billpalmer.net

Today's hint: it's not Hanson! Now go guess again: iProngMagazine.com

I'm privileged to have been invited to be one of the speakers in the User Group Lounge at the 2008 Macworld Expo. Whereas last year I gave my talk on the final day of the Expo, this year I'm scheduled to speak on Tuesday, the same day as the Steve Jobs keynote. Thankfully, not at the same time.

My speaking slot will focus on the iPod/iPhone but I haven't yet settled on the specific topic. Come join me at 4:00 pm, a good four hours after Steve gets done unveiling the new stuff, meaning you (and I) will have plenty of time to go play with the demo units in the exhibit hall before my little talk. I'll pass along more specific details once I have them.

Today's hint: all three band members are in their twenties. Now go guess again: iProngMagazine.com

iProng Magazine, the publication for iPod and iPhone users, will be featuring a popular band on the cover of its inaugural December issue and wants you to guess who that band will be. The first to guess correctly will win one of five Altec Lansing iM600 speaker systems, and the other four will be awarded randomly to four other entrants.

Each weekday starting today, a new hint will be revealed as to the identity of the band on the cover. Entrants will each be allowed to make one guess per day until someone guesses correctly. Each new hint will be located at iProng.com just beneath the iProng logo.

To enter the contest and to read the complete rules, visit iProng Magazine. Remember, you can enter a new guess every day until someone gets it right!

TODAY'S HINT: it's a trio

Can't talk about the cover story yet, but various pieces of the first issue of iProng Magazine are falling into place, which isn't bad considering it's being released on the first of December and this is still October:

- My interview with Joe Hewitt about how he brought Facebook's iPhone application to life is already in the books. Nothing is expected to change with the app between now and print time, but if it does, I'll get back with Joe before the issue is released.

- I've interviewed Tim Bourquin in short-form about next year's New Media Expo, specifically about the name change and the decision to move the show to Vegas. A more substantial interview with Tim will appear in the January issue, focused on his role in the podcasting portion of January's CES (which also happens to be in Vegas).

- later today I'm interviewing Paul Kent briefly about January's Macworld Expo for the December issue, focusing mostly on the big picture. Paul and I will go into greater detail about the Expo in the January issue. In fact, Macworld and CES will represent a huge portion of the January issue; they're basically the Mecca and Medina of the iPod and iPhone universe.

If you think you're seeing a trend here, you're right. Although they'll be released a month apart, the December and January issues are essentially being produced concurrently. I'm trying to give each issue two months of prep time, which means that they're always going to overlap. I think this will give us the benefit of continuity, along with making sure we don't fire off all our creative guns on one issue and leave nothing the tank for the next one.

Yesterday, Lance Anderson (former feature writer for Podcast User Magazine) agreed to join the iProng Magazine staff as a Creative Consultant. Although we won't be writing stories himself, his input on who and what to write about, and how to approach those stories, will be invaluable. You probably won't see Lance's name mentioned much, as his contributions will be mostly internal, but having Lance on board is a big deal. And I'm not done bringing in people with industry experience.

I know, it's silly: I have yet to tell you who's on the December cover, and I'm already discussing the January cover with publicists. I know who's on the December cover, I just can't tell you yet. You'll know soon. And I hope you'll be as excited as I am.

If it all comes together like it should, we've got one musician interviewing another, two video podcasters writing about each other's new podcasts, and more one of a kind content.

I can tell you that Tim Coyne of the Hollywood Podcast is going to write up his experiences at PodCamp Boston for the December issue, while Jason Tucker of GeekFit will be covering PodCamp Arizona, and PodCamp co-founder Chris Brogan will be sharing his experiences from BlogWorld Expo. By going the tag-team route, I think we can provide on-site coverage of most of the important events in the industries we cover. And of course, everything iPod-related that happens at Macworld and CES will be featured in the February issue. Come to think of it, I guess we're producing more than two issues at a time.

1. Great news on Gmail finally getting IMAP support. That only puts them seven years behind .Mac, which has offered IMAP since January 2000, before it was even called .Mac! I don't care if Gmail was always supposed to be web-based. That right there shows that Google never understood email in the first place. They launched the best web-based email system ever, which in and of itself proved that email ain't meant to be done on the web. Bless all of you who love your gmail accounts (and that includes every single geek I know), but I'd slit my wrists if I had to rely on Gmail for anything important. And yeah, I've tried using it. Sorry, but you couldn't pay me to switch over.

2. The postseason success of the Red Sox is masking the fact that their management completely whiffed on acquisitions this year, whether it be Gagne, Drew, etc. (J.D. Drew's big at-bat last week doesn't really erase a wasted season, does it?)

3. I'm looking forward to the release of MacOS X Leopard intently. But I'm not going to stand in line for it. I'll have fun reading the reports of everyone who does, though.

4. I wish I could think of something profound to say about the wildfires here in SoCal, but all I can really say is that I hope everyone reading this is doing okay. For whatever reason the fires haven't reached the city of Los Angeles, and aside from some very mild stinkiness in the air, you'd never know that most of the rest of this part of the State is/was on fire. Of all my SoCal friends and acquaintances, the only one one I know of who's had to evacuate is Adam from MacCast, who is safe. No word yet on his house, but Adam and his family are in the clear. Here's hoping.

5. Not really into Second Life myself, but congrats to all my friends who dig it, seeing as how it was featured prominently in CSI:NY tonight. Hope the change that the publicity brings to your virtual world ends up being a positive one.

Someone asked me that question earlier today on twitter, knowing that I'm a heavy-hearted fan. My answer, which I had to squeeze into 140 characters:

"sometimes they look that bad. sometimes they just look really unlucky. sometimes they look bored. sometimes I can't watch."

If you're thinking that last week's press release seemed hastily assembled, you're right. I reached a point on Thursday morning where I realized I'd told enough people privately about the impending launch that it probably would leak soon if I didn't leak it first, so I announced it on Twitter and Facebook and then crafted a brief general release to make it publicly official. But make no mistake, iProng Magazine has been nearly four years in the making.

When iProng.com first launched back in early 2004 (under the name "iPod Garage" or whatever we were calling it back then), I knew that if successful, iProng would eventually evolve into a magazine. Whether it would be a print magazine, whether it would coexist with or supplant the website, and various other specifics were always hazy, as was the target release date. I was always vaguely shooting for five years out, so getting the first issue out the door after a mere three years and eleven months means that we're actually launching early, stunningly enough. But last week's announcement has led to a variety of questions, many of which I knew were coming, so today seems like as a good a day as any to go ahead and clarify what the roadmap currently looks like, at least to the extent that I can do so publicly.

