“9/11 and Us”, A letter by Meetup.com Co-Founder Scott Heiferman
Meetup.com is a free online service that helps people with similar interests to find each other and meet up in real life. In this letter (sent to all Meetup members on 9/11/2011), Scott Heiferman explains how he turned a national tragedy into a revolutionary new way to strengthen local communities.
——
Fellow Meetuppers,
I don’t write to our whole community often, but this week is
special because it’s the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and many
people don’t know that Meetup is a 9/11 baby.
Let me tell you the Meetup story. I was living a couple miles
from the Twin Towers, and I was the kind of person who thought
local community doesn’t matter much if we’ve got the internet
and tv. The only time I thought about my neighbors was when I
hoped they wouldn’t bother me.
When the towers fell, I found myself talking to more neighbors
in the days after 9/11 than ever before. People said hello to
neighbors (next-door and across the city) who they’d normally
ignore. People were looking after each other, helping each
other, and meeting up with each other. You know, being
neighborly.
A lot of people were thinking that maybe 9/11 could bring
people together in a lasting way. So the idea for Meetup was
born: Could we use the internet to get off the internet — and
grow local communities?
We didn’t know if it would work. Most people thought it was a
crazy idea — especially because terrorism is designed to make
people distrust one another.
A small team came together, and we launched Meetup 9 months
after 9/11.
Today, almost 10 years and 10 million Meetuppers later, it’s
working. Every day, thousands of Meetups happen. Moms Meetups,
Small Business Meetups, Fitness Meetups… a wild variety of
100,000 Meetup Groups with not much in common — except one
thing.
Every Meetup starts with people simply saying hello to
neighbors. And what often happens next is still amazing to me.
They grow businesses and bands together, they teach and
motivate each other, they babysit each other’s kids and find
other ways to work together. They have fun and find solace
together. They make friends and form powerful community. It’s
powerful stuff.
It’s a wonderful revolution in local community, and it’s thanks
to everyone who shows up.
Meetups aren’t about 9/11, but they may not be happening if it
weren’t for 9/11.
9/11 didn’t make us too scared to go outside or talk to
strangers. 9/11 didn’t rip us apart. No, we’re building new
community together!!!!
The towers fell, but we rise up. And we’re just getting started
with these Meetups.
Scott Heiferman (on behalf of 80 people at Meetup HQ)
Co-Founder & CEO, Meetup
New York City
September 2011
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DBS adds Online Data Backup to its Solutions Portfolio
CINCINNATI, Oh. – Denton Business Solutions, LLC (“DBS”) announced today that it has added Online Backup to its client solutions portfolio. This will allow DBS customers to backup computer and server files to a secure and remote data center as a protection against data loss. Online backup is available to all DBS customers effective June 1st, 2011.
A secure and reliable service that complements DBS’ other solutions offerings, Online Backup protects data files with such robust capabilities as:
- Military-grade data encryption
- Automatic, continuous backup
- Centralized management and configuration, with web-based administrative console
- Storage in world-class data centers that are SAS70 and ISO27001 certified
Additionally, Online Backup does not require investment in additional software, hardware or other information technology (IT) resources.
Protection against data loss – the unforeseen inability to access or retrieve data due to hardware/software failure, accidents, natural disasters or crimes – should be a critical component of IT management for businesses of all sizes. A 2010 study by Intel and the Ponemon Institute found that the economic impact to a business of one lost laptop is nearly $50,000. According to a Forrester Research survey, 66 percent of small businesses do not have a business continuity plan if their systems fail and data is lost or inaccessible.
“Sixty percent of businesses that suffer permanent data loss go out of business,” says Phil Denton, President of Denton Business Solutions, LLC. “Online Backup provides our customers the peace of mind that they won’t become a statistic. Regardless of whether a laptop is lost to a spilled coffee or an entire office lost to a natural disaster, Online Backup allows a business to continue to run. And that’s a solution we’re really excited about providing.”
About Denton Business Solutions, LLC
Founded in 2009, Denton Business Solutions, LLC (“DBS”) is a technology consulting company specialized in addressing the needs of small business customers, providing a diverse range of services including Web Optimization, Productivity Enhancement, Social Media Marketing (SMM), IT Strategy, and now Disaster Recovery. DBS is focused on delivering solutions that have a direct positive impact on a small business’ bottom line.
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Klout is Broken
Update: As of 2PM EDT, things seem to be back up and working fine.
After a couple years of hard work, DBS has finally reached the same Klout score as Mashable… 1.
Klout.com, the tool for measuring online influence, seems to be broken. It usually measures digital influence and engagement of various individuals, celebrities, and brands on a score of 1 to 100 based on metrics such as Twitter Follower/Following ratio and retweets, Facebook comments and “Like”s, etc. Today however, it seems to be a little off.
This morning we logged in to Klout.com check our score and much to our surprise DBS dropped over 35 points overnight. After some searching around we quickly discovered that almost every Klout score had been equalized overnight to a single digit score. Mashable and DBS dropped to 1.
After checking some other tools that supply Klout scores, we found that HootSuite is pulling the same very low scores through the Klout API. The Klout client for Droid, however, is reporting a score of 5 for DBS and 87 for Mashable but is also saying Mashable’s Klout score was an impossible 175 in recent days.
There’s nothing in Klout’s own Twitter feed about an outage (at least not in the past 12 hours). I wonder what’s going on?
Mashable has dropped over 70 points overnight.
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Google enhances Analytics tracking code
Google announced yesterday that it has finally released Asynchronous Tracking for its Analytics product. Asynchronous tracking has been in beta testing/development for almost six months now so Denton Business Solutions is pretty excited that it’s finally out of beta testing and approved for general use.
According to Google the new code offers the following benefits:
- Faster tracking code load times for your web pages due to improved browser execution
- Enhanced data collection and accuracy
- Elimination of tracking errors from dependencies when the JavaScript hasn’t fully loaded
Essentially, this “Google Analytics 2.0″ will give your business a more accurate depiction of its website’s actual statistics, as well as increase tracking code stability and page load times. Ever since Google announced that it now includes website load times into its page rank algorithms, every little bit of speed one can squeeze out of a page load helps. If you have any questions about Analytics or how to upgrade to its new tracking code drop us a line!
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