It is now Sunday, the day after the Epic Tweetup, and I’m sifting through my Facebook and Twitter feeds as I see people posting photos and tweeting about the great time they had. With nearly 500 people attending the event, some traveling here from Toronto, Chicago, Ohio, and Florida, the one thing that goes through my mind is that it’s hard to believe the city of Detroit is being hit hard by the worst recession we’ve seen since the Great Depression.

Detroiters Line Up For Temporary Jobs During The Great Depression

Detroiters Line Up For Free Bacardi During the Chevy SXSW Epic Tweetup

The social media landscape in Detroit has changed dramatically since March, attracting the attention of many of Detroit’s professionals. Stephen Clark, (@sclarkwxyz) action news anchor at WXYZ television has built an interactive community through social media that empowers individuals in Detroit to become as big of a part of the news as the anchors themselves.

Michigan Gubernatorial candidate, Rick Snyder, (@onetoughnerd) took his “One Tough Nerd” campaign to social media, and managed to secure the Republican nomination against numerous candidates ingrained in Michigan GOP’s good-ole-boy network. He has started out with a commanding lead in the polls, and continues to use social media to share his vision with Michigan’s online community. While this is not an endorsement of any kind, I must admit that his pioneering of social media in the political arena is encouraging, and will effect my decision in November.

Urbane Apartments (@eric_urbane) used social media to achieve 99% occupancy. Livio Radio (@livioradio) has used social media to increase sales. Detroit artist Black Milk (@black_milk) used social media to successfully launch his new popular single titled “Deadly Medley“. Believe me, the list goes on.

We have even seen big things from our team’s contestants in the Chevy SXSW Roadtrip. Brandon Chesnutt (@bchesnutt) was chosen for Crain’s “20 in their 20s” list. David Murray (@davemurr) quit his job to embark on his own “solopreneur” project. Henry Balanon (@balanon) has launched a number of successful iPhone and iPad applications, and recently announced he has a baby on the way. Audrey Walker (@techsocialite) got in touch with Girls In Tech to start a Detroit chapter.

Let’s not forget that this was all made possible by General Motor’s head of social media, Chris Barger. (@cbarger) One can only imagine how happy he was to see the home team win the contest that was a product of his vision for GM’s social media strategy. I believe that Chris would say that the outcome of the Chevy SXSW Roadtrip and Epic Tweetup has far surpassed his expectations. We owe a great deal of gratitude to Chris and GM for giving us the tools to catapult Detroit’s social media community forward into a phenomenon that has captured the world’s attention.

As for myself, I have big plans as well. The relationships I have built through Detroit’s social media community will help immensely as I lay the groundwork for a new enterprise. I have been secretly watching, planning and giving as much of my time as I can so that I too can be a part of the movement in Detroit that will soon make us an economic and technological powerhouse.

What did the Chevy SXSW Roadtrip do for Detroit? (besides get us drunk) It pulled a community together. It helped launch dozens of entrepreneurial ventures. It boosted many local businesses and supported the local economy. It gave the world a glimpse into the great things we are doing here in Detroit. It gave us a break from all the negativity that the media has been trying to bring us down with. It showed the world that even in our darkest hour, we are still a region that is deserving of nicknames like Motown and The Motor City.

Stand up Detroit! Let’s keep this momentum going. I’ve never felt more inspired to succeed in my life. Thank you Chris Barger, General Motors, Stephen Clark, Dave, Henry, Brandon, Audrey, everyone who participated online, The Magic Stick, Better Made Chips, Livio Radio, The Jolly Pumpkin, Bacardi, Urbane Apartments, Biggby Coffee, Vintner’s Cellar, Ann Arbor T-Shirt Company, Reware Vintage, A Shirt Bag, Verizon Wireless, Fashion In Detroit, Fist of Detroit Apparel, Chris Xiromeritis, Double Take, John Phillips, Noel, Hubert Sawyers, and even the spectators. We couldn’t have accomplished this without everyone involved. Let’s kick some ass again next year!

I looked around for a long time trying to find a venue that would work with us. Coincidentally, an old bowling alley in Sylvan Lake was recently refurbished under new ownership, and the management was eager to work with us.

