The next likemind will be Friday, May 21, 2010 in dozens of cities around the world.

In Chicago, it will be at Argo Tea, 140 S Dearborn St. at the corner of Adams and Dearborn Streets in the Loop from 8:00 am to 10:00 am.

I call likemind a gathering of creative-minded people, from various disciplines including Internet, advertising, art, social media, et. al. For more information on likemind, you can read this great article on likemind from the New York Times.

No RSVP is required. You are also welcome to join the likemind Chicago Facebook group.

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The next Chicago ExpressionEngine Meetup will be on Tuesday, May 18, at OfficePort Chicago in the Loop. During the first Meetup the idea of "opening the books" and sharing our work in EE was discussed. We now have our first volunteer for what will certainly be a lively discussion and learning experience for all.

Eryan Cobham of Cobwebs Consulting will be subjecting himself to a "code review" by the group for a site he is currently building using EE, and facilitating a discussion on the proper way to do accomplish certain functions in EE. Some topics may include: using extensions, URL segments, and any other questions that people may interest people.

View the details on this event and RSVP on the Meetup site. For more information and to join the group, visit the Chicago ExpressionEngine Meetup at Meetup.com.

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Last week I wrote about my being part of Age of Conversation 3, a crowdsourced book written by nearly 200 authors from around the world. Recently I was interviewed by Rick Liebling on his blog, eyecube. The interview is now posted there, and I invite you to read it and get some insight into my involvement with this project. Rick himself is an AOC3 author, and has interviewed a number of other authors, and those interviews are being posted to his blog almost daily.

Stay tuned for more information about the release of the book itself.

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Imagine a book comprising a few different themes and written by almost 200 writers. Can you? Either way I am proud to say I, Mike Maddaloni, am one of those writers in the book The Age of Conversation 3, coming soon to a bookstore near you.

As you cam tell by the title, this is the third book of its kind in this series. Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan are the curators and editors of this project. It is a truly international project, with authors from around the globe and Gavin in Australia and Drew in the US.

The central theme of AOC3 is 'It’s Time to Get Busy!' and the book is divided into 10 sections: At the coalface, Conversational branding, Influence, Getting to work, Corporate conversations, Measurement, In the boardroom, Pitching social media, Innovation and execution, Identities, friends and trusted strangers. My piece will be in the 'Getting to work' section.

The Age of Conversation 3 will be released soon - look for another post here on The Hot Iron. All profits from the sale of the book are donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Special thanks to Gav and Drew for letting me be a part of AOC3 and for all of their hard work to make it a reality!

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As a Web consultant with Dunkirk Systems, LLC, I manage domain names for my active clients. Whether it's a new domain name or one that has been registered for years, I recommend to my clients they extend the registration of their domains for several years out.

Why? There are 2 primary reasons.

The first is a domain name whose 'age' is beyond 1 year has a higher ranking than a newly registered domain name for 1 year. This comes from both computers and humans. Some search engines, namely Bing, use the age of a domain in its search results algorithm. As well, people can give more credence to an 'older' domain name if they are questioning a Web site tied to a domain name or valuing the price of a Web site and its domain name.

The second reason is administrative. If a domain name is registered for multiple years you do not have to worry about renewing it every year. Of course you should have your domain name registered with a reliable and ICANN-approved registrar or through a domain name reseller like Dunkirk who does so and monitors your domain names as well.

You can register a domain name for up to 10 years in advance, why not do so? If you have any questions on domain names, feel free to comment here or contact me at Dunkirk directly.

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