Since I came back to Orlando from DC, it's been obvious to me that there is a growing tech scene here in town. It's always been here, but for whatever reason things started mobilizing and coming together over the last couple of years.Barcamp, refresh, coworking, florida creatives, happy hours, meetup.com groups, whatever -- all of these smaller communities have flourished and formed vibrant "sub-communities" within the larger scene. One of the conversations that inevitably always comes up is the need for an association -- a non-profit organization that exists outside of various social cliques and can bring together interactive professionals in the central florida region.
A handful of people have come together to make this happen, and it looks like a great foundation is being laid. It's still in its early stages, but thanks to some folks at Izea and people like Mark Kruprinski, there's is already a great community coming together around the concept.
If you work in the tech field -- whether its coding, design, marketing, whatever -- and live in the Central Florida region, then you really should create an account on Doterati.com. When you do, make sure to add me as a friend! Here is my profile page with cutesy wedding photo.
UPDATE: So, I sent out a bunch of invites to some friends for Doterati, and I'm already getting emails back saying they won't sign up because it says it's a "Ted Murphy" project on the bottom of every page. I totally missed that, and agree that it's completely lame. That's not how the site/concept was pitched to me though, and I'd suspect its more relating to the actual website aspects of it all (I hope). If it's another orlando-local-builds-an-ego-project, it probably won't last. My impression though, is that this is intended to be above all that. I guess we'll find out ;)
UPDATE 2: I've been told that whoever creates the Ning group gets their name on the bottom like that. Probably should have had somebody who's not blogosphere public enemy #1 create the group. Ted's a nice guy, but man.. I'm getting hit with messages from people who've never even met the guy that are brutal. Yikes.
UPDATE 3: Lawrence Salberg wrote a post re. Doterati that sounds an awful lot like some of the stuff people were telling me. It's worth taking a look at if you are in the doterati community and want to know the types of things its up against. He doesn't have to be right, as it's an impression that seems to be shared by some folks.
Comments...
(Page 1)1. I hope your right about doterati being bigger than the typical click-type network. I'm on there, despite what I've heard about Ted. I don't know the guy. He hasn't dropped by for dinner. But I've heard time and time again that he's a bastard. I hope not. :/
1:33PM on May 16th 2008 by Cory
2. I created some NING networks awhile back and ended up with my user name at the bottom too. Didn't want it that way, but it looked like I was stuck with it.
10:54AM on May 17th 2008 by Jim Hathaway
3. Cory -- I don't think it's Ted specifically, just his never ending defense of his company (which, of course, would be his job).
Here's the short version: Izea basically created a product to help broker payola on personal blogs. It then shifted to being more about accurate reviews, but with text links. Google said don't do it without appending "no follow" on the links or else its seen as spam and violates their TOS, they did it without no follow and proceeded to scream and shout and say Google doesn't want competition with adwords. Here's the rub.
Adwords works by the web developer using js on their page. That js writes out an iframe that loads an html page from google servers -- it is in fact *better* than using no follow, as it has the same effect without trusting the spider will trust no follow -- blocking the search engine (be it google, yahoo or whoever) from seeing/counting the link in their indexes. The izea technical defense falls flat in this way, and when presented on it, it's sort of met with silence. I talked with one of their developers directly about it at the first barcamp, and his response was "if we add no follow, why would advertisers pay?" That's exactly the issue, and why Google has stated they'll be going after izea's customers and nuking their pagerank. It qualifies as spam under the major search engines TOS's.
Whew. That was a mouthful. It's not so much ted (no one seems to have a problem with Mindcomet) as it is payperpost/socialspark/whatever.
Jim -- yeah, it's a shame. It can be tough to create a community when it's labeled with someones name. From my conversations with others involved though, it's not what it would look like, and this is intended to be legit. I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt for now :) I'm just really excited that someone finally pulled together and did it. Sometimes "we" talk to much.
11:06AM on May 17th 2008 by Alex Rudloff
4. Wow. Great post. Great feedback.
I'm going to throw a couple of things out there:
At the Doterati Board Meeting 2 weeks ago, Ted and I both suggested to create a "Ning" group for Doterati to start everyone
talking - rather than wait for the next Board Meeting. Ted took the lead and built it and he is the Network Creator. This
cannot be changed unless we destroy the existing Ning and start all over.
Even if we "started" over and my name was on it, Ted's still a Member and I think people will still have an issue.
As I write this comment, we have 135 members of the Doterati Ning and Ted Murphy is only one of them.
Ted also sits on the Doterati Board. The Board is made up of a number of companies from around Central Florida and we are
still working out the details of an "official" organization. I can tell you that everyone is very adamant that this
organization be about the entire Central Florida Community - interactive marketing, development and media.
I don't have much of a reputation in Central Florida nor have I earned everyone's respect, but what I do have is not going to
be wasted on (as Michael Blake put it) an "evil" group ;)
I'm inspired by everyone's "need' for an official tech group in Central Florida and I want to offer my full cooperation in
this effort for professional reasons and also selfish personal ones. We have a great community, I want to champion it.
For the readers who are not hesitant - but cynical about this new organization - I say that Doterati isn't the mob. If you
join it and find that you don't like it, walk away. In fact, walk away and start a new group and I'll help you if you ask
me. First and foremost, I want the Central Florida community to go beyond "surviving" - I want it to lead.
Time will tell.
Eventually, if Doterati becomes successful, I guarantee that any *issues* that the community has with *any* member
of Doterati will come out in the wash and will, one way or another, be addressed.
If these issues in the community are not addressed, the group will never become successful.
If Doterati wants to be a leader, it must be legitimate and transparent.
So I say this: Think "Word Of Mouth Marketing 101".
People talk.
You can either avoid the conversation or you can be apart
of the conversation.
I say join the conversation and try to make a difference.
To do nothing is failure and we all lose.
Alex, I love this post and I commend you for everything you did yesterday and continue to do for the community.
Keep blogging brother and congrats on the new house.
Cheers,
Mark Krupinski
4:06PM on May 17th 2008 by Mark Krupinski
5. Sorry about the above format, I guess I should watch my notepad pasting while I multi-task on a Saturday.
Cheers,
Mark.
2:03PM on May 18th 2008 by Mark Krupinski
6. Mark -- Absolutely perfect response comment! Thank you :)
9:52AM on May 18th 2008 by Alex Rudloff
7. Hi Alex,
I look forward to catching up soon!
I think Mark hit the nail on the head above. Obviously there is no political agenda behind this association - we are really looking to get things started as a neutral group of people with a similar mission.
I'd be personally happy to speak with anyone that is skeptical or has questions.
11:02AM on May 28th 2008 by Tara
8. I am on the Board for doterati and I've been a part of the group for a while. The goal of the group is to organize the community, create networking opportunities through social events and an online community; plus add a variety of education tracks to help those in college and those about to graduate.
By participating in the organization, each person has an ability to influence and add to the culture of the organization. This organization is not about any one person in particular. It's about what we all can do as a collective. Start participating in the online community and attending events and then you will be able to influence the group's culture.
12:04PM on May 30th 2008 by Renee Menkova
9. Doterati is made up of many individuals from various companies trying to make a change. I gave a presentation at barcamp 08 about the possible need for a tech association in Orlando, it was well received. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel with a handful of tech industry DOERS, we joined forces with others that had the same vision and passion that we have. Together we are ALL creating this organization. We are still in the planning and implementation stages right now! Join us today and you will also be helping to make a difference. By joining, you will be helping to create a "checks & balance" system and ensuring that mistakes are not made and everything is fair.
3:25PM on Jun 5th 2008 by Dan Kinchen