IndyHall member Chris Conley has been blogging every 30 minutes since 9am today, and will continue doing so until tomorrow at 9am. He’s doing this…because he’s crazy? Well yeah, but it’s also for a good cause. You can pledge and when he completes, the money he raises goes to providing resources to break the cycle of homelessness…a problem we have in this city, and many many other cities share.

There’s a post where he interviewed me, of course, but there’s tons of other great interviews with entrepreneurs, local and abroad, plus lots of Chris’s own insight. It’s really some incredibly high quality posts, even without considering volume in a 24 hour period.

The top donation also receives a $50 itunes gift card. So do good, win free music, and enjoy Chris’s awesome posts. Go pledge!

Tags: startup or bust, entreprenurs, blogging, blogathon, drive

Big thanks to Allen @ CenterNetworks for inviting me to put together a contribution to his “StartupMonth” series. As one might expect, I put an Indie spin on it. Check out the piece (and a bunch of other excellent contributions) at http://www.centernetworks.com/startup-tips-alex-hillman-from-weknowhtml!

Tags: centernetworks, startups, article, tips

Photo Credit: seanbonner on flickr

I’ve mentioned BlogPhiladelphia in my blog more than once, in my recent videoblog, and it was the primary focus of my last appearance on PhillyTip. But with the exception of the last one, I haven’t done a very good job of explaining what BlogPhiladelphia actually is.

Since I started working with Annie (who totally rocks, by the way) on this project, I’ve managed to swing the format into a hybrid format of “Unconference” presenter/breakout session format and Open Grid Sessions, not unlike the hybrid barcamp event Web2.Open. The reason? I (and Annie, of course) see this as a platform for generating awareness in Philly about what is going on in the realm of social media, blogging, collaboration, and all of those juicy things you may have noticed that I get myself wrapped up in. This means that YOU.

Do you live in Philly and do something related to social media, web marketing, innovation, creativity, or any of the above? BlogPhiladelphia could be an opportunity for you to show the world that you’re here and you’re doing awesome stuff.

On the flip side, if you aren’t from Philly, this is going to be the weekend to come check us out.

Already on the roster for presentations and session leaders are:
Josh Hallet, founder, BlogOrlando, hyku.com/blog
David Parmet, public relations expert, parmet.net/pr
Joey Sweeney, CEO, Philebrity Brands, (philebrity.com and philebrity.tv)
Maura Johnston, associate editor, idolator.com
Howard Greenstein, Social Media Consultant and co-founder Social Media Club, www.howardgreenstein.com
Dave Coustan, Blog Master at EarthLink, http://blogs.earthlink.net
Alicia Dorset, blog editor, fastlane.gmblogs.com
oh yeah…and me!

Alex Hillman, Web developer and founder, independentshall.org
Also, from the press release:

To make this informational conference as accessible as possible for bloggers and non-bloggers alike, there will be no fee to attend. Participants are only required to cover travel and accommodations. For information on registration; details on sessions, panels, panelists and attendees; links to recommended hotel packages and Amtrak discounts; and details on Philadelphia attractions, visit www.blogphiladelphia.net.

So really, you have no excuse. Block off the dates, set up a place to stay if you’re traveling in, and register now.

Technorati Tags: alicia dorset, barcamp, blogphiladelphia, coworking, dave coustan, david parmet, gptmc, howard greenstein, joey sweeny, josh hallet, maura johnston, philadelphia, unconference, uwishunu

I’m admittedly not a big fan of recruiting agencies/head hunters. I was pleasantly surprised when I met MaryHelen Votral and the CM Access crew back in September at Creative Camp and saw a completely different kind of recruitment process.

CM Access is definitely an agency that “gets it”. The understand the value of relationships in the business world, and instead of being focused on meeting quotas they work with employers and talent to find matches that will work for the long term. Relationship building and the shared value of networking play a key part in barcamp events, so having these guys backing up the event was a perfect fit.

MaryHelen clued me in to the launch of the CMAccess blog a couple of days ago, which should be another tipoff that they “get it”. Utilizing technology in an effective manner to spread a message and provoke both thought and involvement…right on!

I’m looking forward to CreativeCamp v2 on December 2nd.

