Colin Charles Agenda

I was at the Google Maps Malaysia launch at No Black Tie yesterday. All round, the Google chaps did a great job at organising a fun-filled event, which basically meant I got to talk to a lot of friends (it was a combination of Barcamp, open source hackers, entrepreneurs and some new media folk – I think I spotted a smattering of bloggers too), and also meet a few new ones ;-)

• I guess the big deal about yesterday was the launch of http://maps.google.com.my. No longer will you be re-routed to the States, and have to specify, sometimes even up to postcode level. This kind of stuff has mostly been working for a while, but I guess its now official.
• When asked when Street View will come to Malaysia, there was no comment on the timeline.
• I saw KLue being mentioned, but there was no speaker from there. It seems like their event guide has been extracted via a mapplet, and placed on AppSpot, to give you a Events in Malaysia map “overlay”. Pretty cool, and can really be integrated well, into something else…
• VirtualMalaysia spoke at the event, showing how they did some copy/paste of the mapplets, and how they built somewhat of an app out of it. I think Yoon Kit tweets it best:
  

  Virtual Malaysia copy and pasted the javascript for Tourism Msia. @arzumy asks “How much did u charge for it?”. Its our money eh? #mymap

• Back to Mapplets: they’re mini-applications to run in Google Maps. You have data, it can be overlaid with Google Maps. This is worth playing with.
• Not maps related, but the AJAX API’s Playground is a useful learning tool. You can talk to all the Google APIs, and it becomes easy – copy/paste and things happen.
• When its finally time to write code, don’t redo, just reuse – check out gmaps-utility-library. Its all Apache licensed, so convenient to pop into your code.
• Its worth noting that searching for properties to rent/buy should be easier now, considering iProperty.com.my now is also powered by Google Maps.
• Are you a local business? Make sure you add yourself, in the local business centre.
• There were a bunch of international sites using Maps, but the only one that caught my eye was Travellr. I’d have remembered more sites, had the Internet been working…
• Highly amusing to see that there were people from the event management company, trying to show us how to use Google Maps Mobile. Poor girl had “fun” trying to demo this to Yoon Kit, Han, Ditesh, Kevin and I. Problem is, Yoon Kit, Han and I were already playing around with Maps on the mobile for a while, and had been sharing our locations with Latitude with each other for a while (for example, we knew that Han was on a highway about 16 minutes before he arrived for the event!)
• Naturally, no Google event is complete without a t-shirt. We’re all now proud owners of a blue t-shirt, which has a marker that says “I am here.”

Now a bit about the location (which in my opinion, was a little crappy):

• Kudos to Google for getting the valet service going at No Black Tie. I’ve never been there before, but my trusty GPS told me how to get there — and then I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be cool if I had a device, with just Google Maps, and a 3G connection, and some intelligent caching (for when I hit network blindspots), and a GPS chip on board? I’d prefer that any day over Malsingmaps on my Garmin…
• WiFi was fail. Maxis Broadband 3G was fail. It seemed like Celcom was fail. The event location, near the stage, basically meant that you got no Internet. My phone (DiGi) still had EDGE though ;-)
• No Black Tie, doesn’t seem to have the best management. I personally would never hold an event there. Why? Because the management is quite liberal at trying to embarrass the event organisers. I was going to get a beer, when I was told that we were over the RM2,000 quota, and I can’t get a beer. He shows me his chit, saying how much over the tab we are — I don’t need to know this, and this is something you should never tell a customer. Take it up with the organisers, and solve it amicably. But what took the cake? Another bloke asked for two beers and he shouted at the top of his voice, that the tab was dry. I mean this is Google we’re talking about — they’re not exactly a company short on money, and they splurge on things, all the time. I don’t represent Google, but I felt bad for them. For what its worth, in under 3 minutes and 25 seconds Google had extended the tab ;-)

I’m a big CentOS fan. I think servers these days should either be Ubuntu Servers or CentOS based, and nothing else, if you’re going the Linux route.

