Topic: Social Networks and Networking

So it's been a couple weeks since our last podcast, but Jeff & Joel are back and ready to catch up on everything they missed. There's no guest this week, just 60+ minutes of that Jeff & Joel banter that (we hope) you've grown to love.

Joining Jeff and Joel this week is Michael Natkin, from our Cooking.SE site. Michael is especially interesting because he is a computer programmer, but he doesn't answer questions at Stack Overflow, only on the Cooking site (he's our first guest to do so!) - he also writes over at Herbivoracious (which he started back in 2007).

Twitter co-founder Evan Williams describes the revenue model for their newly launched Promoted suite of products. Hear Williams' views about the Twitter fire hose as well as integration and data sharing with Facebook. Addressed also are commercial viability and safety for third party developers who invest in developing products with the Twitter API. Williams also answers interviewer John Battelle's questions about finance, stock, and other compelling issues concerning the Twitter social media website. Includes a Q&A with the audience.

Twitter filters billions of messages, and uses quite a few systems and tools to make that data flow. Jeremy Cole, founder of Proven Scaling, discusses the MySQL software used by Twitter, as well as many challenges Twitter faces with massive data storage. He also presents technical facts, figures, and solutions that the site uses to run smoothly.

Jeff & Joel are joined this week by Jin Yang - our resident web/graphic designer here at Stack (the distinction between the two becomes a discussion point). Once we get the proper picture of Jin in the chatroom, he relates everything from his background in design to how he ended up at Stack Exchange and our philosiphy behind design.

Maps tell stories: track Japan after the tsunami or the Gulf oil spill through time. Jack Dangermond, the president of Esri, talks about and demonstrates ArcGIS.com's new cloud-based GIS computing and intelligent web maps. These two innovations are allowing end users to create their own maps using GIS software online with any device. The Esri cloud will store and share map creations online in real-time, integrating geospatial science and technology into our everyday lives.

With each new social network, it seems social media becomes more important. With a lot of competition for our attention, effective user experience is critical. Erin Malone says we must focus on how people first interact with our designs, then carefully help them flow from one stage of participation to the next. Erin describes clear patterns that help social services ease people on board and encourage them to interact with others.

Last year at F8, a conference for developers in social media, Facebook announced Open Graph, a platform that enabled people to connect to objects and URI's on the Web. This year, Justin Shaffer briefs the Where 2.0 audience about how Facebook plans to enhance user experience by leveraging location and temporal data access in its new product "Facebook Places." Shaffer expounds on the technical differences in the way that "events" and "places" are handled by the new Open Graph API.

"Incumbents, Attackers, and Disruptors" are accelerating mobile Internet development. The ability to gain market share through innovation and motivating shoppers will sort winners from losers in the smartphone market, according to Mary Meeker. Currently, mobile Internet adoption is accelerating because of the demands of modern life, while angles such as flash sales and virtual goods are opportunities still not fully exploited.

This week, Jeff and Joel are joined by Rory Blyth (with no 'e' as he is very insistent) fresh off his move to a new house in Portland, OR. Check out as Rory leads a rambling conversation from Will Smith movies to iPhone development to some awesome new Stack Overflow features!