judith meskill - soc.media.rocks

Will an 'intensely local' concept of Mojo 'fly' nationwide?

mo·jo ( dictionary.com)
n. pl. mo·jos or mo·joes
1. A magic charm or spell.
2. An amulet, often a small flannel bag containing one or more magic items, worn by adherents of hoodoo or voodoo.
3. Personal magnetism; charm.

Louisville has Mojo according to PaulaBurba's Mojo Risingfor TheCourier-Journal. And certainly according to Chuck Burke, Rob Totten, Keith Ringer, and Mike Breidenbachthe men behindonline Louisville Mojo.

Some of the secret sauceof Louisville Mojo is that a majority of the idea generation for Mojo site functionality is largely driven by themembership. According to the founders:

"The members have driven a lot of our direction,... They need to get some recognition … for being very visionary, since they've directed a lot of growth in the site … which we love because we can't come up with all these ideas."

Mojo ala Louisville is: a social calendar with many regularly scheduled activities; a 'happenings' list; freeclassified; 'chitchat about the roar of the cicadas' among other topics; invitations to be do good volunteers in thecommunity; 'hottie profiles'; biz networking; and a bunch of other odds and ends according to Ms. Burba'sarticle.
 
There are about 10,000 members of louisvillemojo.com and last month alone the site had greater than 1/4M visitors and9.4M hits. Paula Burba tells us that the founders are now taking their 'good mojo' concept on the road with Metro Mojo.
 
Philadelphia Mojo is already up and running and it looks like there is alooooong list of other mojo sites brewing.

Photo by MICHAEL HAYMAN, The Courier-Journal

So, when you think of Internet games do you think of "obsessive boys and young men who don't seem to have anythingbetter to do"?
 
Or, do you think of abunch of middle-aged women playing online games with fervor because of the sense of community among players that theyfind on these Internet game sites?
 
Well, Victoria Shannon reporting for the International HeraldTribune The end user: Playing to a new audiencesays thataccording to ScreenDigest, a London-based market research group, you should be thinking of the latter group as theymake up 65 percent of Internet game users.

And after this dominant group of avid middle-aged housewives, which group does ScreenDigest report as the nextlargest group? "...marginally younger, working, single and predominantly (but by no means exclusively) male grouping -what we might label the bored office worker market."
 
Go figure. And go you "massively multiplaying middle-aged" women… (-:=

Sarah Womack, Social Affairs Correspondent writes for theTelegraph Over-60s see themselves in the prime of life:

Research into the biggest and wealthiest consumer group in Britain says life has never been better for the over-50s. They hold 80 per cent of the country's wealth and are courted by politicians and advertisers.

Dubbed "Gotys" - Getting Older, Thinking Younger - 49 per cent say they enjoy a healthy sex life (with 75 per cent still sharing the marital bed), 19 per cent would try online dating, 10 per cent would consider plastic surgery, and 75 per cent have a positive attitude to life.

Looking for a roommate, or a room to rent? Want to know more, more quickly, about your potential roommates?
 
In an eMediaWire press release today Roomster.net,New Roommate Matching Site Offers Unique, Advanced Personality Based ProfilesModeled after online dating andsocial networking sites, entrepreneurs John S. Shriber and Roman Zaks have reinvented the roommate matching industrywith Roomster.
 
Roomster's founders say: "To facilitate the 'getting to know you' process, wedesigned Roomster to be the first roommate matching site that incorporates the matching capabilities of online datingand the detailed profiles of social networking sites. Because isn't finding a person to live with more of a commitmentthan dinner and a movie?"
 
Why you could even become a member of the cast for an upcoming reality TV show: 'True Life: I'm Moving In', throughRoomster's affiliation with MTV's True Life series.
 
Check it out. Don't miss an opportunity to tell your story about the move you have been celebrating or loathing.
 
And, if you are looking for your own apartment, there's always Flatster.

PRESS RELEASE: Buan Consulting, Inc. Receives GSA's STARS Contract Award, $15 Billion Ceiling
Annapolis, MD (PRWEB) June 11, 2004 -- Buan Consulting, Inc. today announces that it has received a contract award for GSA's Section 8(a) Streamlined Technology Acquisition Resources for Services contract, known as STARS. It is an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ), five-year contract with options, government-wide acquisitions contract, with a valued ceiling of $15 billion over a 7-year period. Under the terms of the contract, Buan Consulting will sell IT services to all federal government agencies.
 
