My web presence- getting it all to hang together.

Yesterday I posted the news that I have a new site in the process of being designed built and to ensure it not only launches smoothly, but works hard for me, I have been reviewing how all of my social media strategy hangs together.
Frankly, it's less than ideal. Here's my bad photoshopped image of what currently happens.



How it all works.

• The whole shebang hangs off RSS. Without the RSS feeds from the content services, then it would all be manual- a total nightmare.
• TwitterFeed is a brilliant service (I have donated) and is the hub I use for content processing into Twitter.
  
• Thomasr.org posts are checked every three hours and then posted into Twitter as "Blog Post". The RSS feed automatically shoots into Facebook as a "Facebook Note". Facebook only allows one RSS feed. It's tempting to process all the feeds into Feedburner and then feed the whole lot into Facebook- but that's untenable and Facebook Spam (FBS).
• Flickr pics also go into TwitterFeed, but are processed slightly differently. As I have varying degrees of Flickr use- occasional pics from BrightKite as well as whole car/bike sets that can number 50+ pics per car, I use the TwitterFeed feature to limit the RSS checking to once a day and 2 posts at any one time. FBS reduction right there.
• I use BrightKite mostly on my iPhone as it can post pics to Flickr (and importantly geo tag them) and send onto Twitter as well. If I'm not using BK for pics, then it works well as a Twitter client and I use it when I want to tell everyone where I am (especially for public event hosting and similar).
  
• My YouTube channel videos update once a day and one video to TwitterFeed. No need for updates more often than that as I have never posted more than one video a day and I doubt I ever will!
  
• My 3AW blog posts are rare, but also update via RSS. This is a once a day thing and one post gets sent to Twitter.
• My CarAdvice and BikeAdvice posts do not have an unique RSS feed. I think if I got to the bottom of Yahoo Pipes, I think I could feed the raw RSS into Yahoo pipes and filter it so only the podcasts and my articles make it to TwitterFeed. In the meantime, I write up a blog post pointing to the article and that starts off the Thomasr.org chain of events and that suits me for now as it gives my all-important paid work a double dose on Facebook and a single run on Twitter.
• Two services for links I use are my Del.icio.us and Google Reader shared items and these feed into Twitter almost on the spot, though I do limit them to a maximum of 3 at a time.
  
• All that done, the tweets start to automatically appear on Twitter itself.
  
• My Twitter feed goes straight into FriendFeed, which also aggregates my YouTube and Blog posts independently but is smart enough (something Scoble says a lot about FF) not to double up.
• FriendFeed then sends all aggregated (And not doubled up) content to Facebook via a Facebook app.
  

That last point is no longer true, but it's important to note that it was once the case. The problem now at Facebook is not one of double ups, but rather over saturation. Every single Tweet goes to Facebook. Per my previous post, I took my own advice and I'm not letting Tweets set as FB status, but it is appearing in all my friends timelines. Not all are happy:

Quite. I had a feeling this was the case, but as you can't really see when you are creating "noise" on a friend's Facebook page, I just kept going. (Not to be rude, but the more friends you have on FB, the less spammy my FB timeline appears as I am woven into the general fabric of Facebook)

Ok So what's this all mean?
The Web 2.oh services are evolving and so too are the users. In fact it's user expectation and user demands that are driving me- I think not so much about what can be done, but what's best for my readers/followers/friends. So I turned off the feed into Facebook. But I do need some sort of feed into Facebook as it is a content cul de sac (Content goes in, doesn't come out) and is very important as my friend base on Facebook increases.

So I'm going to set up a Feedburner account and aggregate most content apart from Twitter posts into Facebook as notes. It's not a huge amount and certain services like Flickr will now be handled by a Facebook App instead of FriendFeed.

Where's the conversation?
This is super critical. Corvida's post on ReadWriteWeb was very clear and I believe it.

While there's no formula for success, there are three keys to a killer web service: search, aggregation, and conversation.

So search is taken care of and I nearly have the aggregation situation about right. But it's conversation, the third and possibly most compelling element- where will that happen?

