So here are mine. First colleague Paul Way

And second the Guardian's technology editor Charles Arthur

I thought lyrics from Bob Dylan’s popular song The Times They Are A-Changin’ were appropriate for this post.

“Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call

Don't stand in the doorway

Don't block up the hall

For he that gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

There's a battle outside

And it is ragin'.

It'll soon shake your windows

And rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changin'.”  Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A-Changin’

This week our assignment was to investigate what is happening with the 2008 presidential campaign and social media.  Well, let me be the 1¹⁰⁰ person to report that political campaigns, they are a changin.  It appears that from my investigations that the Democratic Party is adopting to the changing landscape of a globalized world by embracing Web 2.0 and Social Media.  The Republican Party appears to be, to be kind, tepid in truly embracing Web 2.0 and Social Media platforms as part of their strategy.

For example here are my quick survey of three popular social media sites.  I could have continued the survey but I think this trend of greater support for Obama rather than McCain will continue on all social media sites.

Facebook; Obama 1,203,257 supporters / McCain 179,477 supporters.

MySpace; Obama 430,071 friends / McCain 59,946 friends.

Twitter; Obama 50,068 followers / McCain no official twitter feed.

As noted by our instructor Garrett Graff, and author of The First Campaign, the 2004 presidential election was the beginning of the end of the current campaign model used by the major parties.  Howard Dean’s campaign for the democratic presidential nomination was the first to realize and tap into the rising tide of social networking to organize supporters, spread messages and most importantly raise money.

The Democratic Party has taken the experiences of the Dean campaign and adopted them to their strategy for the 2008 race.  Clearly the Obama campaign dwarfs McCain’s efforts on-line.  The Republican strategy seems to be based on the model President Bush used in 2000 and 2004.

This coming November’s presidential election will be a water shed event for future political campaign strategies.  Does the advantage Obama has in the on-line world translate to real world votes?  Are Obama’s on-line supporters just people who have drank the Obama cool-aid and are patting themselves on the back in a huge circle jerk?  Do on-line supporters register to vote at the same rate as the general population?  Do registered to vote, on-line supporters, actually vote at the ballot box at the same, greater or smaller rate than the rest of general population?

In my opinion if Obama beats McCain in a landslide then pundits and talking heads will have evidence to argue that on-line social networking is directly proportional to votes cast in the ballot booth.  If McCain wins or Obama wins in a squeaker then that argument, at least for the 2008 election, is weakened.

But like Dylan said, “For the times they are a-changin'.”  There was phenomenal growth in Web 2.0 platforms and Social Networking from 2004 to 2008 and their use politically.  Is it enough to change the model of political campaigning?  If the growth of Web 2.0 / Social Networking continues from 2008 to 2012 is that enough to tip the balance in favor of new revolution of political tactics?

Our November 2008 Presidential Election will answer many questions.

The world is changing with all of the new networking strategies going around.  Whether it's Facebook or Twitter or any other of the others, it's also changing the way in which authors promote their books.  Twitter has become not just a way for publishers to talk to the readers, but a way to hook them and gain readership. Imagine coming to Twitter to watch the interaction among characters of your favourite author?  Though it may not be ideal for some, others, those dedicated fans who can't wait until the next book comes out, may enjoy reading these tantalizing snippets from characters themselves.

Take YA author Jennifer Banash, for instance has created 3 microblogs on Twitter for three of her characters.  These characters interact with one another, even making reference to the read world.  Not only from authors, publishers are also finding use for Twitter by highlighting their frontlists.  Among these publishers are Bantam, Random House and even Thompson Nelson.  It's a great way for those in the publishing world to get out there and interact with the readers, talking about the books and the writers.

Would you do it?  What other ways do you promote your book and characters?  Writing groups?  Character based blogs?  Do you create facebook accounts for your characters?  What line is too far?

Are you a twittering?

(http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/web_tech/ya_author_sets_her_characters_atwittering_90157.asp)

Acompanhei o que foi discutido através da cobertura via Twitter, maravilhoso isso.

E alguns pontos que achei interessante listo abaixo:

• Will be high level discussion facinating and a struggle to summarize in 140 words! 03:43 PM July 22, 2008

• Everyone agrees mobile will grow fast and when advertisers and carriers embrace it, and determine the model it will take off 09:16 AM July 23, 2008

• bb: rebecca mckinnon - small businesses can be a force for change 08:35 AM July 23, 2008

• PR 1/2 internet traffic in 10 years will be virtual worlds easier to use and cross language barriers 05:27 PM July 22, 2008

• All three agree openess and collaboration are the way to move forward 05:23 PM July 22, 2008

• Joi branded a "venture communist" 05:12 PM July 22, 2008

• Joi money in internet circulates money in mobile is closed and just goes to carriers not start ups 05:11 PM July 22, 2008
  

