Alexandra Samuel's blog | Social Signal

Today we're releasing the budget estimating template we use to generate cost estimates and project plans for The Concept Jam. We use similar templates for all our budgeting processes, so we expect that the attached template will be relevant to a wide range of budget, estimating and project planning needs. Whether you're a social media agency (like us) or in an entirely different sector and service industry, these files and notes can help you define or refine your estimating and project management system.

Rob and I have been together for 12 years this month, but I still remember what it's like to get over a previous love. Back in the day when there was a little more turnover in my love life, I found that moving on to a new relationship wasn't enough to cure the heartache of a breakup. It wasn't until I was two breakups removed that I'd really get over a previous love and stop thinking about him altogether.

I'm wondering if the same might be true of social web sites. I've loved delicious, the social bookmarking site, for almost five years now.

Two months ago, Rob and I decided to refocus Social Signal on social media capacity building. We recognized that we have the most impact -- and the most fun -- delivering the workshops, training and content that helps organizations find and realize their social opportunities. And we decided that one way to help build social media capacity was to open source our consulting practice, even though we didn't know what that would mean for our business.

Twitter lists have been around for all of one week and already there is a site that exists to make a list of lists. So I am hereby inaugurating my new Twitter destination site, consisting of this one page, on which I will offer a definitive list of the lists of Twitter lists.

Listerfluous: the list of the lists of Twitter lists

1. Listorious
2. Read Write Web's 10 Twitter Lists You Should Follow

The following post appeared in The Mark News earlier this week.

When I was a kid I had the shortest hair of any girl in my class because my mum couldn't face the hassle of hair maintenance. As soon as I got old enough to take care of it myself, I grew my hair as long as possible, and by the time I graduated from university it reached halfway down my back. Then I got my first real job and needed a grown-up look, so I gritted my teeth and asked for a modest trim. Instead, my stylist sheared me back to my ear-baring elementary school years, and I left the salon in an emotional state usually reserved for breakups and natural disasters.

That trauma led to an important discovery: hair grows back.

We love the Concept Jam workshop for what happens in the room, as people get excited about the possibilities for social media in their organizations and their own work. And we love taking what happens in the room and teasing out the ideas and mashing them up with what we know ourselves until we can deliver a really varied, exciting set of options.

The incredible reaction to Open SoSi got me thinking about my proposed panel for SXSW, Are you smarter than a social media expert? As originally conceived, this panel asked:

Is there such a thing as a social media expert? What do they bring to the table? The experts will defend their titles (or admit their limitations) against challengers from the audience and the online world.

We were delighted to see that Tamsyn Burgmann's article on social media career opportunities -- featuring Alex, Channing and TheBigWild.org's Theo Lamb --  ran in the Toronto Star yesterday. And we were even more delighted to get this lovely message from a Toronto Star reader Rhea Claus:

Day one of Open SoSi, and it's already in the news as a potential resource for professionals starting out in social media.

Today's Canadian Press article by Tamsyn Burgmann, Companies seek social media experts to keep online conversation rolling, includes the following reference to our newly open-sourced materials: