Category blog

Google Plus conclusion

I have been using Google Plus now for several days and time to draw some conclusions: I do not like it. But I am still intrigued by it.

At it’s heart Google Plus is a blog aggregator / reader, and a lousy one at that. I much prefer to read my blogs (i.e. RSS-feeds) in NetNewsWire. Google Plus uses the Combined View layout of NetNewsWire. It is a layout that I do not like, it is not efficient enough to my liking. I like to skim headlines and go from headline to headline quick.

But it is also the way people use Google Plus. Some write original posts and thus G+ becomes a blogging service. Others republish their posts from their blogs and it becomes just another venue. Others use it as a bookmarking service, where they post URL’s with (hopefully) a small comment. And yet others use it as a photo publishing service. And again other use it as a microblogging-service.

It is nice that G+ is so diverse, but your blogging service could have done the same. For me it becomes to much. I have to inefficiently wade through posts in order to find a gem. I prefer the short messages of Twitter, where I can quickly scan and decide whether I want to dive in. G+ forces me to see all.

The discussions of G+ are an interesting feature. Normally I do not engage quickly into a discussion, but on G+ I tend to react more often. I am not sure that I want to do that, time is short. When I read a blog in my newsreader, I hardly ever descend to the blog-webpage in order to react. In my Tweet-reader I react much more often with either replies and/or retweets. This makes a lower quality channel. And my blog(s) become a higher quality channel. And it is up to the reader to chose the quality level they want to follow.

I do the same when following people, I decide what part I want to see of them. Some I follow on twitter and other on their blogs. I also can decide on the nature and type of content I want to follow. A granularity that G+ does not give me.

What is left is the whole circle thing of G+. I do not see the value of it. I never really used it the last days. I do not use it to filter my stream. I either follow somebody or I don’t. The same goes for posting: I always post to public and I leave the decision up to the reader to decide whether he wants to see it.

And finally there are some fundamental things about G+ that I do not like. I want to own what I publish. Of everything that I write a copy stays on my machine and my backups. I publish myself on my own blogs. And I republish with some service providers. I want to get my data out of a service. And I want RSS-feeds so that I can decide how I consume the content.

Well, I will follow G+ for a while more, engage from time to time, follow some people in my RSS-reader and see whether things change.

Categories/tags: MicroContent • client • service • mashing • type • blog
PermaLink • Comments

Stephen Downes on Google+

In my photostream on Google+ I found an image by Stephen Downes analysing Google+. Interestingly there was no way to move the the corresponding G+ post. Link breakage. So I had to go to STephen’s stream and track down the post. By the way: what a junk in the stream of people commenting.

I sure agree with him that a lot is lacking.

Categories/tags: MicroContent • type • blog
PermaLink • Comments

Google Plus thoughts

I have been using Google Plus now for some days and have been trying to deconstruct it a bit. At first instance it strikes me as a blogging and feed-reader combination with support for commenting, feed management and user directory. And all of this is nicely aggregated.

But let’s first look at the MicroContent in this service. I would like to call the blog-MicroContent, a blog-post. This post consists of a piece of text with a permalink. Note that there is no title for a post. One can add a photo/image, a video and/or an URL to a post. An URl is in addition extended with a title, a desription and an image. See this post as an example of this.

And that is about it. There exists a photofeed-page with photo’s of the people you subscribe to, but the photo’s do not appear as separate items with a permalink. There is potentially other MIcroConten, such as the photo’s, the attched links, personal profiles, comments, ratings (+1’s), network, etc.

As a MicroContent application/service it also lacks all kind of features. I could try to apply my client checklist to this service, but I already see that it would rate very low, so why bother?

So what leaves me to comment on are the aggregation features. From left to right on my screen. The stream-circle filter is nice if you have feed overload or want to focus what you read. Sparks: another feed directory? Chat: OK. In the middle with have the stream of posts of my subscriptions.