Tags: cmaccess, barcamp, blogging, recruiters

in the spirit of keeping business and pleasure separate, i’m going to do my best to keep this blog reserved for more personal thoughts, ideas, and discoveries and use the we know html blog for business-y stuff.

the layout is a mix of my own site template and the gorgeously simple microformat-friendly sandbox theme.

everything appears to be working, but i could use some more testing. so hit it up, leave some comments, see if anything breaks or is missing.

i am a machine.

you might notice that i’ve rearranged a little bit…

my “navigation”, which is accessable my mousing over the red bar near the top of the page that says “navigation”, now contains the stuff that used to be down at the bottom, and the bottom has a scrolling tag/category box. This was due to the fact that my category list was getting unruly and long.

check it out!

interesting news always crops up. My personal choice for news reception is typicall NOT mainstream “news”, but instead blogs or tech news sites.

Not that I was unaware, but this morning’s news of the CEO of Flock stepping down shows the true effects of the blogosphere changing the tone of news, something we should ALL remember and take to heart.

Start here:
Private Equity Week, a financial news journal it seems. fairly reputable (?). proffessional tone.

I got there from: Mashable.
Notice how quickly the tone goes from “steps down” to “jumps ship”. Other key terms: Failed, lost, unnecessary. Hm…

and then, where i originally saw the news, on Download Squad, where a lighter tone is taken with the product’s, well, stagnation.

all articles convey the same news, in a very different way. Not unlike how US news and european news tell the same stories drastically different…but now, we’re giving the power to the little guy to tell the news however he THINKS he heard it. Seems pretty dangerous, if you ask me.

Sure enough, my 2nd ipod has bitten the dust. I took it into the local Apple store. I’m lucky enough to have 2 big apples stores fairly close (within 10 miles) of where i work. Anyway, my first experience with the Apple Genious Bar que system was pretty easy…i signed up for a time slot, played with the Mac Pro and Macbook for a bit (drool), and then my name was called. Quick verification, hard-drive went belly up. My options were simple to choose from: Pay $30 to ship it back, be handled, and receive a new iPod. OR, pay $47 for an AppleCare plan, extend my warranty for another year, and walk out with a brand new 4th gen 60gb (what I had). Needless to say, that choice was simple thanks to my sever case of IGS (instant gratification syndrome). So, valued at $250, ive got a brand new iPod. I’m considering taking it back before I open it to see if they’ll use the $250 towards a new 60gb 5th gen video ipod…so i can get bleeding edge for only $150. But, then again, new iPods on the horizon so bleeding edge wont be bleeding edge anymore, and probably not worth my $150 investment yet. Besides, if this one manages to die (not unlikely with my current 1 iPod per year rate) before applecare runs out next august, i can trade up then.

one more note about a service i recently discovered, co.mments.com. this site lets you set up a bookmarklet, and on any page with comments posted (like digg, or anyone’s blog), it can keep an eye on your posts for any replies and let you know via an RSS feed, or via email, or by logging into the site. Also, lots of plugins are available for hooking into your existing wordpress blog. Sweet, I’m sure I can find plenty of times this can save me searching for something I commented on but cant remember where.

it looks like the phill ryu fanfare has fizzled over the weekend to the tune of “wah wah”.

ive been impressed by the quality content Phill has present on his blog for the last few weeks. Dugg blog posts were nearly a daily occurance. For the first time since his fanbase has grown, he posted his opinion about a UI product called amora. and the crowd seems to disagree in a big way. whats this going to do for phill’s fanbase? are his 15 minutes over? i hope not, because he’s written some excellent features in the last couple of weeks and hopefully wont be discouraged.

bloxpress is an ajax-driven wordpress template system. I’m playing with it more for the “disassemble and play with it in the background” factor, so if i something doesnt act like you think it should, it might be my fault so let me know.

I think i like it….do you?

After noticing my google analytics bottom out for the last day and a half, it dawned on me, that the ajaxification broke my tracker. is it fixable? sure. But lord knows what else it might break in the mean time. I’d like to keep this blogs operation a priority, and so, the “features” of bloxpress will have to be done without for now.

i am trying on another similar color-themed skin. Some said that the stripey theme from before was distracting. thoughts on this one?