Chiperoni ku Basel

Category: tweet

  • Mindblogging

    Inspired by lots of fresh air

    After lots of hours cramped in front of my books, trying to catch up with my studies, I went jogging for a couple of rounds on the Finnenbahn ( a sawdust track ) in the woods. Usually I find running around in circles boring. But today I didn’t mind cos my head is full of unprocessed data.

    And while I plodded around the loop, I thought about:

    • Twitter and the Iran election and the video of the dying woman.
    • Thoughtless re-tweeting. I find it scary the way people follow others blindly. With good intentions. But without thinking and researching for themselves. I thought of setting up a slogan such as: Think before you re-tweet.
    • How the initial design of ARPANET, to compensate for network losses, probably explains why people can still find ways and means to send out tweets and photos and videos out of Iran.
    • My Macroeconomics homework about inflation and interest rates.
    • The soothing effect the colour of green leaves has on my mind.

    The term mindblogging was coined by fellow blogger Persillie and refers to the writing of virtual blog posts while doing something else such as jogging. By default mindblog posts are always better than their written equivalent.

    Congratulations to Mlle. A.! Her blog Handmade 2.0 is featured in the current edition of t3n, a German IT and web magazine.
    Way to go!
    Next in Brand eins?

    I talked to my mom about internet connections in Malawi. She says that prices for mobile internet are getting more affordable. TNM offers USB modems. I need to research this…

  • Hiding in Full Public View

    In January my stats dropped to an all time low. There are a number of reasons, I guess.

    One reason is that I haven’t been writing much lately. Just an occasional link. Short cross-references to my Flickr stream. That’s it.

    Another reason is my retro-style homepage, which points to my other life stream options (Twitter, Flickr, Google Reader, Delicious) and probably diverts (or puts off) a lot of people.

    Maybe another reason is the second WordPress installation I’ve added to showcase an idea. Maybe the Google bot doesn’t like this kind of setup. I’m not sure. It’s not duplicate content.

    Although I think I am still listed.

    It is surprising because I have over 4 years of content here.

    Fact is I could start a confessional style blog and publish details galore. And only five people would read it.

    Because the amount of information floating around the Internet has exploded. Gone are the times where a blog post on a specialized topic would get hits.

    Somehow I find this strangely comforting. I can hide in full public view. Hide on the Internet.

    And the other message hidden in there is that building communities is hard work.

    As enterprises try to follow their customers and consider integrating Facebook and Twitter into their marketing programs, I think it’s important to hold up some warning signs.

    IMG_3782

    There are no quick wins in this.

    You’ll need Scoble-like marketing resources. Using a video-only communication strategy is not the answer. People are different. Some like screencasts. Some like text.

    Scoble says:

    Truth is that if you want to build an audience on the web you must use EVERY tool available.

    You’ll need to walk the fine line in your choice of communication (no marketing glib, no sales talk, no PR gobbeldygook, a real personal voice, useful and good content at frequent intervals). I read somewhere that the first Flickr team greeted every new sign-up personally.

    You’ll need to have a clear community policy.

    And above all you need to be aware that you’re giving your data to a third party.

    Twitter / Home

    Everything you publish on the Internet is up for grabs. Everything.

    I’m not saying that enterprises should not invest in social media. I’m saying enterprises should carefully consider the costs. Maybe that’s a possible business model for Twitter… corporations pay for the ability to export their data and contacts at all times. A service agreement for data?

    What happens if Yahoo sells Flickr to a stock photo agency?

    As I watch the demise of Technorati and Xing, I keep getting reminded of Adam Greenfield’s talk on “Everyware”.

    As we used to say in Blantyre: Amakhala scared.

    If you’re here and reading this. Thank you. I’m not here for the stats. I’m here to learn. So far the positive effects outweigh the negative bits by far. And I believe everybody needs to become aware of this ocean of data that surrounds us and become a social media expert of sorts.

  • Ten Differences between Skype and Twitter

    On the train to northern Germany. Three more hours to go.

    It’s been a long day and my motivation to get some work done is kind of missing. So here’s a text message from the train. Longer than 140 characters. Maybe.

    Two doctors across the aisle are loudly discussing other doctors, Basel hospitals, the Swiss health system, politics and other details. They are code switching between Swiss German and Arabic (or something that sounds similar). They are getting out now. They were talking non-stop for two hours.

    Der Trend zu mehr als einem Betriebssystem:
    BTW, I finally ordered a new 13 inch MacBook with 4GB RAM. I really like the size. I guess I am officially a Mac fan. I even tweeted about it!

