This comes care of a2geeks, I though I would pass it along:

Don’t miss this global event happening in cities around the world on Friday!

http://openeverything.wik.is/Ann_Arbor

Open Everything: Ann Arbor is a one-night ‘unconference’ bringing together people interested or involved in applying the principles of openness, transparency, and collaboration to the businesses, organizations, and networks we are a part of. It’s far more than a discussion around technology and software; it’s a conversation about the community in which we want to live and the ways in which we want to get there.

Come. Be a part of this discussion. Share your thoughts on how you are making or want to make Ann Arbor, Lansing, Flint, Detroit, or any other community you’re a part of a better place to be because of the value you and others place on sharing, transparency, access to information and resources, and collaboration. We look forward to seeing you there as we chart the trajectory of ‘open’ here in Ann Arbor and beyond.

Please resister for the even to help us plan appropriate orders of food and so that you get a nifty nametag, http://openeverythingannarbor.eventbrite.com/

Event Details:
date: Friday, October 30th, 2009
time: 5:30pm – 9:00pm (registration and casual conversation begins at 4:30pm)
location: U-M East Hall – 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI. (3rd floor terrace of Psychology Dept.)
refreshments: Light refreshments and cold drinks available throughout the evening from Tranche de Vie.

Event Format:
After registration, members of the Open.Michigan Initiative, The University of Michigan Copyright Office, the Scholarly Publishing Office, and Creative Commons will welcome you to the evening. After this brief introduction the event will follow a BarCamp style where participants self-organize around topics they propose.

Event Topics:
Individuals from a spectrum of community initiatives, including technology, entrepreneurship, local food, education, etc will propose topics on anything from Open Government and Open Educational Resources to Open Spaces, Open Licensing, and Open Source Software. We will update this topic listing as people share what they’re interested in discussing. If you have a proposal you want to share, contact us using the form in the right navigation.

A Tentative Schedule:
4:30pm – 5:30pm – Event Registration and Topic Proposal in 3rd floor Terrace of East Hall
5:30pm – 5:45pm – Welcome and Introduction
5:45pm – 6:00pm – Additional Topic Proposals
6:00pm – 6:40pm – First Session – multiple breakouts based on topics
6:45pm – 7:25pm – Second Session – multiple breakouts based on topics
7:30pm – 8:10pm – Third Session – multiple breakouts based on topics
8:15pm – 8:55pm – Fourth Session – multiple breakouts based on topics
8:55pm – 9:00pm – Thanks and move the discussion to a nearby bar.

Other Logistics:

parking: Parking is available on Church Street as well as on nearby cross streets. There is also ramp parking in the Forest Street Parking Structure at Forest and Willard. There are also plenty of places to lock a bike and also a variety of AATA and Campus Blue buses that will get you near.

people: We want to see as diverse a crowd as possible sharing as many diverse perspectives on the theme as possible. So, tell as many people as possible about the event – especially those people in your social and professional circles.
hosting: This event is hosted by the Open.Michigan Initiative, a project in the University of Michigan Medical School’s Office of Enabling Technologies.

costumes: Feel free to test out your Saturday night Halloween costume at the event.

–Matt

From the Great Lakes IT Report:

Although most technology executives do not feel Michigan is an ideal place to start or grow a business, their opinions are not simply a reaction to the economic conditions in the state, according to a survey conducted by the University of Michigan-Dearborn’s iLabs, Automation Alley and the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The second annual Michigan Technology Climate Survey assessed opinions of technology executives in southeast Michigan regarding the current business climate facing Michigan’s technology firms. This past spring, the survey queried 96 executives from Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne counties.

“The results indicate that executives believe there are structural issues — at the state level — that hinder technology growth,” according to Timothy Davis, director of iLabs, also known as the Center of Innovative Research at UM-Dearborn’s College of Business.

Consistent with last year’s results, this year’s survey found that 63 percent of executives say the business climate for technology firms in Michigan is worse than the rest of the country.

(Emphasis mine.)

Despite this, however, the study found that the majority of executives surveyed lead “stable firms” with 71% planning to either maintain or expand their workforce.

I recommend reading the whole article here.

–Matt

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), according to its website, is “the nation’s consumer protection agency” and “works for the consumer to prevent fraud, deception, and unfair business practices in the marketplace.”  To that end, the FTC publishes a number of resource guides to help businesses comply with federal law and FTC regulations.  One such guide is the Guide Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials which attempts to draw a line between “endorsements” (which must always reflect the honest opinion of the endorser) and pure “advertisements” or other non-endorsements (which do not have to comply with endorsement guidelines).  The Endorsement Guide provides examples of what does and does not constitute “endorsements” by consumers, experts, and organizations, and addresses when and how to disclose any material connection between the endorser and the marketer of the product.

The FTC has now updated the Endorsement Guide, which was last updated in 1980, to extend it to viral marketers, bloggers, and personalities on social-media sites like Facebook and Twitter.  The new rules essentially hold these “new media” outlets to the same standards, and the same liability for false statements, as traditional media outlets.  The new Guide covers such things as paid blog reviews, blog reviews where a product has been provided to the blogger for free (the receipt of which would have to be disclosed), advertisers interacting on message boards (who would have to disclose their relationship to the product manufacturer), and so-called “street teams” (who would also have to disclose their relationship to the advertising agency).

The Consumer Collective blog has a nice rundown of the new rules and how to comply.

–Matt