The benefits of integrating Open Source alternatives in their commercial projects by using tools such as WordPress. I will also discuss how to optimize your web presence with Social techniques like twitter and Facebook, how to build a community around your brand, and what it takes to organize and manage large Open Source projects and communities such as PHUG.

1. Open Source and the Social Web
Brendan Sera-Shriar
www.digibombinc.com

2. What’s Open Source?
“Do I really need to explain this?”
For the un-initiated – The code is available to anyone and it’s FREE, hence OPEN!
( just make sure to always give credit where credit is due)
Open Source projects you may be familiar with:
• Mozilla/Firefox
• WordPress
• Drupal
• MySQL
• phpMyAdmin
• Ajax
• Etc.

3. What’s the Social Web?
The Social Web is currently used to describe how people socialize or interact with
each other throughout the World Wide Web. Such people are brought together
through a variety of shared interests. There are different ways in which people
want to socialize on the Web today. The first kind of socializing is typified by
"people focus" websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Ning, Blogger, DesignFloat,
and MySpace. Such sites promote the person as focus of social interaction.
The second kind of socializing is typified by a sort of "hobby focus" websites. For
example, if one is interested in photography and wants to share this with like-
minded people, then there are photography websites such as Flickr, Google
Picassa, SnapTweet, and Image Spark.

4. So, what do Open Source
and Social Web have in common?
Most Social Web applications are built using Open Source tools. What
makes them so perfect for each other is that they emphasize SHARING.
Why Choose Open Source as an Alternative?
• Promotes community collaborative
• Allows for Social Apps.
• You have access to all the code
• You have a community to help support the technology
• Cheaper, i.e.; FREE, leverage project costs
• Help build a better web
• Let your community contribute

5. What does this all mean?
“We don’t just build websites, we build communities!”
It’s not good enough to just build a website today. You need to build a community
around your brand. What makes Open Source and Social so integral to business is
how it enables people to have a personal connection to your brand, they feel
empowered, they have a say!
How to build a strong community?
• Identity: who are you?
• Reputation: what do people think you stand for?
• Presence: where are you?
• Relationships: who are you connected with? who do you trust?
• Groups: how do you organize your connections?
• Conversations: what do you discuss with others?
• Sharing: what content do you make available for others to interact with?

6. What makes a successful community
The phrase "building community" is a common buzzword in social media -
everyone has a facebook group, a forum, a fan page, etc. - but how do you create
communities with high engagement and great discussions?
Give your community more than one way to connect with your brand. Make sure
you integrate multiple Social components. Consider your website the final goal!
Your community should be spread out across multiple networks like twitter,
facebook, Ning, etc.
Let your users create the content, contribute to you site, give stuff away, and get
them to meet face to face.
“Don’t repeat content! Each network should offer something different!”

7. What makes a successful community
When communities are successful they will build on your network by creating other
communities around yours, i.e., fan pages, blogs, other facebook groups, etc.
“A really successful community will go beyond the web!”
You know you’re a major success when people from your community meet offline.
Good examples:
• Camps
• Meetups
• Festivals

8. What makes a successful community
Successful communities and why?
PHUG – Open Source Culture
• Currently over 4000 members from all over North America
• We use facebook, twitter, and flickr
• We run bi-monthly meetups and workshops
• Bi-monthly feed burns
• User registered profiles
• Users can submit/request content
http://www.phug.ca

9. Examples of good communities
http://www.webdesignerwall.com
http://www.bestwebgallery.com
http://www.fuelyourcreativity.com and http://www.fuelyourapps.com
http://www.designfloat.com
http://www.wordpress.com
http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/
http://threeminds.organic.com
http://www.gomediazine.com
http://www.macalicious.com
http://www.smashingmagazine.com
just to name a few…

10. 10 Social Media Campaigns that Rock
1. “Give Me My Chuck” campaign - using social media to pressure the NBC to
continue to broadcast the third season of Chuck!
– Sea World’s Whale social media campaign - a unique integrated campaign
that “serves as a bit of a reminder about some of the clever social media
marketing that can be done beyond the typical diet of Facebook Pages,
Twitter and YouTube.”
– Threadless building “brand love” - a great message and a comprehensive
coverage on the most suitable social media channels.
– Dunkin Donut’s new product Facebook campaign- using the Coolatta fan
page, Dunkin gave out free beverages as a twitter avatar contest!
Ford using social media to promote the new Fiesta - Ford was able to
find the right target audience for its Fiesta and market to them in an
intriguing manner.
– Ford using social media to promote the new Fiesta - Ford was able to find
the right target audience for its Fiesta and market to them in an intriguing
manner.

11. 10 Social Media Campaigns that Rock
1. Sony Ericsson’s viral approach - here, Sony used a mysterious character
named Johnny X and YouTube to create an element of curiosity to promote
Xperia X1.
2. Burger King’s Facebook application (in addition to other social media uses) -
the Whopper Sacrifice application on Facebook.
3. Dell’s effective mix of social media tools - namely Direct2Dell Blog.
4. Target’s Facebook campaign - “Bullseye Gives” campaign on Facebook: a
voting application connected to the brand’s existing Facebook page.
5. Comparethemeerkat.com’s inclusive campaign - utilizing humor and a blend
of social media channels to promote car insurance.
List from blog.thoughtpick.com

12. The Open Source tools we use!
digibomb’s arsenal:
• Platforms • Code
• WordPress • PHP • CSS
• Drupal • CSS • XHTML
• Ning • jQuery • And many others…
Why we use Open Source?
• Leverage costs
• Community support
• Access to all code
• Works for small business and
enterprise level clients
• FREE!

13. Who uses Open Source

14. Commercial meets Open Source
“The Evil Empire is coming!” - Joey Devilla, AKA “The Accordion Guy”
The Web Platform Installer is a FREE tool that installs a variety of Microsoft and
Open Source web applications and development tools, such as Visual Web
Developer, IIS and SQL Server 2008 Express, and Expression Web, what you
didn’t expect to see from Microsoft are tools such as PHP, MySQL, phpMyAdmin,
WordPress, and Drupal.
Check out Microsoft’s presentation at WordCamp Toronto this year which
demonstrated some of the Open Source platforms Microsoft is working on, such as
PHP on Windows!
It’s nice to see Microsoft finally taking the leap, joining other commercial
companies such as Adobe and IBM into the Open Source community!

15. Benefits of using the Microsoft Web Platform
with Open Source tools
What makes the Microsoft Web Platform so easy is the one click install. Once
downloaded and installed you have access to a ton of great Open Source tools,
most importantly PHP on Windows.
With most Open Source tools you need to install and run everything separately,
but with the Web Platform it’s all under one roof!
This is what you get
• IIS • BlogEngine.NET
• FTP server • WordPress.
• .NET Framework and ASP.NET • DotNetNuke
• MVC • Acquia Drupal.
• PHP • Photo gallery applications.
• SQL Server Express • Wiki
• Silverlight • Option to install phpMyadmin
• Visual Web Developer Express.

16. Benefits of using the Microsoft Web Platform
with Open Source tools
Other benefits:
You can build applications on the Microsoft Platform Using Eclipse, Java, and
Ruby!
Microsoft / Web offers a online repository of free web apps to install under the
platform, there is ton of great stuff there.
http://www.microsoft.com/web/gallery/Categories.aspx
MIX Online is a really good example of full site built using the Microsoft Web
Platform taking full advantage of it’s Open Source Solutions.
http://visitmix.com

17. Thank You
Open Source and the Social Web
Brendan Sera-Shriar, Founder/CEO digibomb
http://www.digibombinc.com
http://www.dropthedigibomb.com
dropit@dropthedigibomb.com
Founder of PHUG – Open Source Culture
http://www.phug.ca
Find me here:
http://www.twitter.com/digibomb
http://www.flickr.com/photos/phug
http://digibomb.stumbleupon.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/digibomb