Monday, March 02, 2009

TweetDeck, Power Twitter, Twitter Globe, Better Than Facebook

TweetDeck

Twitter changed my life. Then TweetDeck came along and it changed my Twitter life. Twitter.com is you driving a car. TweetDeck, and you are in an 18-wheeler. You feel the power.

@paramendra

Power Twitter

That is when you really get it. Twitter is no longer a waste of time, but essential to your work and life. If you don't tweet, your career suffers a little that day. If you don't tweet, you are a little less happy that day, unless it is your day off. I recommend taking one day off a week.

@paramendra

Links, People: Twitter Planet

Bumping into great links, either to news or to information or sites - like Padmasree introduced me to Science Daily - is half the fun, the other half is bumping into great people. On Twitter I am a heat seeking missile looking for tech entrepreneur types. I have found some big ones, and several not so big ones, all exciting. Since I have never been a big fan of beer, this beats meeting them over beer. Or maybe not. I'd love to meet them in person. But Twitter is the only way for me to get to them one on one now. There is absolutely no other way.

But I am not just after celebrities, actually I avoid the non tech mini celebrities. Quite a few times I have ended up asking, excuse me, but are you someone famous? It is called not owning a TV.

One of my recent delights has been going on a Twitter world tour. And finding people in the top cities of the world. This beats New York City. In NYC you mostly see people from all over the world. On Twitter you actually interact with them, at will. I wish the NYC Subway were more like Twitter. I wish the subway was where you went for easy, impromptu conversations.

And, by the way, Brooke Ellison is a total sweetheart.
https://twitter.com/brookemellison/status/1273803450

@paramendra

I Speak More Languages Than I Thought I Did

Enter The Dragon: Google Translate.

I understand about 10 languages as is, six of them really well. But then one day I wrote to Steven in Chinese, he wrote back to me in Hindi. The guy does not speak a word of Hindi. In case you are wondering who Steven is, he is my very own personal emissary to China, my own Marco Polo, if you will.

I have tweeted in Russian, Portuguese, Spanish. To the world out there I say, bring it on.

Not long after I got on the flying saucer, I mean the TweetDeck, I went on a world tour. I went to some of the fanciest cities in the world, and checked out some of the top Tweets in those cities, started following some of them. My ranks swelled.

Since I really like to follow people I follow, I can't follow too many people. So for my next world tour, I think I will only visit cities and Tweet pages to read and comment. If some of that leads to me getting more followers, I am not complaining. Who wants to be a millionaire? Who wants to be popular?

@paramendra

Power Networking

Someone I met on Twitter who happens to have a Brown BA and a Columbia MBA is helping me find a top biz talent for my nascent corporate team.

@paramendra

Better Than Facebook

If I had only one hour to spend, and it was a choice between Facebook and Twitter, guess where I am going! Facebook does not even compare in terms of the online experience of tweeting. Twitter is more fun than Facebook, it is more fun than email, heck, it is more fun than search. Search is work, Twitter is fun work. Twitter is the smartest career move I have made this year so far. And this is not fun you later regret, like the morning after a bad - as in badass - college party. This is fun and thrill, as in the fun and thrill of knowledge, networking, great company, the feeling of living life on the edge. There is the feeling of uninhibition. Twitter is a drink that quenches and makes you thirsty.

@paramendra

TCC: Twitter Community College
Twitter Tips: It's A Bird, It's A Bird
Mitch Kapor Now Following Me On Twitter
I Get Twitter

@paramendra

Steve Case: AOL Founder

https://twitter.com/paramendra/status/1227962213

Padmasree: CTO of Cisco
https://twitter.com/paramendra/status/1227950181
https://twitter.com/Padmasree/status/1260569556
Joe Trippi: Dean 2004 Campaign Manager
http://twitter.com/JoeTrippi/statuses/1221127774
http://twitter.com/paramendra/statuses/1221187540
Huffington Post: Top Political Blog In America
http://twitter.com/huffpost/statuses/1221127779

JP Rangaswamy: CIO of British Telecom

http://twitter.com/jobsworth/statuses/1216881893

@paramendra

@paramendra

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

NYTM Mailing List Continued Controversy

NYTM

NY Tech MeetUp Mailing List Web 5.0 Controversy
NY Tech MeetUp: 02/03/09

RE: [newtech-1] Web 3.0 StartUp Seeks Round 1 Funding (2/16)

I was not even aware of this dust storm. My friend James Gillmore sent
me a Facebook mail to alert me and so I came looking what the fuss
was.

