The multi-talented, very lovely, and entirely digital Julia Roy.

What do you do for a living?

I am Senior Agent of Social Life™ at Undercurrent, a digital think tank in Soho NYC. I help create, build and manage the social presence of brands online.

How did you get started with Undercurrent?

I became fascinated with blogs and online communities like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Second Life, etc after graduating college, and I began spending a lot of time in those spaces to better understand why so many people were spending so much time interacting with each other there.

What’s the funniest moment you’ve experienced on the internet?

I have to say that the funniest moments have been when my mom comments on the content I post online. She leaves comments on my blog, flickr photos and Facebook status updates and sometimes she is totally ridiculous. Completely embarrassing sometimes, but totally awesome. I’ll give you an example: http://twitpic.com/49c9d

How did you find Disqus?

Through Disqus’s very own beloved Giannii, who was actually someone I hired at Undercurrent to work remotely for a few projects when I first started at Undercurrent.

What one feature you do enjoy using on Disqus?

That you can integrate it into your Tumblr blog so that people can actually leave comments. Before Disqus that was not possible and it is so baller.

Where do you see blogging and comments in the next 5 years?

I see being a good commenter is going to be just as valuable and respected as being a good blogger. I believe that you won’t have to have your own blog to be influential in the blogosphere.

Why do you blog?

It is a place for me to get my thoughts down and archive them. To be honest, I don’t care if anyone reads my posts (in fact, it might be better if no one did;).

Any projects that you’re working on you would like to talk about?

The Fiesta Movement, which is a project that Undercurrent is working on with JWT and Ford. 100 drivers have been given a Ford Fiesta for 6 months with free gas, insurance, parking and concierge. In return each driver must complete 1 mission a month and document their experience via YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, blogging, etc. The drivers just got their cars and will be completing mission and uploading content for the next six months. It is going to be a wild ride. Watch the Agents activity on the Fiesta Movement site: http://fiestamovement.com

You can learn more about Julia from her website, twitter, and Disqus profile.

We truly have one of the best online communities for many reasons but in specific because of all our volunteer translators. Every language translated on Disqus was done by our users. We’ve added support for several new languages, revised a few, and have a couple more on the way.

New languages: Norwegian, Polish, Greek, Icelandic, Hungarian, Czech, Estonian, and Ukrainian.

Revised languages: Turkish, German, Lithuanian, French, Danish, Dutch, Spanish, and Latvian.

Huge thanks to all our translators! In this round:

Kenneth Kvalvik, Martin Michálek, Jonathan Belgourari, István Talmácsi, Hannes Heinsar, Andreas Ioannides, Konstantin Klein, Eivind Uggedal, Saner Apaydın, Степанович Евгений, Jordi Soler, Sindri Bergmann, Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, Vladas Palubinskas, Alexey Volkow, Joakim Jardenberg, Peter Stuifzand, Wojciech Usarzewicz, Michael Juul Christoffersen, and N.R.

Thanks also to David Jean Louis for his excellent polib library, which made possible our new web-based translator interface.

How do I change the language options for my site?

You can set the language for your DISQUS site by visiting http://disqus.com/admin/settings/. As before, our translations are only for the embedded DISQUS content on your page, and won’t work with the Wordpress plugin.

If you’d like to volunteer to help us translate (Chinese, anyone?), email translation@disqus.com. We are always looking to support more languages!

Cheers,

Chris Brogan advises businesses on the use of social media tools and strategies to build communities, improve business relationships, and communicate effectively.

When you were a kid, what did you dream of becoming?

A superhero. No, really. But then, I wasn’t very dedicated, so I wanted to be a writer. I am now.

Have you had any bad dreams lately? If so what was it and why was it bad?

I dream of sharks and water a great deal. I saw Jaws when I was six (don’t ask: I *begged* my parents). I think it’s lived with me ever since. In October, I’ll enter a shark cage. We’ll see how THAT changes things.

What do you do for a living and do you enjoy it?

I’m a typist. More officially, I run a small new marketing agency called New Marketing Labs. I love it to death. I can’t stand NOT doing my job

What first got you on the internet?

Connecting with humans. I love the Internet because it connects me to you.

