When doing a Google search for the two keywords “Downtown Dallas” the downtowndallas.com site is the first offering. Millions of dollars are spent every year optimizing websites in the hope that their website will show up in the first page of search engine results. The Downtown Dallas Organization certainly has its position now all they need to do is show the waiting world that they can tell you about the many happenings in Downtown Dallas.

I wonder if any member of the Downtown Dallas organization would recommend officials from either parties to look at the downtowndallas.com site for solid info on how great Downtown Dallas is becoming and could be a great stage for their conventions in the future. You might expect a site with the name Downtown Dallas would be presenting the city center on a golden platter of opportunity to any one who might be interested. Maybe some readers of the well known tech industry gadget blog Engadget heard about AT&T moving their HQ to Dallas. Maybe then their interests peaked and they did a search for the downtown district and found the top result downtowndallas.com. If you have the time I recommend reading the comments on the AT&T moves to Dallas post Engadget published they provide another look at how some people see Dallas and AT&T former HQ city San Antonio.

The Metropolitian starts its retail finish out

Its surprising how the one thing the Downtown Dallas Organization is supposed to be doing, promoting Downtown Dallas to the world,  and the easiest way for them to do that, the world wide web, are not being utilized. For example the  Downtown Dallas homepage includes a current events section that shows two events that happened back in the spring of this year. How about that “TAKE A TOUR” button at the top of the main navigation. Sorry that link takes you to the message “This page is curently in development, please check back soon.” a page right out of the no no in modern website design and publishing rule book which is do not to launch features and or links to content that are not ready or do not exist. How about the NEWS section, apparently nothing has happened in Downtown Dallas except some news articles published in the year 2006. If you keep clicking through the website you will find plenty of reasons to pick at them for a lack of implementation and/or follow through.

Dylan Sneed performs at the recently opened Opening Bell Mosaic

I have to wonder when was the last time someone over at the Downtown Dallas Organization even brought up the website as a topic worth discussion. Since it certainly already shows up at the top of the number one search engine Google search results at least parts of the site should scheduled to be updated on regular occasion, once a month at least. Maybe that’s why they launched the yourdspot.com site to provide more hip responsive website aimed at promoting events, businesses, and residential properties located within Downtown Dallas.

While the yourdspot.com site is updated on a more regular basis it seems that the only thing Downtown Dallas Organization knows how to do in the interactive web world is produce PDF lists of the things to do in the city center. I find it hard to believe that they actually think that people are going to walk around Downtown with a freshly printed PDF events list. They might even be surprised to learn PDF’s are not search-able by Google or any other search engine leaving the yourdspot.com website on the 3rd page of the coveted Google search results. Not many people go past the first five search results when using a search engine let alone leaving the first page.

Surely the RNC or DNC will not make a decision about Dallas based on a forgotten website but if you were a young couple looking to the modern city center as a possible new home would you be confident in cost of living numbers that were last updated in 2004. I certainly hope they find a way back to updating both or consolidating their web properties into one regularly updated site. As a young college student attending the Downtown Dallas El Centro Community College for the last few years I am amazed at the changes happening on the street everyday and am saddened when the one group charged to promote that excitement of a city reigniting is asleep at the wheel.

Its not just as simple as the click of a new friend on Myspace nor does it only require you to buy a catchy domain address that could surely be memorable to the Internet browsing public. It does take work to cultivate and surround yourself with people who either agree or enjoy a good disagreement with your daily musings.

What does seem to happen these days is assumption that a screen of LCD is merely a brick wall between you and a real personal interaction. Yes a single click of the mouse does not prove a real friendship but it opens the door for that emotionally sensitive drive.  That outreach that happens between people that choose to interact with each other on some real or digital existence.

The business of human social behavior and the results is the prominent topic when referring to the current state of the Internet. The mass amounts of personal data that are contained in social networks like Facebook are there for the advertisers to make something of. The question is do these popular services produce the results for their users that will eventually make the business of social networks one of profitability.

