Crossposted from shamable.com, here.

In case you didn’t hear, Twitter has signed a deal with Yahoo for a somewhat more advanced integration than it has with Google or Microsoft. A conversation I had just yesterday with a friend at Agence France-Press (AFP) got me to thinking, and now this announcement has started to confirm my theory:

Twitter is starting to sound an awful lot like a social wire service.

Check below the cut for the rest.

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Sounds like the beginning of a bad geek joke, doesn’t it?

Well actually, it was the setting of tonight’s Social Media Club DC event, titled “Leveraging Online Relationships,” and hosted at Microsoft’s Friendship Heights office here in Washington, D.C. Organized and hosted by the awesome Sarah Wurrey, the event blew our geeky little minds, as usual. The panel consisted of:

• Alan Rosenblatt – A digital strategist, liberal organizer, professor and blogger, Alan is also the Associate Director of Online Advocacy for the Center for American Progress. Lucky me, this has been my second time to meet him in the past five days (he can’t escape me, haha!) and I swear he teaches me so much every time, not to mention every day via Twitter/Facebook/etc.
• Rebecca Wales – Rebecca is the Director of Communications for Smart Girl Politics, a conservative action network. Now obviously I have my qualms with her cause, but she’s got some real talent and she’s an incredibly nice person. She’s a ton of fun to talk to and I learned a lot from her tonight. Plus, know thy enemy, right? (Just kidding, Rebecca!)
• Brian Dresher – He is the Marketing Manager for USA Today, and boy is he smart. Not only did he provide some excellent insight into social media, but he provided the unique viewpoint of someone who’s industry is changing rapidly and dramatically–journalism. He told us a little about what USA Today is doing to continue to connect with its audience, and even told us where you can get a little bit of a behind-the-scenes glimpse.

So, clearly, you missed out. Anyway, be sure to check the hashtag stream for more learnings from the evening. Also, see my photos from the event embedded below or here on my flickr.

This past Thursday I had the privilege of attending Gibraltar Associates first annual “Social Media Resolutions” event, held here in Washington, D.C. Although I could only stay for the first half of the event, what I witnessed was probably one of the best panels I’ve seen. Not only did I learn far more than I realized I would, but I gained some incredible insight into how our government is (surprisingly) acting very progressively to get a hold on social media.

Panelists were:

• Brent Colburn, Director of External Affairs for the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
• Roxie Merritt, Director of New Media at the U.S. Department of Defense
• Richard Boly, Director of eDipomacy at the U.S. Department of State

It’s difficult to sum up over an hour of panel conversation. Throughout the course of the presentation, much of the discussion focused on challenges the government is facing to get into social media and take advantage of it in order to perform better in their respective functions as government agencies. So I’ll focus on that here, as well. Here’s, from what I heard, the three biggest challenges for government right now and how their working to overcome them.

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AKA The Washington Post. This morning a number of articles caught my eye. Instead of posting them all through successive Twitter posts, I figured I’d list them here for you to check out if you’re interested. Even now, the newspaper provides value for me. It doesn’t come anywhere near the essential role that the Internet plays in my news-gathering, info-centric life, but I still enjoy picking it up and flipping through the pages in the morning, sometimes there’s some hidden gems to be found that don’t make it onto Twitter.

