For the past few years, I’ve had a press pass to SXSW Interactive. This year, I don’t.

I considered shelling out the $400-$500 for a badge, but then I thought about how I had spent my most productive time the past few years, and it was mostly hanging out in the hallways, going to lunch with people I only see once or twice a year, and at the parties. Sure, without a badge I won’t be able to attend the panels, the awards, the official parties, and a few other things, but I realized I could also pretty easily find other people, places and parties to replace those official activities.

I started looking for resources online, but all I found was a few random blog posts – nothing comprehensive. So I figured I’d try to organize something myself – it would put me in the information flow, plus be a good networking opportunity, right?

I set up a Twitter ID and a Facebook group named SXSW Badgeless.

Well, obviously I hit an underserved niche. The SXSW Badgeless Facebook group had 1,000 members on the first day. Wow! And then 1,000 more the second day, and so on, and so on – 10,000 members in 10 days!

And then – BAM!

Hello,

We have removed or disabled access to the following content that you have posted on Facebook because we received a notice from a third party that the content infringes or otherwise violates their rights:

[Group: SXSW Badgeless]

We strongly encourage you to review the content you have posted to Facebook to make sure that you have not posted any other infringing content, as it is our policy to terminate the accounts of repeat infringers when appropriate.

If you believe that we have made a mistake in removing this content, then please contact us at ip@facebook.com.

The Facebook Team

Huh???

OK, let’s be clear here…

First of all, naming a group “SXSW Badgeless” constitutes fair use of the trademark:

1. First and foremost, the use of “SXSW” is descriptive. How can you possibly organize a group of people who don’t have a SXSW badge without referencing SXSW?
2. The purpose of the use was not for profit.
3. The use doesn’t damage SXSW in any way. It doesn’t keep anyone from buying a SXSW badge – it’s merely grassroots community organization of those people who are making their own decision not to.

But Facebook doesn’t seem to care about any of that. I wasn’t given any opportunity to explain myself – or change the name of the group – before they shut down the group. They have no process for intellectual property conflict resolution.

I tried writing them back (twice), as they said to do, but I still have received no response from Facebook.

Here’s what really gets me…

See that? 486 Results!

Clearly, SXSW Badgeless was unfairly and prejudicially singled out. Basically, it got big enough to get on their radar, and they didn’t like it. Too bad.

I’ve been wronged, as have the other 10,000 people who wanted to use Facebook to communicate with each other.

But I’m not willing to sacrifice my Facebook account on the altar of fair use righteousness. So instead I bought the domain unSXSW.com and have set up a site there to aggregate all the information I can find about unofficial (and official, but open-to-the-public) activities during SXSW. You can also follow @unSXSW on Twitter.

For the record, I love SXSW. It’s a great event, and I wish them well. But I also hate brand bullies and won’t cave to them. I understand and support intellectual property rights, but not when they impinge on the 1st Amendment.

I got an email from Meetup.com today with the subject “A New Meetup Group That Matches Your Interests Has Started!”

What group?

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I think maybe I’d better check my profile settings!

I’ve been watching the news about the situation in Haiti with a heavy heart. The brief blurbs on the network news don’t even begin to do it justice. I strongly urge you to read this article:

Redefining tragedy when everything around you, as bleak as it is, suddenly disappears

I have to say, though, it’s really cool to see how social media and other new technology is making it easier to give, raising awareness, and perhaps most importantly, driving people to action.

One of the coolest and most effective things I’ve seen is the Red Cross 90999 Haiti text campaign, which has already topped $10 million, according to The Washington Post. Pretty simple: text “HAITI” to 90999 on your phone to donate $10 to Haiti relief via the Red Cross. It’ll show up on your next phone bill. Contrary to some claims on Twitter that it’s a scam, yes, it’s legit – you can see the announcement on the Red Cross site.

I also received an email last night from my friend Sean Patrick Simpson (@vpsean), who asked internet & business legend Mark Joyner (@MarkJoyner) to write a couple of letters that people could send out to their email list to encourage giving. I loved his take on it, so I thought I’d share it with you here (with permission):

3 Reasons You Should Help Bail Out Haiti

1.  Stability is good for the market

When countries fall under hardship they can fall prey to a number of unhealthy practices that are bad for legitimate business.

Black markets, looters, warlords …

Doesn’t exactly beckon capitalists to risk their money there.

In my estimation, the more countries we can trade with the better. I’m a believer in the "trade with all, war with none" notion of the framers of the US constitution.

