Josh Shear

Yep, that's my to-do list. Thanks, Jeff Pulver.

My Twitter friends are aware of this, but I spent a couple of days this past week in New York City for the 140 Character Conference (140conf). I didn't tweet much from the conference – only those things that really inspired me – instead, I took good old-fashioned notes on good old-fashioned paper. [Full Twitter coverage is here.] That photo above is me organizing my notes before jumping on the train back up to Syracuse. The piece of paper with all the scribbling? That's my to-do list.

Here's the deal with 140conf. It happens in four or five cities each year (well, this is the second year). It's the concept of Jeff Pulver, who is more or less responsible for making Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) technology widespread (if you're reading this, you're aware of VOIP, even if you've never heard of it – it's what Vonage uses, and if you're using Time Warner Cable or another cable service for your telephone, you're using VOIP).

Unlike academic or industry conferences where you have either a person who speaks for 45 minutes or a panel that runs for an hour, this is bang-bang stuff. Most individuals had 10 minutes; a few had 15. Panels lasted 20 minutes. In all, there were about 150 people speaking in two days. The audience already understands the tools and understands why you'd use them; there's no need to do that part of it.

There will be much blogging about the current and future of things in the coming weeks, but I wanted to get started by mentioning some of the people I met and some of the things I have on my list to check out. Supposedly videos of all the presentations are over here, but I'm having trouble loading them. Hopefully I'll be able to get them up on the screen as I go to blog them.

Anyhow, I met Evan Blackford, who is a super-nice and creative guy. We had a mediocre Middle Eastern lunch (Effy's does a nice coffee, though – definitely went back the second morning). I met Cecily Kellogg of Uppercase Woman, who seems to be a lot of fun in addition to being insightful. I'll be checking out and reviewing her blog.

I met David Hendricks and Eric Oldfield of an emerging advertising system called LiveIntent, as well as Andy Oterson, co-founder of eatbytweet, something I will definitely be looking at in the coming week.

I also met Melinda Emerson, a small business coach who runs a weekly Twitter chat – some of you will know her as @SmallBizLady.

I had lunch with a bunch of Gen Y rockstars, including, among others, David Spinks of Scribnia and #u30pro, Sarah Cooley of Postling, and musician Peter Marinari.

I also got to spend some time with old friends in the city, including one who recently started a new production house called Omega Darling.

Coming up on the blog will most definitely be items about Epic Change, Twitter and education, comments, news and more. I also owe Jeffrey Hayzlett (Chief Marketing Officer at Kodak) a donation to the American Heart Association in exchange for the copy of The Mirror Test.

I'm going to start a couple of series here on the blog: "What I'm learning about at work," and "Geeking out at work."

The What I'm learning about series will be roughly monthly. The April 2010 edition is live over here, and you can get links to monthly installments from the day job page.

The Geeking out series will be an occasional thing, whenever I find something I actually do find interesting, be it a term on one of the wikis (wikiMHEDA and GAWDAwiki, currently), or an industry headline, like the acetylene gang that is breaking into banks and jewelry stores in the Philippines.

Let me tell you about this catfish I made last week. And the sauce that went on it. Holy heck it was amazing.

I sautéed the catfish (2 fillets) in butter, mustard seed and a splash of drinking (not cooking) sherry. Specifically, I used Harvey's Bristol Cream.

The sauce, which is where the real magic was:

1. Sauté five large sliced mushrooms in butter and mustard seed
2. Pour some Harvey's Bristol Cream sherry on it (probably about 1/8 of a cup)
3. Add 2 tablespoons of half & half
4. Let simmer until there's just enough liquid left to pour over the fish (with the mushrooms, of course)

It's more of a hearty, winter sort of sauce, but it was delicious. Give it a shot, let me know what you think.

You may have heard about Foursquare by now. Heck, you may be using it. Or you may be surprised (or annoyed) in your Twitter stream or your Facebook news feed that people are telling you where they are all the freaking time.

I was asked about it at work, and as the social media guy, I decided to sign up and give it a shot.

I'll give you the quick overview here. Foursquare is what they call a location-based service. You "check in" at a location (many locations are already on it, or you can add new ones). Foursquare knows what's near you because your phone has GPS on it.

There's also a game aspect to it – you rack up points and earn "badges" along the way, and if you're the person who checks in most often at one place or another, you become "mayor" of that location.

