Web 2 dot Oh Crap, More Things For Me to be Self Conscious About

As I get more involved with Twitter, not to mention other social outlets like Facebook and FriendFeed, a few things keep coming back to haunt me:

1. Is there some sort of ethical code to following those who follow you?
2. If I follow more than I am followed, what does that say about me?
3. Am I the number of Friends and/or Followers I have?
4. Should I be anonymous in my travels (i.e., leave my various profiles – specifically on Twitter and FriendFeed – blank or, worse, filled with unintelligible garbage) or should I be open about who I am?

So, rather than sit here and let my petty doubts and fears of inadequacy rule my life (any more than they already do), I figured I’d face my fears and address each of these in turn. So here goes…

1. To Follow, or not to Follow. THAT is the question. I pick up Twitter followers here and there. I don’t actively seek them, and for the most part I’m guessing they come to me from those whom I follow. However, I don’t know whether the people who follow me expect ME to follow THEM out of common courtesy. Is there some ethical code to a reciprocal follow? Is this like the whole “I link to you, you link to me” phenomenon in the early days of search engine optimization? I honestly don’t know, so until someone tells me differently I’m going to pick and choose those I follow and won’t simply quid pro quo a new follower. Really, how does someone follow 100, 500, 10,000 people? Where is the benefit? How do you manage the conversation? How do you have the time to do that, especially when you work a 50+ hour week? I see no harm in being picky, so picky I shall be.

2. Sheep or Sheep Dog? Truth be told, I follow more than I am followed. Is that wrong? Am I simply a follower and not a leader? Should I even care? My answer to that last question is a confident “no”. I’m new to all of this. I am learning, and part of the learning process is to acquaint oneself with the environment. Following people is a great way to do that; you learn techniques, you learn styles, you learn strategies. And with all of that learning you gain your own voice and your own goals. As I grow, so will my followers. I believe that. Woof.

3. My Dad can beat up your Dad. Here’s something that may shock you: I don’t want a legion of followers or innumerable friends. I am not the quantity of people that I converse and interact with, I am, instead, the quality of that interaction. In that respect I’d much rather have 10 friends than 10,000 acquaintances. Besides, what good does it do anybody if I have 10,000 followers but I don’t say a damn thing? I am NOT Jack’s Self-Gratifying Id, I am his more Socially Acceptable Super Ego (pun intended). I strive for quality, not quantity; I am all about interaction and engagement. I’m not Bono – I can’t engage a stadium full of people. I’m more of the “small club gig” type.

4. What’s My Line? I am under the impression, and I don’t think I’m alone in this, that the whole idea of “social media” is the conversation. That it is the ability to actually engage and interact with people, actual living and breathing members of the species “Homo Sapien”. If that’s true, then why do people insist on wrapping themselves in the blanket of anonymity? When I go to view the profile of someone who starts following me I expect to see THEM, not just their profile. I expect to see a name, a web address, maybe an occupation, and, hopefully, something that gives me a glimpse into that person’s personality. I don’t follow people who use pseudonyms,  or who don’t have a URL and some personal tidbits in their bio. Will it kill me not to follow “UnusedName” who is a “kick ass 18 yo wannabe rock star”? Not at all, but it may mean they miss out on some of my worldly wisdom, poignant insight, and keen wit.

So there we have it – doubts quashed, fears dashed, feelings of inadequacy held at bay for now. At least until my next post that is.

Filed under: Musings, Ramblings, Technology, Work , delicious, friendfeed, self doubt and aggravation, social media, Twitter

Twitter: Marketing Tool or Public Relations Godsend?

I’ve seen a few articles cropping up this afternoon about how a recent WebTrends survey shows that only 2% of companies use Twitter as a marketing tool. Personally, I’m surprised the number is that high.

When you look at it, Twitter is a social media application. By definition  the term “social media” generally refers to methods to “facilitate communication, [and to] influence interaction between peers and with public audiences.”* Therefore, to paraphrase and expand a bit, Twitter as social media application is best used to open lines of communication with a public audience, regardless of whether that public audiences is friends and family, businesses, coworkers or even customers. To me, that’s also a pretty decent definition of “Public Relations”.

