Open Source Blogging

After we had our Building43 launch party I wanted to explore more why small groups of people are so much better for actually learning something. By the way, Michael Sean Wright put together a neat little video of our launch party. He’s the one who produces Peter Himmelman’s awesome show on Tuesday nights.

Anyway, we’ve found that if you are throwing a party, somewhere around 200 people is the right number (or fewer). I’ve been to quite a few TechCrunch parties with 800 or so, and they just aren’t as satisfying. This holds true for weddings, too. I’ve … Continue Reading

Steve Gillmor has been hard at work putting together an interesting day for those of us who are interested in the real time web.

The speakers lineup includes founders and executives from Twitter, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, FriendFeed, TweetDeck, Meebo, WordPress, Seesmic, Virgin America, Tweetmeme, Qik, and more.

But that’s not what will make this interesting. In between all the interesting panels about APIs and search and Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Mike Arrington and I will pit our mobs against each other.

Or, more realistically, have a discussion about what he sees as a frightening trend: that mobs are being formed faster and … Continue Reading

It’s been just about a month now since I stepped off of the USS Nimitz. Well, was flown off, more accurately.

I took a month off to let is sink in just what I was there for. It is SO easy to hype up such a trip right after you get back. And I did over on Twitter and FriendFeed.

But I wanted to do a blog post about what I remember of the trip. Not a long one. Enough words have been written … Continue Reading

Here is a video I want you to watch it to get your mind off your debt, to make you think about something else, and to see that there is a whole world of possibilities and amazing people just like you that can do incredible things.

I believe in you. Believe in yourself.

Steve

Video Summary: Daniel Libeskind builds on very big ideas. Here, he shares 17 words that underlie his vision for architecture — raw, risky, emotional, radical — and that offer inspiration for any bold creative pursuit.

If you can not see the video above, … Continue Reading

Heh, Tom Foremski reads too much into traffic numbers, he notes that my blog’s traffic is down by half recently. Well, duh! If you don’t blog people don’t read.

But my numbers are way up elsewhere.

Who cares where the audience is? I don’t. Now thanks to working on my FriendFeed aggregator you’ll see my words whether I write them on Wordpress, on Tumblr, on Posterous, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Flickr, on Upcoming.org, on Building43, on YouTube, or a number of other places.

I noticed that traffic on blogs was flat. Techmeme’s traffic hasn’t gone up very quickly. FriendFeed, Twitter, and … Continue Reading

Item. Thomas Hawk praises Cooliris as the coolest new way to see photos on Flickr.

Item. Mashable has list of six cool Twitter visualizations.

Item: Micah Wittman releases translation engine for FriendFeed.

It’s interesting that I’ve been to several conferences lately and one has really stuck out in my mind: 140: The Twitter Conference by the Parnassus Group. Why?

Out of all the conferences and events I’ve been to lately it was the one that had a lot … Continue Reading

Here is a video I want you to watch it to get your mind off your debt, to make you think about something else, and to see that there is a whole world of possibilities and amazing people just like you that can do incredible things.

I believe in you. Believe in yourself.

Steve

Video Summary: Gever Tulley uses engaging photos and footage to demonstrate the valuable lessons kids learn at his Tinkering School. When given tools, materials and guidance, these young imaginations run wild and creative problem-solving takes over to build unique boats, bridges and even a rollercoaster!

… Continue Reading

It’s Ironic that Facebook is moving into a more public space occupied by Twitter and FriendFeed.

I think their jealousy of the hype that Twitter is getting might be leading them astray.

Why?

I’ve been asking “normal people” what they use. You know, people like my wife and her friends who aren’t tech bloggers and don’t pride themselves on using the latest thing. She is addicted to Facebook and is not interested in the public part of it. She doesn’t get Twitter and FriendFeed although she understands how I use those to talk with a large public audience.

She’s craving intimacy with her … Continue Reading

Here is a video I want you to watch it to get your mind off your debt, to make you think about something else, and to see that there is a whole world of possibilities and amazing people just like you that can do incredible things.

I believe in you. Believe in yourself.

Steve

Video Summary: Someone always asks the math teacher, “Am I going to use calculus in real life?” And for most of us, says Arthur Benjamin, the answer is no. He offers a bold proposal on how to make math education relevant in the digital age.

… Continue Reading

Whew, OK, now that I’m off of FriendFeed and Twitter I can start talking about what I learned while I was addicted to those systems.

One thing is that knowledge is suffering over there. See, here, it is easy to find old blogs. Just go to Google and search. What would you like me to find? Chinese Earthquake? Google has it.

Now, quick, find the first 20 tweets or FriendFeed items about the Chinese Earthquake. It’s impossible. I’m an advanced searcher and I can’t find them, even using the cool Twitter Search engine.

On April 19th, 2009 I asked about Mountain … Continue Reading