Check out the video below - I couldn't agree more:

Thanks to Mark Krynsky for posting it. Find the original post by mark here.

La seconda vita di Second Life?

Dopo la sbornia di hype per cui ogni presenza aziendale in Second Life era una notizia di per sè, la vulgata corrente vede SL come un arnese fuori moda - se non una "sòla".
Chi ci sta "dentro", invece, vede altre cose: per esempio,il ritorno di alcune aziende di primo piano con strumenti molto diversi rispetto al passato e più adatti ad un ambiente in cui molti degli strumenti di marketing abituali si rivelano spesso privi di significato.
A questo proposito, l'ottimo Giuseppe Granieri ci parla in un bel post di una "seconda vita" di Second Life, citando un post dello stesso titolo apparso su FastCompany .
Per dirla con Granieri,

"Il marketing del mondo reale è possibile in Second Life, ma solo se vuoi seguire le regole di Second Life
Ora, abbiamo sempre utilizzato i nuovi strumenti cercando di adattarli ai metodi e alle soluzioni che usavamo con i vecchi. Lo abbiamo fatto e lo stiamo facendo anche con Second Life e i mondi metaforici. Io, personalmente, sono convinto che questa fase sia solo e soprattutto un grande spazio per le nuove idee. E che, chi ha voglia di comprendere la grammatica dei nuovi ambienti con l'umiltà necessaria per non volerli adattare a precdenti consuetudini, abbia davanti uno spazio di sperimentazione ampio e stimolante. :)"

L'anello mancante

Con un intervento in due puntate (qui la prima e qui la seconda), ReadWriteWeb ha attirato la nostra attenzione sull'uso del cellulare come lettore di codici a barre.
L'interesse dell'argomento sta nel punto di contatto tra rete e mondo reale che questo può costituire. Non a caso, l'apertura dell'articolo recita:

"One of the promises of the mobile web was the possibility of being able to integrate the internet with the real world."

Il codice a barre, con le modalità e gli strumenti descritti nei due post possono costituire una prima 'cerniera' tra i due mondi potenzialmente ubiqua, usabile e, cosa che non guasta, pienamente sfruttabile dal punto di vista commerciale.

Lifestream your browsing

il fenomeno di avvicinamento delle pratiche di rete alla vita quotidiana, che in genere viene denominato "lifestreaming" si è sviluppato, negli ultimi anni, a partire dalle pratiche di blogging.
La possibilità di registrare in un diario pubblico e usabile ha reso per moltissimi la rete un luogo di espressione oltre che di reperimento informazioni e servizi.
In seguito, la nascita dei servizi di microblogging e status updating hanno portato questa tendenza sempre più vicina e aderente allo scorrere naturale della vita, ad esmpio annotando su twitter dal cellulare una piccola variazione di umore.
In questo panorama, le attività di browsing si erano mantenute fondamentalmente personali. É vero che esistono da tempo strumenti di condivisione dei bookmark, ma, giustappunto di tratta di bookmark, ovvero di pagine che per qualche motivo si desidera ritrovare.
L'apparizione di sttumenti come SocialBrowse, rilasciato oggi dalla beta privata, promette di socializzare anche la normale attività di browsing, associando il bookmarking al microblogging, all'attività di commento e alla condivisione in tempo reale delle pagine su cui si sta navigando.

Chi si rivede:la blogosfera

Technorati sta pubblicando in questi giorni il suo documento annuale State of the Blogosphere 2008.
Anche se i dati non rivelano particolari novità, val la pena di darci un'occhiata.
I blog censiti sono 133 mlioni, con un ritmo di aggiornamento di circa 900.000 post al giorno. La tendenza è in calo: l'anno scorso i post erano un milione e mezzo al giorno.
Come ci si aspettava, la percentuale di 'rumore' è molto alta e i blog realmente influenti - qualli a Technorati attribuisce un valore di autorità superiore a 50, sono meno di centomila.
Sono buoni numeri, che riportano il blog a un fenomeno di persone: persone che giocano, si divertono, abbandonano e riprendono le loro attività di blogging. Anche se la novità sottolineata dal team di technorati è l'ingresso massiccio dei brand nella blogosfera

E l'ADV?

Sul fronte dell'ADV, MySpace, come già aveva fatto Facebook, ha messo a disposizione dei suoi utenti un tool di autogestione del proprio advertising, in questo caso completo di un tool he permette di creare banner. Potrebbe essere un altro elemento che conferma la tendenza alla suddivisione dell'adv in rete tra un ambiente di pochi grandi attori internazionali, con grandi budget e accesso ai siti ad alto volume di traffico, e un ambiente di completa autogestione, dalla creazione del banner all'ADV server, per i piccoli e medi attori, che si troverebbero nella possibilità di "saltare" gran parte delle intermediazioni.

