FriendFeed: Friend or Foe ?

I little while back I signed up for the FriendFeed Beta and got an account.  I remember thinking at the time, “Wow this is great, finally a way to track your friends Tweets, Flickr, and all sorts of other stuff in one place !”.

Since then, FriendFeed has come out of beta and opened up.  Since then I have had some friends and others subscribing to my feed and in return I have been subscribing to theirs.  Since then it dawned on me …. this is A LOT of information to take in and try to digest.  Say you subscribe to just 5 friends and their feed includes twitter, last.fm, flickr, their blog/blogs, and so on.  I found myself a bit overwhelmed to be honest.

What I once thought was such a great tool, now had me sweating a bit.  It was rather like trying to drink out of a firehose.

So I ask you, is FriendFeed a friend or foe ?  I almost think it is better to be able to segment this market, so to speak.  Have a way to watch Twitter, and then rss for the blog posts, and check out their flickr stream in a feed as well.  I fear that too many things will get lost in the torrent of information.  We have already started to become a “scanning” society online.  How many of you subscribe to 100’s of RSS feeds, only to scroll through quickly quickly glancing at the titles and 2 line descriptions, not really garnering any real substantial info from the post/article ?

Will we miss what we really dont want to by cramming all our friends info into one feed ?

Event: MashMeet DC Remix

I saw this announced by Nick O’Neill over at Social Times and wanted to help get the word out, it sounds like its going to be a good one.

Here are the dirty details:

Details

In correlation with the upcoming Politics Online Conference, MashMeet DC REMIX will be a twist on our MashMeet platform and will incorporate presentations, food and music all within a private space. The 170 person event will be held on March 5th at 7 pm in Ogilvy PR’s DC offices. Myself, Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins (who is speaking at the Politics Online Conference) and Adam Ostrow will be in attendance. Tickets will be available soon.

Date
Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Time
7:00 pm ET - 10:00 pm ET
Location
Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
1111 19th Street NW
10th Floor
Washington, DC 20036

Head over to the event page to buy your ticket HERE ! Tickets cost $20 with a$0.99 service fee.

According to the event page, they are still looking for sponsors so if you have a few extra dollars to spend on some great advertising give Adam a shout./p>

Silicon Valley: Arrington’s Twisted View

Yes we all know it is true, when we think “Start Up” we think Silicon Valley. There is no argument there. Here at East Coast Blogging, we often wade in and ponder this what’s and why’s that make the valley such a special place. We also look at the other areas that are smaller, yet very good tech hubs where startups seem to gravitate and thrive.

I was reading my feeds and came across Michael Arrington’s response post to a post by Glenn Kelman, CEO of RedFin. Glenn’s point was

None of us thinks Seattle is ever going to be much like Silicon Valley. We believe instead that what other cities can learn from Seattle is how to be different than the Valley, not the same.

It is a good post and I invite you all to go check it out. But this post is not about his post, rather the Arrington response. More specifically, one statement he makes in the post

But the best of the best come to Silicon Valley to see if they’re as good as the legends that came before them. It’s a competitive advantage to be here. And if you aren’t willing to take advantage of every possible advantage to make your crazy startup idea work, perhaps you shouldn’t be an entrepreneur.

I have one question (and excuse my language) but who the fuck does Michael Arrington think he is? I will give him the first thought , I agree, there is definitely an advantage to being in the valley. But honestly, who is he to question peoples motives and abilities to be entrepreneurs ? Does he have some insight into the will and motivation of people scattered across the world who have great ideas and are working to build something of them ? No he does not. There is not a cookie cutter for an entrepreneur. Some have time and resources to dedicate and maybe move to the valley, but others like myself, have a family, a sound job, and roots in the areas we currently reside in, and we have to make do with the resources available to us. How dare he question peoples will ? Sure I have the will, Ann Bernard certainly has will, as do the thousands of other out there who have a passion for their ideas and are striving to reach their goals. Michael Arrington does very well to show his true colors and prove what many call his over arrogance.

Michael, I am an entrepreneur. I may not live in the Valley, or the promised land that you seem to have ordained yourself “god” of out there, but I will do what I can to make my ideas come to life. Is entrepreneurship about a location ? No. It is all about people working on their dreams, and in my dream the background is the Capitol, the White House, and the Smithsonian, not an arid valley in central California.

Fast Talk @ Fastcompany.com

I have been spending a little bit of time over at the new Fastcompany.com and actually have been enjoying the content.  There are some great articles and even better posts by members that have signed up.

But my very favorite feature is called Fast Talk.  It is a great section where members pose questions for the audience.  Nothing too deep or anything.  Then the members give a little snippet back in response to the question.  Here are a few I enjoyed:

• Do flex hours undermine discipline in the workplace?
• Can good design save a bad product?
• How can you impose structure on employees without smothering creativity?

There is some really good talk revolving around the questions.  It is a nice quick glimpse into important topics we many not have otherwise seen.  You should stop over and check it out and let us know what you think.

Help Fight the Maryland Tech Tax !

Apparently the MD legislature has been working to enact a new law that will go into effect on July 1st 2008 which taxes several tech related services which many of us perform as part of our businesses.  According to a great web site set up called Fight the Tech Tax here are a list of services effected:

The following services are listed within the bill:

• Computer facilities management and operation.
• Custom programming.
• Computer system planning and design that integrate computer hardware, software, and communication technologies.
• Computer disaster recovery.
• Data processing, storage and recovery.
• Hardware or software installation or maintenance, and repair.
• To view the enacted language, click here.

There is a good FAQ site that I urge everyone to head over to in order to gain some more info.  I am going to look into this a little more, but from what I have read so far, it is not very tech friendly and could cause some pains for all of us who live in, or EVEN perform services in, Maryland.  There is a blog and lists of ways to help fight this legislation.

Anyone who reads this, could you please help spread the word, Digg it, Stumble it, Mixx it, whatever we can do.  This social media train really needs to pick up some steam here and fight to head off this bill beofre it gets enacted in July !!  Thanks in advance for al of your help.

Hooray, the AppleTV Update is Here !

Okay, I am a nerd, what am I supposed to do. But anyway I was ecstatic to see the AppleTV update is now available for download. This update includes ability to rent right form the AppleTV, flick integration, a new “look and feel”, and .mac photostreams. Thanks to the Crucnhgear guys for putting this is my face. I am totally about to kick the sick kids off the TV so I can download and play !

Track and Report Local Traffic on Twitter

I saw a cool post on Lifehacker today about traffic updates via Twitter.  A new service Commuter Feed is all set to help track traffic issues at several metropolitan areas via Twitter.
Here is how it works:

Follow @commuter on Twitter to get and receive the updates.

Then you can send updates on traffic in your area.  It does it by the local airport code.  So our area we would use IAD (Dulles) or DCA (National) or BWI (Baltimore).
Then to report on and accident or traffic you simply send a tweet to @commuter as follows

@commuter IAD Accident on Toll Road near Herndon

The only thing I see as a small issue, is trying to filter out your area versus all the updates people are sending to @commuter.  They have a web page specific to your area and you can subscribe to the RSS for that page, but as far as I could see there was not a way to only get the tweets for IAD.  Otherwise it seems like another great idea to use Twitter for.

Event: NetSquaredDC - Pimp My Nonprofit: OneWorld.net

NetSquaredDC is hosting an event:  Pimp My NonProfit

Here are the details:

“Pimp my Nonprofit” is our regular bi-monthly brainstorm session. This time, we’re helping OneWorld take their tech strategy and online communication efforts to the next level.

It’s half brainstorming session, half case-study. During the conversation, everyone will have a chance to participate and learn vicariously from some of the leading technology and communications experts in DC. We encourage any consultants and geeks in the audience to show up and strut your stuff

When
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 7:00 PM

Where

Google DC
1101 New York Ave NW 2nd Floor
Washington , DC 20005

Add to your Google Calendar

Thats right, at Google.  I want to go if for nothing else I see the funny colored chairs in the Google office … and any schwag that may be lying around

Does the DC Area Stifle Innovation?

