Month: May 2008

Twitter Needs a Community Manager

After today’s and the last few days’ drama around Twitter, I think they need a Community Manager.

While there management has been kind of accessible, they really need someone who’s smack dab in the middle of the folks that use the product on a daily basis.

They need someone who’ll communicate constantly what’s going on and help even more so maintain this relationship.

Twitter is obviously a tool that folks depend on so it’s extra important to give special attention to the community and it’s feelings about it.

It’s all too easy for a community to turn on a product and move somewhere else.

PS – No, I’m not offering myself for the job.  I’m very happy at Clearspring.

Personalized Start Pages vs. Feed Readers

So I’m curious… how many of you use personalized start pages (i.e. Net Vibes, iGoogle, and PageFlakes), feed readers (i.e. Google Reader, Bloglines), or both?

I use both.

My feed reader (Google Reader) allows me to keep up with my world on a very micro level.  I may check it once or twice a day. It tells me what’s going on with everyone from those I’m really close with to those who I’m not.  It’s great for something with more then 35 feeds.

My start page (Net Vibes) helps me keep up with my world on a very macro level.   I check this all the time.  It’s usually open all the time.  It tells me about what’s going on with with the people and things that are the MOST important to me.  It’s great for less then 35 feeds.

I spend a lot of time sifting through fire houses of information.  So I feel that I’ve gotten good and getting through my 500+ RSS feeds.  I realize that I’m like less then 1 % of the population.

I’d bet around 15% of people feel comfortable with more then 35 feeds.  I’d say about 85% are comfortable with less then 35 feeds.

So… yeah, what do you think? What tools do you use and for what?

Screening of the Documentary “As We Forgive” Next Thursday in Washington DC

Over the last few years my friend Laura Waters Hinson has been working on a what I’m sure she’d know consider a labor of love.  It’s her documentary As We Forgive.

The documentary is about reconciliation that happens in Rwanda after the 1990 genocide.  You really need to see this film.

This next Thursday at 6:45pm at there will be a screening of As We Forgive at Ebenezers Coffee House on Capitol Hill.

You need to go see this.  Check out the trailer. Go see it next week.

Clearspring Raises $18 Million

So… yeah.  Mashable has a great story on this:

Clearspring, the widget company that has broken into the advertising and distributed media realm, has raised $18 million in a Series C round of funding, led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Novak Biddle Venture Partners, with existing investors also participating in the round.

Harry Weller, a partner at NEA, will be joining the Clearspring Board of Directors, as will Steve Case, co-founder of AOL, Ted Leonsis, AOLs Vice Chairman Emeritus (who is now Clearspring’s Chairman), Miles Gilburne, and Nigel Morris, co-founder of Capital One, who also has a great deal of experience in helping companies go public. That’s a lot of new board members to go along with the hefty round of funding, and a pretty powerful set of newcomers.

Check out the entire article at Mashable, “Clearspring Gets $18M to Make Smarter Widget Ads.”

I want to be able to read & write comments from Google Reader

I was with some friends about this the other day and then saw the notion mentioned on Jeremiah O’s blog.  People are reading blogs from a feed reader (ie Google Reader) and totally missing out on all the conversation that is happening in the comments.  That sucks.

There should be a way for people to easily read and write comments all from something like Google Reader.   How cool would it be if I could comment on a podcast from iTunes or from my iPhone.

We need to allow the conversation to take place even in these aggregated environments.

Maybe the lack of this type of capability is a downfall of feeds and a bonus for a widget.  It’d be completely possible to make a widget for a blog that allows you to read and write comments on a post.

What do you think?

Yesterday, I Spoke at Social Rockstar Workshop on Widgets 101

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Social Rockstar Workshop here in Washington, DC at Busboys & Poets.  The workshop was for people or organizations that wanted to utilize social media to become social rockstars.

I did “Widgets 101 (PPT Slides)“, which was a lot of fun.  I hadn’t given that talk in a while.

It was masterfully organized by the Paul Worsham and Kady Chiu.  They brought it in other great speakers and friends of mine like Nick O’Neill and Frank Gruber.  It was hillarious when Frank spoke.  He had had one too many cups of coffee and was CRAZY hyper. 🙂

I had a lot of fun at the event. Word on the street is that Paul and Kady will be doing more events soon so stay tuned.

What I’m Reading: Designing for the Social Web by Joshua Porter

So… I’ve been reading a lot of good books lately and for some reason have forgotten to mention them here.  The book that I’m reading now is “Designing for the Social Web” by Joshua Porter.

I’ve been reading Joshua’s blog Bokardo for a while.  His insights around the social Web have always been really spot on so I didn’t hesitate to pick up his book.

In the book, he analyzes a lot of examples in the social Web that we are all familiar with while abstracting a lot of high level ideas that everyone can use.

Some of the highlights so far have been things like the intro to the rise of the social web,  AOF  (Activities, Objects, and Features) method,  how to build authentic conversations with your users, and how to communicate the actual benefit of your service in a way that will get your users coming back over and over again.

Buy This book.  You’ll love it.

HBO on iTunes Will Get Me To Try the Sopranos, The Wire, and Rome

Yesterday, Apple announced the addition of HBO television programming to the iTunes store.  This is awesome and seems totally like a no-brainer for HBO.

For me (the consumer) it’s great too.  I have yet to really dive in and get into shows like the Sopranos, The Wire, and Rome (I know I’ve been living under a rock).  Now with them being on iTunes, its really easy for me to just buy an episode or two and slowly get addicted to the shows, rather then having to lay down the big investment.

Yes I know I could have added the TV shows to my Netflix que but that takes planning and fore thought.  This is so much more easy and instantly gratifying.

I guess the lesson here is… make it so easy for people to try your content… to get a taste that it’s easier for them to become hooked.

So are you going to try any of HBOs shows on iTunes?