Why the mix of technology and content? Why include music and podcasting in a magazine for iPod users?

The iPod is first and foremost a content player, and if you're not a fan of music and/or podcasts, you probably don't own one. But don't let the famous faces on each month's cover fool you: the majority of the content in each month's issue will be related to the iPod and iPhone. Just don't expect to see an iPod or iPhone model on the cover unless it's a brand new one, and we're not expecting any of those until mid-January at the soonest.

What kind of music and podcasting content will be included each month?

We're going to leave the heavy lifting of creating your own music and podcasts to those publications devoted solely to those topics. iProng Magazine's content will include feature stories on established musicians and podcasters you ought to know more about, as well as up and comers you'll want to hear about. We'll be taking advantage of the new media space to do things a little differently; in our first issue we're featuring two prominent podcasters, and rather than assigning staffers to write up each, we've asked the two video podcasters to write about each other's shows. And for some crazy reason, they've both agreed to do so. Our musician interviews will be a little out of the ordinary as well. One band currently on tour has invited me to visit them at their hotel when they pass through Los Angeles next month so I can get a real feel for who they are before writing them up, as opposed to the usual fifteen guarded minutes on the phone.

What about the website?

iProng.com has been publishing since 2004 and isn't going away. Just like our iProng Radio podcast didn't hurt the website, iProng Magazine won't hurt it either. While each monthly issue of the magazine will include exclusive features that won't be published separately on the website, those features will always be just a free download away. And if you're thinking that there must be an impending website redesign to correlate with the launch of the magazine, you're on the right track.

Why a digital download version and not a print version?

I'm not ruling out ever having a print version, but I'm certain that the best way for us to get wide distribution is to give iProng Magazine away for free, and you can't give away a print version. Anyone savvy enough to operate an iPod or iPhone is savvy enough to click on a PDF link and then read the contents of the PDF on their screen. If we were going after some stodgy target audience who thought in old fashioned terms, then we might have no choice but to do a print version. But these are iPod and iPhone users we're talking about. Owning an iPod doesn't mean you're a techie, but it means you're open to the digital way of doing things.

...but I can take a print version with me! Can I do that with a digital version?

The great thing about targeting iPod and iPhone users is that both the iPhone and the iPod touch are capable of displaying PDFs linked from a website, meaning that not only can iPhone and iPod users take iProng Magazine with them, they don't even need to sync it from their computer; they can simply download it directly onto their iPhone or iPod touch any time they have wireless access.

...but I really want paper in my hand, what can I do?

For the handful of potential iProng Magazine readers who just have to kill trees to feel satisfied that they're reading a magazine, there's always the print button on your computer. And the beauty of doing it this way is that those users only need to print out specific pages to get what they want, as opposed to every page of the magazine being printed and mailed to them. The cost of printing a few pages for yourself would still be less than the three or four dollars we'd have to charge for a print version of the issue. But we're confident readers will be thrilled with a free digital copy of each month's issue.

Who's going to be on the cover of the December issue?

Nice try.

Alright, I hope that makes the vision a little more clear. Much as I'd like to put everything out in the open right here and now, some of the details are going to have to wait until they're ready to see the light of day; name-dropping the artist who will appear on the first cover wouldn't be appropriate right now for instance. But the beautiful part about publicly announcing this earlier than I originally planned is that I've been able to get immediate feedback from people whose opinion I value (which in this case includes pretty much anyone willing to cough up an opinion on the matter). Even with the relative lack of details last week, the questions people have asked have inspired more than a few "oh yeah, we should consider that, shouldn't we?" moments.

Aside from the encouraging words from various members of the new media community and the iPod industry, the really gratifying part is that the editors of both Blogger & Podcaster Magazine and Podcast User Magazine both sent encouraging words my way on the day I announced iProng Magazine. Not that we'll be competing with either one of them (our twenty percent podcasting content won't hold a candle to the podcasting-specific nature of both of their fine publications), but it's nice to know that we're being welcomed with open arms. It also means we'll never have a potentially embarrassing moment where we both put a picture of the same podcaster on the cover in the same month, for instance. I've written articles for B&P, and I've been quoted more than once in PUM, so I feel like I'm indebted to both of them right out of the gate, and their support on this means a lot.

Equally cool is the fact that a number of tech-oriented websites have already signed on a distribution partners (which in digital context means they'll simply make sure all of their readers know that we've released the new issue each month), including one iPod-specific website, so it's nice to see that the publications in this industry that we respect are willing to support us as we go down this new road.

I'm going to keep blogging about the progress of the first issue because, well, it's what's on my mind and it's my blog. As we progress, it'll be fun to announce some of the various features that we'll be including. For instance, I can already confirm that Joe Hewitt, who wrote the iPhone app for Facebook which was featured in the September 5th Steve Jobs keynote, has agreed to a brief interview for our December issue (and I don't mind announcing it because we've already done the interview). But that barely scratches the surface of what we're currently sitting on for the first issue alone; for instance we'll be featuring a new podcast from an already-prominent podcaster but I cant tell you about it right now because the podcast itself isn't publicly available yet (although I've been having quite a bit of fun watching it this month).

Those various undercover aspects aside, I'll try to be as open as possible between now and the day the first issue is released with regards to where things are headed and what will be in that issue. If there's one thing I've learned by hanging out with social media types over the past year, it's that being open about what you intend to do is a great way to get feedback, positive or otherwise, which can really save you from making a key mistake, or missing an opportunity that's obvious to everyone but yourself. So I promise to leak what I can :-)

iProng is taking the next step in its evolution by launching a monthly magazine for iPod and iPhone users. iProng Magazine will feature sixty percent iPod/iPhone content, twenty percent music industry content, and twenty percent podcasting content. Each monthly issue will include best-of content from the iProng website combined with exclusive magazine-only content penned by notable contributors from across the industry.

The first issue of iProng Magazine will be released December 1st. In order to reach the widest audience possible, iProng Magazine will be released solely as a free PDF-based download which users can read on their computer, iPhone, internet-enabled iPod, or print a copy for themselves. Each issue will be freely downloadable from iProng.com or any of our partner websites.

More information on iProng Magazine to follow soon. As a current iProng reader, we wanted you to hear about it first.

Much thanks,
Bill Palmer
Publisher of iProng.com and iProng Magazine

screen capture from Reckless Drivin' video game

Listen to iProng Radio #54 right now or subscribe for free!

