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Thoughts and things I care to sharelinks for 2007-12-22
- James Kendrick has a great post about how and why he doesn’t use “the cloud” for his work. Valid points and concerns – worth the read.
Twitter: How to get value out of this social networking tool
Twitter is one of those tools that you either "get it" or not. It’s really that simple. With that in mind there are ways for you to learn how Twitter can be a tool for success for you, you & your peers, or your organization.
While I dislike the "why Twitter is bad" articles that pop up around the net, this post by Michael Krigsman over at ZDNet does bring up a good point. Like all social networking and media tools, it can be used for improper uses as well as productive ones. Had to get that out of the way before we continue – I do recommend you read Michael’s post though.
So, how do you get value from Twitter? Easy: participate.
Ok, it’s more than that. You’ll not only need to participate, but have people on Twitter that you want or need to participate with. The key to Twitter is to recognize that it is an unfiltered conversation stream. Having people to converse with, whether that’s special interest groups, friends, coworkers, project teams, departmental groups, or an entire enterprise – it’s having the people there that brings the value.
Imagine having geographically diverse project team in a live conversation outside of a conference room during the entire business day. Set aside the "time waster" argument for a minute (it is valid) and look at the communication and thought-sharing aspects.
Additional features of Twitter, help enhance communication and build community. Here are a few;
- Public – It is, in essence, a public forum so a person needs to think more about things before committing them. Or at least realize that what you "tweet" can be transmitted to as many followers as you have, and optionally to the public Twitter stream.
- Brevity – This is my favorite one. Twitter imposes a 140 character limit for each post. What this does is keep interactions short and quick. It also encourages you to (again) think about what you are trying to say. It really helps a person become a better communicator and writer.
- Unstructured – Your "Twitter stream" will have tweets from everyone that you follow (your friends list) that can sometimes appear out of order. There are also no "threading" tools (though many request these) to sort conversations into manageable threads. Also, there are usually several conversations going on at once. It can be a bit overwhelming.
Overall, if you find the reason to give Twitter a try, you will likely find value in the tool. If you just want to see what the hype is all about, you may not. However, if you do jump in – use the search tool to look for people you know – that helps the learning curve a bit. Also, look for your favorite bloggers – they may already be there! There is also some great search tools as well.
Finally, you can find me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rickmahn – I’m on every day and am happy to answer any questions or help find people on Twitter if you like.
links for 2007-12-21
- Good overview if you missed any news a few days ago. What’s interesting is the “secret” reason that Microsoft started work on MinWin/7 in the first place.
- Too bad they have to behave this way. With the growing interest in the Mac platform, this kind of action shows that they’re not any different than Microsoft, IBM, or Google. Tsk, tsk.
A day in the build of the perfect laptop
Some of you know that I have no hesitation to re-format my system and install whatever version of OS that I influenced by at the time. Well, this time I really took the opportunity to re-build my laptop from the ground up.
The opportunity was created by some hardware purchases, a RAM upgrade to 4GB and a 250GB USB HDD. I was running out of space and wanted to get rid of the original dual partitions that were configured at the factory. The laptop (Acer Aspire 5610) came with two 70GB partitions on it’s 160GB HDD – and I hate having to split things up.
So with the new external, I backed it all up, wiped the disk, created the new partition and installed Vista Ultimate back on the clean machine. No Acer software, no other "value adds" that end up causing problems. And finally got a change to take a snapshot of the cleanest Vista install I’ve done to date.
So, I’ve now spent the last 30+ hours rebuilding all the additional software and tools that make up my "kit" for what I do, and there is still probably 10 hours of configuration work left. Yes, I have a lot of software, tools, utilities, tools, VMs, tunes, scripts, and such that takes a lot of time to configure.
The best part, for what I do, is that I have over 120GB free just for Virtual Machines which I use for a substantial amount of testing and proof-of-concept. Along with the extra memory, I just became much more productive in this area.
Anyway, this is the kind of IT geeky stuff I find interesting. Later!
links for 2007-12-20
- Ah, I talk about online office apps on Tuesday and James Kendrick & Keviun Tofel both talk about the mobile tie-in on Wednesday. Cools stuff!
- This is *very* true in corporate environments – where it’s just too easy to test something or put something in “pilot” without the usual funding & approval processes.
- While this comes as a surprise to nobody, I just want to challenge Microsoft to build a browser that I want to switch *back* to. IE7 was not it, and I know they can do it.
links for 2007-12-19
- While some will look at the numbers and say “failure”. The reality is that the numbers indicate that online apps have an astounding opportunity for growth. With Google, Zoho, THinkfree and others racing to provide quality products.
- infoSync World has a roundup of the best mobile internet devices of the year.
