a Global Bridge

Where have I been?  Where have I been....

Well, I'm here & there, oh yeah, and I'm over there too.  But mostly I'm on Twitter (surprise!)...

If you haven't had a chance, check out the new blog http://www.140chitchat.com - currently featuring an interview with Sean of @wildworldofsean - a truly interesting tweep!  And if you like to write, I'm looking for a writer or two...

In the meantime, I'm wondering how long until we stop using the term "social media."  I'm as big an offender as any, 140 ChitChat is billed as a blog all about social media.  Yet I sense the winds of change they are a blowin'.  Which makes me wonder if I should change that tagline... If you know nothing else about me thus far, you should all know I am not in any way resistant to change - gotta go with the flow, I say.

Now, I'm not psychic, I'm no expert or guru, and I'm probably as new to "social media" as you are (newer perhaps).  But, once in a while I can spot a trend just before it's about to change (you know that black & white checked coat every gal is wearing this winter - it's called houndstooth check, boys - I bought mine two seasons ago, and I'm already looking for something else Kors-related).  But, I digress, and how is that relevant to technology & social media?  Well, I've noticed the following:

Some people, highly active social networkers, have shut down their Twitter accounts (or deleted a high profile Twitter account, in order to create a smaller & more manageable one).  I'm sure there are various and asundry reasons for the disappearance of each one, but it's a trend, nonetheless.

The term "social media" is becoming less & less popular with the "average joes" on Twitter.  While it hasn't gotten to the point of incurring online booing or hissing, it's getting awfully close.  Those who are entrenched in the social media jet set may not have noticed this fact as they seem to be happy tweeting social media tweets back & forth amongst themselves.

There seems to be controversy among the social media who's whos on how best to ensure that they and only they are considered "experts" in the subject, while others are outted as posers, imposters, and other varying degrees of unworthy.  This final fact is where social media will meet its death knell.  While I can understand making a case for using caution in identifiying anyone as an "expert" in the field, I would submit that social media should be looked at less as a field and more as a community.  The big draw of social media from the outset was to allow large brands, companies, organizations and the like a way to utilize social networking while marketing their brand without screaming "I'm advertising" to their market, usually the everyday consumer.

In order to seem like "one of us" social media as a community or culture needs to preserve the notion that anyone can, and should, use and master social media.  If there is a persisitent movement to superimpose a hierachy on social media, "average joes" will become less & less interested in being involved (thereby thwarting the very reason big names & brands exist on social media to begin with) and everyone will become less trusting of those who refer to themselves as social media expert, gurus, and the like (if that lack of trust isn't becoming inherent in the social media conversation already).

One of the higher profile social media types said that in order to suss out a poser, one should ask to see "five things" that person has done in social media.  Presumably results oriented stuff, if that's the case one could call me an expert, which I'm not.  And would that be the standard we would use in any other professional realm?  I think not.  The truth is social media as a "field" is too young for anyone to call themselves an expert (and that's a fact).

Saying you need a "social media expert" is like saying you need a community expert or a social guide.  While, I'm sure these occupations exist in some form, some where in the world, they are not likely to be the types of people utilized by everyday citizens in their everyday lives.  Likewise, if social media is going to sell itself on allowing big businesses/celebrities to incorporate themselves seemlessly into everyday life, it can not on the other hand extricate itself from everyday life (and everyday people).

The principles behind social media will be here for some time, perhaps for quite a long time (of course, ask Netscape, Altavista, or Yahoo! about online technology longevity).  The premise behind social media isn't going anywhere any time soon.  Rather, it's the phrase itself that stands to lose out.  It's under siege from a variety of corners and hanging in the balance.  And any attempts to make social media less accessible to the average joe will be meet with a backlash from the general community online (and off).

I guarantee it.

