twitter

Twistori is doing something special today for Apple’s WWDC Keynote. They have launched a special page that replaces the original words (love, wish, hate, etc.) with WWDC related words like wwdc, apple, iphone, steve, and keynote.

Twistori has one of the best implementations of the Twitter API and it is neat to see them extend it for events like this.

This weeks quick website recommendation is twistori. Twistori gathers data from Twitter that matches one of 6 words: love, hate, think, believe, feel, wish. Select one of the terms and twitter messages containing that term will scroll across the page.

This site does an excellent job of displaying twitter information. It is neat to look at the thoughts associated with the various words. Check out twistori and let me know what you think.

The Twitter following is growing larger everyday.  It seems like more and more people that I know, both in person and through the internet, are joining.  One of the biggest hurdles is keeping these people on long enough so they see the benefit.  Here are some tips to make your trip with Twitter as enjoyable as possible.

1. Turn on phone updates. - Twitter works best when you have easy access to it, and what better way then through your phone.  If you are like most humans, you constantly have your cell phone with you.  This provides the easiest access to Twitter.  Once you link up your phone, it will only take seconds to post (send texts to 40404).  The other bonus is that you will receive updates from your friends.  You can choose whose updates get sent to your phone and whose will remain on the web.
2. Follow, follow, follow. - Follow people.  Get your friends to join and follow them.  The fun doesn’t stop there.  It is completely acceptable to follow people you have never met.  You may not know the journalists who write your morning paper, yet you still read their articles.  If you think they post neat stuff then they probably deserve a follow.  I understand that some of you may not know many people on the internet, so here is a list to get you started.  Remember that you can always stop following people down the road with no hard feelings.  Add first and decide later.
   • Biz Stone - He is one of the co-founders of Twitter.  His tweets vary greatly.  It couldn’t hurt to start here.
   • Jack Dorsey - Another co-founder of Twitter.  Again, it couldn’t hurt.
   • Veronica Belmont - Co-host of tech podcast Tekzilla.  She has some real quality tweets.  I highly recommend following her.
   • Annette - It is true that this is my girlfriend, so I may be a little biased.  But, my friends tell me they enjoy her updates more than mine.
   • John Gruber - He generally posts interesting tweets.  Be warned, he posts a bit on the techy side.
   • Amy Jane Gruber - This is a must follow in my book.  Her tweets are absolutely hilarious.  They are so good that me and my girlfriend often discuss them.
   • Scott Simpson - Another must follow.  He posts a real grab bag of material.
   • Scott Beale - Writter of laughingsquid.com.  He often posts links to other sites.
   • Gary Vaynerchuk - If you are a fan of Wine Library TV, then I don’t really need to say more.  Careful, Gary tends to post a lot.
   • Dr. Tiki, Johnny Johnny, Lala - Fans of Tiki Bar TV will like these.
   • Alex Albrecht, Dan Trachtenburg, Jeff Cannata - These are the hosts of the Totally Rad Show.  Great guys all around and good to follow.  Oh and I couldn’t leave out Steve who mans the camera and has mad editing skills.
   • Me - You can always follow me.  If you like the content of this blog, then you may find my updates entertaining.
3. Relax and update. - Don’t hold back.  If something pops into your head then send it off.  Something that you think is mundane may just make someone’s day.  The more you update the better Twitter becomes.  Have fun with it.  This service is meant to provide a good time and if you let it, it can be a blast.

This should be more than enough to get you on your way.  I wish you the best of luck in this crazy internet world limited to 140 characters.  

Twitter, update your friends now. Facebook, update your friends eventually. People utilize Facebook to find out information about their friends or others they may or may not know. They track photos, hobbies, jobs, etc. The problem is that there is a delay. People need to update their profiles with the newest information in order for their friends to be informed. I rarely update my Facebook profile. It takes time and energy to evaluate my life in regard to interests and happenings. On the other hand, I use Twitter the second an idea pops into my head. The point is the data on Facebook is out of date. On the other hand, if you follow me on Twitter, you will find out things instantaneously. You will get links, rants, and music recommendations. People are always Facebook stalking to find information. Instead, they should just follow these people on Twitter.

Twitter may not have photos and all the features that Facebook has, or does it. Sure it isn’t incorporated into Twitter, but I can just as easily link out to my flickr photos. Post up a tweet that says, “Had a great time at the Field Museum, here are some photos.” Now I have started to pull in some extra features. If you wanted even more fluidness, then go to Pownce. There you can get the photos integrated into the posts. You can also expand further on Twitter/Pownce. I continue to find great people to follow by looking at others. My girlfriend and I constantly update each other with who is posting interesting stuff.

In the end, Facebook needs to change up where it is headed. It needs to learn one important aspect of business, things change and you need to evolve with them. Facebook was the first step, before that you would have to take the time and ask each of your friends what they were doing or if they had listened to any interesting music lately. On Facebook you could just go to their profile and look it up instantaneously. Facebook brought you information quicker and easier. Now there are other services out there that improve upon that.

Not many people know about Twitter yet. I am talking about the general population, not the web geeks. Once more and more people learn about these services, you will see a large shift to instant information. It may not be Twitter, but it will share the instant characteristic. The point is that Facebook needs to evolve or they will see usage dive as people satisfy their hunger for information.

I was inspired by this video from Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV. It really sparked my curiosity and opened my eyes to the speed of data transfer. I am not talking about your up/download speeds, I mean the speed in which you can get information about your friends.

There seems to be this notion popping up on the Internet that one must side with either Twitter or Pownce.  There is no room for both and they are inherently rivals.  It isn’t the general consensus or rule, but it does sway some people’s opinion.

The truth is, they are very different beasts.  The text entry box is about the only thing they have in common.  Once you shed the preconceived notion that they are the same or that Pownce in encroaching on Twitter, you can see the benefit of both these services.

Twitter derives its power from simplicity and the text interface.  This basically makes it a powerful text messaging/notification system.  It allows you to blast quick thoughts, ideas, and frustrations to your friends and followers (large groups of people).  At times Twitter reminds me of a man standing around shouting things into a bullhorn.  I can tune in momentarily to hear what is on his mind or what he is up to.  Overall, Twitter is very simple and very addicting.

Pownce on the other hand doesn’t have the same benefits as Twitter.  It is more complex (not in a bad way) and lack’s a texting interface.  It gains complexity in the fact that you can post much more content such as files, events, and links.  Pownce isn’t really ideal for the quick blurb of what people are thinking as much as re/aggregating content.  It is more like a customizable blog, in which you choose who writes it.  You can search across the Pownce community and become a friend/fan of people who write/aggregate content that you enjoy.  Instead of going to a blog dedicated to photography or lifehacks, you can choose friends on Pownce who will deliver that content.  Pownce also allows comments and ratings which helps create a community much like a blog or other website.

As you can see, these two services aren’t mutually exclusive.  You can incorporate them both into your life.  One as a message service and the other as a customized blog.

You can find me on both Pownce and Twitter.

The idea for this post was originally sparked by a post written on Robert Scoble’s blog. The post was about the “10 unwritten rules of twitter” and how he breaks all of them.

I was going to write about how I disagree with almost all of those rules and why, but that led me to a much greater appreciation of the internet. The mere fact that there can be a group of people that uphold these rules, and then another group that doesn’t follow any of them is what makes the internet so great. It is a free for all of ideas and opinions that (for the most part) don’t affect others unless they choose to be affected.

I am not telling anyone anything new here. We all know that you can do what you want on the internet and there isn’t any official governing body. I believe it gets interesting when you look beyond this. Beyond the fact that there are unwritten rules, and look closer at why some choose to break them.

The internet is a medium to distribute art. Everything on the internet is an expression of someone’s personality and creativeness. This is how the dispute of the rules of twitter came to be. Twitter is a means to distribute art. They are short phrases or ideas that can mean different things to different people. You can use those 140 characters (or more) to express what you are doing in your own creative way.

This is why we follow others on Twitter, we are entertained and intrigued by the short pieces of writing published for the world to see. In the same way that photographers portray different scenes in their own vision, twitterers can show their ideas and thoughts in their own unique way.

This begs the question, are these 10 rules bad? Not at all. Some of the best art is created when there are constraints imposed. Just because you are given a 3×3 inch piece of paper doesn’t mean you can’t create breathtaking pieces of art. By self imposing these 10 rules, you are giving yourself a framework in which to create your art. By imposing a rule of no more than 5 tweets a day, it can be argued that each of those tweets should be of higher quality than if you produce 20 or 30. On the same token, people may thrive better when they can do how they please with their own set of guidelines.

Examples are everywhere. The internet is composed of different pieces of art that are manifested in different forms. Each of these forms present their own constraints. They can be websites, tweets, blog posts, photos, web 2.0 apps, videos, screencasts, news articles, books, podcasts, and many more. Each of these have technical or self imposed limitations, yet can produce outstanding pieces of art.

I’m not claiming that this is new in any way. The world around us is full of art. Architecture, decorations of a room, landscapes, cars, advertisements, books to name a few. The internet allows us to transcend the physical boundaries of our world to enjoy art created by people outside of our physical reach. That is the true treasure of the internet. This is what makes our world special.

In the end, break those rules or follow them. When it comes down to it, you are creating art in your own way. There is nothing wrong with either and there is nothing wrong when you disagree. If you disagree, write about it so we can all enjoy your insight and the little piece of art that you are bringing to the internet.