Red Rock Bar and Sylvan Lanes is more than just a bowling alley, in fact, it’s less of a bowling alley than it used to be. They tore down a few lanes so they could build a big poker room in the back. Then they completely renovated the bar, hired some hottie bartenders and started re-branding the venue with a new, hip image. I have been frequenting this establishment a great deal lately, and have a blast every time I’m there.

That’s why I’m absolutely astounded by the possibilities that have arisen through this new opportunity. Not only does my band, Lune Noir, have the opportunity to rock out in front a real crowd for once, we also have the opportunity to reinvent night-time entertainment as we know it.

The club scene in Detroit, and throughout America, has become a complete joke, but has mostly followed the same direction as the ever-failing mainstream music industry. The focus is on social status, not music. Entertainment is no longer about pushing the boundaries of creativity, but about pushing the boundaries of taste.

I think one of the main reasons why night life has gotten to this point is because of a lack of brick-paving DJs. Back in the day, people worshiped DJs. People respected their opinions on music, and counted on them to lead the dance floor. You would have never asked Afrika Bambaataa to play a song request, that’s for sure. The lack of talented and experienced DJs who are willing to play at the low wages these club DJs are getting these days is a huge factor. Lack of talent leads club owners to get more involved in the entertainment experience, and club owners know even less about leading the dance floor than most of these hack DJs.

I am not against playing at, or even going out to clubs and bars, but that’s just not going to be where I focus my energy right now. Bowl-A-Tron will be a spectacular event, no doubt, but it will be the first event in a revolution that is going to sweep through Detroit and take over our entertainment industry.

It’s time to think differently about our night life experience. Do we really want to go to a club and pay Miami Beach prices for drinks and bottle service, only to hear the same shitty music they play on the radio while some skank pole dances on the bar with her clothes on? If you pay $400 for a bottle of champagne, don’t you want a little bit more than a bed to sit on while you drink it? Are we going to keep letting these clubs get away with raping our wallets without adding any significant value to our night life? It’s time to demand more!

Value will be my number one priority as I move forward with this revolution. I aim to deliver a more complete night life experience for your dollar than any club in Detroit. It all starts this Saturday, I hope to see you there! Click here for more details.

My first festival was in 2006. While I regret not going to the festival in years prior to that, (I used to spend my Memorial Day Weekends camping and canoeing) I haven’t missed a festival since and I have seen some of the greatest acts to come through. From Moby’s legendary DJ set in 2008, to Planet of the Drums playing on a blown out soundsystem in the underground stage in 2006, to Afrika Bambaata and the Zulu Nation taking us back to the roots of electro music in 2009, I have seen some amazing musical performances that very few others have had the privilege to see.

If you’re into electronic music at all, any format, there is one simple reason why you should be at Paxahau’s Movement festival this year. It’s not because it’s the 10th anniversary, nor is it to see what is speculated to be the very epic comeback of Plastikman aka Richie Hawtin. There is something even better to look forward to this weekend.

I have been to electronic music festivals all over the country. In 2008 I went to Ultrafest in Miami Beach, Florida as a DJ for the Winter Music Conference. Most of the same DJs that played in Miami played again at Movement 2008 about three months later. These DJs and producers were getting paid a tremendous amount of money to play at Ultrafest, and for the most part, they seemed to be going through the motions. I wouldn’t say any of the performances were terrible, just not very memorable. Something seemed a little off as I had already been to two Movement festivals and felt a completely different vibe.

When Movement 2008 came around, I made sure to see some of my favorite acts that I saw in Miami Beach. I saw Deadmau5, Moby, Benni Benassi, Kenneth Thomas, etc, etc, etc. These artists were likely getting paid a lot less to play in Detroit than they had in Miami. Every single one of these performers put on a much better show in Detroit than they did in Miami. I was amazed at how different I felt watching some of these people performing in Detroit, than I did watching them in Miami. There was a much different vibe in the air, and even though they were playing for smaller crowds, their sets were more intimate, with more energy and just felt completely surreal.