On this week's show:

On episode #54 live from Podcast Expo, Bill Palmer of iProng and Scott Stys from the Open Window Podcast interview singer-songwriter Matthew Ebel, who performed later that evening at official Expo concert. Matthew shares with Bill and Scott how he first got involved with podcasting, how his forthcoming album is progressing, and his experiences so far at first Podcast Expo. We close the show with the (fully legal) studio version of "Lost My Way" from Matthew's upcoming album.



- Listen to iProng Radio #54 right now in your browser

- Subscribe to iProng Radio for free and get each episode delivered to your iTunes automatically

- Visit Matthew Ebel's official website to learn more about his music or pre-order his album.

- Visit Scott Stys' Open Window Podcast and Bar Nuts Podcast

- Reader feedback: radio@iprong.com

- Miss us between episodes? Visit iProng.com, the Publication for iPod and iPhone usersª

KT Tunstall is seemingly everywhere right now. In the span of an hour this evening I saw her featured in an Ask.com commercial, heard one of her songs being played in the grocery store, and saw her poster in the window of a movie rental storefront. This all is on top of the fact that she was hanging out with Steve Jobs and the rest of us at the Apple press event last month (see left sidebar). None of this is by coincidence. I wouldn't even have to know that she just released an album to know that she just released an album; her omnipresence gives that away. You want to promote your new album, you simply have to be everywhere.

Accordingly I've learned that if you want to interview a musician, your best shot of doing so is when they're releasing a new album. And that's for a variety of reasons: no artist wants to break their creative concentration by stopping to do an interview while they're in the studio creating the album, and what exactly would they have to talk about anyway? Best to get with them right when the album is going on sale, because they'll have plenty to say about it, and the fact that it's just gone on sale bring with it the motivation to do as many interviews as possible. And of course there's the fact that they typically hit the road right after the album drops, meaning they've got a fair amount of time to kill in strange cities between gigs and typically don't mind jumping on the phone with one interviewer after another.

That's a long and winding way of saying that if you want your interview you've got to follow along with the progress of their forthcoming album and tour, and then strike while the iron is hot. You also have to know precisely whom to contact, but that's another lesson for another day. I've done plenty of album-just-droppped-tour-just-began interviews, and they're always fun (mainly because the artist has plenty to say) but they're also always when the artist is in a certain state of mind. And typically, the next time you'd get to talk to that artist is just after the next album drops, at which time they will have once again cycled back to the same state of mind.

One of the nice things about being here in LA is that musicians tend to play here rather frequently, often with multiple stops on the same tour, and doing on-site interviews at venues is a commonplace practice. This evening I went scanning around the various schedules and found that two of iProng Radio's previous interview subjects are playing gigs here in LA within the next month. I thought it would be nice to catch up with them, follow up with the topics we discussed back at the beginning of their tours, see if things played out in the way they were expecting to.

So I hollered at one of them through their label, and at the other through, well, Facebook (I love social media). We'll see if it happens or not, as it's not exactly considered standard practice. But from the start I've been wondering when this new-media-type would get to start doing music coverage in a way that's different from the way old media covers music, and maybe this is it. I've never known where this music journalism stuff is going to take me next, and that's the case here, but as always we'll see.

I found myself wincing this evening at my odds of success when I realized that the Foo Fighters were playing Saturday Night Live in the same week I put in my interview request with the band's publicist, but hey, you never know. Later this week I'm (supposed to be) interviewing another artist who's way too popular to be doing my show because he's got a specific reason for wanting to chat with me, and at one time or another I've managed to get interviews with a Grammy winner, an artist who's already been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and an artist who's sold more than a hundred million albums. It's all about striking (in the right manner) while the iron is hot, and now I'm about to find out whether I can strike again with some of these same folks while the iron is local.

I've gotten quite used to the iPhone's virtual keyboard. I can't really identify with fellow early adopters who claim they still can't get the hang of it, and I suspect they're a rather small group making a disproportionate amount of noise. In any case typos can and do happen no matter what kind of device you're pecking away on.

One of the coolest things about the iPhone is that its typo auto-corrector is smart enough that it can often sense that you're typing every letter of a word by pressing one key to the left or right of the one you intended, which occasionally happens to me while I'm walking while typing or otherwise not paying proper attention to what I'm typing. I'm always left smiling when I manage to type nearly every letter of a word wrong, and near the end of the word the iPhone is still cheerfully suggesting the word it somehow knew I was trying to type. As a result, when I'm typing a particularly long word and I realize halfway through that I'm missing on every keystroke, I sometimes just keep going under the assumption that the iPhone will be able to fish the correct word out for me in the end.

And I guess I've gotten a little too used to the iPhone saving me in this regard, because last night while I was walking home from yoga class I was replying to a Twitter message and was attempting to type "thanks for the encouragement." I knew I was choking pretty badly while trying to type the word "encouragement" but kept going expecting it all to work out. Except for once my iPhone left me to my own devices, and since I didn't bother to glance at my message before I hit the Update button, I realized I had just posted a message that said "thanks for the enxoyrahemeny."

When "Silent Bob" Kevin Smith was doing his Q&A at Macworld Expo, someone asked him why he makes fun of his poorly-receieved movie "Jersey Girl" so often. Kevin said it's to steal the thunder of anyone else who might be planning on making fun of it. And you know what? It works. So I borrowed his strategy by making a subsequent Twitter post making fun of myself for this most unexplainable of typos, except now I've apparently started a trend and added a new (very difficult to spell) word to the English language.

This morning I awoke to find the word "enxoyrahemeny" used in the post that someone made to my Facebook wall, and I suspect there will be more where that came from. Hey, why not? It's a fun word. Now I just have to come up with a proper pronunciation and formal definition. Suggestions welcome :-)

On episode #53 live from Podcast Expo, iProng publisher Bill Palmer is joined by iPhone hacking experts Shooby Kumar and Allison Sheridan for the "Should you hack your iPhone?" panel at the OC Podcasters booth.



- Listen to iProng Radio #53 right now in your browser

- Subscribe to iProng Radio for free and get each episode delivered to your iTunes automatically

- Visit Allison Sheridan's Podfeet website to listen to NosillaCast.

- Visit Shooby Kumar's website for more on his iPhone bricking.

- Reader feedback: radio@iprong.com

- Miss us between episodes? Visit iProng.com, the Publication for iPod and iPhone usersª

Text messaging died the day the iPhone began shipping, most users just haven't figured that out yet. What's that you say, text messaging is here to say? Ten years ago everyone was saying that pagers were here to stay as well.

