techcrunch
Social Media has evolved beyond a series of platforms that enable content publishing, sharing, and discovery into a genuine, peer-to-peer looking glass into the real world conversations that affect the perception, engagement, and overall direction of the brands we represent.
Socialized media didn’t invent “conversations,” it simply organized and amplified them and established an opportunity for learning and collaboration.
Twitter and Twitter Search have ushered in a new genre of not only communications and associated search technology, but also dedicated ecosystems that transform and support how we as consumers share and discover relevant information in real-time.
Online discussions, rants, and observations are either alarming (and motivating) brand managers or fooling them into unforeseen enthrallment. But the reality is that real-time dialogue is fueling connections and perceptions in the statusphere, blogopsphere, online communities, and the social web in general. It’s this swelling tsunami of chatter that will only intensify and heighten as it forces a new genre of Social Customer Relationship Management (sCRM). Social CRM is no longer an option. It necessitates brand involvement to proactively share answers, solve problems, establish authority, and build relationships and loyalty, one tweet, blog post, update, and “like,” at a time.
In the world of business, social media, led by Twitter, is forcing companies to augment the offshoring of reactive customer service with the nearshoring of proactive customer engagement. The conversations that power social media are sparking a sense of urgency to identify influential voices and talk to customers in a place and time of their choosing (generally, in public and online).
For example, on Friday at during a panel at the CrunchUp on Real Time Business, Porter Gale, vice president of marketing for Virgin America, made it clear that Virgin America understands the promise, prospect, and value of listening and responding to the social stream.
Erick Schonfeld, who was moderating, asked Porter how her team mines Twitter for the perception of the brand and also for determining how they contact customers.
Porter revealed that the Virgin America team is small and applies roughly the equivalent of 1.5 people to monitoring and engaging on Twitter and other social networks. To her and the team, social media is representative of not only a listening system, but also a complete engagement channel. The word “marketing” doesn’t even enter the mix.
With more than 20,000 followers on Twitter, Virgin America is galvanizing a vibrant and active community of people who will respond in “Twitter time,” thus alleviating the modest team from having to engage in every discussion, whether it’s positive or negative.
The most common example Porter shared was a response to the question, “Should I fly Virgin?”
“The community closes the sale,” exclaimed Porter.
She also shared a story of how Virgin America invests in the good will of customers, simply by publicly acknowledging and supporting them in the same channels where they’re communicating.
During one flight, a woman who just graduated medical school to become a doctor, had tweeted her excitement about graduating and also flying @virginamerica. Instead of simply responding with a congratulatory Tweet, Porter and her team retweeted and asked someone on the flight to buy her a drink (the benefits of offering inflight wifi).
To her surprise, Porter triggered an immediate response, “Row 11 is going to buy her a drink.” And, to her further astonishment, the person who sent that Tweet was live in the audience at the Real-Time stream event.
Alexia Tsotsis, tech writer at the LA Weekly, shouted from the first row, “That was me!”
Everyone in the audience was a witness to a vivid demonstration of how interaction online extends into real world experiences.
More impressive is Virgin America’s use of the social Web for real-time customer service. They’re actively monitoring issues, frustrations, and recommendations to solve challenges as they arise. In several such instances, Virgin America has used Twitter as a real-time guest service recovery system in flight to address concerns and problems by contacting service staff in the air to alert them to issues – again, the perils and associated benefits of offering inflight WiFi.
Earlier in the day, Peoplebrowsr (disclosure: I am an advisor) showed a demo in which airlines were ranked by the sentiment expressed about each brand on Twitter, and Virgin America was on top. Peoplebrowsr highlighted the ability to analyze conversational sentiment by industry through the alignment of positive, neutral, and negative conversations and perception by brand.
Ross Mayfield, CEO and founder of Socialtext, discussed the nature of the social dialogue enterprises are being pulled into and how conversations require more than one person or department to engage. SocialText offers a dashboard for enterprises that wish to collaborate internally with coworkers and externally with customers and stakeholders.
Ross referenced the engagement iceberg, where he observes only a small portion of customer conversations and engagement as truly visible, with most occurring beneath the water line and thus, out of view.
He’ s right. In my research and experience, we’ve identified that every online conversation worthy of response directly matched specific divisions within an organization and usually rank in this order:
1. Support
2. PR
3. Marketing
4. Sales
It highlights the reality that every department eventually needs to socialize.
Ross then asked his fellow panel members as well as the audience, “Who’s going to own Social Media and the process of responding?”
My answer: No one.
Social Media is, for the time being, tuning-in new channels of influence to incorporate into the brand and marketing mix. While it takes a station manager time to receive the signals and in turn, coordinate outward broadcasts, it is the divisions within each organization that will need to shift from an introspective support mode to an extrospective group of proactive collaborators.
But as Ross cautioned businesses and eager social media teams, “Before they collaborate with the community, they have to collaborate with themselves.”
If responsibilities and workflow isn’t established and most importantly, if guidelines aren’t drafted and disseminated company-wide, the intention of helping influential customers and advocates can quickly transcend into social, and very public, chaos.
We need rules of engagement.
As Erick pointed out in the discussion, “It used to be unhappy customers who would call into customer service lines to express frustration. Now if businesses don’t immediately respond with a resolution and nip these issues in the bud, they have the potential of spreading and getting out of control. At the same time, companies need to identify and amplify praise as it happens.”
Virgin America’s Porter Gale is trying to rally her team as well as the other departments that are affected by real-time conversations and the issues they raise. She hosts brownbag lunches, where PR, customer service, and other teammates discuss what’s happening with Twitter and other social networks. They also share and review strategies and tactics to teach and learn from each other based on their experiences.
There are social networks, and there are tools with which to identify conversations and facilitate interaction, but everyone agreed, that in the world of new service and marketing, we need to improve the literacy and education among the teams who occupy the front lines.
The “now” web is powerful. It’s building new bridges, networks, and channels. It’s absolutely changing the way people communicate, research, and ultimately make decisions.
Yes, the real-time Web is powered by conversations. But, what’s important to remember, is that conversations are personal and therefore sacred.
Broadcasting messages, or even worse, sponsored messages as a form of resolution or participation is foolhardy.
Companies such as Pizza Hut that relegate Twitter interaction to a summer “Twintern” will indubitably get what they pay for. We’ve already witnessed the public backlash when a twintern abuses Twitter on behalf of an unsuspecting brand. #habitat
The point is that it’s not whether or not an intern or junior staffer on the marketing and communications team is competent or incompetent. The reality is that businesses should view the role of engaging with customers, prospects and influencers as a strategic competitive advantage as well as an earned privilege.
As panelist Maynard Webb of LiveOps pointed out, “A brand can get damaged faster than ever nowadays.”
The true shift represented by the social and real-time Web is not simply the ability to surface relevant conversations as they happen, it represents the opportunity to learn from public sentiment and create a more aware and adaptive organization that leads communities through action.
Monitoring the conversation is not enough. Brands need to jump in, but in a professional way.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
A Friend forever - Alpana
I have not heard from her since ages, last time I called her she was busy shifting back to India from another country and we could hardly talk.
Cute and petite, she was the life of our group. Her anecdotes with smatterings of “uno bola, to fir main boli” in typical Hyderabadi style kept the conversation alive. We called h er “Hauli” a slang for cutely silly. She loved the road side chinese and I would very often gatecrash them on her road side dining dates which she went with her “Quack”. Her boyfriend “Quack” was a friend of mine studying to be a doctor. I still don’t know if I was an intrusion, but I was close enough to both of them to be allowed to do that.
