:00 - 9:00 - Coffee / Tea + “Real-Time Social Networking” (Watch the video before attending)
9:00 - 9:20 - Jeff Pulver, founder SocComm, “Connected Culture"
9:20 - 9:40 - (M) David Kirkpatrick, Senior Editor, Fortune Magazine
9:40 - 10:00 - (I) Fred Wilson, Partner, Union Square Ventures
10:00 - 10:20 - (E) Gary Vaynerchuk, Wine Library TV
10:20 - 10:40 - (I) Peter Hirschberg, co-founder + Chairman, The Conversation Group
10:40 - 11:00 - (E) Steve Greenberg CEO and Founder, S-Curve records and Chairman of Nabbr, former President, Columbia Records
11:00 - 11:20 - Morning Break
11:20 - 11:40 - (M) Jeff Jarvis, Associate Professor and Director of the Interactive Journalism program at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.
11:40 - 12:10 - “Will Law and Policy Kill the Social Communications Revolution Before It Starts?” - Glenn Manishin, Partner, Duane Morris LLP; Brock N. Meeks, Center for Democracy & Technology; Peter Corbett, CEO, iStrategyLabs; Beau Phillips, Partner, CLS.
12:10 - 12:40 - (I) “Being a Mom in the Digital Social Evolution” - Lindsay Maines, Katja Presnal, Audrey McClelland, Beth Feldman
12:40 - 2:00 - Lunch
2:00 - 2:20 - (E) Shelly Palmer, Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group, LLC
2:20 - 2:50 - “SoMo: A look at the future of Social Mobile Space” - Matthew Snyder, CEO, ADObjects; Nihal Mehta, CEO, Buzzd; Justin Segal, CEO, Mocospace
2:50 - 3:10 - (E) Kenny Miller, EVP, MTV Networks Global Digital Media.
3:10 - 3:40 - (M) “Advertising & Social Communications: Demonstrating value to Big Advertisers” - Jeff Greenfield, COO & Co-Founder, C3 Metrics; Anthony Pitts, Director of Strategic Analysis, Burst Direct; Vanessa Branco, CEO, Versa 9
3:40 - 4:00 - (I) Chris Brogan, President of New Marketing Labs, “They Shall Know Us by Our Dialtone”
4:00 - 4:25 - (I) “Social Media & Multiple Personality Disorder” - Sandra Fathi, President, Affect Strategies; Rob Key, Converseon
4:25 - 4:45 - Afternoon break
4:45 - 5:15 - (C) “Exploring the effects of Social Media on the future of Communications” (Howard Greenstein, Alon Cohen, Doug Levin, Aswath Rao)
5:15 - 5:35 - (E) Laura Roeder, “Running the online world of a Real-World celebrity”
5:35 - 6:00 - (E) Social Gaming: Kevin Slavin, Area / Code; Monty Sharma, co-founder, Vivox
6:00 - 6:10 - Wrap up
6:10 - 7:30 - SocComm Cocktail Party

Note: (M) = Media / (I) = Internet / (C) = Communications / (E) = Entertainment

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(note: schedule subject to change without notice)

Seating is limited.

To REGISTER, click here. The cost is US$ 495 for the event and US$ 695 for special VIP Registration. (Only 5 remain) VIP Registration includes access to SocComm as well an invitation only dinner on February 9th and a special VIP lunch on February 10th.

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Tags: SocComm, SocComm09, Social Communications, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 02, 2009

SocComm Update: Chris Brogan added to the SocComm Speaker Roster

I’m happy to announce that my friend Chris Brogan has been added to the speaker roster of SocComm. SocComm, The Social Communications Summit will be taking place on February 10th in New York City.

Chris’s speaking time will be reflected in tomorrow’s SocComm agenda update.

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Tags: SocComm, social media, Chris Brogan, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 06:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Social Media Insider: The Facebook Presence Poke

The term “Poke” on Facebook has a different meaning depending upon when you joined Facebook. If you have been on Facebook since High School or College, then the term “Poke” might mean to you something closer to the Wikipedia definition “...a feature on Facebook where a user can try to get another person to notice him or her.”

The actual kind of attention that one gets is really a function of the person they poke, and the relationship between the person who is poked and the person doing the poking. What may feel like a game for some people and may be annoying to other people, I have discovered to be a hidden and subtle feature within Facebook.