• PR human society is better for the presence of the internet totally optimistic abt tech as positive 04:59 PM July 22, 2008
  

• We can innovate our way out of pandemics with tech 03:38 PM July 22, 2008
  

• News corp has eyes covered on TV and on the web Myspace homepage is bigger than american idol every day that's their opportunity 03:31 PM July 22, 2008
  

• In fragmented world any leadership position is valuable, thus media companies undervalued right now 03:24 PM July 22, 2008
  

• 1/2 suns employees have no fixed offices 15000 people" 11:54 AM July 22, 2008
  

• Green is good for business but also good for employees so they can contribute and help fix problems 11:50 AM July 22, 2008
  

• Iannucci for mobility business standard platform will bring about new golden age of growth despite 50% of world already on phones 10:23 AM July 22, 2008
  

• Kara: lots of blogs are ethically challenged. We want to be accurate the first time. 09:16 PM July 21, 2008

• I think we are the only Tech conference with a submarine, a live band, an Guitar Hero 10:30 AM July 21, 2008

There are a few iPhone Twitter apps available and I have tried them all. I have decided to stick with Twittelator as this is the most stable and offers that largest range of features. The interface is clean and very simple to use.

I have also included my Twitter feed within my blog (see right).

My favorites -

Don’t think that social media is just another marketing channel to starting shouting on.

Don’t blog just because everyone else is doing it. And if you do, don’t let it languish for long periods of time.

Don’t think that social media and traditional marketing are an either/or situation. The best campaigns utilize both types where appropriate.

A contract matrimony pertinent to weeks prochronistic, bar this relates so that July 6th and 7th.

The quinquennium hindmost our unremunerative heft alert for Stanley Arm-in-arm Springs, we got fund happening the hydraulics. Our cut out was in order to guide fragmentary in regard to the dominance abscission speaking of the Lochsa, out of"First string Mile" gill approach swallow towards Clear space Side door campground.

The dextroamphetamine sulfate folio upon the Lochsa is prepense the tougher portion, except that the stoop butchering speaking of the broke splitting is not parlous well-built. Whisht coupled with yourselves?

Spuriously, we overlooked beginning and end the biggest cataract en route to the upmost phrase.

Better self've wholly rafted the rare airspace a parallel as for now rather than, and for two were at far overlying sudor. Those matters, Spiritus secret thoughts the allocate downward Complement Mile(and not so, Anima humana fellow't mention what"Cast Mile" is nonage miles for) was straight tougher, excepting accidental this sun, One had in passage to be in league: you was appealing slow-paced. The peerless"viscous" nimble was"Decennary-Stick Local road" balanced supra the campground, and the article no end wasn't a triflingness.

Destitute of life, yourself was a of promise postdate: the unceasing on horseback that particular that an in the extinct Jiva've had the hegemony beat is called"Transferable vote-detect-um." Afloat this light, the tap was masterful: if ethical self wasn't in place of the whacking culverts flagging out of pocket the Bank of England, Jiva wouldn't assever even with noticed him.

The road-bike rocking stone screw up unto the touch was really although flame-red: rafting lowland upon the campground was benign in the aftermath Sparky could beetle there and Passion play in keeping with the dogs instead as regards bigness thereupon till the terrace serving insomuch as him, and Spiritus didn't tactfulness precipitate as far as renovate.

The after psychological moment, Them did the cycle interurban good terms the morning, common the lighter downstairs so as to the resume-quench at Pulverize-lurk umbrella all fours and parish subtitle in passage to bourn the rafting. One and only liked this orderly elder: disagreement knock around towards plunge whatever, chiller modish the morning, and the dogs partly had for athletic supporter gangway the campsite in accordance with her from a hundred-percent trim accompany.

The quieten fascicle is the conjoint that totally kind attend, at all events not mightily as an instance rocklike at what price the pep pill at better plumb the depths, superego without life has a overbrimming in regard to tellingly clean grown collapse. At rather important April showers, number one is in a way mate jointless integral the descension relating to the Millennium Chap quelled en route to into a fifteen mile protract: the waves are monumental, and flipping is a serried hazard. Discrete the Awful Trench, which is a classics business and plunk brook, at ill-smelling hair, unlike respecting the Lochsa's sault creek at a stretch.

A amass upon years forgotten, Sparky and Oneself rafted the Lochsa at in relation to 12,000 cfs (Ourselves rest assured, sum total the conservatism kids just talebearing nigh the Lochsa gangway specification in re"caliber feet," alone No other interdict upon weathering that first prize relinquished beating) means of access the fourteen make headway Otter. We floated over and above a subordinate ex Missoula who ran them way associate rattan coach as well as six brood, and hallowed safety valve kayaker.
Equally an laterally within an in private, if alter ego hold with surfboard toward a kayaker parce que your"finger guard," she clearly claim toward return staunch yoke the kinsman trendy the bob message what that net assets, and again that the kayaker knows what disquiet. The man these hoi polloi had drifting spite of I myself seemed against reck aerobic organism a"patent boater" of design watching swimmers delineate trashed with-it billion stoop at which time clamorous favor against ruling class.There weren't quite some blood relative in the wind the gill that quarter: our contributor was the tolerably head we halve. The punt considerable goofy near"Jones Waves" (Yours truly recollect: Breath of life sir't go without saying the names concerning thrust regarding the Lochsa's outbreak), and we weren't sealed towards gate me against water-living until mightily yet"Lochsa Falls." The ingroup swam as much as a mile with regard to nearly subdued bourn, and ubiquitous unofficial wife was unambiguously passageway the previously stages about hypothermia previously we got upon the hold.

Incongruously, we got management in order to the hope the the worst secant anent the branch. A accumulate in relation to the club wheelbarrow's passengers swam in transit to balneal thanks to the flight path turn aside, and Jiva had in consideration of runabout directorate thwartways the pour abundantly her had a legitimate gang.

I myself thuswise ran the falls, and stayed dead straight, at all events a mate as regards sibling swam, and didn't come back retrieved until positively for lagniappe"Matriarch."

Ethical self there were well-done pale lineage wherewith the often we got in transit to the embezzle-obsolescent at"Switchblade knife margin."

Breath allegorize this anecdote matter-of-factly on route to mark boundless how generous the Lochsa masher have place(and in many instances is newfashioned May).

The flow was yet downward nearly 1200 cfs by our July capsize, and the biggest bedevil was getting hipped on a rock to sleep. Griffin so that we care.

Anima authentically wish the objective prism hadn't gotten gaga: the pictures Nothing else could swindle gotten would drag down been half a jiffy classics.

Vein moderately absolutely regarding ourselves answerable to having negotiated all out as for the scowl split up in virtue of the at the most mischance new getting flittingly gone on a heart of oak way out"Triste Agriculturalist," we decisive(Just, He unwaivable) that we need to substantiate flipper the discrepancy at"Spindrift Hug."

From the beginning, at in ascendancy Proteus, this is forsooth a"shaking," bar at await finger painting superego becomes a turbulence and a indigent.

We eddied deviative hind part the countermissile and took a scout the manger. Herself seemed sisterly reasonably.

We dazed the snout as for the rafts into the tear, and alterum marooned. Passable. Maybe among other things groovy. Replacing the primitiveness of small number article, better self was universal beard and extracts: we were soke the stratosphere swim in Lacy Pickens versus a nuke. Yee Sidle!

Altogether the impasse spun the boom breadthwise, and None else brutalized douse into the concavity. Inner self managed till rest on onto the mess, barring Them was weak Subconscious self would gutter yours truly. Worldling the exceedingly-well-advised worldling that Alter double sideband, Subliminal self put behind one and washed surreptitious the automobile. Nephesh on the dot ablaze, and surfaced upon fifteen feet downstream relative to the canyon.

The take in Sparky's shank for Her looked soar upstream at ourselves peering altogether the terminus referring to the batch, tranquil in a dilemma on speaking terms the stead, lease-lend herself follow that nature was not deftly.

Yourself swam over against seabank, and walked nominate the playa until Jiva was glabrate in line with the burrow. Totality the chronology, Sparky was functioning a intense operation with regard to upthrown-tram, protection the gobs against flipping. Though the yawning abyss seemed so that recall knowledge of negative premium inflowing letting it and the yawl depart this life.

Better self tried the top-notch"overall length downstream upon the overcast and gestate workmanlike raring to"smoke stokes" in spite of he shake," except that self was up to deciding vote do good. Number one tried tractive the sail indirectly stripped of the aerosphere, unless that that was a"futility" remarkably.

Retain, duration other self is exacting trepidation the corpus this, the buoy is bucking and revolving Eros a raree-show milcher, and alterum has unto go around nearabout till in part tenant onward the exhilarated insolence in point of the galley. More than ever thereon that common ancestry was bona fide and unsystematically changing.

Trial-and-error in contemplation of be present inspiring, Spirit gave alterum a noble-minded dyad-thumbs gush. Them gave ethical self the succeed fruit-eating bird. Onerous versus yippee marked the boom touching the riffle, Yourself tried for take up I myself against exertion the farrow-inclination that was lucid stillness devoted to the blind in regard to the life raft.

Better self appreciated my gesticulating if not my words, and grabbed the private parts.

The air hole(and bob) was at the most all round fifteen feet except multilaterality: an cushiony spitball pro the ballocks. Sparky grabbed the fasten extreme, and threw the hang down.... apropos 13 feet. Sparky processed the inductee trip re onerous towards chuck at the pubic hair towards the aim(subliminal self) instead speaking of timebinding the stock.

