Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Scrabulous Innocence - A 2007 Interview with Rajat Agarwalla

In a historical perspective of the Scrabble and Scrabulous controversy..Here is my interview with Rajat Agarwalla in the summer of 2007. As you can see he was passionate about the scrabble community having a better experience than what existed online at the time. I know he spent countless days and nights setting up servers and dealing with crashes..

One interesting part of the article is the copyright disclaimer...You can see clearly, they respected the owners of the Scrabble trademark.

http://www.facebookenthusiast.com/2007/07/facebook-and-scrabble-is-scrabulous.html

Scrabulous was capturing Lightning in a bottle..it won't happen twice!

Scrabulous was capturing Lightning in a bottle..it won't happen twice!

There is energy in the world that came from the passion of the creators of Scrabulous that you will never duplicate. They poured their passion and personal time into a game THEY grew up playing. They allowed millions to have hours of fun at NO Charge and NO ONE paid them a salary to create the game....Scrabulous was NOT a GAME, it was like capturing lightning in a bottle..to ignite friendships worldwide via games.

I know the story as I contacted them in July 2007.(see scrabulous is fabulous article on my Facebook Enthusiast Blog.)..Why Hasbro did not contact the brothers when their identities were known to all on Facebook. still mystifies....I can only think someone in a corner office is about to lose their job!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Politics - Howard Dean "Register for Change"









Photos of Howard Dean (DNC Chair), Andrew Kaplan (MediaMensch) and Hillary Protestor

July 25, 2008 (Charlotte, NC)

The democratic national party chair, Howard Dean, is out visiting 50 states in his "Register for Change" bus.
He arrived yesterday in Charlotte, NC after starting the day in Raleigh and Greensboro. My impressions of him were just as positive in person as they were from his presidential election bid. He is down to earth, accessible, smart, and a good listener. He really seems to be genuine.. Why would he decide to spend the summer riding a bus and talking to small crowds if he wasn't passionate about uniting this country and closing the wealth gap.

Some takeaways from the tour:
1. During this registration drive in NC, volunteers should knock on your neighbors doors 3 times between now and the election to make sure not only are they registered, but can and will get to the polling place on election day. He joked that the Oregon democrats were going to it 4 times.

2. He said the US already has government run healthcare. it is called Medicare and senior citizens don't seem to want that to go away.

3. He mentioned that the democrats had not competed in the South and ceded it to the Republican party. With the mass change of demographics, it was time the democrats got their message to all americans. He essentially says that the Blue and Red state is made up. and he believes that we all are Americans.

4. There were Hillary supporters protesting the allocation of Delegates. At first, they were interrupting his speech. It was hard to believe the disrespect they had for the chair of the party. He spoke to them to ask them for their opinion and he would listen. It did quiet them down. It continues to show how fractured and fragile the democratic party is and may be a preview of what might happen at the convention.

My firm belief is that Howard Dean, Obama and the democrats are correct in the assumption that North Carolina could vote democratic in the 2008 presidential election. I get that impression from the amount of newcomers to Charlotte from places like Buffalo, PA, Ohio, NY, NJ, MA, and FL, plus the growing international population as well.

My Personal Experience with Howard Dean
After the speech, I approached him to discuss the use of Facebook and the internet as I noticed they bus tour was not on Facebook. He said "Do you think we should be on facebook?" My response was an emphatic "Yes" and he then told me to provide my business card to his "traveling assistant"..maybe they will see it says on the front "Voted #1 branding expert for Facebook" (Note: marketinghsherpa.com voted an article "11 Ways to Brand Yourself on Facebook". where I was ifeatured as #1 in its great minds series for 2007). .

Perhaps that might be the next chapter of MediaMensch and politics.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

MediaMensch Radio - Marta Tracy - Starring You! and Starmaker TV

Today, is the revival of the MediaMensch radio show on blogtalk radio, after a hiatus, I took to work on the film Blood Done Sign My Name (2009) starring Nate Parker and Ricky Schroeder.

The quality of guests that we have had will continue to provide you with insight into media while providing a look at the journey that brought them there. For many outside the media/entertainment industry, there seems to be a mystery or that question "How did you get started". It is important for those of us that have succeeded to help others achieve their dreams and goals.

