Tag: conversations

Blogging, microblog

Blame it on the Twitter!

I have been very quiet on this blog for the last few weeks – apologies for that but I can’t promise on the pace returning to the two or three posts a day I was averaging at times last year.

Why? I have been spending a lot of time on the micro-blogging site, Twitter.

Twitter is a site where you have a maximum of 140 characters per post but instead of a traditional blog site, these posts are typically conversational. Because of the immediacy of writing 140 characters, reading and responding to ‘Tweets’ is relatively trivial and so conversations are born.

Marshall Kirkpatrick wrote a great article last year explaining how Twitter is now paying his rent.

And because of the still early nature of the application, it is possible to very quickly build up a powerful network of highly influential users who are only too happy to converse with you. I have met several people recently who, up until now I only knew through Twitter.

Another way I use Twitter is I often pose questions to Twitter and get great replies back from highly qualified people in minutes.

My Twitter Replies tab

Twitter has an open API so it is possible to use third party applications to post to and read from Twitter. Currently I am using twhirl on my laptops (twhirl is a cross-platform desktop client for twitter, based on Adobe AIR) and twibble on my phone. Snitter is another cross-platform Twitter desktop client which gets a lot of good reviews.

Dave Weinberger called it “continuous partial friendship” but I think it goes beyond that. The term Ambient Intimacy has been coined to cover one of the aspects of Twitter – it brings you a lot closer to people you might ordinarily never get to know (if you decide you don’t want to know them, you simply stop following them!).

Whatever it is, it is growing in popularity steadily and it was how I and many others chose to remain connected over the holiday period.

If you want to follow me, here is my Twitter profile.

video

Startup 2.0

Startup 2.0 concluded last night with the awards followed by good food, great conversations and a drink or two (ahem!).

If you haven’t already heard, the results were:
1st Sclipo
2nd 5min
3rd Properazzi

and joint 4th placed were Trivop and 11870.com.

All the finalists had fantastic offerings and choosing amongst them would have given Solomon a headache! I went out with the guys from 5min.com afterwards (amongst others) and had great fun with them. I love their application and think they are going to do really well with it.

One interesting observation was that four of the five finalists were either entirely video based or had a strong video element to their product.

All credit to Jose Antonio del Moral for running a superb event.

Blogging

Welcome Eoin

Noted Trinity law lecturer and sometime radio pundit on all things legal, Eoin O’Dell has taken the wrappings off his blog finally!

Eoin has been blogging on a private blog for the last several months now but on Friday Eoin took the username and password off his blog and now everyone can read his thoughts on:

privacy, defamation and broadcasting; some cases on freedom of expression, privacy, restitution and copyright; and some random musings about life, the universe and everything

Well done Eoin, we need more people of your calibre joining in the conversations on the blogosphere.

[Disclosure – Eoin and I were in UCC together but afair I haven’t met Eoin since the early 90’s]

Interviews, Podcast, Podcasting, PodLeaders, Technology

Lie detector software for Skype?

The BBC is reporting that there will very shortly be a plugin for Skype which acts as a lie detector by analysing:

audio streams over a Skype call in real time and illustrates the stress levels of the other person

Most of my PodLeaders podcasts are recorded Skype conversations – this could add a whole new dimension to the interviews!!!

Blogging, Business blogging, IT@Cork, Podcast, Web 2.0

IT@Cork Web 2.0 conference talks podcast

I finally got around to putting up the talks from the IT@Cork Web 2.0 Conference!

Shel Israel led off the talks at the IT@Cork Web 2.0 conference with a great introduction to blogs and social media – drawing very much on his experience co-authoring a book on business blogging called Naked Conversations called Naked Conversations with Robert Scoble. Shel’s talk is here.

Salim Ismail was next up. Salim was a powerhouse of knowledge and ideas. His talk concentrated on uses for Web 2.0 technologies in the enterprise and if you ever want to see a room full of jaws drop simultaneously, go to hear Salim give a talk. He is an extremely accomplished communicator, deftly making the most complex of ideas readily accessible. Salim’s talk is here.

Third up was Fergus Burns who spoke knowledgeably on the topic close to everyone’s heart – starting a Web 2.0 business in Ireland! Fergus’ talk is here.

Walter Higgins was the fourth speaker up. Walter has a Web 2.0 application called pxn8. Pxn8 is an online photo editing application. Walter showed how pxn8 has been developed using free development environments. Walter’s talk is here.

Finally Rob Burke from Microsoft Ireland gave us a demo we are not likely to forget for a long time – he live developed a web 2.0 app using Atlas on a laptop running Office 12 beta and Vista beta! And it didn’t crash once. The demo Gods were really smiling on him that day! Rob’s demo is here and is followed by the question and answer session between the panel and the audience.