Twitter Lists – Hot or Not?
November 1, 2009
This week the rest of the Twitterverse got a look at the long anticipated Lists feature. Despite the polite request by Twitter for the beta testers to keep it mum, rumors had naturally leaked about their existence. The careful systemwide rollout by the Twitter team heightened the anticipation and excitement as more and more users logged in to see that the new feature had been added to their account.
The technorati have been weighing in with mixed reviews. Some folks like Robert Scoble love the feature and others like Chris Brogan find it to be less than desirable.
In the next few days to weeks, there will be dozens of posts on Lists – because it really is a radical change in the functionality of Twitter and will continue to have ramifications the effects on the usage of the platform.
Of course, like any good GeekMommy, I’ve done my own tests, research and analysis. And like any other blogger out there, I’m ready and willing to overshare share my findings with you.
Pros and Cons
For the sake of clarity, I’m resorting to ye olde bulletpointed list. It seems that embedding analysis in long paragraphs tends to get the information skimmed and comments pop up that get stuck on misconceptions.
On the Plus Side
I find it good to look for the positives first. After all, tools are created to be useful, right? And if I’m being candid, this tool can be really useful. Used beneficially, I can see where it’s very appealing.
- Sharing Great Resources – Lists make it easier for you to share good resources with someone who isn’t as familiar with the people you follow. If you’re a political wonk and know that 2 dozen people out of the thousands you follow already are the ones to read when it comes to current politics? Making a list for those who wouldn’t know which ones you’d suggest is an awesome tool
- Filtering Your Own View – granted, most people who want or need viewing filters have already switched to a 3rd party application such as Tweetdeck, Tweetgrid or Seesmic that allows them to create groups. But this is built in Twitter integration. The benefit of which is that all of those 3rd party apps will have to incorporate the ability to view Lists, so you don’t have to rebuild your groups if you move from app to app. The groups will now be lists and only have to be built and maintained in one place.
- Viewing Other Peoples’ Filters – Twitter used to have an awesome feature that you could view someone else’s twitterstream the way they saw it. Many of us used this as a good way to find new people to follow – you’d go to a user’s profile that you liked/respected/found interesting, click on the tab that let you see their stream and see what they saw. When that feature went aways it was a loss, because you could no longer put yourself in someone else’s seat. Now, with the ability to follow someone else’s public List, you can regain part of that functionality. Since Lists are currently limited to 500 members though, if the author of the List follows more than 500 people, at best, you can get a partial view. Still, if the List mirrored someone’s “preferred view” you might see what they look at most of the time in one of those apps like Tweetdeck.
- No Commitment – presently, when you follow someone else’s list, you’re simply giving yourself a link to that view, not following any of the list members. Again, it’s more like clicking over to see someone else’s stream than actually adding people to yours. Sort of a try before you buy. You can always click to view the members of the List and follow or unfollow folks from there.
On the Minus Side
- Noble Intentions Are Not the Norm – the potential for abuse/misuse of Lists is high. Let’s be candid, shall we? There will always be people who use something with the best of intentions and there will always be those who use it with the worst of intentions. If the beneficial uses outweigh the destructive ones? Then it’s a good idea. But relying upon people to not abuse something or use it for harm is naive. Let’s talk about how this feature can be abused, shall we?
- yes, this is a real troll lister
1) Negative Lists – it’s all well and good to find yourself on the “Really Smart People” list, it’s not exactly a joy to see your name on the “Stupid Egotistical Ass” list. Sure, we can say that people “shouldn’t care” or “should grow thicker skins” but ’shoulds’ and ‘ares’ are two different things. The truth is that most people are hurt when people say mean things about them. Especially in public. Worse yet? What if that list comes up on the first page of Google? Sure, it’s not supposed to mean anything really – but what happens when the HR person Googling your name comes up with a bunch of links to lists that are vile? Do you really think that impression won’t linger in the back of her mind?
2) Gaming Lists to Swindle the Unwary – for quite some time now, there has been an element on Twitter that has used high “followers” numbers to indicate to potential clients that they were some sort of “social media expert” and the unwary were not clued in to the number of tools that allowed people to ‘game’ that number using loopholes that allowed them to artificially inflate those numbers. Lists will be even easier to game. That the number of lists one is on is shown on a users profile page is a weakness that will be exploited. “I have over 50k followers and am on over 300 Lists for Social Media Experts” is a phrase that we can expect the unwary to hear as they are pitched by these “experts.” How can you game them? Far more easily than getting 50k followers. Each account is able to create up to 20 lists with up to 500 names on the list. Expect to see services that say “join this service and create 20 lists with names of other users and you will be on thousands of lists yourself shortly!” Yes, this will happen. Yes, the knowledgable will discount the influence of number of lists quickly. But just like people still think that number of followers means something as a metric, so too, they will look at number of lists as one.
- Unintentional Hurt or Offense – Chris Brogan covered this thoroughly in his post so I’ll just outline it simply. I know that we’re all supposed to be emotionally secure adults, unaffected by inclusion or exclusion from being put on someone else’s Lists. I know that more than one person is going to comment about that below. But can we drop the pretense? Even the most secure, well adjusted person feels a little twinge of disappointment when s/he isn’t included by someone s/he respects and thinks values them back. Sure, I don’t care what a stranger on the Internet thinks of me – but I sure as heck do care what someone I respect and value thinks of me. If I don’t make your “really awesome cool people” List? I probably won’t say anything, because I’d rather pretend that it was accidental rather than intentional… because finding out that it wasn’t an oversight? That would hurt.
