Active members of Joomla Chicago will not be surprised that the house was packed when Avery Cohen and Ken Novak of web Internet marketing strategy, implementation, and web analytics firm Metrist Partners gave a seminar this morning sponsored by the Evanston Chamber of Commerce. What many come as a surprise is the high pitch of interest in web development, online business, content management systems (CMS) and epublishing business in Evanston.

Avery and Ken were peppered with questions from members of the audience, including advertising/creative promotion provider Linda Frothingham from Frothingham Communications, writer/editor Jim Morris from Tagline Jim, and film/video producer John McCarthy from InterImage, about how to improve Return on Investment (ROI) using web analytics. Business people like attorney David Kahn and Henry Funkenbusch of Sign One zeroed in on issues like how to use Google Analytics and do search engine optimization (SEO).

Evanston is filled with innovative tech firms that are keen to expand their web presence - firms such as biotech company Precision Biomarker and high resolution sensor and test system provider Psylotech, as well as the "Technology Incubator" (Technology Innovation Center) that houses them and about thirty other tech firms. Some, like advanced IBM partner Taishan Works, are Internet experts and yet still found plenty to learn in the Metrist presentation.

Other participants included landscaper Nature's Perspective, NWU affiliate The Family Institute, patent specialist Cardinal Law Group, financial planning firm JAS Financial Services, and portfolio manager Blue Sky Investment Partners Inc.. Key your eye on them for upcoming web enhancements.

Jonathan Perman and Brooke Saucier of the Evanston Chamber of Commerce, together with Chuck Happ of the Technology Innovation Center and Laura Folkl of the Downtown Evanston marketing/promotion association, were on hand to foster follow-on opportunities within the group and with the rest of the Evanston business community.

With all this interest in web business and content management (CMS) for the web, is it any wonder that the CMS Association has has selected Evanston as the site for the 2010 CMS Expo?

Stay tuned for more developments in the Evanston web community! Thanks, Avery and Ken!

Joe Scarry is head project manager for Chicago firm Arc Technology Group -- the web design, development and content management company whose open solutions drive business success.

If you haven't gotten started yet, now is the time to get involved in the Joomla Chicago online community.  In just the last few weeks, there have been daily increases in activity -- and that means more opportunities for all of us to network with other Joomlaistas and expand our web skills, our web activities, and our web businesses.

Try these three simple ways to get into the swing of things:

• * log onto Joomla Chicago and update your profile to tell the rest of us about yourself
• * take a close look at all those snazzy pictures of the other members and pick a few to "friend" - it's fun!
• * follow the links to recent updates to discussion posts. Add your two cents! You'll start getting emails as other people join the conversation

Get started now! You'll be amazed a month from now to see how many great connections you've made!

What's your favorite way to interact with the Joomla Chicago online community?

The November 11 Joomla Chicago meeting promises to be a sell-out - the presentation will provide a preview of Joomla 1.6.

I've seen a couple of previews so far, and it looks like 1.6 is going to have some powerful features, especially with respect to Access Control Levels (ACL). I can't wait to start developing in 1.6!

As for existing sites . . . what will the path to upgrade look like?  One of the important topics we covered in Joomla Chicago meetings during 2009 was the 1.0 > 1.5 pathway.  Presentations included hands-on programming steps, as well as decision model for site managers about if and when to make the migration.

What do people think?  Should we get some similar events on the calendar for 2010 with respect to the 1.5 > 1.6 upgrade path?

If you want to see a very interesting use of Twitter, take a look at:

http://twitter.com/search?q=#jazzlives

One of the problems facing the jazz community is that it is a niche interest that is pursued in an extremely dispersed fashion.  The lifeblood of jazz is the clubs and other live venues, but that doesn't offer an obvious to tie keep the community together.

A hometown Chicago jazz authority (Howard Mandel) came up with the idea of tweeting any time you see a live jazz performance - name of artist, venue, and #jazzlives.  You can read about the inception of the Twitter campaign here.

Just look at the action surrounding the Chicago Jazz Festival!

This gave me some real insights into how Twitter can be meaningful in special situations.

Has anyone else seen a Twitter campaign that made you say "Aha!" ??

This is a question that came up in our poll of Joomla Chicago members.  They're trying to compare the benefits and disadvantages of standalone social networking communities (like the Joomla Chicago site, with its JomSocial install) vs. mega communities like Facebook. So . . . 

I'm trying to assemble as many thoughts on this as I can.  My first goal is to identify "10 Benefits of Standalone Social Networking Communities" . . . .

C'mon everyone . . . help me out!

Ad agencies in Minneapolis are teaming up to tell a story: "Minneapolis is a powerhouse center for advertising services" -- read the full story in the New York Times.

Shouldn't we be doing something similar in Chicago, around the topic of Content Management System (CMS) services?

Not sure how to put a concerted effort together around this -- as the ad agencies did in Minneapolis -- how can we work together to make something like this happen?

Joe Scarry is head project manager for Chicago Joomla web developer and web design firm Arc Technology Group.

The schedule for CMS Expo just came out. Arc Technology Group president Robert Jacobi will be doing a presentation along with Arc client JellyTelly about how to use Joomla in combination with cloud computing utility Ooyala to serve up large amounts of video on the web: Check it out the presentation description!

Joe Scarry is head project manager for Chicago Joomla web developer and web design firm Arc Technology Group.

How many times have you had a client say, "Oh, and we'll be wanting email marketing to integrate with that brand new Joomla site of ours!" . . . . ?

Peter Medlock of online marketing solutions specialist Dark Heart Studios will talk to Joomla Chicago members in March about how to use the Joomla sites you create to generate high quality email marketing campaigns. In addition to email marketing, Dark Heart's principal focus, Peter's firm also provides web and other graphic design, SEO and SEM, and other integrated marketing services.

"With email marketing, the biggest payoff lies not in pushing product, but in building traffic," Peter told me when we talked by phone today. "Our clients find that loyalty soars when they implement a good email marketing campaign."

Peter and his team have come up with an innovative way to employ Joomla templates, a convenient editor, and standard email marketing service that you can use to put together a solid email marketing system for any client.

Sign up today!

Joe Scarry is head project manager for Chicago Joomla web developer and web design firm Arc Technology Group.

Let me share my newest discovery with you: go to Joomla Milwaukee and get signed up for their next meeting. I've been to two meetings so far and they've both been fabulous.

At yesterday's meeting there was a great, hands-on presentation by Tom Egan of Egan New Media about customization he did on a calendar module for a site he built for the Grand Prairie, TX, Air Hogs professional baseball team.

Dan Knauss of New Local Media provided an excellent overview of the planned Joomla 1.6. Key focus was on access control. (That's a presentation I'd love to see at our Chicago meeting!)

The level of discussion at Milwaukee Joomla meetings is really helpful: precise and practical, and edging on technical, but without being obscure.

One other interesting note: John Fischer, a member of the group, will be presenting a two-day program on "Joomla: Building Powerful Content Managment Systems and Onine Applications" at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) on April 30 and May 1. Tuition is :$525. See http://www4.uwm.edu/sce/course.cfm?id=17282 to register.

Once again, hats off to Victor Drover of Anything Digital and Gabriel Wahhab of Connexion Technologies for their leadership of this group.

Joe Scarry is head project manager for Chicago Joomla web developer and web design firm Arc Technology Group. Arc Technology is one of the sponsors of Joomla Milwaukee.

Only in Chicago: yesterday 400 people gathered in a ballroom at the Allegro Hotel in the Loop to talk about the future of journalism in Chicago. It was called the "Chicago Journalism Town Hall," but it could have been called the "Chicago Internet News Town Hall," because at the end of the day, the message was clear: news is going to be delivered online, people are going to get it online, and it's time for everyone involved to get with the times.

John Callaway, host of WTTW's Friday Night, set the tone: "Assume for the purposes of this conversation that newspapers are dead."

There were plenty of interesting panelists -- including representatives of traditional journalism, like Callaway and Carol Marin (of the Sun-Times and NBC5 TV), online journalists like Geoff Dougherty of the ChiTown Daily News, Ben Goldberger of The Huffington Post, and Andrew Huff of Gapers Block, as well as numerous journalism experts. What I found more interesting, however, was the number of people participating from the audience who are actively working right now to bridge the gap between the old model of news delivery and the new. Some examples:

• the audience member who went from being a member of the Tribune's advertising sales staff to being an independent blogger.


• the CEO of Dawdle, who reminded everyone that it's all about advertising, and pointed to some of his favorite places to advertise, which are online and profitable and right here in Chicago: Ars Technica and Pitchfork.


• Brad Flora, of the Windy Citizen who talked about how his "Digg for Chicago" site has now attracted the attention of other cities . . . .


• panelist Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune, who has been working assiduously to integrate the print and online (blog, Facebook, etc.) versions of his journalism . . . . During the event he was monitoring Twitter feeds and helped identify audience members who had interesting things to say.

There is no doubt that Chicago is already a powerhouse in online news.  The way the transition to fully online news delivery (and other publishing) plays out in the months and years ahead will be one of the most exciting facets of the business scene in Chicago.

A final word: Hats off to town hall moderator (and sponsor) Ken Davis. Ken and his wife put this event together as private citizens, and did a great job of guiding the conversation.

Joe Scarry is head project manager for Chicago Joomla web developer and web design firm Arc Technology Group.