The devouring dragon of Facebook and Twitter

This image from illustrator Jess3 captures my feelings about Facebook and Twitter -- not only for Facebook's evolving invasion of our privacy as shown in my last post, but for the loss of time and money and persona that these two social media demons devour.

You can fimd more of Jess3 images on Slideshare JESS3 Presentations

Nice imagination, Jess!

to Tweet or not to Tweet

Image via CrunchBase

I am not a Twitterer and I have resisted the pressure to join the mob - since I was first introduced to Twitter over two years ago by the biggest Twit of them all - Robert Scoble Thoughts Illustrated: Lunching with Scoble and by my then working colleague Critt Jarvis.

So I was enlightened by this recent "study" Twitter Study Reveals Interesting Results - 40% is "Pointless Babble" | Pear Analytics and downloaded the Pear Analytics White Paper pdf from this link. If you are the least bit interested in Twitter - get the White Paper for yourself.

This all started up again this morning by a tweet from Critt, whom I have been mostly out of contact with, and a link to his blog Why Scoble's Twitter valuation is correct... | Critt Jarvis where I get Critt's "i told you so!" treatment.

The upshot of all this Twittering is the recognition, seldom revealed to infrequent Twitter users, that the combination of a tweet with a link to a more in-depth post of some consequence to the recipient of the tweet does have value - as I mentioned here a year ago Thoughts Illustrated: from twitter to youtube - nice segue from Garr Reynolds

All of which once againn proves that you can eat up a lot of time on Twitter even if you rarely use it. Preparing this post which resulted from Critt's tweet has taken me back to my TI archives and an elapsed time of 23 minutes stolen from my continuous partial attention stream this morning.

Did I learn anything useful in reading the Twitter Study? Did you? Was it Pointless Babble or a weird extension of a dangling conversation that started more than two years ago? What it did do is make me review my blog "memory" to recall the thread on Twitter started in March of 2007 during my lunch with Scoble.

Scoble, Critt and I have gone our separate ways since then, but this morning's tweet brought it all back - and presented me with a reason to reconsider Twitter as a social media tool of value.

from twitter to youtube - nice segue from Garr Reynolds

I am not a fan of twitter, but a twit from Scoble in my inbox led me to one from Garr Reynolds the author of Presentation Zen.

Because I like Garr's world view of presentations and zen,Thoughts Illustrated: Ah So! PresentationZen - a book every presenter must read I clicked on the twitter url on Garr's twitter page and found this very personal postcard on YouTube (short 1:14m and I think you'll like it.)



Make you want to go to Cannon Beach in Oregon?

Make me understand how twitter can serve as a microblogging link to videos like the one Garr produced?

Maybe there is a role for twitter in my digital LifeStream.

Evolution of Communication: From Email to Twitter and Beyond

This diagram leads a very provocative post by Alex Iskold from Read/Write Web (1) which reinforces my own prior point about Twitter versus Blogger. (2)



(1) http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/evolution_of_communication.php

(2)Thoughts Illustrated: A Brief Message - twitter vs blogger?


Amy Jussel commented to my Twitter post as follows:

"I actually appreciate Twitter's free form spontaneity, and can see how I might use it as almost a "Jott" style app to reach thought leaders under severe time crunches who seem to be living on the short form tools. (David's a case in point, eh?)

That said, your database filtering idea is a 'value-add' that would put it off the charts in my book...

To me, that would be the 'killer app' of relevance that would truly give Twitter the chops to be a 'collective knowledge depository' with value far beyond its current uses as mental floss....

The widget below may just be Amy's "killer app".

A Brief Message - twitter vs blogger?

Although this image is from a new blog on design, it could certainly apply to the dilemma of continuous partial attention (CPA) and from the punch line "short is in", it would appear that microblogging as in Twitter meets the criteria outlined above.

My take is that Return on Attention (ROA) thrives on "short is in" and that pithy text and powerful images deliver content in the most effective way, but my experience to date with Twitter is very mixed.


I need is a way to filter the incoming flood so that it raises the signal above the noise. Maybe my conversation with Adam Green of Grazr this afternoon will shed some light on how to manage microblogs along with all the other social networking stuff.

PS this post would have exceeded the Twitter 140 character limit by the second sentence. If short is in, maybe I'm out!

A Brief Message

Death and Taxes - a visual guide to the Federal Budget

Edward Tufte would be proud. From a link at Death and Taxes 2008 Poster - $24.95 : Zen Cart!, The Art of E-commerce

Probably worth the price to get this poster - but the interactive version is much more valuable as a spatial data management map.

got this from Pistachio on twitter. Maybe i can begin to see the value of this weirdo IM flow after all.

