How I use Twitter

Twitter has changed the way information flows on the Internet. Quite frankly I don't believe we have completely understood Twitter's impact just yet but some emerging trends are obvious:

• RSS vs. Twitter: Many people now follow their favorite Bloggers or media companies on Twitter rather than reading their RSS feeds in a Reader. This is ultimately good news for content producers, as users will now actually go back to their proprietary sites to consume information, ultimately making monetization easier.

  Image via CrunchBase

• IM/SMS vs. Twitter: Twitter is of course first and foremost a communication service. As opposed to IM and SMS, which are mostly one-to-one, Twitter allows one-to-many communication. In addition to that, it is also possible to communicate with one person publicly or take the conversation private.
• Blogging vs. Twitter: Of course Twitter would be rubbish to write a blog post like this, but for many it has become their service of choice for micro-blogging. People update the world about their thoughts and whereabouts via the web or their mobile phones.
• Search vs. Twitter: Google search is still the undisputed king in most countries for search, however, as the crawlers don't read all websites in the web immediately, there is a delay between the reality of the web and Google's index. With Twitter search you can find real time Tweets on a certain topic. This is especially powerful for real time events like for instance a Gmail outage. As you can Tweet from your phone or the web, stories often break on Twitter rather than on traditional media.
  

One of the keys to Twitter's success has certainly been the openness of its platform. Taking the same approach as many of the most buzzing online companies of our time, like Facebook and Google, Twitter has created a whole eco system around their service. This of course means that users can enjoy a wide variety of applications that enhance the Twitter experience and expand its functions.

Hootsuite is my client of choice to send out Tweets. Hootsuite has four distinct benefits over the traditional way of Tweeting: 1. It allows you to manage multiple Twitter accounts seamlessly 2. It helps you with shrinking long URLs into short links that won't take much space in your 140 character Tweets 3. You can get Analytics like information about the clicks on the links you have attached to your Tweets 4. It allows you to monetize your Tweets via Adsense if they contain links.

To receive Tweets I use Tweetdeck because not only is it a slick looking application but it also allows me to group people I follow. This is useful as people behave very differently on Twitter. Here an extract of an interview with Twitter Founder and CEO Jack Dorsey in the LA Times who brings it to the point:

"Why would I want to join this stupid useless thing and know what my brother's eating for lunch? But that really misses the point because Twitter is fundamentally recipient-controlled -- you choose to listen and you choose to leave. But you also choose what to put down and what to share. So if you decide to hook your plants up to Twitter and have it report when it needs to be watered, then that's a valid usage, or if you just decide to report what you're eating for lunch, that's a valid usage too. [...] The whole bird thing: bird chirps sound meaningless to us, but meaning is applied by other birds. The same is true of Twitter: a lot of messages can be seen as completely useless and meaningless, but it’s entirely dependent on the recipient. So we just fell in love with the word. It was like, "Oh, this is it." We can use it as a verb, as a noun, it fits with so many other words. If you get too many messages you’re "twitterpated" -- the name was just perfect."

While I don't understand why people make their life accessible to the global public, potentially forever, by Tweeting about their whereabouts, mundane tasks and actions, I am sometimes interested to read those sort of things about my friends. Tweetdeck allows me to group my real friends, online friends and news sources in different buckets whose updates I can read when I see fit. Tweetdeck is also ideal to Retweet, or in other words forward a Tweet.

I also use Twitterfox which is a Twitter app that lives on the bottom right corner of your Firefox browser allowing you to quickly read incoming Tweets in browser. You can also use Twitterfox to Tweet, however if you are sending a link Hootsuite has the tracking benefit.

As mentioned previously you can have multiple Twitter accounts. I for instance have one public account thecoolgeek where I Tweet cool links I discover on the web and one private account with no friends that I use to microblog a diary. I Tweet all sorts of things to my private account: what I'm doing, what I'm eating, what I'm thinking, what I'm feeling. The great thing with Twitter is that you can update it with the phone or the web so pretty much most of the time. I would never make that feed public though.