Some folks have interpreted my "I've given up on television" post of a week ago to mean that I'll no longer be tuning in for any episodic TV. I haven't given up on watching, I've merely given up on the idea that I need to make a point of tuning in at any given time for any specific show. The real world just keeps getting increasingly in the way, and because the real world is more interesting, the real world keeps winning. It's not that I don't miss a few shows that I'm missing. The show I've regretted missing the most this season has been The Office, whose first two episodes I missed due to professional obligations, and if not for NBC shows having disappeared iTunes, I would likely have downloaded both of them by now.

In any case I haven't seen the first two episodes but thought I might tune in earlier this evening because it was the first night this week where there weren't any real world events to say otherwise. You can't go out every night, even when the goings-on are mostly professional, even when you live in LA. And tonight was my night to stay home. So when my evening walk / iPod touch armband testing session concluded shortly before 9pm, I actually went so far as to tune in to The Office on my television. And I almost made it through the opening credits.

One last quick glance at Twitter to make sure I wasn't missing anything before I closed the lid on my MacBook and committed to watching The Office for an hour, and I see a post saying that Cali Lewis was going to be live-streaming the taping of the latest episode of GeekBrief. Cali co-hosted iProng Radio last week (was that only a week ago?) and I watch her show every day, so I figured here was a neat opportunity to see what goes on behind the scenes of her show, which being a video podcast, is a wee bit more intricate than my audio-only show. So I figured I'd drop in and say hi, watch a bit of the live stream, and then get back to The Office by the time the initial post-opening-credits commercial break was over.

Next thing I know it's an hour and change later, The Office is long since over, and I didn't even really miss it. The live stream was simply more interesting. The fact that real people were involved had something to do with it. Okay, so Cali is sorta kinda playing a character in her show, and "Cali Lewis" isn't even her real name, but it's still her. And when you're watching The Office, does Steve Carell drop out of character during commercial breaks and chat with the audience about what's going on behind the scenes?

Jason Tucker from OC Podcasters and Craig Patchett from San Diego Podcasters were in on the live chat as well, and at one point I think I heard Jason offer to help host Cali's meetup the next time she makes it out to the west coast. You get the idea. Real interaction with real people. The fact that the previous two nights involved me meeting with real people face to face, and tonight involved me meeting with real people over a chat room and video stream, doesn't matter so much. Face to face meetings with people aren't always possible, and certainly can't be as frequent as we'd all like, and to me that's what all this Twitter and Facebook and uStream stuff is all about.

Cali let the cat out of the bag tonight as far as the future of iProng Radio (or I should say she let roughly one-fifth of the cat out of the bag), but you had to be watching the live stream to catch it. The rest of you will just have to wait another week to find out :-)

What impresses me here is that Apple has already won the iPod vs. non-iPod war (at least for now) and yet they continue to advertise the iPod prominently. This ad on Hollywood Boulevard next to El Capitan Theatre (home of Jimmy Kimmel Live) must be costing them a fortune, and I'd imagine the ten-story tall ad on the side of the Public Storage building on Highland avenue must be costing them a pretty penny as well.



Still waiting for a giant iPhone ad to pop up somewhere in town though...

- Quote today from Lance Anderson of Verge of the Fringe, one of the true trendsetters I've encountered, with what he thinks when the trend chasers begin to "jump ship" for the next fad.

Some bloggers have their Twitter feed piped right into their blog on a daily basis, but I've never been sold on the idea that a stream of Twitter posts makes all that much sense when taken out of context. The whole point of Twitter is to read them while they're happening, in amongst those of the other people you're following, reply if you want to, but mainly the idea is that they're digested in real time and within context.

Every once in awhile, though, they serve as documentation of a certain event or time period, and that more or less happened this evening. I received an iPod touch armband for review and felt like heading out to begin the first round of product testing, so I strapped it onto my arm and headed out on an aimless walk which took me to Hollywood Boulevard and back. Since I was really just looking to spend a few hours wearing the product while walking and didn't have a further agenda, I ended up just twittering pretty much everything I was randomly doing or seeing.

So the next time you wonder what goes into the process of testing a new iPod accessory for review, well...not sure you always want to see how the sausage is made, but here it is. Because this is out of context it's missing the replies people sent to me in real-time, and I went ahead and removed the replies I sent back since they wouldn't make any sense here at all. But it'll give you an idea I suppose...

----------

ah, an armband for the iPod touch. time to dust off the touch...doesn't get a lot of use when there's an iPhone in the house

we'll see if the touch is too heavy/bulky to work on your arm. it's the thinnest/lightest full-size iPod ever

I have a few Grand Central invites. Holler if you really want one

walking down Hollywood Blvd for no clear reason

didn't realize Hollywood and Highland center had so many hidden shops upstairs

here four months and I finally find a French dip shop by accident

one attractive female patron is walking into this French dip shop after another. Maybe they need me for a part time job or something?

I don't want to get in the way of you taking a picture of Grauman's. But I also don't want to step into the road. Hit by one car is enough

she asked me what my "pink floyd / pig" shirt means. I don't know, my mom bought it for me. Probably not the right answer

laughing so hard at @lifespring's last tweet that the homeless people on La Brea were looking at me funny. I'm not kidding

they opened a strip club across from Jim Henson Company. The giant Kermit statue is looking directly over at the club

now I understand why the Kermit statue is dressed in a blue suit, tophat, and cane. Miss Piggy will not be amused

after 2 hours I can say that the iPod touch on an armband is infuriating. Apple's fault, you can't turn the coverflow gyroscope off!

but if the last two hours count as "work" then I have nothing in this life to complain about

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If the above hasn't scared you off and you'd like to follow me on Twitter in real time, you can do so at twitter.com/billpalmer. Don't let the above fool you; I rarely talk about iPod-related stuff on Twitter. It's more of a documentation of my life when I'm out and about. And it's a great way to keep in touch with people you don't get to see in real life as often as you'd like to. When I twittered on Tuesday night that I'd been tapped into by a car while walking down the Sunset Strip, I had a few different people asking if I was okay the next night at the OC Podcasters meeting.

You can watch my updates at the above link without needing to post anything (or even needing to create an account), but the fun begins when you dive in yourself...particularly when you find the other people you know in real life (or follow online) on Twitter and start following them as well. Create an account, click the follow button, check out my "following" link to find other people I find interesting and follow them, and that'll get you started.

PS: if you start following me and I don't start following you back within a few days, please email me since I don't always seem to get the "new follower" notifications. See you on Twitter!

...and yes, I still have a few Grand Central invites left. Use Twitter to ask me for one and you shall receive :-)

I doubt it has much to do with me, rather I think karma is much more alive and well than some people quite realize. But it seems like every time someone goes out of their way to help me, I end up reading about something good that happened to them not long thereafter.