Originally published at Swati Sani. Please leave any comments there.
12:00 am :: Daily TweetsOriginally published at robmonroe.net. You can comment here or there.
Twitter digest for the last 24 hours:
- 18:07 Brad Radke is being inducted to the Twins hall of fame tonight. #
- 18:21 @amyjcomedy his speech went a bit longer than I expected it to. #
techcrunch
Anyone who has tried to use the immensely popular ‘housing’ section of Craigslist to do some apartment hunting is well aware of its limitations: aside from breaking listings into basic neighborhoods, for the most part they lack any structure, which can make them a pain to browse through, especially when you’re trying to compare more than one apartment.
Y Combinator startup RentHop is looking to offer an alternative, featuring thousands of structured housing listings that are much easier to search though and compare. Of course, there are plenty of other sites that offer comprehensive housing listings, so RentHop is also looking to differentiate itself by eliminating housing broker fees.
For the time being RentHop is only available in New York City, largely because of the way apartment hunting is set up there. For those who aren’t familiar with the situation, most of the time when you’re looking to find an apartment in New York City, you’re forced to work through a broker who will charge a fee of 15% of your first year of rent (which works out to around $3,000 based on NYC’s average rent).
So why not just skip the brokers and go straight through Craigslist, which offers a broker-free ‘no fee’ section? RentHop co-founder Lee Lin says that oftentimes brokers will spam this section with fake listings, hoping to seduce viewers into calling them at which point they can say “Oh, that one is taken, but we’ve still got this one available…” and so on. Because NYC apartment listings rarely include an actual address, these are very easy to fake.
RentHop solves this problem by going to major landlords, some of which own many buildings in New York City, and getting the listings straight from them. Each listing on RentHop has a valid address, which means that they’re harder to fake, and the site can also plot them on a map to give you an idea of where the apartment actually is. Lin says that landlords have an incentive to offer apartments through the site, because their inventory will move more quickly when potential tenants don’t have to pay a large broker fee.
While the site originally launched back in Febraury, Lin says that most of the features have been added since then, and the site has changed its business model. RentHop now looks to generate revenue by offering a set of ‘Pro’ features to large major landlords, who can have hundreds (or more) of apartments to manage at once.
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techcrunch
I’m a fan of DNA startup 23andMe. In fact, I was one of the first people to lay down $1,000 and take the test. And I like what they are doing to help disease research.
But this blimp (or rather a zeppelin) they’re flying around Silicon Valley is a menace. First of all, I go outside to get away from work, not to look up in the sky and see a big startup logo hovering over my house. And our attempts to take a video of it almost resulted in a car crash (video below) (Yeah, probably more my fault than theirs, but still, it’s there, I need to video it. From a moving car). Go away, Blimp. Or Zeppelin.
Apparently this thing has been around for a while. An excruciatingly detailed overview of the zeppelin and why it is flying around with a 23andMe logo on it is here.
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techcrunch
That’s 44 accounts by my count. Where are all those Jaiku accounts?
Still think they have no interest in the micro-messaging service? Of course they do. It just may cost them more than a billion dollars to satisfy their fixation. And Microsoft is starting to get a fixation too. Remember when the two had a bidding war over a stake in Facebook?
Update: Interesting. As Habib points out in the comments, it looks like Google may have missed one of its own accounts in the region list: Google Arabia. That makes 45.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
lifehacker
- WEP Cracking Redux: Beyond the Command Line (Windows/Mac/Linux)
Last week we showed you how to crack a Wi-Fi network's WEP key using a live CD and some command line fu. Today we've got other cracking options-but more importantly, clarification on the point of all this. - VLC Hits 1.0 with Better Playback and File Support (Windows/Mac/Linux)
VLC Media Player, the open-source solution to media players that can't play your media files, reaches the 1.0 milestone today. What's new? Support for HD and other new formats, finer speed controls, customizable toolbars, AirTunes streaming, and much more. - Hulu Video Downloader Saves Your Favorite Shows for Offline Enjoyment (Windows)
Hulu Video Downloader is a free application that saves Hulu videos to your desktop and converts them to virtually any popular, device-friendly format you might want-at least in theory. - Get Google Gears Up and Running in Firefox 3.5 (Windows/Mac/Linux)
Most developers did a bang-up job preparing their extensions for the Firefox 3.5 update, but on the Firefox 3.5 release day, one very popular extension didn't make the cut: Google's browser plug-in, Gears. - Are You Still Jailbreaking Your iPhone or iPod touch? (iPhone/iPod Touch)
The iPhone Dev Team just released updates to their cross-platform jailbreak and unlocking tools redsn0w and ultrasn0w, and while unlocks are definitely good news for folks who want to use an iPhone on non-sanctioned carriers, we're wondering: Do you still jailbreak? - Windows 7 ISO Verifier Ensures Your Downloads Are Legit (Windows)
The final RTM release of Windows 7 should be released later this month, and blogger and developer Long Zheng has created a small application designed to verify that your download is the real thing. - Cameras Improves the Way OS X Deals with Connected Cameras (Mac OS X)
Never been entirely happy with the way your Mac reacts when you plug in your various camera-sporting devices? Wish it could do something different when you plug in your iPhone versus your DSLR? Cameras can help. - HideTab is a Boss Key for Your Browser (Firefox)
Firefox extension HideTab minimizes open tabs into an icon on the status bar-and even adds a shortcut key to instantly hide everything. - Better Gmail 2 Updated for Gmail's Label Enhancements (Firefox)
Google's recent improvements to Gmail's labels broke one of Better Gmail 2's most-loved features: Folders4Gmail. Folders4Gmail displays labels with slashes in them as subfolders of a parent label, and I must say, I've missed it a whole lot this week. - VLC Portable 1.0 Puts Multi-Format Playing on Thumb Drives (Windows)
If you're eager to try out VLC 1.0's new features, or find yourself at a lack for decent media players at others' computers, PortableApps has bundled VLC's latest release in USB-drive-friendly form.
lifehacker
Windows only: If you're going to create a photo mosaic, you might as well invest the time to do it well. Foto-Mosaik-Edda is a powerful tool for creating impressive, detailed, finely-tuned photo mosaics.
To use Foto-Mosaik-Edda you need a pool of source images—the bigger the better, as they recommend 2000 or more—and the actual image you want to base the mosaic off. In the case of our sample image we used 1,800 images of Marilyn Monroe and found that Foto-Mosaik-Edda did an excellent job using the variety of images we provided.
When you first use Foto-Mosaik-Edda, it does take a bit of time to get things moving. Point the application at the directory where your source images reside and it'll scan through and create a base set of "tiles" for your mosaic. With 1,800 images it took about 15 minutes. If you're scanning 10,000 family pictures to create a mega mosaic, plan on leaving your system for a while.
Once you have your pool of pictures scanned, creating a large mosaic is straight forward. Pick your primary image, give it a name, and then select the number of images and resolution of the final image. The size and resolution of the final image is largely limited by how much time you want to devote to letting your computer chug away at cranking out an image. For our sample image we created a 2600x3300px image using 8000 images, which took around 15 minutes to generate. If you have your own tricks and tools for creating interesting mosaic images, share the wealth in the comments below. Foto-Mosaik-Edda is freeware, Windows only.
lifehacker
Folding a towel wouldn't seem an area in need of improvement and wiser time use, but folding a towel to go straight from the linen closet to the hanging bar saves real time.
Photo by davco9200.
Why fold a towel one way to store it, then have to refold it to hang neatly on the towel bar in your bathroom? If you fold it properly, you can simply pull it out of the linen closet and flop it right over the bar without having to refold or fuss. Over at the organization blog Unclutterer, they offer a simple photo tutorial on folding a towel so that it's ready to be hung right out of the closet. The steps:
1. Either lay the bath towel front-side down on a clean surface or, if your arms are long enough, hold the towel in a similar manner:
2. Fold into thirds (lengthwise):
3. Fold the long strip in half (bring short edges together):
4. Fold the strip in half again.
Check out the link below for the accompanying pictures. Have a home organization tip of your own, linen closet related or otherwise? Share it in the comments.
techcrunch
This morning I woke up and saw an interesting headline on Techmeme from Forbes writer Brian Caulfield: Why Google Is Stealing Apple’s Ideas. Wow, a story involving two of the world’s largest technology companies and scandal? This was going to be good.
And then I read the story, which turned out to be a strange hit job on Google for no apparent reason, trying to imply that Google has somehow bypassed Apple’s “renowned secrecy” and used its ideas to foster the development of its new Chrome OS. And somehow, Google CEO Eric Schmidt is behind it.
Caulfield claims that Apple may have “missed a spot” by letting Schmidt stay on Apple’s board. First off, why does everyone seem to assume that Apple isn’t well aware of the fact that Eric Schmidt is the CEO of Google? To paraphrase John Gruber, does anyone actually think Steve Jobs is too shy to confront Schmidt? Of course, Caulfield immediately goes on to say that Schmidt isn’t actually a spy, but rather that somewhere along the line Apple and Google have become “accidental competitiors” who have simply yet to realize it. Right.
But the Schmidt point can be forgiven. It’s possible, however improbable, that Eric Schmidt has somehow been accidentally abusing his position at Apple to gain insider knowledge that he then leveraged to empower Google, all under Jobs’ nose, and without realizing that he was competing with Apple. After all, he is a very smart man.
So on to the points where Google has apparently copied Apple, which range from the silly to utterly ridiculous.
Caulfield points out that Chrome OS runs on x86 and ARM processors and is based on Unix. But look: Apple’s OS X also runs on both x86 and ARM processors, is based on a Unix variant, and NeXT Step (which laid the ground work for OS X) was used to build the web. Frankly I have no idea what that last point is even relevant to (maybe that Chrome is optimized for browsing the web?). Moving on, OS X is built to run on a wide range of devices, including the iPhone, servers, and Mac PCs. Clearly, Chrome’s planned support for both netbooks and eventually desktops is entirely derivative of Apple’s idea to allow an operating system to perform on multiple products.
Caulfield fails to point out the major obvious differences between the two operating systems. For one, Chrome OS will probably be entirely browser driven — many of the details are still speculative, but it’s likely that Chrome PCs will boot directly into the browser, with a boot time ranging in the single digit seconds. Applications will all be reliant on ‘the cloud’, rather than storing data locally. In contrast, Apple’s OS X is totally different. It’s not cloud based. It’s a full fledged OS that doesn’t boot into the browser. It seems that Caulfield honed in on just about every other obvious similarity while ignoring the mountains of differences.
Caulfield then gets into the similarities between the iPhone and Android. This is well-trodden territory, and Apple and Google are definitely competitors here. But trying to say Google stole the idea of a smartphone OS from Apple is strange — Apple and Google are taking very different approaches to their software (Google is free and used on devices from multiple vendors, Apple’s isn’t). And Apple wasn’t exactly the first company on the mobile block, though they did revolutionize the touchscreen. So, okay, we can see where Caulfield is going with this.
Then :
Apple launched a Web browser for the Windows operating system Safari in June of 2007. Google launched the Chrome Web browser for Windows in September 2008. Apple offers a full suite of office productivity software for the Mac. Google offers its own Web-based alternative, Google Docs. Apple has an e-mail service. So does Google.
Let’s just go through these one by one. Eric Schmidt was just quoted by the Financial Times as saying “[Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin] wanted to do this project since founding the company”. In other words, Google has been thinking about doing this for over a decade. But Google didn’t actually wind up releasing Chrome until well over a year after Safari hit Windows. Point Caulfield, I guess. Of course, by this logic, Apple was “stealing” that whole Windows browser thing from Microsoft to begin with.
Next up, Apple’s office productivity suite iWork vs. Google Docs. I don’t think anyone who has ever actually tried using both iWork and Google Docs would put them anywhere near the same ballpark. Google Docs is a cloud-based service that allows for easy collaboration. But it isn’t where you’re going to be doing any heavy document lifting — I can’t imagine writing anything longer than a few pages in it, not to mention create a media-heavy presentation. Yes, you can edit documents in both of them, but calling this a “stolen” idea is pretty ridiculous.
Finally, Apple’s Email service vs Gmail. This one is just laughable. When Gmail was released back in 2004, it revolutionized webmail, offering a full gigabyte of storage space to users (not to mention a great interface). Mail services at the time that had previously been restricted to a tiny fraction of that — in fact, Apple’s premium .Mac, which cost $100 a year, was only giving out a measly 15 megabytes of storage.
Even if all these points held water, Caulfield could have used nearly exactly the same argument trying to accuse Google of “stealing” from Microsoft. Microsoft has a browser too, as well as a tiny productivity suite called Office, and an Email service called Hotmail. You may have heard of them. Google isn’t stealing, it’s competing. It’s releasing new products in an effort to beat out its rival. Likewise, Apple is out to beat Microsoft as well, so the two sometimes wind up releasing similar products. If anything, this is a case of convergent evolution, not cloak and dagger espionage.
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lifehacker
Looking for an inexpensive way add some interesting mood lighting to your next outdoor party? Recycle some jars into hanging candle lanterns.
Culinary blog DigginFood manages to sneak some DIY projects into their feeds, related to their pursuit of ever-better food. Sprucing up your dinner parties with some easy to make candle holders definitely falls into that category, and the supplies you need for the project are cheap and readily available.
Once you've saved some various sized jars from your kitchen and given them a good scrubbing, you just need some wire:
To make the lanterns you'll need 22- and 24-gauge wire and small pliers. You can use beads, vintage buttons, sea glass, driftwood-whatever you like, really-to embellish the lanterns. To make the wire hangers use the thicker 22-gauge wire.
Assuming you skip the embellishments and already have a pair of needle nose pliers, your entire outlay for dozens of lanterns is maybe $10 worth of wire and $5 for a bulk pack of tea light candles. For more details on the project including tips on making sure your wire holders stay put, check out the full tutorial. If you have your own creative way for making novel outdoor lighting, share your crafty tricks in the comments below.
lifehacker
Purchasing, storing, sampling, and outright enjoying wine can seem to be an enormous undertaking. Monty Python's John Cleese sets out to help the uninitiated (seriously!).
Photo by jesiehart.
Wine for the Confused originally aired on Food network as an informative mini-documentary about wine, hosted by none other than John Cleese of the Monty Python fame. It covers varieties of wine, how to establish a baseline for your wine tastes, storing and serving wine, and more. Check out the link below to watch the entire film at Hulu—we'd have embedded it here for your viewing pleasure, but Hulu absolutely insisted the embed code it gave us for Wine for the Confused point at an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
The video might not contain revelations for a veteran wine connoisseur, but if you're interested in learning more about wine and cutting through some of the snobbery and myths surrounding it, the video is an quite informative.