Thoughts on conversation:

• Not on my blog as it stands. I generate a fair few followers and readers, but few comments. I'm not that sort of blogger.
• On places of content origin. That's a mixed bag. YouTube- you have to be kidding. Flickr- very occasional. BrightKite- rare. on 3AW, CarAdvice and BikeAdvice a lot of good commenting takes place and should stay there as these sites are focussed on conversation.
  
• On Twitter. That tends to be short: "Good post" "nice pic" etc. Not really conversation, though it can be. Twitter conversations can be intense and real time, but also tend to disappear into the Twitter ether due to the non semantic nature of Twitter.
  
• FriendFeed. I don't think so right now. Scoble may be right and FF might go mainstream, but that's going to take a while and meantime FF is silent.
• Conversations on my content. Absolutely. So much so, that I have resolved to do two things: employ Facebook Connect on my new blog comments area and open up my friends list to Scoble-esque proportions.

So there's a bit to do and of course it's ongoing.

And it obsesses me.

My web presence- getting it all to hang together.

Yesterday I posted the news that I have a new site in the process of being designed built and to ensure it not only launches smoothly, but works hard for me, I have been reviewing how all of my social media strategy hangs together.
Frankly, it's less than ideal. Here's my bad photoshopped image of what currently happens.



How it all works.

• The whole shebang hangs off RSS. Without the RSS feeds from the content services, then it would all be manual- a total nightmare.
• TwitterFeed is a brilliant service (I have donated) and is the hub I use for content processing into Twitter.
  
• Thomasr.org posts are checked every three hours and then posted into Twitter as "Blog Post". The RSS feed automatically shoots into Facebook as a "Facebook Note". Facebook only allows one RSS feed. It's tempting to process all the feeds into Feedburner and then feed the whole lot into Facebook- but that's untenable and Facebook Spam (FBS).
• Flickr pics also go into TwitterFeed, but are processed slightly differently. As I have varying degrees of Flickr use- occasional pics from BrightKite as well as whole car/bike sets that can number 50+ pics per car, I use the TwitterFeed feature to limit the RSS checking to once a day and 2 posts at any one time. FBS reduction right there.
• I use BrightKite mostly on my iPhone as it can post pics to Flickr (and importantly geo tag them) and send onto Twitter as well. If I'm not using BK for pics, then it works well as a Twitter client and I use it when I want to tell everyone where I am (especially for public event hosting and similar).
  
• My YouTube channel videos update once a day and one video to TwitterFeed. No need for updates more often than that as I have never posted more than one video a day and I doubt I ever will!
  
• My 3AW blog posts are rare, but also update via RSS. This is a once a day thing and one post gets sent to Twitter.
• My CarAdvice and BikeAdvice posts do not have an unique RSS feed. I think if I got to the bottom of Yahoo Pipes, I think I could feed the raw RSS into Yahoo pipes and filter it so only the podcasts and my articles make it to TwitterFeed. In the meantime, I write up a blog post pointing to the article and that starts off the Thomasr.org chain of events and that suits me for now as it gives my all-important paid work a double dose on Facebook and a single run on Twitter.
• Two services for links I use are my Del.icio.us and Google Reader shared items and these feed into Twitter almost on the spot, though I do limit them to a maximum of 3 at a time.
  
• All that done, the tweets start to automatically appear on Twitter itself.
  
• My Twitter feed goes straight into FriendFeed, which also aggregates my YouTube and Blog posts independently but is smart enough (something Scoble says a lot about FF) not to double up.
• FriendFeed then sends all aggregated (And not doubled up) content to Facebook via a Facebook app.
  

That last point is no longer true, but it's important to note that it was once the case. The problem now at Facebook is not one of double ups, but rather over saturation. Every single Tweet goes to Facebook. Per my previous post, I took my own advice and I'm not letting Tweets set as FB status, but it is appearing in all my friends timelines. Not all are happy:

Quite. I had a feeling this was the case, but as you can't really see when you are creating "noise" on a friend's Facebook page, I just kept going. (Not to be rude, but the more friends you have on FB, the less spammy my FB timeline appears as I am woven into the general fabric of Facebook)

Ok So what's this all mean?
The Web 2.oh services are evolving and so too are the users. In fact it's user expectation and user demands that are driving me- I think not so much about what can be done, but what's best for my readers/followers/friends. So I turned off the feed into Facebook. But I do need some sort of feed into Facebook as it is a content cul de sac (Content goes in, doesn't come out) and is very important as my friend base on Facebook increases.