CentOS 5.3, on the x86_64 platform, seemed to have an issue where yum would cause a traceback, with file.x86_64 0:4.17-15.el5_3.1. There is a bug open for it, but it apparently doesn’t happen on all systems.

The magic around this is to really just run yum clean all, and then run yum update. What that basically does is it cleans all packages that are cached in the system, as well as removes all header files used for dependency resolution.

I haven’t heard jokes about RPM hell in a long time… I am thinking that its mostly disappeared, and largely this is thanks to dependency resolution provided for by yum.

We’ve had MySQL meetup’s organised thanks to mysql.meetup.com for years now, and its sad to see the relationship end in about a fortnight. Never fret, because it seems that Facebook can do all that, and more.

Migration

If you’re the meetup organiser, and you checked the Members list, or even attempted to download it, you’ll be disappointed. You get a CSV file, with the name of the person, some other metadata, if they’re on the mailing list (chances is yes to all), and the URL of the member profile. What’s missing? An email address.

So while its nice to have a CSV copy of the member list, it will not assist you in any migration, whatsoever. Totally data lock in :-(

Mailing list/message board

Keep in mind that you’ve got mailing lists and message boards on meetup.com. You’ll want to make use of this, to tell people to join your new Facebook group. Mailing lists are of the form: mysql-GROUPNUM@meetup.com, and you can find out more from mysql.meetup.com/GROUPNUM/messages/archive.

In case you’ve had people unsubscribe from the mailing list, better make things redundant, to announce the move to Facebook, and also post to the message board.

As the owner of the meetup group, you can also edit the description of your meetup group – do so, pointing to the new Facebook address of the group.

Facebook Groups

Look at the bottom of your screen, and you’ll notice a little toolbar, and its not too hard to spot groups. Once you see the groups page, you will be able to “Create a New Group”. The exact link to creating a new group will work, as long as you’re logged into Facebook. Once you’re done, don’t hesitate to enter some relevant group information:

It’s probably worth noting that naming nomenclatures might be useful. Like I liberally used: The Malaysian MySQL User Group (Kuala Lumpur), but if you’re in a country like the United States, and you’re doing this in San Francisco, a name such as: The San Francisco MySQL User Group would make sense. Used similarly, like “The New York City User Group”, or if you’re in Australia, something like “The Melbourne MySQL User Group” will make sense. In that sense, I should really be calling the Malaysian one that I organise, “The Kuala Lumpur MySQL User Group”, and I have a feeling that once there are more meetups in the states around here, I will do just that.

Next up, you’re asked to upload a picture. Go ahead, make one up, or leave it blank. Something with your city in it, might be a good one. If the meetup group has a website, then enter its URL. The default settings on “Step 2: Customize” are all accurate, so just leave it be.

Once that is done, and you click “Save”, you’re asked to publish it on your wall. This is what I call publicity to those closest in your social network — you should go for it! You want all the help you can get, to spread the word, to make your meetup even more successful!

Now comes the fun part — you can invite your friends, or invite people via email — the choice is yours.

And that’s it, now you have a Facebook group, with an appropriate URL to point people to. In my case, the Malaysian MySQL User Group is at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=82091206683. Yes, the URL’s are not friendly, so maybe you want to make use of a URL shortener (Something like bit.ly, powered by MySQL).

What to do in the Facebook Group

The Facebook group you just created is useful. It displays the members, it has a discussion board facility, it has a wall (which may not be so useful, when it comes to actual discussion). It allows for members to post photos, links, videos, and more. In short, as long as all attendees are members of Facebook and the group, you’ve just created your own little virtual community!

Now, one thing that shone with Meetup.com was the ability to have a meetup once every month, and details go out to all members about topics, et al. Facebook allows this too. Select “Create Related Event”. In fact if you scroll down a little more, below Group Type, and Admins, you can also Create Events, as there is a nice Events tab, right before the Related Groups one.