If you want to expand your wine knowledge further check out previously reviewed Snooth, a social network and recommendation engine for wine enthusiasts.
lifehacker
Professional camera gear is prohibitively expensive for most hobbyists. If you're not paying your bills with your lens work, use PetaPixel's guide to pick up great lenses and other gear on the cheap.
Photo by Marc Lacoste.
Photography website PetaPixel shares a guide to purchasing nice gear on a student budget. The heart of their technique is to purchase exclusively used lenses. The best way to get used lenses? Search out package deals:
It's pretty much always the case that someone selling multiple items together as a package must sell it for significantly less than the sum of each item separately. They are, in a sense, exchanging the extra money they could earn for the time they save by selling it all at once. This presents a great opportunity for the photographer looking for a good deal on a particular item in the package. If a package you come across includes a piece of equipment you want along with many pieces you don't want, and is extremely cheaply priced, buy it all and sell off everything you don't want. If the price was good enough, there's a good chance you'll end up paying nothing for the gear you wanted after selling off the rest.
The inverse of that rule is to always sell your gear in individual pieces to maximize your profit. Using their own purchasing log as an example, they point out that if they were to sell all their gear right now at fair market prices, they'd be out roughly $300 or so but would have enjoyed the use of nearly $4,000 worth of equipment, all thanks to careful shopping in the used market. Check out the full article below for more tips on filling your camera bag on the cheap.
techcrunch
The folks at the Hype Machine, the popular music tracking site, think that all of the Twitter music charts out there are “lame,” so they decided to make their own Twitter Music Chart. It encourages people to Tweet out links to their favorite songs on the Hype Machine, where you can listen to the full audio stream. They came up with a formula which gives people with more followers on Twitter more points for every song they Tweet. The songs with the most points, move up the chart.
It seems straight-forward enough, but it is way too easy for people with a large number of Twitter followers to game. I just RickRolled the chart by Tweeting a link to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” from the TechCrunch Twitter account. The TechCrunch account has 916,735 followers, which gives each Hype Machine Tweet 2,997 points. A single Tweet was enough to put the song at the top of the chart, above Michael Jackson’s and Telepopmusik’s “Remember The Time” (1,972 points). Okay, so maybe it wasn’t fair to use the TechCrunch account, but what else am I gonna do on a Saturday morning plane ride back to New York (gotta love Virgin America’s WiFi in the sky).
Even before I Tweeted the link with the TechCrunch account, I Tweeted it first through my personal @erickschonfeld account, which only has 7,224 followers, and was able to get the song to debut on the list at No. 24. Every time I Tweet out a song link, it counts for 266 points, noyt enough to get a song to the top spot with one Tweet, but enough to move “Superteen” by The Care Bears On Fire from the No. 12 spot to the No. 5 spot.
The Hype Machine’s formula is flawed. No single person should be able to affect the rankings so easily. To be fair, it just launched, and as more people start voting, the system should self-correct. But the bigger problem with ranking songs based on someone’s popularity on Twitter is that just because someone has a lot of followers doesn’t man they have good taste in music (TechCrunch and myself excluded, of course). Ranking music based on roughly on how many Twitter followers someone has is just as lame as any of the other methods the Hype Machinists are trying to replace. (I like WeAreHunted). If there was a way to figure out who are the music experts or influencers on Twitter and give their Tweets more weight, that would create a more interesting list.
Otherwise, the Hype Machine’s chart is just going to keep on getting RickRolled.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
English, 70 mins
PW: Kuo Pao Kun
Dir: Jaimini Pathak
Watched it yesterday. The audience was given a small strip of pink color paper at the beginning of the play and the actors showed everyone how to roll it and make a rose out of it. Everyones was asked to write their names on it . Being an adaptation of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint , the director has made an attempt to some of the interesting instances in the book. A girl who wanted to become an artist was discouraged by the grown-ups who never understand anything beyond numbers. She was bored. One day she walked and walked which was when she met her Prince. He had a problem. There was 1 rose in his planet and he wanted to save it from the goat. He didn’t want to tie the goat because then the goat won’t be able to move around freely. He didn’t even want to fence the rose, because the rose would feel lonely. So the girl made a deal with the Prince that if she solved his problem, he would have to take her to some other planet. Both of them agreed to it and set off to find a solution to the rose problem. They just had 35 mins in hand after which the prince had to go back to his planet. They met a lot of people including a Geographer with a long beard. They asked him if he could find a solution to his rose problem. The Geographer said that he just knows the number of lakes and monuments in the world. So the girl asked him for the number of lakes in Bangalore city. The Geographers loosens his arms and a map rolls out. He is unable to find any. The girl is irritated. She asked him how was it possible for a Geographer to not know the number of lakes in his own city . The Geographer replied saying that it was not his job but the job of the explorers to report it and his job was to only collect the data. The Geographer asked the Prince about his planet. The Prince said that he had 3 volcanoes in his planet of which one is unusable and one is used to boil water. Prince and the girl set off again to find a solution. They finally land up a gardener’s rose farm. The old gardener whom they came looking for had died but there was a man looking after the farm who was watering the garden. The Prince asked how he could save his special rose. The gardener said that every rose was special.
So now the audience was asked to raise their hands and show their roses. That was the rose garden. Everyone of them is special. He said the Prince should water the rose and the roses were capable of protecting themselves from the goat. The Prince was confused, his rose had told him that she was the most special rose and here he found that every rose was special. The kids in the audience came out with answers on how the rose could be saved.Kill the goat, Take the goat away were some of the funny answers from the kids. But one of them said , The rose has a thorn. It can protect itself. The prince had found his answer. The Prince had to go back now and the girl realised that her planet is special and she didn’t want to go anywhere.
Three actors including one in multiple roles of a Drawing Teacher, Gardener, Geographer were fantastic. Their costumes were good too. I really liked the costume of the Drawing Teacher and Geographer. The Gardener used an long circular box which made the sound of water when moved upside down. The Prince did a few magic acts too which entertained the kids a lot.
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09:00 am :: Top 10 Tips and Tricks for Better Coffee [Lifehacker Top 10]lifehacker
Coffee doesn't always make work better, but you can definitely work to get better coffee. From four-cup hotel machines to French presses, from home-roasted beans to decorative foam—we've got a wealth of tips for enjoying a better cup.
Photo by lepiaf.geo.