You know what? I don’t want to hurt or offend or exclude anyone I care for. And I know I would. I know that at some point, someone I care about would feel left out or disappointed. I don’t want to be “that gal” – the one who left a dear friend off of the list and didn’t find out until years later that she was hurt but didn’t want to say anything.
- People Are Subjective, Not Objective – so you set out to make a list of “Thought Leaders” in your area. You’re adding people to your list when you realize that @UserX really should be on the list. S/he is generally considered a thought leader after all. But damn it all, you *hate* @UserX! You think s/he is a fraud. You just can’t bring yourself to endorse @UserX. What do you do? Pay lipservice to @UserX and add them? Or leave them off the list knowing full well that you are being less than honest with your list? Tough call, isn’t it. Emotions can and will play a factor in most peoples’ Lists.
- Changing the Twitter Ecosphere – this one I know won’t make a lot of sense immediately, but it will in a couple of months. Lists will change the way people engage on Twitter – and probably not for the better. The ability to follow someone *else’s* list without actually having to commit to anything will change things in the long run. As a new user, I now no longer have to commit to following someone to see them regularly. I can follow a list they are on and read that list whenever I choose. Do you know I’m interested in what you are saying? No. Do I know you exist? Not necessarily. Currently, if you follow me, I get notified. I go and look at your twitterstream and decide if you’re real, not spamming me, and not offensive. If so? I follow you. Now, you follow a list that follows me. You might @ me, I might @ back – but if I click through to your stream and see you aren’t following me? The likelihood I’ll follow you is slim. Have we engaged? Do we have a relationship? Nope, not really. What will this do in the long run? Not sure exactly, but relatively sure that it’s not going to help me connect with new people. The value of Twitter for me has always been in connecting with people and I suspect that value is just about to be diminished.
Well That’s Most of My Story
So honestly, if you made it through all of that (wordier than I intended again) I think you might understand why I am opting out of the whole “List creation” experience. I certainly don’t think it’s “evil” – but I think the negatives outweigh the positives.
I kind of hate the fact that I’m going to have to monitor the Lists people put me on semi-regularly to see whether or not I have to block some trollish attempt to put me on a derogatory list. Every moment that I have to spend doing that is one that I don’t get to interact with people I want to on Twitter. But I’m also not going to wait until Twitter figures out how to monitor their own nifty feature to see that it’s not abused.
I appreciate if you love the positive aspects of Lists. I just hope you now appreciate that there are negative aspects which I doubt Twitter considered when they implemented the feature.
What did I miss? Something positive or negative that hasn’t come up yet?
Add to my perspective please. But if you’re just going to say “people shouldn’t be offended”? Yeah, don’t waste your time. I already addressed that above under Negative Lists.
Geek Moments In Television
October 31, 2009
As GeekDaddy and I got caught up on DVRed episodes of Stargate Universe, it suddenly occurred to me that whomever pitched this series – and it’s predecessors – to the SciFi Channel* must’ve really been hardcore television science fiction geek… and by that? I mean “a fan of the Star Trek franchise.“**
What made me think this? It was a quick conversational moment between me and my husband. We were speculating whether or not this particular Stargate series would see the cast leaving the ship for a planet or not.
Visions of previous science fiction shows where the ship’s unending voyage flashed through my head: Farscape, Battlestar Galactica (both versions) and then naturally Star Trek.
I looked at my husband and said “huh… do you realize that this kind of mirrors the Star Trek series?”
What did I mean?
Well, there was this one really awesome television show, Star Trek (the original series), and this one really awesome movie, Stargate. They both launched franchises that have pretty much been juggernauts. Oddly, the underlying premise of the order of the series in each franchise matches up nicely.
Star Trek – the Next Generation (TNG) ===> Stargate SG-1 (SG-1)
Both revolve around people leaving their home base (TNG the ship, SG-1 the Earth base) to have episodic run-ins with the evil-or-not-so-evil aliens. Initially, everything was wrapped up during the course of one episode. TNG had the Romulans and SG-1 the Goa’uld. As things progressed, each morphed into multi-episode story arcs and got a bigger, badder, smarter, scarier enemy. TNG got the Borg and SG-1 got the Ori.
Star Trek – Deep Space Nine (DS9) ===> Stargate Atlantis (ATL)
Both take place on remote outposts. Earth isn’t in the picture here really. Sure there’s some contact. Sometimes the outpost is cut off. Both have wormholes to distant galaxies and Either way, there’s some mysterious race that provides the focus for the show – the Founders/Changelings of the Gamma Quadrant for DS9, the Ancients in the Pegasus Galaxy for ATL. The station inhabitants are usually on their own to face their problems – but somehow there’s also a bunch of local friendly aliens who get worked into the core team as trusted members.
Granted, the Founders end up being the complex bad-guys of the Dominion in DS9, while the gothy Wraith in ATL were the accidental foe of the Ancients – but hey, at least they didn’t stick with the lame Cardassians (DS9) or the Genii (ATL) who were essentially just angry, militaristic foes, rather than complex ones.
Star Trek – Voyager (VOY) ===> Stargate Universe (SU)
Granted, it’s only 5 episodes into SU as I write this, but come on now… a bunch of people, on a ship, far far from home – struggling to get back to Earth. STV only put their crew 75 years from home, a mere 70k light years away from home. SU has upped the ante by throwing their crew “billions of light years from home” in another galaxy entirely, not just a far-flung quadrant of the Milky Way. Both series have that “will they or won’t they ever get home?” element that wears thin after awhile. While it took VOY awhile to figure out how to create a method of contact between the ship & Earth, SU starts right off usings a communications device first used in the SG-1 series to have the two worlds touch base occasionally as necessary.