I like the comments in the stream, the ratings and reposts. But then I talk about the user interface. Strange that we still do not have an Internet standard, which can work which support this kind of aggregation possibilities. And finally on the right I see my subscription list, suggestions (very unuseful), hangout (videochat).

I guess the innovative feature is the user directory and management of circles. I am underwhelmed. What is wrong with the creation of folders? Or is the drag&drop; an invention? Or is it the wording? Circles sounds easier than folders.

In conclusion: I am underwhelmed. I do not see where the progress.

Categories/tags: MicroContent • type • blog
PermaLink • Comments

Mac Twitter Clients

Today a new Twitter client arrived on the Mac: Tweetie. So time to check out the state of Twitter clients.

Since a long time I am a user of Twitterific. It is a simple client that seemed a nice fit to Twitter. You get a small icon in the menu bar, which changes colour once a new tweet arrives. Clicking on that icon unhides a special window, with a sequential list of the latest tweets. Each tweet shows an icon, the name of the author and the tweet itself. Authors and url’s have a different colour and link to the Twitter-site. Each tweet can be acted upon, such as a reply tweet, etc. Twitterific also interacts with Growl, so that each new tweet is presented on the screen for a short time.

Twitterific is really a downsized MicroContent Client. The new Twitter clients however show that a real full-sized client for Twitter has its rightful place on the Mac.

The first Client is Tweetie. The first thing that stands out is the sidebar with four options. With this the user can select his timeline, reply, direct messages and search. Very nice if you want to zoom in. I think I will like the search option. C licking on a tag will create a new tab with a corresponding search. Thus the tabs will show your history. The same happens if you click on a @username. This client also supports multiple Twitter accounts. It is also very easy to post images.

And then there is Nambu, which brings Twitter in the real MicroContent Client age. This Client has a real sidebar (list view pane) with categories (Twitter, Links, Nambu, Search). The Links category shows all tweets with url’s that I have recieved and sent. The Nambu category seems to be related to a Nambu url shortener and picture uploader.

The search category has a standard list with the most used words in tweets (current/today/this week). I do not know how long ‘current’ is. But Susan Boyle is on top in all three trend periods. The most important category is naturally the Twitter category with standard subcategories: home, mentions, direct, sent, favorites, people and groups.

Tweets are shown in standard inverse time order with the user icon, twittername/full name, tweet time and the tweet itself. One can easily reply, retweet or private tweet. (and can I recognize other Nambu user tweets?). Nambu indicates which tweets are unread. As all tweets seemed too be stored locally, it is possible to delete all tweets, read tweets, set all as read, etc. It also easy to follow/unfollow. Very nice is the possibility to translate tweets easily. It did work well for japanes and korean tweets.

A tweet is parsed such that hashtags, links and users are found. Clicking on a hashtag creates a search list for that hashtag (sweet). Clicking on a username opens a new window with the tweets for that user. It is then easy to follow or block that user. Interestingly shortened urls are expanded, so that you can see where they point to.

The people category can show information of your social network (followers and following) on an image grid. Hovering over an icon shows the information on that person. Groups allows you to define a group of people from the ones you are following, so that you are no longer overwhelmed. This again shows feed. (I guess people should be moved to a separate category).

Nambu is a very interesting Twitter client. I will continue using it.

Nambu should work on its menu bar. That is now totally beyond logic. There is also a secondary tool bar. This tool bar is different for each list. I get however the impression that it could be part of the main toolbar.

Categories/tags: MicroContent • field • tag • type • blog
PermaLink

NetNewsWire Drops Microformats Support

NetNewsWire drops support for microformat. I am afraid that is a right decision. NJobody seems to use microformats within feeds/blog posts. So deleting this code will speed up NNW, which is of greater importance.

