Read the Announcement from President-elect C. L. Max Nikias

I’ll likely use this sparsely updated blog as a space to share some highlights from our class. So that you know what we’re talkin’ ’bout, here’s a course description:

The Introduction to Online Communities course provides a basic set of knowledge, skills, and terminology needed to understand the advent, growth and development of online communities.

Students learn to engage with, critique, and discuss online communities through timely readings, reputable guest lecturers, and lively discussions. Assigned readings include both influential industry blogs and academic publications.

Frequent guest lecturers offer information about new developments in the industry and provide students with insights into the leadership and management of online communities.

Weekly discussions draw from the week’s industry news, other readings, and topics and issues raised by our guests. The class explores business aspects of online communities, motivations for their creation, strategies for cultivating them, as well as trends in this industry.

This wealth of knowledge serves as preparation for future classes and projects at APOC.

And here are the course topics, as it stands right now:

The Digital Future
What are Online Communities?
Managing Online Communities
Community Tools & Platforms
Corporate Communities
Building Community I
Building Community II
Marketing I: Social Media & Viral Marketing
Marketing II: Viral, SEO/SEM
User Experience & Product Design
New developments: Mobile, Third party platforms, etc.
Future of Content
Monetizing, Entrepreneurship & Starting Up

Should be a great semester. Gonna try to get caught up with a few posts here shortly!

Well, one reason to keep blogging is Blog Action Day. Which is today, October 15th.

Blog Action Day is “an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.” And blogs can do this better than social networks in some ways because a blog post is semi-permanent, searchable by Google, etc. — all of which gives more weight to a statement made on a blog.

So…. Take Action: Tell the U.S. it’s Time to Act on Climate Change: More than any other country, action taken by the United States to limit greenhouse gases and build a clean energy economy is needed to achieve a sustainable solution to our global climate crisis.

You can help out by joining those across the world calling on President Obama to lead on climate change.

Meanwhile, check out a few of my favorite green peeps at Live Earth and FIJI Green.

The class is “Introduction to Online Communities (CMGT-534)” and I teach it along with Karen North as part of the very timely and professionally relevant  Annenberg Program on Online Communities, of which Karen is the Director.

Quick blurb on the class:

The Introduction to Online Communities course provides a basic set of knowledge, skills, and terminology needed to understand the advent, growth and development of online communities. Students learn to engage with, critique, and discuss online communities through timely readings, reputable guest lecturers, and lively discussions. Assigned readings include both influential industry blogs and academic publications. Frequent guest lecturers offer information about new developments in the industry and provide students with insights into the leadership and management of online communities. Weekly discussions draw from the week’s industry news, other readings, and topics and issues raised by our guests. The class explores business aspects of online communities, motivations for their creation, strategies for cultivating them, as well as trends in this industry. This wealth of knowledge serves as preparation for future classes and projects at APOC.

So far, we’ve discussed the impact of online communities on society, open source & peer production, and designing around the user experience.  The following topics are still to come:

• Micro/niche communities
• Large scale communities
• Digital Filmmaking, User-Generated Content
• Transmedia & multi-platform strategies
• Viral marketing, SEO/SEM
• PR, Attraction/Conversion/Retention, Customer service as marketing
• Monetization Strategies, Bootstrapping, Raising Capital
• Virtual Worlds & Games
• Industry Case Study: How the Social Web is Changing the Content-Driven Businesses
• Mobile/wireless, GPS, Artificial Intelligence 

So…. Any suggestions on readings for the upcoming topics?  Speakers?  Lab exercises?

VOTE HERE

And the nominees are…

Mainstream & Large Scale Social Networks
Netlog
Platinum Lounge
Twitter

Embeddable Widgets
Clearspring
Qoof
Sprout

Blog Plugins
AddThis
ShareThis
Zemanta

Social News
Help a Reporter Out
Hubdub
regator

Social Networking Applications
Artition
Digsby
Ping.fm

Social Bookmarking
AddThis
Diigo
ShareThis

Search & Social Search
Artiklz
findingDulcinea
Scour

Sports & Fitness
FitFiend
Gyminee
OneSeason

Photo Sharing
flickr
ipernity
TinyPic

Video Sharing
ffwd
Vimeo
YouTube

Start Pages
Google
iGoogle
Yahoo!

Places & Events
City Data
Doodle
Muchmor

Travel
CouchSurfing
GeckoGo
Spotted by Locals

Music
Last.fm
NoiseTrade
Pandora
(JamsBio got hosed!)