Still not convinced? Well, granted, the timing was a bit off, but both did have a not-as-successful-as-the-rest animated series: for Star Trek, it was Star Trek: The Animated Series in 1973 & 1974 while Stargate Infinity only ran for one season starting in 2002 and barely made a blip on the radar. Still, it’s worth noting that both franchises gave it a go.
Looking into the future & seeing the past
So where does that leave us? Well, if things keep progressing, apparently the next Stargate franchise will take its cue from Star Trek and we’ll have a “Stargate Ancients” series that mirrors Stargate Enterprise in taking us “back to the beginning.” At least, if they haven’t already done it, they ought to look at it. I have to say that I never watched a single episode of the Enterprise series – but it ran for 4 seasons. Hey, why mess with a successful formula?
Are you listening Brad Wright?*** Yeah, we’re on to you. Keep up the good work.
* Now SyFy but I still hate that name change.
** I know, I looked it up near the end of writing this – but I had no idea when the thought first occurred to me.
*** Yes, I looked it up on Wikipedia just for this article. No, I don’t really think it was planned this way, but I think I might be more impressed if I thought it was, rather than it just being an uncanny coincidence. Either way, if they end up doing something similar? I’m sure it had nothing to do with this post . It’s not like anyone couldn’t think of it.
What Do You Do For a Living Again?
April 6, 2009
A conversation between GeekDaddy and I last night prompted this post. But I’ll spare you the actual details of the conversation and just sum it up. You’ll get why in a moment.
We were talking about how unless you are speaking to someone who works in Information Technology, you always end up “dumbing down” your job description when someone asks you what you do for a living.
Yes, I know, there are other fields and jobs that also require “dumbing down” for the average person not in that field, but at least there’s usually some level of basic comprehension. For instance, if I said “I’m a medical doctor” or “I’m a lawyer” – the average person would nod and say “oh!! Okay!” and have at least a general idea of what that means. Yes, they might not know the difference between a Litigator and someone who works with Intellectual Property rights – or the difference between a GP and an Oncologist… but there’s no look of utter bafflement.
I attribute this to the fact that those professions have been around for a few centuries – whereas 99% of the jobs in technology field didn’t exist before the past one.
Granted, there are a few jobs in tech that people nod and ‘get’ – programmer, tech support – but they really have no idea what you do unless you care to get deeper into it. Ask any phone support guy how many times he has to deal with a customer who thinks he can “just go right in and change that” or any programmer how many times she’s had to explain to a relative that “no, she doesn’t know what’s wrong with that software, she’s never used it before.” It’s right up there with asking your podiatrist dentistry questions.
So when GeekDaddy recently accepted a Director position at his company – we both laughed at how much easier it would be for our extended families to answer what he does when asked now. Just around the same time that it got much, much harder to describe what I do for a living.
You see, before Buttercup was born, it was easy for friends & family to say that I was a “College Professor” as they didn’t have to really explain what I taught – just say “something to do with computers” and whomever was asking didn’t inquire further.
Today though? My “job description” is pretty much threefold. I’m a Blogger, I’m a Speaker, and I’m a Social Media Strategist.
Now, the odds are pretty good that if you’ve been coming here for any length of time you have a general idea about the first two, and a better understanding of the third one than most people.
But the odds are also pretty good that if your own job title has the phrase “Social Media” in it? You try to figure out ways around that when you’re talking to the average person as well.
Mostly, I find that when someone asks me what I do for a living any more, I usually just try to laugh it off and say “I play on the Internet for a living, and when I’m lucky, I get paid to write about it or to speak about how I do it for others.” This has actually, unfortunately, backfired more often than not and required a much lengthier explanation than if I said “I’m a Social Media Strategist, Blogger and Speaker.”
It turns out that there is no easy way to explain what I do, unless you work in the same field or have had to listen to the long version.* And usually, when I do go so far as to give someone the “long version” it’s met with “but why would anyone pay you to do that?”
It’s usually at that point that I try the old patented “well enough about me… Let’s talk about you. What do you do these days?”
But lately I’ve been thinking about just telling folks that I’m a wizard when asked. I think it’s a bit less mysterious. And maybe they’ll think twice about sitting around for the “long version.”
*trust me when I tell you that my “long version” is the edited version evenso… I could go on for days about Social Media – but it’s only really interesting to someone who works in the field or wants to. And they already get it.
Please Leave a Message At the Sound of the Tone…
January 5, 2009
“Domo Origato, Mister Roboto…” – Styx
There’s been a bit of hubbub lately about automation on social networks like Twitter. Prominent folks have come out saying how anti-social it is to automate certain functions because it simulates engagement without actually being genuine.
I get dozens of automated Direct Messages (DMs) in my Twitter inbox daily that say something along the lines of “Thanks for following me! yadda-yadda-yadda…” After awhile I was on the band-wagon. “Don’t send me your auto-DMs! I don’t want your free e-book, or a link to your website! Be real!!!”
But I kept seeing these DMs despite the seemingly general sentiment against them. Then I realized something – those calling for the ‘end to the robots’ are also power-users. By power-users, I mean they’re folks who a) are followed by thousands of people and b) follow most of them back.
It’s that following back part that triggers these automated messages. Sent out from a variety of different services, the average user signs in once, sets up a generic “Thanks for following me! yadda-yadda-yadda…” message and doesn’t think twice about it afterwards.
