I’m off to Israel to interview a bunch of companies and geeks there. Sorry for the slow blogging, I’ve been having too much fun on Twitter and on FriendFeed. A lot of you have been writing saying that you miss the longer, more thoughtful Scoble so I’ll work on that this next week from Israel. My blog’s redesign will turn on the week I get back, too, on the 21st or so. Over on FastCompany.tv we’ll have the first part of an interesting look into Rackspace up today. Watch my Qik channel for video dispatches from Israel when I can get on wifi. First stop in Israel? The Kinnernet event which is hosted by Yossi Vardi.
Some things I’m thinking about?
1. The Friend Divide. Much of the new Web 2.0 software really is lame until you get at least 50 friends onto it. What does that mean and how do we make the first experience people have much better (it really sucks, you should sign up for all these new services with a clean account and compare to when you have a bunch of friends). Have we created a new, nasty, world where if you don’t have friends you simply won’t have access to interesting experiences or, even, news?
2. “The 250.” Valleywag derides the early adopter world, saying that only 250 people care about all this new stuff that gets reported on TechMeme. Even if Valleywag’s numbers are off (millions read TechCrunch, for instance) they do have a point. I just spoke to my dad’s Kiwanis Club and many of the people there hadn’t heard of Twitter, Qik, Flickr, or even, gasp, blogs. Most of the world is even further behind — there are five billion people who’ve never owned a computer, for instance. I’m thinking about what that all means and what it means I should do with my blog going forward.
3. Flickr video. Too short. Or long enough? Discuss in 90 seconds or less. 🙂
Anyway, have fun. I’ll see you in economy squished into a seat trying to do my email.
Scobleizer 
Stay safe…
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Stay safe…
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IMHO you should keep the blog and stay active with it. For after all it is 21st century technology and if you keep it on a good service provider, the archive will be around for years to come. Does twitter give me a historic account of your thoughts? No, because it isn’t meant for that type of activity and Twittering is so though-disconnected – no organization of thoughts.
Eventually the general, dumb on IT, public will join us in the new century and discover blogs. When that happens great bloggers will even become more popular.
Somehow bloggers like you who test all the new social technologies need to settle on a technology that your audience can count on for several years. How long did it take the newspaper industry to decline? 150 years or so?
You have to maintain a good perspective, historic – now – future, even when faced with all these new technologies. Unfortunately, we can’t say what technology will house our thoughts in 100 years, but today you have to place the best bet you can.
Have a good trip…
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IMHO you should keep the blog and stay active with it. For after all it is 21st century technology and if you keep it on a good service provider, the archive will be around for years to come. Does twitter give me a historic account of your thoughts? No, because it isn’t meant for that type of activity and Twittering is so though-disconnected – no organization of thoughts.
Eventually the general, dumb on IT, public will join us in the new century and discover blogs. When that happens great bloggers will even become more popular.
Somehow bloggers like you who test all the new social technologies need to settle on a technology that your audience can count on for several years. How long did it take the newspaper industry to decline? 150 years or so?
You have to maintain a good perspective, historic – now – future, even when faced with all these new technologies. Unfortunately, we can’t say what technology will house our thoughts in 100 years, but today you have to place the best bet you can.
Have a good trip…
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FWIW, I prefer to read tweets vs. longer blogs. Less wordy, more to the point.
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FWIW, I prefer to read tweets vs. longer blogs. Less wordy, more to the point.
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You spoke to a Kiwanis club and they hadn’t heard of Twitter, etc.? Seriously, that has to be the funniest thing that you’ve written in a long time. Were you expecting them to be “in the know”? Next thing you’ll be chastising Masons for not posting photos of their rituals on Flickr or Rotarians for their lame Facebook presence. LOL…
Honestly, until the sites that you mention can branch into something more than just “friend” chit chat and even past photo sharing, they’ll never move past the 12-30 demographic in a big way. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love my parents and grandparents to get on Twitter, I crave the connection with my extended family in that way, but in our busy lives, unless there is an added measure of value for the time investment (not to mention the switching costs and just raw fluidity of these sites, which you’ve already discussed) they just won’t do it in a big way.
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You spoke to a Kiwanis club and they hadn’t heard of Twitter, etc.? Seriously, that has to be the funniest thing that you’ve written in a long time. Were you expecting them to be “in the know”? Next thing you’ll be chastising Masons for not posting photos of their rituals on Flickr or Rotarians for their lame Facebook presence. LOL…
Honestly, until the sites that you mention can branch into something more than just “friend” chit chat and even past photo sharing, they’ll never move past the 12-30 demographic in a big way. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love my parents and grandparents to get on Twitter, I crave the connection with my extended family in that way, but in our busy lives, unless there is an added measure of value for the time investment (not to mention the switching costs and just raw fluidity of these sites, which you’ve already discussed) they just won’t do it in a big way.