I bought a car the week before Podcast Expo and drove it around LA just enough to feel safe in using it for the fifty mile trek out to Ontario for the Expo. As my luck with cars would dictate, it turns out my car had a slight hidden tear in a hose which didn't manifest itself until I was on my way to the Expo and it decided to start overheating. Odds of finding an honest mechanic in a sleepy town like Ontario, California on a weekend? About the same odds of finding the time to get the car to a mechanic while exhibiting at the Expo.

Enter Walter of TresJefes, who I've known through LA Podcasters events for awhile. Walter decides he's going to help me figure out what's wrong with the car, and spends the better part of an hour, running water through the radiator to find the leak, then fills me in on exactly what hose I need to go get from the auto parts store, effectively saving my hide and allowing me to get back to focusing on the Expo.

Today the latest issue of Podcast User Magazine came out, and there's Walter right there on the front cover with the rest of TresJefes. Pure karma, gang. And come to think of it, the other two Jefes, Fonz and Erik, gave me a ride to the train station after an LA Podcasters meeting a few months ago. See what happens when you're nice to me, folks? ;-)

Seriously, is there another industry where the guy who's about to be featured on the cover of a magazine is willing to stand there in a parking lot and help you figure out what's wrong with your car? And you wonder why I love the podcasting community so much.

Does this mean that NOLA Trey, who took me to an auto parts store after the Expo and installed my new hose for me right there in the parking lot, will be on the cover of a magazine next month? I'm just saying.

Sometimes your evening just plays out like a game of MadLibs. When getting hit by a car doesn't even qualify as one of the two or three most interesting parts of your night, you know you've had a bizarre one.

Started out normally enough. I was headed to the Roxy to interview Shannon Crawford about his new band Monster in the Machine before his gig, and Charles Stepczyk from Insomnia Radio was meeting me there to help with the interview. So I walked over to the Roxy, realized I was there too early, and wandered into the bar next door which happened to be the Rainbow (yes it was that Rainbow, the famous one from the Red Hot Chili Peppers song, but I didn't know that until someone in the bar pointed it out to me).

Shannon meets up with us, we find a quiet corner of the artist ready room upstairs at the Roxy, and we do the interview. Went well, got some great candid answers from Shannon (including a line about Lindsay Lohan that makes the interview worth listening to all by itself), wrapped up and realized we had a good hour to kill before the performances started. And that's where the fun started.

Charles and I walk over to a pizza joint, and on the way back to the Roxy some car is backing out of the alleyway as slow as it can go, and hits me. After going through that moment of "am I really being run over by car in slow motion? Holy crap, I'm actually being run over by a car in slow motion!", I take a few steps back and manage to not get run over, laughingly realizing that I'm maybe the only person who's ever been hit by a car and only been hit on their wrist. At this point Charles decides to one-up me by sharing that while he was driving to the Roxy someone threw an encyclopedia-sized book at his car, presumably trying to make it go through his window. No word on whether the guy who tried to run me over in slow motion was the same guy who tried to force Charles to read a book.

We get back to the Roxy and after MITM finishes their set we realize that Pete Yorn is standing there in the audience. I sort of know Pete from when we did an interview about a year ago, and also from when we chatted briefly backstage at Lollapalooza this summer, so I wasn't gonna not say hello, but I also wasn't gonna chat him up since he was clearly there as a fan of one of the bands, not looking to be mugged by folks. So I say my hello, walk away, get a drink, come back to the audience area, and midway through the next band's set I realize I've been unintentionally standing next to Pete the whole time. So now I'm trying not to be a fanboy by staring at him (of all the musicians I've ever interviewed, he might be my favorite of the bunch), and yet here I am standing next to Pete Yorn for an extended period of time and not talking to him, and that's just weird.

Then I realize that there will be some folks who won't believe he was really there, so I decide to get a picture as proof. I wasn't going to ask him to pose for one (see above fanboy reference), so in an all-time lame move I compromised by pulling out my iPhone and taking a poorly-lit picture of the back of his head while he wasn't looking. Now this is a guy who I've had on my show before, I've chatted with him in person before, we've had our picture taken together before, I've introduced him to friends before, and here I am taking a picture of the back of the poor guy's head and hoping he won't notice. Because I'm just that much of an idiot.



Around this time some girl in the audience comes up to Charles and me, claiming to be the sister of the guy who's currently on stage singing, but later in the conversation admits she's not really his sister. I was tempted to inform her that she was standing back to back with Pete Yorn and she didn't even know it, but hadn't I already abused the poor guy enough without unleashing someone's pretend sister on him?

Eventually Pete's gone, the pretend sister is gone, the bands are done doing their thing, and it's time for Charles and I to be gone. So Charles offers to give me a ride home, and on the way we stop for a red light and down the crosswalk comes a man on stilts wearing a creepy-looking cat mask. That's not a metaphor or code for something. He was walking on stilts, he had a mask of a cat on his face, and it was creepy. This I managed to get a picture of, because at that point even I wasn't sure it was really happening and I figured I'd want to be able to confirm it to myself later.



I don't know if the utter strangeness of the evening will come across in print the way it did in real life, but I've gotta tell you, living in Los Angeles is fodder for one MadLibs moment after another. While I was standing next to Pete Yorn I received an email asking me if I wanted to write something for a book, at which point I had to suppress the urge to lean over and say "Hey Pete, can you believe they want me to be in a book?" because, as I said earlier, I'm just that much of an idiot. And this town suits me.

iProng Radio #52: Natalie Gelman reports in from Digital Life NYC

On episode #52, iProng publisher Bill Palmer is joined by iProng contributing writer Natalie Gelman who reports in from Digital Life NYC, detailing the various iPod and iPhone related products on display. We also discuss the latest in Natalie's singer-songwriter career, including her recent rise through the ranks at Famecast. We close out the show with a podsafe version of Natalie's song "Never Had You" from her latest album.



- Listen to iProng Radio #52 with Natalie Gelman right now in your browser

- Subscribe to iProng Radio for free and get each episode delivered to your iTunes automatically

- Visit Natalie Gelman's website to learn more her music and upcoming tour dates.

- Vote for Natalie Gelman at Famecast.

- Reader feedback: radio@iprong.com

- Miss us between episodes? Visit iProng.com, the Publication for iPod and iPhone usersª

iProng Radio #51: my Podcast Expo interview with Whitney Steele (and she sings on-air!)