    Twitter vs. Skype:
    How do you explain the difference between Twitter and Skype? I was talking about the Twitter Dinner I attended on Monday and a work colleague asked “What’s the difference to instant messaging?”

    For the casual observer, none really. Nothing revolutionary. 140 characters organized chronological on a webpage. Like the first webpages, nothing truly spectacular.

    Yet again, it is another way to publish even faster. Faster than a static HTML-based webpage or a dynamic server-side based blog.

    The future of Twitter will be exciting to watch. Maybe it will just dwindle and die. Maybe new business models will emerge and it will become commercial like websites. Maybe it’s just a stepping stone to something new.

    Anyway here we go, my first list in a long time. Here are:

    Ten differences between Skype and Twitter:

    1. One to many vs one to one or one to two: I have more Twitter followers than Skype contacts. I don’t follow all of my Twitter followers, while Skype is more or less reciprocal and if somebody doesn’t add me as a contact, I start wondering why.
    2. Public With Twitter I can view the stream, and the faves before clicking the ominous Follow button. By default Skype messages are not public.
    3. More options Skype is direct and immediate between me and another person or a second person. Twitter can be direct and immediate between my friends and me, but it doesn’t have to be. I can post a tweet message without any follow-up or call to action. On the other hand Skypers expect a more immediate reaction. And tend to follow general conversational patterns.
    4. Easier to search thru I can search thru Tweet streams much more easily, thanks to add-on services such as Twitter Search/Summize.
    5. Monitor Like with Google, or Flickr, I use Summize/Twitter Search to find new content on topics of interest, c.f comments on the famous Nutella Alternatives group (funny!) or on a more serious note tweets from Malawi and Zimbabwe. In the same way, companies can find what people are saying about their products. Consumers are more likely to write a 140 character message than a full A4 review on your product. I.e. Twitter forms opinions on products. And unlike statements at a cocktail party, these mini-reviews are searchable.
    6. Unfiltered news from strangers With Twitter I can get raw, unfiltered messages on current news as they happen, c.f the recent bombings in Mumbai. Following “breaking news” on Twitter is more exciting than on CNN and co, as they scramble to get a correspondent online and show the same video sequence over and over again.
    7. Mobile Cos it’s so simple, Twitter offers better mobile phone integration from the start. Unfortunately, the best Twitter feature by far was shut down in September 08. What I call the downstream, i.e. the forwarding of Twitter messages to my cell phone.
    8. Ubiquituous software All I need is a browser and my login data. And browsers are everywhere. I think there’s a possibility to use a Skype widget within a browser, but so far I have never used this feature.
    9. Faves I can store Twitter messages I like by fav’ing them.
    10. Fun I use Skype for work-related stuff. Twitter is for fun. I’m not twittering for the marketing effect. Just fun. I don’t care if 1000 people follow me or not.

    And finally it’s art:
    I learnt at LIFT 08, that I’m part of a giganormous art project.

    Where else can you follow the different time zones having their first cup of coffee in the morning?

  • On Following Tweet Streams

    I recently talked to Persillie on the difficulty of following people’s tweet streams. Esp. if you have a limited time budget and can only tune into Twitter every so often.

    For example, I follow Kathy Sierra’s stream at Twitter. You can see quite a few of her 140 character statements in my Twitter Favorites.

    Re: “PR is Dead?” meme–PR has same issue as UI design: it’s NOT something you can slap on afterward. Must be baked into product.

    “Job happiness” should not have a single point of failure… but too often it ALL depends on your current boss. Bad managers REALLY suck.

    Things Smart People Do: Martin Fowler (software dev pioneer) said he went to a ‘passionate users’ talk *because* he “doesn’t like the topic”

    Powerful template 4 learning: “I will do Project A, to ‘force’ myself to learn Skill B” rather than “I must/will learn Skill B” @hrheingold

    PR/marketing should fail when it’s about “getting word out”. If they’re about helping “users kick ass”, we’re good. Less pitch, more teach.

    I see a huge overestimation of the importance of “social” in marketing/PR or product dev in general today.

    etc, etc…

    The difficulty arises when other Twitterers ask questions and Kathy responds. I don’t see the question and it gets much more difficult to follow.

    Twitter is like a cocktail party. The music is so loud, sometimes you only hear parts of the answer.

    Are there Twitter tools that help with this? The only tool I can think of is Twitter Search (formerly Summize).