Social Media Adventure Phase I complete

Phew ...

day one of my vacation begins.

Over the past 12 days I have crammed in as much spare time to learn about social media as fast as possible. Learning by doing. Facebook. Ning. Twitter. Blogspot. Lastfm. For now, I think I have a fairly good "initial" understanding ..

phase I complete, so to speak, since I knew a little bit already from being on XING and linkedin.

But really I have not even scraped the surface here.

This is an exploding phenomenon. The amount of twitter.phernalia alone is stunning. There are three ways i discovered in 2 minutes that allow you to measure your value on twitter. Mine is a paltry 40 bucks ... oh well, not much compared to Barack Obama's value, who has stopped twittering after he won the election (I guess he wont be allowed to any longer)

Most amazing experiences in my phase I discovery, especially on twitter

. ease of use .... although there is no documentation, you don't need it because it seems to
follow the rule .. "if you don't get it, you probably don't need it"
. helpfulness .... the responsiveness of the crowd to your needs is simply amazing
. quality ... there are simply just some amazing minds out there, starting from Paolo Coelho
who actually answered my direct message (surprise), to a 14 year kid in singapore who
is savvy beyond belief .. go check it out

I will definitely continue this discovery in phase II, after my vacation.

I will probably not be able to abstain ... I have become a twitter-holic :=)

CHHO

Where is the bandwidth when you need it ...

Since the beginning of the Web,
at least relative to "my" Web-beginnings,
around 1996
when at Informix Software (now in the IBM home of retired software)
in the Bay Area
I have been chasing the ever elusive bandwidth ....

It's been ever so enticing ... the carrot-on-a-stick-rainbow on the bit-horizon


However


Whereever I go, shortage follows ...

Yes, you claim, the infrastructure has grown by leaps and bounds ...

granted

But again...

wherever I go, shortage follows.

Even today I got three message from Twitter ... "too many tweets", please wait ...

Do you know what it means for me to WAIT ..... W AA IIIII TTTT

I don't know if it's an age thing, or a just.being.me thing,

but I hate waiting,

I seem to have totally exhaused my patience-account over the last 2 decades in computing ...

... "please wait .... ",

for me at least, is like,

"please drill a hole into your knee cap with your ball point pen ... " have a good day

Ok. Let me get this straight....

I would like for the internet to finally give me the performance I think I deserve.

But I guess that might not ever happen ... at least, not if you like being on the cutting edge
and keep trying the latest stuff ...

which is part of the fun

of the hurry-up-and-wait-state-of-the-net


CHHO

Following the TwitGrid ...

Like most people, i started into Twitter with absolutely no instruction or guidance, and started blundering around.

Suddenly, it occured to me that the little 6x6 grid of twitter followees is actually quite a suiteable digital signature of your own twitter profile. You are pretty much defined by this grid.

Duh ... I guess that must be pretty obvious to everyone but the newly inducted, but it took me a while to realize this.

Now, as I become increasingly familar with Twittering, I believe this grid of people one follows (Twid Grid = the top 36 people you follow) is one of the key assets every Twitterer is building.

You are who you follow

My Social Networking Adventure ...

Amazing what I have been missing. This whole social media thingy has been happening all around me, I have been reading about it, seeing the brands pop out from nowhere ... the facebooks, the twitters, the nings, etc., but for some reason, I thought it was not for me, or at least I kept making up sufficient excuses for not joining up.

This is all the more surprising since I actually work in the software business, but I guess l am a bit like the Fish in the ocean, that is quite unaware of the ocean ... being part of it, swimming in it, breathing it ... but when asked about it ... shrugging its fish-shoulders.

But the first week has been amazing, and I will keep at this. It's fun, and I think I will keep reporting back on my experiences with Twitter, Ning, FaceBook and Blogger

Auf Twittersehen

CHHO

Just joined Twitter ...

Funny ... a week ago
I would have violently denied
the possibility,

... had thought that
twittering and blogging

were not for me ...

but
interestingly enough,

the simple fact that you can

pretty much publish your stream of life instantly
to potentially hundreds of thousands, millions

adds a sense of permanence

to the moment

and that's goodness i guess

because

all we ever have

is the current moment

just like the lady in the picture,

blending into the background

.. just so ..

.. unaware ..

of being caught

... by a mobile phone in a taxi cab