10. Decorate your own lattes
It's not as hard as you might think to make lattes for yourself or coffee-loving guests at home, and with a little practice, you can also pull off the latte-topping art you get when your baristas are less rushed. It's an art of patient milk pouring, with melted chocolate designs for the devoted Arabica artists. wikiHow's site details the ins and outs of latte art, and you can find a lot of inspiration on Flickr and other photo sites. Photo by tonx. (Original post)
9. Cold-brew iced coffee for summer convenience
It can take a long time for hot coffee to get cold in the fridge, or even the freezer, if you're in a real hurry for it. Try to rush it, and you get watered-down, bean-flavored water. Cold-brewing coffee, though, with just grounds, water, a fine filter, and (optional) milk, is something you can start right before you go to bed, then finish on a hot morning for arejuvenating ride to work (or walk to the laptop, in your editors' cases). Photo by thebittenword.com. (Original post)
8. Re-use your coffee grounds
The ever-lasting smell of garlic on your fingertips; dishes that just won't come clean; pests that eat up your backyard garden. If only there were some kind of magic, coarsely-ground semi-paste to take care of all these at once! Well, you know what this facetious stuff is, and it works really well in a lot of cleaning, gardening, and even beauty uses. Better still, they're a great reason to get started with composting. (Original post)
7. Fine-tune caffeine levels
Some bags of beans or pre-ground coffee offer a very rough guide to how much caffeine they're packing, but most don't. Starbucks co-founder Jerry Baldwin explains in a blog post the myths and realities of caffeine levels. A few short pull-outs: "Robusta" beans pack twice as much caffeine as "Arabica," "dark roast" means effectively nothing in terms of caffeine, and drip coffee can actually pack more caffeine than espresso, depending on the beans and amounts used. Photo by tico24. (Original post)
6. Work it into your exercise
This is advice best taken if you already hydrate well with water or exercise far ahead of bedtime, but it doesn't take downing a pot of the hot stuff to see a performance boost in your exercise or running routines. According to Australian researchers, a 176-pound man could drink four ounces of coffee, or two 12-ounce cans of soda, and "get the full caffeine effect" on their run. It's not how you'll get the edge in a 10K, but it might just give you the boost you need to make a hard-to-keep commitment going for one more day. Hit the link above to learn when and how much to drink to work it into your stride. Photo by Joe Shlabotnik. (Original post)
5. Store beans the proper way
Not all coffee should go in the freezer. In fact, if you're going to actually use the coffee right away, you don't want it going straight from the icebox to under steaming water. Find a local coffee seller that roasts their own beans, or at least offers honest details on when their stuff was roasted, then divide your stash into weekly amounts. Keep the current week's stash in an airtight container at room temperature, or sealed in therefrigerator, and keep the other weeks' portions in the freezer. Photo by EraPhernalia Vintage (somewhat busy). (Original post)
4. Make better drip coffee with a "trial run"
Drip coffee has its limitations, but it can be made better. Newsweek's Budget Travel blog points out that one such limitation is that drip models—the kind at work in hotel rooms and maybe in your kitchen—take a long time to heat up to proper flavor-releasing temperatures . Run just a pot of water through the machine first to heat it up, then pour that heated water right back in to actually brew. Assuming you're not running out the door, this definitely seems worth the effort, and might save you the time and money spent at a coffee shop. (Original post)
3. Press it
Our weekend editor got crazy-obsessive about turning out a good cup of Joe recently, researching the best practices from bean to brew. One notable, practical discovery was that it comes out better when you use a French press, even a cheap one. Here's why:
One of the primary benefits of making coffee in a French press over a standard drip pot is that more of the coffee oils end up in your cup instead of in the machine's filter. More oils means better taste! As a bonus, a carefully cleaned French press can also double as an excellent pot for loose leaf tea.
2. Learn and make fancy coffee drinks with diagrams
Lokesh Dhakar has done everyone who's ever been intimidated by barista jargon a huge favor with a series of illustrations detailing how most popular coffee drinks are made. They explain exactly what's in the standard versions of every Italian-named drink you'll find at most coffee shops in neat, simple fashion. For the forgetful or deeply smitten, there's a Cafe Press store that allows for printing Dhakar's diagrams on mugs, shirts, and lots of other gear. (Original post)
1. Roast your own beans
You could complain about how hard it is to find fresh-roasted, quality beans, or you can bootstrap your coffee routine and roast your own beans. There are methods involving a heat gun and metal bowl, a garage sale special popcorn popper, or, as one commenter suggests, simply lay the green beans on a metal tray in the oven, turn it up as hot as it can go, then wait to hear the sounds of the beans cracking before pulling them out.
How do you make your own coffee better, whether with the office giganto-pot or your own gear at home? What tools or techniques have become indispensable to your favorite caffeine delivery method? Grab a mug and talk some shop in the comments.
techcrunch
It’s festival season, so this may be a welcome addition to the gigantic directory of music-related information websites and applications already out there on the Web, particularly for live gig buffs. Setlist.fm is an awesome free wiki site (although they prefer to call it a “wiki-like service”) that aims to become the biggest repository of live performance track lists with the help of music fans across the globe.
The good thing about Setlist.fm is that the goal is to collect the real setlists, meaning which tracks artists and bands actually play at live gigs rather than what the setlist says they will. If you have any basic knowledge about the live music industry, you know that those are two completely separate things.
To submit and edit setlists, you don’t necessarily need to register, although the startup behind the site recommends that you do. Once you add tracks for a certain gig, say Metallica’s performance at the Sonisphere Festival in Hockenheim, Germany from last week, the back-end of the system will automatically check the web for a playable stream of the tune, YouTube videos and the lyrics. The site will also auto-generate statistics for artists and bands (example for Metallica) which gives you a good overview of their performance history and what their most played songs at live gigs are.
Setlist.fm comes with a decent internal search engine and enables visitors to easily share the setlist in their Last.fm event review or embed it on their own website or blog. For example, here is the setlist of U2’s concert at Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain from the beginning of this month:
As an aside, this is most probably the first project that we cover that hails all the way from the tiny nation of Liechtenstein. Which goes to show good ideas can come out of countries with less than 40,000 inhabitants too.
Nice one!
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
lifehacker
A running toilet will eventually snap your last nerve, and jiggling the handle only provides temporary reprieve. Fortunately, home improvement site DIY Life shows how to diagnose and silence your toilet in five minutes or less.
Photo by mararie.
First and most important, you properly diagnose the problem. To make sure that your toilet is in fact running, turn off the tap behind your toilet, then check and record the tank's water level. Return to it in a few hours. If the water level has dropped, you've got yourself a problem.
One of the main causes of a running or faulty toilet is the chain that's connected to the flapper. If it's too short, the flap won't close properly, and if it's too long, the chain will often get in the way. If the chain is neither too long nor too short, you'll need to replace the flap.
Hit up the full post for instructions on how to do so. Just remember to turn off the water and flush your tank before you begin. And if your problem is not a running toilet, but a dirty one, try using a can of coke to clean your toilet when you don't have gear on hand.
lifehacker
Get alerted to incoming calls and text messages without a lot of impolite clamor with a subtle ultrasonic ringtone.
High-frequency ringtones caused a stir awhile back when it was discovered that kids were using them in schools, since older adults generally can't hear as high up the frequency scale as the young'ns. We even included a nod to them in our Top 10 Body Hacks.
While the novelty of hearing a ringtone your teacher can't hear is certainly thrilling for a high school student, using ultrasonic ringtones has a benefit outside of trying to dodge the boot of the man. For some time now I've used a 16.7kHz pulse as a notification sound on my phone. It's in just the right pitch to cut through other noise, I never confuse it with anything but what it is, and I've never found myself in line at the bank mistakenly whipping out my phone when somebody's Soulja Boy ringtone is blaring.
Where can you grab obscure ultrasonic ringtones without resorting to mixing them up yourself? At the link below you'll find 12 ringtones, ranging from 8kHz to 22.4kHz. You'll definitely want to test them out on your actual phone, your phone speaker is likely greatly inferior to the speakers you have hooked up to your computer and probably won't produce the same quality tone.
[_germina_]
(4 comments | Leave a comment)
02:09 pm :: Indie Author Lands Book Deal After Self-Publishing On Kindle Storetechcrunch
And you thought self-published books were all rubbish. Author Boyd Morrison sold two books, the first one called The Ark, to Simon & Schuster. Boyd uploaded and sold the books himself and raised awareness for his novels by being a member of Kindle Boards and generally self-promoting.
