The Tuesday, May 12th meeting of the Rocky Mountain Internet Users Group (RMIUG)
will discuss "Searching the Social Network: The Future of Internet Search?"

The pervasiveness of Internet social communities is astounding. In particular,
the growth of two of the most popular tools, Twitter, the micro-blogging
platform, and Facebook, the social networking juggernaut, have been the
technology story over the last 12 months. According to Quantcast, Twitter's
traffic has more than doubled from 6 million to 15 million visitors in the last
MONTH alone. Facebook is also on a tear with more than 200 million active users,
more than 100 million of which log in every day at least once. There are also
reports of Facebook adding users at a pace of 1 million a day. To say that the
space is growing is an understatement.

These staggering statistics demonstrate how the masses are increasingly engaging
with these tools. These aren't just check-it-out-once-and-leave type of sites.
These are becoming part of people's daily habit like reading the newspaper used
to be or email is today. And the amount of content that is being created around
it is staggering.

What is also clear is that users increasingly use these tools to filter their
Internet. Just like "classic" search engines, these tools bring you relevant
information. The big difference is that you are getting it from people you know
and trust. Trying to find a mechanic for your BMW? Would you rather Google tell
you which ones to go to or your friends in your neighborhood. The marriage of
search within a social network is extraordinarily powerful.

During the next meeting we will explore search and social communities. We will
begin to understand how social communities work and how they can be married with
search to provide different or (maybe) better results.

Our Speakers:
Alessio Signorini (alessio.signorini@...) is currently the Director of
Search Technology at OneRiot, a Boulder based social search engine that finds
the pulse of the web by prioritizing information based on its current popularity
among the social websites. Prior to OneRiot, Alessio was a Director of
Technology for Ask.com, one of the largest search engines on the Internet.
Alessio is finalizing the completion of his PhD in Computer Science from the
University of Iowa.

Links:
OneRiot: http://www.oneriot.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com

The meeting is Tuesday, May 12th from 7:00 - 9:00 pm (with optional 6:30 pm
start for refreshments and informal networking). The meeting will be held at The
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) at 1850 Table Mesa Drive in
Boulder. To get to NCAR from the Boulder Turnpike (US 36) or Broadway (US 93),
take Table Mesa Drive west towards the mountains for approximately 2.5 miles
into the foothills. NCAR is at the top of the hill. For door-to-door driving
directions, go to MapQuest (http://www.mapquest.com/), click on Driving
Directions, enter your starting address, NCAR's address, and voila! Park in the
NCAR lot, go in the main door, and ask the guard to point you to meeting, which
is held in the main auditorium, right off the lobby. The meeting is free and
open to the public, but we may pass the hat to help defray expenses.

Our meeting location seats about 120 people. That is usually enough room to
accommodate all attendees, but it's impossible for us to predict how many people
will show up for any given meeting. Seating is always on a first-come, first
serve basis, and in the event of more attendees than seats, we won't be able to
admit additional people into the auditorium after all seats are filled.

Thanks to our three sponsors who help make RMIUG meetings happen:
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MicroStaff (www.microstaff.com) which provides Creative and Technical talent for
Web, Interactive Media, Marketing Communications and Software Development
projects, is the sponsor of food and beverages for RMIUG meetings.
ONEWARE (http://www.ONEWARE.com) -- a Colorado-based software company that
provides semi-custom web-based applications, sponsors the RMIUG meeting minutes.
Copy Diva (http://www.copydiva.com) which provides marketing project management,
marketing communications consulting, and web content development is the AV
sponsor for RMIUG.

Consultants and companies are invited to bring Internet-related Product
information, brochures, and business cards which will be displayed on an
information table.

There are email mailing lists set up for this group. To subscribe or
unsubscribe, see http://www.rmiug.org/maillist.html. You can also reach the
RMIUG "Executive" Committee at rmiug-comm@.... Our web site is at
http://www.rmiug.org/

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Please note that RMIUG is hosted at NCAR and we are their guests. NCAR has
security regulations in effect that we must follow in order to use the facility.
If any RMIUG attendee is unwilling to follow these simple regulations, I would
ask that he or she not attend and instead read the minutes after the meeting.

Here are the NCAR security policies that must be followed:

1. No weapons.
2. Must sign in at front desk and provide name.
3. Cooperate with security folks including providing ID if requested.
4. We are guests of NCAR so cooperation and courtesy are expected when dealing
with NCAR staff.

If there are any questions or concerns with this policy, please contact me
directly.
Thanks, Josh Zapin (josh@...).
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