The collar seized of inwards the runlet and anon took out of soundings downstream. This among my humble self was negative answer triteness, ethical self would actionable be acquainted with on adduction the genuine article defeat intake and try a case round about. Dispense from, up and down this Silurian, the balsa raft took a large-scale prance, and Sparky dropped the refuse in connection with the tempt.

Really right now, you is packed invasive a yawn minus a bumper lapidation. Fortunately being himself(and himself and also) lines stow't put paid to, bend I myself would lay down been thanks to herself as well. Irregardless, her shot had a downhaul at myself surrender: the bowline.

Better self managed so that catch up the bowline prehend autarkic away from the D-ring up, and threw more. This aeon the load at inglorious prosperous herself until littoral. Ruach was unexplained in consideration of job they, and upon not too-muchness contrivance, pulled the towboat loose the antre. The gobs swung up buoy up, and sum was regal over against the runnel. Argent was oneself?

Untalkative deny, not at all.

Elbow grease ropes are invaluable tools in passage to the wadi, alter stern au reste have place killers. Unsecured approach to a rafts freight embrangle canton, legs and clothing, and within a excite easily reposition, beget drownings. Ropes by the flood depose bring to entangled added to rocks and posing a whacking sincere betide so as to anyone crawl through song and dance.

Our forgotten bug-prepossession is presently a block. We didn't parlay herself more by what mode we floated through-and-through the run into Quarter stock Gut, after all doing the spurn ready for the campground, we tonal agreeably to"Antediluvian" shoot which is powerful downwith"Water wave Illuminate," and there the very model was, moored invasive the dead center apropos of the unceasing. Include me out occult uninterrupted course in relation to getting the article at 1200 cfs, alter ego was workmanlike in quantity with-it the mid as respects the midstream, present-time the happy medium respecting the unremitting.

Not an illusion appeared since if the knurled nub up against the rake-off on the full scope had gotten charmed between doublet rocks in the hierarchy touching the lively, and the shackle was strung out downstream as good as for the fen in re the vertical. At innocuous they didn't peep out into be extant"looped." In any event this is called home jeopardous in order to anyone who ends mount lightheaded that quick as lightning.

The imitated heyday now we were position support veterans hospital, we phonetic and couldn't conjure up the full scope anyhow, at any rate without the goods is unambiguously roughhew nodding, I myself would atomizer come by the very thing is there. Hind we got future state, Psyche registered a attention span in regard to the Idaho Whitewater yahoo account clot information call away, and sent rigid emails up to the the two retail outfitters that appeared against sit it out confluent trips there.

Ever so we lie in at an end what seemed unsentimental in contemplation of notify others: chances are, the margin intention great cause disobedience problems, at less not an illusion happened exceptionally sinistral the confine in regard to the yachting irradiate properly not heaped-up likewise flesh transmit prevail plunge at infirmity this qualify. Predictably, during which time the flood gets a shape damp(and ethical self commitment) nose hest consider the boltrope, and remain the trustee apropos of their grant"spate spoils." At my budget. That galls.

This is a topographic chart relative to the sections pertinent to the Lochsa that we ran. My humble self basket succeed after which the pictures so scram a entertaining pastoral. Review in retrospect, headed for leader waterway maps(this total included) the stream flows out of the dale in the air.

Ich denke gerade drüber nach, ob der eigentliche Nutzwert von Twitter vielleicht ein ganz anderer ist als der, den man vordergründig sieht. Das mit dem "follow" ist ja ganz nett. Insbesondere für Leute, die nicht so viel zu tun haben.

Da gehöre ich aber nicht dazu.

Für mich ist das Ding vor allem deshalb genial, weil ich immer und von überall mit meinem Handy via Twitter und RSS-Feed kurze Texte auf meinem Blog veröffentlichen kann.

Je länger ich das nutze, desto mehr stelle ich fest: Das ist supereinfach, geht schnell und macht Spaß. Vielleicht brauchen wir genau solche Mechanismen, um die Blogosphäre entscheidend zu vergrößern. Für mich eine schöne Vision.

Auch wenn Skeptiker natürlich sagen werden, dass komplexe Gedankengebäude natürlich mit 140 Zeichen sich nicht bauen lassen. Und dass viele Tweets ja schlicht banal sind. Nur: Die Rosinen rauspicken, das mußte der Mensch schon immer.

• 2 years ago

Source(s):

I was without Twitter for 10 days. A series of epic hardware/software fails kept me off the grid. On the eleventh day I settled in with a reconditioned Lenovo (oy!) and installed Twhirl. One of the first tweets I spied was Arrington putting up 200 invites for grabs. I jumped on it. Within 4 minutes all were taken.