I have adopted Poke as a means to share my own extended presence. Friends whom have made it a habit to poke me on a daily basis are more aware of my presence and overall online availability than the friends who don’t poke me. My poke friends know when I may be pre-occupied with life outside of Facebook because when I am busy, my return-poke responsiveness goes down to being non-responsive. I am defining this in terms of minutes and hours as compared to days (or longer.)

If someone is wondering if I am around, a poke is a good way to test this. Those who poke me and experience an immediate reply will know I am around even if they can’t otherwise detect my presence. In the future, I believe this is information that can be channeled into a next-generation presence based service that could be possibly monetized.

I first started thinking about the “Presence Poke” back in June when I was flying from New York to Seattle and my friend Ken Camp poked me about two hours into my scheduled flying time. What he didn’t expect was a poke back from me. By my simple action of returning the poke, Ken knew my flight was delayed - since I could have not replied to his poke if my flight was in the air.

Since discovering the “Presence Poke” feature of Facebook, I have used it as a way to measure the presence and general availability of some of my friends. In turn, I also use this feature to share my presence and general availability to the people who poke me each day. The Facebook Presence Poke, Give it a try.

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Tags: poke, Presence, presence poke, social media, facebook, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 05:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)

February 01, 2009

Event: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Philadelphia on Feb 4th

On Wednesday February 4th I will be in Philadelphia and hosting my seventh "Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends)" event of the year from 8-10 AM.

To RSVP, please visit this event on Facebook.

Everyone attending this breakfast will receive a "Personal Social Networking Toolkit." Friends can learn more about my “Personal Social Networking Toolkit” by watching the video below:

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The Jeff Pulver 2009 Breakfast Tour (Jan / Feb ) 2009
(as of: January 31, 2009)

Jan 11 - Vancouver
Jan 13 - Los Angeles
Jan 14 - San Francisco
Jan 21 - New York City
Jan 22 - Boston
Jan 26 - Munich - at DLD09
Jan 28 - London
Feb 4 - Philadelphia
Feb 5 - Washington, D.C.
Feb 12- Toronto

More dates will be added in the days and weeks ahead

Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, Philadelphia, social media, facebook, Social Media Breakfast, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 07:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 31, 2009

Announcing the “SocComm Scholarships” Program

I am looking forward to being in New York City on February 10th for SocComm. I have been fortunate to bring together a world-class group of speakers, some of them who are just returning to the States after being at DLD and Davos. Together I look forward to exploring the state of Social Communications, where the money is today and where it will be tomorrow.

Given the current state of the economy, I am extending an offer to up to 20 people to join us who would have liked to attended SocComm but due to circumstances beyond their control, could not justify the costs to joining us.

If you would like to apply for a “SocComm Scholarship”, please send me a message via email or on Facebook and let me know why you would like to attend SocComm. My hope is that your presence at SocComm will add to the event so only apply if you are prepared to have your voice heard and presence felt.

I believe that 2009 will end up being a great year for business development. It will be the relationships we create and extend this year that will have a positive effect on our work in the future. And I hope those who join us at SocComm will have an opportunity to jump start new business opportunities inside the emerging world of Social Communications.

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Tags: SocComm, social media, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

David Sifry @ DLD09: Introducing Offbeat Guide to Davos

During DLD09 I had a chance to catch up with David Sifry who introduced his “Offbeat Guide to Davos” and spoke about his new startup, offbeat guides.

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Tags: DLD, offbeat guides, DLD09 David Sifry, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

January 30, 2009

Event: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Washington DC on Feb 5th

On Thursday February 5th I will be in Washington, D.C. and hosting my eighth "Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends)" event of the yearfrom 8-10 AM.

To RSVP, please visit this event on Facebook.

Everyone attending this breakfast will receive a "Personal Social Networking Toolkit." Friends can learn more about my “Personal Social Networking Toolkit” by watching the video below:

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The Jeff Pulver 2009 Breakfast Tour (Jan / Feb ) 2009
(as of: January 30, 2009)

Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, Washington, D.C., social media, facebook, Social Media Breakfast, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

January 29, 2009

TechCrunch is a Media Sponsor of SocComm

Just wanted to share the news that TechCrunch is now a media sponsor of SocComm

Earlier today twitter amazed me once again. I needed to deliver to TechCrunch a 125x125 banner as part of our media relationship and I didn’t have the ability to create the banner ad on my own. In less than 30 minutes not only did 10 people came forward and offered to help solve my 125x125 banner crisis but I ended up with a banner ad in the process.

