Social Media Addiction
As I nursed my social media addiction this evening, today’s Non Sequitur comic strip seemed particularly applicable.
Technorati Tags: Non Sequitur, Comic, Social Media, Twitter
Socially Speaking
This afternoon I spent an enjoyable hour listening to the Sun-sponsored “Socially Speaking” radio show on BlogTalkRadio. Sumaya Kazi, Sun Microsystems Senior Social Media Manager, interviewed new media consultant David Spark talk about improving marketing “storytelling” by leveraging social media.
A couple of intriguing concepts proposed by David Spark:
- “‘Be the voice‘ – Build your business by becoming your industry’s thought leader.”
- “Create social content that directly supports your sales efforts.”
This was a good example of using social media to promote social media concepts.
Technorati Tags: Social Media, Socially Speaking
Help! I need water!
My son-in-law Garry Bartle sent me a link to this innovative use of Twitter:
“Botanicalls Kits let plants reach out for human help! They offer a connection to your leafy pal via online Twitter status updates to your mobile phone.”
Just think of all the people and things we could potentially attach Twitter-enabled sensors to: Grandma, Fido, Fluffy, my son’s car …
Thanks, Garry. I needed this bright spot of geeky tech stuff on this dreary Friday afternoon.
Visualizing Facebook Social Graph
Thanks to Rohan Pinto for pointing out the TouchGraph Facebook application, written in Java, that allows you to visualize your Facebook social graph.
Technorati Tags: Facebook, Visualization, Social Graph, TouchGraph
Bloggers Send Prayers of Hope
Last week, I posted a brief article about close family friends who are recovering from a serious plan crash.
The following news report, produced by a Phoenix television station, explores how bloggers from around the world are sending their hope and prayers to Stephanie and Christian.
Makes you kind of feel good about participating in the blogosphere!
I’ve Been Zemblied
Or is it “Zemblified?” Regardless of what you call it, last night I was initiated into the wonderful world of rapid, collaborative JavaScript development using the Sun Zembly online environment. From my perspective, Zembly is:
- A web-based, rapid development environment for creating web 2.0 “things”: widgets, applications and services
- A growing repository of “things” developed on Zembly or available from outside sources
- A social network of developers who can collaborate with each other in the development process
- A hosted environment for executing things we produce
First, you must know that I am a rank amateur at JavaScript. I had never created a widget or put an iframe on a web page before last night. My days of software development are in the past, with such old-school tools as Visual Basic, VB Script and Active Server Pages. (How quickly things change!)
But last night, I actually produced something useful with Zembly – on the first try. My goal: replacing the “cloud” photo that has been hanging around in the upper left-hand corner of my blog for months with a rotating set of photos from my Flickr photostream. It probably took me longer than it would take you, but here is the basic process I went through:
- I searched the Zembly repository widgets that had something to do with Flickr.
- I found a “MyFlickRandomSlideshow” widget that had been created by “Gail”.
- I cloned the widget so I could make changes to fit my needs.
- I discovered that using my Flickr screen name didn’t work, so I dropped a note to Gail and asked for some advice.
- I received a note back from Gail (I still don’t even know where she lives) saying I had actually uncovered a bug. She fixed the bug, published a new version and gave me some advice regarding my Flickr screen name.
- I verified that the change worked, made some tweaks and voila! I had a working widget.
- I then tried to insert the widget in an iframe on the “about” page of this blog and discovered that I needed to learn a bit about configuring iframes.
- I Google “html iframe”, found this page, learned what I needed to know and had the widget sized and framed just right to replace the old cloud picture.
- I sent a note of thanks to Gail and headed to bed for the night.
So, there you have it. My clouds have been replaced with my arcane set of family photos. I met a new online friend. I felt the rush that comes from creative accomplishment. Plus, I had something to blog about.
So what now? I will figure out a way to make my call to Flickr more selective so the photos you see are more relevant. I will then create some widgets to make the lists on the right side of my blog more uniform. And I’m sure I’ll think of other stuff.
So, thanks to Prakash and Jacques and Gail for getting me started. If you’d like to give this a try, please let me know and I’ll get you a beta invite.
Technorati Tags: Zembly, Web 2.0, JavaScript, Flickr, Tools, Collaboration
Web 2.0 Resume
I don’t know Brandon Zeuner, but got a kick out of his Web 2.0-esque web page:
Technorati Tags: Web2.0, Social Media
Ziggy Podcast
When Ziggy can listen to podcasts on seashells, we know that social media has entered the mainstream of our social consciousness!
Technorati Tags: Ziggy, Social Media, Podcast
Social Networking – the Old Fashioned Way
Earlier this week, I saw a great series of ads on the on the Boston Subway (the “T” in the local vernacular) for Dentyne chewing gum. These ad were particularly adroit in capturing the essence of our electronically connected society while firmly emphasizing the ageless quality of in-person interaction.
Thanks to a rapid email response from the Dentyne customer relations folks, I was able to enjoy the “Make Face Time” ad series again on the web. A series of six ads are available for your enjoyment.
You may also enjoy entering the Dentyne.com site via the front door and experiencing the high tech “Flavor Analyzer.”
Enjoy! I feel a sudden urge to rush out and buy some gum.
Technorati Tags: Dentyne, Social Networking, Social Media, Chewing Gum
LinkedIn and Flying Cars
Social networking spawns some interesting conversations. Earlier this week, Paul Hinz, a colleague at Sun, sent the following message to accompany his LinkedIn connection request:
“Great meeting at ASM. Here’s the proverbial LinkedIn request. In 20 years, what will we think about the phase of “hey, let’s connect”? Will it be as common as flying cars?”
To that pithy question, I had to respond. For what it is worth, here’s what I offered in return:
“Thanks for the connection. I hope that in 20 years, connections via social networks (or what every they are called then) are more automatic, such as registering a connection when we shake hands, like we did at ASM. I’ve really tried to keep track of people I connect with for the last 20 years, with increasing degrees of sophistication. I sense that the next 20 will bring a flood of improvements we haven’t even thought of yet.”
Re-reading that, I think I waxed a bit too philosophical at the time. But it will indeed be interesting to look back in 20 years and remember what the wild and wooly west of social networking was doing in its infancy.
Technorati Tags: LinkedIn, Social Networking, Flying Cars