Now, I can’t sit here and say that there aren’t more full-fledged marketing potentials for Twitter, but a company has to really sit down and plan out their strategy around Twitter (or any social media application for that matter, including Facebook and MySpace). Do you want to blast out promotions and incentives to followers or do you want to use the medium to connect with customers and open a dialogue? For example, by managing your brand and reputation via Twitter search you can address issues, both good and bad, in almost real time. By opening that connection directly to customers you also set the expectations of your existing and potential customer base – you are being proactive in how you address issues, actively seeking out your customers and interacting with them versus waiting for them to contact you. In fact, I would argue that by using Twitter in this way companies will be more profitable and more successful with their implementation versus using Twitter and other applications as just another means to distribute promotions and discuss deals. People want to BE social in their social media applications – they don’t need just another method of receiving junk, that’s what email is becoming.

Whichever way you look at it, flaunting the fact that companies aren’t using Twitter as a full-fledged marketing tool (which, to me, reads as “pushing their latest sale and/or promotion”) is akin to discussing how they’re not using their online Help Desk applications as marketing tools. Sure, you ‘could’ use Kayako to tout products and services by embedding ads in various places, but that’s not its primary use. Neither is Twitter’s use primarily in marketing – it’s in conversing, and more importantly, LISTENING to what is being said.

*While it’s not the greatest for defining things, my definitions of “social media” and “Public Relations” were taken from Wikipedia. At least it’s better than quoting FoxNews .

Filed under: Uncategorized

6 Tips to Ease Your Twension with Twitter

There’s been a lot of talk in the last several weeks about Twitter. Seems like everyone and their dog is on it now, and it has become a media darling with reports of celebrities such as Britney Spears and Shaquille O’Neal now joining the “Twitterati” (though the former is allegedly updating via a ghost writer and the latter has a tendency to “tweet” during basketball games).

For those of you just getting started with Twitter, and reports are that more and more people are signing up every day, here are a few suggestions on how to make Twitter your own, and how you can get more comfortable with the technology and ideology of Twitter.

1. Don’t fret the stumbles and blunders. Your best bet is to start following, and being followed by, friends and family – they (hopefully) accept you as you are and will be more forgiving of the mistakes, misspellings, misinterpretations, and unintelligible updates you send. However, they also give you an audience to speak to versus just sending messages to the ether. As you begin, be comfortable with the realization that mistakes are part of the learning process, so don’t get hung up spell  checking everything through Word before you hit “update”. Use, learn and grow – the expertise will come later.

2. Personality is important. I follow people I wouldn’t know from Adam, and I follow people I know very well. What’s surprising is how the people I know go about sending out updates: Some send updates just as if they were bumping into you on the street – they are very personable, very believable, and very much being themselves. Others are robotic and unemotional in their updates, but face-to-face are entirely the opposite. You don’t need to be anyone but yourself, so don’t try to be anyone but yourself.

3. Try and find the angles. While it’s nice to occasionally send out messages of the mundane, try not to fill people in on the minutiae of everyday life. A friend of mine worried that people wouldn’t care that she was doing the laundry so she was reticent to start up a Twitter account. To a certain extent she was right. while people may not care that you’re doing the laundry, they may care that you’re doing laundry using your brand new Kenmore front loading washing machine. You can put a spin on anything that makes it more memorable. Find the angles and people will take notice.

4. Mix it up once in awhile. You don’t need to just send updates on “what you’re doing now”, so send links to YouTube clips, cartoons and jokes, quote song lyrics or poetry snippets (I know someone who sends out Bible verses), and even the occasional non-sequitur like “I like pie!” As this tip evolved out of #2 – show your personality – by adding in links to pictures or short videos, especially of you or something you like, you can really move towards Twitter rock star status.

5. Have fun with it. Probably the most important point to be made: while there are definite, serious benefits to using Twitter, that doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun with it. This is not life-or-death, this is an extension of how you communicate, so leave your serious side at home occasionally. Besides, once you start having fun using Twitter you’ll gain greater comfort with it, and once you’re comfortable with it you’ll get a better understanding of how to use it more effectively.

6. Be ready to be followed, and follow as well. As  your usage grows you may be surprised by the occasional “follow” from someone you don’t know. Don’t despair! Twitter is a social media application, which means that a TON of people are using it and a TON of people are on it every day. Something you say may trigger someone to start following you (to use the example from #3, some Kenmore enthusiast or even a Kenmore representative may follow you), someone following one of YOUR followers may start following you, and you may get the occasional spammer who is following you just in the hopes that you’ll reciprocate. Regardless of the reason, following and being followed is part of the process. Look at it as an extension of your usage – following others gives you a better understanding of how to use the product, it gets you participating in the community, and it may even make your own updates better. Followers expand your audience and reach, and depending on what you say, you may make a few more friends in the process.

