Twitter seems to be the new addictive social networking app on the block. (For those new to the phenom, it’s a site that lets you tell your friends what you are doing RIGHT NOW, and to see what they’re doing, too.) But I haven’t been able to get into the addiction cycle, because I don’t have any friends. 🙁
Why? Because unlike other social networks — Facebook, LinkedIn and Friendster spring to mind — Twitter doesn’t provide a way to mine your address book for fellow Twitter-ers. As far as I can tell, if I upload my address book to Twitter, EVERYONE gets an invitation to be my Twitter buddy, whether they’re Twittering or not. I can see how this helps to spread Twitter, but since I don’t want to annoy my entire contact list with invitations to all the social networks I check out, it makes it very hard to get up and running on Twitter.
So consider this a triple request:
- If you’re using Twitter, ping me or add me to your friends list.
- If there IS a way to make Twitter scan my contact list for fellow Twitterers, please let me know.
- Twitter, if there ISN’T a way to scan my contact list for fellow Twitterers, could you add it? Or could you at least allow me to scan my buddies on other social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook — not just LiveJournal, which is the only one you currently connect to?
I'm coming out: I'm an American Idol fan. I'm guessing that the reason for my fandom may be at the heart of the show's popularity: I would LOVE to get up on stage and open my mouth and have a big, beautiful voice pour out of it.
As things stand, I can at best hope for half that equation (the standing up on stage half). And given that the only thing to pour out would be a fine, even at times kinda nice voice, but nothing special and nothing to hit the high notes with, I don't see myself getting up on stage anytime soon.
One of the great things about having young kids is that it has gotten me past my self-consciousness about my just-okay voice, and has me singing regularly for the first time in years. Not just the Raffi repertoire, either (though we do a mean Baby Beluga). Our daughter has a great Simon & Garfunkely repertoire from her father, and a decent command of the Broadway standards thanks to me.
But ten minutes at bedtime — and maybe another five in the shower — isn't cutting it. What I'd really like to do is petition to universe for do-over, and ask for an Idol-worthy set of pipes…not to be on American Idol, but to light up a local choir, or take a page from Opera Man and go cruising around the city a capella.
In the absence of the Universal Do-over, I want to start singing more, even within the constraints of my current instrument. Won't you join me? I'd love to see Vancouver turn into one giant, unselfconscious, slightly off-key streetscape.
If your answer is yes….sing it!
Adrienne Clarkson gave the 8th annual LaFontaine-Baldwin lecture tonight on “the society of difference”. She argued that we are ultimately able to transcend difference because we are all one manifestation, connected by a collective consciousness. I’m not sure it ultimately allows us to transcend all our differences, but you can see the web as a manifestation of unconscious human interconnection – and an ever-deepening picture of that interconnection. My favorite way to visualize how that process of connection is facilitated is on youtube:
I finally (!) joined Facebook, but here’s as key sign it’s not exactly my demographic: there’s no way to define your relationship to someone as “married”. When Rob added me as a friend, I had the option of describing our relationship as “lived together”, “family” (if I wanted to describe him as a sibling or cousin — but no, it’s not that kind of marriage!) or “dated”. I chose “dated”, and had the opportunity to further clarify that we were “practically married” and are “still together”. Now all I have to worry about are all the ladies cruising Facebook to find the kind of guy who is commitment-ready, but not legally committed….
I'm always looking for new bits of software that will make me more productive, more effective, and of course, taller. So I LOVED Tod Maffin's session at MooseCamp today where he ran us through a bunch of his favourite little apps — and other folks shared theirs. Mac users, check out the list!
We're often approached by business and nonprofit organizations who are interested in tapping the power of the social web but don't know where to start, or how to get a feel for the possibilities. I'm delighted to be co-teaching a Hollyhock-in-Vancouver workshop next month that will be a great opportunity for Vancouver-based organizations to get smart about Web 2.0:
Web 2.0 and your organizationÂ
Are you interested in how online communities like Flickr, MySpace, and YouTube can empower your members and customers to carry your message out into the world? Could your organization benefit from deeper collaboration among your team members, clients, partners or the public? Could better knowledge-sharing, stronger relationships and closer communications inside your organization and with your core supporters foster more efficiency, insight and effectiveness?
The latest generation of "Web 2.0" or social web strategies and tools offer powerful opportunities for organizations to improve the way they work, communicate their messages, empower others, and serve the public. In this workshop you will learn how the latest tools for online collaboration and community building can make your organization smarter and more effective.
This workshop is designed for communications strategists, marketing managers, and webmasters who are interested in how this evolution of the web can help evolve your organization's online strategy. We will give you the tools, knowledge, and most crucially, the vision for how your organization can use the web as a stronger agent of change. We’ll also cover the nuts-and-bolts, introducing the latest tools so that you know which options are most promising for your needs.
About the presenters: Jason Mogus is the CEO of Communicopia, which has helped progressive companies and non-profits communicate and collaborate via the web for 13 years. Jason is also the founder of Web of Change at Hollyhock. Alexandra Samuel, PhD (Harvard), is CEO of Social Signal, and is helping some of the web's most ambitious community ecosystems use the social web to support dialogue and collaboration.
This workshop is co-sponsored by the Hollyhock Leadership Institute, Web of Change, Social Signal, Communicopia, Social Tech Brewing, and Impacs.
To register:
Visit the Hollyhock site, call 800-933-6339 x232, or e-mail registration[at]hollyhock.ca
Find out what an OPML file is, and how you might use it.
Paul DiPerna recently posted a conversation we had about social media on his Blau Exchange web site. Blau Exchange is a web-based initiative that will be an intermediary for professional groups interested in how information and communications technologies (ICTs)...
Linkwad is a Firefox extension that helps you manage a long series of open tabs.
One of our small supply of trusted babysitters has fallen in love with someone in Nanaimo (hint to fellow parents: DO NOT encourage your babysitter to go visit that ex-boyfriend in another town). So we're back to searching for fresh blood, and wondered whether there might be room for a web app to help.Â
Turns out, someone else has already thought this all through. CareSquare is a well thought-out online community that helps parents find available caregivers, and lets you rank trusted caregivers and see those who are trusted by your friends (or their friends). There are a few hundred caregivers already in the network, but surprise surprise they're mostly in the San Francisco area.
So fellow Vancouverites, hear my plea: if you are a parent, caregiver, or sometimes babysitter, please add yourself to CareSquare. If we can get a few dozen Vancouverites using the tool, it could turn out to be really useful.
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