I created the Woodsongs.com website years ago, and have worked with Michael Jonathon and many volunteers to help with the web traffic for the show. All of this hard work, but specially the insanely good talent from the musicians, has made it one of the most important media exports from the state of Kentucky.

And now we turn around and find that they are almost to their 500th broadcast. If you want an example of TRUE social networking, authentic media, and what can happen when you remove greed, paranoia, and selfishness from art, check them out (and follow them on Twitter.)

If you’re part of the Lexington Ad Club or just interested in the new marketing scene, I hope to see you on July 16th when I present:

Conversations, Control and Calamities - A Social Media Snapshot

From their site:
Join us on Wednesday, July 16 as guest speaker Scott Clark helps us explore the emerging world of social media marketing and find out exactly what this powerful medium looks like in our everyday business lives, and more importantly, what impact this new communication tactic will have for our customers’ overall advertising and marketing strategies.

Date: Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Location: The Signature Club of Lansdowne (enter through the front door)
Networking: 11-11:30 a.m.
Buffet Luncheon: 11:30-12 p.m.
Program: 12-1:00 p.m.

Active Members (prepaid lunch): $0
Active Members and Students: $20
Potential Members: $35

Register here.

Those of you planning to attend are invited to post comments here about topics you’re particularly interested in. My presentation slides will be posted afterward for downloading.

I just got around to reading the LatLong blog where they brought my attention to the fact that Lexington is now covered by Google Street View. I wish I’d have seen the camcars.

Sure Enough, you can now tour Lexington with your trusty mouse. At here’s Main and Broadway, and below that the Main St. Library. In addition, many other areas were added as well.

MA: Springfield
NY: Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse
NJ: Newark
VA: Virginia Beach
NC: Charlotte, Winston-Salem
SC: Columbia, Greenville
GA: Atlanta
FL: Boca Raton, Cape Coral, Ft. Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Sarasota, West Palm Beach
AL: Huntsville
MS: Jackson

TN: Knoxville

KY: Lexington, Louisville
OH: Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo
MI: Ann Arbor
MO: St. Louis
KS: Topeka
NE: Lincoln
OK: Oklahoma City, Tulsa
NV: Reno

They also added more parks, which is cool if you’re planning to visit

Everglades National Park (Florida)
Florida Keys
Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming)
Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming/Montana)
Rocky Mountain National Park (Colorado)
Joshua Tree National Park (California)
Death Valley National Park (California)
Lassen Volcanic National Park (California)
Sequoia National Park (California)
Lake Tahoe (California/Nevada)

I hope you’ll indulge me a little local Lexington Kentucky bragging… Our city was ranked top 5 in Forbes’ “Best Places for Business and Careers” for 2008. This doesn’t really surprise me. It’s also cool to revisit the heatmap generated by the Creative Class Group where the Cinci/Lou/Lex triangle glowed brightly (see below). The graphic shows how areas are feeding off of neighbors with creative class attributes (which explains Seattle’s lack of a glow.)

The top 5 on the Forbes list were

• Raleigh, N.C.
• Boise, ID
• Fort Collins, CO
• Des Moins, IA
• Lexington, KY

(more…)

Up from 30th, nice to see.

An interesting study comes from CCSU

Drawing from a variety of available data resources, the America’s Most Literate Cities study ranks the 69 largest cities (population 250,000 and above) in the United States. This study focuses on six key indicators of literacy: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and Internet resources.

Here are the first 30…

City	Overall Rank 2007	06 Rank	05 Rank
Minneapolis, MN	1	2	2
Seattle, WA	2	1	1
St. Paul, MN	3	5	9.5
Denver, CO	4	8	6
Washington, DC	5	3.5	3
St. Louis, MO	6	12	15
San Francisco, CA	7	9	5
Atlanta, GA	8	3.5	4
Pittsburgh, PA	9	6	8
Boston, MA	10	11	7
Cincinnati, OH	11	7	9.5
Portland, OR	12	10	11
Cleveland, OH	13	14	18
Raleigh, NC	14	13	13
Kansas City, MO	15	17	14
Tulsa, OK	16	19.5	24.5
Lexington-Fayette, KY	17	30	27.5
Honolulu CDP, HI	18	22	35
Nashville-Davidson, TN	19	18	17
Tampa, FL	20	21	24.5
Columbus, OH	21	15	12
Miami, FL	22	23	27.5
Austin, TX	23	16	16
Virginia Beach, VA	24	27	41
Sacramento, CA	25	28	22
Charlotte, NC	26	19.5	20
Baltimore, MD	27	24	21
New York City, NY	28	42	32.5
Indianapolis, IN	29	29	23
Colorado Springs, CO	30	33.5	19