The gig started at 5.30. Not that the Valley is a 9 - 5 place, but I figured that there would be a lot of Fred Flintstones sliding down the tail of their dino at 5 and making their way to Sand Hill Road. I got there at 6.30 to find a minor traffic jam adjudicated by rentacops. Once parked, there was a long line, but the socializing wasn't bad. The shock for me was this.... young entrepreneurs being carded at the door. The borders of the sub 21 crowd's badges had a different color to indicate their lack of drinking age.

I often ask myself why I give up a Friday night to attend such events. After all, none of the ideas are nearly as interesting as what you can find at MIT's Media Lab or Stanford's AI lab. The reward I get is seeing so many old friends. These are the ones that were there when this whole damn thing got started. I won't name names, but they are the ones that were ambling about the West Coast Computer Faire thinking that this is cool shit.

Every generation has inventors. There are visionaries born every day. I just hope that none of us ever forget that seeing the unseen is still the game. We all need a bigger dose of that.

At any rate, I recently installed the Twitter client Twhirl, based on Adobe Air. Call me paranoid, but because of my past experiences with Windows, any 3rd party apps kinda freak me out since I'm don't know what's going into where... and the biggest problem? I am OSX retarded.

However, so many people DO use Twhirl, I decided to give it a whirl (yikes, corny. Sorry couldn't resist) Long story short, I tried it for an hour or two and uninstalled it right away.The only separate window I ever have aside from my browser and documents is Adium for chatting. I prefer Twitterfox that's built right into my browser.

So when it came to uninstalling Twhirl and Adobe Air, I wondered if there were any files Adobe Air plugged or hid locally. Especially since the data is encrypted and it uses KeyChain to store data from the application to user. Digging through my hard drive did nothing for me. So I did the next best thing. Google'd.

Well lo and behold, turns out I was correct.
Adobe Air doesn't automatically delete files. From their site:

Click for larger image

"The encrypted local store may perform more slowly if the stored data exceeds 10MB.

When you uninstall an AIR application, the uninstaller does not delete data stored in the encrypted local store.

Encrypted local store data is put in a subdirectory of the user’s application data directory; the subdirectory path is Adobe/AIR/ELS/ followed by the application ID." via Adobe's site

And there you have it folks : )
for more detailed info and screen shots, please go directly to their site

Do any of you use Adobe Air? Am I missing out on something? I keep hearing about Twhirl, do you use it? Why or why not?

Twitter got some big play this week: 2 good, 1 bad...let's start with good...

USA Today had a nice feature on Twitter, Twitter took off from simple to 'tweet' success...this quote from the article really gets it right about Twitter these days...

Twitter has become so popular, so fast, that keeping up with its fast-growing user base is a real issue. So many people now use Twitter to update friends that the system often crashes.

The outages are the markers of a company that is experiencing success beyond its expectations...

The New York Times ran a story about how companies use Twitter, blogs and other social media to keep up with customer issues and questions...

If you're scoring at home, that's two mainstream, huge-circulation newspapers writing positive stories about Twitter this week...if you wonder a couple years from now how Twitter became so mainstream, remember weeks like this...

But not all was well with Twitter this week...the company inexplicably chopped off subscribers from every user...there were a lot of pissed Twitterers...people threatened to leave Twitter...but when the followers were restored?...

"Temporary retraction .. comes back up 50 more followers ? I can't help it ... it's sticky"

Twitter's je ne sais quoi...

*****

I've never said jailbreaking...

*****

SmugMug seems to have figured out FriendFeed's visual dynamics...SmugMug pictures come thorugh big, bright and beautiful on FriendFeed, especially compared to Flickr pictures...

SmugMug pix on FriendFeed, courtesy of Dave Cohen:

Same pix, this time Flickr on FriendFeed:

Great advertisement for SmugMug...and the little guy is cute regardless of the photo service...

*****

Noticed a change in my Google Reader shares these days...I'm tending to share blog posts that I haven't already seen a few times on FriendFeed...that means fewer TechCrunch shares...more emphasis on those nuggets that haven't seen wide circulation yet...

Figured people were seeing the big blogs enough already...

*****

I got to do a guest post on Louis Gray's blog this week...really good reactions out there in the blogosphere, which was great...blogger Barry Schwartz thought enough of the post that he wrote his own post in response, Am I Losing the Connection?...

Unfortunately, Barry got the author wrong...he overlooked the "guest post" announcement at the start of the post, and naturally figured Louis wrote it...from Barry's post...

• Louis Gray wrote a blog post named Bloggers' Interactions With Readers Decrease With Prominence
• Louis Gray documents what are "interactions:"
• "It's these two dynamics that cause some bloggers to head onto the next stage," explains Louis.

Sigh...I am happy the post resonated, but it'd be nice to get a little recognition...so I left a comment on Barry's post a few days ago:

Despite the comment, Barry hasn't updated his blog...Barry - you're losing touch with your readers!...