This is why you should be going to Movement 2010 over any other electronic or urban music festival in the world. True magic really happens in Hart Plaza every Memorial Weekend. You don’t just get to see your favorite artists, you get to see your favorite artists give the best performance you’ll ever see from them, as they all show love to the city of Detroit… the birthplace of techno.

First, it should be noted that another controversy was stirred up on Twitter when it was found that Twitter was blocking native re-tweets in searches from Twitter’s home page. This was a non-issue for me because Twitter left their search page (search.twitter.com) and their API search alone, giving people the choice to use the method they prefer. Although a little more transparency would have benefited Twitter greatly, I still commend them for experimenting with their service without forcing the changes on users. This is how social media gets better.

I’d also like to address the growing concerns over Facebook’s privacy policies. I guess I am just of the old-school thought that privacy on the internet just doesn’t exist. Sites get hacked into all the time, and “private information” gets stolen, regardless of any given company’s privacy policies. This is why I don’t post anything to the social web that I consider private. That being said, Facebook’s handling of the situation leaves something to be desired. The bottom line is that Facebook is proving that they value profits over value, which is a terrible revenue model. Here’s a hint, Facebook. Your users are what give your network value. Take them out of the picture and the value disappears. If Facebook doesn’t start listening to their users, they could face a number of consequences, quite possibly a massive exodus.

Click To Purchase

This is good news for the Twitterati, who have grown accustomed to a social network that has derived value from personal investment. Twitter users are never shy to voice their opinion, and the good people at Twitter are always willing to answer. Within a week, they have managed to address two major outcries from members.

I was pleased to see that a new version of TweetDeck was released, which included a major overhaul to the application’s interface and support for native re-tweets in the Mentions column. I am to understand that Seesmic desktop has this now as well. On Tweetdeck’s changelog, it says that support for native re-tweets in the mentions column was added, so I’m assuming that this was a change that Twitter made to their API. You still can’t see them in the mentions column on twitter’s web interface, but I’m OK with that, because there is a section of the site dedicated to it.

Twitter also addressed the issue of filtering re-tweets in their search function. They explained that they were expirmenting with methods for eliminating duplicate tweets in searches. As I mentioned earlier, I’m good with this as long as they continue to offer us the choice to do it the old way through search.twitter.com and the API. The only change I would like to see is increased transparency on Twitter’s part in the future. Don’t wait until after you implement a change to explain it to everyone.

Every company makes mistakes. The Internet is enabling companies to reach out to even more people in an interactive way and along with that comes the responsibility of increased transparency and the possibility for more epic failure. Twitter has their finger on the collective pulse of their community, in ways that we haven’t seen before, even from other companies with web-based services. Twitter deserves their props for simply getting it. They are true pioneers of the digital age.

It feels really good to write a positive post for once. Too much negativity really starts to wear me down over time.

For those of you who joined Twitter in the last six months, re-tweeting was not always a native feature in Twitter. Up until November of 2009, re-tweeting was commonly done by merely copying someone’s tweet and putting “RT @username: ” in front of it. It was a great way to show support for tweets that you like. It was also a great way of spreading information. Re-tweets often went viral and became a huge part of the Twitter community.

The biggest problem with re-tweeting was the 140 character limit. If you wanted to re-tweet someone who used all of their 140 characters, you would have to somehow shorten the tweet to make it fit. Re-tweeting became a feature on both twitter.com and 3rd-party clients like TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop. I remember a time when TweetDeck even had a feature that would attempt to shorten tweets by replacing words with shorter, phonetically-spelled words and acronyms. It was a hassle, but we dealt with it, and for the most part there were no complaints because the feature was never native to begin with.

Native Re-Tweet of an Old-School Re-tweet in Twitter

In Novemeber of 2009, Twitter announced the native re-tweet feature, and promised it would end all war and oppression on the planet Earth. A native re-tweet preserves the complete, original tweet, shows the usernames of both the author and the re-tweeter, and uses a goofy icon to show that it’s a re-tweet.