On episode #51 live from Podcast Expo, singer-songwriter Whitney Steele joins iProng's Bill Palmer and Lifespring's Steve Webb for an interview about Whitney's participation in the podcasting community and how it's affected her musical career. Whitney also offers up an impromptu live performance of her song "Movie Star" marking the first live musical performance in the history of iProng Radio.



- Listen to iProng Radio #51 with Whitney Steele life from the 2007 Podcast Expo right now in your browser

- Subscribe to iProng Radio for free and get each episode delivered to your iTunes automatically

- Visit Whitney Steele's official website or her MySpace page to learn more about her music and upcoming tour dates.

- Visit the Lifespring Podcast website to learn more about guest interviewer Steve Webb.

- Reader feedback: radio@iprong.com

- Miss us between episodes? Visit iProng.com, the Publication for iPod and iPhone usersª

Sorry geeks, the iPhone is not for you

in response to the umpteenth "iPhone can't even do that?" email to hit my inbox of late...

Dear geeks of the world,

You keep asking what Apple's problem is when it comes to allowing the iPhone to be hacked by third party installations. I'm afraid the "problem" is that simply put, the iPhone is not designed for you.

Certainly you have the right to feel disappointed that the cellphone Apple brought to market has very little in common with a hypothetical Apple cellphone that you've been dreaming about, but the fact is that the iPhone is what it is: a mainstream consumer-level phone with some traditional "smartphone" features built in. It's clearly not meant to compete with the blackberry or treo; it's meant for people like me who have been stuck on a featureless phone like the RAZR because we find so-called "smartphones" to be unusably overcomplicated.

Why would Apple do this? Because at last count less than ten percent of all cellphone users in this country are using a smartphone, with the rest of us (ninety percent-plus) still using something lame and crappy like a RAZR and desperately wishing that someone would bring a feature-laden phone to market that was simple enough to be easy to use. In a future version of the iPhone, Apple might care about the folks currently on smartphones, but they're coming after the ninety percent of us dummies first.

Once you accept that that's what Apple is doing, the rest of it all makes sense. The last thing a novice phone user like me would ever want to do is start installing third party apps frontier-style on my first feature-phone. So Apple has apparently decided not to waste time focusing on something that the iPhone's target audience isn't interested in anyway. Sure, installing software on your Mac is pretty easy, but you're making use of installer apps, disk images, drag and drop, or however else third party software is delivered (not to mention you're dealing with a three-inch screen, just a few buttons, and a stripped-down MacOS, making it all the more complicated than on a regular Mac). Apple can only work on so many iPhone features at a time, and supporting third party installations is rightfully nowhere near the top of their list.

You don't have to like, agree with, or find acceptable the fact that Apple is completely ignoring existing smartphone users when it comes to the iPhone, but I think you have to agree that it's pretty clear that Apple could care less about the phone geeks right now. Geeks are going to continue to buy the iPhone and try to hack it into something it's not, and that's your right, but Apple sees you guys as nothing more than an annoyance at this point.

Apple took the music player market by marketing to the mainstream and then letting the geeks fall in line, and they're using the same strategy here. I still hear geeks complaining that the iPod is too limited or too user-friendly, but that doesn't change the fact that Apple's strategy worked and the iPod has most of the market. Some will argue that the same strategy won't work as well in the phone market, but let's all at least agree that that's what Apple's strategy is.

I've given up on television

I knew this would happen to an extent when I moved to LA, but I didn't know it would happen this fast or be this drastic: there's no longer anything on television that I feel I can't miss. There are no longer any TV shows, comedy or drama, that make me want to stay home. I live in the real world so I might as well get my entertainment from the real world. And no, I'm not talking about reality television.

Much of how I got to this point has to do with a few boneheaded moves by NBC/Universal. The cancellation of Studio 60 after one season not only took my favorite show away from me, it also convinced me (and likely the networks) that intelligent TV shows can no longer survive and that as a result it'll be a long time before any of the new shows we see have any thoughtfulness to them. And I've fallen for the trap of getting to know a batch of new characters only to have them disappear after one season (or less) for the last time; I automatically refuse to start watching any new show until it's been renewed for its second season, at which time I might consider catching up.

But I tried this with Heroes only to find the NBC yanked it from iTunes just shortly before I was planning on grabbing all the back-episodes. Problem solved, I just won't become a Heroes watcher after all. Good job, NBC. But then it really came to a hilt when the opening week for most fall TV shows happened to be the week of Podcast Expo, meaning that I was either too busy prepping or at the expo itself. I did manage to catch the premieres of NCIS (getting stale), Criminal Minds (jumped the shark), CSI:NY (I've never been in love with it), and Boston Legal (love it but I won't die if I miss an episode). I missed the premiere of House, and when I went to grab it from iTunes a few hours before the second episode was supposed to air, I found that it wasn't there. So I didn't watch the second episode either. Good job, FOX. And then there was the office, whose premiere I missed while I was in Ontario, and which of course is missing from iTunes because NBC/Universal is a suicidal company. Good job again, NBC!

Part of my problem is that I grew so dependent on my DVR back in Florida that I didn't even remember what show was on what night. When I came to LA it was right after the season ended so getting a DVR wasn't the biggest priority at the time, Four months later and I still don't have one. And you know what? I don't really miss it.

This past week I spent my evenings at a music club (MoZella and Curtis Peoples on the same bill), a comedy club (the hilarious Tim Coyne of LA Podcasters), and a yoga class (thank you Hillary Rubin of LA Podcasters for inviting me). This upcoming week I'm going to another music club to do an on-site musician interview, dinner with a friend, a podcasters meetup, and another yoga class. I've documented my professional reasons for moving to Los Angeles, but there were personal reasons as well, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that there's always something going on. And nine times out of ten, whatever's going on here in the "real world" is more compelling than whatever is on television on a given night.

I'm not saying that I refuse to turn the thing on anymore. If I need background noise to keep my rolling with my work I'm always going to have the sports news turned on, and if the opportunity is there to take in pro football games I'm going to do so (I've got the Bears-Packers game on right now). But the beauty of sports-themed television is that you can usually just walk away from it or turn it off when you feel like it (I walked down to the corner store and back during the third quarter), and so it's the last vestige of television I'm still holding onto.

I might get sucked back in at some point if it slows down (for instance I still intend to check out 24 when it returns in January). But when are things going to slow down? We're ten days away from taking iProng Radio in a whole new direction, accessories for the newest iPods are starting to show up en masse, and Macworld Expo is two months away. Television, I love you, but I think I'm going to need to start seeing other people. You're welcome to do the same.

Four years already?

