Archive for November 2008

My delicious bookmarks for November 28th through November 30th

My delicious bookmarks for November 28th through November 30th:

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My delicious bookmarks for November 24th through November 27th

My delicious bookmarks for November 24th through November 27th:

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My delicious bookmarks for November 23rd through November 24th

My delicious bookmarks for November 23rd through November 24th:

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My delicious bookmarks for November 22nd through November 23rd

My delicious bookmarks for November 22nd through November 23rd:

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Want to own Twitter? Here’s how.

shoutemlogo

Thanks to Profy’s article on ShoutEm, I tried out their beta Twitter-esque service. Profy’s got an invite code that should let you in the doors, too.

ShoutEm describes their service as “Ning for Twitters.” While features are light, that’s a pretty good description - with ShoutEm, you can build a themed gated community following Twitter rules (140-character-long messages, public timeline, etc). The expectation, of course, is members will primarily talk about the theme. As an example, you can see the educational technology ShoutEm site I set up, and Svetlana’s profy ShoutEm site.

Setting up the site is easy. ShoutEm walks you through three steps, starting with the name, headline and web address you’d like to use. Unless you’re a paying customer, your web address uses the form *.shoutem.com. Next, select the theme and features and you’re ready to roll out your new gated Twitter.

I know this service is still in beta, so I expect some missing functionality and hitches. Some features, however, strike me as such glaring oversight that I wonder if ShoutEm intends to not include them, or include them only as part of a paid subscription. For instance:

  • After creating edtech.shoutem.com, while I could upload pictures to modify theme elements, like background and header images, I couldn’t select a new theme.
  • More frustrating, once I created edtech.shoutem.com, I couldn’t change the network features, like automatically accepting new members or enabling subscriptions.
  • After creating a ShoutEm account and setting up a new network, my login credentials did not work for Profy’s ShoutEm site. I’m sure this is a “feature, not a bug,” as the intent is to provide gated communities. Still, I don’t understand why I can’t carry my single ShoutEm profile from one community to another.
  • Also, I don’t see a way to aggregate the public timelines for all networks I belong to.
  • Finally, there’s no directory of public communities. I imagine this is a feature missing due to ShoutEm’s beta status, as any social network relies heavily on the “social.” If I can’t discover new friends and networks to join, I have very little motivation to continue checking both ShoutEm and Twitter.

I see two benefits to using ShoutEm over Twitter. First, the themed network helps find members with interests I share, and sets an expectation we’ll be talking about that interest. While some Twitter directories exist (for instance, Jane Hart maintains a list of educators on Twitter), and Twitter clients like Tweetdeck allow you to create groups, it’s still a crapshoot to discover people to follow that discuss topics interesting to you. By creating themed gated communities, ShoutEm attempts to sort people out by interest, guaranteeing a group of people you (hopefully) connect with.

Second, ShoutEm allows for private, invite-only networks, possibly very useful for companies and organizations in particular. However, if Twitter is smart, gated communities (or at least groups in some fashion) is their next step to monetization, which could affect ShoutEm’s future. Also, ShoutEm competes with several other similar services, such as Twingr, Yammer and Present.ly. Each network currently has its niche, but it won’t be long until they’re poaching on one another’s features.

Laconica, on the other hand, presents an interesting alternative to all of these hosted services, including Twitter itself. Built on PHP and Jabber protocols, Laconica’s open-source, self-hosted nature is exciting all on its own - but there’s more. Laconica is built from the ground up to support federation, the ability to share public timelines between Laconica sites. Eventually, not only will Laconica support pulling messages from other Laconica networks, but it will also pull messages in from other networks, like Plurk, Twitter, Pownce and Jaiku. You can see Laconica in action at Leo Laporte’s TWiT Army and Identi.ca, and read more at Identi.ca’s FAQ page.

