What's New In Nerd World

There's lots of excitement in the air if you're me--cool new tools, ongoing blogger drama and an awesome conference coming up:

Google Wave--basically "a new tool for communication and collaboration on the web" that apparently originated from the question "“What might e-mail look like if it were invented today?” I'm having trouble wrapping my head around it so I'm not even going to try; all I know is I hate Gmail so I'm not having much faith in Google to re-invent email.

Microsoft Bing--Microsoft is throwing $80 million on the table to try to unseat Google in the search engine category. I personally hate it, sight-unseen, since a) it's Microsoft and b) it's being billed as a "decision engine." Thanks Big Brother Microsoft but I like to make my own decisions. If you're curious, enjoy this preview from when it was still being called by its code name, Kumo.

Bloggers beware--new FTC guidelines affecting sponsored posts are coming later this summer.

Buzz 2009--social media for associations--was just announced today. I'm psyched that there's finally going to be a conference that goes beyond association social media 101. Not to mention that my friends Lindy Dreyer and Maddie Grant are at the helm. I'm also psyched because the king of blog ethics, Andy Sernovitz, will be there (the guy quoted in the FTC article above), as will Guy Kawasaki, who is lucky enough to be rubbing shoulders with my new goddess, The Bloggess, as I write this post.

Guy and the Bloggess (aka "Jenny" ) are right this moment embarked on the USS Nimitz, a Navy ship. I don't really get the whole thing--it's apparently an effort on the part of the Navy to embrace social media and blogging. Read/listen to this for more information about the trip; all I know is it's awesome because, while Robert Scoble and Charlene Li are super-serious social media dieties, The Bloggess is busy tweeting about sex toys and vlogging about how much xanax she'll be bringing on the trip.

The USS Nimitz trip basically illustrates, in a nutshell, why I'm obsessed with social media: because in social media world it's not only acceptable but totally desirable to be as kick-ass as you want to be. In what other context would the Navy be inviting the girl who pitched the idea "Captain Hookers"--on a very serious, super top-secret mission with very serious, super-smart business people? In social media world, though--you watch. I guarantee you that girl will emerge from that ship with a big huge book deal as good as done and will eventually have a show on HBO and be rich and famous. I'm. Telling. You.