The Web has given rise to fast paced journalism. It becomes about speed over accuracy.
The New York Times wrote a story about the process behind them getting and writing a story about Donald Trump’s tax returns.
It’s awesome to see about the great lengths they go to tell a story. I’m proud to be a paying subscriber to invest in thoughtful journalism.
When we went on our honeymoon, we didn’t have mobile reception in Italy. At first, it kind of felt like I was going through drug detox. After some time, it was amazing.
These little boxes start to control your mind, like a drug. Sometimes it’s good to step away.
If you have the chance to go somewhere you don’t have internet access, do it. I’m thinking about my next chance to have a digital detox.
(source: New York Times)
If the performance improvements live up to the promise, in watchOS 3, this could be a game changing moment for the Apple Watch. I’d certainly use more apps. Hopefully this will spur more developers to write apps. Will report back. I’m installing this now.
(Source: the Verge)
We’re quickly moving to a post-car ownership society. A lot of my friends in DC don’t own cars. Now, in downtown St Louis, a lot of my friends don’t have cars. So it just makes sense that a lot of these huge car companies are looking at non-car products.
(Source: The Verge)
There’s a bigger story coming out of Apple’s announcement last week. It’s not the iPhone 7 or even that there’s wireless headphones. It’s that those technologies allow us to live in a world where we’re always wearing out headphones. If we’re always wearing headphones, it’ll be easy to summon Siri and have it come to our assistance. Voice is the new computing platform.
(Business Insider)
At the Facebook’s Developer conference F8, Mark Zuckerberg announced that chat bots would be coming to Facebook Messenger. This just increased the volume of chatter and excitement around innovation around bots.
For those of you not familiar, a chat bot is like texting or messaging with someone. But, you’re not messaging with someone. You’re messaging with an app.
The problem is most of the applications that I’ve seen to date have been REALLY lame. On Facebook, I can ask the WSJ for Apple’s stock price or get news alerts. I can ask for the weather from a cat. Meh.
Slack is another platform that’s super popular and has been a hub of bot innovation. The landscape of anything break through is pretty similar to Facebook. Meh.
So, will there be a breakthrough killer bot app? Will there be an app that will take bots mainstream? Or will bots live in and die in SF/SV?
I’m fascinated by Snapchat as a platform for engaging an audience with authentic video and photos that give a behind the scenes look of your life.
I’ve been playing around with it a lot personally. Follow me. I’m thorpus.
I’ve been keeping an eye out for people and brands that do it well. If you’re looking for people to follow, I recommend these.
Alton Brown (thealtonbrown) – The Food Network star, entertainer, and food educator shows a behind the scenes look as he crosses the country on his national tour.
Dan Berger (danjberger) – Dan is the head of one of the fastest growing DC startups Social Tables. Get an inside look at his day to day and see what it’s like to work at his company. Dan’s Snapchat is hands down the best recruiting tool for Social Tables. It makes me wanna work there.
Dogfish Head Brewery (dogfishbeer) – Get a behind the scenes look into the craft brewery that’s taking the world by storm.
Gary Vaynerchuk (garyvee) – The entrepreneurial Yoda and head of a leading social agency Gary shows the ins and outs of the hustle. Seeing the day to day makes me not want to be that kind of entrepreneur. I’m not cut out for the 18-20 hour day grind that he is. But it’s fascinating to watch.
The White House (whitehouse) – Get an inside look at the beloved institution on 1600 Pennsylvania Blvd. See different events. See them take trips. It really makes the White House look more boring than what you see on TV or watched on the TV show West Wing. But yet, it’s also fascinating.
What’s your Snapchat handle?
I remember when i was in elementary school (mid-1990s) and my dad pulled me over to the computer. He’d just connected to the old Internet protocol Telnet through the Michigan State University (MSU) Library System. Within seconds, we could explore the card catalog and corresponding applications from not just MSU but most major libraries in the world.
I know what you’re thinking. “Big whoop you connected to card catalog from a library.” But that was the mid-1990s. No one was online at that point. I was maybe 12 and my computer was bouncing around the world.
In that experience, I had some kind of aha moment that affected the rest of my life. I realized that the Internet was going to connect people in ways that’ve never happened before. From that point on, it’s been a non-stop fascination… and possibly even an obsession.
And I’ve seen it work. I’ve seen people connect via technology to build communities that have since gone on to change the world in a way that they wouldn’t be able to do on their own. I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of some of those movements. Excited to hopefully be a part of A LOT more.
But it all started with a moment. Do you have a moment that was an infection point in your life?
With the addition of Snapchat to the mainstream social media landscape, I think people (especially those over 30) are feeling collective social media fatigue.
Recently, I’ve been having more convos about how each of the different platforms are distinctly useful. So, I thought I’d break down how I use the platforms…
Facebook – This is the best of what’s happening with the people and brands that I care about. It’s about truly understanding your audience, posting the best photos and the best links. Because it’s the “best of” and more so limited to your closer connections, there’s a better opportunity for deeper threaded discussions. But, it’s a fundamentally closed ecosystem. It’s harder to make newer spontaneous connections.
Twitter – This is a real-time stream of what’s happening in the world right now. It’s an open ecosystem. So, your connections could and will be everyone. You could and should post often. With Twitter, you have the opportunity to interact with anyone and have anyone reach out to you.
Instagram – These are photos that are the best of your life. It’s the highlight reel. It’s photos of beautiful lives, beautiful food, and beautiful travel. I’m increasingly seeing beautiful product photos or beautiful flim clips.
Snapchat – This is the opposite of Instagram. It’s raw and messy. The videos are quick. They’re not thought out. They show you the real life of who ever’s taking the pictures or video. It’s a great platform for turning and talking directly into the camera.
LinkedIn – This is for your professional life. What are you reading for work? What are you working on? Is there a new issue or topic relevant to those in your field. Your connections are the new rolodex.
Hopefully this makes sense. Each platform is different and serves a different audience.
Rule #1 is understand your audience. Where do they spend their time? Go there. But don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty and go multiple places, including Snapchat.
I’ve noticed something about myself. When I’m in public arenas, I’m fascinated by what people are doing on their phones. Last night I flew to DC for a few days at the office. I was totally curious by what the sub 30 somethings were doing on their phones.
Especially as you get older, it’s easy to get stuck. But you gotta go where the puck is going, otherwise you’ll get left behind. Best way to know where things are going is by watching those that are younger than you.
For example, the market is clearly moving towards Snapchat as a predominant media platform. I know a lot of my peers cringe at the idea of Snapchat. But get over it. It’s the present reality. It’s what people use.
In general though, I think there’s a lot you can learn from just paying attention. When you’re in line for your morning latte or on your commute home, pay attention to the people around you. What are they doing? How can that inform how you go about trying to command their attention.
Oatmeal Stout - Justin Thorp's blog 