The first thing that I noticed was an immediate backlash from some of my Twitter friends (not just followers – these were people I have come to know, communicate with, trust and respect very much on Twitter and in real life), including one who assumed I must have been lobotomized (not really, but the comment was really funny).

After a day or two, I decided I'd give it a couple of weeks, but that I'd stop sending updates to Twitter. I've stopped using it now entirely.

Here's one thing I would get out of Foursquare if I had continued to use it would be if I checked in at, say, the Blue Tusk, Foursquare would alert me if one of my other Foursquare friends was also there. Chances are I would have found that out via Twitter or someone would have mentioned they were there on Twitter and I'd have found them anyway.

Foursquare might be better in a bigger city with more locations in general and more people using it. One thing that immediately comes to mind is businesses could offer, say, half off happy hour specials to the first 15 people to check in after 5 p.m. Another use might be if I were in a place I'd never been, I could open Foursquare and see what was around – although if I were looking for food (which is probably why I'd use it), I could use Yelp and get the reviews along with it.

I'll be at 140conf NYC next week, maybe I'll pop open Foursquare a couple of times to see what I get, but I'm not expecting to be blown away.

So you've got a business and you've got a website. You've heard about SEO. You've seen a zillion things called SEO 101 (OK, so more like 10.9 million – close enough to a zillion for me). But before actually undertaking the SEO 101 campaign of your choice, there are some things you need to know, and some things you want to ask.

Huh?

SEO means Search Engine Optimization (or, alternately, a Search Engine Optimizer, as in someone who does the optimization). If someone goes to Google and searches for something related to your business. There are thousands or millions of results for their search. To get to be one of the first results returned, you'll probably have to do some sort of SEO campaign.

But someone I think is really smart and who has a website told me that SEO is snake oil.

One of a few things is happening. (a) SEO comes naturally to that person, possibly thanks to the way their website was built, and they don't realize it. (b) They're not trying to sell anything on their website. (c) They have different competition from you. (d) They're not as smart as you think they are.

OK, but what would make them say that?

There are some pretty slimy people out there who call themselves SEO experts (or gurus or ninjas; you get the picture). Some of them are very successful just long enough to collect some money and disappear before your site visitors disappear and Google realizes that your site is trying to trick it and punishes you for it. We'll get to this in a minute, but there are what we call "white hat" and "black hat" techniques – white hat being honest, hard work, and black hat being quick and dirty techniques.

I get the feeling you're one of those "SEO gurus" who's going to try to sell me something with this post.

I do SEO for a small publisher, and I do some freelance design with SEO services. I understand that SEO is an evolving process, and you're not an expert, or a guru, or a ninja, unless someone else considers you to be one. I have a lot to learn in the field, and there's a good chance I don't have time to do an SEO audit for you. I'm just trying to give you some tools for your own use here.

If it's an evolving field, are there any experts?

There are people and companies I would consider experts in SEO. I'll let you know who they are when you ask me about some reading you should be doing.

What was that white hat and black hat stuff you were talking about?

White hat SEO is a long process with delayed rewards. It can take months to implement, and then you might not see results for another few months after it's implemented. And you have to keep evolving with the search engines. Black hat SEO is a quicker process with a fast payoff that can get you kicked off search engines down the road.

What kind of things go into each, and if I could get kicked off a search engine, why would I even consider a black hat campaign?

Some of the white hat processes involve research into how people are searching for your products, writing about your products frequently and well, making some code updates to your pages, and in general providing value. Black hat processes could involve buying links from other sites to your own site, scraping/stealing content from other sites, and making your site look different to search engines than it does to humans. You might undertake a black hat campaign if you had a lot of domains that you intend to make you some quick cash but then you'd just abandon after a few months. Also, you might be the sort of person who punches babies and kicks puppies.

Do I need to hire somebody?

Not necessarily. SEO should be built into the initial design, and if your designer did his or her job, you're already on your way. You should have a blog up and running, and if not, you'll need one. If your site is large and no one did anything from an SEO perspective, you'll need to hire someone to get you on track, and depending on how much time you have on your hands, you could do it yourself or pay someone to implement the campaign.

Who are these experts and what should I read?