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Rationalize it all you want, but to me, switching from blogging to Twittering smacks of nothing more than laziness.
You can knock out a Twitter from a street corner while you’re waiting for a light to change. But to sit down and write a blog post usually takes at least a little bit of thought and effort.
And those of us who aren’t keen on either Twitter or Friendfeed — and I do suspect there are a lot of us — might not always follow you from platform to platform the next time some new widget tickles your fancy for a week or so.
In fact, if you stop blogging, you’ll already have lost all of those people.
I consider myself to be in the top 10 per cent of the population when it comes to technology, and I have no time for either Twitter or Friendfeed. I’d put you in the top one per cent of of the population as far as “technophelia” goes Robert, so just be careful you don’t get so elitist that you leave your entire audience behind. You don’t want to have the majority of them wondering “What ever happened to that guy who used to write about cool new technology? I wonder why he ever stopped?”
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Rationalize it all you want, but to me, switching from blogging to Twittering smacks of nothing more than laziness.
You can knock out a Twitter from a street corner while you’re waiting for a light to change. But to sit down and write a blog post usually takes at least a little bit of thought and effort.
And those of us who aren’t keen on either Twitter or Friendfeed — and I do suspect there are a lot of us — might not always follow you from platform to platform the next time some new widget tickles your fancy for a week or so.
In fact, if you stop blogging, you’ll already have lost all of those people.
I consider myself to be in the top 10 per cent of the population when it comes to technology, and I have no time for either Twitter or Friendfeed. I’d put you in the top one per cent of of the population as far as “technophelia” goes Robert, so just be careful you don’t get so elitist that you leave your entire audience behind. You don’t want to have the majority of them wondering “What ever happened to that guy who used to write about cool new technology? I wonder why he ever stopped?”
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Are you going to speak to Shai Agassi over at Project Better Place? I think he’s onto something.
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Are you going to speak to Shai Agassi over at Project Better Place? I think he’s onto something.
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You no longer have to travel to interview people
You can make use of virtual conference technology
Your video interviews lack closeups, they lack artistic aesthetics, the sound quality is raw….
The viewer never gets the chance to gaze into the eyes of the interviewer …. the eyes are the mirror of the mind. Eye contact is essential to FEEL the person.
This casual-like quality can just as easily be had using remote video conferencing with the same results
Your videos are raw – there is no other way of putting it. They lack ‘sensuality’
The casual approach is too self absorbed to fully tweak the art of communication
There needs to be more aesthetic quality and projection in those videos
It is so-o frustrating to not make people understand things….this should not be taken personal….there is so much that good be done
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You no longer have to travel to interview people
You can make use of virtual conference technology
Your video interviews lack closeups, they lack artistic aesthetics, the sound quality is raw….
The viewer never gets the chance to gaze into the eyes of the interviewer …. the eyes are the mirror of the mind. Eye contact is essential to FEEL the person.
This casual-like quality can just as easily be had using remote video conferencing with the same results
Your videos are raw – there is no other way of putting it. They lack ‘sensuality’
The casual approach is too self absorbed to fully tweak the art of communication
There needs to be more aesthetic quality and projection in those videos
It is so-o frustrating to not make people understand things….this should not be taken personal….there is so much that good be done
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Safe Travels Scoble,
Initial thought on Flickr video I would say no, but then I thought if Twitter works in 140 characters, why can’t video? Perhaps context is lacking and that will be an issue. I don’t know, but thinking in post-Twitter mindset I’d say maybe, it all depends on how people use it.
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Safe Travels Scoble,
Initial thought on Flickr video I would say no, but then I thought if Twitter works in 140 characters, why can’t video? Perhaps context is lacking and that will be an issue. I don’t know, but thinking in post-Twitter mindset I’d say maybe, it all depends on how people use it.
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For those of you in the silicon valley cesspool we think that your so high on your own passed gas that you need a wakeup call.
Twitter is like pissing in the wind. Not much thought went into it and you only do it if you HAVE to.
Not sure why you want to waste the time trying to catch the tweets of those you follow. Talk about sucking up.
A blog requires some time and thought to put something together what is worthy and then clicking on the submit button.
YMMV
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For those of you in the silicon valley cesspool we think that your so high on your own passed gas that you need a wakeup call.
Twitter is like pissing in the wind. Not much thought went into it and you only do it if you HAVE to.
Not sure why you want to waste the time trying to catch the tweets of those you follow. Talk about sucking up.
