Link: Redeye VC: Everything old is new again....
Always interested in what Jason Calacanis is up to next. Mahalo.
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Link: Redeye VC: Everything old is new again....
Always interested in what Jason Calacanis is up to next. Mahalo.
I've been trying out this site. Fun and relatively easy to use for an amateur geneaologist, I took an interest in my family tree when I was about 12 years old and just yesterday, my husband found a few yellowing rolled up pieces of ruled paper with my 12-year-old handwriting on it with a roughly sketched out family tree on my father's side of the family extending back to the 1700s. I didn't even know I had it.
So as soon as I get a chance, I'll be back on Geni.com to add these links.
Once you add family members in and include their email addresses if you want them to join up and help you build your family tree. I guess this is where the social networking comes in, however, it seems to me that I'll only be socializing with family members through this site.
Another interesting site where you tend to socialize more with friends and family is Dandelife (a "social biography network). Haven't totally figured that one out other than it is networking based around storytelling about one's life. But interesting.
Link: Twitter Nation: Nobody cares what you’re doing - Netiquette - MSNBC.com.
People may not like/understand/get Twitter but they still are writing/talking/blogging about it. As the rest of us Tweet on...
Link: 33 Places to Hangout in the Social Networking Era - Rev2.org.
Then I start to get obsessed when I discover other social networking sites I haven't tried yet. So much social networking to do, so little time.
Link: In defense of Twitter | Perspectives | CNET News.com.
And in Twitter's defense...
Link: The case against Twitter | Perspectives | CNET News.com.
Dualing perspectives on CNET about Twitter.
Link: GigaOM Marketing in Second Life doesn’t work… here is why! «.
So far, I'm always pretty excited to find a legitimate real world company going onto SL. I'm curious to see what they do and gauge the reaction/interest.
What is a downer is when you cannot teleport to an event because the system or the island cannot accomodate the crowd. Maybe it is the sign of success to get booted out of the Microsoft event or the Intel press conference, but it seems like a techno-glitch that needs to be overcome in order to have greater success on SL, at least with events.
I love American Apparel's space, and purchased a few items there. Also love the way you can purchase the same item for yourself in the real world as you can for your SL avatar.
I've also seen Coldwell Banker's ads on SLNN.com, and if I'm going to buy land, I will go to them first because - well, they are a recognizable name in real life so it gives me a degree of comfort approaching them in SL to do business.
What do you think about marketing on Second Life?
Link: www.thenewrevolutionaries | Focus | The Observer.
Always interesting to see what "predictions" are being made and what actually happens. This is an article from November 2006 about what comes after YouTube and MySpace. Less than a year later, where are things at?
The new MySpace is ... Blue Dot - Never heard of this site. Am I passe?
The new YouTube is ... Loopt - Never heard of this site either. Am I not in the loop?
The new iTunes is ... Pandora - well, if you've been following the whole Internet radio melee, you know that this may not be happening.
The new Google is ... Powerset - Never heard of this site. Is this a branding problem on their part?
The new Craigslist is ... Yelp - Never heard of this site either.
I don't know - either I'm so far out of the loop here or the companies are not branding themselves very well or the predictions weren't good ones. So much can change in 6 months online.
Link: Reuters/Second Life.
Not only does Second Life have its version of CNN (SLNN.com), it also has prompted Reuters to create an SL news service. I know this is old news, but it is still fascinating.
Link: How NOT to use Powerpoint : David Airey :: Creative Design ::.
Very funny. Very true. Should be Must See Video for anyone thinking about using PowerPoint.
Link: Home - The New Influencers by Paul Gillin.
If only I had time to read actual books...
Blogging, podcasting and other social media are profoundly disrupting the mainstream media and marketing industries. Paul Gillin’s The New Influencers explores these forces by identifying the influencers, their goals and their motivations. The book also offers advice for marketers at both large and small organizations on how to influence the influencers.
Here's Paul Gillin's blog.
Link: Dept. of Technology: Remember This?: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker.
Fascinating article about Gordon Bell of Microsoft. Here's another link about Bell.
Excerpt: Bell’s archive now also contains a hundred and twenty-two thousand e-mails; fifty-eight thousand photographs; thousands of recordings of phone calls he has made; every Web page he has visited and instant-messaging exchange he has conducted since 2003; all the activity of his desktop (which windows, for example, he has opened); eight hundred pages of health records, including information on the life of the battery in his pacemaker; and a sprawling category he describes as “ephemera,” which contains such things as books he has written and books from his library; the labels of bottles of wine he has enjoyed; and the record of a bicycle trip through Burgundy, where he tried to eat in as many starred restaurants as he could (he averaged 2.2 stars per meal—“I do a lot of measuring,” he says).