Personally, I like the design of the feature and applaud Twitter’s recognition of user demands. However, Twitter fucked up majorly on the implementation of the feature, and still has yet to offer full support for it. Old school re-tweets always showed up in your @mentions feed as long as your twitter name was attributed to it. Native re-tweets show up in two places: your main feed and a hidden place on the twitter web site. To get there, you have to go to your home page on Twitter, click on “Retweets” in the right-hand column, then click “Your Tweets, Retweeted” in the tabs at the top of the feed. Another way to access this page is to simply use the link: http://twitter.com/#retweeted_of_mine.

Not only is this feature buried inside of the Twitter web site, but as of yet there is very little API support for it. There is currently no consistent method for developers to use to show native re-tweets through their respective Twitter applications. The only method I can think of that developers could use to show native re-tweets is to go around the API and use a PERL script to feed them into a client. For obvious reasons, this is not an acceptable method, but certainly a method that would work better than Twitter’s. (or lack thereof) Native re-tweets aren’t even shown in lists, which for many of us is a great way to sort through the massive amount of tweets that come through our feed.

The main problem I have with this is that Twitter was obviously unprepared to support this feature upon implementation. Had they waited a month or two to include API support, that would be fine. It took a little while for the feature to catch on anyway, and we have all experienced the growing pains of a very fast-moving enterprise. The fact of the matter is that many people still don’t use the feature. It’s not because they don’t like it, but because they know that it’s unlikely to be seen… by anyone. I use TweetDeck on my PC laptop and Twee on my Palm Pre to organize my Twitter experience. At any given time I rarely see more than five tweets at a time in my main feed, which as of now, is the only place I am able to see native re-tweets. I have two lists of tweeters called “favs” and “hip hop” that I use to keep up to date with people I interact with daily, but none of their native re-tweets show up in my timeline. The probability of me seeing any native re-tweets is staggeringly low, whereas old school re-tweets show up in all of my feeds and I see them all the time. I see old school re-tweets of my own tweets instantly, and they pop up in my notifications, whereas I have to go to my web browser to see native re-tweets.

One of the underlying issues here is the fact that there are many people out there who don’t know about this shortcoming. Many people out there are using the native re-tweet feature, assuming that it’s a supported feature. Little do they know that very few people are actually seeing their re-tweets, and in some cases, they might even be getting frustrated at the perceptive lack of response they are getting on Twitter. The same applies to those who don’t know how to view native re-tweets. This is where my personal experience is relevant. I didn’t know until this morning about the hidden page on Twitter that shows where people have used the native feature to re-tweet me. It has been six months since this feature was implemented, and i’m just now realizing that I am getting a much bigger response to my tweets than I previously thought.

Native re-tweets are a feature of comfort, not of necessity. While the old way had its limitations, there was no sense of urgency for Twitter to implement this feature. Twitter could have waited until they were able to support the feature before they implemented it, and no one would have been worse off for it. Twitter decided to implement the feature prematurely, and now we are worse off because of it. I realize that sometimes these things take time, but it has been far too long. I believe that Facebook has implemented a few major layout and feature changes in the span of time since the native re-tweet feature was implemented. There’s just no excuse at this point.

Here’s my idea. Eighty-six the damned feature until you can implement it right! Just get rid of it. I don’t care if we don’t see native re-tweets again until 2016! Just do it right! I am a big supporter of Twitter and I have personally experienced the impact social networking has on our lives. When I see an issue like this, it tells me that Twitter either doesn’t care, or they are too inept to fix it. I have always enjoyed the simplicity of Twitter’s social network. There is not now, and has never been, a need for carelessly implemented features. The time for pontification is over, and the time for action is long past due. Get it together, Twitter. Your users have spoken.

Steve Jobs released an open letter (what we city folk call a blog post) on apple.com today, explaining his reasons why Flash would not be included on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices.

You can read the blog p… open letter here:

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

Here are the key points that were brought up. (Thanks to my friends at Icrontic for breaking it down)

1. It’s a closed technology
2. Users aren’t missing out
3. Security flaws
4. Battery performance
5. Not touch-screen friendly
6. Not progressive enough for developers

I agree with Steve Jobs on most of these points, but he’s still wrong on so many levels.

