Category Archives: Washington DC

DC Metro System (WMATA) Won’t Play With Google Transit :-(

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For a while, I was in San Francisco about once a month.  Pretty quickly I realized that I had to figure out a cost effective way of getting around. Google Transit became my best friend.  My friends who were SF natives were amazed that I had decided to brave BART and the Muni (SF’s Mass Transit), which can be intimidating to first timers.

Deciphering BART and Muni became easy because they had the foresight to work with Google Maps, where I do all my planning when it comes to getting around town.  Everything as integrated together and easy to use.

Well, I’m pretty bummed and disappointed in DC’s Metro system (WMATA) that they’ve decided to not work with Google Transit to get their  transportation data integrated into Google Maps.

Guess what they claim as one of their biggest decision makers was for them in the deal:  Online Advertising.  Here’s a chunk from an article in DCist:

Metro spokeswoman Candace Smith told the paper that “[integration with Google] can’t just be a private company getting something off the back of a public agency.” Because making only $68,000 from 16 million monthly page views is worth protecting? (Hint: that’s really not much revenue based on that kind of traffic, guys. You should be doing way better than that).

If you want to get your content out there and used, you can’t have a world view where your only distribution mechanism for your content is your Web site.  There are too many Web sites that are competing for my attention.  You want to get your content where the people are.

In the case of WMATA, people use Google Maps.  They shouldn’t be doing anything but giving a full throated embrace to the deal with Google Transit.  If cost is what they’re concerned about, I’d imagine they’d get more tourists who’d feel comfortable with using DC’s subways because it’s integrated with Google Maps then if they had to figure it out on their own.  This would make them more money on ticket sales.  Granted this may hurt the DC taxi system though. ;-)

Community Isn’t Something You Can Pencil In

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Washington DC is a very busy place.  Seems like everyone is very driven and always has something going on which is going to help them move up one ring on the social or economic ladder.

It’s why everyone in DC carries a Blackberry or an iPhone.  Everyone plays this game of how much crap can I pack into one day.  You go up to someone and be like “let’s go grab a beer and chat.”  They’ll say “how’s 2 weeks from Tuesday?”

This has caused me to think… I think if you want to build community… a big and healthy community… you can’t completely run your life by what the calendar on your Blackberry says.  Life doesn’t tune itself to what’s convenient for your schedule.

If you want to have community, you need to leave yourself flexible and open enough that when life throws yourself a curveball you can go more then just surface level deep. You need to be able to sit down and get to the heart of the issue.

At Clearspring, our users don’t time their technical questions or product questions around when my calendar is open.  I need to be available so that if a developer of VP of Biz Dev calls me in a panic I can help assure them that I’m here to help and that together we’ll be able to solve the problem.

Hmm… More on this topic later.

Speaking at Social Media Club DC in December on “How Sharing Can Help You Reach More Users Online”

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On December 10th, I’m going to be speaking at the Washington DC chapter of the Social Media Club.  The talk will be entitled “How Sharing Can Help You Reach More Users Online.“

We’ll talk about how the rise of online communities has given word of mouth a power jolt and how making your content shareable within these communities can help you reach brand new and bigger audiences.

It’s going to be at 6pm at Viget Labs in West Falls Church, VA.  RSVP for the event here.

Hope to see you out there.

Washington Post Article on How DC Tech is Working To Push Through the Downturn

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If you haven’t already seen it, Kim Hart has got a great article in today’s Washington Post where she highlights 8 members of the DC tech community and how they’re working and advising to help push through the economic downturn.

The article highlights folks like my friends Peter Corbett and Robert Neelbauer, who also got a HUGE photo in the print edition, as well as Clearspring CEO Hooman Radfar and Clearspring board members/investors Ted Leonsis and Phil Bronner.

In the article, she’s really brought together a dream team of bright minds to talk about the times that we’re in.  The article is a must read.

Prolonged Radio Silence Can Kill Your Community; Will Barack Obama’s Community Lose Its Momentum?

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I was in NYC on Election Night.  It was CRAZY.  Everywhere you could see that excitement that Barack Obama had been just elected the next President of the United States.

But no 10 days later… the buzz of victory is starting to wane.  People voted… they supported the movement of Barack Obama because they wanted to be part of this rush of change that was going hit both Washington, DC and the country.

It’s been 10 days of complete radio silence from President-Elect Barack Obama on Twitter and it seems like every other major social media communications mechanism.

The question is… how are they going to keep the momentum going? People don’t just want to see him on CNN.  They want to feel some type of personal connection.  That’s one reason why people use social media because it’s much more personal.

Now… the incoming administration has announced that they are going be posting his weekly addresses on YouTube, which is awesome!  But… what about the time between now and when he get’s inaugurated?

The next couple months is a long time to let your vast community to go stagnant.  Will people just move on to something else?

I’d take this as a lesson for those of you who have a large community that you want to keep engaged.  You have to be regular.  People are fickle.  They have short attention spans.  You don’t want them to engage with you and then at some point just go on to something else because there was too big of a break in the action.

Updated 2:14pm: Well, it looks like the transition is going to start posting the videos now and not wait till after January 20th.  The video really contains no substance whatsoever but that’s a different discussion entirely.

Live Streaming Tomorrow’s Erickson Barnett Event on “Tips on Building Communities”

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Tomorrow, I’m speaking at this Erickson Barnett event on “Tips on Building Communities.” I’m really excited about it.  There are a few spots left. So if you want to go, you still have a chance.

If you can’t make it or don’t live in the Washington DC area, they’re going to be live streaming the event on Ustream.tv.

At 8:30am tomorrow, go to the following URL – http://www.ustream.tv/channel/erickson-barnett

Day 6 of the Barack Obama Twitter Watch

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So, I just friended Barack Obama on Twitter.  I figured it’s about time, considering he’s now President-Elect.  Much to my surprise, he his staff hasn’t tweeted in 6 days.

Will he pick it back up again or will the weight of the mighty government bureaucracy put a muzzle on his grassroots Web 2.0-style efforts?

Thummit Makes Mobile Reviews Easy

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I have tried just about every user-generated review site (i.e. Yelp, Cork’d) there is and most suffer from the exact same problem.   They don’t capture my thoughts and feelings about the product they want me to review when I’m having them.

When I get home from a good restaurant, I usually want to take a nap.  I don’t want to have to sit down at a computer a remember the nuance of the wine that I drank and how creamy my rissotto was.

This is where Washington DC-based startup Thummit get’s it right. They’re a user-generated review site but they do a great job of using the mobile phone as a way to capture the users’ thoughts and feelings.

You can either send a text message to their SMS exchange number or you can use Twitter and say “@thummit”.  Thummit can capture your twitter data.

The fact that it can grab Twitter I think is really smart.  So, instead of me having to do something wholly new and different just for Thummit, like I have to do with Yelp, it uses my existing behavior.  I would have tweeted regardless about whether or not I liked the restaurant.  Why not send that data to Thummit and allow it to serve it in aggregate with others reviews?

Of course, other user-generated review sites are getting into the mobile game.  The guys behind Living Social (also based in Washington, DC) have recently launched an iPhone app, which makes their app infinitely more useful.  I like to try new beers and so when I’m at the bar I find myself consistently going to my iPhone to log the beer using their Brew Social.

Right now Thummit is in private beta.  If you’re interested in trying it out, I’ll ask my friends the founders and maybe they’ll give me some invites.  Let me know.

Apps Start Rolling in for the Apps for Democracy Innovation Challenge

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With just a few days left, the applications for Peter Corbett and the District of Columbia’s Apps for Democracy Innovation Challenge are starting to roll in.

There are already three apps up on the site that take the Districts public data and reuses and mashes it up to do something really cool.  I hear that more (15 so far) will be available on the site soon.

My favorite thus far is done by my buddy Shaun Farrell.  It’s called Park It DC.  It takes DC’s parking meter data and tells you when and where the meters cost and when they’re free.  It also grabs data about where there are a lot of automotive crimes and where there are specific zones for residential parking only.  I can imagine that, if I had a car, this app would be a major part of my life.  The one thing it needs is a iPhone app or a widget.

What’s your favorite app?  Make sure that you go on the site and vote.