Social Shopping
A Full Cup
Pikaba
Tigerbow

Fashion
Chictini
Coolspotters
Polyvore

Celebrity & Gossip
Bollyscoops
Oh No They Didn’t
Superficial Gallery

Mobile Applications
Evernote
MocoSpace
Viigo

Dating & Romance
DateHookup
SpeedDate
zoosk

Wiki
Encyclopedia Dramatica
wikiHow
Wikipedia

Politics
CreateDebate
Politics4all
PreciseNews

How-to
A Full Cup
College-Cram
Howcast

Environmental
ecomii
gazelle
neighBorrow

Non-Profit Causes
DiscoverScholars
SocialVibe
Stop Political Calls

Online Games
Armor Games
Playfish
Powerpets

Niche Social Networks
Lymabean
The Star Tracker
Wadja

Happy voting!

Click below for the voting widget. Use it to browse some new sites and offerings you may not yet be familiar with, and then reward the best in each category with your vote:

Get the full details by checking out the Rules and Timeline

Voting closes on Sunday, November 30th 11:59 pm PST, so hurry now.

Nominees, feel free to shout out your entries in the comments below.

To all, which entries and which categories captured your attention and earned your vote?

We don’t do a lot of “Breaking News” here at Blog The Change, but BJ from Silver Lake tipped me off to first public mistake committed by President-Elect Barack Obama.

As you’ll see in the graphic above, his designers went live with Change.Gov before the placeholder Lorem Ipsum copy on the sign-up page was replaced with real copy, it seems.

Or… perhaps a shout out to the design community which created so many neat-o O-inspired goodies over the last 2 years.  Goodies like this.

Lorem Ipsum – Common Words From A Dead Language You Can Believe In!

Seriously though, Obama f’in rules.  Best. President-Elect. Ever.

Heading off to Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, TX this weekend. Should be, well, fun.

Here are the 10 artists I’m most looking forward to seeing:

DAY 1 / SATURDAY 11/8

Ztrip (8:10-9:40)
Atmosphere (7:35-8:35)
Deerhoof (6:30-7:30)
Dan Deacon (7-8)
Dengue Fever (2:00-2:45

DAY 2 / SUNDAY 11/9

Clipse (8:45-9:45)
Bad Brains (8:45-9:45)
Grupo Fantasma (7:30-8:30)
Kool Keith/Dr Octagon (6:30-7:15)
Black Joe lewis (2:10-2:40)

Who else is going?

Blog The Change is a proud blog partner of the 2nd Annual Open Web Awards, sponsored by Mashable. 

About Open Web Awards:

Open Web Awards is the only multilingual international online voting competition that covers major innovations in web technology. Through an online nominating and voting process, the Open Web Awards recognizes and honors the top achievements in 26 categories. This year, we’re partnering with over 100 blog partners, Poll Daddy for extra security and ease of voting and extending the nominations period and voting rounds for greater participation.

Nominations will be held from November 5th till November 18th 2008. The first and final voting rounds will be held from November 19th till December 15th.

The first Open Web Awards achieved over 250,000 votes combined between Mashable and our 50 international blog partners. Winners included Facebook, Digg, Google, Meetup, Twitter, Netvibes, woot!, Last.fm and Mahalo.

It’s time to celebrate all that is best about the Web.

Please grab the widget from here: http://mashable.com/openwebawards/widget/

Rules are here: http://mashable.com/openwebawards/rules/

Timeline is here: http://mashable.com/openwebawards/timeline/

Please note that the nominations round is from Wednesday 9 am PST till Sunday, November 16^th 11:59 pm PST.

Vote Obama on November 4th.  Vote early, if you can.

High profile Republican and/or conservative people who have recently announced their support for Senator Obama for President: (Partial list)

Jim Leach, Former Congressman from Iowa

“For me, the national interest comes before party concerns, particularly internationally.  We do need a new direction in American policy, and Obama has a sense of that.”

Lincoln Chafee, Former United States Senator from Rhode Island

“As I look at the candidates in order who to vote for, certainly my kind of conservatism was reflected with Senator Obama, and those points are that we’re fiscally conservative, we care about revenues matching expenditures, we also care about the environment, I think it’s a traditional conservative value to care about clean air and clean water.”

Wayne Gilchrest, Congressman from Maryland

“We can’t use four more years of the same kind of policy that’s somewhat haphazard, which leads to recklessness.”

Richard Riordan, Former Mayor of Los Angeles

“I’m still a Republican, but I still will always vote for the person who I think will do the best job.”

Lowell Weicker, Former Governor and Senator from Connecticut

“At issue is not the partisan politics of two parties, rather the image we have of ourselves as Americans.  Senator Obama brings wisdom, kindness, and common sense to what is both his and our quest for a better America.”