So I'm going to set up a Feedburner account and aggregate most content apart from Twitter posts into Facebook as notes. It's not a huge amount and certain services like Flickr will now be handled by a Facebook App instead of FriendFeed.

Where's the conversation?
This is super critical. Corvida's post on ReadWriteWeb was very clear and I believe it.

While there's no formula for success, there are three keys to a killer web service: search, aggregation, and conversation.

So search is taken care of and I nearly have the aggregation situation about right. But it's conversation, the third and possibly most compelling element- where will that happen?

Thoughts on conversation:

• Not on my blog as it stands. I generate a fair few followers and readers, but few comments. I'm not that sort of blogger.
• On places of content origin. That's a mixed bag. YouTube- you have to be kidding. Flickr- very occasional. BrightKite- rare. on 3AW, CarAdvice and BikeAdvice a lot of good commenting takes place and should stay there as these sites are focussed on conversation.
  
• On Twitter. That tends to be short: "Good post" "nice pic" etc. Not really conversation, though it can be. Twitter conversations can be intense and real time, but also tend to disappear into the Twitter ether due to the non semantic nature of Twitter.
  
• FriendFeed. I don't think so right now. Scoble may be right and FF might go mainstream, but that's going to take a while and meantime FF is silent.
• Conversations on my content. Absolutely. So much so, that I have resolved to do two things: employ Facebook Connect on my new blog comments area and open up my friends list to Scoble-esque proportions.

So there's a bit to do and of course it's ongoing.

And it obsesses me.

How long to fix something simple?

One notable problem in large organisations is the lack of accountability and proactivity.

The Age's website is a case in point. If it was centralised and built on a better, more unifying platform with a single development team then maybe they would be able to fix the terrible, confusing template issues that plague the whole site.

Honestly, how long would it take a junior developer to fix the CSS for the letters page for example? How long does it take to add a <br> tag? (see image)

To the developers on The Age's website: where are the mavericks who get shit done? Why do you accept this state of play? When's the last time you worked back late to get something fixed- not built, but just fixed? Where are your bug reports? I hope you don't get tipped out during this global recession, because no one will think your skills and more imporantly your passion is up to scratch.

Oh and while you're at it, fix the bug that causes the site to crash iphones.

#nbn - the National Broadband Network announcement...

This announcement has both the twittersphere buzzing and me marvelling this morning. As Internode's Simon Hackett said :

I'm gobsmacked. If they do what they promise, they've actually got it right, and we might just turn into a broadband front-runner country ten years from now... after all.

I've also supported the idea of the Federal Government building national broadband infrastructure. I'm not sure about the plan to sell it off again as I think a corporation owned by the government with subscription based billing to the telcos could not only sustain itself, but also account for future upgrades as well. Let's face it, the network we build today will not be the same one we are using in 50 years. We'll need to revisit this time and time again. Or we can set ourselves up for the longer term.

Hell, I might just go for a job there!

More details here

Thomasr's Twittering gets him in Mainstream Media

the-age-30-3, originally uploaded by thomasrdotorg.

Wait, yr doing it backwards!

Thanks to Suzanne Carbone for having the vision to include a few paras about me at the F1 GP tweeting like an OCD sufferer (without the suffering bit!)

No... where are those offers of Social Media work? HUH?

Google maps bogged down in... mud.

Ooops. The Google street view car (an Astra I believe) got itself into all sort of of bother.




[Image Google]


Thank you Nissan Patrol!

Hat Tip: Google Street View: Google Street View Car Stuck In Mud Down Under

I'm getting out while I'm still young...ish.

Shortly I will be exiting my current employ and I think I might not work agency side in advertising nor digital media for a while.* The reasons why I may discuss in the future. In the event you want to work in either industry, here's how I think you can work/worm your way in.

How do you get started?

It's always been hard to break into any industry. Always. Noah wanted to be a stone mason, not a boat builder, but couldn't find an opening.