What first turned you onto Disqus?

I love the idea of setting my community’s comments free to the web to be discovered. That’s so brilliant. I love how many features you add to the platform. If you’d have told me that comment TECHNOLOGY was important, I’d have laughed. But no, you’ve converted me.

If you were to ask for one feature what would it be and why?

I’d want to be able to one-click promote a comment to a full fledged blog post (in review mode), and then be able to publish it as a comment with appropriate author attribution.

What one feature would be most important to the average commenter?

I think they want to have their identity solidly known.

What feature do you enjoy the most?

I love the threaded replies and the LIKE feature.

Any fun plans for the future we should know about?

I have a book coming out in August. Is that fun?

If you would like to learn more about Chris and the book visit his website or check out his Twitter.

Oh! One last thing! Chris is also shaving his hair off for charity. Here is a link with more details.

Cheers,

Chi.mp gives you your own domain (.mp) and Web site – your social hub:  With chi.mp, you can bring together the many pieces of your digital life – your content, your contacts – to create “Centralized You”. And you control “who sees what”.

Think of it as your “ownership platform”. With chi.mp, you own your domain, your content and your contacts. You own your identity.

Today Chi.mp integrated Disqus globally throughout their system for comments and it’s pretty easy to setup.

• Login to your chi.mp account
• Click Settings
• Click Site Settings
• Enter your Disqus “shortname” ie: shortname.disqus.com
  If you do not have a Disqus account visit disqus.com/start
• Click Save Site Settings

Cheers,

Rob Blatt blogs about podcasting, technology, audio, and life with three dogs

How did you get started online?

In 1994 my parents bought a Hayes modem and signed the family up for AOL 2.5. It was when AOL was a totally walled garden and you couldn’t access the internet. While I couldn’t get on the internet, I managed to find my way to the newsgroups and have my mind blown by what was available by the computer and a phone line. When AOL upgraded their software to version 3.0, the door to the internet was opened for me and there’s been no turning back ever since.

What’s your passion in life?

What’s most important to me is telling stories that are memorable and entertain people. It was something that was passed down from my grandfather to me. He was an interesting guy.

How would you describe your show Create Consume Delete?

It’s a show about making media easier to make from the point of view of two media professionals. The longer version is that Create Consume Delete is a podcast that attempts to look at the media that we’re creating on a regular basis from a slightly scientific point of view. There are a lot of people out there that contend that if you have compelling content, then you don’t need to worry about the quality of the media. Each time you hear someone say that, I would bet you money that they aren’t the people who are doing the real work. Making quality media, whether it be audio, video or text, is a learned skill. Only once you’ve mastered those skills can you really start to focus your efforts on your content. We’re trying to help people get to the point where the media that they use on a regular basis is an extension of their creative process instead of hindering it. I’m your audio guide and Chris Cavs is your visual guide to getting there.

The idea of the show start at Social Media Camp NYC. Chris and I did a session about how quality was queen in the media hierarchy, and occasionally the queen was more important than the king (content). It was a reaction to a video by Gary Vaynerchuk, and we eventually decided to get together once a week to expand on that initial conversation.

What turned you onto Disqus?

I thought that the comment moderation in WordPress could have been easier, so I went looking for an alternative. This was also when people started talking about the merits of threaded comment system. There are a few companies that provide the technology to do so, but I liked how involved Disqus seemed to be in pushing the boundaries of what the normal conventions of a commenting system could be.

If there was one thing you could change about Disqus? What would it be?

I’d like Disqus to take the lead in blog comment ownership. Last time I checked my personal blog, whenever anyone leaves a comment on my personal blog at robblatt.com, there are five different entities that can claim to have a license to do with those comments as they please. Me, the commenter, Disqus, BackType and there’s a Creative Commons license on everything on my blog. That could get confusing to some people. If people were given the option to license their comments with a Creative Commons license, they could rest a little easier that while they might be quoted somewhere, they would be given proper attribution other people couldn’t sell their comments without first getting permission. But then again, I’m one of those extremist “Creative Commons the World” kinda guys.

I know you’re an audio guy, how would you implement audio into Disqus?