Jim Whitaker, Fairbanks, Alaska Mayor

“If we are as a nation concerned with energy, then our consideration should be a national energy policy that is not predicated on crude oil 50 years into the future.  We need to get to it, and I think Barack Obama is very clear in that regard.”

Linwood Holton, Former Governor of Virginia

“Obama has a brain, and he isn’t afraid to use it.” 

Scott McClellan, Press Secretary under G.W. Bush 

“The former Bush administration official said he wanted to support the candidate that has the best chance for changing the way Washington works and getting things done.” 

Colin Powell, Secretary of State under G.W. Bush  

“…he has met the standard of being a sucessful president, being an exceptional president.  I think he is a transformational figure.  He is a new generation coming into the world– onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I’ll be voting for Senator Barack Obama.”

Douglas Kmiec, Head of the Office of Legal Counsel under Reagan & George Bush  

“I was first attracted to government by Ronald Reagan, who lives in our national memory as a great leader and an inspiring communicator.  Senator Obama has these gifts as well, but of course, more rhetorical flourish without substance would be worth little.  Is there more to Senator Obama?  I believe there is.”

Jackson M. Andrews, Republican Counsel to the U.S. Senate

“Barack Obama is a thoughtful visionary leader who as President will end the decline of American law, liberty, and fiscal responsibility that are the hallmarks of the extremist policies of the current Administration, now adopted by John McCain.”  

Susan Eisenhower, Granddaughter of President Eisenhower & President of the Eisenhower Group

“Given Obama’s support among young people, I believe that he will be most invested in defending the interests of these rising generations and, therefore, the long-term interests of this nation as a whole.” 

C.C. Goldwater, Granddaughter of Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater 

“Myself, along with my siblings and a few cousins, will not be supporting the Republican presidential candidates this year. We believe strongly in what our grandfather stood for: honesty, integrity, and personal freedom, free from political maneuvering and fear tactics.”

Francis Fukuyama, Advisor to President Reagan

“…Obama probably has the greatest promise of delivering a different kind of politics.”

Rita Hauser, Former White House intelligence advisor under George W. Bush 

“McCain will continue the wrong-headed foreign policy decisions of Bush, while Obama will take us in a new direction.”

Larry Hunter, Former President Reagan Policy Advisor

“I suspect Obama is more free-market friendly than he lets on.  He taught at the University of Chicago, a hotbed of right-of-center thought.  His economic advisers, notably Austan Goolsbee, recognize that ordinary citizens stand to gain more from open markets than from government meddling.”

Bill Ruckelshaus, served in the Nixon and Reagan administrations

“I’m not against McCain, I’m for Obama.”

Ken Adelman, served in the Ford administration

“The most important decision John McCain made in his long campaign was deciding on a running mate.  That decision showed appalling lack of judgment… that selection contradicted McCain’s main two, and best two, themes for his campaign– Country First, and experience counts.  Neither can he credibly claim, post-Palin pick.”

Lilibet Hagel, Wife of Republican Senator Chuck Hagel

“This election is not about fighting phantom issues churned out by a top-notch slander machine.  Most important, it is not about distracting the public– you and me– with whatever slurs someone thinks will stick.”

Jeffrey Hart, National Review Senior Editor  

“It turns out that these political parties are not always either liberal or conservative, Democratic or Republican.  The Democrat, under certain conditions, can be the conservative.”

Andrew Bacevich, Professor of International Relations at Boston University

“For conservatives, Obama represents a sliver of hope.  McCain represents none at all.  The choice turns out to be an easy one.”

David Friedman, Economist and son of Milton and Rose Friedman

“I hope Obama wins.  President Bush has clearly been a disaster from the standpoint of libertarians and conservatives because he has presided over an astonishing rise in government spending.”

Christopher Buckley, Son of National Review founder William F. Buckley & former NR columnist

“Obama has in him– I think, despite his sometimes airy-fairy ‘We are the people we have been waiting for’ silly rehtoric– the potential to be a good, perhaps even great leader.  He is, it seems clear enough, what the historical moment seems to be calling for.”

Andrew Sullivan, Columnist for the Atlantic Monthly

“Obama’s legislative record, speeches, and the way he has run his campaign reveal, I think, a very even temperament, a very sound judgment, and an intelligent pragmatism.  Prudence is a word that is not inappropriate to him.”

Wick Alison, Former publisher of the National Review

“I made the maximum donation to John McCain during the primaries, when there was still hope he might come to his senses.  But I now see that Obama is almost the ideal candidate for this moment in American history.”

Michael Smerconish, Columnist for the Philadelphia Enquirer

“…an Obama presidency holds the greatest chance for unifying us here at home and restoring our prestige around the globe.”