2.  I think it’s a tax write-off (Check with your accountant)

3.  American Airlines is Giving 250 Free Air Miles for your donations over $50. Check it out: http://budurl.com/savehaitinow

So, I’m gonna go do this thing.  Not because someone guilted me into it, but because it’s a good idea for all of us.

Image credit: United Nations Photo

OK, I admit it, I’m signed up with PayPerPost. I would never blog about a topic just to get a few bucks, but if I find the topic interesting enough to post about, I have no problem with a company tossing me a few bucks for the extra attention. If you haven’t read the Forrester report on Sponsored Conversations, you should.

Now as it turns out, I haven’t actually run any PayPerPost posts yet – there hasn’t been an opportunity for any of my blogs that I thought was a good match. But this morning I had an opportunity to post about a new Music Videos site, which also promises lyrics on demand. Being the karaoke junkie that I am, this seemed right up my alley, so I thought, “Hey,this could actually be a fit.” Only a couple of bucks, but all they wanted was a link.

So I went to check out the site, MuVids.com. The site looks great – all the hit songs:

So I thought, “Cool – sure, I’ll write a quick blog about this.”

And then…BAM!

Huh?

I refreshed the screen just to be sure I hadn’t accidentally clicked on an ad or something. Nope. Sure enough, this thing pops up after a few seconds.

OK, a bit user-hostile, but the content is worth it to me to do this…once. Or even once per visit. Fine.

And then…BAM!

WTF??? You gotta be kidding me! You want my cell phone number to view a web site???

Now maybe it’s all on the up-and-up. I could NOT find any fine print anywhere saying that they were going to automatically start charging you a subscription for ringtones, wallpaper, etc., like they do with those IQ and personality quizzes:

That said, though, given how prevalent those things are, and apparently how easy it is to rip people off once you give them your mobile phone number, there’s no way in hell I’m giving out my cell phone number to watch music videos, even with lyrics, or anything else for that matter. I’m not accusing MuVids of dishonesty, just stupidity.

Maybe this is a new site, and maybe they’ll get their head out of their ass and realize that they’re driving hordes of people away with this user-hostile interface, and if so, maybe I’ll go back and visit it, and maybe even post an update about it (for free).

In the meantime, I won’t be back. And this will be a test of just how transparent PayPerPost really is. The requirements for the post are:

Related content with a link to www.muvids.com with anchortext "Music Videos".

I did that. We’ll see if they pay me.

UPDATE: Yup, they did.

I know there’s a lot of hype, mystery and legend around getting on the front page of Digg. Personally, I joined Digg back in 2005, used it somewhat, and then kind of abandoned it. I stop by occasionally, Digg something as a favor to a friend every once in a while, etc. I have a couple of clients that use it heavily, even though I don’t personally. They are, however, media and/or B2C focused.

I have a B2B client, though, who’s asking me about Digg, and I’m wondering if anyone’s actually using it for B2B. To research this on my end, I just downloaded my 864 LinkedIn contacts to a CSV file and uploaded that to Digg. Out of those 864 business contacts:

1. 83 (less than 10%) are Digg users.
2. Only 12 (1.4%) have been active recently (looks like the past 90 days), according to Digg

Mind you, my network has a disproportionately high percentage of social media professionals, too. Heck, even Pete Cashmore (Mashable) is “Not active recently”:

Maybe he’s outsourcing it. Heck, maybe everybody’s outsourcing it. Does kind of make you wonder, doesn’t it? Who’s actually Digging? And why is it still such a big deal?

More research required, but let me know what you think.

It’s year-end, and that means it’s time for the annual flood of top 10 lists. Imagine my surprise (and delight) when I saw that The Virtual Handshake had made honorable mention (just outside the top 10 – looks like about #16 if he listed them in order) on Chris Tomkins’ Best Social Media Books of 2009. Chris’ methodology was simple:

Since many of us (yes, I know you are out there) are still looking for the best book on social media…as well as those last minute gift ideas, I wanted to publish the results of a study that I held via my friends and social media connections on Linkedin and Facebook.  I polled over 5,000 people and simply asked “What’s the best book on social media out there.”

Now here’s what I found both fascinating and, frankly, a bit pride-inducing: every other title on the list came out in 2008-2009. The Virtual Handshake came out in 2005!

When we wrote it, we very deliberately set out to write a book that would be timeless, not something with a 2-year shelf life. Considering how rapidly the social media space is changing, that’s a significant challenge.

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