I have a Myspace, a Facebook, and Virb page but my regular behavior with them has to be transparent or they will not provide the intended results which are social interaction between real people in real life. I have personally found that transparent interaction with my twitter.com/williamedia account and a recent meet-up with people of similar usage patterns has brought me new dedication to that particular social network. This is the organic food that will drive profitability into a eventual business plan for a dot com business like twitter.com.

Other social networks have these kinds of users too I’m just not one of them and their strong push to solve that eternal human social hunger to fill your life with friends is something that provides quite an interesting look of what the business of the Internet is today. With these social bridges provided I have met people I would have never met otherwise over long distances and short. Putting the business of it all aside when you blame the Internet for a lack of real life social behavior between real people your not giving the human condition enough credit for its imperfections.

Apple did not win the ears of early digital music players consumers with only their hardware and flashy commercials, they won with the iTunes store. There are many elements in the iTunes store that make it a success including the 99 cent standard setting price tag on music but the combination of iTunes store and the iPod hardware made it the Sony Walkman digital music player of choice for modern American portable music industry.

Apple does realize this and the tells you about it in their commercials near the end with the phrase “iPod + iTunes” reminding you that the iPod is not the only part of the equation. This is something many tech journalists have discussed for awhile and based on that foundation the very logical question arises when discussing the the App store, will it make the same equation with the iPhone add up to more market share in cellphones.

In a shortened description the App Store has built in direct access to the device and its customers base that the Apps/content is for but will the developers of the Apps under Apple’s gate keeping rule be able to handle the flow and decide whats a quality app for consumers to feel safe to pay for and download.
Looking at the established iTunes music store which is now built into the iPod Touch and iPhone apple products the Record companies are the ones managing the flow of acceptable content that will make it into most consumers hands. In additon to the built in iTunes Music store there is the podcasting section within the iTunes desktop software  which does involve some pre-approval process but content is not monitored for quality but left up to the number of subscribers to decide whats good and allow bad content to disappear into the depths of the directory.

Apple certainly has learned a thing or two about managing its various iTunes stores sections. With their knowledge of the free nature of podcasting, paid nature of music, movies, TV shows they might find success. The App store is different from all three previous stores not just because Apps are small computer programs but in the difference of prices set by the developers on each app. A distinction worth noting considering that the Record industry has repeatedly complained about not having indvidual control on iTunes music prices. The App store with its variable prices might make the App Store another sucessful micro-sized free market even though its guarded by Apple in Cupertino Califronia.

Above photo provided by: flickr.com/photos/flygraphix under a creative commons license

As Dallas tries to build its own urban communities in its city center it needs a structure to help people connect with each other. Just like a local band is promoted by the Dallas Morning News daily free paper the “Quick” to make the paper appeal more hip to there target market, digital media makes it easier for communities to share and meet each other. Digital Media allows such localized expression of content to be made available to those who want it. MySpace gave small local bands the world using the internet, but what is Dallas doing to encourage itself in every expression especially in the digital media realm.

Dallas has recently shown some sign of the digital media trend in its latest “Urban Community” Victory Park. If you have watched a Dallas Stars Hockey and/or a Dallas Mavericks game since 2007 you may have seen the giant moving digital HD video screens at Victory Plaza. They are sold to advertisers as one the largest public HD digital art gallery’s. The Victory Media Network controls these screens and as part of the regular programming digital artwork is displayed during most of the the day along with custom advertisements, made in house for the huge screens and their transient abilities. You can submit material for public display or find more info at the Victory Media Network website (http://www.victorymedianetwork.com ).

Victory will not be the only ones in the widely labeled Uptown area of Dallas. A new building to be built where the Dallas former Hard Rock Cafe was located will contain a similar idea. The new residential structure will include a glass egg shape structure at the triangle intersection with a artfully arranged video screen described to display digital artwork. Course this all to appeal to the new generation of digital residents but somehow I expect the internet connections in the new building will still be slow and lack needed fiber-optic connections. A sure sign of neglect of a proper framework needed for the future internet generation, but so far I have not investigated this question related to this project. I would recommend to builders though that they invest energy and money into this very important step towards modern structures that they construct. 