If you've been following along, you'll know I love posterous, but the blogging limitations have forced me to try blog-if-you-dare WordPress... Also, the name of my blog no longer resembles what I've been doing online... So please check out my new blog http://140chitchat.com and let me know what you think.  Many of these posts will be rolled over there, not easy since there's no export to WP feature... But the name is more pertinent, I hope you'll find the layout will be easier to navigate, and again - I'm looking for guest blog authors all the time - so recommendations are welcome!  This blog will still host my personal thoughts, opinions, etc on Social Media.  But the Day's News will be found on the new blog.

Check it out -you all have been wonderful for waiting patiently and visiting me on this blog daily!!

Well, if you follow me on Twitter, you'll know that I had major Time Warner Cable issues yesterday, which I thought were fixed in the afternoon.  Not! So I was offline last night, hopefully #fail is gone and all's a go today!  Fingers crossed.

So, we'll start the day off with the latest in Social Media news:

Breaking News: AT&T has decided to ignore all sensible talk and go ahead and take on GoogleNation regarding Google Voice and Net Neutrality.  Never mind that the FCC essentially told AT&T to back off a week ago, when reports came out saying that all parties were expected to "make peace" (see my post of 10/08/2009).  Yesterday, AT&T sent a letter to the FCC outlining why poor "little" AT&T doesn't stand a chance against Goliath (otherwise known as Google).  In a nutshell, AT&T tries to make a case for Google Voice as being a complete telecommunications service provider.  And, says AT&T, even if Google Voice is not a telecommunications provider, they should still have to abide by the same rules as AT&T.  We'll see how far they get with that argument.  Look at it this way, if your parents tell you to play nice, and then you don't what happens - do you then get your way?  I don't think so.  Obviously, AT&T is not getting the response that they would like behind closed doors, so they're working the angle publicly.  My assessment is this (and it's a cynical one, imagine that) but AT&T went for years as the "big dog" - lacking in customer service, thinking they didn't have to work on their public image because we all needed them anyway.  And now, like the Post Office, we find there are fewer and fewer uses for their services.  So they're grasping at straws.  Plain and simple.  Read complete coverage on CNET and their article has a link to the actual AT&T letter to the FCC.  Do I think Google is completely in the right?  Of course not.  But AT&T was happy to be a big corporation using similiar tactics 10 years ago, now the shoe's on the other foot.  Hard to feel sorry for them now.

Regarding Windows 7 - according to the Associated Press it's a "10" but don't upgrade yet... Yeah.  Ok.  That makes sense how??  A true "10" would mean we should all be lining up around the block waiting outside Best Buy for the Windows 7 release, money in hand.  "Upgrading an old computer to Windows 7 is not an easy process..."  Really?  I never would've guessed that.  Despite overstating the rating of the software, the AP's Technology writer makes excellent points about why you shouldn't upgrade up - not an easy process, priced too high, etc...  So, we're back to where we started when I originally began blogging on the issue.  Don't jump at the first chance to buy a Microsoft release, wait for Windows 7 ver. 2 or at least Windows 7 security patch #3... Just sayin'.

Big news!  Acer has surpassed Dell to become the number 2 leader in global PC sales, sadly for my new hero Michael Dell!  Oh well, but I can honestly say I have seen some whoppers of deals when it comes to Acer as of late.  For example, this past weekend, Best Buy had an Acer AMD Athlon with Vista laptop - 3GB mem and 160 GB hard drive for $349, while a similar Dell was $399.  Although, I personally would opt for the Dell because it came with Windows XP - no Vista!  Ha.  See my blog post of yesterday afternoon.

A new Storm is coming!  Research in Motion will be releasing Blackberry Storm 2 - reportedly sometime in November of this year.  Some are speculting that it will give Apple's iPhone a run for it's money.  The phone will come standard with a 3.2 megapixel camera and 18 GB of memory (not too shabby).  You can read reviews at Tech Generation or on the London Times website (they claim to have been the first to review Storm 2).  The most useful review (in my opinion) is on the Washington Post's website (as submitted by PC World).