Special thanks to @lucymaylene for designing the 125x125 banner that will be appearing in rotation on TechCruch in the days leading up to the event.

Special thanks also to: @aloncarmel2k, @paulvalach, @kencamp, @ajinnashville, @ITStudios, @rons, @anayon, @InformedSauce, @topicm who all came forward and offered to help and shared with me their suggested designs.

(designed by: @lucymaylene)

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Tags: social media, TechCrunch, SocComm, twitter, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 11:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 28, 2009

SocComm Summit Agenda (Update #3)

SocComm Summit Agenda
(as of Jan 28, 2009)

Feb 9th: 6:30 - 9:30 PM - VIP Dinner (for Speakers + VIP Delegates)

Feb 10th

7:30 - Registration Opens
8:00 - 9:00 - Coffee / Tea + “Real-Time Social Networking”
9:00 - 9:20 - Jeff Pulver, founder SocComm, “Connected Culture"
9:20 - 9:40 - (M) David Kirkpatrick, Senior Editor, Fortune Magazine
9:40 - 10:00 - (I) Fred Wilson, Partner, Union Square Ventures
10:00 - 10:20 - (E) Gary Vaynerchuk, Wine Library TV
10:20 - 10:40 - (I) Peter Hirschberg, co-founder + Chairman,The Conversation Group (+ Special Guest)
10:40 - 11:00 - (E) Steve Greenberg CEO and Founder, S-Curve records and Chairman of Nabbr, former President, Columbia Records
11:00 - 11:20 - Morning Break
11:20 - 11:40 - (M) Jeff Jarvis, Associate Professor and Director of the Interactive Journalism program at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.
11:40 - 12:10 - “Will Law and Policy Kill the Social Communications Revolution Before It Starts?” - Glenn Manishin, Partner, Duane Morris LLP; Brock N. Meeks, Center for Democracy & Technology; Peter Corbett, CEO, iStrategyLabs; Beau Phillips, Partner, CLS.
12:10 - 12:40 - (I) “Being a Mom in the Digital Social Evolution” - Lindsay Maines, Katja Presnal, Audrey McClelland, Beth Feldman
12:40 - 2:00 - Lunch
2:00 - 2:20 - (E) Shelly Palmer, Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group, LLC
2:20 - 2:50 - “SoMo: A look at the future of Social Mobile Space” - Matthew Snyder, CEO, ADObjects; Nihal Mehta, CEO, Buzzd; Justin Segal, CEO, Mocospace
2:50 - 3:10 - (E) Kenny Miller, EVP, MTV Networks Global Digital Media.
3:10 - 3:40 - (M) “Advertising & Social Communications: Demonstrating value to Big Advertisers” - Jeff Greenfield, COO & Co-Founder, C3 Metrics; Anthony Pitts, Director of Strategic Analysis, Burst Direct; Vanessa Branco, CEO, Versa 9
3:30 - 3:55 - (I) “Social Media & Multiple Personality Disorder” - Sandra Fathi, President, Affect Strategies; Rob Key, Converseon
3:55 - 4:30 - Afternoon break
4:30 - 5:00 - (C) “Exploring the effects of Social Media on the future of Communications” (Howard Greenstein, Alon Cohen, Doug Levin, Aswath Rao)
5:00 - 5:20 - (E) Laura Roeder, “Running the online world of a Real-World celebrity”
5:20 - 5:50 - (E) Social Gaming: Kevin Slavin, Area Code; Monty Sharma, co-founder, Vivox
5:50 - 6:00 - Wrap up
6:00 - 7:30 - SocComm Cocktail Party

Note: (M) = Media / (I) = Internet / (C) = Communications / (E) = Entertainment

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(note: schedule subject to change without notice)

Seating is limited.

To REGISTER, click here. The cost is US$ 495 for the event and US$ 695 for special VIP Registration. VIP Registration includes access to SocComm as well an invitation only dinner on February 9th and a special VIP lunch on February 10th. There are just a limited number of VIP seats

Tags: SocComm, SocComm09, Social Communications, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Event: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in London

This morning I am in London and hosting my first “Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and Friends) in London" at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), 12 Carlton House Terrace, SW1Y 5AH.

