I’m in, are you? I just signed up for the Blogging While Brown Conference in Atlanta, GA July 25-27, 2008. According to the website, the most important purpose of the conference is to share knowledge. The conference will promote intellectual, social, and cultural development of the blogging community by bringing bloggers of color together. Blogging While Brown is an opportunity to meet other bloggers and blog readers of color for the first time, discuss current issues of interest to bloggers of color, network with individuals and organizations interested in leveraging online activity with offline results, and learn about the latest technology that will assist bloggers with publishing their work and improving their readers experience by fully engaging in the newest media technology.

I’m excited because I’ll finally get the chance to meet some of the bloggers I read on a regular basis. In a way, you sort of connect with the author after reading their blog for a while, so it’ll be nice to meet them face-to-face. I also hope to learn more about blogging and ways we can all work together to benefit our communities. Since I’m not sure all who’s attending, I thought I’d call out just a few of the bloggers I want to see. If you’re registered, let me know. If not then register here. Hope to see you there.

• Angela & Markus
• Benin
• blackgivesback
• JD
• JW
• Kanute
• Marty
• Paula
• Shawn
• Vanessa
• Wayne
• Yobachi

I had a post about cre8buzz.com and wanted to let you all know the community is now open to the public. Since I’ve joined, I have noticed an increase traffic to the site and have gained a couple of readers in the process. It’s a great way to get exposure for blogs, personal, business and anything else you feel the need to share with the community. It’s a fun safe way to meet people all over the world to share ideas and opinions.

So check out the site and visit me in the People > African American community. If you want to rate my content or show your own stuff, sign up for a free account. Let me know what you think and give me a shout out after you join.

Now I’m not trying to take any listeners from my podcast, but I did want to let you know of a new show at BlackWeb 2.0. It’s their first episode where they interview Rocky Williform, CEO of StreetCred Media Group. They talk with Rocky about his new social networking group which targets the hip hop culture in an effort to bring about dialouge between the real fans of hip hop. They also talk about the future of StreetCred and how he came up with the idea behind the website.

The best thing about this interview is you don’t have to be a tech enthusiasts to enjoy it. They also talked with Rocky about how he was able to fund the project, his business philosophy and how he developed a business model around his idea. If you are an entrprenuer (or wanting to be one), there’s definitely some good information in it for you. If you check out Rocky’s bio, you’ll see this brotha is definitely about business. I like his mindset and you can tell in the interview that he is well-versed in what it takes to run a successful business. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Interview with Rocky Williform, CEO of StreetCred.com

If you listen to the podcast, then you know that I am a tech junkie. This is what originally got me into the blogger and podcaster world and I’ve met some really good people in the process. There is a major trend on the Internet dealing with social networking and the we now have the ability to communicate with people all around the world. The technology industry has come a long way and this is only the beginning. Marketing products and services is also changing and it’s easier to get the word out to more people than ever. Which brings me to the point of this post.

Through a contact of JD’s at Black in Business, I’ve been asked to help build up the African-American community for a new social networking site called Cre8buzz.com. When you sign up, you are able to showcase yourself, showoff, post your pictures, blog your opinions, and share your videos. As people view your content, they are able to provide their own ranking which allows for even more exposure (if it’s good). It’s like myspace, meets, youtube, meets flickr. The ranking system is pretty amazing and meeting people in other communities has been cool. I’ve been there for a couple of weeks and have personally talked to the Antman (yes, he’s real) and he’s all about getting exposure for the little guy. As of now, I’m the only one in the African-American community, so I’M #1!!!

I’m not trying to lose that position, so sign up and let’s create some buzz. They are still in the beta stages so the time is good to get involved. To sign up, you need an invitation, which I can email you. Just send your request to podcast[at]theojohnson.net and I’ll get it to you. I’ve already started publicizing the blog and traffic has increased. If you have any comments or suggestions on the site, let the Antman know.

Finally, when you sign up, I’m in the cre8Buzz > People > African American community. My name is tjohnson3. See you soon

I wanted to share this new DVD with you all called “Web Design for Kids”, created by Brian Richardson. I found this on Black in Business and thought it was a good idea. I’m a tech guy and understand the importance of teaching kids about technology at a young age. Once a skill used by an elite few, the need for being computer literate is important skillset for everyone to have. This is just one product that people can use.

I’m amazed at how kids pick up on things so quickly. My two year old sits at my PC mimicking me and uses the mouse like he knows what he’s doing. I also find this skill important because the African-American community needs this type of training. We are opening more businesses every year and the Internet is an easy and affordable way to market our products/services. I’ve taught classes on web design and people are amazed at how easy the process has become.
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Don’t say I never tried to save you some money. If you’re the type of person who uses 411 to get phone numbers to different businesses in your city, then Google can help save you some change. Goog 411 is an automated service so you won’t talk to a real person, but the voice recognition worked very well. I tried it out a couple of times and was able to get connected to a business of choice each time I tried it. I was able to search by business name, category and could even recieve a text message if I was using my cell phone.

Now Goog 411 is still in it’s experimental stages, so you may experience an issue or two with it. But who cares, it’s free. Like any service, your regular phone charges will apply so don’t go sayin’ I didn’t warn you.

To try this service, just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone.

As you may know, I’m down for all of the black bloggers and podcasters in cyberspace. There’s so much good content and so little time to read it all. Hence my reason for creating a “Black Blogger Posting” section of my website. Since I’ve joined myBlogLog, I’ve come across some very interesting posts that I’d like to share with my readers. So when you see the image above, just know that a link to a good article will follow. Plus it will give me a chance to show a little link love to a fellow blogger. Let me know what you think of the articles by posting comments or calling the voicemail hotline. We could even take some of the discussion to the podcast if the topic is popular enough.

The first article that I have for you is from the Electronic Village blog and it covers the topic of The Segregated Blogosphere. I thought it was a good read because in his posts he links to another site that talks about racism on the internet and benefits of blogging as a person of color. Let me know what you think.

Get ready to set your clocks ahead earlier this year because daylight savings, usually on the first Sunday in April, will begin earlier on March 11th. This change is expected to cause issues with computers and devices that automatically adjust their time. In 2005, an energy bill passed by President Bush will start daylight savings time three weeks earlier and end one week later. The change will hopefully cause a savings in the amount of energy used throughout the year.

If you are running Windows operating system, you will have to download the update (if your computer is not set up for automatic updates) and install it on your PC. If you use any operating system older than the most recent version of Windows XP Service Pack 2, you will have to manually change it since the older Microsoft OS’s are no longer supported. To manually make the change, do the following:

1) Right click the time in the bottom right hand corner of your screen
2) Select Adjust Date/Time
3) Uncheck the box that says “Automatically adjust clock for daylight savings changes”
4) When March 11th rolls around, you will have to manually make the change to the time

The change may affect also other devices. If you still use a VCR to record your favorite shows, you may have to manually change the time. Watches that automatically adjust during daylight savings may be affected. Any technology using the time and date, could potentially be affected.

For the average computer user, this is no big deal and life can continue on as usual. There may be some minor inconveniences, but be aware of it and verify everything scheduled in your Outlook Calendar or any other device that automatically adjusts to the time change. I honestly can’t wait, because I like having the extra light in the evening. More time to play outside and get away from the computer and TV for a while.

To learn more about the Microsoft update, click here.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931836