Ma per parlare un po' più a fondo di questo scenario aspetteremo un altro venerdì.

This... This....... I dunno what to think about this.

Nokia's not-yet-realeased Lifestreaming app LifeviNe, according to the picture above, will track your movements along with geotagging your videos and posts from your phone. It will not post your movements by default, but it can.

Anyone signing onto this is too geeky to be reading this site, but it had to be shown here given my love for lifestreaming.

But it seems like this aspect of the emerging concept should probably go away. It seems to me like this has no noise-to-signal ratio, or noise-to-noiser-bullshit ratio.

It might help if you could get someone else's lifestream on your phone and then walk where he walked over at some tech conference to see all the cool stuff he saw the day before. But on a day-to-day basis... this is too much of your life. Sorry, Nokia. This one's pretty dumb.

Dies und die Tatsache, dass registrierte Nutzer ab jetzt auch unbegrenzt Freunde einladen können, gelten als deutliche Zeichen dafür, dass Google ernsthaft an der Reaktivierung Jaikus interessiert ist. Nach der Übernahme im Oktober letzten Jahres dümpelte der Service vor sich hin, während Twitter auf der Microblogging Seite und Friendfeed auf der Lifestream Seite in Stellung gingen.

Für noch nicht registrierte Nutzer führt der Weg zu Jaiku zur Zeit nur über eine Einladung. Diese kann man entweder direkt bei Jaiku anfordern oder sich von einem angemeldeten Nutzer einladen lassen. Ich habe mich irgendwann einmal pro forma registriert, um meinen Nickname cooperative zu sichern.

Wer also unbedingt eine Einladung braucht, kann mir seine email Adresse in den Kommentaren hinterlassen oder eine email an ceoperative [at] googlemail.com schicken.

Technorati Tags: jaiku - google - lifestreaming - microblogging - service

Last night, SweetCron was released and my friend Sean was one of the first who had it up and running. Go Sean! :)

In a nutshell, SweetCron is free Open Source lifestreaming software. It automatically imports images, videos, and texts, from various websites you're signed up for, and consolidates them in one place.

So why would you even bother with another one of those sites?
Especially, if you're on FriendFeed.

Well, I spend 95% of my days at FriendFeed --seriously. I reaaaally don't need another aggregator. But I do. I'm planning to run SweetCron for a personal website. It would make it easy for my non FriendFeeder friends to keep up with my life, since (as much as I am a devotee), FriendFeed can be overwhelming. There's tons of conversational threads, random dumpage of information, everything I love about it, my non-internet savvy friends don't. (I tried getting a few to sign up)

I'm extremely excited about SweetCron since:

1. SweetCron is very visual. The RSS feeds pull in media (images, video, etc). To see a live demo, visit the creator Yongfook's site. His website is powered by SweetCron :)
2. It's for self-hosted sites, meaning I have control of a lot of things. (read: I can choose my own domain name +1!)
3. And it's easy on the eyes. Very simple and self explanatory -- both front / back ends, and most importantly, for the users. People can jump on the site and start clicking around :)

Take a look at some of his screen shot videos:

Pretty neat, huh? Just like Dave, I think it's going to be "pretty Fooking Huge", too LOL.

Um, now all I need is a domain name. Does anyone have ideas / suggestions?

What that is great about Twitter (it almost feel corny to write another post about it, don't you think?) is that conversation sparks quickly and spread wide and far. See these two examples from Twitscoop: #thewaywewere and surname. 

Twhirl is an Adobe Air application; a lightweight desktop client using Twitter API for getting and sending Twitter status updates, replies and direct messages. I know that there are many other similar applications out there but so far Twhirl seems to do a good job for me. Twhirl was acquired by Seesmic another interesting lifestreaming service few months ago. A great move by Loic Lemeur, Seesmic CEO.

Here are three suggestions for getting additional information on to my desktop via Twhirl:

1. Twitter search Trending topics - this will help keeping me in the loop. Lately, I go to this page almost every day some times even more than once for my web-now treat. If you want to stay current on the day's agenda all you got to do is to take a quick peek at this list. In some cases you'll need to drill down to the conversation itself for better understanding of the context, but it takes reading only few updates to get it. One option is to mashup Twitter + TwitScoop. This combination brings to your desktop not just the Trending topics but also the volume and duration of the conversation around them. Just think about how a small change like this can get more people and quicker riding new waves of conversations.
2. The number of followers - sounds trivial but it is something that I check occasionally and still have to go to my Twitter(kerendg) home page for getting this information. Twhirl Friends/Followers page is a good place to put it.
3. Please make the @ and envelop buttons in different colors when I have an answer or direct message (red or green would work fine). I can mark them as read (for you to turn it back off).