In this day and age of internet not stone tablets, you can start building a personal brand long before you begin the CV polishing and door knocking process. Here are my cheerful ways to get ahead and show your passion:

• Register yourname.com or your-name.com – find some sort of variation on your name.
• Email from that domain address when seeking work. We will immediately check to see if you have a site parked there and;
• Build it as a blog site. It's simple and inexpensive to set up (WordPress, blogger etc). Include an about page with contact details.
• Blog about your desired industry. Weekly or whenever you have something to add. Become engaged in your industry.
  
• Publish your uni papers and related material there too.
  
• Get a profile on LinkedIn and ensure it's up over 80% completed.
  
• Don't stalk your prospective employer online. They'll hear about you if you're smart and insightful.
• Subscribe to relevant sites of interest via RSS and comment there using your real name and a link to your blog.
  
• When setting up on Facebook/MySpace/any other site ensure that whatever you do- from pics to comments- will not hinder your chances of employment. They look up all candidates on Facebook. Remember that.
  
• Your CV- no more than 3 pages. They'll appreciate the fact you worked at Maccas, but they don't need to know if you were flipping burgers or workin' the drive through. Just the bare essentials. They're going to Google you and Facebook you for good measure.. Let the good stuff turn up there. (Remember how we registered your-name.com? That's now going to work for you when people Google your name...)
  

So next time you hear someone say "Oh it's so hard to get a start", ask them if they have completed the above list. If not, tell them what I am telling you now: build a brand- your brand.

That's a start.

*In case of extreme poorness, this may in fact be a lie.

Bush fires: What could we have done to warn people?

In the haze and confusion that has followed the most horrific natural disaster in our history, it's become apparent that the scope of information (or lack thereof) and the speedy dissemination of said information to residents in the firing line was not effective.

The government has authorised a royal commission, but the time that will take and then instituting the findings will take some time.

I'm going to float an idea right now: Unmanned drones. They are an effective and low-risk method of monitoring this sort of natural disaster. They can carry a huge amount of equipment for surveillance and can be part of a technology chain that could be far more effective at sending out information live from the fire to command and then onward to people affected via sirens, the web, radio, SMS and automated land line calls.

The logical choice of drone would be the MQ-9 Predator. Not only has it been a highly successful military aircraft, used extensively in Afghanistan and Iraq, but it also has form insofar as monitoring fires.

From Wikipedia:

In November 2006, NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center obtained an MQ-9 from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc.. The aircraft has been named Ikhana and its main goal is the Suborbital Science Program within the Science Mission Directorate. NASA also acquired a ground control station in a mobile trailer. This aircraft was used extensively to survey the Southern California wildfires in 2007. The data was used to deploy firefighters to areas of the highest need.

And, despite being built ostensibly for global warming research, it worked a treat:

It was surprisingly successful: Ikhana found a hot spot at the bottom of a canyon just east of the town where fire crews hadn't expected any problems. With the data, fire fighters were able to re-deploy to block the hot spot from spreading towards the Sierra town of Paradise. They immediately evacuated 10,000 people and successfully kept the fire from overtaking the town.

Here's why we need this sort of capability:

"Firefighters are blinded by the smoke of a fire, but they need to know where the hottest parts of a fire are burning, and any little hot spots that are out in front," said Vincent Ambrosia, NASA Ames Research Center's principal investigator for the fire mission. "Most temperature sensors are calibrated to sense low-temperature sources; for instance, the military wants to use UAVs to sense a person walking across a field at night. But that kind of sensor doesn't work well for high-temperature sources.

"By calibrating our thermal sensors for high temperatures, we can tell whether a given area is actively flaming or just extremely hot ash—a 'boot melter'—because you don't want to send in firefighters if it's going to melt their boots."

Yes, there are manned aircraft with this sort of sensor equipment available. But a drone is a better choice- for starters, there's the time it can spend "on station".
Wikipedia:

"The MQ-9 is fitted with six stores pylons. The inner stores pylons can carry a maximum of 1,500 pounds (680 kilograms) each, and are "wet" to allow carriage of external fuel tanks. The midwing stores pylons can carry a maximum of 600 pounds (270 kilograms) each, while the outer stores pylons can carry a maximum of 200 pounds (90 kilograms) each. An MQ-9 with two 1,000 pound (450 kilogram) external fuel tanks and a thousand pounds of munitions has an endurance of 42 hours."