Flash is a thorn in the side of the internet. It has been around for a long time, and many people are dependent on it for delivering content to their users. Web sites that use flash are taxing on hardware, not SEO friendly, not secure  for people who like to push buttons that allow web sites to invade their privacy, and a lot of Flash sites are simply obnoxious.

Flash was created long before Web 2.0, AJAX and CSS were widely popular. There was a need for displaying dynamic, interactive content on web sites and Macromedia (now Adobe) was there to meet that demand. In much the same way, before the iPhone existed, there was a need for a portable, mobile device that could deliver dynamic, highly interactive content and integration to users. Apple was there to meet the demands of the industry, and the entire cellphone industry has been shaped by the concepts they pioneered. Like Flash, the iPhone’s continued popularity is hinged on the fact that there are a shitload of apps available for it. There are now better phones, with better hardware and more efficient operating systems with multitasking support. Competitors have adopted more open standards and unified platforms. I anticipate that by the time Apple releases the fourth generation iPhone, it will already be obsolete and far behind the competitive curve, but people will buy it because they love the apps that are available exclusively to the Apple platform, as well as the interoperability with other Apple electronics.

What really bothers me about the letter is that you can almost take out every instance of the word “Flash” and replace it with the word “iTunes” and it would still work. iTunes is mostly an Apple-based platform that causes many instability problems on PCs. It is a closed technology that Apple has complete control over. People who don’t use iTunes aren’t really missing out, because there are plenty of better alternatives out there, like Amazon MP3, where you actually own a digital copy of the track you are purchasing. Unlike iTunes, Amazon cannot take your music away from you, prevent you from putting it on too many devices, or restrict the platforms that it can run on after you purchase it. iTunes’ continued success lies in the fact that there are so many people out there who already own a lot of music that can only be accessed through iTunes. Any developer of mobile devices who wants to include support for syncing with iTunes has to go through a ridiculous set of back doors and red tape to do it, whereas syncing with an Apple device can be done at the push of a button. I currently own a phone that was originally designed to sync with iTunes, until Apple locked my device out purposely through iTunes software updates. Did I mention it’s a closed standard?

By Apple’s own standards, they should no longer include iTunes support on their mobile devices.

Steve Jobs is really putting himself and his company at a huge disadvantage here. The market has been demanding Flash support on smartphone devices for a long time. Every major smartphone operating system has plans to include Flash support in the near future, except for Apple. Microsoft, Google, Palm, RIM and Symbian made up 82% of the smartphone market as of 2009 Q3. All of these companies will be adding Flash support by the end of the year. Apple makes up 18% of the smartphone market. When you combine their inability to meet smartphone market demands with their small piece of the smartphone marketshare pie, that doesn’t add up to any significant influence on the direction of the market.

With Flash coming to smartphones, it is anticipated that social media gaming will immediately get a boost from this new market. There are already millions of people engaged in interactive, online games like Farmville and Mafia Wars, which are based on Flash and available on social media platforms like Facebook and Myspace. These games will be immediately available to smartphone users who have Flash-enabled phones. Opportunistic Flash developers will see a new medium for expanding the social media gaming market, and it’s bound to take off. Apps for some of these games are already available in Apple’s App Store, but they are typically watered-down versions of the original, and sometimes you have to pay for them.

Steve Jobs pointed out in his letter that Flash was not touch-screen friendly, and that there’s no such thing as a rollover effect on a touch screen. He’s right, but he neglects to mention that rollover is not a feature that is proprietary to Flash, and has also been a big part of Javascript for a long time, a platform that Jobs’ touts as a better alternative to Flash.  Almost every content platform on the internet has been going through a design transition as touchscreen mobile internet devices become more and more popular. Why use HTML? Why CSS? Why Javascript? Nothing on the internet was designed to be used on touchscreen devices, but most of these platforms have been adapted to be more touchscreen friendly. Jobs seems to think that HTML5 is the way to go, but this completely goes against the entire essence of the internet, which is made up of multiple platforms, multiple standards and a very diverse development environment. Let developers decide which platform suits them best, and let them answer to their customers if they make the wrong decision.

No one should ever do anything based solely on Steve Jobs’ opinion. His opinions are always heavily influenced by the products he happens to be making a living on. Flash apps would be competing directly with the content available in the app store.