To sum up this short post : Twhirl brings immediacy to microblogging. I barely install new software on my laptop these days (my OS loves me for that). Twhirl is an exception for two reasons:

• The name AIR (fantastic choice of a word by Adobe) implies something light and transparent (vs. windows application/thick client).
• I need it as close to real-time as possible.

So, bottom line is that I count on it to deliver more information supporting my lifestreaming and web right now experience using Twitter.

Här kan du läsa posten

One of them is a combined feed from this blog, Twitter, Vimeo, Ma.gnolia, and a few other services. I don't always get around to blogging about whatever I'm working on, and not everyone reads Twitter, but you can subscribe to the amalgam at http://feeds.feedburner.com/spinnerin_tumblr (note: it says Tumblr, but I recently moved to Soup.io). This is the same feed that powers the front page of lifeofaudrey.com.

The other thing is a wiki page listing the online accounts I try to pay attention to (and ways to reach me, like email and IM): http://aeschright.pbwiki.com/HowToFindMeOnline. As the page says, they're not the only ones I'm on, but if it isn't listed, it's a lower priority.

And then you'll know things like the video about making cultured butter I made earlier this week.

Yesterday, I linked to this RWW article that showcased some of the different approaches to blogging that are developing. The "Cheslow blog" was an example of lifestream/blog integration to the max.

However, one of the comments on the post is interesting in that it states: lifestreaming is not blogging.

A lifestream, the commenter says, is chronological, the blog is topical. The first one (he goes on) is full of personal stuff and inner thoughts, while the second one, the blog, deals with a person's expertise, written out in articles. He then continues:

I don't really care where you folks eat lunch, what you do on the weekends, what your inner thoughts are, whether your friend just found a cool site or posted some new pictures on Flickr.

Well, he (Rick, no online presence) may not care, but I think he is wrong about this.

First off though, let it be noted that true lifestreams don't actually exist.

If you have a smartphone, and it would automatically generate posts about your geographical locations, who you emailed, who you talked to, and what was discussed — of course that would be a lifestream.

If I could make public my Google web history, and shared whatever I searched for, what I clicked and what I filled in forms for — that would be a lifestream.

If I shared all my docs, and chats, and had a video camera taped to my head for you to track how I was preparing this post — that would be, in the truest sense then, a lifestream.

To be sure, we've seen this happen (on Justin.tv and with the experiments of Kevin Lim) but what we are doing (sharing our thoughts, embedding our playlists and autoposting our bookmarks)... that's a selective, manual, deliberate publicizing of events that make up the experience of our lives.

Hey, wait a minute... that's blogging.

So no, lifestreams do not have to be personal, or deep, or innermost. And blogs aren't always about people's expertise. Moreover, both could be just as chronological or as topical as you like them to be — to me that's just a presentation issue.

However, while we could now come up with yet another 'term 2.0' for what happens between writing posts and the streaming of experiences (the Public Interaction Tracker™ was as far as my sense of irony would go — others have gone farther)... it doesn't really matter.

What matters is that there is a shift, that there is a transition taking place, and that publishing, sharing and discussing are as interesting and as alive as ever. As I wrote yesterday: things are taking new shapes — as things tend to do.

2. ABC News - Many New 'Friends' to be Made Online, But What About Dollars?
A look at advertising on social networks

3. BBC News - Microsoft sees end of Windows era

4. Read/Write Web - The Future of Blogging Revealed
Lifestreaming is all the rage

]]> http://demogirl.wordpress.com/?p=727 Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:18:02 +0000 demogirl http://demogirl.com/2008/07/25/12seconds-just-about-how-long-it-would-you-take-to-type-your-tweet/ 12seconds is a video lifestreaming service that allows you to post your updates in video form.  The only catch is that your video can be no longer, or shorter, than 12 seconds.

When I first heard about 12seconds my initial thought was, "oh boy, another way to post your updates".  But after trying it out for a while today, I can definitely see how this could catch on.  It works very closely to the way Twitter does, but everything you would normally tweet, you quickly record with your webcam or mobile phone.  If you would normally tweet that you're eating a delicious ham, you could quickly show people that you're eating a delicious ham.  You can follow  your friends and see what they've been up to all day.  Each video has its own URL and people can add comments as well.  You can also choose to have your 12second updates pushed through to your Twitter account.