Alex Genadinik To Andy Badera: "total lol...I think this was a funnier
email than that lady who wanted to be taken off the list and didn't
know how. :)"
Andy Badera: "*wahahahaasplat* dang it, where's my monitor cleaner?"

Alex. Andy is my sidekick on this show. Take it easy, or take it with
a grain of salt.

Miles Rose: "the only way to do these small rounds is to put some
money in yourself and piece out the rest to friends and family as
first rounds are always the highest risk but also the highest return"

Miles. Any relation to David Rose? You are right about round 1 seeing
the best return of all rounds. I have limited family in the city, and
that is why I am trying hard to make as many friends as possible,
online as well as offline.

Robert Mah: "talk to a securities lawyer before raising money from
anyone outside of friends and family"

Why do you think I am trying to become friends with people first?

Robert. Any relation to Jessica Mah?

Miles Rose: "technically you may be right. I have a feeling the poster
isnt in the usa and im sure they haven't ever raised money before. is
it an offer or a solicitation of interest? I think the later. as i
thinks it a work in progress the advice to get a lawyer is prudent.
but its not a crime to ask, is it?"

Miles. I am very much in the USA, I have been for over 12 years. I am
in NYC. I was at the last NY Tech MeetUp. I am friends with Scott
(MeetUp) and Upendra (DayLife). Unlike what Andy said at another
mailing list, no, I don't have a Nigerian address. I have prior
experience. I was part of the dot com mania in the late 1990s too like
many of you. You are right, this is a solicitation of interest, hence
the scant details. The vagueness. You meet interested people, strike
friendships. Business happens much later. No crime. No crime. We have
to change the culture in this city. In the valley you raise money
based on a few lines on a paper napkin. And then get that money from
guess where? New York.

Matt Weinberg: "I got the impression that the solicitation, and the
posts about Web 5.0, were all just a joke."

No crime. No joke either.

Eliza Shevinsky: "Miles, it may or may not be illegal to "ask" but
Robert makes the excellent point that doing things by the book will
provide legal protection down the road. And in today's litigious
climate, Mr. Bhagat will need all the protection he can get."

This email feeler is designed to set up face to face meetings with
people to get to know each other. That is all. Business will be
conducted by the rules.

Andrew: "I think the poster is a bot. Or an experiment in satire."

This guy is a troll.

James Gillmore: "Well, he claims to be in the USA, as you'll read in
the quoted text from his blog below...But the real problem is that he
doesn't even tell us what product, service, web app, whatever he wants
investment for. He links to that "Web 5.0 is da Bomb" article, and
deep in it, near the end, he uncovers his business plan:.........My
favorite line is: "ENGINEERS YOU HIRE" "

I have hired a few.

Victor Shamanovsky: "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcq5tcOzito"

Who are these two guys? Victor and Bashar, what are they pushing?

James Gillmore: "Andrew, he's not a bot. You can reach him on twitter,
facebook, etc--and actually talk to him. He's a nice guy with a lot of
enthusiasm. I just hope he can learn a thing or two from how everyone
is viewing his actions and what he's saying....But it would be a great
idea to make a big automated experiment where all the tech communities
are pummeled by a hyperbolic example of a delusional tech newbie
looking for funding, teaching everyone along the way about what Web
2.87 is. The funny thing is just like all the attention we've given
him, he'd probably be able to scale his popularity as a tech celebrity
quite quickly and effectively. Think VH1, Valleywag, etc."

Ryan Clarke: "Great advice Rob. I find myself in the same situation as
the original poster but trying to go legit. Any good/reputable lawyers
left that any one can recommend? Just googled mine and found out he
swindled 26 families out of there homes. And he was a college friend.
Any advice appreciated."

A slew of companies like Google wrote off billions of their investment
in Clearwire recently. Did Google get swindled? They think not. Eric
Schmidt said they still feel that was a great investment. Not all
investments succeed. Actually most fail. Mine will succeed.