Will Dallas ever really get it when it comes to the new Digital revolution I think its possible cause there is a industry of video professionals and geeks in Dallas. One idea is to bring more people together and hang out together but from what I witnessed you will not find Dallas geeks hanging around the Free Wifi at Victory Park near the huge HD screens. It takes something altogether different to get geeks together into location based community that establishes itself into a job center like Silicon Valley.

As a student of today I am ready to make my choice as a consumer to choose a product or services from business that operates openly. WordPress is one of those choices I have made and just because it is a leading product as a blog engine and content management system for people around the world including companies like the New York Times and CNN that is not the real reason I choose it.

What brings WordPress into the top ten is its cultivation of a community that surrounds it. A large part of the WordPress community is what I call the hybrid consumer. Some of the things that hybrid consumers do, especially when it comes to something like WordPress considering the fact its a free download, well they meet up with each other to talk about various topics related to WordPress and their blogs. The community provides the support for WordPress just do a google search on the phrase “WordPress” and you will find a capped number of 176,000,000 results of websites dedicated to discussing usage tips, and/or creating plug-ins and themes.

This last weekend I attended the first Dallas WordPress meet up, a meeting of people interested in blogging and helping each other in what ever we need to learn to use the popular tool. If your not familiar with WordPress don’t worry you can come too, even just to chat with people who are eager to be social. Sometimes its easy to forget that all this online stuff like facebook, myspace, and twitter is so we can find new friends to meet in real life in between going to work and managing our life responsibilities during the week. This last weekend we did just that and had lots of fun introducing ourselves to each other some for the first time.

To be honest I wrote a blog entry about calling a informal meeting fellow Dallas area bloggers and a then follow up blog entry after it became a sort of shot heard around the world thing when Charles Stricklin the guy in charge of the Dallas WordCamp contacted me about setting up a meetup.com account for me to better organize the planned local meet up of interested people. From then on I became the organizer of the Dallas WordPress meet up one of only six in the world and I hope you will find the time to come to one. We have them every month and the next one is planned for May 24th 2008. Location plus other information can be found at wordpress.meetup.com/178

Skyline photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshbousel/145573511/

Some proof of this troubled environment for local news organizations has to do with portal sites like Yahoo.com when they link to news sites outside their own news network they link to national news organizations stories and are less likely to link to your local news website. Where do you get your local news, is it through a local news site like Dallas own WFAA.com or friends text message chatter through services like twitter.com.

Last night as I sat in front of my computer and caught up on stories of the day I read recent twitters, short 140 letter text messages, from friends as they warned fellow twitterer’s of the coming weather. This was not the instant chat rooms of the 90’s internet where weather would almost always come up in casual conversation this was almost instant mentions of what was going on with them at that moment which happened to be the extreme weather.

This type of community driven news has to be dealt with carefully because if the local news station was to just to start a twitter account and add you and me as a friend I would not necessarily add them back and read their posts. For me I follow a persons blog, twitter.com, Myspace, or Facebook if a I have an interest in what they have to say and who they are or what they do. A local news group such as a local broadcast station has to figure out where people online expect to find that information like the local weather. Its a really a hard question as the localized news industry struggles to find a place in your new digital life.

One idea is to separate the information where people want it. Do you need a full on website with every topic imaginable given room on the front page along with the plethora of ads. Maybe this organizational decision should be re-thought and individual sections should have a larger degree of separation from the main news homepage. I usually get lost looking for the technology sections on my local news sites and give up the search.

How about the growing online video content that local news studios have been posting online, is it embeddable for people to more easily post to their own space on the internet, for most sites I have found the answer is no. Sure most of the video content from these sites have “email this story” or “link to the story” but how effective has that been in spreading their news article around the local internet. I know when I visit my local news site I am flooded with too much information along with their numerous blinking advertisements to stay long enough to pass news stories and videos on to my friends.

As of todays local news climate there is still major room for local news organizations to be innovative and to find a place in their local viewers now digital directed eyes.

