Nurphy

Neil: Hi @sarahlay, @russelltanner, I'm hoping to attend the first ever Derby Social Media Café and I thought we could start a public conversation for attendees (for brief introductions, perhaps?).

My intro: I'm @Neil (Neil Cauldwell), a co-founder at Nurphy.com.
My reason for attending: I'd like to meet people with an interest in social media & web tech, and to learn how to use my new iPhone properly. Plus @sarahlay says the Derby Quad has good cakes, so that's a nice bonus.

russelltanner: Good idea Neil.

I'm coming along too, as I'd like to get some ideas about how SMCs work, so I can perhaps try something similar in my area.

Cakes are also a motivating factor

sarahlay: Thanks for starting the conversation @Neil.

I'll be at Derby/shire Social Media Cafe - because I am one of the people organising it! By day I work in online communications for Derbyshire County Council and by night, well, I tweet and blog about the possibilities of the social web as well as studying for an MA in eCommunication!

I decided to set up the cafe for Derbyshire for a number of reasons but they boil down to wanting an informal place for anyone working or interested in using the social web to get together and share experience and knowledge, perhaps even discover possibilities for collaborative working.

I look forward to seeing you both, and hopefully lots of others, there :)

alncl: I'll be there. Will be doing something similar in the frozen north, so I'm checking out other models.

emilyrobe: I'll be there, currently working with a number of people regarding the use of social media :)

Mannaz: It looks like I will be attending, managed to get some TOIL from my day job (3 days a week I work in a Needle and Syringe Programme in Burton). I've been running a harm reduction based blog for 3 years as a tool for needle programme workers and injecting drug users. I'm also a freelance trainer and I've been trying to get more drug services to engage in social/new media (the new part is getting old for us, but not the 'non geeks' I train).

At the end of october I'm going to be jointly presenting a session on using social media for harm reduction to the National Conference of Injecting Drug Use in Glasgow.

Ohh and I'm co-host on a drug information podcast which is being downloaded by around 5000 people a month called Hooked.

I'm hoping to make some new contact/friends/colleagues at the SMC

Neil: Hi everyone, thanks for the intros. I made a screencast about meeting & greeting prior to Social Media Café using nurphy http://bit.ly/IV5w1 (just started learning Camtasia for Mac). At the Birmingham SMC there were free coffees - same at Derby?! Looking forward to the meet-up.

@Mannaz, how is the podcast going? Is it easy to get setup in iTunes listings?

sarahlay: @Neil Sorry Neil - as we decided to launch the cafe free of sponsorship you'll have to pay for your own coffee at Derby :) Sponsorship to provide exclusive venues or refreshments may be something for subsequent meets of the cafe.

Mannaz: @Neil The podcast is going really well, our latest episode is a basic Heroin introduction. Last time I went up to record I was told we're at about 5000+ downloads a month and that from experience this will only increase (that was a month ago and we've had more publicity now).

As for getting listed on iTunes I have to admit I only know the basics, it seems to be quite simple to do, but a bit harder to do well. I'm lucky in the fact my co-host and our producer run Simply Syndicated who produce some of the most listened to shows. (one of the reasons for the great start on listener numbers for a new podcast)

Neil: @sarahlay no probs. Do you keep in touch with many of the smc organisers around Birmingham or black country?

@Mannaz, it'll be good to hear if the stats have gone up. Looks like the Simply Syndicated team know all the tricks of the iTunes trade. There seems to be a similar thing with the iPhone app store with regards to doing it well. I'm interested in the basic of publishing to iTunes, maybe that's something we can have a conversation about at smc!

sarahlay: @Neil Yeah, keep in touch with most of them - and at the cafes elsewhere too. Most of us seem to be in some way connected through public sector stuff so have had chats. Although I haven't managed to get to their cafes yet!!!

Mannaz: @Neil I'd love to get to grips with the iTunes store to make a really good harm reduction tool, wouldn't even know where to start though lol its one of the reasons I'm looking forward to collaboration tools love google wave (and at the mention of wave @saralay 's pulse speeds up)

sarahlay: It's true...I am very excited about Wave. Has any body else had a good look / play with Wave yet?

russelltanner: missed out on the wave invites - hoping to be included in the 100,000 who'll get to grips with it soon!

Neil: @sarahlay, I've met a few of the organisers so at the next Birmingham event I'll be sure to mention Derby SMC in conversations and take some names of attendees and invite them in here. Fred Wilson wrapped-up my thoughts on Google Wave further down this blog post (http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/05/cloud-based-messaging.html) - "It looks complicated and cluttered" and there's some tall barriers to entry if you want to have anything to do with people who use mobiles, Blackberrys, and IE6/7 etc.

@Mannaz, I'll try to learn a few things before the meetup and share any tips I've picked-up (my web learning usually involves watching YouTube and reading blog posts!).

Nurphy lets you reply via email now. I'm happy to say my Dad just replied from his Blackberry in his car!