Andrew: "Just because "he" or "they" maintain social networking
accounts, doesn't make the behavior any less bizarre. I'm still going
with some kind of joke or hoax being perpetrated here."

What James meant was that I was in the US, I was in NYC. And that I
can be contacted. I can be met in person. Like a slew of people did on
February 3. Stan. Nate. Mark. Jeff Harvis. Etc.

Eliza Shevinsky: "There should be some way to remove this kind of
poster from our list. The last thing that I want is for us to
skyrocket this guy to VH1 stardom! I tend to agree with James that
we're dealing with a real person, albeit a real person who thinks
engineers are something that "you provide." Argh! But whether he's a
bot or just a clumsy newbie sending spam every other day, I think most
of us would like to keep this list both bot and spam free. Nate? What
can be done to be freed from the never ending Da Bomb postings? This
guy has insulted developers, and that's just the last straw... "

I think we just moved from tech startup territory to free speech
territory. When I said "engineers you hire," I meant entrepreneurs
hire engineers, like I have. I was not expecting James or Eliza to
hire engineers for me. I am not a newbie. I have a few flamed dot coms
under my belt from the past decade. I am rising from the ashes.

James Gillmore: "We can not respond to them...but I'll be honest. I'm
quite entertained by his threads, as a lot of us or we wouldn't
respond. I guess that's the VH1-Tabloid dumbing down of society
effect."

I am okay in blog and Twitter territory. I have no desire to get into
tabloid territory. I don't qualify. That would be Donald Trump.

Alex. Andy. Miles. Robert. Matt. Eliza. James. Victor. Ryan. People,
people, follow me on Twitter. https://twitter.com/paramendra

--
http://paramendrabhagat.blogspot.com
http://jyoticonnect.googlepages.com

TCC: Twitter Community College
Twitter Tips: It's A Bird, It's A Bird
NY Tech MeetUp Mailing List Web 5.0 Controversy
Web 5.0 Is Da Bomb
Competing For the Web 3.0 Definition
NY Tech MeetUp: 02/03/09
Conceptually Diligent: Web 5.0 Is Repackaging Hello
Onto Digital Publishing
Mitch Kapor Now Following Me On Twitter
Plenty Of Fish: Online Dating King
Defining Web 4.0
I Get Twitter
Indra Nooyi: Power Woman
Yahoo: The Original Dot Com
Craig Silverstein
Apple's Mobile Space: Sizzling

In The News

Cisco Leads Mobile Experience Transformation as Service Providers ... FOXBusiness
Fujitsu, Cisco Team Unstrung, NY
Fujitsu Announces WiMax Baseband Device For Mobile PCs TAXI Design Network
New WiMAX SoC from Fujitsu can enable the design of WiMAX dongle EE Herald
Harris Stratex Selects Aptilo Networks' WiMAX CSN System for End ... CNNMoney.com
Vendors insist WiMax has a bright future VNUNet.com, UK
Wimax and LTE still slugging it out Inquirer
Intel, Huawei set up WiMAX IOT test lab in China IT Examiner
Will WiMax get a boost from broadband infrastructure spending? VentureBeat
Cisco Goes Where No WiMax Has Gone Before Motley Fool
MagtiCom Launches First Mobile WiMAX Service in Georgia With Cisco ... CNNMoney.com
Cisco Rolls with WiMAX Wireless Week
Central Asian countries roll with Cisco's WiMAX system SmartBrief
Cisco Powers First 4G Network in Moscow and St. Petersburg CNNMoney.com
Cisco's Mobility Technologies Power Russia's First 4G Network TMCnet
tw telecom Drives Nationwide Ethernet Deployments, Utilizes Cisco ... WebWire (press release)
Tw Telecom Bolsters NGN with Cisco's ME 3400 Ethernet Switches TMCnet
Cisco: Mobile data traffic to grow 66-fold by 2013 NetworkWorld.com, MA
Cisco's Got Your GIST Unstrung
How Mobile Will Reach the Exabyte Age By 2012 GigaOm
Mobile World Congress: Fujitsu Targets Netbooks with WiMAX xchange Magazine, AZ
Visit Fujitsu and Experience 2nd Generation Mobile WiMAX at Mobile ... Prdomain Business Register (press release)
Fujitsu Launches WiMAX Baseband LSI for Mobile PCs Japan Corporate News (press release)
Fujitsu Launches WiMAX Baseband LSI for Mobile PCs Tech-On English
Alcatel Forms Group to Push LTE Applications and More PC World
WiMAX coverage to reach 800 million by 2010 NetworkWorld.com, MA