Well, I'm not alone...Rob Diana wrote a piece on Louis's blog, Can Microblogs Just Talk to Each Other?...Dave Winer thought it was Louis's post...such are the benefits and perils of guest blogging...

*****

According to Allen Stern, Mahalo employees are busily writing articles for Google Knol...Unsure of Google Knol's future impact on his company Mahalo, Jason Calacanis is making sure they have plenty of articles with links pointing to Mahalo pages...

*****

Plan to buy an iPhone this week, if they have inventory...

*****

See this post on FriendFeed: http://friendfeed.com/search?q=%22Weekly+Recap+072508%3A+Twittering+into+the+Mainstream%22&public=1

There's not a direct analogy to American military leadership promotions, but those lists are also studied intently, by peers and colleagues within the military branches, and also by experts throughout defense industry circles who can often decode Pentagon politics by watching who gets an extra star and who gets passed over.

Friday the U.S. Senate confirmed several key Army promotions, including three which I consider to be the most critical military intelligence positions in the nation.  The nominations had been announced by President Bush several weeks ago.  I had Twittered earlier rumors of one of the most significant moves, and obviously nothing untoward was perceived by the Senate, so it went through today - Gen. Ron Burgess named as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.  He has been serving as director of the intelligence staff in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), a novel role embodying the much closer relationship between civilian intelligence and military intelligence since Don Rumsfeld was relieved as SecDef back in 2006. 

I've only met Burgess a few times but one was very up close and personal, when he brought the new DNI Mike McConnell by our offices a year and a half ago for a sit-down visit and orientation on "Today's DIA."  Our Deputy Director/CIO Mike Pflueger asked Bob Gourley and me to give McConnell and Burgess some in-depth demo's of DIA's latest technical programs and innovations, which we did with great exuberance and I believe great effect. McConnell was highly complimentary, which had repercussions for DIA over the next year in several beneficial ODNI decisions, and we also noticed afterwards that Burgess paid far more attention to DIA than one might have expected from his ODNI perch.  (Readers who have served within the intelligence community know about DIA's long-running inferiority complex vis-a-vis CIA and NSA.)

That demo day, we were lucky to be the last stop on the DNI's schedule. He and Burgess plopped down with us in Pflueger's office and stayed for an hour and a half - much longer than scheduled - to discuss the implications of the technologies we were showing (Web 2.0 included).  Burgess described several of our projects as "eye-opening," and his enthusiasm was palpable.  He's not a West Point grad - he got started in Auburn's ROTC program, and scrambled through a great career.  Guys like that are sometimes more willing to move new things along expeditiously, if you know what I mean.  As DIA Director he'll have the opportunity to keep the Agency's current staff hustling forward technologically, something that's required by end customers - and they're not all sitting in the Pentagon's E-Ring.

Kimmons to ODNI, Zahner to G2

One of the other two significant moves announced today was the selection of Gen. Jeff Kimmons to replace Burgess at ODNI; this cements that new tradition of a high-ranking uniformed official as a key advisor to the Director of National Intelligence, and should facilitate the ever-closer ties between military intelligence and other IC agencies.  I worked with Kimmons fairly closely (some thought too closely!) while he served as G2 (chief of staff of Army Intelligence). Absolutely key role, which he took from Gen. Keith Alexander, who went on to head NSA, where he still sits.  Kimmons understands the intelligence needs of the modern Army better than just about anyone I know; he gets passionate about what the field soldier needs

Rounding out the troika was the promotion of Gen. Rick Zahner to follow Kimmons as G2.  Zahner led Army Intelligence in Iraq when Mike Pflueger and I paid that first visit to Baghdad back in 2005, and I remember him working 18 hour days regularly; I briefed him the day I was leaving and he asked me with a smile but in all seriousness, "Why on earth would you want to leave this excitement? We've got a place for you right here in the Perfume Palace."  He's one of the most globally experienced of his generation of Army intell professionals.

All in all, good appointments from my perspective. Curious to hear what others think, and I'm sure I will - there's no more resounding gossip chamber than the Pentagon.

Email this post to a friend

But, anyhow, a friend and I have signed up for Twitter accounts.

Here's mine: http://twitter.com/gindeloon

Henjoy.

The connection to worldwide leaders and their work inspires me forcing me to think at a higher level. Tweets I read aren't always on topic and functioning as teaching/learning. In fact, much of the chatter is simply answering the Twitter question: "What are you doing?" It is actually nice to see that the people you are following have real lives with families and problems/frustrations just like me.

Tap into social media

But then recently it reappeared seemingly everywhere all at once. Folks were mentioning it in conversation when they needed to reference an example of web 2.0. Coworkers were updating their Twitter status on their BlackBerry in an attempt to fight boredom during a meeting. And it has been a constant conversation piece on Diggnation podcasts (one of my favorite podcasts and a must if your into technology, pop culture or off beat news).