Once you’ve selected Create an Event, you’re told to enter some event information, as follows:

That’s just basically filling up relevant information, the time, the location, and some contact details of the meetup organiser. Click Create Event, and magically, you now have a new event! Again, the defaults under customisation are perfectly safe, except, for the bottom, where you should scroll down, and under the “Publicize:” option, you definitely want to tick it, and say “Show this event in search results“. The more publicity, the better.

Click Save, and again, you’re asked to publish this to your wall, like above. If I were you, I’d go for it, so that even your friends who aren’t in the meetup group, might want to come depending on the topic being addressed in that particular month.

Like earlier, you can now invite guests (even via email) to the event, and once you’re done, you should have a similar page (looks so familiar to your group page, huh?) for the event in particular. Go forth and publish that URL on Twitter and other social networks, so more people show up :-)

Remember, that if anything changes, go back to the same event page, and select: “Message Guests”. This will allow them to all receive a Facebook message with the relevant information, changes, and so forth.

What else?

That’s basically it.

I can think of one more thing that Facebook has, that you don’t have on Meetup.com – that’s chat within the browser. You can chat with your friends, and meetup attendees potentially might want to confirm some last minute details, and the chat is a great feature.

One thing I find lacking is that you don’t have mailing lists. I’m an email type of guy, and if you want mailing lists, don’t hesitate to ask for one, at lists.mysql.com. We’ll be happy to provide yet another avenue to keep your meetups going strong.

Another strong point? You can be a member of multiple meetup groups, without having to leave your own. As someone who travels somewhat frequently, I love attending other user groups just to meet the community and see what they’re doing with MySQL. I can now, as events are open ;-)

Have questions? Leave a comment and I’ll get back to you. Otherwise, happy meeting users in your own areas and areas you’re travelling to!

So, I just came back from watching Star Trek, which I believe premiered tonight. I’m by no means a Trekkie, but I think the movie was great — you don’t need to be a die-hard fan, to enjoy the show.

Some friends of mine, had already seen the movie last week, as it was available for friends and family of the screening company. Both @mikefoong and @thechannelc didn’t notice the Nokia phone quite early on in the film.

But they did, this time around. Coincidentally, Nokia did sponsor the screening.

Does the mind play tricks when it comes to branding? I know most of the James Bond films have Sony-Ericsson phones there. I distinctly noticed the Nokia, but then again, maybe I always notice phones.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about business models and new media with a specific focus on verticals. I’m passionate about the open source movement, and have been involved with free software since the mid-90’s. In fact, I’ve earned my crust, all these years, thanks to open source, so I have no complaints there!

Anyway, lets talk about new media. I’m thinking specifically around podcasts, video podcasts, and even online magazines.

Online magazines

We’ve seen the demise of LinMagAU (regularly hit Slashdot, when it was running), and even the MyOSS Magazine, all labours of love. In this space, I think the most successful magazine that sits online today, is Linux Weekly News (LWN). And they do it, thanks to having a business model – affordable subscriptions (USD$5/month), or group subscriptions.

Podcasts/Video podcasts

I think one of the most successful podcasts, is the now defunct LugRadio. So popular, they even managed to create a conference around it (LugRadio Live!).

That seemed to run on pure love, with sponsors for hosting. I don’t recall any ads, and I think they did it for the fun of it. Now if you search for “Linux” in the iTunes Podcast directory, there are just under 150 related podcasts (and video podcasts, maybe), that have Linux or an open source connotation in them.

Their quality varies. Some aren’t even updated any longer. One of the most successful FLOSS podcasts, that have a business model behind it, seems to be FLOSS Weekly (part of the whole twit.tv army that Leo Laporte has). They have advertising on the TWiT network, and you can support the network via donations (one time contribution, $2/mo, $5/mo, or $10/mo recurring). This stuff works via Paypal, and I can’t imagine the $2/month recurring option makes so much sense (considering Paypal fees that go with it). Plus you can buy some merchandise (something you can do, when you’re established).