I will also be working on my other radio show with a series about Facebook 2.0 (the new interface) and strategies that my clients, colleagues and friends utilize to brand themselves and connect. Using products such as facebook and LinkedIn in a strategic professional fashion can connect you with individuals at the highest levels of success whether measured by money, mental and physical fitness, or spirituality.

Within the last month, I have seen communities which I created an adminster grow tremendously. These include Linkto Motorsports, LinktoCharlotte, and the official Dickinson College alumni group on LinkedIn. Two other cities are launched as well including LinktoSanDiego and LinktoPhoenix. I am looking for partners or individuals in those cities to partner with me on their development.

Find our radio show at www.kaplan.fm or www.blogtalkradio.com/mediamensch and www.blogtalkradio.com/facebookenthusiast

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

10 Tips for Belonging to an Alumni Group on LinkedIn

Over the past few years, my college alumni department of Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA) has utilized my expertise as a social media and networking expert to build a local club in Charlotte, NC and to begin to bring strategies to connect our alumni via the web using social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn. In 2006, we went through approval with the college to set up an alumni group for LinkedIn (The leading social networks for professionals). The challenge was that at the time was that social media was new including LinkedIn, so that many or our alums where not aware of it or its power to connect. Within the last few months LinkedIn has made changes to its environment including newsfeeds and a searchable directory of groups. These two changes have now made it easy for colleges and universities to create groups on LinkedIn and grow them quickly.

Here are a few tips on how and why creating and/or joining an alumni group on LinkedIn is powerful.

1. Connect with Classmates

2. Connect with Alums in your geographic area

3. Connect with Alums in your industry

4. Collective intelligence of your alums

5. Recruit alums to work on your venture/business

6. Daily Newsfeed allows them to see what you are doing

7. Connect to their netwoks

8. Resource for College Career Center and Recent Grads

9. Public relations as an expert for articles for alumni magazine or other media'

10 Promotes recognition of the college or university

We will be expanding upon these topics in future articles, podcasts and teleclasses. If you are interested in participating please contact ewarriorbizdev@gmail.com ..If you have examples of how LinkedIn or other social networks have helped you we would love to have your success stories.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

MediaMensch Networks Launches LinktoMotorsports

On July 10, 2008, MediaMensch Networks began its launch of its new brand called LinktoMotorsports. This purpose of this brand is to allow members who are on networks such as facebook and LinkedIn to easily find each other and network. Since MediaMensch Networks is located in Charlotte, NC, our location in the heart of NASCAR and racing will allow us to hold live events also. We are currently putting together and advisory board and expect to have our first events starting in the 2nd half of 2008.

We have an 18 month plan to grow this business and would welcome any ideas or resources. If you are looking to sponsor our website or any other part of this business, please contact, Andrew Kaplan at ewarriorbizdev at gmail.com

Monday, July 07, 2008

Social Media - Facebook and Alums

A new group was recently started on Facebook to connect Time Warner Alumni. This is an interesting exercise since many who are active in the offline Time Life Alumni club are some of the original people at Time, Life, fortune, etc. The Time Warner Alumni group within facebook includes the new media crowd of AOL, New Line Cinema, CNN and other recent acquisitions.

It is a great way to bridge another gap and expand one's network. This group is growing organically from informal relationships. One way to expand your network is to find people within the groups where you have mutual friends. Again, I am a believer in quality vs. quantity of friends on social networks. If you connect with someone find time to follow up to see how you might help each other reach goals or help them on their journey.

I am looking forward to developing new friendships and business relationships among this group.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Andrew Kaplan listing in IMDb


After a year of working in the film industry, my profile is now appearing in IMDb (Internet Movie Database), which is an Amazon owned company featuring the details of your favorite movies from an industry standpoint. My listing can be found at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2699505/ as Andrew R. Kaplan.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

New Book Review of Jen-Zen And The One Shoe Diaries - Posted at Amazon

Here is the latest Amazon review of my novel, Jen-Zen and the One Shoe Diaries. There are also some Gather and magazine reviews in the works. I'll let you know when those are live. I would love to get some more reviews going on Gather. In August I'll likely have a new spin on my ebook scavenger hunt.

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(The novel is published by SynergeEbooks.com and is also available on Amazon.com, Fictionwise.com and other distributors.)