Monthly Archives: July 2008

When you shouldn’t create an iPhone app…

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So… yesterday, when I found the link to get early access to the iPhone 2.0 software, of course I tried it and loaded it up right away.  (Yes, I am that guy.)

I then proceeded to download a bunch of apps to my phone.

Now there are just some apps that I don’t get why they are apps.  For example, there is Facebook and the New York Times.  Their iPhone apps are almost exactly the same as their iPhone Web site.

As the implementations of mobile Web browsers improve across mobile phones, increasing the use of new Web technologies (better CSS and JavaScript), there is a chance you’ll be able to use the iPhone Web site again.

I can’t imagine that Apple will ever license the iPhone OS so you’ll never be able to see your iPhone app used on anything but an iPhone.

Now I can understand Sega’s Super Monkeyball.  That is a REALLY fun game for the iPhone.  I can’t imagine you’ll be able to do that with a browser for a long long long time so I understand if you wanna make that an iPhone app.

But… why does Twitteriffic need to be an iPhone app? Didn’t we get EXACTLY the same thing with Hahlo?  Actually, I think Hahlo has more and better functionality.

With iPhone 3G, a lot of the speed, responsiveness, and interactivity issues with iPhone Web sites should be resolved.

Yeah… so when you start to think about time and resources around whether your company should build an iPhone app, ask yourself whether or not you’re doing it because it’s cool or you’ll get a lot of people to use it.

Am I crazy?  What do you think?

Business Week Columnist and Author Sarah Lacy is Stopping in Washington DC for her User-Generated Book Tour

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Business Week columnist and author of the book “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good” Sarah Lacy will be stopping in Washington DC for her User-Generated Book Tour.

So as detailed in my last post my first stop on the User Generated Book Tour will be Washington D.C.– a city I haven’t been to since an 8th grade class trip. This time around I will not be going to the Washington Monument or the White House. I will be meeting lots of entrepreneurs and Web folks!

Everyone should come to the Twin Tech Party, where she’ll be giving a small talk, doing some Q&A, as well as selling and signing books.

Sarah is someone who’s gotten to experience technology and Web communities both inside and outside of the Valley.  I’m excited to hear what kind of advice and insight she’ll share with the Washington DC tech community

So… you coming to the party?

Congressional Leaders are Looking to Add Unnecessary Regulations on the Use of Social Media… What Do They Have to Hide?

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UPDATE: According to TechDirt, all of these regs already exist and that this letter is to loosen them.  Read their post: “Politician Using Twitter To Ignite Misleading Partisan Fight Over Politicians Posting To Twitter.“

In my opinion, even with the letter, the regulations still seems unnecessary.

UPDATE 2: Tim O’Reilly has a good blog post on this too.

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Now this down right pisses me off.

US House of Representatives Democratic leadership is recommending to the Committee on House Administration that they adopt unnecessary regulations about the use of social media by House members.

The concern is with House members posting content outside of the domain “house.gov”… like Twitter or YouTube.

One suggestion was that the committee put together a list of “approved” sites that meet House regulations.  Another was that any link to a external domain must have one of those damn annoying “Your Now Leaving the House of Representatives” pages, which just KILL the experience.

Rep. John Culberson has been a leader in social media within Congress.  He’s a frequent Twitterer and will post frequent videos on Qik of his activity.  He’s using social media to engage the members of his district as well as the country, if not the world.

The thought that Twitter or Qik would have to go before some type of committee review before people could use it frightens me.  Having worked at a government agency, I know how long this kind of thing would take.

This is supposed to be a government of “of the people.”  The people are on Twitter, Qik, Facebook, YouTube, and MySpace.  Congressional leadership should be encouraging members to use these sites and not discouraging it.

What does Congress have to hide that they want to block this stuff?

I ask you that write a blog post, a tweet, or record a video saying how much you appreciate that Rep. John Culberson is acting as a leader in social media within Congress and that you’d like more to follow his lead.

Going to Seattle this weekend…

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So… I’m going to Seattle this weekend.  I’m really excited.  I’ve never been to Washington state before.

Saturday I’ll be attending the SocialMediaCamp as well as Mashbable’s SummerMash party.  It should be a great weekend.

Anybody wanna meet up while I’m out there? I wanna stop by the Apple store, while I’m there, and pick up the new 3G iPhone.  Anyone else going?

Also… anything you folks would recommend doing while I’m out there?  I’d love to have the pinnacle of coffee experiences and I hear that Seattle is a good place for it.  Where else should I go?

Burgers, Geeks, and Capitol Hill

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Last night John Coston, Paul Sherman, and I had dinner at the new Capitol Hill burger place Good Stuff Eatery.  Yesterday was it’s grand opening.