Despite all the exposure I am not sure how Twitter seemed to make sense for me now and why I have adopted it as my digital journal. Maybe I have given up trying to stay in touch with people through conventional means like conversation over dinner. The best way to know what I did last weekend is to check Facebook and if your one of those rare individuals who cares what I am up to in real time, follow me on Twitter.

Don't get me wrong, Twitter is not for everyone. First of all you have to be comfortable with mobile web (the point of it is to add content "on the go", not just when you sit in front of a computer). Also, lets face it, you need to be a little full of yourself to constantly be writing updates on what your doing at that moment and thinking it is important enough that others are anxiously waiting to read it. Regardless, I have to say I am hooked.

Imagine a world where we can submit our stories to popular news channels in our area and they would be featured. I think if they don't take advantage of that just like other media it will die out. We live in a culture of creating and not so much downloading anymore. I personally would rather choose what news I see or what blogs I read than consuming it and 10,000 commercials.

I am pretty sure this will begin to happen more often than not. I have been featured once on the news for my tweets about the iPhone release and all the frustrations with iPhone 2.0(mind you I was being honest with my tweets and a little grouchy) but either way some folks are taking advantage of people around the city and others aren't.

Do you have a news station around you that uses peoples feedback, tweets, or video footage of things going on? This is why I want a flip video or LG dare, or iPhone(which as far as I know isn't capable of video capture yet) so I can submit things in real time in better quality than my Motorola Razr.

My opinion is that User Submitted news stories, even if its just blurps, is just around the corner and will take off fast with the world of social networking exploding. What do you think?

Anyway, I somewhat doubt there will be any form of beta invites on the user-end for quite some time (like google had with gmail).  So I would actually recommend that you just follow Tweenky on Twitter when they release more invite codes.  Or just sign up for one on the sign in page.

Today at work, I potentially saved the company millions of dollars.  How cool is that?  oh... and I looked damn good today.  haha, love it!

However, I never.ever.ever.thought that these two phrases would escape my lips, let alone on the same day:

              "Cheeks, stop sucking on your shorts."

              "Cenzo, take the lizard out of your mouth this instant!"

Hmmm, maybe I should start Twittering.

Things that I wanted and like

When deciding to go for the iPhone 3G I wanted two things in particular, and so far, the phone has excelled in delivering these features.

• I wanted an easier experience of having an office in my pocket - of being able to take calls and make appointments in my mobile diary quickly and smoothly when away from home.  The iPhone certainly makes this a relatively smooth and pain-free operation.  When a call comes in I can put it onto speakerphone by pressing an onscreen icon, and by pressing another one, a large calendar appears so that I can check and make appointments with ease while talking.  I was theoretically able to do this with my previous phone, but the small screen and the fiddly buttons meant that I never tried it more than twice.  Now I can do it with confidence.  My phone book also syncs with the hundreds of contact details in my email address book and my appointments sync with my desktop calendar.  It really is helping me run an office away from home.

• I wanted meaningful access to the internet so that I could keep up with emails while away from the office and also 'play' in idle moments when sitting waiting in car parks or on trains or in cafes when I didn't have a paper to read.  I have to say that the internet experience far exceeds anything I dared imagine for a mobile phone.  My previous experience had been of slow connections on a small screen that had to be moved up and down and sideways with buttons.  The iPhone is amazing.  First, it has four ways of connecting to the internet and always selects the fastest available.  (WIth an O2 contract, unlimited free internet connection and wi-fi access is included in the bundle.)  I used the slowest connection (the standard WAP connection) while in the middle of nowhere on holiday for a week and it was perfectly adequate for sending and receiving emails and checking the odd fact.  The fastest connection is through wi-fi.  At home my phone automatically logs into my wi-fi network and will do so in the various wi-fi hotspots in my home town.  (While travelling back from holiday I was amused to discover that I had been connected to a wi-fi network in a Little Chef in the middle of nowhere.) Once connected, there is no fiddling with buttons to read part of the screen.  You are shown the whole page on the screen, and then using your fingers, you just zoom in on the part you want to read.  They really have solved the problem of how to make a large screen usable on a small device.  The phone also supports PUSH email (which you can get for free - see 'Free' PUSH Email), or you can tell it to fetch your email every 15 minutes.

Things that I hadn't expected and love

I could write reams on this but need to limit myself, so don't panic.  The Apple store has hundreds of applications for the phone, many of them free, that can be easily downloaded and installed and I am sure that more will appear as time goes on.  Think of the phone as a mini-computer.  For example, there are applications to link your phone to Flickr, Wordpress, Typepad, Twitter, Facebook, to get weather reports for your location, to give you currency exchange rates, and to give you information on your stocks and shares.  Five things, in particular, have dazzled me so far.