You heard about the Pepsi iPhone app flack??  I haven't felt it was worth talking about.  That is until I read PC World's response, from yesterday, the headline - "Real Men Don't 'Amp Up' Before They Score."  Great response to a horrible PR move on the part of Pepsi (and Apple, as well, for accepting such an app).  Says the author of the PC World article:

"What caveman came up with the idea to use an iPhone app to offer pickup lines and track female "conquests" that could then be posted to the user's--in all senses of the word--social networking pages?"

Cavemen, just about sums up that situation.  It's nice to see that so many men are responding with a "say what?" attitude to Pepsi!

Ok folks - keep your fingers crossed that my TW situation is resolved this morning, or I may have to open an account like the woman with the StateFarm_Sucks Twitter account.

Hey, hey gang!  Miss me?  I'm working on rolling out a new blog that will have an easier to navigate format!  Hooray!  But I'm stil on the hunt for passionate guest blog writers... Know anyone?

In the meantime, here's part one in the latest on Social Media today:

Twitter's up.  Oh no, it's down... Wait... oh, wow... @ev throws a Hail Mary server pass to @biz and the crowd all watches intently...

Rumor Alert: Apple is reportedly working on an iPhone/iTouch app that would bring FM Radio to these devices.  It's all about multiple revenue streams, folks.  And notice how Apple seems to have more "rumors" floating around than any other company (Tech or otherwise).  Me thinks that's not a coincidence...

Did you hear about the NASA Tweetup?? That's right - NASA is inviting all of it's fans on Twitter to a space shuttle launch Tweetup!  On Nov. 11 and 12, the first 100 people to register at NASA's website will be allowed on site at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  I think that's a great way to marry daily biz with social media!  If you're in Florida, and want to go, registration opens up on October 16th and I'd imagine 100 spots will go faster than you can say "tweet."

Yesterday, Microsoft released another slew of security updates/patches/fixes - some for Windows 7.  It was the six year anniversary of so-called "Patch Tuesday." 

"Since moving to a monthly schedule in October 2003, Microsoft has released about 400 security bulletins based on an informal count of releases in its bulletin archives. The bulletins address about 745 vulnerabilities across almost every Microsoft product."

230 of these bulletins addressed issues that Microsoft deemed "critical."  No one is surprised by any of these numbers, I don't think.  But the real question is - how is that Windows 7 hasn't even been released yet, and still it needed patches and fixes already?  Do they not have a quality department on-site?? I'm just sayin'.

More to come tonight!

For the latest, be sure to check me out on Facebook http://profile.to/susanboggs and on Twitter http://twitter.com/aglobalbridge.

Got Social?

Do you find it difficult to stay in the #140zone?  Especially when dealing with a retweet?  And if you have a long Twitter name and the original poster has a long Twitter name then all the more woe to you!

This morning I have several suggestions for making life in 140 a bit less frustrating.  My suggestion relates back to my Tweet of last week, that suggested eventually we'll all be on a app called Beep - where you tweet in single chars that have predefined defintions (the reverse of Alpha, Bravo, Charley).

Most everyone who uses Twitter recognizes a retweet, so why can't we just use an "R" in front of a user's name to indicate a retweet.  That's one character saved there.

When crediting an author, writer or original thinker with "via", why not just use a "V" in front of the user's @ and all will be understood.  That's two characters saved with that.

I don't know about you, but three extra characters can go a long way in the #140 zone!

Any more suggestions for keeping it shorter and more tweet?  Let me know!

Well, well, well.  Twitter imploded. Miley closed up her tweet shop. And the world did not come to an end.  Who would've thunk it?

Other then the major #fail at Twitter today, the big talk was centered around ... Twitter.  Apparently the company is in talks with Google and Microsoft to establish possible license agreements.  These companies would like to have access to real, live feeds of the public tweet stream on Twitter.  Wow. Almost like having live stock quotes, only better because the prices won't fluctuate so much.  By the way, in case you were wondering, visits to Twitter are up 803% from August 2008 to August 2009.  That's some draw!  Ought to be worth a pretty penny I'd say.