So clearly, there’s a discrepency here: the usage/impression varies depending on how the user interacts on Twitter. If you follow less than one person a day, say maybe 5 a week, and only a couple of them send those messages – the annoyance factor is going to be far less.
That got me started thinking about automation in general. Since I had gotten behind on my own ‘followbacks’ in the month of December (to the tune of about 1500 people!) I turned to a friend of mine who really ‘gets’ thewhole automation thing – Jesse Stay [@jessestay] the creator of SocialToo.com.
The reason I contacted him was that I knew his service offered an option to “automatically follow back” those who followed me. I asked Jesse if that was “from the time I registered” or if there was a way I could retroactively follow all of those people whose notifications were sitting in my inbox, pushing it over 2,000 unread emails.
Jesse told me that he had been working on a premium option (now live) that allowed the user to run a ‘one time’ catch-up script. Was I game? Sure. Because at that kind of number, it would be easier for me to go back through them and unfollow people that I didn’t want to interact with than it would to a) open each email, b) click on the link to their twitter, c) click on the follow button (or not), d) go back to the email, close it and go on to the next. For fifteen-hundred-plus people. So Jesse ran the script for me. About 10 minutes later, what would’ve taken me hours was done.
Do other ‘power-users’ use this automated follow-back? I suspect so. There are some who probably do what I do and try to manually do it every day – but you know what? That’s a lot of time spent just going thru the notifications.
So is some automation good but other automation bad? My analysis? No. It’s how you use it that makes it effective or ineffective. To that end, I wanted to ask Jesse some questions about SocialToo.com and find out a bit more about what he’s done and why.
Here’s that Interview
GeekMommy: Jesse, I hope you don’t mind if I write about the fact that I turned to you for help with the automated following.
Jesse: That’s no problem – I’m probably going to turn that into a one-time payment, or possibly donation tonight or tomorrow as a new feature on the site if others would like that. I’m thinking maybe $15-$20 to turn that on once, but I may just make it a donation. (Note: the service is presently live at a one time fee of $5 on the SocialToo site ~GM)
GM: Your script took literally *days* off of my timeline for that. After the script ran, I went back through my following list and pared it down a bit based on whether or not people were following/engaging with me and also if they were spammy or scary – and I still had to go thru 348 pages of following folks on Twitter for that!
Jesse: I’m glad it could help. That’s why we started this – there were too many time-consuming tasks like that, and as Twitter grows that will only get worse.
GM: I really think that people are mistaking the tools for the issue. Anyone can use automation – but how they use it may or may not ‘work’ for someone else.
Jesse: Exactly. My goal is to try and satisfy those for automation, and those against automation, too. If you don’t like the auto-dms people send you, we’ll provide an option for that as well (I should note that I currently have a beta feature turned on for just my account that disables socialtoo-generated DMs from being sent to me.) Many, if not most people I hear from don’t mind them. Most of those people also aren’t following 4,000 people. We all have different circumstances, and should be able to control the way we use the service, and enhance the relationships we have as we use it.
GM: To me, the real issue with DMs is that they shouldn’t be tied to following. Just because I read your blog doesn’t mean I want to give you my home phone number too…. Likewise, just because I’d like you to have my home phone doesn’t mean I’m interested in reading your blog… The issue lies with Twitter, not with automation.
Jesse: Very true – I’ve got a post I’ve been meaning to write about this as well. Twitter relationships are broken. On Facebook, if I want to be your friend and follow your updates, you have to approve me doing so, and vice-versa. Once you approve me, there is a mutual relationship there, and both can know that they can see and follow each others updates if they choose. It’s built into the system. Then, Facebook has built in Friend lists and privacy filters to control what you want to see amongst those you have agreed to be friends with. Twitter gives no protection to users – relationships can be one-way, which IMO hurts the network. People can follow me but there’s no guarantee I’m listening, or even have the chance of listening down the road.
Then again, some people like that, and that’s how they use the service. There’s no wrong or right way to use the service – this is just my perception.
GM: That said, automation is a good tool used effectively. Ask anyone complaining about it if they have voicemail or not?
Jesse: Twitter itself is an automated tool – I don’t see people criticizing Twitter. These are all tools, and they’re built to give you flexibility to build the strongest relationships you can, and retain those relationships. I call it Relationship Metrics – the tracking of those you follow, and those that follow you, and finding ways to retain those followers and build strong relationships with them. The more people you can build a strong relationship with, the more “authoritative” (for lack of a better term) you can become.
GM: What made you decided to start SocialToo.com? Was it more a matter of wanting certain functions yourself and making them available for others, or of seeing people ask for something and fulfulling that niche? (or something else entirely!)
Jesse: It was a combination of the two. I don’t ever like to do things manually that could be automated. I was already manually following everyone who followed me on Twitter – I like to solidify the relationships of people that are interested in me. It’s just my policy, and it’s important to me. At the same time I wanted a way I could choose not to follow certain people. I believe it was Chris Pirillo [@chrispirillo] that mentioned he wanted a way to follow those that were following him on Twitter automatically, so I wrote a script for him to run on his servers (or Mac – not sure which). I ran the script for myself as well, and I built blacklisting functionality into it so I could exclude spammers and the like from being followed if I didn’t want to follow certain accounts.
Then, after following Guy Kawasaki [@guykawasaki], I noticed when he asked for the same functionality. I offered him my script, but quickly realized not everyone was going to be able to set up my script, and setting it up for them would require me asking for their Twitter credentials in person, which I really didn’t want to do. So I wrote a UI (user interface) around the script, put a database on the backend, and enabled it to support multiple users, allowing them to enter their own Twitter credentials in so I didn’t have to see them. And that was the beginning of SocialToo.com – I believe this was around April or May of this year.