Transition elements

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

TCC: Twitter Community College

(This used to be a Google blog. Now it seems to have become a Twitter blog. It looks like it: Twitter Tips: It's A Bird, It's A Bird.)

In my last post I said I wanted to follow around 100 people, and now I find myself following 237, and I am not complaining.

This article jolted my apple cart: Twitter Professors: 18 People to Follow for a Real Time Education. I immediately proceeded to follow all 18. Then I realized this list had a media bias, as in this was like the Media Department at the TCC, for the most part. So I googled up the "top techies to follow on Twitter" and came up with a wonderful list: The 10 best techies worth following on Twitter | Between the Lines....

After all that school work, it was time for a coffee break, so I went ahead to this list: New York Top 1,000 Tweets. I decided to follow many of the attractive women on the list. Women are more likely to respond back on Twitter than on Facebook or Plenty Of Fish, I think. On Facebook, it is like, oh no, I don't even know this guy. On Plenty Of Fish, it is like, do I want to spend the rest of my life with this guy? I don't think so. On Twitter there is none of that pressure. And so people talk. Women talk. Not all of them. But a few.

If you can find great people to follow, Twitter becomes a whole different experience.

Let me go ahead and list the people from the first two lists.

Twitter Professors: 18 People to Follow for a Real Time Education

The 10 best techies worth following on Twitter

Harry McCracken (Editor of Technologizer)
Padmasree Warrior (CTO at Cisco Systems)
Dave Zatz (Digital lifestyle writer)
Rafe Needleman (Editor of Webware)
Jason Snell (Editorial Director of Macworld)
Charlene Li (Author and thought leader)
Lance Ulanoff (Editor in Chief of PCMag)
Jeremiah Owyang (Analyst, Forrester Research)
Paul Thurrott (Founder, Windows Supersite)
Rob Enderle (Analyst, Enderle Group)

And then there is a B list.

Ina Fried - News.com reporter
Abbie Lundberg - Former editor of CIO magazine
Matt Cutts - Google engineer
Danah Boyd - Academic/researcher in new media
Ryan Block - Former editor of Engadget
John C Dvorak - Legendary tech pundit
Tom Merritt - Host of Buzz Out Loud
Guy Kawasaki - Venture Capitalist
Sarah Lacy - Silicon Valley writer/reporter
Michael Arrington - TechCrunch founder/blogger
Sascha Segan - Mobile writer for PCMag
Veronica Belmont - Revision 3 host
Leo Laporte - Host of This Week in Tech
Molly Wood - CNET TV host
Om Malik - Founder of GigaOm
Natali Del Conte - CNET TV host
Jason Calacanis - Founder of Mahalo
Robert Scoble - Fast Company blogger
Kevin Rose - Founder of Digg

Shift Happens

View more presentations from Jeff Brenman. (tags: sociology future)

The Future of Firefox and JavaScript

View more presentations from jeresig. (tags: web programming)

Introducing Web 2.0 concepts

View more presentations from John Lewis. (tags: john intergen)

Mechanical Miracles of the 21st Century

View more presentations from jokechannel. (tags: arctic road)

21st Century Love Revolution

View more presentations from crossthebreeze. (tags: research digital)

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Twitter Tips: It's A Bird, It's A Bird

"What am I doing? I am talking to an empty telephone, because there was a dead man at the end of this fucking line!"

- Robert De Niro in Heat.

thinking about connections
120 is the New 140: How to Build Relationships on Twitter
Looking for Mr. Goodtweet: How to Pick Up Followers on Twitter
My First 7 Days on Twitter
Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs - the big three Right now, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are where it's at. Add a blog to the equation and you have the complete solution for communication with the maximum number of people.

