andrewteman.org » Boston

The Value Of Social Media

andrew — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:28:28 +0000

Don’t barf just yet, this isn’t one of those posts where some arbitrary number is thrown up (pun intended) as being factual, empirical, evidence of what a Facebook Fan or Twitter follower is worth. It’s merely a link to, and a quote from a post on BostonInnovation. The quote comes from Scott Stratten, author of “UnMarketing”, which I have yet to read.

“Every time you ask for the ROI of Social Media, a kitten dies somewhere. It doesn’t mean anything to put a number on a conversation. Social Media is nothing new, we just used to call it….talking. If you believe that businesses are built on relationships, than it should be your duty to build relationships.”

The full post is here.

And as a side note, this week/month so far has really seemed like it’s contained a tidal-wave of amazing stuff in the local online/interactive/social/digital media and advertising space. Some people have returned from Planning-Ness with great decks and info, Hubspot had their “HUG” event, and of course FutureM and the stuff coming out of FutureM is fantastic. Let’s hope this pace keeps up, and Boston stays abuzz with this sort of conversation. Exciting times.

Let’s Have A Coffee

andrew — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:10:31 +0000

I had the pleasure of meeting up with Matt over at CustomMade this morning for a coffee and chat about our respective companies, the internet, and randomly related things. On my way out, I was reminded how much I love doing this sort of thing; meeting and connecting with interesting people and just sharing ideas and thoughts on all sorts of things.

As such, I want to do this more frequently, and am thinking of trying to do a one-on-one coffee with someone new, every week. It doesn’t much matter who you are or what your background is (though online/product/marketing/digital/advertising types are preferred), but mainly that you are interesting and passionate about whatever it is you do.

So if you are up for grabbing a coffee (Espresso Royale on Newbury Street is my go-to spot), get in touch.

Biking And The City

andrew — Fri, 28 May 2010 12:51:44 +0000

This was just a shade to long for twitter…but on my bike ride into work this morning, I was thinking.

I live in Boston, and am both a driver and a biker. And depending on which set of wheels I am behind at the time, I am known to curse out each camp equally for their respective idiotic behavior. But I do understand that as an idiot driver, I am in a position to do far more harm to a biker than an idiot biker may do to me and my 2,000 pound car. And as such, I try to be hyper-aware of the city bikers as I drive around in my SUV.

The recent addition of the bike lanes on Commonwealth Ave, and other main streets around the city, are fantastic. They force motorists to respect the space and rights of the cyclists, and I think it just makes things safer for everyone. And if you read the papers, watch the news, or just generally talk to anyone with an opinion and a bike these days, you hear lots of chatter about how bikers in Boston are finally getting some respect and some protection from the awful and law-flouting local drivers.

But if bikers want to really get some respect and protection, there is a trade-off here. There is something the bikers need to start doing in return. The lanes and the bike-boxes, and the signage are there to provide rules that will give you clearly outlined rights, and keep you safe from being steamrolled by mini-vans. So bikers of Boston, in return, it’s time to start following the rules of the road. No more picking and choosing pedestrian rules or vehicle rules based on which suits you better in that moment. No more buzzing through red lights, throwing the middle finger at everyone, and no more weaving in and out of traffic like a bozo, causing everyone to freak out for fear of giving you the fender up the backside that you technically sort of deserve.

It’s a give and take bikers. If you want to be treated like an equal part of the traffic ecosystem, and if you want rights and protections, you too need to step up and set the example of how cars and cyclists can function together safely.

It’s Boston Street Cleaning Season

andrew — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:35:56 +0000

Otherwise known as the most terrible time of the year. As if it wasn’t already a total cluster-f to try and park in this city (particularly in the Back Bay and South/North Ends), street cleaning ads in a whole new dimension of pain.

“Oh, there is a total supply/demand issue with just regular resident parking on normal days? Great, why don’t we clean every street in the neighborhood at the same time and same day, cutting available parking in half. That should make it easy for everyone.”

FAIL.

Fail for residents that is. The city cleans up (pun intended) on this little operation. And half the time they just seem to write the tickets and never even clean the streets. I remember when I lived in Brighton, they’d tow the cars, and then never clean the street. Or clean the wrong street on the wrong day. What a joke.

In fact, the street cleaning started on April 5th, and my block of Commonwealth Ave was on the no-park list. Looks like tickets were handed out, but the streets still look as dirty as ever.

I actually started making myself a Google Calendar to keep track of the cleaning schedule in my neighborhood, and then thought it might be useful for others as well, so I made it public. Right now the calendar only covers “Back Bay Proper” from Mass Ave to Arlington Street (west to east) and from Boylston Street to Beacon Street (south to north).

You can grab the iCal version of the calendar here, the XML feed of the calendar here, or just view the standard calendar here.

Or, if you have a smaht-phone, you can scan the QR code and load the iCal version right onto your phone.

And of course, since I have a total addiction to buying domains and then throwing half-assed things together onto them, I began adding this info (and maybe more if I stick to it) to Back Bay Parking.

Hey Weekly Dig, You’re Doing It Wrong

andrew — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:16:22 +0000

This is THE definition of a FAIL.

You are the Weekly Dig.

You are a newspaper.

Your sole purpose, and your industry’s sole purpose, is to disseminate information.

You sign up for a service (twitter) which is designed to help you achieve this task of information dissemination.

You decide to “protect” your updates, thus disallowing the information to be disseminated.