Chris Pirillo also gave me some great advice as we were building it (along with Ponzi [@ponzarelli]) contributing to the auto-unfollow capability. Guy then later approached me with an idea about creating surveys you could Tweet to your friends, in similar manner to TwitPic, but for surveys and polls. I gave him some ownership of SocialToo, we built it out, and launched all features of SocialToo, officially to the public in November.
TechCrunch featured a survey Guy posted on our first day of launch, and we knew it was an instant hit. In just a month we have garnered near 5,000 subscribers on the service, and I expect that to at least triple in the next month.
GM: Do you foresee premium services down the line?
Jesse: Yes, we will be building on a Freemium model. The base features that are currently there should remain free. Our target market is small to even large businesses that want to better track the relationships of people that follow them on the social networks they belong to. We’re establishing a new concept I call “relationship metrics”, which tracks statistics around the relationships you create, along with another concept I call “relationship retainment”, helping you to retain the relationships you build. We’ll provide premium features on top of an already rich feature-set that will support these concepts.
GM: You managed a function for me by running a script that followed back for me over 1500 people in a matter of minutes – do you plan on offering something similar to users down the line? What about a script that does the opposite – unfollowing everyone for someone so that they could ’start over’ on their follow lists?
Jesse: Unfollowing *everyone* is a novel idea – I’ll think about that one, but I could certainly imagine that being a feature. To answer to the function we ran for you, the answer is yes, and hopefully in the next couple days. There is a chance that will be a one-time pay feature*, or perhaps at least a donation of some sort. We’re a completely bootstrapped company, so I’m very eager to start monetizing some of this! A family of 6 is not easy to support as an entrepreneur! (*again, this feature has been implemented since our interview, for a small one time fee of $5 ~GM)
GM: What are your plans for SocialToo.com in 2009?
Jesse: Expect some interesting partnerships with other products and services. I’m not going to say what right now, but we’re going to be launching some unique services that will make these partnerships much easier, and will provide a wealth of information for other products and services. Expect some interesting monetization strategies – in particular around the SocialSurveys themselves. There will always be a free option, very similar to what we provide now, but I have some ideas that could be win-win for our users and us as a company.
My hope is, as we become profitable, to hire several more people and build out the statistics much more than they are currently. I’d also like a much more solid and feature-rich Survey product. There will also be several new products released – remember, our goal is to be your “companion to the social web”. Whatever we can do to further complement your experience on the social networks you belong to, we’ll be working to do so.
Oh, and Twitter will not be our only focus. Very shortly, as soon as we solidify our focus around Twitter, we’ll be expanding features around the other networks we support (Facebook and Identi.ca), along with some new networks we haven’t yet announced. Keep an eye out for that, as I think that is what will make this service very powerful.
GM: How do you deal with people who are saying that “automation” or “robots” don’t have a place on Twitter?
Jesse: Those people are right, based on the way they use the service. People that don’t mind “automation” or “robots” are also right. Personally, I don’t enable auto-dm (except when I’m testing new features, which is happening currently) for my personal account [@JesseStay]. At the same time, I think it’s appropriate to auto-dm for our company’s @socialtoo account. We thank them for joining SocialToo and tell them how to contact us. I don’t think that’s any different than an auto-responder for new subscriptions to any new service. We’re just doing it through Twitter.
Some people have thousands of followers however. Getting a new auto-dm every minute gets annoying, especially when many of them are generic and meaningless. It’s my intention to provide solutions around this as well – our goal is to stay flexible enough to where we can satisfy the way multiple types of users use these Social Networks. For instance, I’m testing a feature right now which we may or may not release, in which you can opt to not receive SocialToo-generated auto-dms. That may or may not be released, but it shows that I am aware of the other opinion. We’re also working on better ways to make the auto-dms much more personal, and more real. For instance, I’ve found when you mention a person’s real name in the dm they are many times more likely to start conversation with you, and appreciate the message. People should have choices, depending on the way they use Twitter. At the same time we all have a responsibility to be responsible, and considerate of different types of users that may be overwhelmed by such features. There’s no wrong or right way to use these services.
There’s no wrong or right way to use these services… How many times have I said that? Yes, I have my preferences too – but in the end, telling someone else that how they use a service is “wrong” because it’s not how you do it? Is like telling them that they should like spinach because you do and they shouldn’t like kumquats because you don’t. Automation isn’t the end of the social aspect of networks like Twitter – used correctly, it’s something that just gets us to the socializing faster.
After talking to Jesse, I changed my policy. I now have an auto-DM set up – it says “Nice to meet you <<firstname>>. This *is* an automated message, but only to say I will check out your Twitter shortly” because I’m all about transparency. I’m not going to pretend it’s not an automated message – any more than I pretend that you’re talking to me when you reach my voicemail. But I do think it’s nice to acknowledge to someone that I’m not just going to ignore them just because I’m not online 24 hours a day.
Am I using the auto-follow feature of SocialToo right now? No, I’m back to my old methods of adding manually. Which means I need to quit writing this and get to back to my inbox. Thanks for reading (if you did) this lengthy post. I really think we’ll see people adapt to the automation tools the same way we have to voicemail and call-waiting… but until then, we may have to slog through a few unwanted DMs.