This is a question I have pondered often in the past.  As many of us in the DC area look at the startup communities in Silicon Valley, Boston, and Seattle, we are left to wonder what is that one tangible, or intangible, factor that allows it to blossom there.  And more importantly how we can grow the culture here.

In the end, I think that one main factor that is working against that special culture here is the government.  Don’t get me wrong, I am no anarchist or anything, but I have worked in and around government contracting for over 12 years now.  And the one thing I have noticed in working for these large contractors is that the government likes status quo.  I am not saying that innovation does not occur in and for the government, it does, but at a much much slower pace than it would in an area like the Valley.  One aim of the government is an employed population for the most part and “rocking the boat” a little too much could work against this goal.  One might argue that the government could use innovation as a better tool for employment and growth.  For instance, employing masses to find better energy alternatives.

The other aim of the government is stability.  Big changes rarely occur in and around the government.  One thing that I have noticed in working for government contracts is the solution they almost always choose, is the one they know works.  There are, of course, very innovative people I have come across, but their voices are usually drowned out by the “middle of the road” crowd.

As we are well aware, much of the business and commerce in the DC area revolves around the government and the support of it.  This conservative nature is embedded in the culture here.  While it is true that there is a generation that is upcoming in the ranks of organizations that “get” the value of new technology and innovation, and major shift will have to take place.  Sadly I see many of these new voices take on the same tone as the old school management as they are brought up through the ranks, making the needed shift in thought even harder to attain.

I think as we look at those startup havens mentioned above, the one common thread is the business surrounding the areas.  Silicon Valley of course has all the big tech boys, Apple, Sun, Google, and the list goes on.  Seattle has Amazon and Microsoft and Boston has the bio tech community which is all about innovation.  While DC may have a presence of these companies, it is usually only as a token office in order to interface with the government officials and support contracts.  Google just opened an office here, but only to really function as that interface I mentioned before.  I think there is a burgeoning tech culture here and has great vibes ad feel and I know people will prosper and do well, but I am not sure if we have the ingredients necessary to have our city added to the list of cities above.

I hope I am wrong.

Does Social Media Make You Less Social?

Just as I was thinking that this Social Media phenomena was actually making me more social, along came this post by Bill Cammack over on FastCompany’s new website, which I am liking a lot .. but a post is forthcoming on that soon.
Bill was interviewed by Jonny Goldstein on his Par-tay and his response to Jonny’s question as to whether or not he thought social media made people more social was it does not.  Bill said :

My point was that I became less social instead of more social because of the fact that my friends are always at my fingertips. For the sake of this post, I’m defining “social” as actually going somewhere to hang out with friends of mine, IRL.

Jonny actually thinks that it can lead to more actual social interaction and I agree with him.  Seeing as I met Jonny through a mutual twitter friend and have since started watching his show regularly and seen him in actual person on several occasions it only leads to reason.  Had I not been using these new social media tools, I would have never had the pleasure of not only meeting him, but a whole slew of other great people in the local DC area here.

Bill makes some interesting points

There’s no reason for me to physically go ANYWHERE unless physically interacting with that person is the reason I’m going. You can’t go snowboarding together unless you actually go snowboarding. Other than that, the current state of communications enables you to be AS in-touch with someone as you want to be  …

I think that more often, social media allows us to FEIGN getting together, which is actually *less* social than more so.

but i tend to disagree with most of them, especially that last one there.  I think that once you find your niche in these social tools, like Twitter, it leads to some really interesting real life social interactions.  The fact that I have some background on the people I have found really makes the real life meeting that much easier and more comfortable.  Meeting people “cold” is not easy, but when you have that online rapport already established it helps the transition.  Then once you have a base of these “online”/”offline” friends the tentacles spread out from there and you meet the friend of one of your friends and so on.  Here is an irony for you, now when I meet these peripheral friends, if you will, I go online later and start following them, and the cycle starts again.

In my opinion, my foray into social media has led to some great contacts, good friends, and thet start of a burgeoning tech culture here in the DC area.

So what do you all think, does social media make you more social ?

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