The latter point is worth elaborating. While one could argue that public Facebook status updates are no different than public Tweets there is a difference. All public Tweets can be used by third party applications of all sorts to mash those up. This is not the case with your Facebook status as that stays on Facebook. Who knows how long after you account is deleted those third parties will still have your Tweets. The big problem with public Tweets is that they are brodcasted to the net not only to your followers. Your update about that hot waitress will be available to anyone who searches on Twitter search. I guess it really depends on how much of an exhibitionist are, but I'd rather keep my personal Tweets private and my Facebook status only visible to my friends list. That way I still have control over my online identity.

There are of course many other cool applications that exist within the Twitter-verse. They range from enabling micro payments to to-do list aids. To see a comprehensive list go here.

Secret Cinema presents Anvil

I was going to wait for the Secret Cinema (unfortunately, this is currently a London based event so if something like this doesn't exist in your town and you like the idea, why don't you kick it off?!) folks to get the video summary for the last event out but they are too slow, so I'll go ahead and publish this post.

Last Sunday it was Secret Cinema time. If you haven't heard about it yet, the concept is the following: you buy a ticket to see a movie that remains secret until the night of the event, in a venue that is secret until a day or two before the event. For those of you that are not intrigued by that, should know that the Secret Cinema guys are very good at putting on an amazing show around the whole event. You can't really compare the evening to a normal night at the movies.

First off, the email before the event will usually ask you to wear a certain outfit on the night and bring certain props. Of course, these are also clues to what movie you might be seeing. On the night, actors will be there spicing things up by interacting with you. There usually also is a short movie and some sort of performance before the main feature. All together a very enjoyable evening for the few quid the ticket costs.

That said, last Sunday was special. We were asked to come as Rock Gods or Shady Promoters which already had many of us guessing that the movie would be Spinal Tap. We got to see a cool short film Heavy Metal Drummer, a performance by the Canadian band the Cauldron, and witnessed the UK premier of The Story of Anvil.

The movie is special to say the least. It tells the story of the Canadian band Anvil which toured with Bon Jovi, White Snake and other heavy weights in the 80's but vanished into non-existence while the others went multi-platinum. It is a very honest movie about the passionate dream of die hard rockers that, against all good judgement, never give up on their rock career. It will take you through an emotional rollercoaster ride and leave you with a good feeling at the end. During that experience you will, whether you want it or not, bond with the protagonists Robb and Lips.

We were promised a special guest at the end of the movie and needless to say, Anvil was the special guest. I guess you just had to be there to understand how cool it really was to see the band live in front of you, performing their songs, after you had seen that movie. It was priceless and to me one of the coolest movie experiences I had witnessed in a long while. Thank you Secret Cinema and Anvil for the special evening!

Facebook Terms and Conditions

Image via CrunchBase

Well, well Mr Zuckerberg are you a bit confused about what you want to do with your Terms and Conditions? For those of you who didn't notice Facebook changed their T&Cs...not.

On Monday, Mark wrote on the Facebook Blog that the T&Cs had changed and that whatever the words were now saying, was actually not meant that way. So although it said they could keep the data forever, they didn't really mean forever. I think Mark is a swell guy but I still don't trust him enough to give him my personal data for the rest of time. God forbid he might sell the company off to Balmer. What would happen to my data then? Anyway, I wasn't the only one who felt that way. Within hours many Facebook users had started groups indicating their dismay with these changes. Enough pressure to prompt their reversal.

On Wednesday this post. In essence: jadda jadda we're sorry blah blah we didnt think these changes would piss you off, so we decided to go back to the T&Cs that you actually agreed on when you created your account and not the ones we dictated to you bing bing bada bu which is why we will now, as a social network, agree on the bill of rights of our web democracy.

I like the idea but we will have see how well they will follow through. My suggestion for the Billorights are 1. I want to keep the rights to my text and media, 2. I want you to delete all my personal data and contributions to the network when I delete my account, and 3. I want you to keep my data as private as I set it to be. Everything else is gravy. What do you think?

Mobile Predictions

Chief Marketing Officer of the GSM Association, Micheal O'Hara, talks about the future opportunities for mobile carriers in this FT article:

"Indeed, the GSMA believes the technology transition will create opportunities for mobile carriers to enhance the user experience in four key areas: first, search, especially local search capability that combines location information from the network with the search results from a browser to offer users what Mr O’Hara describes as “a contextualised experience”.