He will be published in hardcover in 2010 and is working on his next book featuring swashbuckling adventurer Tyler Locke.
[siddhesh]
Authentication for Yahoo protocol version 16 is finally up and running in the netv2 branch of ayttm. I committed the last part of the login sequence, the address book download from the new location (address.yahoo.com).
Things look quite promising for the netv2 branch with a lot of changes like:
- Revamped networking code to have connection negotiations happen in parallel. As a result of this change ayttm is multi-threaded now. It no longer hangs if the DNS servers or proxies are unavailable. We need people testing for proxies to make sure it works well.
- SSL is now integrated into the networking code. So any protocol can have easy access to an SSL connection with just the flip of a switch. This has simplified a lot of the protocol code as well
- Changes to individual protocols to work with the new networking code. Currently Yahoo, Jabber and IRC are done. I am working on MSN
Its been 3 years since the Mumbai train blasts. We have had many other terror acts in between to blur the images of the innocent victims caught on that fateful evening. Most politicians wouldn't even remember it. If having to contend with such acts wasn't enough, we have a new war front opened up in Mysore. The initial clash was just the triggering incident. After that, thousands of people have been brought in from the various other districts in Karnataka and also from Kerala. Various battles are being fought between these protesters and the cops on a daily basis. It is really hard to imagine such a scene in Mysore, where people respect each other and live a peaceful life. Our system is not dumb enough to not identify the people masterminding such plots. What they lack is the political will to act against those who disrupt an innocent Indian's life and its not the same anymore. 09:20 am :: In English only
[jace]
On the Paschim Express.
11:08 am :: Happy Bday!!Wishing
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
sudhi_11in, many many happy returns of the day!!
05:05 am :: 27 animated icons[islandmysteries]
Here is a batch of a lot of animated icons. I haven't perfected this process yet (not by a long shot...) but maybe you'll enjoy them! The count is:
-11 Richard
-3 Daniel Faraday
-4 Jacob
-2 Sayid
-1 Nadia
-1 Juliet
-1 Ben
-1 Boone
-2 Desmond
-4 Locke
( over the rainbow )
some may look the same but they have slight variations.
if you made the original GIFs i used, i'll be happy to credit you.
please credit me [
islandmysteries] if you use these icons! :) comments are nice too <3(9 comments | Leave a comment)
02:26 pm :: Mrs Anya Kong!Current Mood:
bouncyCurrent Music: The Cedar Room-Doves
A lot of changes have taken place in my life since I made my last entry.
I got married to the man I love. Formalities aside, in our hearts, we’ve been man and wife forever.
I semi- shifted to the city I detest. The only reason I am able to tolerate this change is because of the constant love and support of my significant other as well as really affectionate relatives and cousins.
I don’t live with my mom anymore. I miss her like crazy and cry about it daily in private (and otherwise). Although right now I am very happy because I am back with her for a short while. :D
So if you ask me, how do you feel? I’ll give you one of my famous smiles and say, ‘Like a cloud. Cozy, playful and content.’
:-)
(6 comments | Leave a comment)
11:42 pm :: stallman and free software[evan]
Criticisms or calls for respect of Richard Stallman seem to miss the real importance of the man. People focus on gcc or emacs or the GNU stack, which have certainly been great works; or his more recent GNU/Linux posturing or interviews, which seem to me desperate and nearly pathetic; but these lose the greater context.
I once read the argument that Chomsky -- whether you agree or disagree with his ideas -- serves a useful purpose in delimiting a boundary of the debate. By being "radical", he allows for others to have positions that are more moderate versions of his without themselves getting pegged as radicals. Stallman served the analogous role for free software at a time when it was just not done (the GNU announcement was 1983; Wikipedia says the first nearly free BSD came out in 1991, and the Debian Manifesto was 1993). It'd be excessive to attribute Mozilla or the Free Culture movement just one person but he definitely planted the seed.
In part due to Stallman's influence, today we're not limited to arguing over the relatively minor difference of which megacorp (Microsoft? Apple? mine?) we'd like to license our computers from, but rather whether in a non-zero-sum game like software there are actually moral arguments to be had about sharing beyond simply applying capitalism.
Do I believe in or use the GPL? No, not anymore. But I do believe in free software, and still have a healthy respect for what came before.
(10 comments | Leave a comment)
12:01 am :: tension[ruslanlobanov]
Current Mood: accomplished
Киев. июль 2009
одежда Ксюша Попова
(26 comments | Leave a comment)
12:00 am :: Daily TweetsOriginally published at robmonroe.net. You can comment here or there.
Twitter digest for the last 24 hours:
- 04:14 Start a conversation you can’t even finish it. Talkin a lot, but you’re not sayin anything. When I have nothing to say, my lips are sealed. #
- 11:07 @d4nz I do! Check out my wicked slammers. #
- 16:29 RT @kellythesier: C Joe Mauer has officially accepted an invite to compete in Monday’s All-Star Home Run Derby. #Twins #
- 22:30 Watching the Pitchmen tribute to Billy Mays. #
[tactful_cactus]
Okay, I'm hoping somebody can help me with this. I'm a total beginner when it comes to writing PHP from scratch, and I'm trying to throw a bunch of things together an make them work.
Here's what's up: I have a simple login form—very very basic with minimal security (it doesn't really need to be secure). The usernames and passwords are just a few different logins predefined by the site owner, so they're just retrieved and checked through an array, like this:
( Full Explanation Under Cut )
I just don't have my syntax down nearly well enough to get it right. I've tried about a hundred variations of using in_array (e.g. "if (in_array($username, $users)..." but I just can't get it.
...help?
(12 comments | Leave a comment)
01:18 am :: Confirmed: Pandora Raises A Huge Round, Post Streaming Rate Agreementtechcrunch
With its potential troubles behind it, having reached a deal to stream music while staying afloat financially, it looks like Pandora is getting flush with cash. The Internet streaming radio service has raised a new $35 million round of funding, multiple sources told peHUB earlier, and we’ve just confirmed the round with the company.
Pandora is being mum on the huge number, but is saying that Greylock Partners led the round and that Greylock partner David Sze will be joining Pandora’s board. Greylock joins existing investors Crosslink Capital, Walden Venture Capital, Labrador Ventures, King Street Capital, Hearst Corporation, DBL Investors, and Selby Ventures in the funding.
Assuming the $35 million is correct, that’s a huge numer and actually more than all of Pandora’s previous rounds combined. Pandora had previously raised slightly over $20 million, but the last round was in 2005.
But this new funding comes when Pandora expects to be profitable by next year, and is coming off its best quarter in terms of ad sales yet. “New funds will be used toward the continued growth and development of Pandora” is all the company will say on how they plan to use this large chunk of change.
This is no doubt a case of investors hopping on board now that the skies seem clear for Pandora. It’s one of the most popular streaming radio services, and the fact that it looks on the verge of making money is a good sign.
[photo: flickr/dan4th]
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
Among the many things recently that I've found very surprising, some real estate agents refuse to work with you (aka show their listings) if you indicate that you found their listing on Redfin. How self defeating can you get? There's a 3% of profit out there if you take the trouble to show homes to people who are interested in them. If you don't, someone will eat your lunch for you.