Micro-blogging is becoming the Wild West of Social Media, with new entrants circling the monetization wagon. Twitter has its tremendous following and large number of third-party clients adding features; Laconica brings the kitchen sink full of “I wish Twitter did …” features and innovation. Perhaps there’s room for a a few more big players in this space, capitalizing on features Twitter and Laconica choose not to support. In any event, this will be an interesting space to watch from the sidelines.

ShoutEm wizard - step one

ShoutEm wizard - step two

ShoutEm wizard - step three

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My delicious bookmarks for November 19th through November 21st

My delicious bookmarks for November 19th through November 21st:

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My delicious bookmarks for November 18th through November 19th

My delicious bookmarks for November 18th through November 19th:

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My delicious bookmarks for November 15th through November 18th

My delicious bookmarks for November 15th through November 18th:

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2008-11-16

  • Did Studio Stroll in Asheville NC, bought a Stupid Creature http://stupidcreatures.com/ Local artist, fantastic creations. #
  • Tried ChoosyOSX for the Mac, and love it. Will do a write-up this week for NoShrinkwrap.com. http://www.choosyosx.com #
  • Very impressed with the personal attention and assistance we’ve gotten from Apple. Thank you @shepherdfx and others! #
  • Enjoyed @anamariecox on @maddow. Loved Rachel’s blog comment. Wonder why other MSNBC peeps aren’t on twitter? #
  • On local news - city planners in Greenville SC use legos on a big map to plan city growth. Too bad no pic - they just stacked lego towers. #
  • does anyone archive @hotdogsladies tweets? merlin cracks me up. #
  • Testing MediaSilo.com, digging the interface. Even the free acct should be decent for low-traffic blog. Should have example page up soon. #
  • What is with all the random-char comment spam on my Wordpress blog all a sudden? Maybe time to update. #
  • Gmail’s video release made me wonder - can it replace Skype for podcasting? Set up a poll at http://is.gd/7lqU - tell me what you use. #
  • Does it not embarrass Twitter I have to use Google to search for Twitter users? #
  • After reading @anamariecox I have to wonder if RNC is distancing from her to use her - 4 years of “unsanctioned” Palin attacks to pave 2012. #
  • @katmandelstein Thanks for the head’s up on Twellow. Glad it doesn’t ask me for my Twitter uname/pass. in reply to katmandelstein #
  • @Jimconnolly A bigger Tweetdeck window sounds like a perfect excuse for a new monitor. in reply to Jimconnolly #
  • @Jimconnolly Really? Interesting - on a 17″, I can resize Tweetdeck window to eight. Still, I can’t imagine using only TD to read tweets. in reply to Jimconnolly #
  • Finally caught up on @leolaporte ’s TWiT & Macbreak. Started listening to Engadget’s podcast - great stuff! Almost as funny as MaxPC. #
  • I wish I could be a quicksilver nerd. So far, only feature I get is clipboard history. I envy QS users - they epitomize Mac cool. #
  • Interesting use of Google maps to build a semi-interactive story: http://is.gd/7DFt Would be even more interesting with branching. #
  • @WilHarris Are you going to post your lecture? I’ve been training faculty in podcasting, would like to see your lecture if it’s public. in reply to WilHarris #
  • Couple of photos taken with iPhone: brilliant rainbow in Asheville NC. http://is.gd/7FGD #
  • @dberlind Thanks for the pointer to mobypicture. Looks interesting, and definitely easier than uploading to flickr. in reply to dberlind #
  • @chrisbrogan I agree. Jim Collins calls this “Hedgehog Concept”. I think it can also apply to how we choose to invest our personal time. in reply to chrisbrogan #
  • @chrisbrogan Same here. I think knowledge (advice, studies, experience or whatever) is useless until both internalized and implemented. in reply to chrisbrogan #
  • Mashable 66 Twitter terms “you don’t need to know:” http://is.gd/7HDo. Seriously? That many Twitter terms exist? #

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My delicious bookmarks for November 12th through November 13th

My delicious bookmarks for November 12th through November 13th:

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