Can't let the day end without sharing the fact that my grandmother passed away four years ago today. Been thinking about it all day. My regret is that most of the success I've had in life has been in the past four years, and that see hasn't been around to see it. It's actually not a coincidence. Although I don't think I consciously realized it at the time, it was her death that motivated me to get out of the rut I was in at the time and start over aiming higher. I just wish she was around to see it.

Went to my first yoga class tonight

My general stiffness has given me back pain since I was a teenager, which has progressively worsened to where I've been on prescription anti-inflammatories since I was twenty-five. I don't generally like to talk about it much, partly because of the stigma associated with the number of people who fake back problems to get out of all kinds of things, and partly because talking about it doesn't really accomplish anything. There are the occasional embarrassing moments where you have to ask your family and friends to move your furniture for you while you stand there like an idiot, or when you have to ask your colleagues to carry stuff around for you at industry events, but that's the way it goes.

But these days, short of turning to prescription pain killers (which I will never, ever do) there's nothing more I can do medication-wise for my back, and that's a problem when I have days where I have to spend all day on the computer (hey, it's what I do for a living) and my back problems make me significantly less productive than I'd like to be. Since I've been in Los Angeles I've turned to chiropractic work, which has been a nice start. But after spending a fair amount of time at Podcast Expo with my yoga instructor friends, one of them pointed out that yoga could help my back. Okay, where do I sign up?



Tonight was my first class. As with the chiropractic sessions, I walked out of the yoga studio feeling like I'd been on the wrong end of a gang fight, but also knowing that I'd just done something good for myself. My stiffer-than-a-tree-trunk body didn't seem to be thrilled about what I was doing to it this evening, which I take as a sign that I should keep doing it.

The class was certainly a different experience, way outside of my normal comfort level, but that's not a bad thing. The fact that I already knew the instructor from outside of the class helped greatly; I wouldn't have walked into a yoga class cold without knowing anyone. And the fact that her husband was there as a fellow student probably helped a little because it meant that I wasn't the only guy in the class.

When I interviewed snowboarder Hannah Teter earlier this year about how she used her iPod during her olympic gold medal run, she was trying to convince me to get into yoga right from the first conversation we ever had. I'll have to let her know that she succeeded :-)

Wake me when the "iPod catches fire" story is over

Because of what I cover for a living, over the next week I'll be asked a hundred times about the iPod nano which caught on fire in some dude's pocket in Georgia, and every time I'll just shrug and wonder why no one has anything better to ask me about. They're already covering it here on the local nightly news in Los Angeles, which I find odd because this particular story is of course neither local nor news (but when has that ever stopped them?).

Bottom line is that with more than a hundred million iPods sold, this is the first one to ever spontaneously combust (if it really even happened), meaning that it's nothing more than a freak fluke; otherwise you'd have heard about other instances of it by now. Let's face it, if the device in question was a SanDisk and not an iPod, we wouldn't even be hearing about it.

But, mainstream news folks with no real news to report on, you know how to reach me regarding this story.

Get well Isaac Hanson

Speaking of Curtis Peoples, the last time I went to see him perform (couple of months ago) it turned out that one of the other artists on the bill that night was the band Hanson performing under a fake name. They're adults now, in their twenties, but still essentially recognizable (at least when they're all together). It was an eclectic set they did that night, complete with guests jumping on and off stage all night, a mix of a cappella stuff, but the bottom line is the Hanson guys are talented musicians and great singers.



On the way out of the venue, the oldest Hanson brother Isaac and I ended up having a conversation about what still needs to be added to the iPhone, since we're both die-hard users. Of course I had to get the obligatory "it's me with the kid from Hanson!" picture, but he seemed like a genuinely nice guy. So it bothered me more than a little bit last night when I got home and came across a story that he was in the hospital with a pulmonary embolism and his life was on the line.

Big relief this morning when I read that he did in fact have life-saving surgery and is expected to make a full recovery and should be able to resume his career soon. So anyway, that's good news.

Got to see two of my favorites perform last night

For a brief moment I thought I was going to be faced with a tough decision when it came to where to be on the night of October 3rd: do I go see singer-songwriter MoZella perform that night at a club in Hollywood, or do I go see singer-songwriter Curtis Peoples perform at a club in Hollywood? Hmm, can't be in two places at once. Let's see, Curtis is playing at Knitting Factory, and Mo is playing at...Knitting Factory. Duh. They're performing on the same bill. Problem solved by realizing that there wasn't one to begin with.

I came across both of these up-and-comers by accident. Back in November I was trolling MySpace looking for musicians I wanted to interview on iProng Radio and happened across MoZella about a week before her debut album was to be released (MySpace isn't good for much these days but it's still good for that). An email later and I'm interviewing Mo on her release date. I found Curtis when I went to a club a few days after I moved out here to see another artist on the bill that night. Wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to have him on the show right now since he's currently in the studio working on his new album, but we'll get him on once it's about to be released (sorry, I don't have a release date for you).



Anyway they both delivered great sets last night, and while I was hoping they'd duet on something, I'll settle for the fact that I got to hear tracks from Curtis' new album and I finally got to hear MoZella sing "Irreplaceable" for the first time. They're both in the iTunes Store if you want to check them out, and you should.

And sorry geeks, MoZella has had that nickname since she was a kid and therefore was definitely not named after the Mozilla web browser.

Heading out to see fellow LA Podcasters member Tim Coyne perform at M-bar tonight in Hollywood. Saw his show there a few weeks ago and he was hilarious. It's not so much standup as it is just storytelling with a thousand funny spots along the way. I'll go to just about anything once to support a fellow group member, but when you see me going back again, it's because it's that good.

My appearance on this week's MyMac.com podcast

I keep this up and my blog is going to turn into one big list of all the podcasts I'm guesting on (actually I'll be taking it in the other direction but more on that later). Anyway you can find me on today's episode of the MyMac Podcast which is, as always, a blast to participate in and listen to. Lots of stuff about the iPhone, iPod touch, is Apple evil?, etc. this time around. Check it out!

iProng Radio #50 with guest co-host Cali Lewis of GeekBrief.tv

because your fiftieth episode doesn't happen every day...

Listen to iProng Radio #50 right now or subscribe for free!

On this week's show:

On episode #50, Bill Palmer of iProng is joined by guest co-host Cali Lewis of GeekBrief.tv for a discussion of the latest iPhone news, Cali's take on the new iPods, an update on her medical condition, and more!