This would mean that a could have gone on station at 9am on Saturday the 8th and stayed until late Sunday night. A refuel at Essendon airport approximately 50 kms from Kinglake by air and it would be back for another 40+ hours. (Also note that if you have purpose built fire "eye in the sky" for non military use, you free up another 450kgs/1000lbs for equipment or even more fuel.)

One of the arguments against drones is safety of existing air traffic. That's only an issue for the MQ-9 when ascending and descending. The rest of the time, it's too high:

From an altitude of 43,000 feet, the wildfire sensor collected and sent 100 images and more than 20 data files containing the location of the fire perimeter over a 16-hour period on Oct. 28 and 29. The data were delivered in real time through a satellite communications link. NASA and Forest Service specialists worked to familiarize the fire management team with accessing capabilities and sensor data format. The data from the NASA system were used by the Esperanza Fire Incident Command Center to map fire behavior and direct resources to critical areas on the fire.

Australian already has these drones in use for illegal fishing detection. So we have trained staff and pilots who can fly and support these aircraft. Further, use by the military of these drones in a domestic crisis is not only great PR, it's ideal for training under real pressure. Illegal fishing might be a worthy reason to have drones, but is it more important than saving lives?

I emailed Wired's "Danger Room" blogger Noah Schachtman to ask his thoughts on drones used in fire fighting. Here's what I sentt:

The number one problem was detection and information flow. In Oz we either leave early or stay to fight. Many early-leavers left too late and were killed in their cars as they did not know the extent of the problem or proximity if the fires.

The government has set up a commission of enquiry. I would like to ask your users what they think- from a tech view- could be used to assist in detection and rapid dissemination of information.

Would unmanned drones built specifically for fire detection be the way forward? On the day in question, we knew we were in for trouble- record drought combined with 120f day and 60mph winds. Could we have launched drones into the danger areas to track fires? (I might add that the most deadly fires were seemingly deliberately lit).

Over to you!

His reply:

I know that NASA has used some drones to fight wildfires. They haven't been more widely-deployed here because of the Federal Aviation Administration's worry about them flying in the same skies as manned planes.

But drones are successfully being used to find everything from smugglers to bomb-planters. Why not fires (or fire-starters) too?

The last point is interesting. If drones can be up in the air scanning for fires, then early detection is possible and even identification and footage of the firebug is possible as well. Not only that but surely there would be a deterrent factor at work as well...?

The costs are a little up in the air as the predator and reaper UAVs are "systems"- typically deployed as 4 aircraft with all relevant support systems. That can get very expensive. But if simply added to our existing UAV program, the costs would be significantly lower.

Technology has a lot to offer in these circumstances and it seems that we are still relying on old systems (like the bush telegraph) when the technology already exists to significantly reduce the risks to people in fire affected areas.

10K a day..

I've joined Rach, JimBob, Carl and Mikey with a new years weight loss resolution.

we're trying to walk 10k a day. Its pretty tough. The updates are in my right hand column and here:

Twits hate Facebook

Of late I've noticed a strangely snobbish and superior attitude emerging amongst so called social media experts (I hasten to add most are in fact genuine social media experts!) towards Facebook.

Sure, they love their twitter and spend hours tweeting, replying and retweeting and explaining to "idiots" why Twitter is such a great resource, yet they regard Facebook as being some sort of opiate for the masses, a place where the great unwashed gather.

We've seen Scoble fall in and out of love with Facebook , and go bananas over Friend Feed (which I am slowly coming round to), but I am curious about a few Australian folk and how they approach Facebook.

@Trib (Stephen Collins) started a group for his business Acid Labs only recently. That seems odd. Stephen is, in my view, a true cutting edge social media animal, but only just got around to using Facebook for business. I started a Tom Reynolds Motoring group on Facebook last year when it became apparent that people who heard me on the radio wanted to be my Facebook friend. I do not generally accept those friend requests purely because I want Facebook to be a place where I am friends with people I know personally. That's not to say all of my Facebook friends are "real life friends" but if I knew them outside of their Facebook friend request, then that's good enough for me. Trib also seems to have his Twitter connected to his Facebook status, an issue I will address later.