I sometimes wish I could post up a list of agents who gave me a tirade on why the Internet Is Bad for their business and how I'm a horrible person for using Redfin. For a moment, consider this: you are the seller and your (friend/buddy/colleague) tells you that your agent just spoke to a prospective buyer in that manner. What do you think is likely to happen? Do you really want to do that?
I'm thrilled with Redfin, I couldn't find a smarter, better and well thought out site. I'm also thrilled about the announcement that Redfin is profitable. I liked their seminars, they were clever and pointed out why working with them is good; but didn't act all clingy and creepy and force you to work with them. I think this techcrunch is dead on here, if I was in the traditional real estate industry, I'd be shuddering as well.
05:00 pm :: This Week's Most Popular Posts [Highlights]
lifehacker
Clever and cheap fly repelling, secret passage bookcases, Wi-Fi cracking, and Google's Chrome OS piqued your interest this week.
- Repel Flies with a Bag of Water
We've featured many, many, many different ways to deal with mosquitoes using DIY solutions. But what about the even more common household fly? Turns out all you need to deal with that is a plastic bag or two. - Turn a Bookshelf into a Secret Passage
Who hasn't dreamed of having a mystery-story-style secret passageway? While a trick bookshelf is pretty awesome in itself, this secret passage hides a home office with clever style. - Nine Must-Have Features We Want to See in a Google OS
What's inside Google's just-announced Chrome Operating System? How does it work, exactly? Nobody outside Google knows. We can, however, build a dream operating system from the ground up, and that's what we're doing with some help from the hive mind. - Set Up "Push" Gmail on Your iPhone
Despite iPhone 3.0's push notifications and previously mentioned Google Sync's contacts and calendars syncing chops, push Gmail still hasn't come to the iPhone. But with the Prowl iPhone application, you can now push Gmail notifications—and then some—to your iPhone. - Google Releasing Chrome Operating System
In a sudden, if not unexpected, announcement this morning, Google said it would release an open-source operating system based on its Chrome browser. The OS will be free, geared (at first) toward netbooks, and focused on "speed, simplicity, and security. - VLC Hits 1.0 with Better Playback and File Support
Windows/Mac/Linux: VLC Media Player, the open-source solution to media players that can't play your media files, reaches the 1.0 milestone today. What's new? - How to Send Back Restaurant Food
It's never fun to be a squeaky wheel, but whether you've been served an overcooked, undercooked, or just plain wrong dish, there's a proper and improper way to let your waiter know that you're less than satisfied with what's on your plate. - WEP Cracking Redux: Beyond the Command Line
Last week we showed you how to crack a Wi-Fi network's WEP key using a live CD and some command line fu. Today we've got other cracking options—but more importantly, clarification on the point of all this. - Five Best Online Image Editors
Editing your images on a desktop image editor might be ideal, but sometimes you're away from your home workstation and need to do some impromptu editing.
lifehacker
11:33 pm :: CrunchUp Live The Main Event: Real Time Round Table
techcrunch
Here it is. The final panel discussion of our Real-Time CrunchUp conference. Judging from the participants, it should be a good one. Here’s the roster:
Iain Dodsworth, TweetDeck
Nick Halstead, Tweetmeme
David Hornik, August Capital
Bret Taylor, Friendfeed
George Zachary, Charles River Ventures
Loic LeMeur, Seesmic
Dan’l Lewin, Microsoft
Craig Walker, Google
Andreas Weigend, people & data, and Stanford University
Kevin Marks, former Google
Erick Schonfeld, TechCrunch
Steve Gillmor, TechCrunchIT (Moderator)
Find my live notes below (paraphrased): Or you can follow the live stream.
SG: Where is this going, what is this all about, this real-time?
ID: I started TweetDeck just me, cause I couldn’t deal with the data coming at me on Twitter. This is a massively big deal, I’m not going to webpages anymore. I’m consuming real-time data
DL: Real-time in life. And all of this will wrap around our lives.
GV: This is namespace for people versus namespace for websites. It’s very exciting and fundamental as anything we’ve been doing in 15 years.
DH: I think this is a part of the evolution. It’s the same thing that happened with RSS, we had the data, then we couldn’t sort it. Now it’s with this real-time data.
SG: Has Google fallen behind in speed?
CW: I don’t think so. Google Wave was as impressive as it gets in real time.
ES: So how does this tie into Google Chrome OS?
CW: Chrome OS is about web apps are the future. A lot of info isn’t out there, so I’m not going to say much.
DL: I’m looking forward to learning about it. And I’ll be waiting a long time (laughs).
BT: Real-time is an important feature of every site. But this is all changing user expectations. Email, social network, real-time. Now you seem to need all of them. We’re still struggling with some user interface elements. It’s simplicity of chronological information versus the need for filtering. You need to come up with an interface that mixes those. We’re thinking a lot about that. You want to load up FriendFeed and it’s all good stuff, but you don’t lose anything. I think it will be a mix.
KM: The real-time stuff distracts us a bit. Real-time is only a part of what we’re going to want. What used to real-time television and radio are now stored, but there are new real-time elements.
ES: And do you have an announcement to make?
KM: Yes, I’m joining British Telecom to work in this area.
AW: The amount of data generated by people is so huge now. Data is grow so fast, and real-time incentivizes people for it to grow faster.
NH: Real-time to me is about collecting news in real-time. Google FeedBurner is too slow, so we went with Tweetmeme on Twitter cause it’s instant. And then you press a button and then it goes back to Twitter. FriendFeed impresses me too, you retweet something and seconds later its on FriendFeed. This is real-time. To me it’s all about real-time filtering, getting data in front of the people who want it.
SG: PubSubHub is fixing the FeedBurner speed right?
NH: Yeah.
SG: So where are we going to draw value from this stream?
NH: It’s a lot of thing, the story their talking about, who mentions it, and who else is talking about it. Dynamic filtering doesn’t work for us cause the data is too live.
ES: There seem to be two main platforms: Twitter and Facebook coming on strong. How many stream platforms can there be?
LL: You have a great tie (laughs). We are pushing about 4,000,000 API calls to Facebook a day, but we don’t have it to Twitter.
ID: (laughs) We don’t have that information.
KM: You’ve got the Highlander disease again, where there can be only one. We don’t all see the same web, we see a different subset on the web.
ES: Okay if MySpace or Yahoo tried to recreate Twitter would anyone care.
KM: Yes they will, they have millions of users.
LL: I bet MySpace and Yahoo will come up with something very soon. Twitter and Facebook is just the first.
BT: I think it’s wrong to think that real-time systems will always be like AOL and Compuserve, that you can only talk to others on that network. I think it will be more like Yahoo Mail or Gmail, where you can talk to other networks. There is a lot of work on that. Federation will be big, users will demand it. Users demands for openness will win out, and the system with operate openly. So with that Yahoo could make what they wanted, and it would just work.
ES: That sounds great but Twitter can’t afford to give its firehose to Google. That’s its power.
CW: I have no idea if Twitter is not giving us accees. But IM open operation has never happened. There’s a incentive for the leader not to give away the goods.
KM: We’re talking about different things.
GZ: I think it’s going to be a return of the IM horse. We’ve reinvented IMs with this, I don’t think the name spaces will cooperate with each other.
SG: But it happens in the business world, why not the consumer world?
BT: There is no RSS of every IM you send, so it’s a bit different. We didn’t sign deals with a bunch of companies, we used feeds and APIs. That means a lot.
ES: But developers are building on top of Twitter and Facebook. How do Microsoft and Google get those guys on board?