• “Web sites let online lives outlast the dearly departed” – This one caught my eye just because I’ve heard of this before. It’s a unique form of “social” media (in the most indirect sense, I suppose) that uses technology to fulfill a role that was previously complex, often messy, and never enjoyable. This doesn’t necessarily make the process any easier emotionally for those losing loved ones, but it should make it easier in a logistical sense.
• “D.C. auto show gets higher profile this year” – This interests me just because I like cars. Also, it’ll be interesting to see how much media coverage this gets when it starts on Wednesday. Will it actually be as big of a deal as the Post says it will be, because of the auto bailouts? Or will it be mostly overlooked, as the D.C. auto show often is? I might try to go by on Saturday if I have time.
• “The Internet war” – This editorial lays out the situation right now between the U.S. and China re: Internet freedom. I think this is a great, great thing and I hope the Obama administration continues to pursue it heavily. The open nature of the Internet in the United States has, in my opinion, brought us closer to a full democracy (an almost unattainable concept, really) than anything in history. China is obviously not a democracy, but open Internet could be a step in the right direction for it’s still-repressed over 1.3 billion citizens.
• Horoscopes - I’ll be honest I’ve always gotten a kick out of horoscopes; I’m not really a believer, but they’re fun, anyway. Today’s print horoscope (for some reason they are different online, so no link for this one), seemed especially fitting for today: “You have so much work to do and no clue how you’re going to be able to accomplish it all. The answer is in using your support system. That’s what it’s there for, and loved ones will be eager to help.” Some context–today I ‘ve been to the Social Media Club DC breakfast, had five class (one block), one meeting with the AU Web Communications Manager, one meeting with a professor, written two blog entries, and I have an eco-sense meeting this evening. All while tweeting (naturally). But it’s been a fantastic day.

That’s all for now, folks.

This morning was Social Media Club DC‘s first ever Social Media Breakfast, and it was great! Held at Teaism here in downtown DC, we had great food, great conversation, and some excellent speakers. I’d never even been to Teaism before, but if this morning’s breakfast was a good indication of their normal food, I’m excited to go back.

The speakers included Geoff Livingston (on Twitter, @geoffliving), Alex Howard (on Twitter, @Digiphile), and Shashi Bellamkonda (on Twitter, @shashib). They had a lot of great things to say, and I even had the great opportunity to continue into a conversation with Geoff Livingston at our table after the speakers had all presented. Unfortunately, I had to jet a little early because of class, but here’s some of what I gleaned from the speakers.

Geoff Livingston had a simple message: “get mobile, get mobile now,” he said. Appropriate. I think most people in the social media and technology world are well aware now that mobile is certainly the next big revolution in communication and media tech. The iPhone and social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook have led the way to a more digital, more mobile, more connected life–24/7, wherever you are. He said that this next evolution in the industry is “your opportunity to be a visionary” and if you want to lead then “load up [your] reader” with every tech blog you can find. Thankfully, I’m well-covered on that front–Mashable is like the gospel for social media tech, and I must subscribe to at least 10 or 15 other big blogs, in addition to all the smaller, more personal format ones. There’s lots of info out there. Always learning.

Shashi Bellamkonda had much the same message–it’s all about mobile, it’s all about staying on top of trends, and it’s all about staying connected and active in the social media sphere. You can’t read about this and know it, you have to use it to know it.

Speaking of trends, Alex Howard rounded out the group and gave us a great list of what he thinks are the biggest trends coming for 2010. They are:

1. Search – traditional search engines being replaced by social media
2. Niche networks – using OAuth to log on, individual networks, platforms such as Ning
3. Privacy – much discussion on the “privacy is dead” controversy spoken by people like Pete Cashmore, Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg; Howard disagrees, says there will be a big debate both in social realm and in congress this year
4. Social gaming – games like foursquare, “Farmville” on Facebook, etc. becoming huge players
5. Security - key: “STOP USING INTERNET EXPLORER 6″
6. Open web - no more locked into platforms
7. App as the new Web site – quoted from Mathew Ingram, making mobile apps for revenue; es
   timated $7 billion in revenue
   for mobile apps in 2010
8. Geolocation – Twitter integrated geolocation, games like Foursquare, etc.
9. Online video – continuation of the growth seen since 2006, more mainstream content online, CNN streaming, Hulu, iTunes, Amazon, Boxee; also, organizations like CNN and the White House using Facebook, YouTube as outlets for online video

And that about wraps it up. It was a great morning–I’m already looking forward to the next event!

Update: I’ve added Alex Howard’s presentation from the event to this post. It’s embedded below the jump, check it out, it’s pretty awesome! He uses Prezi, which has been one of my favorite tools since early last year.

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