Steve Jobs also mentions H.264 as a viable alternative to streaming video content over flash. H.264 is a closed standard. Apple is a member of H.264′s licensing authority. Every time a license for H.264 is sold, Steve Jobs makes a buck. Robert Hallock at Icrontic points out:

H.264 is buried in a mountain of patents and copyrights which will demand exorbitant licensing fees after the “gracious” royalty-free period for web video ends in 2016.

This is a very startling revelation when you think that everything from smartphones to Blu-Ray players are currently dependent on the H.264 standard.

I speak for many web developers when I say that Flash is in need of a serious overhaul, or should be removed from the web altogether. That being said, we all depend on Flash for daily content over the web. Whether it be Youtube, Homestar Runner, Farmville, Google Video Chat, etc. a very large part of the web still depends on flash. Flash has a much bigger marketshare in the web than Apple has in the mobile device market.

This article is not just about the hypocrisy of Steve Jobs’ letter, or to tear down his logic and reasoning behind his decision not to support Flash. This letter is a microcosm of how Apple Computers operates as a whole. Steve Jobs has repeatedly said that consumers don’t know what’s good for them, and insists that he’s the only one who does. He rode in on a big horse, and captured the attention of people who weren’t good at using computers for many years. Steve Jobs’ has been behind some of the most amazing technological advances of the digital age, and to that we owe him a lot.

The technology industry, however, is fickle and ever-changing. Compaines are learning more and more that they have to throw out their old way of thinking often to adapt to changes in market demands. Steve Jobs filled a void in the technology market that forever changed the way we look at a piece of electronics. The problem is that while the market is still changing, Apple is not adapting well to those changes. Their recent release of the iPad is a great example of that. The iPad is a great device with many uses, but also with many restrictions. It won’t be long before there are a slew of competitors to the iPad that offer better hardware, more features and a better interface. As with everything Apple does, they executed the product launch well, but will suffer in their end-game.

I have gotten by my whole life without ever owning an Apple device. Until Apple changes their business strategy, and starts listening to the demands of the market they are trying to expand their share of, I refuse to buy into the hype that surrounds their products. Here is a list of things I would like to see Apple do:

• License Mac OS and the Apple mobile device OS. Open up competition among OEM competitors by enabling them to market their products with the Macintosh operating system. I could see them easily doubling their marketshare as a result.
• Fundamentally change the entire iTunes brand. Make it more cross-platform compatible, open it up for licensing to OEMs and give people more control of their purchased content.  Recognize that people who use iTunes are doing so by choice, and are paying for something that is extremely easy to acquire unlawfully. Even the lawful alternatives are proving to be more advantageous to the average consumer. The convenience factor of using iTunes with an iPod will eventually start to wear off.
• Stop fighting developers! No company has ever shown more contempt for application developers than Apple. If you want to write applications for Apple products, you have to do it on their often ridiculous terms. A very big part of Microsoft’s success story has been their consistent, healthy relationship with developers.
• Enough with the hypocritical diatribes. Every time Steve Jobs criticizes another product or company, he ends up poking holes in his own arguments by bringing up criticisms that can be attributed to his own company.

Jobs’ represents the next generation of snake oil salesmen. He is the king of bullshit. You can’t keep fooling people forever, it just doesn’t work that way. Apple’s business model depends on revolution for continued success. If they don’t start a new revolution soon, they are going to lose their marketshare to companies like Google, RIM and Palm. I think it’s great to introduce new products to the world based on ideas that very few people have thought of before, but there is a responsibility that goes along with that. Once your idea becomes popular, the market will demand and dictate the direction of your product. The more you fight it, the more inevitable your demise. Apple Computers can still continue to be pioneers of the digital age while catering to the demands of the marketplace, and it’s not too late for a change.

Detroit’s online community has pulled together this week to support our home team in the Chevy South-by-Southwest (#DETChevySXSW on Twitter) road trip challenge. Four professionals from Detroit’s online community were chosen to represent our city, and compete against seven teams from other cities as they drive a Chevy Traverse down to Austin and complete missions as they go along. The team not only gets points for completing tasks, but also gets points for the support they get from their home town in the form of tweets, blog posts and other interactions on social media with the crew.

