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I will be discussing IowaFlood.com with Zane Safrit live this morning on BlogTalkRadio at 9:30 AM CST.

Zane Safrit talks about small business, innovation, word-of-mouth, leadership, generating positive cash-flows, topgrading, social media, blogs and bloggers, the economy…maybe even current events like politics. It’s personal, passionate, opinionated. And helpful.

We’ll be discussing social media and its convergence during disasters. We’ll be welcoming questions! Enjoy.

BlogTalkRadio Zane Safrit

UPDATE: Here is the show…

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The 3G iPhone 2 and the App Store hasn’t dropped yet but there are a lot of cool apps coming out. Here is one of those - the AirRemote Universal Remote App for iPhone and iPod Touch. Other remote apps have been released but most of them work with proprietary home automation like mControl (of which I use). The AirRemote differentiates itself by working with traditional IR devices.

So what’s the catch? First the app will hit the iPhone app store for $99 on July 11. The other catch is it requires a “global cache transmitter” which eHomeUpgrade says will retail around $100.

via eHomeUpgrade

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Wow.

What a ride the last few days have been. It’s been about 72 hours since I launched IowaFlood.com and I can say I have learned a lot, and not just technical but about Word of Mouth, Citizen Journalism, our local community, and the generosity and communal nature of Iowans. So almost 72 hours, 3 servers, and 40,000 hits later let me recap the story.

First off, I have been asked on several occasions why I built this website. My first response was, “Because I can”. This was not meant to be arrogant or egotistical - just straightforward. I knew the mainstream media would not embrace the social aspect (at least not til I showed them how). I know the technology like the back of my hand (more on that later). And I knew I could get the word out - through the local twitter community.

My second response is that social media and citizen journalism are, by nature, a de-centralized system. There’s conversation going on in Twitter and on blogs. There are photos being uploaded to Flickr and forwarded via email. There are videos popping up on YouTube. Unless you have your ear to the social ground this great content may have passed you up. Enter IowaFlood.com. The goal was to centralize this ecosystem of user generated content into an organized flow for the mainstream public to follow.

Did you just do it to make money off ads and generate traffic from a disaster? This is a valid question, since I do run ads on the website. The answer, wholeheartedly, is no. I did this for my home state of Iowa and everyone who is looking for information on a natural disaster. I did it for social media and citizen journalism. I did it for you. The money from ads (which is approaching $5) will go to pay for the website, which thus far has cost about 50x the ad revenue to scale the hosting, database, and bandwidth. This was all gladly paid for by 48Web. Any money made on advertisements above and behind the hosting costs will go to charity.

I want to thank the local Des Moines twitter community. I just built a website - you created the value. I also want to thank everyone for their nice comments and support - that makes it all worth doing.

– Feedback –

WNYC Interview on The Takeaway (MP3 shortly)
Nathan Wright on Citizen Journalism
Todd Mundt on HyperLocal Reporting
Jake Bouma
Rush Nigut
Troy Rutter
Nathanial Payne

And more coming in…

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What are you doing working? It’s Friday, so it’s Friday Video time.

Here is the Evolution of Mobile Phones

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Official Google Mac Blog: Mac OS X 10.5.3: sync Google Contacts

“We’re happy to tell you that starting today, it’s easier to sync up your contact lists. The Address Book application in Mac OS X 10.5.3 now lets iPhone users sync their Address Book with Google Contacts. To try it, go to the Address Book menu, choose Preferences, and then check Synchronize with Google. It’ll ask for your Google account and password, then automatically update your contacts every time you sync your iPhone.”

I just installed OSX 10.5.3 Update so I cannot wait to try this my MacBook. Now all I need is an iPhone… It’s pretty easy to do. Just open your Address Book, go to Preferences and check the box that says “Sync With Google”.

Technorati Tags: OSX Update, Google Contacts, Sync, iPhone

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