- Listen to iProng Radio #50 with Cali Lewis of GeekBrief.tv right now in your browser

- Subscribe to iProng Radio for free and get each episode delivered to your iTunes automatically

- Visit the GeekBrief.tv website to learn more about Cali Lewis and subscribe to GeekBrief.

- Reader feedback: radio@iprong.com

- Miss us between episodes? Visit iProng.com, the Publication for iPod and iPhone usersª

My iPod/iPhone experts panel from Podcast Expo is now available for download

Some live panels turn out a little better than others. And sometimes you all walk off the panel saying "wow that was cool." The iPod/iPhone panel that I moderated at the LA Podcasters booth at the Podcast and New Media Expo this past weekend was one of those times...

Listen to iProng Radio #49 right now or subscribe for free!

On this week's show:

Live from the Podcast and New Media Expo, iProng Radio host Bill Palmer is joined by Victor Cajiao of the Typical Mac User Podcast, Ken Ray of Mac OS Ken, Adam Christianson of the MacCast, Dave Hamilton of the Mac Observer and iPodObserver, and Shelly Brisbin of Blogger and Podcaster Magazine and Shelly's Podcast. The live panel, which took place at the LA Podcasters booth next door to the iProng booth, included a lively hour-long discussion of topics ranging from the new iPods and recent iPhone headlines to new iTunes competitor AmazonMP3 and more.



- Listen to iProng Radio #49 live from Podcast Expo right now in your browser

- Subscribe to iProng Radio for free in iTunes and get every episode automatically

- Visit the LA Podcasters website. Thanks to Lance Anderson and LA Podcasters for allowing us to house this panel at their booth.

Learn more about the panelists:

- Read Shelly's Blogger and Podcaster Magazine and listen to Shelly's Podcast.

- Read Dave's Mac Observer and iPodObserver listen to the Mac Geek Gab.

- Listen to Adam's MacCast.

- Listen to Ken's Mac OS Ken.

- Listen to Victor's Typical Mac User Podcast.

- Reader feedback: radio@iprong.com

- Miss us between episodes? Visit iProng.com, the Publication for iPod and iPhone usersª

We'll see you at the 2008 New Media Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada in August 2008!

Podcast Expo just started today. No, really.

This isn't an outdated blog entry from Friday. Today is Monday, yesterday was the last day of the Podcast Expo conference, and today I'm back home in Los Angeles. But Podcast Expo really starts today. Should have started last night but I wanted to stop and get one night's sleep before the real work began. Because going to the Expo, as much fun as it is (fun overload in some cases), is really just a series of five minute conversations with people you've just met, people you've only previously met online, people you only see in the real world a few times a year, and people you just plain wish you could see more of no matter how often you see them. Hardly ever does anything get locked down or finalized in those five face to face minutes. Rather, the door gets opened just a crack so you can go home and begin the real work.

Keep in touch

If you've done your job, you have a huge stack of business cards. If not, you've at least got your photos, audio, and video, and if all else fails, your memory (which typically tends to start coming back to you after you have in fact gotten some sleep). Go find your new contacts in the virtual world NOW. Not next week, not tomorrow, right now. Don't stop to unpack your suitcase, don't water your plants first, go hit up Facebook and Twitter (or email or SecondLife or LinkedIn or your weapon of choice) and find these people right now before any more time passes. Nothing you do after the Expo will be anywhere near as important as immediately converting your annual five minutes of face-time into something that's sustainable year-round and there when you need it.

You won't need to have follow-up conversations with everyone immediately. Sure, you met a few folks where it clicked to the point where both of you want to start working on something together right away, and don't even think about hesitating. But you want to make first contact with everyone before you forget, and before that person forgets you. You've met some folks whose industry or role doesn't seem like something you would need in your line of work, but you just never know, so friend them, connect to them, or write to them now.

They're busy too

Don't be offended if you don't hear back from them right away; they're every bit as overwhelmed right now as you are, and some of them have day jobs outside the industry on top of it (today is, after all, Monday). Don't be afraid to be persistent, but don't be a pest. The last thing you want to do is to paint yourself as someone who's talented, useful, and fun, but too much of a pain in the backside to be included in anyone's inner circle. Generally, the difference between being persistent and being a pest is having new information to share with the person.

Whatever you do, don't just contact the Chris Brogans of the industry. We all know how to reach Chris when we need to anyway (and please don't punish him for that by abusing it). So yeah, friend him and all the other rockstars and follow them and all of that good stuff, but do the same to all of the other interesting people you met. In fact, start with the people who were attending the Expo for the first time, didn't know anyone there, and were asking for help with their brand new podcast that has twelve listeners. If you're among the first to reach out to them, they're probably not going to forget that once they're established and more popular than you are. We all had zero industry contacts and twelve listeners at some point, right? Contact those people first. The rock stars will still be there when you get around to sending them friend requests tomorrow afternoon.

Be the one to reach out first

I'm a firm believer in this: be the first to make contact; don't wait for them to come to you. I know some folks who think it places you in a position of relative power if you wait for people to come to you, and maybe that's true, but I'd rather not wait to find out. I'd rather let you know right away that you're someone I found interesting and cool and worth taking the time to reach out to. I don't need my ego stroked by waiting to see that the other person made the first move. It's nice when it happens, but I feel like I'm actually in more of a position of authority when I contact them first.

Don't overdo it

No need to run your newfound friendship down the other person's throat. I've sent my Facebook friend requests and started following new people on Twitter, but those things take up very little of anyone's time. The only Expo people I've had phone conversations with in the past twenty-four hours are the people I was working with closely at the Expo and needed to debrief with sooner than later (for instance I'd love to call up Expo producer Tim Bourquin right now and thank him for everything and chat about next year, but that can easily wait until after he's had a chance to breathe; I don't need any of his time right now).

I'll be sending "thank you" emails tonight to all the people who helped out at the iProng booth, appeared on my live panels, helped me with my interviews, etc., but that's because I feel that I owe them a personalized level of thanks. Tomorrow morning I'll be sending my "I thought about it and yeah I'd like to work with you on this specific idea you and I cooked up while at the Expo" emails, but again, that's because those things require one-on-one attention sooner rather than later. There's nothing necessarily wrong with sending everyone a generic "nice meeting you at the Expo!" email, but didn't I already just do that in a quicker and easier fashion when I sent you a friend request on Facebook?

That's all I've got for now. If we met this weekend and I haven't friended you yet on Facebook, haven't yet started following you on Twitter, or said I'd write to you about something specific and didn't, or you never did figure out what I do for a living, that's because I've missed something. If that's the case, the links to take care of that are directly below, and that'll be your chance to seize the position of power by being the one to reach out to me :-)