DL: There’s infrastructure. It’s kind of like the cloud conversation, all this data is somewhere. You have to adhere to the core standards. There’s a lot of cost when you get up to hundred of millions of users. This is a similar movie to the movie has played before, but now it’s based on standards.
SG: How will this play in Twitter exits?
DH: Venture exits? Is that a joke? (Laughs) This is like anything else, the amount of data being spread is meaningful, and platforms will exists. Platforms are the big winners. The most interesting, the most useful for porn, etc. (laughs) Can we really be done 7 months into the excitement on the web? I don’t think so. We will fund the new things that come out.
SG: So what are you interested in?
DH: I honestly think this question of managing this information is what is really interesting. That’s why I invested in Aardvark. Everyone sitting here is trying to build the next interesting things. Maybe FriendFeed wins. Maybe TweetDeck wins. We’ll see.
AW: Sometimes it’s worth thinking about what’s constant. People have to be clear about the tradeoff what they’re willing to give up, things like privacy.
—-Okay, well a WiFi failure ate the final two minutes but here’s a summary: There is huge opportunity here, and it’s only going to get bigger. The number of requests to get into this conference alone says this is far from over.
Interoperability of all this data remains a big question marks. Some are sure it will come, others are sure it won’t. Some think it has to for this idea of real-time to really thrive. Some think if this happens, it will dampen the big platforms. Obviously, there is a lot of debate.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
techcrunch
We’re here at the Real-Time CrunchUp, listening to the Real Time Business Panel featuring:
Porter Gale, Virgin America
Adam Pisoni, Yammer
Maynard Webb, LiveOps
Eric Marcoullier, Gnip
Ross Mayfield, SocialText
John Ham, UStream
Max Ventilla, Aardvark
Tim Young, Social Cast
Follow my live notes below (paraphrased). You can also watch the live video stream here.
Gale: We have a staff person who just looks at Tweets. We are full fleet wifi, so people are Tweeting from the sky. We have on occasion set messages up to the plane. Virgin’s perspective about social media isn’t a marketing channel but an engagement channel. We ask out community to answer questions. We love social media.
ES: SocialText is a dashboard for enterprises. Tell us about to what extend are your customers keeping track of external social data?
Mayfield: You have pr, marketing support and sales trying to find out what the right engagement model is for monitoring social media.
ES: People on organizations are used to using Twitter but the enterprise’s software needs to be impacted. Why do enterprise guys have to follow the consumer?
Webb: Consumer experience has lapped the enterprise experience on the web. Eneterprise has to catch up quickly.
ES: It seems that the enterprise is pulling in social data more so now.
Webb: Enetrprises have to catch up in a big way,
Pisani: Things are changing in how enterprises are purchasing software. Now employees go out and choose software.
Webb: It’s not enterprise vs. consumer world. The decision making process is different.
ES: How do businesses manage what communications go out to consumers?
Young: Organizations have to have employees respond in real time if the consumer is using real-time technology. You’re going to start to see enterprise platforms like SocialCast be deployed to enable real-time communications in the enterprise.
Marcouillier: Enterprise applications have always been lacking. Previously, the things you did at home have nothing to do with work. Now you can compare the things you do at home to things you do at work.
ES: To what extent are other data streams impacting businesses?
Ham: It’s definitely more prevalent and people understand the value proposition. I see it as a trend. I see some creative use cases for enterprises, mashups for conferences.
Marcoullier: In the enterprise, real-time data isn’t a new concept-look at real-time financial data. There a lot of real-time data that companies can take advantage of to sell to our customers.
ES: Aardvark is a q and a service where your friends on social networks answer your questions. There’s actionable, lead-gen opportunities in this data.
Ventilla: The main feature of real-time is that its conversational. Anyone can send out a question then Aardvark tries to match you with the person in your social graph who could best answer this. From a business perspective, you could have auto dealers, travel agents who can use this. From a broader perspective its about allowing this individual info taking place, everyone needs a human being on the other end.
ES: Porter, do you now if someone is Tweeting from a plane?
Gale: No we don’t know the plane.
Question: How do you see the role of computation in the self organization of structures?
Mayfield: Real-time sounds great but in an organization, this can be overwhelming. The businesses who do this faster will do better.
Pisoni: Real-time is a disrupter, completely changes the way businesses operate.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
techcrunch
MySpace continues to hire and fire in their attempt to recreate the struggling but still huge social networking service. They’ve just hired, we’ve confirmed, former AOL and Tsavo exec Mike Macadaan, who we hear will become the company’s VP Product, to report to Chief Product Officer Jason Hirschhorn.
Macadaan spent ten months at Tsavo Media before announcing his departure from the company in June. Now it looks like he’s following former Tsavo CEO Mike Jones, who was recently appointed as MySpace’s COO, to the social network (the two also worked together at AOL prior to Tsavo).
Macadaan will likely play a key role in the site’s reworking going forward, first with incremental changes (hopefully a bit more substantial than the logo change we saw last week) and later on with a major reworking of the site, which MySpace seems to have been hinting at since CEO Owen Van Natta took the helm last April. Given MySpace’s lagging growth and dropping traffic as users migrate over to Facebook, it’s clear that the site badly needs to make some changes.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
techcrunch
So. Maybe you read Michael’s rant about FriendFeed being like syphilis. His point was that its brilliant technology which facilitates real-time discussions is also perfect for mobs. Mobs that rally around hot topics, and get whipped up into saying fairly awful things about people they don’t really know. I’ve written similar things in the past as well. Anyways, a mob situation came up led to us pulling our FriendFeed account.
Today at our Real-Time CrunchUp, Michael sat down with FriendFeed co-founder Bret Taylor and Robert Scoble, one of the service’s leading cheerleaders. Scoble has disagreed with Michael in the past that FriendFeed commenting could lead to a problem. But today, he agreed with him when put on the spot. But the more interesting part of the discussion was Taylor also admitting that the mob-mentality (though he wouldn’t use those words) was more or less a problem. And they’re working on a solution.
One solution Taylor laid out is that users should be able to shut down comments for specific threads on FriendFeed. This way, if a conversation is getting out of control, you can just shut it down. Currently, you can moderate comments on a thread, but only on a one by one basis, this would shut things down in one fell swoop. But another more interesting thing Taylor said they were talking about is only allowing comments from users in your social graph.
Sounds good to us. We’re reopening our FriendFeed account. It’s not ready yet, but stay tuned. And watch the video below for some of the hilarity. And the one below that for what this really is all about.
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lifehacker
It's nerve-wracking enough worrying about how best to answer interview questions. Unfortunately, it's also important to ask questions during the exchange. Weblog Lifehack.org details how best to turn the tables with a list of seven noteworthy questions to raise.
Photo by brymo.
Apart from inquiring about your day-to-day responsibilities and opportunities for career advancement, Lifehack suggests you ask the following: "How do you feel that I measure up to your requirements for this position?"
The author argues that far too many candidates take a passive role during job interviews, and though it may come across as pushy, it's better to know upfront if there's any reason you might not be offered the job. By extension, if it turns out that you really want the job, you can then use the opportunity to counter any holes in your resume by detailing relevant experience or other skills you have. Taking a more proactive role during interviews is also important because it allows you to steer some of the conversation, and therefore leave more of the impression you want.
Hit up the post for their full list of questions to ask prospective employers, then let's hear any other questions you'd suggest posing in the comments.