Hold the Quechup, please!

So… It’s shortly after midnight. I wanted to be going to bed right now… But I just got an email that has me livid. Again. Over the same topic as the last time… But this Time I’m posting about it.

The subject line of said email read: Invite from John Doe*… And the body contained John Doe (…@gmail.com) has invited you as a friend on Quechup… …the social networking platform sweeping the globe*

My jaw hit the floor. Not because it was yet another social networking site… Not because I got an invite to it… But because of which site it was, and who got bitten.

Quechup has been called everything from a spam network, to a menace to a trust virus. If you haven’t heard of it, let me give you the rundown. Essentially, you sign up just like any other network… You give it your name, your email and the like. It then asks for your gmail details to check to see if any of your gmail contacts are using Quechup. Fine, sure… Lots of services do that. I just did that with Twitter the other day. This is where it goes too far. Instead of simply CHECKING for friends, it takes EVERYONE you have EVER corresponded with via gmail and invites them to join you on Quechup. Yep, all of them. Pretty bad, eh?

I don’t believe they’re the first to pull of this kind of slimeball-like move, but they certainly gathered a lot of press for it. What floored me so much tonight though,  like I mentioned, is not the invite itself, but who it came from. I’m not naming names, to protect the innocently duped, but they’re someone I consider to be pretty well connected. Had it been a few weeks ago, when everyone else in the new media space was being hit, I would have let it slide. But it’s just happening now. And with all of the bad publicity throughout a quick search… It surprised me.

Next week’s busy schedule (Meetup details!)

So I have a really busy schedule outside of the office next week - and I want you to be a part of it! If you’re in the Kingston or toronto areas, and want to get together, I’d love to meet up!  I’m looking for other social media folk, bloggers, podcasters or TalkShoe users. Hope to see you!

Monday, September 24th: Kingston’s first new media meetup is taking place at 7:00pm at the Kingston Brewing company at 34 Clarence st. We get started around 7, look for the bright tie-dye frog shirt. I’ll be noticeable. I promise. We’ve got a few confirmed to this already, so it’s shaping up to be a pretty good event. No runtime planed, but expect a couple of hours.

Tuesday, September 25th: I’ll be waiting in the Atrium on Bay’s food court around 4:30 to gather folk and find food. We can stick around the food court (lots of selection, easy to add people to the group) or will be wandering off to the decided food source around 4:50. If you work in the 9-to-5 world and still want to meet, get in touch and I’ll make sue you’re updated on where we end up. No planned runtime on this, but I’d like to wrap it around 7:30 if it runs that long.

Wednesday, September 26th: I’ll be attending Adobe’s On AIR stop in Toronto ALL day. No time to meet people on this leg, but if you’re going to be at the event, look for me and say hi!

Kingston’s First New Media Meetup: Sept 24th, 7:00pm

So shortly after this morning’s post I sent an email to the local new media folk I know, and am now making details available publicly.

Kingston, home to the Podcasters Across Borders conference, is long overdue for a smaller-scale meetup. And that’s changing on September 24th. I’m going to be at the Kingston Brewing Company (34 Clarance St) from 7:00 until at least 8:00 that night, wearing the bright shirt visible in the sidebar of my blog. I’d love to get a handful (or more) local folk who are interested, or knowledgable, in this new media space together to form some connections between us and begin building the local conversation.

Francis Wooby has already commented that he’s going to attempt to make it, and i’m hoping he can bring tales of Podcamp Philly.

So come down, bring your business cards, ideas, stories and some friends if they’re interested and participate in the first of what will hopefully become regular events in Kingston!

[RSVPs not required, comments welcome]

Going Local At Last

So I have never hidden the fact that I’m from Kingston, Ontario. Been here all my life, in fact. And while I adore Toronto, and love Ottawa… I’m likely going to stick around Kingston for quite some time. Now, Kingston’s not a small town, we’re up around 115,000 according to the last census, but we’re not overly huge, either.

When I found out about PAB 06, in July of that year, I couldn’t believe I had missed the event. Worse yet, I don’t believe there was even a Kingstonian present (Someone correct me on this? Was Don Edwards there last year? Someone else?). I was floored. An event like PAB 06, happened in Kingston, and nobody, at least that I could tell, local there.

I, amongst others, fixed that this time around, but I’ve felt very … lonely in social media since then. Being that I don’t drive, it’s hard to get together at the various meetups or geek dinners in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto or London… I have mastered playing the at home game though and made the trip down to the Podcamp that took place in Pittsburgh in August

For the longest time, searches for new media folk in Kingston returned one person - me. Then I found (and met) Don. And then I learned of Francis Wooby. And now David Bailey (Who was, go figure, at PAB 07 too).

I think it’s finally time that I reach out locally and work to bridge connections between us. Kingston may be small on a world scale, sure, and I’m sure some folk fear competition locally, but there’s no reason we can’t all get along. After all, we’re working in the social media space.

Folks in Kingston’s new media space - expect emails soon. And put forward the word… Kingston’s first new media meetup is in the works.

Going to Toronto

So it looks like I’ll be heading to Toronto later this month. Being that I don’t get into the city too much, I thought this would be a great chance to pull together a meetup of sorts.

I’ll be showing up around 4:30pm on Tuesday, September 25th. I’ve got some time that evening and will be busing in. Meetups in the area around the Eaton Centre or up near Yonge & Eglington are preferred… But i’m open to discussion. Perhaps somewhere for dinner around 5:00?

I’m spending all day on Wednesday, September 26th at the on Air tour from Adobe. And am heading home almost immediately following.

Let me know via the comments if you want to get together.