Second, next-generation messaging. “We have seen a proliferation of instant messaging and social networking communications technologies that can be downloaded to devices,” says Mr O’Hara. “In the next year, we expect mobile operators to use rich communication suite (RCS) technology to launch multimode messaging and provide location information from within the contact list of the phone.”

Third, money. “We expect to see initial deployments of near field communications (NFC) technology that will allow a mobile phone to be used as a credit card,” he says. “You’ll make a purchase by simply passing your phone in front of a reader in a store.”

Last, mobile content. “We do expect to see a proliferation of music, video and gaming applications being consumed on mobile devices."

Another interesting point that was raised in the article is the shift in the mobile space from Hardware to Software:

"Network operators also face a challenge – or opportunity – with the emergence of online software markets such as the Apple iPhone App Store or Google’s Android Marketplace, which enable smartphone owners to download application software – much of it free – directly to their devices.

The success of the “app store” has undoubtedly shifted the focus from hardware to software and tilted the balance of power away from carrier to consumers, who are now able to customise the way their handsets operate."

I found the Deloitte predictions for 2009 mentioned in the article very interesting to read. You can just read the summary or download a more comprehensive PDF version for the Technology, Media & Entertainment, and Telecom predictions.

Mr. Kawasaki

I just connected with Guy Kawasaki on Twitter. His updates are highly entertaining and he has a very cool blog called How to Change the World - A practical guide for impractical people. I really recommend spending some time reading some of the entries. One of my favorites is about the Art of Schmoozing. The top 9 tips below:

1. Understand the goal. Darcy Rezac in his book, The Frog and the Prince, wrote the world's best definition of schmoozing: “Discovering what you can do for someone else.” Herein lies eighty percent of the battle: great schmoozers want to know what they can do for you, not what the you can do for them. If you understand this, the rest is just mechanics.
2. Get out. Schmoozing is an analog, contact sport. You can't do it alone from your office on the phone or via a computer. You may hate them but force yourself to go to tradeshows, conventions, and seminars. It's unlikely that you'll be closing a big order with someone you met online at MySpace or via Skype. Get out there and press flesh.
3. Ask good questions, then shut up. The mark of a good conversationalist is not that you can talk a lot. The mark is that you can get others to talk a lot. Thus, good schmoozers are good listeners, not good talkers. Ask softball questions like, “What do you do?” “Where are you from?” “What brings you to this event?” Then listen. Ironically, you'll be remembered as an interesting person.
4. Unveil your passions. Only talking about business is boring. Good schmoozers unveil their passions after they get to know you. Great schmoozers lead off with their passions. Your passions make you an interesting person--you'll stick out because you're the only person not talking about 802.11 chipsets at the wireless conference. Personally, my passions are children, Macintosh, Breitling watches, digital photography, and hockey if you ever meet me.
5. Read voraciously. In order to be a good schmoozer, you need to read voraciously--and not just the EE Times, PC Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal. You need a broad base of knowledge so that you can access a vast array of information during conversations. Even if you are a pathetic passionless person, you can at least be a well-read one who can talk about a variety of topics.
6. Follow up. Over the course of my career, I've given away thousands of business cards. At one point, I thought I was nuts because if all those people called or emailed me, I'd never get anything done. Funny thing: hardly anyone ever follows up. Frankly, I don't know why people bother asking for a business card if they're not going to follow up. Great schmoozers follow up within twenty-four hours--just a short email will do: “Nice to meet you. I hope we can do something together. Hope your blog is doing well. I loved your Breitling watch. I have two tickets to the Stanley Cup Finals if you want to attend.” Include at least one thing to show the recipient that she isn't getting a canned email.
7. Make it easy to get in touch. Many people who want to be great schmoozers, ironically, don't make it easy to get in touch with them. They don't carry business cards, or their business cards don't have phone numbers and email addresses. Even if they provide this information, it's in grey six-point type. This is great if you're schmoozing teenagers, but if you want old, rich, famous, and powerful people to call or email, you'd better use a twelve-point font. (These are the same folks that need the thirty-point font vis-a-vis the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint.)
8. Give favors. One of my great pleasures in life is helping other people; I believe there's a big Karmic scoreboard in the sky. God is keeping track of the good that you do, and She is particularly pleased when you give favors without the expectation of return from the recipient. The scoreboard always pays back. You can also guess that I strongly believe in returning favors for people who have helped you.
9. Ask for the return of favors. Good schmoozers give favors. Good schmoozers also return favors. However, great schmoozers ask for the return of favors. You may find this puzzling: Isn't it better to keep someone indebted to you? The answer is no, and this is because keeping someone indebted to you puts undue pressure on your relationship. Any decent person feels guilty and indebted. By asking for, and receiving, a return favor, you clear the decks, relieve the pressure, and set up for a whole new round of give and take. After a few rounds of give and take, you're best friends, and you have mastered the art of schmoozing.