And then there's @duncanriley. Recently he had to "lower" himself to reply to a Facebook email and posted (and yes, I am sure it was toungue in cheek/seeking a response) "I'm replying to an email on Facebook. I feel dirty." Duncan discovered he had many pending friend requests, FB emails and notifications. I think he softened his view, but still jokingly maintained an air of horror at getting into Facebook. Until recently, he too had his Tweets linked to Facebook : "... I've got tweets going into FB, but have to log in to reply"

Some other Facebook h8rs:

• stilgherrian & andrewsayer RT @crispynoodles: One word: "Phew". RT: @andrewsayer Twitter Rejects $500 Million Takeover Offer From Facebook http://tr.im/1gfy (Sure it's a retweet- but he clearly supports this!)
  
• cameronreilly: @pmenadue PETE! Long time no see mate. I'm playing on Facebook at the moment but it sucks. Need a realtime board.
• kcarruthers: @JackBastide I find facebook a little dull compared to twitter, preferring the realtime view on friendfeed instead
• fulltimecasual: I understand the power of facebook now. One snarky update = a flood of emails. Thank Christ twitter aint like that. :)

Facebook <3

• MSpecht - Uses it for work and play.
  
• SilkCharm - Does presentations on the power of FB
  
• liubinskas: "On holidays and playing my dads facebook scrabble while he gets another cold beer on a hot day. Twttr feels like work... "

To really understand the Twitter snob hate for Facebook, you need only go here.

Twitter updating Facebook- just say NO.

Of course there's an app that allows your tweets to go directly into Facebook. You can establish a filter that will prevent this occurring (When I used it I simply used the @ symbol- a direct twitter message.) These filters are less than effective. Effective however, is the way you lockout your Facebook friends from Twitter. Your Twitter updates will appear to FB like you are having a great/werid/busy/sooky time but not including them. I got lots of comments on my FB stream when Twitter was connected to Facebook- and none were positive. Most ended in a ? mark.

Here's an example from @Trib.

"Stephen RT @liako Spread the word & let's build a kick-arse team that will help identify expertise in the Aussie industry: http://twtvite.com/ick9m3.via Twitter - 15:58 - Comment"

The next item in his Facebook was from FriendFeed and was the same post, just not as a status...

"WTF?" said trib's FB friends...

I'm not alone in this thought: jpoh: @reemixx i wonder the same... my facebook timeline seems pretty full with my twitter updates and i think i might be spamming my friends

JJprojects worked out how unimportant Twitter is for his clients

jprojects: @jpostman Yes Facebook is still where to reach most. This is still quite small, we all here and elsewhere forget that sometimes I think.

So, the obvious question is Why The Hate? For as long as Twitter remains an early adopter haven- complete with downtime (Fail Whale), in jokes and no monetisation, the early adopter cool crew will love it.

Facebook was never like this. When it was small it was not really an early adopter place- it was for grads. When it went mainstream it jumped right over the early adopter crew and boy do they hold grudges. Scoble thinks LOLcats will cost you a job interview, the Twitter crowd think that just being on Facebook is not far from that. It's because the "regular" folk are there- interacting, searching, commenting and unbelievably getting the most out of Facebook. That's not early adopter, that's mainstream!

Don't believe me? Watch them all get up and leave when Twitter goes mainstream (or gets ads)...

Fwd: Respond me if you can

Sometimes the Spam filter on Gmail works, other times it doesn't. I suspect the fact there is no link in the email could be why....

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <ladypozitive@gmail.com>
Date: 2009/1/9
Subject: Respond me if you can
To: xxxxx@xxxxx.com


I regret for the long answer, I hope you have not forgotten me? I send my photo here. I would be glad to continue our acquaintance, if you not against? If I do you boringly, please forgive me. I shall wait your answer :)

Yours Ramilya

Dilbert Mashup...

First attempt at this

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