I have been on Twitter only a few weeks (I Get Twitter), so I don't claim to be an authority, but my hunch is that Twitter is all things to all people. It is what you make it. But I think it is obvious Twitter is a fundamental internet application. Google became a verb because search is the ultimate fundamental internet application. Email is a fundamental internet application. News is basic. Facebook is a fundamental internet application. Twitter is the new kid on the block. It is basic, it is fundamental. It will catch on. It will stick around.

There can't be tips. There are no tips for search. There are no tips for how to use your Facebook account. I think the same is true for Twitter. There are no tips, really. But I wish to share a few that work for me, and I suspect might work for a few others like me. But I make no claim to universal appeal. There is no such thing. On Twitter you create the ultimate niche.

But as to tips, these work for me.

(1) Become A User, Not An Addict, But Do Become A User

I can see how easy it is to get carried away. You get a few hundred followers, or even a hundred, and you can fall in the trap of thinking you are finally the celebrity you always deserved to be, but until now it had been the world's loss to not have discovered you. Use Twitter in moderation. This is like having an email account. You are not on email all day.

But knowledge workers are on email all day. And many people have successfully integrated Twitter into what they do. Twitter is how they broadcast themselves to the world. And many of them have followers in the tens of thousands. They are not addicts, they are avid users.

(2) Be Yourself

Guy Kawasaki is the number one name on Twitter but I am suspicious of his number one advice, which is, follow everyone who follows you. Then, what's the point? I don't think he follows 50,000 people. But he follows 50,000 people in hopes 50,000 people will follow him. And many do, and all the glory to them, and I am one. He usually posts links to news items that often look interesting, and sometimes I click through. But Kawasaki has a website to promote and he has a brand name to establish: his name. And so follow as many people as you can if you share his goals. Why not? But if your Twitter account is like your email account to you, then don't.

(3) Take It Easy

Only follow people you intend to follow, people you know, people who are famous. Unfollow people you no longer wish to follow. And don't worry about how many people follow you. If they want to, they will. Glory is not in the numbers. Few is not bad. Many is not necessarily good. There are zombie followers who add you in hopes you will add them and it will look like they have a lot of followers, but who don't really "follow" you. They don't read a word of what you have to say.

(4) Respect Your Followers

Imagine your followers as people genuinely interested in what you are doing, what you might be reading. Let your personality shine through your Twitter posts. If you link to a lot of news on Africa, I am going to think you are really into Africa. And if you really are, that helps me get to know you better, if I am someone interested in getting to know you better.

(5) Don't Feel Obliged

It is okay to not tweet every day, it is okay to not tweet every hour. Pace yourself. And it is okay to put out 30 tweets in an hour. Too. You decide. Don't feel obliged.

(6) Celebrity Tweets

I like the Kevin Rose model. He founded Digg. That makes him a celebrity. He has over 100,000 followers, but he follows only about 100, and he posts sparingly. On the other hand you have the CEO of Mashable, he posts several per hour, all day. But then it is because he mostly posts links to his own website. And that is good too. That does not make him a fake.

I also want to end up with 100,000 followers, but I want that to happen because my tech startup became a grand success. And I want to post more often than Kevin Rose, and less often than Mashable. And I only wish to follow people I really wish to follow, and so I wish to keep that number as close to 100 as possible. I have no desire to "follow" 50,000 people. I don't think that is humanly possible.

How not to scare away a celebrity? Mitch Kapor started following me within days of my showing up at the site and he only follows a few hundred, so I knew it was genuine, but I celebrated the event in a grand way, and then he was no longer following me: Mitch Kapor Now Following Me On Twitter.

http://twitter.com/paramendra/statuses/1204544455

Twitter Enterprise

A business model for Twitter: Pay up | Outside the Lines - CNET News
The three business models that make Twitter a billion-dollar...
11 Business Plans For Twitter

I think Twitter is going to make a ton of money. There are people who have ridiculed it as a site that is hot, but guess what, it is not making any money. Google did not make any money for years and years, but anyone who used Google in the early years, or most people, they could tell it was a great application.

The way for Twitter to make big bucks is by having a Twitter, and another Twitter Enterprise that big brand names pay for, that has a greater number of functionalities.

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