Enter: Google May 28, 2009

And now the whole discussion of the last post may just be a moot point… ?

Developers at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco were apparently fired up by the news of the Google Wave… though the deal was unquestionably sweetened by the complimentary Android the conference attendees each received yesterday !

Well, all I know is that if Payam’s actually tweeting about something during a session, it’s gotta be good! And so now, here’s waiting on the Wave!

TechCrunch article here. Link to Google’s description (and preview video) below.

Conference of the Birds* May 24, 2009

What do you think of Twitter? Hate it? Love at first tweet? Confused by it?

Much was made over last month’s Nielsen report about “Twitter Quitters” quickly losing interest, but I was struck by an ABC article about how “Twitter Quitters Just Don’t Get it”. The latter stated,

“The most commonly heard complaints about Twitter stem from a misunderstanding of it. Chief among these complaints is the utterly bunk assertion that it’s just a whole bunch of people heralding the trivial events of their daily lives into the void. (i.e., “I’m going to the bathroom now!” or “Eating a yummy ham sandwich!”)

Frankly, if that’s how you’re using Twitter, you’re doing it wrong, and you should stop without subjecting your friends to a full week of that rubbish, let alone a full month.”

OK, that was definitely my initial frustration! I’d log-on to my account (albeit populated only by friends), hold-off on tweeting out anything, and just passively watch what others were writing. I caught glimpses of a few innovative applications of the real-time mine-able technology, but for the most part it seemed just like watching my Facebook stream on hyper-narcissistic speed.

In recent conversations it’s become apparent that many people aren’t quite sure what to make of Twitter. For the most part, it seems that people who see it as simply an extension of their Facebook status updates hate it. For whatever it’s worth, I’ve written-up some of my own discoveries in playing around with it and would appreciate hearing your own views!

SO…

1.) Don’t worry too much about, “What are you doing?” It’s a simple question, and while it does constitute the crux of the whole site, don’t obsess.  If you’re preoccupied with coming up with just the right content and the perfect frequency for updates, you can easily miss the point that the power of Twitter lies in interaction and engagement.

2.) Think one mega, global, public IM conversation… not how should one maintain a one-way steady stream of updates on one’s life. No matter how fascinating a life you lead — even if you manage to attain that seemingly elusive combo of witty, insightful, mundane, profound, yet personal commentary on the world — if you’re having a one-way conversation exclusively about yourself and all the wonderful escapades you and yourself get up to, even you’ll get bored of said self.

3.) Don’t just follow people you already know. While it’s customary on Facebook to skim through common friends, maybe even google a name, in an attempt to place an individual before accepting or sending a friend request; Twitter is all about striking up conversations with total strangers on topics of common interest. Besides, if you’re only following your friends, you’ll basically create a mirror of your Facebook homepage — great. This is especially the case if you have friends who link their blogs to their FB status bar and in turn to their Twitter feed…

4.) Play around with search.twitter.com. Just as many people have taken to reading online movie reviews before forking out $10+ at the theater, or to skimming Yelp reviews before trying out a new restaurant, Twitter can be fun for gauging public reaction to anything en masse — à la global village voice. There were some awesome visualizations made from the data gathered around Obama’s inauguration — like this worldwide map of tweets including “inauguration” with a positive attitude. And speaking of elections in which over a hundred million votes were cast… Payam and I tried typing “Idol” or a contestant’s name into search.twitter.com one night during the judge’s commentary and the responses were far more funny than any of the official remarks!

5.) Connect with people. Ok, ok, American Idol/pop culture may not be your thing, but whatever your thing is, you’ll likely find a way of connecting with folks across the planet who share an interest in it! Check-out the hashtags in the top trending topics, or explore your own interests. Type in “breast cancer survivor”, or “new religion”, “human rights”, “tips for going green”, “peanut allergies”, “bhangra music”, whatever… You will find people passionate about these topics, people searching for more info on them, and people from whom you can learn. @ these people, or follow them and DM them (send them a “direct message” privately). Be aware though that, unless you restrict access to your updates, others will do the same. If you post “shopping for a new swim suit”, for example, don’t be surprised if a retailer sends you a coupon code for their latest sale .

Other tips? Thoughts?

*Title reference

Happy Earth Day! April 22, 2009

Click HERE to view the message, or HERE to create your own geoGreeting (thanks MAY).

And for more fun with Google Lat video messages, click HERE (thanks JOSH).

tinyus April 8, 2009

♦

“A mechanism of world communication will be devised, embracing the whole planet, freed from national hindrances and restrictions, and functioning with marvelous swiftness and perfect regularity.”