In more GoogleNation news, early talk today said that AT&T and Google were in a "fight to the finish" over Google Voice and blocked calls.  You'll recall that Apple was in the mix on this issue as well, having been accused early this year of rejecting Google Voice.  While, AT&T is pointing fingers at Google for blocking expensive calls through it's network viz-a-viz AT&T callers to rural areas.  The FCC has jumped to try and get everyone to play nice.  Meanwhile, this whole Tech Triangle has all culminated in reports later today that "everyone" is expected to "make peace" with Google Voice.  In other words, "thank you for your concern - Next!"  If you're still keeping score - GoogleNation is up a gazillion points and every other tech company comes in at around a 10.

Amazon - giddy over it's slight rise in stock price after slashing the cost of an overpriced Kindle - has now set its sights on the international market.  No small thinkers, the strategic planning involves 100, that's right, 100 countries.  Yup.  Barely one step forward and, well, you know the rest.  I don't think they're quite ready to take that huge leap for Kindle-kind.  But what do I know, I only read the news and chat about it from my armchair.  I really think they should take that Google Books lawsuit off their plates if they're going to bite off so much to chew in the marketing arena.  Just sayin'.

The funniest news to me today was centered around Steve Ballmer.  He's trying to "downplay" Windows 7.  You remember Mr. Ballmer right?  The Microsoft CEO who took the token cut in compensation last week.  And he's at the helm of a company that has been touting Windows 7 as the "holy grail" fix to all that ails their current Vista market.  A CEO at one of Microsoft's partner companies said that Ballmer is just playing his cards close to his vest so that when Windows 7 "exceeds" market expectations, MS will look even better.  Yeah, that's the ticket!

In other weird and strange Microsoft news, the company announced today that it will cease production of Microsoft Works at the end of the year.  What year?  This year. As in 2009?  Are they kidding?  They should've stopped making Works back in the Stone Ages.  Works will be replaced by some other could-have-just-used-WordPad software called Office Starter.  Reportedly that will be ad-supported.  Sheesh. C'mon.  Gimme a break!  Who's in charge here??

Finally, the What Are You Guys Thinking news of the day.  Those 20k email passwords that were leaked the other day were analyzed - and guess what?  You all need to change your password habits, quick, fast, and in a hurry.  64 of the passwords were 123456 - really??  And 18 of them were 123456789 - oh brilliant, genius there!  NOTE - You should have a long password (as long as the site will allow) and it should be a random combination of letters and numbers (upper & lower case if you can).  No sequential numbers and no common words should be used.  It's just common sense folks.  Do you want a 6 year old to be able to hack into your account??

Ok - so go change your password - get social - and check me out for #Twitterhour tomorrow on Twitter around 5 p.m. EST!

Now there's an understatement!

UPDATE: 4:00 p.m. - Depending on where you live Twitter was up an hour ago, just now, or not at all...

Best Tweet of the Day

@EV tweeted There is a crapload of people in my back yard. about 4 hours ago

Well, it's here the #3T - or what I call Twitter Trouble Thursdays (seems like more than once it's occured on a Thursday).  There's currently a delay in the Tweet stream of an hour plus for some users (most of my followers who were on were having the same problem that I was).  But I noticed new users did not seem to be affected.  Not sure what the prob is - no official word yet.  And even though everyone is talking about it from LA to the UK, it hasn't hit the trending topics yet (that hashtag is something I just made up - you won't find that). But I'll keep you posted on what the skinny is!

Now, if I could just find something to do to occupy myself without Twitter... hmm....

UPDATE 11:15 a.m. - Twitter seems to be down majorly! I did a search of @Lukester (Twitter support) and @Ev (who else) and their Twitter accounts are being blown up with complaints! Now many accounts are showing a zero followers/following count!  More soon...