Author Archives: skipbensley

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About skipbensley

Unabashed father, AV genius, part time dark knight, foodie, amateur chef, antifascist, volunteer and rabid Boston sports fan.

How social are you really?

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So many people are on facebook and I think some just add you the same way you add followers on twitter. Why bother do we need another twitter? Isn’t that what buzz is for? I mean what is buzz really good for anyway?

I deleted some of the most followed people in the Boston area as a test to see if anyone would notice. Joel Foner noticed and asked to be re-added. Joel is a really smart guy and consultant out near me in Metrowest, MA. There seems to be lots of smart people out here. I am just saying.

Lisa Breeden Turulli also noticed. Lisa worked for a company I freelance with and left to take a better situation. Our Facebook friendship moved forward with her job change. She has even inquired about my
availability to shoot video for her new company, Thanks Lisa.

My point in doing what I did was to take stock in real relationships, ones that mean something more then a picture or 140 characters. I figured out that social media “fiends” are so busy being social they won’t notice if you delete them. I am not sure some of them even noticed when I re-added them recently.

If you noticed that I added you and thought hmm I thought I had already added Skip Before you did. I use Facebook to keep tabs on many friends going back 30 years. I also use it to “try” and get to know people better and develop better relationships that expand beyond 140 characters.

Do you use Facebook? How do you use it? Do the newer and more screwy security issues bother you or are you an open book? Do you interact with people on Facebook or do you just blast them with tweets and 4square messages?

Comcast does not care. They really don’t.

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I have spent almost 3 hours today trying to get Comcast to fix my cable. They converted to digital and two days ago like many millions of people all my HD channels got filtered out. I had cable attached to all my TVs. The free video is now a whopping 50.00 a month.

It gets better however I can cancel my commercial grade internet package and get residential for 70.00 and my kids will still be able to see Nickelodeon and I will have internet also for work. At a time when I am desperately trying to save money this is a step in the wrong direction. I also surmise that Comcast has done this to millions of people and thusly have probably opened up a class action suit on themselves again.

Comcast is wanting you to have a 3D experience for the Masters but they don’t want people watching basic plug and play cable. For the 3D experience you need the glasses, the 3D ready HD TV and a full-blown HD account. Who can afford that these days?

It seems to me that Comcast has lost its way again, Lindsay in the Manchester NH office might care, but Comcast as a company does not seem too.

Wanted: Segment Sponsor for SXSW Interview

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Do you want to be a sponsor of a Pete Cashmore interview at SXSW? Yes Pete Cashmore, he is rumored to be involved with that Mashable something. Do you want your products or goods peddled as commercials during this interview?

Of course you do. Why wouldn’t you?

This interview will take place at SXSW and will be with Jeff Cutler and Mike Langford aka NOMX3 as they delve about all things food and social media?

Did you know their videos get viewed on the following sites… ?

Ustream, YouTube, Blip.tv, Facebook, Twitter, Viddler, Seesmic and more

Did you know they currently get nearly 1000 site visits and 2500 page views per episode? .

Viewer demographics are still being compiled. ( that means lots of viewers watch too many to count in fact) Jeff and Mike are trying.

Do you have a 30 second spot you want dropped in? no problem. We can do this. Other sponsorship opportunities are also available at http://nomx3.com/sponsorship/.

Time is running out so don’t delay operators are standing by Now!!!!

How I use facebook

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Facebook for me is a place for me to try and get to know people better. I only share pictures of my friends and family with people I trust enough to get to know better. If I have invited you it’s because I have known of you and met you IRL (in real life) and think we have enough in common to become better acquainted.

I have invited quite a few people to Facebook and had them go silent however. They are pictures on a wall, I call them “oil paintings”. It’s hard to talk and get to know an oil painting, I have spent time at the MFA talking to a Renoir that has gotten me absolutely nowhere.

Seriously however, In an era when we have so little or no time, I try and take the time to make connections that matter most. On Facebook, to me anyway its about making better acquaintances and better friendships.

Buzz off thanks

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Google Buzz, I tried it, and I was overwhelmed with people from China, Taiwan and other countries wanting to follow me. If I spoke Mandarin it might make sense, since it appears I have trouble with English sometimes maybe not so much. I was never bum rushed like that on twitter, but it was enough to make me stop. Buzz off.

Chris Penn wrote about how Brilliant Google Buzz is. I agree that less noise and better exchanges are great, but I thought friend feed was lots like that. Buzz seemed like friend feed light to me, or friend feed with fewer share channels. While I like friend feed lots, I don’t really think I need two of them. I also don’t relish the need to distract myself any further on a daily basis. Less being more of course.

If you need to turn off your buzz also see the CNET blog post below
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10451703-2.html it tells you in detail how to shut it down correctly. Not doing it correctly apparently leaves your personal info out there.

To tweetup or not to tweetup that is the question.