I am looking forward to hosting my seventh breakfast event of 2009 and my first breakfast (ever) in London.

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Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, London, social media, 09BWF07, Social Media Breakfast, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 02:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

January 27, 2009

Analog Music Mashup at DLD09: Hillary Hahn and Beardyman

A magical music moment took place the evening of January 25, 2009 in Munich Germany at DLD09. A true "Analog Music Mashup” with Beardyman and world class violinist, Hillary Hahn.

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Tags: DLD, DLD09 Munich, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 05:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 25, 2009

Breakfast Links: Posts from the People I’ve met at Breakfast in 2009

The following are some of the blog posts written by a number of the people who have attended one or more of my breakfasts this year.

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Steve Garfield: 27 People One Question

Doug Levin: Your Brand is You

Mike Troiano: Authenticity in Social Media

Ravit Lichtenberg: Social Media Simplified: The Power of Live Social Tagging and Passion

Stephen Sherlock: Networking Breakfast - Jeff Pulver

Raul: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (Vancouver, January 11 2009)

John Biehler: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver in Vancouver

(if you have written a related blog post - please send email to: jeffp@pulver.com and send him your link.)

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There is still time to join the 2009 “Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) Breakfast Tour.

The Jeff Pulver 2009 Breakfast Tour (Jan / Feb ) 2009
(as of: January 15, 2009)

Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, London, social media, facebook, Social Media Breakfast, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 07:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 24, 2009

Looking forward to DLD

This weekend I will be heading over to Munich for the 2009 DLD Conference.

DLD has a pretty amazing list of speakers and I'm looking forward to catching up with a number of people who will be attending DLD.

According to the website: "DLD (Digital, Life, Design) is an inspiring community for the 21st century which features digital innovation, science and culture and brings together thought leaders, creators, entrepreneurs and investors from Europe, the Middle-East, the Americas and Asia. The DLD community meets in various styles and formats throughout the year and around the globe.

From the beginning in 2005, companies and ideas have been sparked and new friendships have been made thanks to this connection of the unexpected. The DLD Conference is a three-day event chaired by publisher Hubert Burda and investor Joseph Vardi. DLD was founded by Stephanie Czerny and Marcel Reichart who can draw on the commitment and passion of a wonderful team, enthusiastic friends and partners.”

I expect this will be another great event.

Friends attending DLD09 are invited to join me on Monday, January 26th at the ”Real-Time Social Networking Breakfast” I am hosting.

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Tags: DLD, DLD09 Munich, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Playing House in the White House: Bush Twins message to Sasha and Malia

Yesterday while watching the Today Show I was taken back when I saw this segment about an open letter the daughters of President Bush sent to the daughters of President Obama about living in a "magical place" known as the White House. I hope you enjoy this as well.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Tags: Today Show, NBC, tSocial Media Inauguration,President Obama, Bush Twins, Sasha and Malia, Inauguration, Inaug09, Jeff Keni Pulver

Posted by jeff at 07:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 23, 2009

The 2009 Social Media Inauguration

Tuesday January 20, 2009 was truly a very special day.

While I wasn't in Washington, DC on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 for the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, I stayed home and watched NBC on my television while at the same time I was on CNN Live which offered an amazing collaboration with Facebook.

I loved the CNN Live coverage mashup with Facebook and it was great watching something that contributed to a piece of American history. This was our first "social media Inauguration."

The live mash-up which CNN and Facebook provided showed the world the future of “Social TV.” Live television events will never be the same again. Facebook also showed the world that it didn’t need twitter to offer twitter-like services on Facebook. When prompted, it turns out that Facebook customers will update their status message. It turns out that over a million Facebook status updates happened during the Inauguration. And I heard that CNN served out 13 million live streams during the same period. I am not surprised.

During the past year I had experienced a number of national events where I was watching TV and sharing the experience on twitter. I know many others had too. But having the text stream next to the live video just made the experience feel different. And I enjoyed the ability to choose between watching the streaming status updates of the many and the streaming status updates of my Facebook friends.

Looking back at the events on Tuesday it is difficult for me to share the shear thrill I was feeling as I was online and watching and feeling the effects of so many people sharing their thoughts while we were all watching the same video content and sharing the moments and the excitement.

To get into the mood of the