Mutually Inclusive PR

"We Reserve the Right to Punt You"

A knowledge management community of practice that got punted by its online landlord, Yahoo Groups, successfully lobbied to get the information sharing group reinstated on Yahoo's servers.

The fact the group has been active since 1999 and has 1,569 members didn't slow Yahoo down when it got wind of possible trademark infringements.

Moral of the story: When you build an online community using someone else's servers and usage agreements, you run the risk that your group's use of the online space can be cut off or prescribed by the company that is hosting you. The thousands of hours spent posting content is also in danger, unless you have back-ups of everything.

I've heard similar tales of woe from people who cancelled their Flickr account, with thousands of photos in it, then found they couldn't reinstate the account. "Account deleted" meant exactly that.

Fortunately for the KM group, Yahoo still had everything stored on its servers.

Link courtesy Nancy White.

Tags:   knowledgemanagement   km   yahoo  termsofuse   

Vancouver Bloggers Busy These Days

  Arianna 
  Originally uploaded by WillPate.

In addition to organizing the upcoming Northern Voice 2006 conference and the Dogs n Blogs Banff workshop, Vancouver bloggers also hold meet-ups, present seminars, etc. to share what they know, give newbies a step up, and generally get together.

Will Pate posts photos of a recent International Internet Marketing Association presention on blogging by Arianna Foley and Tris Hussey.

Pate and pals are also in Banff right now for the Blogs n Dogs workshop.

Note the product placement in the photo for Jeremy Wright's new Blog Marketing book.

When Online Friends Meet in the Meat

  Flickr Meetup:  Shouldn't that be a maple leaf? 
  Originally uploaded by carpeicthus.

One of the most active, interesting and sociable of the users of Flickr.com is Striatic, a Toronto photographer who has embarked on a tour of the U.S., with a final leg in B.C. and Alberta.

The express purpose of the trip is to meet in person some of the people he has gotten to know online, and to share some time photographing their parts of the world.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people who know Striatic as a funny, picky participant in the online community that revolves around people's photographs and their comments about everything that has any relation (and some things that have no relation) to photography.

Known as the Striatic Does America tour, his photographic/social odyssey started June 15, and will take him and his partner Erin on a circuitous route down the Eastern Seaboard, through Texas and up the West Coast.

Happy trails, Striatic, and may the light be good for you on your way.

Photo of Striatic courtesy of Carpeicthus. Check out his photo blog..

Technorati tags: Striatic, Flickr, Photos,