If you want to be really smart about this, you should be familiar with what the following people are saying. You can learn enough from them to do your own campaign. In alphabetical order, they are:

» Bruce Clay Inc
» Outspoken Media
» Search Engine Journal
» Search Engine Land
» SEO Book
» SEOmoz

Listen to the words of this song; try to get by the violence in the video. I've gone with this video rather than a live recording because it's official and I know the way this label works with artists, and I trust this video is the artist's vision. What I hear in Michael Franti's "Rock the Nation" is taking responsibility for moving things forward in a positive direction. I advocate non-violence.

I was elected Monday night to co-chair of the Civic Engagement Task Force, a piece of 40 Below I've been involved with since it re-launched in October of 2007. It's a two-year volunteer role, and it's a challenge I look forward to.

These are the primary things the task force does.

• The Involvement Fair. At least once a year – sometimes twice – the task force hosts an involvement fair. If you're familiar with the concept of a job fair – candidates with resumes walking around talking to a bunch of companies who have paid for tables and sent their HR teams out – this will look familiar. Except the people at the tables are outreach officers or volunteers of local non-profits, and the people walking around aren't bringing resumes, they're looking for a way to connect with the community.

• Connecting people to board opportunities. The task force works with volunteer organizations who are looking for board members to find people in the community who fit their needs.

• Introducing people to each other and to organizations in the area. We meet monthly in various locations, and frequently have a speaker introducing an organization she or he is involved in. It's a great way to get to know who's out there.

Here's my challenge to you. Where do you see a need in the city? What push do you need to get involved? How can we help you? Get in touch in comments.

I was out for my first bike ride of the season recently and I noticed some really dangerous patterns. Here are some tips for safe riding for cyclists, and some tips for how to drive with bicycles on the road.

Tips for Bicyclists

1. Be Predictable. The safest thing for you to do is the thing that drivers expect you to do. Ride on the right-hand side of the road. Make turns from the right-hand side of the proper lane. If you have to cross at a crosswalk instead of as part of traffic, get off your bike and walk across the street following pedestrian guidelines. Remember, if a driver hits you, it might be their fault, but you're on a 15-pound bike and they're in a 4,000-pound steel box. You're going to hurt more, I promise.

2. Use Hand Signals. If you don't know you're hand signals, please learn them. There are three. Here they are. You make them with your left hand because you're riding on the right-hand side of the road (you are, aren't you?).

3. Stay Off The Sidewalks. The reason traffic laws apply to bicycles is that sidewalks are meant for people to walk on. If you're riding on a sidewalk, you've got two wheels and you're moving in the neighborhood of 12 miles per hour. That's slow to vehicle traffic, but you're more likely to do cause serious harm to a pedestrian. If it's a 19-year old healthy pedestrian with quick reflexes who can jump off to the tree belt when you come flying around the corner, well, fine, you've just angered someone. But if it's an elderly woman with a walker? That's trouble.

Tips for Drivers

1. Bikes Are Traffic. A cyclist riding correctly is following all the same rules you are, except she's riding to the right so you can pass her. If you're turning left at a traffic light, she has right-of-way if she's going straight. If she's turning left at a three-lane intersection, she's going to do so from the left-hand lane. Be prepared to go a little slower behind a bike, but you should be able to recognize what the cyclist is going to do next.

2. Give Cyclists Some Space. Off to the right-hand shoulder where cyclists ride, you often find things like sewer grates, potholes and broken bottles – items your typical car tire doesn't complain about. But these are things that at best leave a cyclist with a flat tire and busted rim miles from their origin and destination, and at worst mean broken bones. Figure that a cyclist needs at least three feet from curb and at least another couple of feet to swerve if necessary. Remember that even at 30 miles an hour, your side-view mirror nicking their elbow could break a bone, knock a cyclist off his bike, and cause some serious damage.

3. Lay Off Your Horn. Did you know it's illegal to sound your horn when there's a horse being used as a vehicle nearby? That traffic law dates back to a time when horses were more commonly used for transportation, but it makes sense: If you scare a horse, there's no predicting what it will do, and you put everyone in danger. The same goes for a cyclist: If you honk your horn, the cyclist is going to try to figure out what's going on. He might swerve into the middle of the road, he might swerve into your car, he might hit something in the street he would have seen if his eyes were where they should have been – and would have been, had you not distracted him.

If you'd like to use these tips on your blog or in your publication, contact me at mail@joshshear.com; in most cases, I'll let you use it for free with attribution, but check with me first, please.