Something that has recently caught my eye, is the Ubuntu Podcast. Its a video podcast, they accept Paypal donations. It also seems like a labour of love.

Hosting

Media (audio, and video files aren’t small) hosting and delivery isn’t cheap. The TwIT network makes use of CacheFly, and they’re not cheap, though they seem to have a reliable, global CDN. The Ubuntu Podcast seem to use DreamHost, who must have affordable hosting options, as they host their videos on the site too.

And that’s the other thing – if you’re doing something in the open source vertical, you better have multiple file formats. You want to provide audio files using MP3’s, yes, because people have iPod’s, and they might want to play it in their cars, but for the purists, you need to have OGG files too. That just about doubles your storage space. Think video, and you will start to cringe.

YouTube seems like a good hosting platform, with sensible CDNs, but you’ve got a 10-minute video clip limit (which might be a good thing). Blip.tv wants to help you monetise your video, however, getting video from them in Malaysia is a painful experience, so far. TWIST uses ustream.tv – I haven’t tested them out yet.

Business plans

A lot of labours of love, work for a while, but then die in time. It seems that unless you have a kosher business model, you’re not in it for the long haul. LWN and the TwIT network seem to have got it right – you need to get some kind of income, to defray the cost of doing business.

Advertising

Are most open source people blind to ads? I recently checked my Google Analytics account and found that no Linux users clicked on any of the ads on my blog. The Windows users were kinder than the Mac users, naturally. So Google AdSense might cover things like the cost of hosting, but its not exactly a business model.

Looking for sponsors might make some sense. I don’t know what the TwIT network rates are, but Jason Calacanis has This Week in Startups, and his rate is currently at:

Each commercial is $1,000 and you can purchase them in 10 week run by emailing sponsors@thisweekinstartups.com. All sponsors must be pre-approved and have groovy products like DNAMail and Ustream (our first two products).

This is a new show, and the projections are anywhere between 10,000 – 25,000 viewers in the first six months after it debuts. At a size of nearly 1GB for an 18 minute podcast, I wonder if that’s being kind?

So it comes down to finding sponsors, who believe in what you’re doing. And donations might work (it works for No Agenda with John C. Dvorak and Adam Curry, and it seems to work for the TwIT network of shows).

Subscriptions work, if you have premium content (LWN), that people can sample for free a week later.

So, what are the up front costs?

Quite simply:

• A good mic [for audio podcasts]
• A (cheap) video camera (Flipcams seem to work even these days) [for video podcasts]
• Hosting [this requires a lot of thought – remember that bandwidth isn’t as luxurious all around the world]

It looks like there might be some time involved in post-production. The tools are available fairly easily, on most operating systems that you’re on (though I hear, iMovie on the Mac is about the best for video on the cheap).

And yes, I’ve not figured out where to host podcasts or video podcasts yet….

At the MySQL Conference, I had the chance to interview Rohit Nadhani, founder of Webyog, the folk that make SQLyog and MONyog. Watch the video, for more.

Generally based out of Bangalore (I visited them when I was last there), Webyog just started an office in Santa Clara, and are expanding. They boast 15,000 paid customers so far, with some big name customers: Google, Yahoo!, executive office to the US president, and more.

SQLyog is termed as an upgrade from phpMyAdmin. There is a GPL community edition, with some “power tools” that is part of the Enterprise Edition. It is very Win32 based, but easy enough to run on other OSes via WINE or some sort of virtualisation tool.

MONyog is an agentless monitoring tool. It competes directly with Enterprise Monitor from MySQL, and there is no Community edition.

All Webyog licenses are perpetual (not subscription), with updates for a year. There are also unlimited licenses (server/user).

The motto: Low priced software, but sell thousands of copies.

The MySQL DevZone has an interview from 2006, that Jay conducted with Rohit. Go forth and read it.