How Do You Explain Twitter?

I’m connected to a lot of tech-savvy folks (tweeple) via Twitter, but I work and hang out with a lot of not-so-tech-savvy folks (people) in real life. Once in a while the twain will meet, but not often.
My friends who are somewhere in the middle have Twitter accounts, but don’t use them like I do. [...]

MinneWebCon 2008

I spent a great day at MinneWebCon yesterday talking with and meeting other folks in the industry at The Big U where I work and elsewhere.
It was really a good event for those of us in Minneapolis who are interested in current and emerging web technology. The interesting this to me is how much Twitter [...]

Comcast using Twitter to Respond to Consumer Complaints

I don’t think it’s any secret that Comcast has an image problem. I have to give them some credit for trolling Twitter (or more likely going a Tweetscan), and responding directly to consumer complaints with e-mails and phone calls from the executive’s offices.
Do you see the value now?

Will Twitter Get Benched?

The Industry Standard put Twitter on it’s “predicted to fail” list.
Failings: There’s no compelling reason for most people to use it, and many existing services — ranging from AIM to FriendFeed to social networks — have overlapping functionality. And how is it supposed to make money?
That’s the $10,000 question isn’t it? (Pun intended.) Where’s the [...]

Using Social Networking Sites for Research

Is there anyone out there who is leveraging social networking technology for research? It seems like there’s a lot of research out there on it, but who’s taking advantage of it? With a little imagination, it doesn’t seem hard to find some uses. Let’s start with an easy one: Twitter.
Where I work, we’re doing a [...]

I Was There

On a geological scale, I’m just a nanosecond. Smaller probably. By internet standards, I guess I’m an old man. For a while I was worried that I’d missed the boat. You know, came along too late. But as I look back, I’ve been on the internet for 14 years. Ever since I installed a Gopher [...]