Title: Sept 16, 2007 - Micro-bloggingIntro: You may
be thinking about starting a blog but feel you don't have the time or
maybe won't know what to write about. You may already have a blog and
are looking for ways to provide interesting content in real time.
Micro-blogging may be a great solution. In this session we discuss
micro-blogging and take a look at a few of the many free micro-blogging
applications.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)
and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted
group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted
by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, MP3 or the web."Gordon:
I think we've both developed a recent addiction to micro-blogging. Your
recently wrote a blog describing Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce. Many are
calling these social networks, or micro-blogs. Can you describe what
this means?In Twitter and
Jaiku you provide information about your thoughts, activities and/or
whereabouts. Some users update so often, that it's almost like
real-time updates. Pownce works similarly, but allows users to easily
share links, files and events. Twitter is still the most popular of the
three, but Pownce - by invitation only
- seems to be gaining quickly. I'm not sure I understand the attraction
of these sites - maybe it's generational, but they're very popular and
seem to be addictive.Gordon: You wrote about a real-world use of Twitter by the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Can you tell us about that?Members of the fire department provide real-time updates (known as tweets) of LAFD
activities and operations. Anyone interested can subscribe or follow
this Twitter. Imagine the uses at a college or university - we could
provide updates on availability of writing or math labs or even our
testing center. We could also provide registration information in
real-time, such as number of seats, new sections, cancellations etc. To
think of it, you could also use these tools to manage your office hours
- in real-time!Mike: You've been tweeting on Twitter frequently. What kind of content are you posting?I
find myself doing a lot of web surfing and I like to tweet the links
I'm reading for future reference. I had been tagging using digg (I
still do) but have found Twitter to be a little easier to use. I've
also got my Twitter micro-blog displayed on my full blog page. I like
tagging using Twitter because my tags are easier for others to find. If
you watch what I tag - I'm frequently tagging something one day and
then 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.comFrom
mozilla: The twitterbar extension allows you to post to twitter from
the firefox
addressbar. A small unobtrusive grey icon sits to the right of your
addressbar, clicking on it will post your tweet, mouseover will tell
you how many characters you have left. You can also post by typing '
--post' or hit the grey arrow when visiting a webpage to carry out a
URL tweet (i.e it adds 'Currently Browsing: ' in front of the url).
Options for the extension include safe/secure mode, open twitter in new
tab after posting and the ability to change the URL tweet 'Currently
browsing' text.There are a number of other plugins/add-ons. Mashable.com has a great post titled 8 Awesome Firefox Plugins for TwitterMike: Have you started posting using your cell phone yet?
Not yet. You can receive updates from those
you're following (or just some people) on your phone and you can send
updates using text messaging. Twitter doesn't charge anything for this,
but you want to make sure you have a text messaging plan with your
cellular carrier. You can shut text messages from Twitter off at anytime by
replying with "off" (and back on by sending "on"). And you can even specify
that it turn off automatically at night.In
addition you can tweet from you instant messenger client. Right now
Twitter supports AIM, GTalk, Jabber, .Mac and LiveJournal.Gordon:
Mike - how about some of the others. You sent me an invite for Pownce
which I signed up for but have not spent a lot of time with. How does
that work?Pownce was co-founded by Kevin Rose - the 30-year
old brains behind hugely successful news/social networking site digg.com.
Digg allows user to post links to interesting news or websites and
other users to either "digg" or "bury" the article. Stories with the
most diggs rise to the top, while others disappear - it's a great way
to 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
on Pownce as well as post microblogs, or short announcements, to the
larger Pownce community. This function is very similar to messaging
services like Twitter or Jaiku, and is found on social networks like
Facebook and MySpace
(although Pownce's messages cannot, at least for now, be sent to mobile
phones). You can also send your friends links, invitations to events,
or files like photos, music or videos. Of course, you can already do
that on a multitude of file-sharing Web sites. It is the combination of
private 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 Engeström and Petteri Koponen from Finland.Mike: Are there any others?Sure. Read/WriteWeb.com recently published a piece called 10 Micro-Blogging Tools ComparedLet'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
simplicity and elegance. Similar to Pownce, users can share a variety
of 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
all that is needed to create a videopost. This streamlined solution
saves time and effort for traditional vloggers.Moodmill is a way to express your mood or current state of being. A sliding
scale facilitates this process, while a quick text update completes the
personalized service.Frazr is also very similar to Twitter. The main difference is one of
language. 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
scale of 'Worst' to 'Great'. Users can also provide a short text update
to accompany the rating.
Emotionr is a way to gauge your happiness on a scale of 1-10 (decimals
included). As the name touts, it is a way to express and share your
emotions 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.

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