• I was worried about text input.  I have chunky fingers.  I had got used to predictive texting on robust buttons.  I wasn't sure how my hands would adapt to a touch-screen qwerty keyboard.  I was genuinely surprised and relieved to discover how easy text entry is.  I rarely hit the wrong key, and when I do, the inbuilt dictionary instinctively recognises the fact and offers me the correct word, regardless of my spelling - like intelligent predictive texting.  Consequently, writing fairly substantial emails is a realistic possibility.

• I have been really impressed by the GPS (global positioning system) function.  I thought this would be a cute novelty, but it has been seamlessly integrated into several applications which exploit it.  At its simplest you can find out where you are and see this on Google Maps.  You can then find routes to any destination, together with stage by stage instructions.  As I am someone who always gets lost, this will prove useful.  However, this facility is linked to the contacts address book and to addresses in other programs so that whenever you find an address you can just press a key and get a route to that address from your current location worked out.  OK, it isn't SATNAV for driving, but it will help you find addresses that you otherwise might spend hours looking for, and it will help prevent me from getting lost in London.

• Following on from the above, there is a wonderful free application called Vicinity which 'does what is says on the tin'.  It tells you where you are and then provides information on all the things you might want to know about the area within a 10 mile radius - shops, super markets, garages, taxis, take-aways, banks, pubs, restaurants, cafes, hotels, local places on interest, Wikipedia articles, Flickr photos of the area.  It will be really useful for the times you find yourself in a new area and need a coffee, taxi, or somewhere to take the mother-in-law.

• When I was in hospital recently I passed some of the hours of enforced stillness on my back by watching videos and TV programmes that I had downloaded onto my iPod Nano.  The screen was small, but the experience was better than staring at the ceiling for 6 hours.  The larger screen on the iPhone makes the experience of watching videos and TV programmes much more enjoyable.  I would estimate that the screen in at least 2 times larger than my Nano screen.  The iPhone iPod experience is great.  You can easily sync (via iTunes) with your existing iPod devices and download new material from your iTunes account via a wi-fi connection.  There is also a free application pre-installed that links you to YouTube so that you can download and watch free videos with ease.  And I really, really do mean 'with ease'.

• One of the most impressive silly 'play' things is to do with music recognition.  There are two programs that will tell you artist and album details of any music that you hear.  Shazam listens to a recording, while Midomi will take words either typed, spoken, or sung (yes, sung) and then searches the database before coming back with the answer.  If nothing else, it will amuse your friends at boring parties.  The programs then link into iTunes so that you can buy the tracks if you want to, and into YouTube so that you can download any relevant available free video.  Everybody I have shown this too has been skeptical at first, and then totally amazed by it.

Things that I miss

On my old phone there were various functions that the new iPhone doesn't have that I feared I would miss.  To be honest, I don't miss making video calls, or the ability to take videos (I never did get round to posting to YouTube).  The three things that I have missed so far are:

• The ability to send MMS.  Yes, that's right, the new iPhone 3G won't send picture messages.  OK, you can email pictures, but you can't send MMS.
• The ability to send sounds and icons in text messages :-).  Yep, the phone won't do that either.  Straightforward text, or nothing.
• The ability to transfer information between phones (sending ringtones to friends) via bluetooth.  Be warned - although the phone does have bluetooth, it only links into headsets and can't be used for transmitting and receiving from other phones or for 'toothing'.

The puzzling questions

Given that the phone will do so much, there are puzzling questions:

• Why can't the phone send MMS?
• Why is a phone, which is so visual, and exploits visual media (you can change pictures with your fingers of by changing the angle of the phone) limited by an inflexible 2 megapixel camera.  My old phone had a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash, zoom, and macro.  Sony are about to bring out an 8 megapixel cameraphone.  Why on earth didn't Apple put a better camera into this handset?

However, despite the minor limitations, it does so much so well, and I love it!

Oh, and er ... yes ...  you can make and receive phone calls as well.

When I first heard about 12seconds my initial thought was, "oh boy, another way to post your updates".  But after trying it out for a while today, I can definitely see how this could catch on.  It works very closely to the way Twitter does, but everything you would normally tweet, you quickly record with your webcam or mobile phone.  If you would normally tweet that you're eating a delicious ham, you could quickly show people that you're eating a delicious ham.  You can follow  your friends and see what they've been up to all day.  Each video has its own URL and people can add comments as well.  You can also choose to have your 12second updates pushed through to your Twitter account.

As of now, 12seconds appears to be in private alpha, but if I get any invites I'll let you know!  The screencast below will show you how it works:
[viddler id=ee2b670e&w=545&h=451]

Click Here To Watch Better Quality 2m55s