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My first foray into hosting a tweetup in Boston was an unmitigated disaster. I like 80’s music and I enjoy talking with people. I figured hanging out and listening to 80’s music and talking to people would be fun. I was wrong. This apparently does not a tweetup make. I am not certain what the proper “tweetup parameters are”, but I am sure there are people that worry about that somewhere. I thought I would give it a go, I had read the Stuart Foster article on how to host a successful tweetup after-all.

I had a good venue in House of blues, there was a 80’s concert going on afterward that people could attend if they wanted to pay 20.00 to go see some cool local 80’s bands. I had suggested to people to dress up, make it fun and send me a few 80’s songs they liked and remembered so I could add them to the play list… Crickets.

It wasn’t a total loss or waste of time for I learned much about the online hosting of events and how serious it is. I did learn much more about eventbrite, which btw is a real good platform for your event. They have great customer service and also send you guidance emails which assist in helping you with your event.

I also learned that there are two different tweetvite / twtvite entities. Both look good, and both have good analytic s. Twtvite is dialed into a whole suite of other products. and you can measure practically everything about your tweetup it appears. That’s a good thing right?

Ironically I had much better luck in the 80’s with groups and hosted events. Back then, we yelled our parties and event invites at the top of our lungs out in the Quad at NU. We also usually got about 100 or so attendees. Ahhh progress.

Do you like the 80’s Music?

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I was fortunate enough to attend College in Boston when Boston was the alternative music hub of the universe. I also spent lots of time at Spit and Manray dancing to New Order, The Smiths, The Psychedelic Furs, and many many others. I realized recently that when I decided to host a tweetup about 80’s music at the house of blues this Tuesday 2/11/2010 at 5pm. http://brilliantvideo.eventbrite.com/ that many of the people on twitter may not have been old enough to remember some of the 80’s music. Oops.

The 80’s saw all the great techno dance bands visit Boston. We also had the Cars, and J Geils band as the home team along with many many more great local club bands.

This Thursday the former 80’s music video channel V66 is hosting a reunion concert featuring a bunch of these local Bands from Boston’s 80’s. I encourage the younger twitter users to check out the tweetup and the concert that follows if you can. You will get a crash course on what started the 80’s music scene in America, because all of it started here in Boston.

For more info on the V66 reunion Concert check out House of Blues Boston Website here

God I hate being sick…

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Having an ailment sucks. It stops you in your tracks. I am a relatively healthy person, and as such it takes something like lack of sleep and strep to take me down. When I get taken down however I am a big baby also. Something about wanting to be taken care of emerges. This isn’t my norm, I like to take care of others, so that can be a struggle also albeit a good one I suppose. I am lucky to have a very nice woman in my life. She brought me soup, mashed potatoes and rice pudding today. While I could not taste any of it, I ate it all because it made her happy and made me feel good knowing she cared enough to get me the goodies in the first place. Talk about your chicken soup for your soul. Thanks Terri.

Massachusetts just says no…

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Yesterday was a huge day in Massachusetts and a large day for our country the ramifications may not be fully understood until much later on down the road. The late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat was up and the race was between Martha Coakley Democrat and Scott Brown republican.

The race was very tight about a week ago in some polls, and when democrats in Washington DC started figuring how they could get around the Caucus majority vote thing I thought Coakley was in big trouble and clearly she was.

Lots of money was poured into the campaign on both sides. I recieved phone calls from both camps (I am an independent) and I heard messages from Bill Clinton, President Obama and Vickie Kennedy. I also heard from Scott Brown.

Scott Brown ran the underdog race, and ran the cleaner campaign. When things got messy
it was the Coakley campaign that threw the first mud. When you are the presumed front runner maybe casting the first stone is bad, just FYI.

Scott Brown won and is now the new Republican Senator from Massachusetts. He will now vote on Universal Health care a cause that was very important too and is part of the late Ted Kennedy’s legacy the Senator he now replaces.

In addition to the Socialized Heath-care bill, Massachusetts has seemed disenchanted with Billion dollar bailouts as well. New Englanders are grinders, We don’t need bailouts we grind things out. Lots of people I talked with recently really regret the decision to bail some of those lousy companies out.

Massachusetts has said No to President Obama, billion dollar bailouts and universal heathcare will the rest of the country now follow suit?

Photo by megboudreau

Please Help Haiti if you can.

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As you know there was a devastating Earthquake in Haiti and there are 100,000 people feared dead and or missing currently. Relief will never come fast enough for this country. If you can please contribute to the 12k for 12 widget and donate what you can for Hope for Haiti.

You can read Hope for Haiti’s press release about their aid program here. Additionally, you can follow their progress in Haiti via the Hope For Haiti Twitter account.

Enclosed is the chip in widget to make a donation easier.

http://widget.chipin.com/widget/id/5352447caa8c88fd