Here is Ben Rattray, founder of Change.org, talking about using social media for social good.

Though it’s not easy to make every single thing you do count toward the greater good, Rattray shared his ideas on solving world issues through technology.

“The best and brightest minds we have, in many cases, are working on problems that don’t matter,” Rattray said during his presentation.

Tim works for Interpretive Exhibits, a company that helps design exhibits and trade shows for museums and visitor centers.

Tim also has a blog and wrote an e-book called “Twittering Your Way to Tradeshow Success.”

He interviewed me for a recent podcast on the same topic.

Take a listen and let us know how you’ve used Twitter at any live event.

Did it add to your experience? How did it help you find information? Did you meet new people?

Also, be sure to download his e-book. It’s FREE, and I’m featured on p. 38!

How so? What elements go into your version of transparency?

I think of a few elements when it comes to being transparent on the Web. Honesty. Openness. Humility.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff from Threadless gave a great presentation at BIG Omaha on what it means to be transparent online. Listen to the audio of his speech and follow along with the slides from SlideShare. They are posted on Flickr, too.

As a bonus, I included the panel that preceded Jeffrey. It was a Q&A with Jeffrey, Jason Fried, Gary Vaynerchuk and Micah Baldwin.

Warning: These podcasts contain graphic language that some may find offensive.

Here is Gary V.’s bio from the BIG Omaha website:

Gary Vaynerchuk, self-trained wine expert, is revolutionizing the wine industry. His blog, Wine Library TV (affectionately known as The Thunder Show), boasts a cult-like following resulting from his enthusiastic, unconventional, and often irreverent wine commentary.

Take a listen and leave your thoughts:

Warning: This podcast contains graphic language that some may find offensive.

On Wednesday we talked with Kansas City meteorologist Ed Roberts. Roberts is the founder of Social Media Club KC (are you going to the breakfast this Friday?) and creator of the KC Weather Podcast.

As it’s severe weather season in Kansas City (one tornado already caused plenty of damage west of the metropolitan area), we talked to Roberts about how he uses social media tools during severe weather situations.

We also talked a little bit about SMCKC and how you can get involved with a chapter in your area.

Here are the links mentioned during our discussion:

• KCWeather.org
• EdRoberts.tv
• @EdRoberts
• @KCWeather
• Social Media Club KC
• Social Media Club (National)
• Kristie Wells blog
• #kcstorms

Yesterday I got a cool opportunity to be in a national commercial for Coke Zero put together by our good friends at Crispin Porter + Bogusky.

Obviously I was a lowly extra, but it was fun to observe how these Hollywoodesque things work.

About 90 people spent all day in Allen Fieldhouse in magical Lawrence, home to the University of Kansas (a.k.a. 2008 NCAA Basketball and Orange Bowl champs). I wore the first t-shirt I bought after Bill Self became KU’s coach my sophomore year. It’s blue and says “Self Respect” with a Jayhawk on the front. After six years, it’s showing it’s age, but it’s still my favorite.

The costume lady asked me to wear some red, sparkly sunglasses… so I wore those, too.

They placed me just behind the “principles,” so hopefully I won’t end up on the cutting room floor!

I got to scream the Rock Chalk chant and perform a few other KU basketball traditions for the camera. When the commercial starts airing nationwide around the time of conference play (Jan/Feb), I’ll be sure to track it’s impact and show you the results!

So ready for my close up right now.

Here is the audio from our “universe” video. This is going to be an all-in-one piece that helps people understand Spiral16, Spark and our company goals.

Listen to the track below.

I’m so glad that Current TV was part of the CM Summit. As a former multimedia journalist (well, can you ever really give it up?), I’m excited about their constant innovation with UGC (that’s User Generated Content in case my parents are reading this).

Most recently, they teamed up with Twitter for Hack The Debate – a project that lets viewers watch near real-time Tweets as a lower-third over the presidential debates. It’s the ultimate no-spin zone.

Joel Hyatt, Current co-founder, talked a lot about VCAMs (Viewer Created Ad Messages). View one of my favs to the right.

According to Hyatt, VCAMs are preferred 9-1 over regular advertising by the Current audience - an audience comprised of mostly 20-somethings.

The VCAMs are creative, funny, innovative and they go viral.

Hyatt emphasized that Current’s competitive advantage comes from their willingness to experiment. They aren’t afraid to fail when it comes to UGC initiatives. It’s a risk big news organizations aren’t willing to take… despite their financial cushion.

“What they have is money. Tons of it,” Hyatt said. “The bigger they get the harder it is to have entrepreneurial activity internally.”

The Current community keeps their news free of major corporate influence by giving users the ability to call out transparency and bias.

Though it is a budding cable channel, I think it’s a group of the most innovative people in the business… a group of people who have successfully figured out how to incorporate advertising into their UGC format.

Listen to Hyatt’s session and tell us what you think – the podcast is just below the Prius VCAM.

Attendees at the CMSummit Tweet their thoughts.

On Thursday morning, John Battelle moderated a conversation with Evan Williams (founder of Twitter) at the CM Summit. I was definitely excited about this one, because I use Twitter to communicate both personally and with S16 (are you following us?)

I recorded the entire session with our REALLY POWERFUL audio recorder. I’m glad it picked up the squeaky chair and some of the beepy noises around me…

As I listened to Williams speak, I noticed parallels between Twitter and Spark. Ultimately, we share the same goal: Selling the value of discovery.

That means discovering relationships. Discovering content and conversations you didn’t know existed. Near real-time information sources. Marketers need to realize the value of those uncovering those connections: priceless.

Another similarity I noticed is building relationships.

“The relationship is what’s going to create value over time,” Williams said during the session. We notice clients using the “campaign mentality” with Spark, and they do the same with Twitter.

Like I said yesterday, to be successful you should enter a LTR, not a stop-and-start relationship based on marketing campaigns.

Listen to Battelle’s conversation with Williams and let us know what you think about building LTRs with audiences.