Kawasaki's project Alltop is also worth checking out. It is in their own words an online magazine rack. You can find a very good list of top RSS feeds categorized by topic nicely presented on one page. The service basically aggregates high quality news for the topics that interest you. I find the content and presentation quite convincing. Give it a try!

Lunch 2.0

I took out Gerd Leonhard to lunch on Wednesday. As he calls himself a Futurist I thought it would be good to take him to a place where food meets geekdom - Inamo.

Inamo has great Pan-Asian food with a twist: you can order food through a digital surface computing platform. Not only that, but you can preview your food on your plate, play a game of Battleship, change the table cloth, view the kitchen camera and much more. It is quite a different experience to normal dining and definitely worth checking out. Gerd liked the place so much that he actually blogged about it right after our meal.

Here a little video of some Germans playing around with the surface computing platform.



For reservations - 02078517051 OR reservations@inamo-restaurant.com

Spotify - Music streaming at its best

You know that you love a service when it gets a slot on your dock next to Firefox. Spotify is that kind of service.

Spotify is a music streaming program that allows you to browse through a catalog of music and play it without delay (P2P streaming). 90% of the songs I have been searching for have been available so far, however some of the more exotic tunes are not available yet. The quality of the music is top notch and the songs start playing instantly, giving you the feeling as if you would be playing a song from your local iTunes.


The UI reminds of iTunes but it's slicker and has less clutter. Recent searches will be stored in a sort of history in the menu bar on the left which is quite useful. Needless to say it is also possible to create play lists that then can be shared with anyone else via http link. If you trust your friend's music you can let them add tracks and make it a collaborative play list. There are already websites like Spotyshare and YourSpotify out there where you can show off your compilation skills by uploading the http links to your play lists to share with others.

I had the pleasure to have lunch with the CEO and co-founder of Spotify Daniel Ek recently which has got me even more excited about the service. While I had a list with 101 ideas of features that I felt needed to be added to Spotify, Daniel made it clear to me that they rather want to be a platform and want others developing additional features rather than adding stuff in themselves. A good example for an added feature is that tunes you play can be scrobbled to your Last.fm account. But hopefully this is just the beginning. At least that is what I hope as Spotify will be opening up their data through APIs for gifted developers out there to create cool apps. Daniel describes Spotify more as a Music search engine and plans to add more track related information to the database. Who is the producer, the drummer, the lead singer on the track? What are the lyrics?

Daniel also got me quite excited about Spotify's mobile future. There are apps in the works that will bring you all of their great features onto your phone and I Can't wait to get my hands on a beta!

Although there have been some issues with the labels recently Spotify is still dedicated to expand their music catalog. If you want to give Spotify a go, drop me a comment and I can send you an invite. I highly recommend it!

Update 20.02: Found another good website with a good selection of playlists - Spotylist, and another one that has top lists, Topsify.

The Media Futurist @ Google

This talk was a while back but still worth posting. Gerd Leonhard media futurist by trade made it into Google for a presentation about the future of media and advertising. Thanks again Gerd! Here a link to Gerd's blog MediaFuturist. Go and check it out as he has some great content for free i.e. downloadable books.