Top Photo Credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/adambales/2165381676/

Screen sizes have been increasing for years now and all of a sudden Apple pushes video onto its popular music player, the iPod and people are craving 2.5 inch movies and music videos. What backwards world we have evolved. Even beloved Hollywood elders rant at the movie watching public for even thinking they could enjoy a feature film on screens even at the iPhone’s screen size of a 3.5 diagonal widescreen. A reasonable answer can be found in the Hollywood legends opinionated words if you just look deeper into what David Lynch is suggesting in the articles version. Past his respect for the purity of film and his admittance of the required ability of a director to tell a story through film without a director’s commentary is something we are all willing to admit. The experience of the theater is unmatched by the iPod and/or iPhone. As David talks about how the number of people who will “see [the] films on computers and phones and they will think they saw the films” he realizes for himself where the advantage lies but he worries in its ability to maintain the same audiences. One thing I have learned in my personal experience with film is that those who watch a film on a iPhone or Computer screen don’t necessarily watch films on the big screen. For instance I watch movies I already have in my DVD collection on my iPhone. Or I might watch a cheap teen flick on iTunes rentals that I have less interest in as a full sit down and expand my mind theater experience. Sure there are people who will see a film entirely on their phone and never watch it again but are those people really lost from enjoying the film when they don’t have enough interest to sit on their couch and fully envelope themselves in the movie. That person might have not seen and spent the money on the film in the first place if it hadn’t been available to them in the manner they wished to consume it. David Lynch’s respect for film is great but he seems too in love with what he does best to realize alot of people just don’t care or need that movie magic to watch everyone of them in large screen theater, nor the patience to listen to the audience chatter during the film. The person that enjoys film knows how they like to consume it and they realize the advantages of a larger experience over the smaller earbud version. I propose that the rise of small screens has amplified the chances for studios to profit from their films because I can finally download that High School Musical film in private and watch it on the train in the morning instead of just ignoring it entirely. I would rather spend my quality large screen time and money in front of a film like Marie Antoinette with its large colorful atmosphere and expansive panning camera shots than wasting that quality time on the latest Disney teen flick. Some films deserve the small screen leave that decision up to the consumer. People who want to enjoy that latest action flick know that the best way to enjoy it is with surround sound and a larger than life screen.

This is a hard fact to swallow especially for the studios cause they see each sale of a small screen version of Juno on iTunes as it could have been a potential DVD sale which has tremendous markup for them, but its simply just wishful thinking on their part. While there are a number of people who purchase DVDs willy nilly most don’t and only purchase the films they love and enjoy repeatedly. Others who have a passing interest can now rent through iTunes and pay the studios for their slight interest in a films marketing buzz. Before those customers would have not put forth the effort and money to go to a local theater, they might even make the decision to wait until it comes on local cable television if that. Plus the films are now closer to younger audiences reach because they don’t have to know how to drive to see them. Parents today are giving their kids iTunes allowances and now those precious rapid not responsible money making decisions children make can go towards a studios pockets. Disney was iTunes first movie partner when Steve Jobs announced that movies would be available on the iTunes store. This makes since, now stuck at home mothers can do what they always do and drop the kids in front of the TV connected to an apple TV and load up a Disney flick with a few clicks and get back to what ever they are doing around the house.

There has been a theory since DVDs came out about releasing DVD’s of movies in the theater right after people come out of the cinema-plex. That way the people who kinda liked a film would now be more likely to drop their dimes on the exspensive DVD sooner rather than later in 6 months when they have to make the effort to remember to pick it up at the store. Usually by the time that the 6 months period has passed those same people are less enthused about why they liked the movie and are less likely to purchase the exspensive DVD for said movie. Maybe the studios could sell smaller digital versions to the movie watching public at the theaters and those who still love the film in some realm might purchase it on a DVD or in a made available higher quality digital version. People have the ability to watch many more films in their lives than ever before and the studios should see this as a expansion of there potential customers not as a shrinkage by any train of thought. People still enjoy the traditional theater experience but are only willing to spend time for it if the movie is of interest to them. People who would truly envelope themselves in a films wonder on a large screen are still gonna do it but don’t let them leave the theater without considering a instant purchase of the film in some form and don’t discount the value of the small screen as an alternative audience for your film that you may have never sold your film to if you hadn’t made it available to them in the first place.