So, there you have it. Hopefully, this helps some people. As I said, I’m no expert, just a guy who is trying to find his way in the ever-changing world of media and communication. I’d really be interested to hear what others have to say…

Filed under: Musings, Technology

31 Days to a Better Blog Lesson 1 – the Elevator Pitch

Image courtesy of Hardly the Last Word

With this blog I am striving to be a Social Media Apologist, but in a good way. That means I will be writing about social media but not in the vein of Scoble or Jarvis who, at times, teeter on giddy adoration. Instead, I intend to discuss social media from the layman’s perspective – I’m just a guy who sees the importance in where our use of the web is headed. I see the usefulness and potential reward of staying very near the bleeding edge as we move forward in our use and understanding of the Internet. I am by no means an expert – I will most certainly make mistakes – but I’m an interested and expectant user of the internet and I hope to bring that perspective to my blog. Ideally, others out there, especially those new to the buzzwords (Web 2.0, Social Media, Twitter, blog, etc.) will find a place to visit and feel comfortable with the terminology, the technology, and the ideology of social media.

Filed under: Technology, Work , internet, social media, Web 2.0

How to Tweet Like a Pro

I had an interesting discussion with a colleague earlier today (that’s you @CT_Will). We were talking about Twitter and its uses and how it would factor into an evolving social media strategy the company I work for is fostering. The discussion took a bit of a turn when he mentioned how he, though using Twitter admirably for a few days while he attended a recent conference, invariably was having trouble getting back into the swing of things without the “in your face” subject matter that one finds at conferences.

Now, I’m no expert on Twitter or its uses and I will never claim to be. However, as we progressed through our conversation a interesting strategy emerged, one that I figured I’d toss out there to see what others thought.

1. Don’t try and sound intelligent. I struggle with this every time I post a blog or send an update to Twitter or Facebook, much less whenever I open my mouth to speak. I read a lot of blogs, and I’m just beginning to start building my own portfolio of Twitterati, so it’s very difficult for me to NOT try and sound like so many others. There are a TON of interesting and highly intelligent people out there, but trying to emulate them is dangerous as too often you can talk yourself into a corner. For example, I once referenced Zoroastrianism in a blog post, but I’ll be damned if I know what it is. If anyone had called me on it I would have been at a complete and utter loss. The lesson? Being fake or feigning knowledge and understanding of a subject can instantly ruin any hope of credibility or authority on that subject, and possibly on any subject thereafter. Therefore, speak what’s on your mind, speak of what you know, and understand (and maybe even identify) your limitations.

2. Personality is important. I follow people I wouldn’t know from Adam, and I follow people I know very well. What’s surprising is how the people I know go about sending out updates (pardon the digression here, but I’ll use “update” instead of “tweet” from here on in as…well…using “tweet” just makes me feel uncomfortable for some reason). Some send updates just as if they were bumping into you in the break room – they are very personable, very believable, and very much being themselves. Others are robotic and unemotional in their updates, but face-to-face are entirely the opposite. I tend to prefer following and reading people in the first category. Be yourself, express yourself, and let people get to know you. Besides, some day you may meet one of the people following you in person. Being yourself in your updates means there’s no second guessing or disappointment once the conversation with that person ends.

3. Try and find the angles. This is a tough one, especially considering I advise trying NOT to sound intelligent as my very first tip. As many of us want to follow and be followed by others in the Twitterverse, you need to try and find an angle if you’re posting about a news item, a new product launch (unless it’s your own product), or some tidbit you read on Techcrunch (or TMZ for that matter). Unless you want to keep your circle of followers confined to friends and family, much of what you might say is being said by thousands of others. To use my colleague as an example, one of the updates he sent from that conference he attended was about how Microsoft just announced the release of Internet Explorer 8. Well, that’s cool and all, but he was at a Microsoft conference surrounded by Microsoft employees, tech bloggers, media outlets and other member of the technology intelligentsia – that topic was covered by all of them. Instead, I suggested he should have sent an update about a feature of IE8 that appealed to him, maybe the “compatibility mode” it has, or it’s greater support of internet standards. An angle on a well-covered topic can be your voice in the wilderness. It doesn’t necessarily have to be intelligent, but it should be unique. Heck, sometimes if it’s just to the left of intelligent it gets more notice.

4. Keep a handle on your links. Someone who recently started following me mentioned in one of his updates that he thought Twitter should set a limit to the frequency of updates one could send out that contained links. I’m actually on the fence on that thought: on the one hand I send out  links to articles and clips that I find informational and intelligent (with some nonsense thrown in for good measure), and sometimes those come fast and furious. On the other hand too many links, much less links in every update you send, can seem forced, almost like you’re trying too hard. Have you ever been to a party and there was the one guest that was just a bit too excitable, maybe dressed just a bit too stylishly, that was laughing at every joke like it was the funniest thing they’d ever heard and that was always around and involved in every conversation whether invited into it or not? Please understand that you do not have to be that guest. Try and strike a good balance between your thoughts and ideas, questions and observations, and links to the good stuff you find as you go about your daily life. Maybe that balance is one in five, or maybe it’s one in three. I don’t know that there is a hard, fast rule for it, just try and use your best judgment, but don’t try too hard.

5. Mix it up once in awhile. As I said above, I send out links to information that I think others will benefit from, but I also like to send links to less professional items. Nothing smutty mind you, but YouTube clips, cartoons and jokes, song lyrics, and more mundane things like the occasional non-sequitur: “I like pie!” I’d suggest trying not to be too stodgy, too formal, too boring. Even the big guys like pie, and they’re not afraid to say so. So review #2, above, and don’t always post like you’re in a custom-tailored Armani suit when you’re actually in shorts, Birkenstocks and a tie dyed t-shirt.

In addition, adding in pictures or short videos can really set you apart. One thing I like about following Tony Hsieh from Zappos (@zappos) is the fact that he’s not afraid to take a picture of the plate of food in front of him and send that out to the thousands that follow him. Is it kind of odd? Sure it is, but it is a change of pace from his normal updates, and it helps give a sense of  his personality and the way he goes about the day-to-day (see Tip #2).

6. Have fun with it. Probably the most important point to be made: while there are definite, serious benefits to using Twitter, that doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun with it. One blog I read has Twitter writing contests. This entails many different things like writing a short story in exactly…yes, EXACTLY…140 characters. There’s no reason you can’t do something similar with your followers. Besides, when you start having fun using Twitter you’ll gain greater comfort with it.  Once you’re comfortable with it you’ll get a better understanding of how to use it more effectively for yourself, and maybe even for your business.

So, there you have it. Hopefully, this helps some people. As I said, I’m no expert, just a guy who is trying to find his way in the ever-changing world of media and communication. I’d really be interested to hear what others have to say…

Filed under: Musings, Technology , social media, tips and tricks, Twitter

It appears my hypocrisy knows no bounds…

 

A year or so ago I wrote a post about how I felt that Twitter = the Devil. In that post I briefly lamented how, if things kept going the way they were (these were the heady days of “Web 2.0” don’t forget), that my children would never get to experience an actual library – that all of their future learning would be antiseptic and…well, bland.

My intention was to elicit some response in the reader, some empathy, some “kindling” of emotion, some visceral reaction to the idea that my children – OUR children – wouldn’t be able to sit in hallowed halls and leaf through tomes of great import, taking in the intoxicating effluvia rising from parchment and leather. I feared they wouldn’t be able to sit in revered and imposed silence (never is a whispered “Shhhh” more imposing) reading, studying, reveling in centuries-old tradition and protocol.

Part of the reason I have this fear is because many of the more enjoyable memories I have from my many years of college involve some of the more widely regarded university libraries in the country. These memories include spending time in “Special Collections” paging through first editions of masters such as Faulkner and Thoreau; surreptitiously occupying “study rooms” where I could relax and read in compounded seclusion and silence; partaking of the tangible, almost corporeal atmosphere that one actually feels upon walking through the doors into a world of great expectation, understanding, knowledge and  influence; furtive dalliances with sprightly coeds while the likes of Keynes and Friedman or Hobbes and Kant looked down from lofty perches. All of these memories combined with the hundreds of others I’ve gathered in the last 40 years combined to what I perceived as one of the greatest slights and most tragic extinctions my children would ever experience: the loss of the library.

Then I got my Kindle 2.

Screw libraries – this device has ruined me forever. I can carry in my briefcase 1500 novels, philosophical treatises, historical references, magazines and more, while still referencing Wikipedia via a mobile browser and free-to-use 3G network (oh, yeah, and I can check hockey scores on The Hockey News as well) and listening to one of 500+ MP3s.

No more walking four flights of stairs with an armload of books, no more lugging a heavily-laden backpack through rain and sleet and snow, no more late fees, no more Mapplethorpe strewn restrooms, no more late night excursions to get that one quote from the one magazine that you need to find, again, in the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature but oh crap the periodical room is closed.

Libraries? I welcome their demise! Now my greatest fear is that my children won’t get to experience Amazon, and that it, too, walks Spanish, just as the library has.

Filed under: Musings, Ramblings, Technology , Amazon, Kindle 2, libraries, Twitter, Web 2.0

It’s Not You….It’s ME

I think I used that excuse once when breaking up with a girl. However, when it comes to leaving an employer, that’s another story.

Over at Techcrunch Michael Arrington has an interesting post about a “group” created by Google HR for people to post about why they’re leaving Google for other employers. What’s interesting isn’t so much the reasons (e.g., low pay, cutting back of perks, “in the box” thinking – though that IS interesting) as the psychological effects of the decision. As one respondent stated:

“Those of us who failed to thrive at Google are faced with some pretty serious questions about ourselves. Just…Google is supposed to be some kind of Nirvana, so if you can’t be happy there how will you ever be happy? It’s supposed to be the ultimate font of technical resources, so if you can’t be productive there how will you ever be productive?”

That’s pretty intense, and I’m not sure I’m comfortable with building a corporate culture to the point where the decision to leave is followed by years of therapy, counseling and prescription drug dependency. It’s great to love where you work, but to do that to the detriment of your self esteem is a bit suspect.

Many people have left successful companies and been just as successful, if not more so. Look at Bret Taylor, Jim Norris, Paul Bucheit and Sanjeev Singh – they are the former Googlers who founded FriendFeed – the de facto standard for social networking aggregation. What about Mark Messier, who was traded by Edmonton Oilers to the New York Rangers – and in the process added to New York sports legend by guaranteeing a victory in Game 6 of the 1994 Stanley Cup. With the Rangers down 3-2 in the series, Messier then backed up his guarantee by scoring a natural hat trick in the game. The Rangers went on to win Game 7 and hoist Lord Stanley’s trophy.

Look, a job is just that, a job. It doesn’t define who you are, it’s just a means to an end. Sure, there is some “carte blanche” that goes with your “team” – whether that is a literal professional sports team or the company you’re working for – but leaving that team doesn’t mean you’re any less important, less skilled, or that you lack some inherent quality to be successful. As noted, in some cases, it means just the reverse.

Actually leaving a company can mean actual advancement of a career versus moving to just another job, especially when you’re leaving a company that has built a huge cult of personality, something commonplace in the tech industry. There’s no penalty for making a decision to move on – either personally or professionally.  Sometimes you need to “Just Do It”.

Filed under: Musings, Ramblings, Technology, Work

Don’t "Resolutionize" – Rather REVOLUTIONIZE!

The new year is rife with pundits’ expositions on their New Year’s resolutions. Personally, there’s only so many times I can tell myself (and anyone else interested enough to ask) that I’m going to exercise more and lose weight, or stop drinking “Mountain Dew”, or that I’m going to finally take the dive and learn how to play that bass guitar. I”ve only ever been successful ONCE in living up to a New Year’s Resolution: That was to quit smoking, and even then it took eight years to accomplish.

Therefore, rather than vow to follow some redundant “resolutions”, I vow, instead, to engage in “revolutions” this year!

How will accomplish this Sisyphean task?

1. Step outside my comfort zone and do something that is a bit risque – at least for me. Take the meaning of this as you will, but for me it means being a little less calculating in things. A minor example would be in my blogging: Rather than plan out a post for a week or so, do more “stream-of-consciousness” stuff. Maybe add video or audio. Maybe offer my services to a third party and be a guest blogger on a site like the WHIR.

2. Be more opinionated. Believe it or not I’ve been criticized for having an opinion on things but not making that opinion heard. Therefore, I need to have more conversations with leadership, more calls or emails – don’t sit on the “next great idea”, actually discuss it with someone. And when I say “leadership”, I’m talking Newtek leadership: Barry, C.J., et. al. That also means fix more broken windows in our forums .

3. Don’t wait – participate. Sort of hand-in-hand with the first two, but I need to get more involved outside of the NTS environment: post in forums, hit a local users group or four, maybe a dreaded Better Business Bureau monthly “technology leadership” meeting. Then again, maybe it’s as simple as striking up a friendship with someone whose blog I read, or who I follow on Twitter.

4. Grow and improve – take a class or attend a seminar on something odd: origami, eastern religion (DISCLAIMER: I do not mean eastern religion itself is odd, but me taking a class on it would be), ballroom dancing. Again, trying to stick with a “revolutionary” theme, so why stop and learning more about writing, or technology, or anything else that surrounds me on a day-to-day basis? Expand horizons, self improve, carpe diem, that sort of thing.

5. Don’t just live – actually exist! This goes for everything, both personally and professionally. In the immortal words of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson: “Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”

Okay, so I’m no Che, but for me those are fairly lofty goals as we gently slide into a new year. Hey, this is the era of Change:  ¡VIVA LA REVOLUCION!

Filed under: Drunkards, Musings, Ramblings, Work

Fixing Broken Windows

  I just finished reading a great post by Jason Kottke that deals with the broken windows theory of social behavior and its relation to online socialization. Kottke does a wonderful job of using quotes from older articles to explain the theory itself, then goes on to present his own thoughts on the theory’s relevance to our online experiences. It’s well worth a read.

In essence, what that “broken windows” theory states is that if a neighborhood building has one broken window chances are that, in relatively short order, the other windows will get broken out. This theory holds true regardless of the socio-economic structure of the neighborhood – rich or poor, suburb or urban. The explanation for the theory is simple: a broken window that remains broken is a sign that no one cares – therefore, breaking more windows costs nothing.

Kottke posits that the “broken windows” in the online community take the form of forum spam and trolling and un-moderated blog replies and forum posts. As he says, “[when] forums, message boards, and blog comment threads with more than a handful of participants are unmoderated, bad behavior follows.” This bad behavior, in turn, leads to more and more badness until the forum loses its relevance, its attendance, and its position of authority (or enjoyment). He also tries to infer that a site’s appearance may play a part as well, that a badly used template or poor design of a site leads to trouble. However, I think that’s a bit far-fetched. Theoretically it works, sure, but still a well-moderated forum can limit the bad posts even if the site looks horrible.

So, why write about this you ask? Well, first of all we have a fairly popular forum ourselves. People come to it looking for assistance, for answers, and for information on our company and our expertise. If we fail to adequately monitor what is said there, much less what we say ourselves, then we, too, can lose our attendance and our relevance.

Of course, I don’t intend people to take an iron fist when it comes to policing what is going on in our forum – we’ve done that in the past and while it keeps the forum “clean” and free from negativity, it can also lead to a too “antiseptic” feeling. Having some dissension in the forum is a good thing – it shows we don’t simply deny that we have faults or that we hide things from the public. However, if someone calls us out we should respond in kind; maybe not a full out verbal assault but with logic, with reason, and with just enough force to let people know we’re serious.

Plus, we’re NOT perfect. Sorry to slap people into reality here, but there is no Tooth Fairy, we DID walk on the moon, Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, and CrystalTech does make mistakes. The key is to be human about it and admit it. Apologize, present a plan of attack for fixing the issue and move along and get it done. This is what drives us, this is what puts us in at the head table and this is what we’re known for: transparency. Granted, there’s a fig leaf or two, but our windows are open, not broken.

Filed under: Musings, Ramblings, Technology

Twitter Writing Contest 2

So, Copyblogger had another Twitter Writing Contest – this time is was to tweet a Haiku. Being a glutton for punishment, and having a false sense that I write better than I really do, I sent in my submission. My brother did one as well. Without further ado:

Haiku 1:
Blogging is not dead / it’s just been reduced to this / single-serving thoughts

Meaning:
My take on the Wired piece on blogging – touting that it’s “so 2004″ now that Facebook, et. al. are alive and kicking (the crap out of personal blogs I suppose).

Haiku 2:
lost my train of thought / forgot the syllable count / better luck next time

Meaning:
Pretty obvious, but pretty clever.

Judging commences this Friday (11/). First prize is a MacBook Air. My fingers are crossed.

Filed under: Musings, Uncategorized