Buan Consulting will provide government agencies with access to Computer Programming Services to support GSA and other federal government agencies in accomplishing their mission.
 
"Buan Consulting is committed to bringing the highest quality in IT services to the federal government by being an active partner on the GSA STARS program, " said Dan Buan, President of Buan Consulting.
 
"Buan Consulting has always provided quality services to the government; now with the GSA STARS contract, they will be able to provide the same high-quality services wrapped into an efficient government-wide acquisition contract," said Pamela Wilson, SBA Business Opportunity Specialist.

An excerpt from a press release in The T Sector :: Everything Tech San Diego: EKM Merger Will Pave Way for Vital Data Management Tools for Science.
Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 11:28 AM PST--San Diego-based knowledge solutions supplier EKM Corporation has announced a merger with software and services firm, AVATAR Consulting, creator of the popular LABTrack electronic notebook. Financial terms of the merger were not disclosed.
 
...EKM initially invested in AVATAR LABTrack software in Jan. 2003, when the two companies began jointly developing an enterprise version of the technology. Stember, who spent 19 years working with Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS), came up with LABTrack after seeing a need for an IP protective, digital replacement for scientific paper notebooks.
 
He said more companies are realizing the significant benefits of implementing electronic lab notebooks like LABTrack, including being able to bring new products to the market faster...

This morning in my news reader I found an SFGate.com articletitled There'smore to Napa's auction than charity, For one high roller, fraternity is as important as philanthropyphew, longtitle.
 
Each day I perform some interesting combination searches to find stories for my weblogs. And so, at first I thoughtthat this article by Carol Emert would turn out to be just another interesting browse as it was not aboutonline social networking. However, it did prove to be a most fascinating society piece about the annual NapaValley Wine Auction where "the social whirl" is "more intoxicating than the Cabernet".
 
Carol Emert features one Ron Kuhn from the Chicago area as the main focus for her coverage of this philanthropicauction event. Most comments and observations are either around or about Mr. Kuhn. At the auction, bidders havenumbered paddlesand, for the most part, the number on each paddle reflects the bidders placement in last years'auction. As Carol says, "The lower the number, the higher the status."
 
The Annual Napa Valley Wine Auction appears to be face-to-face philanthropic social networking at its finest.Here people often know each other quite well, greeting each other as friends each year. (I was also happy to findmention of one of my favorite wineriesRombauer.)
 
If you are still readingthis post you might be wondering why I have included this item here today. Well, as I read down to the last paragraphof Carol Emert's piece I thought, hmm that name sounds familiar:

The top dog was Gary Rieschel of Palo Alto, who spent $299,575 on 18 lots. Next year Rieschel's paddle will be No. 1. This year, as it happens, it was No. 4.

And of course it was, as I just posted a quote from Mr. Rieschel, of Mobius Venture Capital, lastSaturday Social Networking Glut = Greater ThanFour.

The Napa Valley Wine Auction is first and foremost an incredibly successful philanthropic event. According to theWine Auction description on napavintners.com: "TheNapa Valley Wine Auction is the world's largest and most successful charity wine auction. In 2004, the Auction raised$6.5 million for local charities."

Online Philanthropic Networking can also potentially achieve significant results. There are a number of onlineresources for interactive networking of foundation centers, funders, volunteers, and their respective communities, thatare beginning to emerge. Potentially Online Philanthropic Social Networking at its finest?

Just ask Jerry Michalski about his unique visions in this area, he'll be happyto share…

Yesterday, when I posted Israeli SocialNetworking Servicea tip from a Social Software Weblog reader, BenI did not notice that Ben's announcement ofNetster.co.il stated that it is the FIRST Jewish social networking site.

Another readerAvi Cohenquickly pointed out that there are indeed other online Jewish social networking and datingsites and gave Chosennet.com as an example. Avi went on to state that he feelsthat both Netster.co.il and Chosennet.com "are mere (poor) copies of other SNS sites."

Hmmm, how many original social networking services are there out there?

These readers' tips and comments inspired me to update my Social Networking Services Meta List with anumber of the online Jewish Singles sites from my unpublished Master Dating Services Listwhich contains overone thousand online dating services from around the world.

Here are just thirteen of the Jewish entries that I will be adding to the SNS Meta List soon: