Jared W. Smith

At Tuesday’s co-working session, I talked about a few of the basics of HTML and CSS (as best as I could within two hours, that is). One of the focal points of the session was the importance of laying a strong foundation for a well-built Web page via semantic HTML that strictly separates content from presentation. We also walked through building a quick-and-dirty page with HTML and CSS while keeping focused on the importance of semantics and standards.

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I was fortunate to give a session about research in the age of the real-time Web yesterday at the College of Charleston’s Addlestone Library as part of the library’s LITE series of technology seminars. Here are my notes from yesterday’s session, with links to other goodies as well.

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Last Friday, I got the opportunity to speak as part of a panel at AdFed U, a series of educational seminars for businesses and marketing professionals put on by the Advertising Federation of Charleston. The panel included Caroline Nuttall, the publisher of CHARLIE Magazine who spoke on online advertising, and Lyn Mettler, Web strategist and fellow SMC Charleston steering committee member who spoke about leveraging social media. My presentation focused on SEO — but rather than talk about ways to bolt SEO techniques onto sites, I really focused on the need for well-structured, well-written content combined with standards-compliant code and a content management system to keep things organized and straight.

We had ten minutes to talk (and I know I went over!), so this presentation scratches the surface of the surface on the topic. It’s geared — as best as I can! — to a non-technical audience, so the geeks of the audience may be disappointed. If you have any questions or comments about my presentation, please feel free to leave a comment on this post. Thanks to AdFed Charleston for the opportunity to be a part of what is an excellent series. Follow AdFedCharleston on Twitter to keep up with future seminars and events.

Saturday is the second annual CREATE South conference in Myrtle Beach. The free one-day conference focuses on self-expression through new media, and puts a huge emphasis on teaching and learning. CREATE is for everybody with an interest in new media or self-expression using technology, regardless of skill level. Everybody stands to benefit. It’s not too late to get registered — and it’s free!

There are four tracks — writing, making media, art, and creating community. I’ll be leading a discussion at 2:20 in the community track about the viral nature of social networks and how you can leverage it for newsgathering, organizing events, and just plain making jokes. Afterward, I’ll be sitting on a panel along with Dan Tennant, Heather Solos, and Raymond Owens from WCBD about how we’re able to intersect technology with gatherings in “real life” (so to speak).

I’m looking forward to CREATE and hope to see many of you there!

I’ve got yet another Independent Bloggers’ Conference video! This video is the talk I gave that gives a more overall look at Charleston Weather, along with some nuggets about how I think it fits into the current media landscape.

Apologies for the audio — it’s further proof I need to invest in a better camera. :)

I had a wonderful time at ConvergeSouth and the impromptu but rabidly successful (at least in my mind) Independent Bloggers’ Conference this weekend. I’ll have a full recap post in the next day or so after I drive back from Greensboro, but here’s my demonstration of Charleston Weather from Saturday’s sessions, which was a fun and loose workshop with really cool questions from the crowd and a couple mishaps (because when you DO IT LIVE, sometimes things go wrong). Many thanks to Patrick for taping in high definition (and boo on iMovie for weirding it out a bit; this upload will be replaced by something a bit better soon).