It’s safe to say that not only has team Detroit stepped up to the challenge, Detroit’s online community has stepped up as well. Take a look at the #DETChevySXSW hashtag and you will see an overwhelming response from the community. If we win, we will get to share the glory with team Detroit, as GM has planned an “epic tweetup” for the winning city.

One of my fellow Ignite Detroit organizers was chosen for the team. The close proximity of Ignite Detroit to the road trip challenge was a blessing in disguise for the crew. Ignite Detroit turned out to be a great success, with three hundred of Detroit’s greatest minds getting together to share innovative ideas, great music and cheerful fellowship. The momentum we created  was carried forward into the Chevy SXSW road-trip challenge. Needless to say, this city is fired up.

As I watched the #DETChevySXSW hashtag last night, I noticed a little pessimism coming from a single individual that doesn’t quite grasp what’s going on here. I’m not going to repeat what was said, because I think Dave Murr was right when he said that “some insults don’t deserve the courtesy of a response.” However, behind the crass and rude nature of this particular person’s response, a very valid point was brought up. What are we really doing for the city of Detroit?

We certainly aren’t all going to go out and buy a GM product because of this event. We’re not all going to move into an Urbane Apartment, drink wine at Vintner’s Cellar, eat at Olga’s or Panera Bread, or have a coffee at Biggby. While I am sure that these sponsors are happy with the support they are getting from the community, there is much more to this than advertising value. The ROI is much more than the slight increase in business these sponsors may see. These are companies that are investing into the future of this city. They are seeing the big picture. They are witnessing a new renaissance happening right before their eyes, and they want to be a part of it. They are seeing all of the greatest minds in Detroit coming together, dreaming, thinking, building, working and striving to bring hope to a city that has suffered for decades.

Hillary Clinton once said that it takes a village to raise a child. This concept can also be applied towards the rebuilding of Detroit. The village is made up of people, and the city is our child. We own businesses, we spend money on our hobbies, we create, we envision, we teach and we learn. Instead of constantly working against each other for selfish means, we understand that what’s good for the city is good for everyone. Everyone involved with #DETChevySXSW understands that community involvement is essential to accomplishing our goals. When South-by-Southwest is over, the revolution will continue. There will be Future Midwest 2010, TEDxDetroit #2, Ignite Detroit #2, Brand Camp U, Startup Weekend, Tweetea, Social Media Club, etc. etc. etc. and we will continue to work together until this city is back on top again.

There will always be naysayers, and there will always be a negative force working against the progress that is being made. But the progress we are making won’t be invisible forever. Our motivation and our perseverance will spread like an infection through the entire city, until the negative Nancy’s have no other choice but to get motivated, or get left behind in our dust.

I am so proud of the #DETChevySXSW team and Detroit’s online community. There is no doubt that we are making a difference, and we are having a lot of fun in the process. When you see the goofy pictures, crazy videos, karaoke madness and the whispers going around about a group of clinically insane social media geeks that appear to be on drugs, you should now know what’s going on. We are the future of this city, and we’re going to have a good time.

Please follow all of the team Detroit SXSW contestants on Twitter and remember to support the #DETChevySXSW hashtag.

Brandon Chesnutt – http://www.twitter.com/bchesnutt

Audrey Walker – http://wwwtwitter.com/walkerau

Henry Balanon – http://www.twitter.com/balanon

Dave Murr – http://www.twitter.com/davemurr

Ignite Detroit is a night of presentations with a twist. Presenting on a subject of their choice, speakers have exactly five minutes to enlighten and inspire their community using twenty slides that auto advance every fifteen seconds. Ignite is quick, fun, and smart.

We have officially launched the Ignite Detroit! web site and we are now taking submissions for presentations as well as looking for sponsors. Tickets are free and will be available after January 29th. Brandon Chesnutt will be the emcee for the event, and my band, Lune Noir, will be providing entertainment for the evening. I hope you will come out to support your community and stimulate the flow of innovative ideas that will one day save our city.