The food was great and well worth the wait.  (I had never had a burger with a fried egg on it before. Definitely rocked my world.)

There was definitely a frenzied crowd… probably partially because they were hungry and partially because folks wanted to see Chef Spike who was on Season 4 of Top Chef.

John, Paul, and I had a great discussion about the local tech scene.  One thing we did notice is there’s a derth of Web/tech events happening on Capitol Hill.

We need to fix this.  What I’m thinking is… maybe once a month we’ll get together at Good Stuff Eatery to talk tech.  Who’s with me?

Two More Must Read Blogs – Logic’s End and Peregrine Espresso

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I have two more blogs that I’d highly recommend that you all read.

The blog Logic’s End is written by one of my classmates and best friends from college Louis Horton. He’s one of the smartest conservative poitical thinkers I know.  He’s a young and rising star.

Some of my fondest memories of college are of Louis, the gang, and I either debating politics, philosophy, or literature over beers or coffees.  I’ve learned so much from Louis and I’m confident you will be enlightened just as much.

Secondly, I’d recommend you all read the blog peregrine espresso. It’s written by the couple that’s putting in the new coffee shop at the location of the old Murky Coffee in Capitol Hill.

Just like me, I’m sure all of your hearts broke when the old Murky closed but I’m excited to see the new place and how it will help the Eastern Market area.

The blog is a great way to follow the opening of the new store.  I’m sure I’ll be there the day it opens.

Tom Bridge Launches Local Blog “We Love DC”

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My buddy Tom Bridge and his merry band of brethern (who used to write for Metroblogging DC) have just launched a new blog called “We Love DC.”

We’re going to be doing this a little bit differently than other blogs have done it. We’re going to be focusing on feature length content for our site, with an emphasis also on the hyperlocal microblogging.

I’m really excited about this blog.  These guys are great writers.  I’d highly recommend that you add it to your RSS reader.

I think the traditional Washington DC print media needs to be worried.  If I want to know what’s going on in DC, I’d more likely to go to a blog like “We Love DC” rather then picking up a paper edition of the Washington Post or City News.

Where do you all go to find out what’s happening in DC?  Any of you read some cool local Washington DC blogs?

PoliQuiz – Test Your Political Knowledge

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The Sunlight Foundation has just released a really cool new project, PoliQuiz.

In celebration of Independence Day, we bring to you PoliQuiz, a new interactive political trivia game that provides a fun way for you to test your knowledge about their elected officials and the legislative process.

It’s AWESOME.  It was created by my friends Andrew, Ryan, and Arjun at Publi.us.  It even uses Clearspring’s Launchpad platform. :-)

In addition to being a Web-head, I’m a big political nerd so I love this stuff.

What do you think? What score did you get?

An Afternoon at the Newseum

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Infront of a Berlin Wall Guard Tower

This Fourth of July weekend I have the pleasure of my parent’s company in Washington DC.

When thinking about fun things we could do,  I thought of DC’s brand new museum the Newseum.  I figured it’d be of extra interest to my father being he is a former newspaper reporter.

The Newseum was awesome.  It blew my expectations.

There was one portion of the museum where they walked you through hundreds of years of newspapers and reporting artifacts.

Within the museum there was a corner that was devoted to the effects of the Web and technology on news reporting.  This was particularly of interest to me because it’s the world that I live in.

They had the Nokia N95 used by one of the grad students at the Virginia Tech shootings.  They had an Amazon Kindle on display.  There was also a room where you could watch videos about different major themes in the Online news revolution.  We watched one on blogging pleased to see the smiling face of my friend Jim Long.

I wonder how the museum will change or evolve as the Internet becomes an increasing role in the state of the News.

The nightly television news is fading, newspaper readership is fading, but people are moving to the Web.

Have you been to the Newseum?  What’d you think?

(Photo above was taken by my dad at the Newseum. We’re standing infront of a Berline Wall guard tower.)

I wish Washington DC had a City-Wide Bike System

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Venture Capitalist Fred Wilson has a cool blog post about his recent travels to Paris and how they have a city-wide bike system called Velib.

It works a lot like a public transportation system. There are daily, weekly, and monthly cards. You can get a card right at the kiosk. Then you enter in your card number and then pick what number bike you want. When you pull the bike out of the rack, it’s yours.

I’ve lived in Washington DC for almost 2 years now without a car.  I’ve depended on the Washington Metro system, my feet, or the kindness of my friends and their cars to get me around DC.

I could probably just buy a bike but it seems like there are only distinct times I’d need it.

It seems like this Zip-car like bike system would be amazing.

Would any of you use this?