SFWoW

San Francisco Women on the Web: serve, educate, empower

About a year and a half ago, longtime WoWser and online community expert, Susan Tenby, revived the dormant San Francisco Online Community Report MeetUp group. There’s no shortage of technology groups in the bay area, with various focuses from web applications to software development to Web 2.0 technologies. With so many groups, often with a lot of overlap in between, why the revival? Why attend meetings for this specific group?

Online communities have been around since the early days of the Web. They’ve taken different forms from early usenet groups to online forums and email listservs. With the advent of Web 2.0 technologies and an increase in the amount of user-generated content, more and more commercial and non-commercial sites are developing some form of online community, be it on a platform like Facebook or their own site. It wasn’t until I started attending these meetings–and eventually, helping to run them–that I realized just how huge and diverse the world of online community is.

These monthly MeetUps are held the fourth Wednesday of every month at the TechSoup office. While TechSoup is a nonprofit and has a large online community, you don’t have to be a nonprofit or a community manager to attend these meetings. You can be someone with a passion or even just an interest in online communities and their value for collaboration, networking, or even just connecting over a shared interest. We’ve had guests speak from sites like Yelp, Facebook, and eBay. Past attendees have been involved in various facets of the online world from to elearning communities to video-sharing sites to Second Life.

These casual, informal meetings are a great way to learn about the different projects and work your colleagues are involved in. Discussions are tool-based and center around strategies for using tools to engage users. I’ve learned about ways to make the most of Twitter, discover new blogs and find Facebook applications worth installing. I’ve heard about projects and communities I never knew existed, be it a community remembrance site or a real estate agent using Twitter with other realtors. Usually at the end of the meetings, I’m dashing back to my laptop, eager to explore or play around with the latest platform or application I heard about from other attendees.

So if you’re interested in discovering more about online communities and connecting with other interested folks in person, come join us for snacks, drinks, and discussion at this month’s MeetUp. RSVP here. The official announcement follows below. You can also check out discussion highlights from previous MeetUps in the MeetUp group messages archive.

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Happy New Year to all you online community folks out there! We’re back with our regular monthly MeetUps in the new year. To kick off 2008, our discussion will focus on using wikis as community building tools. We’ll be joined by Adam Frey, one of the founders of Wikispaces, and Angelique (Angie) Shelton, the General Manager of Wikia’s Gaming Network. So come join us for our first 2008 MeetUp to talk wikis and other online community tools. Look forward to seeing you all there.

About this month’s guest speakers: Adam Frey is co-founder of Wikispaces, provider of the world’s easiest to use wikis. Previously, Adam founded and managed the SourceForge business at VA Linux Systems. Adam holds a Bachelor of Science from Monash University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Angelique Shelton is the General Manager of Wikia’s Gaming Network. Prior to joining Wikia, Angelique worked in Xbox division at Microsoft where she focused on International Expansion and Franchise Development. She has a B.A. in Finance from Louisiana State University and a MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Our kick-off monthly meeting for 2008 was held at Cav - a fancy-smancy wine bar that even serves beer. The gang included Mary Choy, Rebecca Kidder, Nancy Purcell, Doris Beers, Erin O’Neil, Eleanor Beaton and my humble self.

As usual, wonderful conversation on a wide ranging set of topics and even some business was discussed.

Our theme this year will be “Knowledge Sharing”. The idea is to have formal and informal events where SFWoW members share their knowledge of a topic to other members who are interested.

We have a group of fabulous women who know so much about technology, arts and graphics, business and marketing — our goal is to share that information amongst ourselves.

This is a chance for you to toot your own horn. No special credentials needed. You have answered questions on the list, what topics do you usually post about? Lets get together and learn about it from you.

Our first event will be organized by Eleanor. It will be an informal gathering to learn about LinkedIn. Lots of our members are interested in using LinkedIn but may want to learn more about how to become a power user. I know I am a heavy user of LinkedIn and have some tips to share; but I’d love to learn from others too. So come out to the event when its announced.

Feel free to respond to this post with your ideas of topics to discuss - what do you want to learn about? what do you want to share?

_Susan

How interesting that it took the weather to get us all talking. I loved the small insights into individual lives. And the reassurance that at least those reporting in came through OK.

I promised a post on the Facebook Beacon situation and here it is. The simplest explanation is that Facebook suddenly began publishing their users’ non-Facebook web actions without asking their users’ permission or providing a way to opt out. Not only annoying, but also a breach of its own privacy policy. I checked a number of technical and marketing organization sites, and this article provides the best explanation of how the information was collected, what was done with it, who else was involved, and what is still going on.

The sudden publication of everything one did was scary, annoying, and embarrassing. Facebook listened to users and the press and turned off the automatic publication pretty quickly. Some of the other sites where actions were captured set up clear and granular opt out processes. Some didn’t. The information is still being collected and used by Facebook and other sites. Still other sites are planning on joining in (as of mid-December). It is not just information about Facebook members that is being collected, but in information about everyone who visits the various sites. Some of the information is aggregated, but some of it includes clear personal information.

Web Beacons are not new — they show up in most anti-spyware reports as “tracking cookies.” The technical purpose is to be able to use just one cookie for complex sites. The less spoken-of use is to track what visitors to web sites are doing. What makes them scary to security types is that they are put on one’s computer silently and they can do a lot more than just collect information and send it silently back to the mother ship. They can interact with other cookies and can carry out executables.

From a marketing perspective, tracking cookies permit sites to gather good user information and provide better marketing and user services.

Those who are most touchy about privacy issues don’t want any information gathered without their permission and object to all cookies. Just to make everyone nervous, there was an incident in 2005 when the NSA “accidentally” (who knows?) dropped tracking cookies from its public website. The FTC (which runs the Do Not Call List) is currently being asked by privacy activists to establish a Do Not Track List.

What does this have to do with SF-WOW? It is my sense that about half our membership is placing cookies and beacons that the other half is trying to remove. I think it would be fascinating to hear both sides.

I would also love to hear both from those who write Facebook applications (is security something you think about?) and those who use them (who do you trust? Do you have a Secret Crush?)

Next topic — teleclasses and podcasts - compare and contrast. I have asked a couple of people to contribute and will add to that list as the first few posts come through. Do let me know whether you would be more likely to read a note from a practitioner or an interview.

Stay Dry.