Link: Twitter Cloning: Tiny Blogs Bloom Everywhere.
Interesting how they refer to Twitter as creating "micro blogs." Personally, I think it is a form of micro TURBO blogging.
Link: Second Style Fashionista.
Can I have her job? If I can't be a fashionista in RL, at least I can try in SL!
Link: Aimee Weber 3D Content Creation.
When reporters used to ask me who I admired in business, I would say Madonna and Martha Stewart (pre-jail Martha). Madonna because of how she reinvented herself successfully over and over and took control of her personal industry. And Martha Stewart because of how she branded herself and leveraged her personal brand cross-media.
Aimee Weber is my new business hero. She is creating beautiful things in a virtual world. And making a living doing it.
Link: New World Notes.
I'm starting a new category on Second Life because I want to save pointers to interesting sites about it as well as virtual worlds in general. Right now, I'm just a fangirl but someday soon, I hope to be a virtual entrepreneur.
Here "Wagner James Au reports first-hand from Second Life."
Link: Second Life News Network - SLNN. I'm turning into such a fan girl. Was dancing at the Microsoft party last night. Hard to get in - very "velvet rope" with "No Teleport" messages left and right. Music wasn't my fave. I prefer TheDiva's dance party tunes.
But I digress. I was on the dance floor then saw a reporter from SLNN.com. I was so excited because I had forgotten that there was a news service for SL. And they are hiring.
Could be a little more Linden Bucks in my bucket seeing as how I just lost $500 Linden in Whittenton stores. Bought boots and then POOF, they disappeared. Did all the troubleshooting but there are still gone. Hopefully someone has responded to my requests for help. That was a pricey pair of boots!
Okay, enough giddiness about SL. Back to work.
UPDATE: The boots were returned to me via my Lost and Found folder. Hurrah! Now hopefully my new - and currently lost - Chihuahua will be returned soon as well!
Link: How Will Twitter Affect Search? » Publishing 2.0.
As usual, letting the Smart People wax philosophical about Twitter and its affect on the universe at large while I sit back, read it, and wipe my brow with relief that I didn't have to think too hard and compose an actual post with my own opinion.
Who, me, lazy? No way. Just taking it all in.
Link: Millions of Us. Holy Moly. Where have I been. There really is a company that leverages virtual worlds for, well, real world companies. "Millions of Us is a company dedicated to helping businesses understand and harness the power of virtual worlds." I want a job with THEM. This is the stuff from the sci-fi, Mirrorshades-driven dreams I've been having since I was a little girl. Virtual is the new Real.
Link: Metaversed | Virtual Business.
I'm feeling very cool and "insider" now that I've found Metaversed (about Second Life or SL as those "in the know" refer to it).
Damn, I'm such a newbie in the space and have aspirations of designing clothes and opening a small boutique but I haven't a clue where to begin. So instead, I just go shopping for clothes and meet up with my girlfriend who lives in another state in RL (as in another state in the Unitest States in real life, that is).
Wondering how many moms are on Second Life. And how would I go about finding them? Hmmmm....
Link: twitter.start4all.com.
Twitter links galore.
Link: Tumblr: Quick and Dirty Blogging - AppScout.
Could Tumblr replace more standard blogs?
Per Tumblr: "If blogs are journals, tumblelogs are scrapbooks." But isn't that done much better by Scrapblogs?
I do love the simplicity of Tumblr, however, still fail to use it regularly. My Tumblelog is woefully neglected. (See) I just haven't gotten into that Tumblr groove. In fact, the QuickPosts I've been doing at this blog lately are almost like what Tumblr offers. So I'm not sure where Tumblr fits into the mix for me.
Twitter still wins for me in terms of fast and simple, but it doesn't compare to a blog. My brain, however, is too crammed to blog regularly and meaningfully.
So many publishing tools, so little time!
Link: Growth of Twitter vs. Blogger (kottke.org).
Kottke looks at the growth of Twitter versus Blogger mathematically. All I know is he's got colorful graphs for visual people like me. And boy, oh boy, is Twitter growing fast!
Link: Twitter presentation - May 3, 2007.
There is something so cool and "insider" about accessing Jack Hodgson and Bryan Person's notes to their presentation about Twitter. Fun!
Link: Book Not Ready for Print? You Can Whip Up an Audiobook for a Podcast for Now - New York Times.
Kudos to Grammer Girl aka Mignon Fogarty (or is it the other way around?) for the piece in the NY Times. I'm a fan.
Link: The Jeff Pulver Blog: The “Obligations” of Social Networking.