~ Shoghi Effendi, 11 March 1936

♦

Fantastic Facebook Development April 8, 2009

Have you ever received a virtual chocolate chip cookie, flowering tulip pot, or neon skateboard and not quite known what to do with it? How touching! Ok, now what… send one back?

Given the success of virtual gifts it’s obvious our generation has developed a strong interest in this manner of expressing sentiments, but a new initiative launched in the Facebook Gift Shop today allows for gift-giving with purpose. Very cool and, not surprisingly, it’s already raised thousands of dollars since going live.  Also, check out Facebook for Good .

Social media for positive change — Hooray!

Skype To-Go! March 31, 2009

It’s here and it’s free! Skype has launched its free calling and instant messaging for the iPhone and second generation iPod touch. Wohoo!

Whatcha doing now?… How ’bout now? March 25, 2009

I once spent a summer tracking my life in six-minute increments. Sounds neurotic, no? I was working at a corporate litigation firm and on the first day my supervisor handed me a clipboard and instructed me to periodically sit down throughout my workday and record what I had been working on and which client/case should be billed for each six-minute increment thereof.  She also handed me a stack of associated paperwork to complete at the end of the day in order to elaborate upon my mini-records.  The concept seemed absurd — all of us taking a substantial portion of time away from actually working to sit down and write about what we were working on.

Enter: Twitter. No?

Ok Ok — the billable hour has its purpose, and the potential for awesome data-mining/uses of technologies like Twitter is mind-blowing.  BUT, in both cases, it can be funny every once in a while to take a step back and laugh at ourselves!

Well, courtesy of a forward from Kat (a 2.0 queen who consistently serves as a fantastic source of under-exposed news, comic relief, and useful links) here’s a clip others may enjoy:

The principle of moderation in all things comes to mind

“Whatsoever passeth beyond the limits of moderation will cease to exert a beneficial influence. Consider for instance such things as liberty, civilization and the like. However much men of understanding may favourably regard them, they will, if carried to excess, exercise a pernicious influence upon men.” — Bahá’u’lláh

New Media Waves January 23, 2009

Google Blog had an interesting post the other day regarding the volume and nature of inauguration-related searches.  It included the observation that, “technology has become so prevalant [sic... editing team a casualty of layoff's?] that queries such as YouTube live inauguration, live blogging inauguration, inaugural podcast, and Obama inaugural speech mp3 formed one-third of all inauguration-related queries.”

Quite a statement on emerging patterns in news media, no?

Also fascinating was the graph depicting the overall query volume of Google searches in the U.S. around noon on January 20th:

And, following on from the Royal 2.0 post about Queen Rania’s use of YouTube, I found it innovative of Mike Honda (a U.S. Congressman representing Silicon Valley) to use a competition on his Facebook page to give away some of the inauguration tickets he’d been allotted; as well as of Obama’s team to use twitter to call the nation to service on January 19th:

Update: Here’s an interesting site, courtesy of Ruha, exploring web 2.0 tactics that worked; and, courtesy of Mohan, a visual map of tweets surroundings the Inauguration.

Blind(cc)-Sided December 23, 2008

On more than one occasion in recent weeks, I’ve been one in a party of fully-fledged/disclosed email recipients to’ve been blind-sided by a reply-to-all from a Bcc-line lurker.  So now I’m curious…

1.) How common an occurrence is this? Have you ever reply-to-all’ed from the Bcc line? Or, have you ever been on the receiving end of a ‘Hey! Where’d s/he come from??’ email?

and

2.) Why is it even possible to reply-to-all from the Bcc line? When would it ever be useful? I think some email systems have removed the possibility, but shouldn’t the coding powers-that-be save the general emailing public at large from all such potential embarassment?

Royal 2.0 December 1, 2008

A family member recently forwarded this clip of Jordan’s Queen Rania, which I think represents a fantastic use of new media technology (and a position of power).

In March of this year, Queen Rania launched her own YouTube channel, with the aim of “breaking down stereotypes about the Arab and Muslim worlds” and “bridging the East-West divide.” The site hosts videos on a range of topics including terrorism, human rights, Arab identity, and honor killings.

Millions of surfers have tuned in and, in response, YouTube honored her with the first-ever YouTube Visionary Award. Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco presented the award on November 22, 2008, and today’s SF Chronicle reports that he will be using a recently launched YouTube channel of his own to present his State of the City.

While it’s not a new platform for politicians, and agendas will likely be mixed, I find it fascinating to watch the creative ways in which those in power ride the 2.0 wave.