Figuring Out Life While Aging
If you would like to know the basics of Social Media, and some information about Skype, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram, so you can decide if you want to play in them, look at the slideshow below:
I’ve used a number of applications to play on Twitter.
Currently I’m using Seesmic on the web. Here’s why:
I like being able to keep Twitter open on a tab. I can do that with the original Twitter, but Seesmic lets me have multiple threads open, and Twitter doesn’t.
Tweet Deck lets me keep several threads open but I don’t like leaving it open while I’m online because it seems to slow down my computer. That means I have to open and close it every time I want to check what’s happening. (I’m avoiding Seesmic Destop because I anticipate the same problem.)
I also prefer the light background of Seesmic over the dark background in TweetDeck.
But here’s the current deal-maker –
In Seesmic I can see the image just by resting my mouse on the link! That doesn’t appear to be true in the others; I have to click on the link and a new page opens. I like the Seesmic preview of the image, which saves me time.
What do you use as a Twitter app, and why?
http://jnthweb.ca/
https://joanvinallcox.wordpress.com/my-e-portfolio/
A really good overview and explanation of social media – hope the language doesn’t block you.
http://www.slideshare.net/mzkagan/what-the-fk-social-media#
We can see more people creating more works than ever before in history. And it’s because of the web and because the web is social. On the web, much is possible. Whether you are finding the right beautiful photo (with the right Creative Commons license) to illustrate metaphorically the connectivity and the beauty of the internet for a blog post, or whether you are playing with a web app (Skitch – http://skitch.com/) to draw
So serious people who sell cars and race cars become part of the crowd playing:
Two typographers ( Pierre & Damien / plmd.me ) and a pro race pilot (Stef van Campenhoudt) collaborated to design a font with a car.
The car movements were tracked using a custom software, designed by interactive artist Zachary Lieberman. ( openframeworks.cc )
Social bookmarking is one of the most useful aspects of the web. You can use it to create your own online library, organized to your own interests by using tags. Although I’ve been using some form of social bookmarking for years, every so often I want to review what I can do with the social bookmarking tools I use.
Currently I use Diigo and del.icio.us.
One of the useful aspects of webapps is that many give you notice when an upgrade is available, and then, when you install it, open a page explaining all the changes. Diigo has recently upgraded and among the items available in the upgrade page were these very informative videos:
I use two social bookmarking apps because I’m wary of any web app closing down, and having two makes it more likely that I’ll still have access to most of my saved bookmarks if one closes. But who wants to do that extra work you ask? It’s no extra work, because I can save to Diigo and have my new bookmark automatically added to my del.icio.us account.
The final step I’ve taken is to add a del.icio.us widget to my blog so readers can see what I’ve been saving.
If you don’t already use social bookmarking, you might want to give it a try.
I’m ambivalent about my title because I use Twitter mainly for learning, communication, and entertainment. I recognize, however, that business is becoming increasingly a part of Twitter. I recently posted a picture on TwitPic …
and commented that it reminded me of a Liberty print.
(I have fond memories of a dress made from material I got at Liberty’s in London, and several scarves I treasure, including one my husband discovered in a second-hand store and bought for me. I haven’t shopped there for years because I haven’t been in London for years.)
What happened next was this –
plus an invitation to follow them. I looked at their site and saw that they had a number of people tweeting using the business name plus the (I assume) first name of the person posting the tweets, which strikes me as a good way to display a business and keep the personal touch so important a part of Twitter.
I didn’t chose to follow them, because I live a continent away and because my prime interest is people I know, web businesses that can have an impact on what I want to do, and people I can learn from. (I love the freedom of not following back without feeling rude. So different from invitations in symetrical social sites.)
I found it very interesting that my casual mention of their business brought them directly to me; they are obviously monitoring Twitter, which I didn’t expect from such an old and traditional company – which shows me I should be careful about stereotyping. ;->
Today, in a Google Group I am part of, Gloria Hildebrandt – http://ohouse.ca/ – linked to this site –
It is clear to me that even businesses not directly connected to the web and social networking are seeing the business possibilities that Twitter offers.
So while I keep on enjoying the learning and entertainment that Twitter provides me, I also recognize that it has many uses beyond the purely personal.
At the Toronto WordCamp 2008, I live-blogged, and that was fun:
At WordCamp Toronto, 2009, I Tweeted using the hashtag #wct09, and that was fun, and more social for a couple of reasons.
So, for me, with the current social applications, Live Tweeting was a richer experience than Live Blogging, but both were fun.
I learned from the mix of new information in presentations and conversations around and between the sessions, and my most frequest conversationalists were –
I enjoyed great conversations on shared interests with them – who could ask for anything more?
There was much more of value there, and others will be blogging about WordCamp Toronto 2009, but this is my contribution for now.
Thanks to http://www.flickr.com/photos/lexnger/
Oh yeah, and I won:
Fabulous presentation from Word Camp Toronto 2009
The most fascinating thing about the web is that there is no end; there is always more and new.
The most frustrating thing about the web is that there is no end; there is always more and new.
Everything is always changeable. My website – jnthweb.ca – is not the same now as it was a half-hour ago. I just added my most recent brilliant idea,
Currently, I look at Twitter using the third or fourth application I’ve tried. It’s Nambu now; it was TweetDeck, and who knows what I’ll try next. And Twitter is the poster child for constant change, as Tweet after Tweet flips by.
My friend showed me her new laptop today, and I drooled enviously, although mine does everything I want and need and is only a little more than a year old.
I’m behind in my Bloglines again, no, make that still. I never did fully catch up.
So I love the web, and I learn so much from what often feels like frittering my time away, but there is no end to what you can learn to do and learn and do on it. Clay Shirky, in Here Comes Everybody, says in the first 100 years after the invention of the printing press, it broke more than it fixed. I know that the printing press brought endless developments with it from dictionaries to science, from the Enlightenment to romance novels, and more. And here we are in the same early stage with the web, where everything is alway beta, never done!
Want to more about how Twitter works and what it’s good for? Check out http://www.fastforwardblog.com/guides/twitter/
Learning Living 