[Inspiration Chris Casciano]

Categories/tags: MicroContent • client • application • format • hformat • type • blog , netnewswire
PermaLink • Comments • TrackBacks

Times application

The user can create multiple ‘newspaper pages’, add feeds and assign a feed to a pane. The location of the panes and the format for each pane is set and can not be changed.

At this stage of the application I have mixed feelings. I appreciate the possibility to see multiple headline in one glance, so I can quickly scan news. Depending on how interesting a feed is I can increase of decrease the amount I see. So it should be much quicker scanning and reading. If there is something interesting I can drag it to a shelf for later reading.

I however miss some control. How can I see whether I read an article or not? Why can I not edit my RSS-URLS? My RSS-feed did not show anything, I was not able to figure out what went wrong. The import feeds from NetNewsWire is nice, but with hundreds of feeds imported shows that tthe current feed management solution is not the right one.

However the application shows an interesting new visual apporach to MicroContent. And one that I do not yet have fully my head around.

Categories/tags: MicroContent • client • application • type • blog
PermaLink • Comments • TrackBacks

Quotably can be interesting

Quotably creates threads from Twitter-posts. The idea is that by detecting and displaying the relation between tweets, one can follow conversations. And this is a very good idea as that is not yet possible at the moment.

This idea of uncovering threads has also been tried with blog-posts. With breaking comment-systems another solutions are required. One solution could be that instead of putting a comment in the comments part of a blog, one puts the comments in one’s own blog with a reference to the blog-item one comments to. So just add the link. There was a party that did this (don’t remember who). Problem is that there should be an unambiguous way to encode these referral permalinks.

Quotable tries to do something similar. There solution is a bit more easier, as they only have to worry about Twitter. I am not sure how one create good threads. By adding ‘@username’ one refers to another Twitter-user, which is a good begin. However it seems that one can not refer to a specific post of that user. It seems that one can only refer to the latest post. When I add the tinyURL of the post, it does not help.

So for the moment Quotably is a limited solution.

Categories/tags: MicroContent • type • blog
PermaLink • Comments • TrackBacks

A look at Pownce

Thanks to some other services, I happened upon Pownce again. I already signed up, but I never had a deeper look at it.

At first it just looks like another micro-blog. The structure of an Item consist of just one field: the title. And I use Pownce in this way, as I post to 4 micro-blog services simultaneously. An Item (called a note) has a corresponding permalink, where one can also see the comment thread.

However Pownce is not limited to a micro-blog structure, it is possible to add more fields to a pst/item. The ‘link’ structure adds a field for a URL.

The ‘file’ structure allows you to add any file. If I add an image it will be shown in the note. A file can only be posted to friends.

And finally one can create an event. This structure consists of a title, a place, date/time and a real note. There is a corresponding ics-file for easy importing. Interestingly you can reply to such a post to indicate you will attend.

I get the impression that I can not edit a note. I already needed that feature a few times. I am also annoyed that I can not edit the recipients. I already made several errors due to that. I miss a RSS-feed, at least I do not see it.

Pownce is a bit more a communication service, as one can send a note to just a single friend, all friends or the public. I like the approach of Pownce to struture.: if you want more, just add a field. It is much more like wild MicroContent.

I do not think that I will use Pownce though. I only view MicroContent through feeds in NetNewsWire. Although I will continue publishing to Pownce. My usage will depend on the feeds and integration with my desktop;

Categories/tags: MicroContent • client • service • type • blog • bookmark ,

pownce

PermaLink • Comments • TrackBacks

My microblogging flow

I have been playing with Applescript in order to tie together various applications and services: write once and publish everywhere. This is geared to my Mac environment, but might offer some ideas for other environments as well.

I use Quicksilver to create my microblog item, my tweet. Launching this app by clicking opens a window, by pressing '.', I can create my tweet, then press to go to the command part. Now I type either N, 'T' or O and in order to start the publishing process. All in all this is very quickly.

Whether I press N, T or O depends on what I have been doing. T is for a context-less tweet. N will add the URL of the RSS-item I am reading in NetNewsWire and O does the same for my browser OmniWeb. These are context-rich tweets and allows me to create intertwingled micro-threads. So this process will get my tweet, get an URL, get the music I listening to from iTunes and my current location from Plazes.

Then this information is uploaded to Twitter, Jaiku and my own microBlog. And I can add more publishing locations if I want.

Categories/tags: type • blog
PermaLink • Comments • TrackBacks

Microblogging flow

I am still thinking about my MicroBlog-flow. I got a few steps further.

What I want to say in my microblog is something like "I am thinking (or doing) X in response to Y while hearing Z and being at L". In this sentence X is the classic tweet in Twitter or Jaiku. The Y is to express a thread of communication. In Twitter this can be another Twitter user and is encoded in a tweet as '@username'. In Twitter this can also be an URI, usually encoded as tinyURL. This URI might point to another tweet, a wev-page, a blog-item, etc. Z is a piece of music and can be the artist plus track name. This can be taken from a local audio application or a service such as Last.fm. And finally L is a location and can be a place-name plus country name. This can be taken from a service such as Plazes.

I think the above combines what we see appearing in various services. We need an extremely easy way to publish this MicroContent. It must be as easy as click-click, write and publish. The write-part in here is the classic tweet (X) and the other parts must be automatically extracted from other applications and services of the user is using.

The publication part is another matter as not all services support all four MicroContent fields. In principle it is possible to encode the four fields into a single tweet. We see this happen within Twitter. A service like Plazes only supports location and tweet. And Jaiku supports location and tweets. And within Skype one can use the tweet as mood text and also for MSN Messenger.

The publication of threading information is another matter. If one published to a specific service, one should follow the threading rules of that service. So in Twitter one should use the implicit threading. In Jaiku one should use the explicit threading of the service.

And in addition to the publishing of this MicroBlog information one could specific features of a service, such as the icons of Jaiku or publishing to specific channels or user accounts.

So not only blogging has gotten complex, microblogging is becoming complex as well. For me this implies that I should take control back by publishing this microblog content integrally in an environment that I can fully manage.

Categories/tags: MicroContent • type • blog
PermaLink • Comments • TrackBacks

Microblogging environment

Now that I am connected to both the Twitter and the Jaiku service, I have to re-assess my usage of the tools. My main usage of these services is through the clients Twitterific and Juhu. And there starts the first problem: I just want one client. And I already have a blogging client, MarsEdit, so why add another one? And I do not want to get locked into either one.

The other aspect is the viewing of microblog items. I use Twitterific and Juhu to view the posts of myself and of my friends. I also subscribe to the RSS-feeds. In principle the RSS-feed viewer is sufficient. However from time to time I like to have a viewer, which updates itself very often. I like the Twitterific viewer here. However Twitter is not able to aggregate, whereas Jaiku has this possibility.

And then I want to look at the MicroContent itself. The structure of the MicroContent is a little bit different between the services. Both support 140 character field. Jaiku has a commenting system in place, whereas in Twitter one has to put a '@username' in the text field. Twitter can create a reply page from these encodings. Jaiku also supports the location of the user. This location is also encoded within the Jaiku RSS-feed. Integration with Plazes would be nice here.

The other interesting feature is that Jaiku can aggregate other feeds and produce a single microblog feed. I still have to play with this and see whether I like it. One can for instance show what one is currently playing within Last.fm. And with this we get into the field of status messages. Many instant messaging service support the showing of status messages. Usually the user has to type these or they can be autogenerated. I do this for instance with Skype, but MSN also supports this. And then there are statuses such as offline, available, online, etc. In Jaiku one can see one's availability on the phone. Not sure how these statuses can be generalised. But one can envisage a whole infrastructure around micro events in ones life.

An finally what is missing is the archive function. What happens when one wants to change providers? Do we really want to archive the micro events? The only solutions seems to be to do the micro blogging yourself or save the rss-feeds.

