The secret to building a social community

Building a social community takes time and is not an easy thing to do.  There is power in a group of like minded people gathered together around a purpose.  When you can get them to interact offline, and then naturally continue to interact online, you’ve accomplished something special.  So what’s the secret?  Let me enlighten [...]

Social good starts with you and me

  I’ve fed a hungry person. I’ve seen someone with a sign saying they were homeless and hungry, driven to McDonalds, bought some food and brought it back.  I’ve given money to complete strangers who ask for change.   I’ve donated clothes for people who need it.  I’ve given someone a ride. I’ve retweeted stuff. [...]

We were ready for SXSW

I’ve gotten a bunch of people asking me what I had expected to get out of SXSW, and what we got out of it, so here it goes… For those of you that missed it, our company, Meet-Meme was playing a multi-day scavenger hunt game (see details at our website) in Austin during the event.  [...]

Offline Klout – Secret Algorithms Revealed

Our scientists here at houseofbrew labs have been burning the midnight oil. A recent upgrade has improved our offline klout scoring algorithms. Although we usually keep our algorithms sacred, we decided that we would share our offline algorithms in hopes that you may “game the system” and improve your offline klout. Influencer of your family [...]

Follow the leader

When you ask the average person to define leadership, most people will talk about a role at the top. In few or many words, they start describing a boss, or someone in charge of a company, or a group. Before you can understand why this is wrong, you have to understand what leadership use to [...]

The customer is usually right

The customer is always right. You’ve said it, you’ve heard it, and hell, you may have put it on a sign. But what happens when the customer clearly isn’t right? What do you do then? Let me tell you a story from my past. I was working behind the “upgrades counter” at a major computer [...]

Do you have a jigger problem?

The free pour, once mastered, in my opinion, is one of the best ways to measure and pour a cocktail.  It takes practice, but once mastered, goes far beyond a quick way to mix a drink.  I’ve also seen bars use the exacto-pour, and of course the infamous jigger, of whom I’ve written this post [...]

21st Century Leaders – Give power to your people

The backstory: Over the Christmas break, my family went bowling to celebrate my sister and bro-in-law’s anniversary. A great lunch special : free shoes and a game of bowling. My sister asked if we could bowl an additional game and the guy pointed out that it was going to be extra, but mom agreed. The [...]

This is twitter

I love to tweet, and chances are good that you do too.  I’m on twitter as soon as I wake up, as I go to bed, and any time I can during the day.  I’ve met an incredible bunch of new people via twitter and even traveled the country to attend social media related events. [...]

When IRL and Online Blur

I’ve been communicating using a computer for over 20 years now.  From BBS‘s on my Commodore64 (at 128 baud) to ICB on a RS232 Terminal server to IRC to ICQ to Twitter, not much has changed.  The veterans of the services connect daily with friends.  There’s new friends to meet, and people who think like [...]