Really, Tell me How to Be a GeekMommy
December 23, 2008
A Guest Post by the Amazing Wendy Piersall
When I asked Lucretia to do a guest post here, I had to think to myself – what do people interested in Geekdom want to hear about? Which got me thinking about geekdom in general, which brings us to this question:
How the heck did being a ‘Geek’ suddenly become cool? Seriously – when I was in high school, there was not a shred of coolness in being geeky. There wasn’t even much coolness in getting good grades. And there was certainly NO coolness in being tech savvy (think the A/V club. Yeeks.)!
But in the last few years, suddenly smart became sexy. Tech became tantalizing. And A/V might as well stand for “Always Vogue“. And here’s some geeky proof: keyword research reveals that some of the top-searched terms relating to geek include: “geek girl” “geek chic” “hot geek” and even “sexy geek”.
So, imagine my surprise as I expand my Sparkplugging blog network into all sorts of “geeky cool” topics like web marketing, eBay selling and business coaching. But I find that the two blogs I consider to be the least geeky – kids activities and mom contests – are the ones getting freaky amounts of traffic. And it’s not just my network – I’m also doing some consulting with Escalate Media as they brand and expand their womens network of sites, including TotallyHer.com. The most popular topics there are “home and food” and “beauty and fashion“.
So what’s a true geek to do?
I mean, I’m at a loss here – my ‘home‘ is a perpetual mess, and my husband cooks more ‘food‘ than I do. I may be able to put together a great outfit, but the reality of the matter is that there is a 90% chance my ‘fashion‘ look came from Target. Embracing this anti-geekdom isn’t easy for someone who knows more about PPC than the PTA. 
But I have to say, sometimes I just want to give up all this business stuff and go be a crafting blogger. I want to take a month to do craft projects with my kids every day. When I read Posie Gets Cozy and I want to sew dolls. And when I read The Pioneer Woman and I just want to take pictures all day.
So, I ask of you, GeekMommy community – how do you balance geekiness with mommyness? Trying to be both feels a little like multiple personality disorder to me.
For more on Wendy and the amazing Sparkplugging community ~GM
Technology Tuesday – Better Late Than Never…
August 13, 2008
I was waiting to post today until I could give you the good news… but the folks at UPS believe in keeping me on my toes. Usually, they deliver to my house by 3 p.m. at the latest – unless of course, I’m watching the door for them. Then they show up like they did tonight at 7 p.m.
Seriously. The darn things went “Out for Delivery” at 5:42 a.m. You’d think they drove them in from Kansas.
Still, just moments before Buttercup’s bathtime, the doorbell rang and my nice UPS guy dropped off a box from the amazing folks at Pure Digital Technologies.
Inside the box was a shiny, new Flip Ultra video camera*… which I have yet to even have taken out of it’s gorgeous packaging since I want to have time to do this and savor it.
Did I say “a shiny, new Flip Ultra video camera“? I meant two shiny, new Flip Ultra video cameras!!
That’s right, not only are the folks at Pure Digital helping me to begin vlogging my way along – they’re going to let me give one away to one of you, dear readers, so that you can join in the fun!
What do you have to do to win? Join me next week for Technology Tuesday when I will post my review of the Flip Ultra and the contest details! If you’re afraid you might forget, or just don’t want to miss anything else witty I might say, you can always subscribe to my RSS feed using your favorite feed-reader. Or you can wait for me to twitter it, I do that too!
Anyhow. See ya tomorrow – and next Tuesday!
*yeah, I know previously I said Flip Mino – that’s what I thought was coming – but you don’t see me complaining!! This way I get to vlog and one of you gets to join me – much better deal if you ask me!
Changes on the Horizon…
August 4, 2008
Over the next week or two if you come here – expect to see some changes and construction going on. Due to some unexpected events, I’ve decided it’s time I quit distributing myself in several places on the web under differing identities and putting my time & energy into multiple blogs when this is really the one I want to build into my home.
In other words, I’m selling the vacation homes & town houses and putting all my efforts, time & money into making this my dream home, if you will.
Things you’ll be seeing in the near future should include:
- Moving this site to a hosted server and off of the WordPress servers
- Minor site redesigns to make it more readable/navigable (pictures are good too!)
- More frequent & regular posting (yay!) and structure (did I mention pictures?)
- Video Blogs (or vlogs) in conjunction with an upcoming project I’m going to announce in a later post
- More transparency – yes, I’ll probably still refer to people including my family by pseudonyms to respect their own right to privacy – but there will be more of me here – name, pictures, information. About what you’d expect from someone who wants to really interact with you!
What’s new structure-wise
As of next week at the latest (later this week if I’m on my toes!) you can expect me to start posting daily on particular topics. That is to say, there will be at least one-post on each designated day inline with that day’s topic.
Here’s the line-up as it stands now
- Money-wise Mondays – posts about money matters, including how to save a few $ in this increasingly bad economy, when every penny counts!
- Technology Tuesdays – posts about tech/geek things that catch my fancy. Could be hardware, could be software, could be Internet or social-media platforms. You know me… geek talk!
- Weight Loss Wednesdays – these will hopefully be shorter than most the others, but to the point and with information. I’m on a weight loss journey and I want to lose 50 lbs by my birthday next year (July 26, 2009) at the latest. After that, it’s my intention to convert this to Wellness Wednesdays, but one step at a time!
- Thoughtful Thursdays – let’s face it, sometimes you just need to blog about stuff that is on your mind. I suspect that in the upcoming months there will be political posts in this category as we reach the November U.S. presidential elections – but it could be anything from education, to pop-culture, to social dynamics.
- Freeform Fridays – Exactly what it sounds like – might even mean I choose not to post – or post links, things that could’ve been on a different day, whatever. You can’t be bohemian without some built in spontaneity!
