tools | uber.la

Mar 10 2010

"I am at…" Geolocation Set to Overwhelm Your Social Media Stream (Facebook Geo-s Up)

Category: connections, lifestreaming, social media, tech opinion, tools — jmacofearth @ 3:35 pm

Facebook Is Set to Geo-Locate You (Fast Company)

My first question is, "Can I turn it off?"

If you LOVE Gowalla and 4SQ, perhaps you will LOVE Facebook with Geo updating. For my attention, I cannot stand people's auto-gowalla updates that start like this, "I'm at …." To me it's the Twitter equivalent to saying "going to get a Coke" then "going to get lunch" then "going to the bathroom."

I mean, seriously, if I wanted to monitor your exact whereabouts I'd a put an electronic collar on you. Perhaps this is the next parenting tool. Give your kid a phone, geo-tag it and let Gowalla do the rest. Or Facebook for that matter.

Clearly some people love geo-locating apps. There are games with 4sq and gowalla that tweet things like "I just became the mayor of Starbucks on 6th and Congress, Austin, Texas" But again, I don't really think that's a tweet of value.

And that's really what it boils down to. Yes I can UF you. (unfollow) And yes I can complain every time you "check in." But then I'm an ass and you may or may not agree. Whatever…

But what I want express is think about what you tweet. Think about the "value of the tweet." If your stream is full of "I'm at…" and "I'm the mayor of simpleton…" well, I'm just not that into your status-update-auto-geo-gowalla-4sq stream. I anticipate that some tool soon will be able to selectively filter all tweets by some criteria, perhaps it always exists. A but until that day turn off the auto check-in or auto-tweet-my-location setting. Or let me know you don't appreciate me telling you how or what to tweet.

I'm cool with that.

But I'm not cool with hearing what you had for breakfast, seeing a picture of that breakfast (not a foodie, sorry), or that you are done with breakfast and have just pulled into a gas station to fill-er-up. "I'm at Chevron on …"

Do you think Facebook will put Gowalla and 4sq into a sleeper hold after launch?

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/geo-FB

I Accidentally BUZZed: I Was Under the Impression that I Knew Google Buzz

Category: connections, how do i?, lifestreaming, social media, tech opinion, tech reviews, tools — jmacofearth @ 4:20 pm

So a funny thing happened on the way to connecting my last post here.

I added a book mark to my Google bookmarks, when publishing my last story on uber.la. And low and behold, I BUZZed it.

Now, it was my understanding that BUZZ was all done via the GMail interface. And since I don't really USE GMail, as much as forward through GMail, I was surprised to see the screen above. And to see that I'd been BUZZing all along.

Well, I still haven't opened my GMail-accessed Google BUZZ folder, but clearly I've been BUZZING a lot. Hmm.

What's your BUZZ strategy? I'd like to hear it.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/buzz-why

Tags: a surprise BUZZ, always a BUZZ, buzz, BUZZing all along, BUZZing right along, do not BUZZ me again, do you buzz?, gmail, GMail-enabled BUZZ, google buzz, google BUZZ folder, how do you BUZZ, oops I BUZZed, why buzz

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Mar 09 2010

What Is Your "Always On" Technology? How Should I Reach You Right NOW?"

Category: about me, community building, connections, executive learnings, how do i?, social media, teaming & leadership, tech opinion, tools, trust & reputation — jmacofearth @ 10:24 am

Pop Quiz: I need to reach you in the next 15 minutes about an opportunity, what would you suggest I use?

Facebook? Twitter? IM? Phone call? TXT your phone?

I've got some friends who don't answer their phones but will respond to TXT messages within minutes. There are folks who love DM in Twitter, or Messaging in FB. And then there's IM (Yahoo, AIM, MSN, GTalk) and Skype and G-mail and now BUZZ. Oh and get this, I have some friends who love Skype, but for CHAT. So let's count them up.

Phonecall direct (leave no voicemail)
Phonecall indirect (VM left)
Email
IM – Yahoo
IM – MSN
IM – AIM
IM – iChat or Jabber
IM – Skype
IM – Facebook chat
Facebook Messaging
Twitter (@ message)
Twitter (DM message)
Skype Video
TXT to phone
Google Buzz (not in my tool kit at the moment)

Did I miss any? And one other problem is even using some of the universal IM clients like Adium or GAIM, sometimes the special features of Yahoo Messenger for example, don't work within the alternative clients. So I've got one friend who likes to chat using Yahoo Messenger. I can respond via Adium (my favorite IM client) initially, but I have to open YM directly to access the other 50% of the data this friend is sending.

So I can't predict what works for everyone. Well, in fact, WE can't predict what works for *anyone.*

So my approach is to listen. Respond in like-kind to those who use alterna-connections. I tweet, and I update my FB status daily. But I rarely open IM unless someone I need to talk to is an IMer. (it's open right now and I'm chatting to one of my IMer friends.)

So I will give you the answer for me, in order of preference. That's the only system I understand, or pretend to understand.

Text me
Email me
Call me
DM me on Twitter
Message me on Facebook.

If you need me to pay attention to something. Or you need to transmit more that a brief status update:

Call me, talk to me, tell me what you want.

Email me if it's not urgent but has a lot of information or action items you want my response on. Oh, and if it's business use my business email. If it's personal it's likely to get buried in my business email deluge. BUT (I know this is complicated, so bear with me…) if it's urgent and personal, do these three things. TXT me. Call me. Email me. If it's urgent, continue to escallate until you reach me.

Oh and finally, to be efficient, put the ASK right up front. Imagine that even in email you've only got 140 characters to tell me what you are asking me for. It helps. Even if there's paragraphs of data behind the ask, just get to the ask right away. And if you are looking for and ACTION or RESPONSE put that in the subject line. (Subject: ACTION REQUESTED: Please review this document and reply in 24 hours.) And if possible, give the person a deadline. If they miss the message, and miss the deadline for some reason, you can then proceed.

That way, when the tumble of emails continues to scroll past me in Outlook, I can see there's an Action request. (Hint: Using URGENT message statuses never works. On mobile email systems it may or may not even show up depending on the software and settings.) So use the Subject line of every email to state *exactly* what you want.

I'm happy to respond. I want to talk to you. I do, it's my nature.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/right-now

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Mar 08 2010

Have You BUZZed Today? Why Twitter and NOT Google Buzz is Trending Up.

Category: community building, connections, lifestreaming, social media, speed the web, tech opinion, tools — jmacofearth @ 1:32 pm

[3-9-10: It's been 25 days since I looked in my Google Buzz folder. I'm starting to get tempted, just to see... But nah... ]

So even if you have high hopes for the newest social media platform, Google's Buzz, you might make a note of the information that is still clear on new technology champion sites like Mashable and ReadWriteWeb.

If you look at the tab on the left there <<< you will see that the Tweet to Buzz ratio is over 200 – 1. And the Tweet to F-Book ratio is 100 – 1. So let's imagine how BUZZ is going to make a long term impact or not.

First Problem with Buzz: It's tied directly to your G-Mail account.

While this is often mentioned as a feature. The reality is, if you don't use G-mail as your primary email platform you are likely to not Buzz at all. Where I work, we use the MS Outlook platform for all things email and scheduling. And Buzz and Outlook aren't in sync. To that point, Twitter and Outlook aren't buddies either, but the Twitter connectors are plentiful. What's coming for Buzz is yet to be seen.

Second Problem with Buzz: Much of what is mentioned as the secret sauce that Buzz has that Twitter does not is "simplification."

The problem with that idea is, your social media accounts, all of them, are managed by you. And you either do a good job of managing them or you don't. With Twitter there are a ton of tools to help you manage all of the incoming information. There are Twitter Lists (on Twitter.com) and amazing desktop/web apps (Tweetdeck, Seesmic, Hootsuite) that help manage the volume of Twitter traffic that you might expose yourself to.

What does Buzz have at this point? I'm not sure.

Third Problem with Buzz: It's just another tool.

How many new software programs are you willing to learn this week? How much time do you have to spend "learning" new programs, in addition to doing your work? My guess is, if you are anything like me or my close associates, a new tool is only relevant if it fills a need that is not being met by your current tool kit.

Fourth Problem with Buzz: Adoption is the killer app.

Twitter is HUGE. Twitter is 100th the size of Facebook. For all the love we give Twitter, Twitter is a tiny piece of the social media pie. Google Buzz would have to have some kind of killer sauce to make a real splash. As Google WAVE shows, just because Google launches it, does not mean it will grow or be significant.

And if you look everywhere you do your social media networking, check out how invasive and persistent Google Buzz is relevant to Twitter or even Facebook. And if you are interested in being at the front of the power curve with a social media app, you might still focus your energies on Twitter. OR FACEBOOK, though I hate to say that.

But BUZZ is not going to get you a huge audience, no matter how BIG the MS-SM-M (Main Stream SocialMedia Media) would like you to believe BUZZ is going to be. And I believe in order to hedge their bets they are working it hard:

Well, you check it out and let me know. Even Mashable's enthusiasm for BUZZ seems to be waning. I mean the numbers at the top left of this post don't lie. If people aren't BUZZing, it's not gonna be a "force."

Facebook = Force. Twitter = Force. Google = Force.

WAVE is a QUESTIONABLE FORCE.

BUZZ is not a FORCE.

We're looking for the Force. And I can hear the words of the Storm Trooper, "These are not the droids you are looking for." Sorry Google. But hey, let's make the WAVE happen. We need some good applications of the WAVE. Not more pretty movies about how cool the WAVE CAN BE. But actual use of the WAVE to bring an EVENT or SUBJECT to LIFE.

I have an idea for SXSW Music, Film and Interactive. SXSWave.com. But I'm just starting to set up the framework. I've got some friends at both Google and SXSW, so, ya might keep your eye on it. Or wait and see if it TRENDS. (grin) Or perhaps we'll wait until next year to really launch it. It all depends on the weather and the price of tweets in China.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/SXSW-WAVE

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