A blog requires some time and thought to put something together what is worthy and then clicking on the submit button.
YMMV
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Are you taking Shel with you?
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Are you taking Shel with you?
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Maybe YOU have created world where if you don’t have friends you don’t have access to interesting experiences or news, for 99.999999999999999999 of the rest of the world the survive quite normally without social networking POS’s.
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Maybe YOU have created world where if you don’t have friends you don’t have access to interesting experiences or news, for 99.999999999999999999 of the rest of the world the survive quite normally without social networking POS’s.
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Ad Gabber isa great place to keepa high ranking blog too. I love Ad Gabber. Signed Bullie Pups R Us owner.
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Ad Gabber isa great place to keepa high ranking blog too. I love Ad Gabber. Signed Bullie Pups R Us owner.
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See you at Kinnernet!!
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See you at Kinnernet!!
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I agree with you about the ‘friend divide’ .. most of my friends barely use AIM, much less Facebook or something as exotic as Twitter. And even though I have over 100 contacts on LinkedIn, I can count the number of emails and InMails I have sent on one hand.
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I agree with you about the ‘friend divide’ .. most of my friends barely use AIM, much less Facebook or something as exotic as Twitter. And even though I have over 100 contacts on LinkedIn, I can count the number of emails and InMails I have sent on one hand.
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This whole discussion made me think more about the value of good content and for what it’s worth — http://www.eclecticismo.com/hhblog/2008/04/good-content-rules.html.
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This whole discussion made me think more about the value of good content and for what it’s worth — http://www.eclecticismo.com/hhblog/2008/04/good-content-rules.html.
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Yes, be safe. Glad you’re going to get back to longer posts. But I like all of it!
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Yes, be safe. Glad you’re going to get back to longer posts. But I like all of it!
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Re the “friend divide”: I blog, use Twitter, have my Friendfeed on my web page so that people can see what I’ve been doing – and maybe one or two people who I actually know will read it, plus some more who follow a link to me and never come back. But that’s OK; I like doing this stuff.
But in terms of a richer online experience, I agree with you totally. I have a small number of friends who use Facebook, and of those, maybe five or six update their status regularly. I’m happy to be totally Web1.0, and go out and look for information; I just don’t imagine that the kind of connected world I’d like is going to happen around here anytime soon.
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Re the “friend divide”: I blog, use Twitter, have my Friendfeed on my web page so that people can see what I’ve been doing – and maybe one or two people who I actually know will read it, plus some more who follow a link to me and never come back. But that’s OK; I like doing this stuff.
But in terms of a richer online experience, I agree with you totally. I have a small number of friends who use Facebook, and of those, maybe five or six update their status regularly. I’m happy to be totally Web1.0, and go out and look for information; I just don’t imagine that the kind of connected world I’d like is going to happen around here anytime soon.
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Your point regarding the size of the early adopter/geek crowd is incredibly pertinent. We sometimes get caught up in the excitement of the moment and forget that 99% of the world’s population has no idea about these amazing/game-changing/revolutionary technologies. Perhaps its time to get back to basics and build tools to let the mainstream catch up with us. I certainly think thats a noble goal, especially if that helps us connect more with our friends and families.
Bon voyage Robert!
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Your point regarding the size of the early adopter/geek crowd is incredibly pertinent. We sometimes get caught up in the excitement of the moment and forget that 99% of the world’s population has no idea about these amazing/game-changing/revolutionary technologies. Perhaps its time to get back to basics and build tools to let the mainstream catch up with us. I certainly think thats a noble goal, especially if that helps us connect more with our friends and families.
Bon voyage Robert!
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Robert now has to leave the country to get someone to talk to him on camera…
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Robert now has to leave the country to get someone to talk to him on camera…
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Say hi to some of those beautiful Israeli women for me, Robert… 🙂
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Say hi to some of those beautiful Israeli women for me, Robert… 🙂
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I use friendfeed and twitter integration with facebook so all my friends (even the technophobes have facebook accounts) are able to follow my twitter posts. They tend to not notice the “alex twittered:” prefix of a facebook status update and ask me about twitter when they get around to it.
As long as we can bridge the gap between mainstream services like facebook and bleeding edge stuff like twitter, it shouldn’t matter how we post information on the internet.
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I use friendfeed and twitter integration with facebook so all my friends (even the technophobes have facebook accounts) are able to follow my twitter posts. They tend to not notice the “alex twittered:” prefix of a facebook status update and ask me about twitter when they get around to it.
As long as we can bridge the gap between mainstream services like facebook and bleeding edge stuff like twitter, it shouldn’t matter how we post information on the internet.
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