Don’t worry – the Mommy posts will still be there too… they’ll just be the frosting on the cake, as it were.
Oh – and did I mention there would be contests? Yeah, there will be contests & giveaways. Something I’ve kind of avoided doing until now. I just took a poll amongst some close internet friends and found out that people like having the chance to get free cool stuff (go figure!) from sites they like… so who am I to argue?
I’ll also be setting up a product review page as I got some serious feedback on that last one I did for the Brownies & the Wrinkle Releaser and it seems that those are also welcome. In the past, I haven’t reviewed anything submitted to me or pitched, but the more I think about that, the more it seems like I’m refusing to acknowledge good products (or warn about bad ones) simply because I didn’t stumble on it all on my own. Setting the hubris aside, I’m changing that policy. But I PROMISE you that I will always disclose if something I’m reviewing has been sent to me or pitched to me at the time I review it – and that my reviews won’t be colored by that, but as candid and honest as I’ve always been.
So – are you ready? I’m not entirely sure I am! But if you’re willing to come along, I’m willing to give it a go.
Oh, and just a note? I know that not all of those topics will be interesting to all of my readers. I’ve been a “life blogger” for a long time now and realize that not everyone is interested in every topic. So I’ll keep up on the tags and titling on the topical posts so you can customize your own reading experience.
If there’s something you think I’ve missed or just want to put in your two cents, any feedback would be appreciated. If not? Well, I’ll see you on the next post – which is even bigger news, if possible! The times they are a’changin’!!
~ Lucretia (aka GeekMommy)
Possibly the Most Important Thing I’ve Read This Week
July 9, 2008
The Blog Post I’m Referring To Can Be Found Here
I’ve been waiting for this to round out a little bit today before linking it… but I think it’s an important matter to bring up.
Aaron Brazell [@technosailor] at Technosailor.com has posted about an on-going issue with Congress and the current attempt to keep their members from using Social Media tools like Twitter and Qik.
Congressman John Culberson (R-TX) [@johnculberson] has weighed in on the issue making it as simple to understand as can be… something that he would not be allowed to do if the Democrat side of the house has their way on this one. There are congressmen & senators using the internet right now just like you and I do. That needs to continue without censorship in my book.
But rather than recreating the wheel – just go read Aaron’s amazing post on it.
Make Your Life a Little Easier
July 4, 2008
Okay – I know I haven’t been posting much… but are you ready to love me for this one?
I’m going to post two links that are going to make your life much easier. At least one, if not both of these applications is going to make the day-to-day stuff so much easier that you’ll wonder how you got along without them.
I need to credit Chris Pirillo [@chrispirillo] for bringing my attention to the first one and Aaron Brazell [@technosailor] for the second one. All thanks go to them, not me. I’m just sharing my giddiness!
Ready?
Okay then…
Application #1
http://whenisgood.net/
You know how freaking hard it is to schedule anything in your life? Especially when you’re dealing with your busy friends and family – or trying to set up a meeting or something fun…
You send a ton of emails back and forth, right? You say “let’s get together! Do you have any time next weekend?” and you get back “Um, maybe on Saturday, what works for you?” and you say “How about 2pm?” and get back “um, we’ve got a prior engagement…”
I’d keep going – but I’m sure you know the routine from here. A dozen or so emails later you have “penciled in plans.”
Not any more.
Now you go to When Is Good?
screen shot of the whenisgood grid
1) Click the grid for all the times that are good for you – you get a link to email to your invitees.
2) They see your proposed times and click on when they are free.
3) You visit your results page and see when everyone can do.
No sign-up form. No password to choose. No fuss at all.
And when you’re done marveling over how easy it was to find a time that everyone can get together this time – you’ll be sending the link to everyone who ever asks you ‘When is good for you?’
Yes, if we’re in the same town you can send me a link some time to let me know when is a good time to celebrate your freedom from this little scheduling dance!
Application #2
http://awayfind.com/
landing page awayfind.com
Now this one is Private Beta still. So you’ll have to apply for an invite on the homepage – or wait until they go open to the public – but if you wait, you’ll be kicking yourself when you do get around to it for not applying sooner!
What exactly it does is a bit more complicated – so rather than reinvent the wheel, I’ll let you go to AwayFind.com yourself to see the full description. But what if I told you that you could stop obsessively checking your email all the time – and only check it a couple of times a day – knowing that if it’s something really important, you’ll get notified?
The Reader’s Digest version is that AwayFind.com allows you to manage your inbound email whether you are in the office or out on vacation so that the truly urgent stuff finds you. Need to delegate a certain type of email? You can do that too. Want to be able to ‘pre-sort’ your email so that it goes to different email addresses depending on the type of contact it is? Yep. You can do that too. How about having notices sent to your phone if it’s an emergency or even just that one email you’ve been checking obsessively for? Yep. You guessed it.
Alright – I won’t keep you any longer. If you’ve read this far, you’re already itching to get over to AwayFind.com and see what the heck I’m talking about. Go on. I’ll be around.
But later? Let me know what you think of it.
Because after all… that’s the only way I know whether to post more of these things for y’all or not.
Have fun being more productive!!
Dear Geeky Universe…
April 28, 2008
They say that you don’t usually get what you want unless you ask for it.
I’d say you could take that axiom and add “or unless you build it yourself” on the end of it and you’ll get the psychology that makes technology startups and entrepreneurs tick.
You don’t get what you want unless you ask for it or build it yourself.
