Update 11 Oct 2010
Add these to the list;
Stick your head out the window and yell.
Bonus: A super fun Kleptones mashup with Howard Beale [mp3]
Update 13 Oct 2010:
My favorite line from the monologue:
“You people are the real thing, we’re the illusion.”
One of the Ebook Backers noticed that while the essays in the ebook (and on this blog) talk about how I zero’d out my Twitter account after a month long hiatus – but as of his reading – I was as active as ever.
Yes – as they say on The Facebooks – It’s complicated.
Since the release of #newtwitter, I’ve noticed – consistent with Twitter Corps intentions – 90% of my interaction with Twitter don’t require an account, or interaction with fellow tweakers.
Add in the reports saying a tweet’s lifespan is between 5 minutes and 1 hour Twitter is too close to screaming into the abyss for me.
@garrickvanburen has been permanently deactivated.
Update 2 Dec 2010:
In the 2+ months since I’ve deactivated my Twitter account – 3 people (out of more than 1300 followers) have noticed enough to ask me about it.
Other Qwitters:
Some ridiculous NPR story yesterday complained that the crowded nature of metropolitan airwaves prevent this from being useful to the vast majority of Americans.
The point isn’t urban America – the benefit is to rural America.
My earlier posts on the topic of opening up white spaces:
Bringing Me-dia to Rural America
In Bigger News: FCC Opens White Space & Frees iPhone
Out of context, the specific significance of this post’s title is entertainingly vague.
If there’s a state in the union synonymous with the modern American Dream – it’s California 1.
For the past twenty years, every vocation or avocation I’ve been interested in has had a significant pull from California.
There’s now some evidence California is becoming less attractive to do business in.
California’s loss is the rest of the country’s gain.
Attention: Minnesota policy makers – there’s some opportunity here. I’d like to see Minnesota on this list as well. The same business conditions that make it attractive to move here make it attractive to stay here. 😉
1. For cities, I’m sure NYC still holds the #1 position.
I assume that the signs are either:
a) a joke commenting on the ridiculousness of sorting waste
b) part of a research study
Both of which, based on my experience, are highly likely in Germany.
Let’s assume for a moment they’re neither.
Instead, let’s assume – there’s some ongoing business value to signage – what might it be?
Perhaps there’s some nuanced difference in how the urinals are cleaned.
Perhaps it’s a way to manage drink sales.
Perhaps this is a clever way to get the mens’ room line to move at a frequency closer to the womens’ room line.
I’ll be leading a session on font selection & usage at the 2010 MIMA Summit next Tuesday afternoon – Sept 28th.
As you can see from the title – the goal is to get beyond ‘web fonts’ and talk about all the different artifacts we publish and the benefits and challenges of using custom fonts consistently across the board.
Should be fun.
Update – Here’s the presentation:
This Barrel of Rocks analogy has been rolling around in my mind quite a bit lately.
Being able to explore the open spaces in an ecosystem and find one that fits is what excites me about new technologies – web, RSS, podcasting, Twitter, web fonts, Apple’s iPad, and even my new Nokia N900. I quickly lose interest if I’m not able to find a space or if it starts feeling like an iron maiden. That’s why I sold my iPad and gave away my iPod Touch – I didn’t find my space.
Last night – Twitter started the roll out of New Twitter. Word is – it’s completely built on their own API platform and formally integrates 16 other services (Youtube, Flickr, etc).
Additionally, Twitter Corp recently acquired a client in each of the major mobile platforms (iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Android), and turned off username/password access to applications connecting with the Twitter API, and is migrating to their own t.co URL shortener for all URLs passed around in their service.
Each one of these points makes it significantly more difficult to use Twitter in ways Twitter Corp doesn’t intend (not unlike Apple approving every app in their app store). Each open space is being filled with a Twitter-branded or Twitter-partner service. They’ve poured cement in their big bucket of rocks.
Point #9 of Liz Gannes article at GigaOm tells the real story:
The ‘Annotations’ project was all about a fuller, more data-rich Twitter API. Of course it was put on hold – in the New Twitter world there’s a significantly decreased incentive to expose the API to non-Twitter-controlled properties.
Hell, it wouldn’t surprise me if Twitter just turned off their API at the end of the year.
Reminds me of a prediction I made back in 2009.
Elsewhere: