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Shel Israel is launching his new book, Twitterville, in Canada at Third Tuesday meetups in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.

Three years ago, Shel co-authored Naked Conversations with Robert Scoble. Naked Conversations was a must-read book in 2006. It captured the zeitgeist of the blogosphere.

Now Shel Israel is back with Twitterville, his look at Twitter and how it is being used by people and organizations to connect, play, share, create community, organize…. You name it and we’re finding a way to do it on Twitter.

Shel was the very first speaker at the inaugural Third Tuesday in 2006. So, launching Twitterville at Third Tuesday is like Shel coming home.

I had a chance to read an early draft of Twitterville. It’s a great read. Packed with interesting stories of real people using Twitter today. It drove home to me that we are still in early days of understanding the implications of social media and applying the new technologies to achieve the things we want to do. And it sparked my imagination, giving me ideas about how I can use Twitter and other social media in my own business and life.

A word about admission

We're asking attendees to pay a $10 admission fee to reserve a space at this month's Third Tuesday. When we introduced this fee at the June Third Tuesday Toronto and Third Tuesday Ottawa, we dramatically reduced the no-show rate. Having an accurate sense of how many people will attend helps the event venue to have just the right number of staff for our event.

You can pay in advance either using the Paypal button on the registration page or, if you have joined Zoompass, by zooming $9.50 to Joseph Thornley at (613) 866-5132. (Disclosure: Zoompass is a Thornley Fallis client.)

The admission fee will be refunded to any students who present their student card at the registration desk.

Get a copy of Twitterville signed by Shel

Registered Third Tuesday attendees have a chance to get a copy of the book for only $10 plus your Third Tuesday admission. Even better, Shel will sign each of these books prior to the event and include a personal message for each person who has pre-ordered the book.

If you'd like to take advantage of this offer, zoom $10 to Joseph Thornley at 613-866-5132 using Zoompass. (Write "Twitterville Toronto" in the note section.) I'll order a book for you and Shel will have it ready for you at the event with a personal message

Thank you to our sponsors

We’re able to bring Shel to cities across Canada thanks to the support of our Third Tuesday sponsors:

CNW Group, our founding sponsor;

Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, who are providing accommodation for Shel;

Molson Canada, whose use of social media Shel has profiled in Twitterville;

Rogers Communications, whose network provides us with both landline and mobile Internet access; and

Radian6, who provide us with the tools we need to monitor and measure social media.

Thanks to each of these sponsors, Shel’s Canadian book launch will be just the first of several exciting initiatives we’re planning for the coming year.

Nora Young is fascinated by how people adopt and apply technology in their lives. And she share her passion every week on CBC Radio One's Spark. In fact, the program has been so well received that the corporation recently announced that it will be lengthened to an hour in the autumn.

But Nora's Spark isn't just a radio program. It's also a much listened-to podcast that can be listened to at any time. And it's a blog which offers subscribers a chance to listen to the complete interviews that are edited to fit into the broadcast program and podcast. Even more, it's a blog where Nora and her production team solicit community input on story ideas that they're developing. And of course, it's also a Twitter ID that Nora and the team use to tell people about what's happening with Spark and to have conversations with them.

Nora is truly the new generation of broadcaster. As the traditional model tumbles down, as newspapers are closed, as television stations are closed and as radio budgets are cut, one thing is for sure. Nora Young will be using the media that her community has migrated to.

Nora will be our speaker at Third Tuesday Toronto on June 23. She'll be sharing with us the lessons she's learned from her journey into social media. What were the bumps? How did she overcome them? What has been most successful? Where does she see things going in the future?

If you're interested in celebrating the potential of new media and talking with someone who is showing how to bridge traditional media and social media, join us on June 23.

As always, thank you to our sponsors: Our founding sponsor, CNW Group has been joined by the Berkeley Heritage Event Venue to help us make this event possible. Thank you to our sponsors. We couldn't do Third Tuesday without you.

Would you take a 60% reduction in your salary in order to keep your company alive? The President of b5media, Jeremy Wright, would - and has.

In the first heady days of blogging, every conference and gathering of bloggers would echo the question: "How do I monetize my blog?" One answer was to join a blog network - harnessing the power of a single advertising sales team to place ads on your blog along with other blogs in the network.

b5media is a pioneer in testing and reshaping the blog network model. In its four year life (so far), it has evolved substantially - evolved in terms of what it presents, how it attracts and compensates bloggers and how it packages and sells the advertising opportunities.

Now, the recession is hitting advertising budgets and advertising sales - hard. Traditional media has been first to take a hit. We`ve seen newspapers disappear and television stations close. But online media outlets have not escaped. And b5media has been hit as hard as anyone.

So, Jeremy and his management team developed a survival plan. Jeremy took a salary cut to just above minimum wage. Other senior executives left the company. All in the name of preserving the core publishing platform to grow again when post-recession budgets are restored.

That takes guts. And it takes belief in a vision - a vision not only for a company but for the entire sector.

What is that vision and belief that caused Jeremy Wright and his executive team to choose the course they did? Well, come to the next Third Tuesday Toronto to find out.

As always, a big thank you to CNW Group, who continue to sponsor Third Tuesdays everywhere.

Measurement expert Katie Paine will be in Toronto speaking this week. But she's also said that she'd like to get together in a less formal setting with Toronto's social media community.

So, we're organizing a special Third Tuesday Tweetup with Katie Paine.

How is this different from a regular Third Tuesday?

Well, we'll have dinner in addition to our usual mixing and mingling. And instead of a presentation, Katie will suggest one or more topics that we can discuss as a group. For example, she's already suggested we take a look at a recent proposal for an online Advertising Potential Value.

So, this session will be for those who want to dive deep into social media measurement.

Finally, because we have such a limited number of spaces, we really want to eliminate "no shows." So, we're charging a $20 admission fee for the event - payable in advance through PayPal. All people who attend will receive a $15 refund on their admission fee. Past experience has demonstrated that a simple admission fee of this sort virtually eliminates no shows, making sure that no seat goes unfilled while others who'd like to attend find themselves on a wait list.

So, in order to hold reserve a place, please click on the Pay with Paypal link when RSVPing that you do intend to attend and prepay the $20 registration fee. We will not be able to hold seats for anyone who does not prepay.

How does a social media startup not just survive, but continue to grow in the current economic conditions? Carol Leaman, the CEO of AideRSS, the company behind PostRank, will tell us how at Third Tuesday Toronto on February 17.

AideRSS' PostRank algorithm helps publishers fine tune their content to their readers' interests. And it helps readers figure out which posts have generated the most interest and engagement. A good shortcut to find the posts you really need to read when you have only limited time.

Just before Christmas, the company announced that it had closed a second round of financing. This was followed in January by an announcement that the company is expanding its service to offer feed analytics for online content publishers. A competitor to Feedburner!

On February 17, Carol will provide the business perspective on the PostRank story. What does it take for a startup to survive and thrive in this environment? What does it take to nail down a second round of funding when investors are running for the hills? How does a company build a business around social media and feed analytics?

So, if you're interested in gaining some insight into how a company can find an opportunity in social media, develop a technology that meets a real need and and monetize it, this should be an interesting session.

As always over the past two years, thanks are due to our national sponsor, CNWGroup, whose support keeps Third Tuesday a free community-based event.