I’m not an entrepreneur, however, so that second part is not really my bailiwick. I used to try and ‘build it myself’ but then I realized that I’m the sort who has dozens of unfinished projects cluttering up my basement, my garage, and my hard-drive. I have ideas but they seldom get past the initial architecting phase.
Ten years after I took the top end off of my 1968 Triumph T100C as part of its restoration process, I realized that the top was still off of it, covered in dust, and unlikely to spontaneously restore itself… so I sold it to someone who was a “doer” and I’m sure it is much happier being on the road these days since he restored it.
So the bike is on the road again… Where is this going?
My point in giving the above example is that I’m the sort who would rather see something done right than to profit from it myself. If I’m not going to do it, it shouldn’t just sit in my garage being a great “wouldn’t that have been something?” idea.
So I’m going to put this out there in the hopes that someone who is a ‘doer’ sees it and realizes where it can go and builds it so I can use it. If they also happen to make a zillion dollars? Well, yeah, buy me dinner some night and let me in on your beta.
What I need/want/wish someone would build and why
There are a lot of systems that come close out there – but none that actually addresses this need in full.
Recently, I’ve been lucky enough to help Erin Kotecki Vest (also known as Queen of Spain from her very popular blog and @QueenofSpain on Twitter) by trying to facilitate the first couple episodes of her fledgling web show.
Now Erin has years of broadcast experience and is very good at doing what she does. She’s a great interviewer and host – and both guests and audiences have a great time whenever she’s interacting with them. That said, any web show is only as good as its platform. If the show crashes every 5 minutes, loses guests, dies of lag… that’s all anyone remembers about it.
What I’ve been trying to do is help with the moderating, the technical issues, the general ’stuff a production assistant does’ in most broadcast fields. But we’ve discovered that none of the services presently available for doing this actually have all the functionality that would make the show sail along smoothly.
Last night, after crashing one time too many on Stickam.com, Erin’s show moved to the Yahoo!Live platform (still in beta) and after the past couple of weeks of frustration – we started discussing what we needed and trying to figure out who might provide it. We looked at ustream, at non-webpage solutions like ooVoo and Skype, and a handful of other things people messaged me with. All of which are great at what they are doing, but none of which currently offers all the things we were looking for.
The List
What we keep talking about is a service that allows Erin (or anyone) to broadcast a produced, realtime, webcam show with guests that allows for audience participation. Features we need:
- Main video feed - this larger window is for the show host
- Additional video feed windows – these smaller windows allow the host to pull video &/or audio feeds from the guests – preferably 4 or more – with individual volume controls and controlled access.
- Chat room – real-time chatroom that allows for large numbers of text interactions
- Dual Moderator capabilities – both host and ‘producer’ should be able to moderate fully – with the ability to enable feeds, boot people from chat room, enable recording, and open/close room. Additionally text in chat window should be differently formatted for moderator & host.
- Recording – the ability to record the entirety of the show – not just the host window, but also the other feeds & chat – for future playback.
- Private messaging – separate window chat messaging which can be turned on/off/blocked by chatters (so that host/guests don’t get PMd by random chat room folks)
- Audio Line between Host & ‘producer’ – so that producer can speak with host, but not necessarily heard in general broadcast.
- Stability – if the host gets disconnected, the room needs to persist unless the producer also gets disconnected so that audience is not lost if there are connectivity issues.
- Webpage/URL permanence and video hosting – the problem with a lot of solutions is that they require software downloads on the part of the audience. This has to function like a ‘web television’ show. Post a link, click on it during broadcast time, see the video and join the chat. Also, saved sessions need to be accessible from the show’s main page.
That’s the “must-haves” the “nice to haves but can be implemented down the road” include:
- Calendar scheduling - it’s a nice thing, but not needed immediately.
- Scripted Text - for both the host and the producer, the ability to post things to the chat room that are pre-scripted so that messages can be repeated easily.
- Question Queues - it would be fabulous to have the chat room be able to click on an “Ask a question” button that queues up the text questions in order and is viewable by host & producer but can be ‘passed’ or ‘deleted’ as well.
- Custom ‘Homepage’ Design - obviously, people like to ‘brand’ their shows… down the road that would be a premium service. In fact, many of the ‘nice to haves’ could be premium options.
Why build it and What do you get out of it?
Okay honestly, it’s not that hard to see that Bloggers picked up podcasting, and podcasters are now experimenting with Video shows. And I don’t mean Video podcasts that are edited and slick and professional. I mean live shows that are interactive, dynamic, and unpredictable. But just because it’s live doesn’t mean it should look like it was done in someones garage.
Video Podcasts are the 60 minutes of the Internet – the news magazine format. What we’re talking about here are Live Shows – the Oprahs and Merv Griffins of tomorrow.
But it’s one of those “if you build it they will come” propositions. If you’ve got the platform that makes it easy, manageable, and smooth – you’ll also get the names… and their audiences.
The monetizing is obvious – because you’ve already got the room for advertising in the webpage format… you can also create the premium options – and professional accounts.
Are you still with me?
If you are can you help me out here? Either be the guy with the vision and the ability to implement it – or be the guy that funds it – or be the guy that is dying to code it. And if you aren’t any of those guys? Could you be the guy that helps me get this out there? Because it will seriously make the experience better for the rest of us.
For all of the potential hosts, producers, guests, and audience members – can we maybe shoot for the moon?
I know I’d be willing to take the time to pound out details and beta it if I can be of any help. But I want first shot at playing with it! After all I’m putting it out there and asking nicely.
Dear Geeky Universe – can I have a turnkey professional webcam interactive talkshow solution – please?
or Subscribe by Email!!