A click to record an audio comment would be a pretty rockin’ addition to Disqus. I know plenty of people who won’t use their built in cameras when they don’t feel like they are prettied up, so what better way to accommodate them than removing the video side of things and leaving the audio? As a podcaster, I see a lot of merit in this because it can finally remove the arcane system we’re using now to solicit audio feedback, which is through the phone system. I’d gladly replace that with direct sound.

Anything else you would like to add?

Yeah. I get caught up in the technology behind my sites quite a bit. I’m always looking for different ways to innovate on the WordPress platform. Something I try to never lose sight of is that everything I do is about entertaining the audience and trying to be just a little more memorable than I was the last time they looked me up. It’s important to remember that the tools that we use are just tools. It’s the people and relationships that make the longest lasting positive impressions. And that everyone should check out blattcave.com to see all the other podcasts that I’m producing or hosting.

Cheers,

Phil Campbell, a streetgeek videographer that resides in the UK.

Who is Phil Campbell?

“I’m a connector, I connect people with like minded people, respectful people, people who has taste in thing they’re passionate about.  Not just passionate people I think a lot of social media people will bang on about passion a lot. I think there are certain levels of passion…”

“I am a very complicated, multi-faceted  person and I am still figuring them out.  I am a old time geek been on the internet a long time and seen things ebb and flow and changed in their usual cycle like music does every three or four years. I am just yea just put in brackets..”

[complicated]

How did you get started on the internet?

“I ran a bulletin board system back in 98 and it was called Fun D Mental”

“I have always had this weird thing with really short names.”

“I found out about the internet through a friend of mine that said “you want to send email?”. I said “What is email?”. Keep in mind this is 1998 this is ground breaking stuff  I went from CB radio to bulletin board systems to you can send an email to anyone around the world for free.. I thought wow that cool, I’d love a piece of that.”

How did you find out about Disqus?

“One of the biggest problems that I found with um.. using comments was the shear amount of spam. A lot of people don’t recognize… What goes on behind the scenes.”

“Probably about a year ago I saw your founder (Daniel) on Seesmic and interviewed about Disqus..”

“I thought yeah this is cool, I will give it a go.”

If we were to make a feature, which should we have?

“That’s a really good question. You’ve already got the feature I wanted and that was to bring in twitter feeds, and bring in different feeds from everywhere else. I don’t know if you’ve made that fully public yet.. Oh it’s public, very cool. Then I am fully satisfied, I am quite happy. Being a typical geek that I am though, in a months time obviously things will have moved on. I will expect features implemented Giannii but absolutely that was my only feature I really wanted.”

“One of the things with comments is and the thing that has moved on in social media. You have all these wonderful conversation going on outside of our blogs and video sites we don’t host on. We want to pull all that stuff together. You don’t get that with blogging software..”

What are you working on now?

“I am working on a fabulous thing called Rezpondr.om”

“I’m going to give you a little bit of an exclusive. codename doorstepR. It’s using something we used at SXSW to mapping in real time. It is built on top of Rezpondr..”

“It’s a small content producers toolbox..”

“You can aggregate, transcode, and distribute”

What site do you view daily would you like to see Disqus on?

“I would say Techcruch, it gets a hell of a lot of people talking about technology.”

–

If you would to hear the full interview in audio visit here. If you would like to learn more about Phil Campbell check out his website, twitter, and Rezpondr.com.

Cheers,

Today we’ve released a couple new features on the administrative side of Disqus. That’s right — this one is for the moderators!

Comment Editing For Moderators:

Moderators may now edit “the display” of a user’s comments. That means that publishers can control what is displayed on their site, while commenters still retain their original comments.

So how does that work?

When moderators edit a comment, a note will be added (Edited by a moderator) so this change will be transparent to readers. Commenters’ original comments are preserved in their profiles.

At Disqus, we believe that a comment is a shared entity between a site and the person who left the comment. The commenter has the right to retain his or her original contribution, but the site publisher may choose to remove or edit the content on the site. This feature was designed to address both cases.

Whitelisting:

Whitelisting provides moderators a one time approve method for repeat commenters. Comments from these people will never need to be approved again, even if you have set the option above that moderators must approve comments “from everyone”. The moderators of this site are automatically whitelisted.

