BROADCASTS.com

Title: Sept 16, 2007 - Micro-blogging

Intro: You may\nbe thinking about starting a blog but feel you don't have the time or\nmaybe won't know what to write about. You may already have a blog and\nare looking for ways to provide interesting content in real time.\nMicro-blogging may be a great solution. In this session we discuss\nmicro-blogging and take a look at a few of the many free micro-blogging\napplications.

Mike: Gordon, I know you've really got into micro-blogging recently - could you describe what it is?

Wikipedia defines micro-blogging as:

"a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually less than 200 characters)\nand publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted\ngroup which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted\nby a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, MP3 or the web."

Gordon:\nI think we've both developed a recent addiction to micro-blogging. Your\nrecently wrote a blog describing Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce. Many are\ncalling these social networks, or micro-blogs. Can you describe what\nthis means?

In Twitter and\nJaiku you provide information about your thoughts, activities and/or\nwhereabouts. Some users update so often, that it's almost like\nreal-time updates. Pownce works similarly, but allows users to easily\nshare links, files and events. Twitter is still the most popular of the\nthree, but Pownce - by invitation only\n- seems to be gaining quickly. I'm not sure I understand the attraction\nof these sites - maybe it's generational, but they're very popular and\nseem to be addictive.

Gordon: You wrote about a real-world use of Twitter by the Los Angeles Fire Department.\nCan you tell us about that?

Members of the fire department provide real-time updates (known as tweets) of LAFD\nactivities and operations. Anyone interested can subscribe or follow\nthis Twitter. Imagine the uses at a college or university - we could\nprovide updates on availability of writing or math labs or even our\ntesting center. We could also provide registration information in\nreal-time, such as number of seats, new sections, cancellations etc. To\nthink of it, you could also use these tools to manage your office hours\n- in real-time!

Mike: You've been tweeting on Twitter frequently. What kind of content are you posting?

I\nfind myself doing a lot of web surfing and I like to tweet the links\nI'm reading for future reference. I had been tagging using digg (I\nstill do) but have found Twitter to be a little easier to use. I've\nalso got my Twitter micro-blog displayed on my full blog page. I like\ntagging using Twitter because my tags are easier for others to find. If\nyou watch what I tag - I'm frequently tagging something one day and\nthen writing a full blog on it the next. I find this a very easy method.

Mike: How are you posting to twitter? Are you using any browser plugins or add-ons?

I've been using a Firefox add-on called Twitterbar. It's linked on the mozilla site - here's the download link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4664 It's from Tony Farndon (tones) at http://spatialviews.com

From\nmozilla: The twitterbar extension allows you to post to twitter from\nthe firefox\naddressbar. A small unobtrusive grey icon sits to the right of your\naddressbar, clicking on it will post your tweet, mouseover will tell\nyou how many characters you have left. You can also post by typing '\n--post' or hit the grey arrow when visiting a webpage to carry out a\nURL tweet (i.e it adds 'Currently Browsing: ' in front of the url).\nOptions for the extension include safe/secure mode, open twitter in new\ntab after posting and the ability to change the URL tweet 'Currently\nbrowsing' text.

There are a number of other plugins/add-ons. Mashable.com has a great post titled 8 Awesome Firefox Plugins for Twitter

Mike: Have you started posting using your cell phone yet?

\nNot yet. You can receive updates from those\nyou're following (or just some people) on your phone and you can send\nupdates using text messaging. Twitter doesn't charge anything for this,\nbut you want to make sure you have a text messaging plan with your\ncellular carrier. You can shut text messages from Twitter off at anytime by \nreplying with "off" (and back on by sending "on"). And you can even specify\nthat it turn off automatically at night.
In\naddition you can tweet from you instant messenger client. Right now\nTwitter supports AIM, GTalk, Jabber, .Mac and LiveJournal.

Gordon:\nMike - how about some of the others. You sent me an invite for Pownce\nwhich I signed up for but have not spent a lot of time with. How does\nthat work?

Pownce was co-founded by Kevin Rose - the 30-year\nold brains behind hugely successful news/social networking site digg.com.\nDigg allows user to post links to interesting news or websites and\nother users to either "digg" or "bury" the article. Stories with the\nmost diggs rise to the top, while others disappear - it's a great way\nto let the community filter news.

From NY Times article linkd in my blog: With Pownce You can send text messages to individual friends or groups of friends\non Pownce as well as post microblogs, or short announcements, to the\nlarger Pownce community. This function is very similar to messaging\nservices like Twitter or Jaiku, and is found on social networks like\nFacebook and MySpace\n(although Pownce\u2019s messages cannot, at least for now, be sent to mobile\nphones). You can also send your friends links, invitations to events,\nor files like photos, music or videos. Of course, you can already do\nthat on a multitude of file-sharing Web sites. It is the combination of\nprivate messaging and file-sharing that makes Pownce so novel.

Gordon: Jaiku - can you tell us about that?

From Wikipedia: Jaiku.com is a social networking and micro-blogging service comparable to Twitter[1]. Jaiku was founded in July, 2006 by Jyri Engestr\xf6m and Petteri Koponen from Finland.

Mike: Are there any others?

Sure. Read/WriteWeb.com recently published a piece called 10 Micro-Blogging Tools Compared
Let's run down the list as quoted in the Read/WriteWeb piece.

****
Tumblr is a very clean, slick micro-blogging platform. Its focus is on\nsimplicity and elegance. Similar to Pownce, users can share a variety\nof things, including text, photos, quotes, links, chats, or even videos.

MySay is what it says. Instead of text updates, users call MySay and say how they are doing today. Then, friends or family can listen via phone, e-mail, or the web.

Hictu is a service for video microbloggers. A webcam and a mouse-click are\nall that is needed to create a videopost. This streamlined solution\nsaves time and effort for traditional vloggers.

Moodmill is a way to express your mood or current state of being. A sliding\nscale facilitates this process, while a quick text update completes the\npersonalized service.

Frazr is also very similar to Twitter. The main difference is one of\nlanguage. Frazr is focused primarily on the French and German markets.

IRateMyDay allows you the ability to (yes, you guessed it) rate your day on a\nscale of 'Worst' to 'Great'. Users can also provide a short text update\nto accompany the rating.\nEmotionr is a way to gauge your happiness on a scale of 1-10 (decimals\nincluded). As the name touts, it is a way to express and share your\nemotions and feelings with those around you.****
Completely off topic - rumor has it Google Presently will be coming out this week!
Also discuss the gPhone and Robert Cringley's blog on Google.