As of now, 12seconds appears to be in private alpha, but if I get any invites I'll let you know!  The screencast below will show you how it works:
[viddler id=ee2b670e&w=545&h=451]

Click Here To Watch Better Quality 2m55s

Google's been working on a new search interface that will allow users to search for an item, and then rate the results as they come up, so as to move the listings around according to popularity and appropriateness. If you want to search for Madonna, but do not want to see anything about A-Rod, you can click on the down arrow next to the A-Rod entries and they will be moved to the bottom of the page. You can also comment on a result, so that other users (when you view "everybody's results") can be made aware of what you think of the site/product/story/whatever BEFORE you even go there. If you're looking for a good Mexican restaurant in BFE, you can google "Mexican restaurant BFE" and then see not only all the Mexican restaurants in BFE, but read any comments that real users have left as to the quality of the food, again--before you even leave the search results page.

Obviously, as search adopts 'social networking/submission and voting' features, the possibilities are endless...

Here's a post and a video of it over on TechCrunch.

While I am doing that, you can perhaps help me out with a dilemma that has been perplexing me for a couple days now: my hair - to cut or not to cut, that is the question. So I ask you: What would you do if you were CEO of my hair?

Please leave your advice as a comment below, if you like. And thanks, Loïc, for the idea. My follicles are grateful as well...

www.ustream.tv/michaelgoetz

check out my myspace

www.myspace.com/michaelrobertgoetz

Add me on twitter

www.twitter.com.goetzmichael

look at my videos on youtube

www.youtube.com/michaelgoetzsinger

The second bit of news is that I am trying out a new aggregator for all my social network called Swurl. I like that the interface is clean and calendar-based. I have added the link to my page on the Contact Me tab.

 

Millennials...it's tough enough for me to spell it, let alone learn communicate with "them"!

But, here are some ideas on how to talk or communicate to those cry-baby, tech savvy Millennials.  Next time you encounter one of them and have to talk to one of them, try any of the following language antidotes to perhaps communicate more effectively:

1) Bacn: impersonal emails that you have chosen to receive, such as alerts and newsletters.

2) Bershon: the angry/bored/too-cool-to-care look that 12 to 18 year olds seem to sport in their family photos.

3) Compunicate: to "chat" with a co-worker using Instant Messenger when you are in the same room, rather than speak to them.

4) Defriend: to remove someone from your established list of contacts.

5) Lifestreaming: posting an on-line record of a person's dailey actvities, such as some blogs.

6) Meatspace: a reference to the physical world, such as being the opposite of cyberspace or virtual reality.

7) Moofer: derived from the acronym for "mobile out of the office".  This is someone who between meetings abandons their office with a laptop and Blackberry to stop at Starbucks or anyplace else they can escape talkative co-workers.

8) Passion Bucket: a metaphor for a job or endeavor that can fulfill one's sense of mission and ambition.

9) Porntastic: great, but slightly racy and edgy.

You can practice and use these communication techniques for your Millennial encounters or call me for a normal conversation!

Good luck...and by the way, these were culled from magazines, web sites and blogs - so go figure!

Thank you for making me Your Orange County Real Estate Connection.

Best regards, Michael Caruso

I've been using the service for almost a year now. It's been an odd and interesting experience. It's like a giant chat-room(when you start following a lot of people) where everybody is not necessarily talking to anybody. That initial impression is what throws people off. Twitter is one those services where there is no middle ground when it comes to peoples initial reaction. Either you love it or completely hate it. However, my opinion about the service has reached a "middle ground" lately.

Twitter has been hyped like hell. The hype is not completely unjustified, but there are some aspects of the hype that are a little misleading. First you got people like Robert Scoble with his contagious enthusiast preaching, defining the service as something more than it actually is. Then there's the bloggeratti community preaching on and making rules on how to use it.

There are so many things that have been written about what Twitter is, that its kind of mind boggling that it's no more about "what are you doing". It's been called a breaker of news, a helpful community that shares and the "best" resource out there. Some aspects of those claims are true, but it's still a giant chat-room where everybody is not necessarily talking to anybody.

It doesn't take much time to figure out that a great majority uses the service to increase traffic to their site. You can have conversations in Twitter, but it's much harder than on other services. And really, it's a service that makes people pretty self absorbing. But I'm OK with all that.

I actually prefer to follow a person that's eating a sandwich or taking a shower, than a linker. It's OK. It shows that you're human and the reality that not everything is relevant in life. That's one reason why I've reached a middle ground opinion about the service. People have gotten a little inhibited because of the way it has been hyped and defined.

There are better services that let you do much more and that probably offer a better way to have meaningful exchanges with folks out there on the interwebs, but I'll probably keep using Twitter because it's one way out of many ways, that I can keep in touch with people that I care what they have to say. But it's definitely not the best thing since bred came sliced.