In the end some will respect film as a large screen experience and will continue to put it on that pedestal and all the while others will passively enjoy film in some other form factor. My advice is to make sure you cultivate the dedicated fan or hybrid fan that will purchase their favorite piece of cinema in multiple forms like the digital small screen versions as well as the larger DVDs version with all the extras. Support the consumer who wants your film is passing as he/she wouldn’t otherwise and your bound to curve piracy by those who simply wan the media when and where they want it. Whats you ideas on this subject I am interested in other translations of this or David Lynch’s comments on smaller screens and smaller digital versions of film.

Top photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vlastula/450642954/

On Thursday of last week of this blog entry’s post date is when things were discussed, commented, chatted, and emailed about having a get together. Well look forward to food, fun, and blogging at the Lower Greenville Cafe Brazil cause the the open source blogging engine WordPress and people who use its free nature of expression on the internet will be there. Plan on this being a regular occurrence cause we are as long as you are interested in this thing called a blogging. I am sure there will be a few blog entry’s about it afterwards but the plan is to make this a habit. You see Charles Stricklin and his friends who helped bring us the Dallas WordCamp just last month and produces the WordPress Podcast covering news and information about the self publishing tool, decided to sponsor this meeting and the upcoming other meetings. I thank him for his help in supporting the WordPress/blogging community as we meet together to socialize and help each other as we grow our skills.

As mentioned it is scheduled for Saturday April 26 at 4:00pm at the Lower Greenville Cafe Brazil but make sure you visit wordpress.meetup.com/178/ and register so you can tell me your coming. I will be hosting this event so look for me I will be wearing my white WordCamp T-shirt to help identify myself. Also bring your laptops you might want to look at each other blogs and make sure you pass around the advice, whether its a great plug-in or some way to keep those nasty spammers from coming back. Yes that means Cafe Brazil does have FREE wireless internet access for all and if you want something to eat or drink you are welcome to look at the menu and eat we are not providing food as part of this event but Cafe Brazil has a great affordable menu and you might find a new friend who is willing to split the bill with you. Since this is the inaugural meeting we are not planning to have any sort of speaker or particular schedule of events so just show up and start socializing but think about whether you would like future meetings to have a some kind of activity or speaker and maybe comment below if you already know the answer. See You there!

The address, maps, menu, official website link along with other helpful information on the Dallas institution that is Cafe Brazil can be found at PegasusNews.com/places/cafe-brazil-lower-greenville/

Top photo credit: http://flickr.com/photos/crowt59/1341177655/

I wrote a freestyle poem for this blog post right inside the Wordpress edit window without pre-thought. Its plain to see right there at the moment of expression and converted to an example of digital creation. I am not saying its good by any sense of my imagination but it works for me, and since I tend to be liberal with the arts, usually considering anything included in life as art. Whats most interesting is the art of how we meet ourselves through people similar and different.

The time has come for tiny boxes with hungry foxes

Lone wolf singers and scorpion stingers

If only Bloggers were written all a twitter

then parsing would be more socially there

Now that time has passed since WordCamp Dallas 2008 I am working on calling an informal meet up of fellow people who blog, twitter, and do that thing called the internet. Nothing formal of course merely a chance to check on each other progress personally and digitally. We need a place were we can meet preferably with free internet access. I have some ideas on places I like, but I need to hear from my friends on where they and when they feel to do it, how about it. Go ahead write your own blog post, twitter, and link it together whether on this entry or on someone else’s blog entry on the topic. It doesn’t matter how many people show up merely lets meet for a reason.

Some common local free WiFi places are Corner Bakery, Panera, Cafe Brazil, Paciugo, The Ginger Man Pub and many other places according to this Pegasus News article A grande triple latte with free WiFi, please from Sept. 9 2007. Look around and suggest places in the comments or your own blog posts linked back to here. I personally like the Uptown/Downtown area of DFW considering the fact that some of the above mentioned places all have locations in those two areas but if more people need something a little more north or south so they can drop in so be it. I hope that we can have several more of these as time goes by before the next Dallas WordCamp in 2009. Just make sure you leave a comment here or write your own freak’n blog post about it linking back here so we can all follow the discussion and ideas.

[UPDATE] Related New Blog Post: Dallas Plans to meet to talk about blogging regularly