Boston Restaurants On Twitter

andrew — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:57:14 +0000

Check out BostonTweats.com

If like me, two of your habits involve messing around on Twitter and eating at restaurants (sometimes at the same time), the list below may actually be of interest to you. Based on my hunting and pecking around THE INTERNET, I have compiled the rather exhaustive (but likely still missing many) list of Boston restaurants, pubs, hotels, and food related profiles on Twitter.

If you know of others, please leave them in the comments.

Restaurants/Bars/Pubs/Hotels

Other Boston Food Related Feeds

http://twitter.com/BostonCheapEats
http://twitter.com/OpenTable
http://twitter.com/BostonTweet
http://twitter.com/BostonFoodDiary
http://twitter.com/bostonfoodwhine
http://twitter.com/GastroSpkBoston
http://twitter.com/RWboston
http://twitter.com/Boston_Bakes
http://twitter.com/GrubHub
http://twitter.com/TheSecondGlass
http://twitter.com/edibleboston
http://twitter.com/HubEats
http://twitter.com/bostonfoodwhine
http://twitter.com/yelpboston
http://twitter.com/BostonBubbleTea
http://twitter.com/GlobeFood
http://twitter.com/eatboston

Hottest Boston Newswomen – 2008

andrew — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:36:08 +0000

Once again, as we did in 2006, and again in 2007, it is time to pick the hottest news woman in Boston television. Per the usual routine, I have nominated the best of the best (shown below) and users will vote in the poll (also shown below) to pick this year’s winner. And also as usual, the only prize will be that tingly “eww” feeling that can only come from knowing that thousands of internet trolls are voting on your physical grade, like pieces of freshly caught bluefin.

Previous winners have been Sara Underwood in 2006, and Linda Ergas in 2007 – who won in a landslide, taking 33% of the 3,000+ total votes that were cast.

Before we get voting this year, here are some news, notes, and thoughts that may or may not be of interest.

Some names from last year, that didn’t make the final pool in 2008, include Dawn Hasbrouck, Christa Delcamp, Cindy Fitzgibbon, Lisa Hughes, Shiba Russell, Mish Michaels, and Sorboni Banerjee. Also Beth Shelburne from NECN who was one of the final cuts. The competition is a bit stiffer this year, and these ladies just couldn’t squeak into the final voting. I am sure they are devastated.
Some close calls and last minute cuts included Diana Rocco, who looked pretty good in certain photos, but the station head shots just wouldn’t have made it here, and that’s what we are working from.
Which brings me to Alison Bologna. She has been with Fox 25 for two years now, is clearly a finalist, but has no head shot to be found. What gives there?
This could be the last go ’round for Fox’s Maria Stephanos. She is starting to wither a bit, but still carries a lot of the vote each year. People seem to love her, but at some point she is going to be bumped out by some of this new blood.
And lastly, Channel 7 lead the nominee pack with 6 of the 12 finalists. At this point they have literally just said “fuck it” and started hiring Floridian beauty queens.

ANYWAYS, without further ado, here is this year’s list of nominees:

Alison Bologna – Fox 25

Bianca de la Garza – Fox 25

Anne Allred – WHDH 7

Erin Hawksworth – Fox 25

JC Monahan - WCVB 5

Julie Donaldson – WHDH 7

Linda Ergas – WHDH 7

Maria Stephanos - Fox 25

Michelle Relerford – WHDH 7

Nicole Oliverio – WHDH 7

Sara Underwood - Fox 25

Victoria Warren – WHDH 7

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Obama And Impromptu Parades

andrew — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:13:44 +0000

Last night at about midnight, while Julie and I were watching Obama’s acceptance speech, we stopped and muted the sound, and both said “Do you hear that? It sounds like violins.” – it was. We looked outside of the window, and right beneath us, two floors down on the street, was a five piece string band that had formed out on the street. Complete with violins, guitars, banjos, and other stringed instruments. And they were good.

We happen to live right in the middle of the most musically inclined section of the city, surrounded on all sides by the Berklee College of Music, which means that when those-damn-college-kids are playing loud music late at night, it is not only live, but enjoyable. In fact, I think there is a jazz band in the building across the street that during the summer, sounded awesome when they played with the windows open.

ANYWAYS.

So last night, when Obama sealed the deal, a pretty cool thing happened. Instead of drunk dickheads from BC heaving celebratory kegs from the windows of Brighton three-deckers, we were treated to a lot of live music, impromptu marching bands, and a full on parade in the streets of our neighborhood. Dixie land style bands, drums, horns, string quintets…it was pretty surreal, and all awesome.

At one point, about 500 kids (looked like a mix of Berklee and Northeastern folks) mobbed down the streets (fronted by yet another traveling band), hooked a right onto Boylston Street and headed their procession towards downtown to celebrate. They were flanked by a few Boston police cruisers that were apparently there just in case, but this was what appeared to be a happy, peaceful, and fun-loving group of kids. It was nice for a change to see a giant group of college kids charging down the street, and not having to worry about seeing my car in a ball of flames, or on it’s roof.

Looks like there was more of the same in Somerville.

The Photo above is from a great E B Photo set here.

2008 Massachusetts Absentee Ballot

andrew — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:00:16 +0000

Divas Unleashed Boston – 2008

andrew — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 23:49:28 +0000

From a dog Halloween costume contest this weekend in Boston.

Whole set here.