You can whitelist commenters from two places. From the Moderate page: after approving a comment, you will have the option to whitelist the commenter for future commenters.

You can also explicitly add commenters from the Permissions page.

• Visit: disqus.com/admin/permissions/
• Scroll down to Whitelisting
• Enter the Username or Email of the person to be whitelisted.
• Click Add

Cheers,

Owen JJ Stone aka OhDoctah is a motivational speaker, one man think tank, and generally a good listener. Askohdoctah.com promotes a good vibe to inspire minds, souls, and the average human.

What exactly is OhDoctah?

I am ohdoctah because I fix things, I help people on a multitutde of levels such as realtionships to branding. In the end its really all the same.  Helping people find the right solution for them with no judgements.

Where did you hear about Disqus?

I saw it on Sukhjit.me.

Which one person that you helped, affected you the most?

My greatest personal achievement was helping my roommate off of drugs. A nice guy but he was caught up with the wrong people. I constantly ridiculed him and openly blasted him, Tuff love. He is married now with two kids and makes more money them me lol. He still smokes.. couldn’t get him to stop that. He always thanks me for caring when no one else did. I paid the rent for this kid and never asked for it back.

Why do you use Disqus?

I can easily view peoples profiles and see what people are commenting on. It’s an easy way to check what topics are attractive to people.

What is your favorite feature of Disqus?

Video interaction (Seesmic video comments)

What feature would you like to see on Disqus?

A waterfall tab on the home page.. Like a public time line. Where I can just see comment after comment post, lol in the hopes to read one that is epic.

You can find more about Owen on Disqus, his website, and on twitter.

Till next week,

A few weeks ago, we announced a couple features that were being exclusively previewed on Mashable.com. We posted:

We’re big believers in the power of the comments to overtake the blog post. Content may be king, but with a great audience, it is only the first voice in the conversation to follow.

We were introducing Social Media Reactions, a new feature on Disqus that aims to connect the discussion on your site with the scattered conversations occurring everywhere else on the web. Today, people have many tools available to discover, read, and discuss great content. Blog posts and articles can be mentioned on Twitter, commented about on Digg, and even shared across FriendFeed. Now, these social media reactions can be connected back to your site keeping the conversation together. When your posts are being discussed on Twitter and Digg, these tweets and comments will appear within your Disqus powered comment thread. Here are two examples from inquisitr.com and avc.com (under the main comment thread).

Limited Release

Starting today, we are doing a limited release of this feature to sites on Disqus. By next week, every site on Disqus will begin seeing reactions on articles. But, you can enable it for your site immediately to be first in line. To enable this feature, head to your Admin/Settings and enable Social Media Reactions.

The full list of currently supported services include comments and entries from:

Twitter, FriendFeed, Digg, Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, Movable Type, YouTube, Vimeo, Picasa, and Flickr.

Thanks to our friends at uberVU, our new conversation tracker was possible. They’re doing incredibly cool things and we hope you check them out.

Tweet your comments!

We have one more bonus feature. Now, commenters can broadcast their comments out to Twitter with a link back to the post. By bringing the conversation to Twitter, people can let their friends know about interesting articles that they are discussing. For commenters with Disqus accounts, head to Account/Services to enter the necessary Twitter information. Here is a short video explaining how to setup and use tweetbacks.

We are focused on helping you keep the conversation together and bring out the best discussion on your sites; What do you think? Leave your reactions in the comments below. Or elsewhere — we should find them.

Squarespace is an innovative all-in-one solution for managing and designing your website. With Squarespace, you can focus on writing your blog entries, publishing your files, and uploading your pictures instead of worrying about how to design and update your website. Additionally, Squarespace users can now enjoy the luxury of having Disqus comments integrated within their system, adding many new exciting features..

Instructions: (wiki)

• Visit: http://wiki.disqus.net/SquarespaceHelp and copy the code.

• Simply change _YOURSHORTNAME_ to the shortname of your site. example: shortname.disqus.com

• Click the Edit Website Structure icon on the top right

• Click Edit Website Footer

• Paste the code snippet

And you’re set!