Anyway I will experiment a little in setting up my own micro blogging environment and try to follow the DataLibre idea of write once, publish everywhere.

Categories/tags: MicroContent • type • blog
PermaLink • (1) Comments • TrackBacks

Twitter as backchannel

During the MicroLearning 2007 conference we have been playing with Twitter as back-channel. The idea of a back-channel is that the participants can comment on the presenters, thus exchange comments and start a discussion among themselves in that channel.

In order to this a separate user (micro2007) was created in Twitter to represent the conference. Participants and others can follow that channel to get official messages from the conference. Subsequently these followers were added as friends of micro2007. By following this friends channel one can thus read what people say about the conference and presentations. The backchannel was projected on the wall in the hall with TwitterCamp.

This worked great for coordination and you saw people moving towards the conference, waking up and getting ready for the presentations. These friends should limit themselves a bit to only conference relevant tweets in order to prevent TwitSpam. And that worked reasonably well. We did remove a fried that was not present at the conference as his tweets were not conference relevant. It was seen as trolling. And as this was a international conference there was a problem with twittering in multiple languages. One should use a single language.

For many participants Twitter was new, however there was a good participation, i.e. people signed up. The actual backchannel communication did really occur and relevant discussion was created. Really interesting to see. It is however unclear how many people lurked in this backchannel. A drawback is that this use of Twitter might be heavy for the Twitter friends of the participants, they get to see a lot more traffic.

So in principle it worked. There was not much trouble with the time lags that Twitter introduced. Much easier to get people using it than IRC. Unfortunately Twitter was down the next day, when they were doing updates in the US night.

Categories/tags: MicroContent • type • blog
PermaLink • Comments • TrackBacks

Twitter comments

Martin Lindner has some nice comment about his experiences with Twitter. He talks about it as a real second life. I am not sure what that should be, I need some more experience with it. It is indeed a new 'writing yourself into existence', but we already did that with blogs. It seems indeed to be some deepening, but what? Also the question of privacy is interesting. Are we now letting go of more privacy? Are we opening now more of our First Life? Also the observation that Twitter is not communication, but something 'literate'. And something where the archive is not(?) important. Unfortunately I can not comment on the SMS integration. I hardly use a mobile. Should I create multiple twitter-feeds, i.e. categorising my tweets? Friends, microcontent, etc? Different browsers for differnent personae???

Categories/tags: MicroContent • client • service • type • blog , twitter
PermaLink • Comments • TrackBacks

Twitter - persistent presence?

George Siemens talks about Twitter as persistent presence indicator. And that is indeed what people seem to use it for. But for that purpose it is a lousy service. And what should be persistent presence?

• My being online? - to indicate my being online is already done by several IM-services and Skype;
• My current location? - This is very well done by the Plazes service for me;
• My current meetings - that is doen by an online calendar service;
• My current actions - look in my public calendar as well;
• My attentiont - I used attention recorder for a while, but that records only my web-usage. I did use a local app to record anything, but that was not published

And you can subscribe to my pipes feed to see everything combined. So what does Twitter offer as an extra on my presence, not very much.

Categories/tags: MicroContent • client • service • type • blog , twitter
PermaLink • Comments • TrackBacks

Twitter is a communications router

I get the impression that Twitter is not so much the blogging itself, but the combination of communications. From a MicroContent point of view the Twitter format is just a naked blog format. It is something that I already have on one of my blogs, but only use for a very specific purpose.

What makes Twitter interesting is that one can post either through the web, a separate client, an IM client or an SMS message. And one can subscribe through various means as well. In itself not very interesting and already supported by various mobile service providers.

So why the hype? Maybe because the service can also aggregate multiple feeds? Or?

Anyway other blogging hosters might now add SMS and IM interfaces as well.

Categories/tags: MicroContent • client • service • type • blog
PermaLink • Comments • TrackBacks