Online office – another go
Hey there, ho there – with the current mini-meme of online office app’s getting a bit more attention, I thought I’d give ’em another go. That is, I have used all the major ones in the past year and a half, but have mostly come back to Microsoft Office.
Of course, I truly need MS Office Pro – my clients need documents in Word, drawings in Visio, sheets in Excel, projects in Project, you get the point. So I can’t get rid of Office anytime soon.
However, I can move my needs to the web. This is nothing new as I’ve done this before, and will continue to look at both online & offline solutions for the tasks at hand. What’s interesting is that, most of my existing data is already online. Either in Zoho or Google Docs, I’ve already migrated my “old” data to either one of these services.
Now, some of these posts today talk about the numbers of users, and how these must be an example of the lack of interest by the user community. While it may be true in many instances, my belief is that the applications are just now becoming really comparable to desktop-based solutions. I do think that there is a big future for online app’s, and as more tools like Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight are incorporated, there is very little limit to the things that can be done as a service.
The pieces are already in place, I’m switching back to online app’s instead of Office for my personal use. With the advent of things like Zoho Notebook – even my need of Microsoft OneNote can be addressed.
How about you? Do you use online app’s on a regular basis, just dabble, or avoid these like the plague?
Other people talking about online office app’s & suites today:
- Om Malik: Google Taking Apps In The Sky
- Duncan Riley: Majority Of Americans On Google Docs: “What You Talkin Bout Willis?” (TechCrunch)
- Damon Darlin: Yes, There Can Be Life After Word (New York Times)
- Joe Wilcox: R.I.P.: The Web 2.0 Office Suite
Stripping Facebook Down – Looking for what works.
I’ll admit my original interest in having a Facebook profile was part of the fad. Going along with all the other cool kids at the time, racing towards that socially-connected future that promises so much.
Along the way, I’ve been duped by nearly every cockamamie “app” that’s been launched on Facebook. Or at least it seems that way. Very few have been of any real use. Most were a large waste of my time.
So I just wanted to let my Facebook “friends” know I’m stripping out all the useless Facebook apps from my profile. My intention is not to insult anyone who’s invited me to use an app. My plan is simply to trim down the mess, clutter, and useless apps so I can actually make sense of my Facebook page again. And no, I won’t be accepting new apps that don’t add real value.
Are all those apps really bringing you any value beyond entertainment?
links for 2007-12-18
- Not surprised by this one – kind of poetic for both OSes to share the same list.
- Interesting developments on web voice.
- Another one bites the dust.
- Looking for a good travel software package for your WM device?
- Looking for more personal branding info? Here’s 7 great point on the topic over at Fast Company.
- Doc echos most of my thougts on the idea of social networks in general while addressing a post by Jeremiah Owyang on Facebook.
Google leveraging their GMail address book
It’s perfectly natural, and something that we’ve wanted for some time. Using the Google login for their online properties was the first step (and not finished mind you), but integrating the GMail address book, and adding basic sharing options is a huge step.
When we talk about social networks connecting people, we rarely take a close look at the tools in question. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Plaxo… these are all tools – and so are the Google services. Having some best-of-breed, and some adequate online tools be able to provide sharing capabilities is a huge improvement. It’s much better to add sharing tools to these apps rather than try to build new one’s in someone else’s sandbox.
For me, using Google apps (and Yahoo and MSN/Live apps) every day, I’m looking forward to finding ways to enhance communication and productivity because of these new features. In my opinion, it’s this type of evolution of “social networking” that will become more useful to businesses as well as individuals.
As business-relevant social networking tools become incorporated into the software that businesses use, that’s when you’ll see perceptions of social networking change.
Via: Steve Rubel – Reader Integrates Google’s Stealth Social Net: The Address Book
@MAC_Arms Pay taxes when you make your money, pay taxes when you spend your money, pay taxes when you successfully invest your money, pay taxes when you save enough taxed money to afford a house, pay taxes to live in your house, pay taxes when you sell the house that you paid taxes on to
Yup, taxes are criminal and we need serious reforms. I've always said that if you want to see a tax revolt, make withholdings illegal and have Americans write a tax check every payday. They'll revolt for sure. You don't miss what you never had.
I think it’s safe to say that @GovEvers should stop blocking audits in Wisconsin and open the books…
“Only AMERICAN citizens should vote.”
Sen. @berniemoreno says voter ID and proof of citizenship are simply common sense.
“We’re talking about a very low threshold — identify who you are and prove you’re a U.S. citizen when you register to vote. I think we’re getting closer to
Wrong. Democrats are solely responsible for hours-long airport lines.
They voted to defund TSA three times and won’t even entertain a conversation about reopening it. Why?
They’re using it as leverage to stop enforcing immigration laws.