Jeff Pulver has some interesting things to say about social networking as he comments about LinkedIn. By one of those "cosmic coincidences," this evening I attended the first meeting of Alaska professionals organized by a investment banker in town who is looking to build community amongst entrepreneurs in the state. And he is exploring LinkedIn as a tool to network Alaskan business people.
Those at the meeting had various levels of experience with LinkedIn. The investment banker would be considered a power user of LinkedIn by Alaska standards. A few people, like myself, have been using LinkedIn for several years. A few others would be considered newbies to the service, and they recently joined because of a recommendation from someone else in the room.
In his post, Jeff Pulver says: "What most people on social networks fail to recognize is that in real life 'an introduction is an endorsement' and yet it seems that strangers want me to forget about this in the virtual world and just make the introduction."
At the meeting this evening, someone suggested that you can pass along an introduction and qualify it - saying "I know this person and vouch for them" or "I have no idea who this person is and can't speak to their character but am just passing this along." This is true - so wouldn't this address Jeff's point?
My thoughts: If people are picking and choosing who they pass along, is this defeating the purpose of LinkedIn? If they are not being selective and passing along every request that comes their way, will they get a "bad reputation" as an introduction spammer?
One woman at the meeting this evening said she had over 700 contacts, and then she mentioned that she probably had made an attempt to link up with some of us. I explained that if I receive a request to link from someone I do not know, I am wary to add them if they have more than 500 contacts. It just makes me worry that they might be adding people indiscriminately.
Personally, I cannot see the value of having that many contacts through the site. Of course, in his blog post, Jeff Pulver said he "somehow" had 1245 connections. But even with all those "contacts," he doesn't seem to be saying he is gaining a lot of value from most of them.
Recently, I passed the 100 contacts mark. But I can honestly say that I personally know 100 of my LinkedIn contacts. Only about 10 of them have over 500 contacts, but again, I know those power users personally as well.
I wonder: Am I limiting my circle by being discriminating? Am I going about this whole LinkedIn thing the wrong way?
Rarely do I get requests for introductions from my contacts, but when I do, I almost always know both parties and am happy to pass along the request. I'm willing to help my contacts if they ask. I've only asked for their help on a few occasions, mostly to identify people for jobs I'm trying to fill.
When I request a link, it is most often to people who I've known or worked with in the past and just want to reconnect because we have lost touch. Nine times out of ten, my request is passed along and accepted. Because I know both the intermediary and the final recipient of my request to link.
I thought this was a good and "proper" use of LinkedIn. But is it? Am I totally missing the point of LinkedIn and failing to make the most of it?
Link: Sporadic by Cathleen Rittereiser: Power Point Alientation.
Cathleen Rittereiser is FUN-NEE. Seriously hilarious. This is not only satire on a current event but it is so damned true about PowerPoint.
Link: Flickr: 24 hours of Flickr.
If Twitter up-to-the-minute updates is too much for the feint at heart, how about 24 hours of Flickr?
I hope I can remember to take photos Saturday. We should go for a hike and get some Alaska backdrops.
Then again, I take photos of the baby every day. Have only missed about 2 days since she was born - and only due to dead camera batteries and no spare batteries on hand.
Link: My Biggest Business Mistake - WomenEntrepreneur.com.
My first column on Entrepreneur.com's new web site for women business owners is up!
Confession time. What's the worst business mistake you've made? I'll go first. In the '90s, I held on to too much of the internet company I founded. We were offered millions of dollars, but I took less money to keep a bigger chunk of ownership.
Link: voisen.org » Blog Archive » Women and the Decline of Computer Science.
Interesting take on the decline in enrollment in the computer sciences here in the U.S. - and I agree with the authors observation that some of the best software developers out there are not computer science majors.
Two I know (males) who are excellent programmers are also - coincidentally - both English majors. One is Mark Lilback who I met eons ago and totally admire. I hired him to be our Director of Technology when I was running Cybergrrl, Inc. back in the mid 90s. The other is Billy Finley who I've met up here in Alaska more recently and continue to be impressed with the way he works.
Both are artistic and articulate about programming - two things that make for great qualities in programmers.
But in terms of women in programming, I know few and hear about even less. If you know some great female programmers who aren't getting the kudos they deserve, drop me a line. I'd love to know about their work.
Link: Twitter.com reinvents conversation.
Interesting...first mention I've heard of Jack Dorsey. I've been thinking Biz & Ev were the Twitter stars. Here they are mentioned as "some co-workers."
Funny how the writer does not define "twitterpated." I guess it is obvious that it means "constipated by Twitter" messages. hahahahahaha