Ottawa Social Media Book Club

The latest book club took place on Easter Monday, which means we had a smaller crowd than usual… However, I left thinking the smaller the group, the better-we had a fabulous conversation, and even if we went off track once or twice we still covered everything.

Also we were beta testing a new format for book club: Instead of reading the same book, everyone picked their own book to discuss (well everyone but Scott, who instead tried to steal Treena’s book, but that’s another story.)

Here’s a quick recap of my book:

• The Numerati - I impressed everyone with my handouts (pictured with me below), but the truth was I only read the first 40 pages. However it wasn’t because it was a bad book, in fact I’m *really* looking forward to reading the rest of the book. It’s all about the mathematical elite who are able to harness the unbelievable amount of data that’s being collected online (and even offline through methods like Grocery store loyalty cards). A fascinating read and the implications about what these people could potentially do with all that data is both exhilarating and frightening. I recommend it! **Update I’ve since almost finished the book and still stand by my recommendation.

Treena was also gracious enough to provide a review of her book, Designing for the Web by Joshua Porter:

• I’m delighted to present a brief recommendation for ‘designing for the social web’ by Joshua Porter. This book is the ideal reference text partner to ‘Don’t make me think’ by Steve Krug applying the same example-driven and simple approach to the design of social websites that Krug applied to traditional website design. Porter’s book combines analysis of many well known sites, with social media case studies (including ‘Dell Hell’) and clear steps to implement sites that encourage the actions you desire of your users. He covers why people participate online, the usage lifecycle, overcoming barriers at each step of the usage cycle and growing your user base. It should be on every practitioners bookshelf – developers, user experience designers, product managers – and is useful for those farther away from development who want to understand the social web. Joshua Porter can be found on twitter as @bokardo and his blog is http://bokardo.com/

Thanks Treena!

And finally, our new Ottawa SM Book Club tradition, the ‘family photo’. Thanks to Mar for introducing us to Hipstamatic a very cool iphone photo app:

Don’t you think Scott in the middle in the Argyle print makes this the best photo ever?
I love it!

Join us for the next social media book club in Ottawa!

This time we’re mixing things up a little. Instead of selecting a book for everyone to read. You will sign up and tell us which book you are reading, and you’ll lead a quick 5-minute discussion about that book at the meet up. (Think of grade school book reports). Read the previous post for more details…

If you’re nervous about talking in front of people… Don’t be! It’ll be a small group and a seated discussion, no microphone, or standing up or shouting. And remember, we’ll be in a bar, so you can always have a drink first.

So come out Monday, April 5* at 6 pm with a book to talk about. You could run out and pick up a book and start reading now, or just talk about one you’ve already read. Your choice.

I haven’t booked the venue yet, but it’ll likely be the Fox & the Feather–where we usually meet.

When you register, be sure to put the title and author of the book you will be reading and reporting on in the Title field.

Register now

Hope to see you there!

*I realize this is Easter Monday, however, most of us are working that day, and if not, it’s the end of an extra long weekend so you probably want to get out of the house or away from the family by Monday evening!

Hey everyone!

We’ve been getting lots of book suggestions for the next meet up, which I’m ecstatic about, but of course it makes the decision a little tougher. I went to Chapters last week and was amazed at how many new social media books are popping up, which led me to an idea…

First I want to see how you all feel about it. I love our current format, but I thought maybe for the next one we try something a little different–it probably won’t be a permanent change (unless it’s wildly successful..)

So here’s the idea: When you sign up to attend, you choose your *own* book. Therefore everyone reads a different book. (And if more than one person chooses the same book, they can collaborate on it if they like). Then at the meetup, each attendee has 5 minutes to provide an overview of the book they read and then lead an additional 5-10 minute discussion on the book/theme/whatever.

We usually have around 10 people per meet up which would be more than manageable for this format. However, if the demand is high and we have more than we can break up into 2-3 smaller groups based on similar-type books. If we go this route, than my suggestion is we allow about an hour to an hour and a half for discussion and then we leave at least half an hour to informally chat with others who may have been in another group.

So, what do you think? Worth a shot? Adamantly against it?

Thanks to everyone who came out on a cold January evening (On the most depressing day of the year, as it were), to discuss the Whuffie Factor.

Scott and I agree that this was probably our favourite book club meet up yet. Everyone was eager to discuss the book, and it led to an even more interesting discussion about community and social media in general. I was particularly delighted to learn about the US Army’s ease of adoption into social media because of its existing (and strongly) established community offline.

That’s all I’m going to say about it though, you really had to be there!

Also as a reminder, please send me your suggestions for next book club. So far Caitlin Kealey recommends Say Everything by Scott Rosenberg, Simon Chen recommends Enterprise 2.0 by Andrew McAfee and Aurelie Lacroix suggests Twitter Power by Joel Comm. You can let me know directly, but if you comment here I’ll have a better chance of remember it when it comes to vote time!

And we’re back!

Sorry for the delay, but the Ottawa Social Media Book Club is back and hopefully better than ever!

Before our hiatus, we were reading Tara Hunt’s The Whuffie Factor, so since we’ve all had plenty of time to read and ponder it, let’s get together and discuss.

If you haven’t read the book, I recommend checking out the official website, and following Tara (@missrogue) on Twitter or her blog. You can also try google blog search for numerous reviews.

The event takes place Monday, Jan. 18 at 6 pm at the Fox & the Feather on Elgin Street. It’s free, but please register to save your spot…

Also please register so I can email some questions to think about before the meetup. As per our usual format, Scott and I will lead a discussion about the book for an hour or so, then we can continue discussing, break into groups or just enjoy a drink and relax.

Register now…

UPDATE: You might have noticed the date changed a couple times… The story is I hadn’t heard back from Scott yet, but I’m impatient, so I scheduled it for Monday the 18th anyway, but then he replied and said it was no good, so I went for Tuesday. Now he’s saying Tuesday doesn’t work because he’s got tickets to the Sens game… but really, can you blame him?? Monday it is!

After a ridiculously long hiatus, I finally went out and bought a domain and Scott provided the hosting. So here we are! Hope you’re all still interested and ready to get together, because there’s been a lot of great social media books published lately!

First thing first: we left off with the intention of meeting up to discuss the Whuffie Factor by Tara Hunt. Have you read it? Do you want to get together and discuss it? What days work for you? Leave a comment and let us know and we’ll get it in the works.
Kelly