Logic+Emotion: Lifestreaming - a way to manage CPA

David Armano really "gets" the flow of social networking. Lifestreaming is his vision of the way to "manage" the dilemma of continuous partial attention (CPA). Lifestreaming Consultants? take a look......


Logic Emotion: Lifestreams

Twitter ROA? a continuing inquiry into the value of Social Networking tools

Introductory comment: I find that posting links within my writing interrupts the flow of the post. If readers are interested in the link references they will be footnoted at the end of the post.


I have recently been nagged by my colleagues to sign up for Twitter - a microblogging sensation that is sweeping the social network world. You will see a boring segment of my recent twitters on the sidebar of this blog.

In a conversation with Adam Green of Grazr, I asked the question : "what is the Return on Attention(ROA) on the use of twitter?". He hasn't yet given me a sufficient answer.

This led me to inquire of Jerry Michalski whether Twitter could be filtered and connected to his now famous online Brain. (1). where I found this blog post on Breakthrough by Terry Frazer (2) describing the work of Lisa Haneberg. This 2x2 is Lisa's, and provides a good way to think about ROA.

Here is Lisa's comment on Breakthrough:

"My point it that breakthroughs generally happen in conversation.

To generate breakthroughs, introverts - or extroverts - or anyone needs to be in conversation about their goals and ideas.

Even if we look at science, the individual work we do is important, but it is the sharing and collaboration that usually catalyzes bigger advancements.

I am a proud introvert myself. I have learned that to generate more breakthroughs, I need to engage others in my work, listen more, and share more."

Here is how I position Twitter on Lisa's chart:


I currently position Twitter in the "unfocused" side of the chart. A peak performer ( upper right hand corner of the chart) generates a high ROA from his or her activities in social networking and I have not yet found the ROA in Twitter. It may be a useful "engagement" tool, but for me, I need some way to manage the Twitter flow in order to move it toward the upper right hand corner of the chart where peak performers can integrate into their daily practice. Until that occurs - I won't be happy with Twitter.

(1) Welcome to Sociate - Jerry Michalski's home on the Web .

(2) Breakthroughs Happen in a Social Context:

Lunching with Scoble

After a lifetime of accusations of my being a verbal "firehose", I met my match yesterday at lunch at Mike's restaurant with The Scobleizer. It was a truly enjoyable experience. Robert seems to have perfected the ability to integrate his in-person reality with his online presence. He radiates intelligence, good humor and an openness in conversation which is a rare combination - and probably the reason he continues to attract such a large following in the blogosphere and in F2F interactions with the movers and shakers of the geek world.

I first met Robert at Meshforum in May 2006 Thoughts Illustrated: Meshforum - Scoble and Israel on Naked Conversations where he stimulated my curiosity and interest in how he and Shel Israel approached the creation of Naked Conversations - an early version of what I call the Networked Book.

During our lunch yesterday, Robert explained the rationale for his Scoble Show - a relaxed- style interview show featuring hot Silicon Valley CEOs telling their stories and demonstrating their products. Here's a recent example: Inside a real Silicon Valley garage startup: Maya's Mom | PodTech.net: Technology, Business, Media, and News Podcasts. Robert is rapidly accelerating his video interview production, recording 3-4 video interviews per week. He now has a large backlog of wannabe's lined up to be interviewed on his show and expects to select a "Top 40" from his show portfolio when he has enough footage in his playlist archive.

If you are interested in how The Scoble Show integrates with Podtech's business model, scroll down the right side of the page linked above and you will see the logos of 39 high-class Scoble Show sponsors. John Furrier's recruiting of Robert Scoble to be a centerpiece of PodTech's NewMedia business is clearly paying off.

Robert also showed me how he uses google reader to keep up with his prodigious daily blog reading and posting efforts and gave me a short guided tour of how he uses Twitter / Scobleizer to keep up with his many contacts in real time.

Great lunch - and an in-person confirmation of the unique social networking power of the NewMedia to connect and engage people in "naked conversations" on a global basis. Also solid evidence of my friend Mark Anderson's Thoughts Illustrated: Mark Anderson-Welcome to the Blogosphere!support for the AORTA (Always On Real Time Access) concept of today's technology-enabled society. Here's how Mark described it way back in 1998:

"With AORTA, users tend to transfer all work to Net-enabled applications, and to use email, Inet chat, collaboration software, and Inet telephony as easily as they used to use the phone."

Robert Scoble is the living, breathing exemplar of AORTA in action and, boy, does it work for him!