joku

2010 5 5 | 10:54

Broken Social Media Feedback

This post is for mah nerds.

Twitter wants me to Tweet It. Google wants me to Buzz It. Facebook wants me to Like It. I have my own blog [welcome] and I enjoy comments on it. I used to have Google Reader, but Buzz and Reader don't sync very well so I Dropped It. I can comment on anything. I can provide feedback for anyone. I can Like, Tweet, and Buzz all day, not to mention comment on any article on any website I frequent.

I can write something here and it'll post to a number of sites I enjoy [thanks Posterous]. What's great is that I can get feedback on it from multiple sources at any time. And feedback is important. It's commonly held that discussion, sharing opinions, and constructive criticism contribute to a better community by improving the qualities of the individual.

But social media feedback is broken. Each unique social ecosystem has its own feedback method that never returns to the source - it stays in its own system. For instance, this blog post will appear to people [who care] in a number of ways:

This will pop up in someone's Twitter feed.
This will show up in Facebook [I think]. Or, at least people can "Like It".
People following this RSS will see it in Google Reader or in any number of RSS compilers.
Those subscribed to this Posterous may see it in their subscriptions.
This should show up in Buzz, too.

Each one of the mentioned social networks has its own feedback system. You can respond to a tweet. You can like and comment on a post in Facebook. You can comment and share it in Reader and Buzz [they don't sync too well so I count them as unique]. And, you can just comment on the post itself in Posterous. I can think of two ways to view all the feedback.

Go through each system uniquely and check for updates [this is just stupid].
Apply an email notification system [most systems offer this feature] to alert you of any feedback.

I'm not a fan. I get enough email as it is. And even if the email alert notifications were efficient and quick, they wouldn't address the issue: each feedback loop is housed in its own system, eliminating discussion and all the other good things we established as benefits of social networks, in general.

Is there a way to do the following?

Provide original content.
Open it for feedback to multiple social media networks.
Standardize the commenting so that a response on Twitter and a comment on Facebook can show up in my Posterous.
Then, when I comment on their feedback [enter discussion] in Posterous, it reflects back to the respective social networks, including people from other systems in the discussion.

Probably not.

By the way, my solution in the meantime is to force* the audience into my ecosystem, which will be this Posterous. *By force, I intend to comment only on this post.

Silly, I know.

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Filed under // Facebook improve joku Posterous social media Twitter

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2010 1 15 | 9:14

Online Content Nom Nom

To my fellow readers. I know you love reading online content. You love it like the intangible, black-hole smack it is, so you need to use Readability from the labs at arc90 [thanks, Dave]. It is a bookmarklet [one of those things that you drag to your bookmark bar]. When you're at a website reading an awesome article about whatever, hit this bookmarklet. It'll remove all the ads. It'll save all the text of your article into a nice, legible format that's easy to read and free from distractions, instantly. Do it.

Another tool I recommend is Instapaper. Let's say you're reading some absorbing article about one man's search for the last opium den, but halfway through it you forgot that you're picking your friend up from the airport in 30 minutes and I-94 is always packed in the late afternoon and you hate traffic. Well, save the article to read later by using Instapaper. Create a free account and you can use Instapaper to automatically save any article you're reading in your account. Afterwards, you can go the Instapaper and find that article saved, just for you. You can even organize your saved articles in separate folders for "Weird Stuff," "Brain Expanders," and "Stuff I Need To Share." The best part? Instapaper stores your articles in text-only format so there are no ads and there are no pictures, just glorious text when you continue your journey through lines and lines of mind-blowing, crazy delicious print.

Read on, friends. Read on.

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Filed under // Instapaper Internet joku Readability Tools

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2009 12 29 | 12:30

Note to Self: DND

Do:

Engage with social media, the blogosphere, and the internet in general for the purpose of learning and understanding to grow into a better being for yourself and others.
Sign off, log out, shut down, hibernate, put on silent, turn off.
Read more and read in a chair that exists solely as a place to read. Away from your computer. Away from your desk.
Listen to music without doing anything else.
Drive without the music on.
Post a blog entry without a picture.
Draw more.

Don't:

Get sucked into the mindless black holes of the internet as you skip from link to link reading interesting tidbits about nothing getting lost in the valueless and meaningless minutiae that dominates available content.
Say yes to stupid requests.
Mix personal with work life if you dislike one more than the other. Only one will survive.
Begrudgingly perform favors. Helps no one.
Ever think that you've arrived, you've made it, or that you've conquered. PCBF.

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Filed under // DND joku NTS

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2009 12 28 | 22:49

Memories 2009: Part 2

The second half of this year was nuts, so there haven't been many updates. If you recall, 2009 was wedding extravaganza for me among other things and, though difficult, was predictably awesome.

Here's a brief recap. As usual, I prefer lists to actual writing because:

Lists are easier to write. Lists require less writing skills and may be used in lieu of actual transitions, contexts, and segues.
Lists are easier to read and comprehend.
What's good writing anyway?
This is my blog.

Soleil Is Born

My niece was born this June 2009. She's cuter than anyone you know. She makes these ug ug sounds and she has a 5-star smile, a golden laugh, and a helluva frown. It also helps that her mother [my sister] is a fashion gangsta so Soleil rocks better threads than me. She's my first niece/nephew so I'm psyched and grateful. [Her name is pronounced so-lay. It translates to "sun" in French.] Check the photos. She's a Gap baby for sure.

A Hiatus And A Standardized Exam

2009 was a funky year for me. I took some time off to get away from technology for a bit to clear my head and also study hardcore for the GMATs. At the time, I had my mind set on going to graduate school to pursue an MBA. Things changed [discussed later], but that month off was fantastic. I think I'll have to do it again and I highly recommend it. I mean, it made me want to read again. More importantly, it made me realize what I actually wanted to go to school for. Good times. I took the GMATs at the end of August.

Wedding Cap Off

Truly, these are memories. Back-to-back weekend trips to New York and Seattle. Catch me if you can, I was one tired mother, but these weddings were up there. I'll tell you right now that if you're hopping a New York wedding, you need to:

Get a DJ that will play some amazing club bangers with a mix of a few golden oldies, but mostly the latest hotness. You know your DJ is the thermostat of the party, so if he's whack - drop it. By the way, everyone hates on Jay-Z's Empire State of Mind, but if you toss that in a New York wedding where spirits are high everyone will hop on that dance floor with hands in the air faster than you can say aitch to the izzo. Wrap it up with Run This Town and all hell breaks loose.
Give your DJ a nix list. All the no-go songs need to be clearly laid flat and killed. Even if a guest suggests a whack song, the DJ should be able to know that you don't want that mess on your dance floor. Nothing bleeds life from the party than a junk 5-minute chop of N'SYNC lateness. Medic, welcome the twenty-teens.
Hit up EatCakeBeMerry if you want your guests to gorge themselves on pastry pluses. Liz doesn't mess around and she's got skillz that killz.

Shout out props to Yohan and Grace for an awesome wedding. Thinking of you guys, a line that Jay-Z spit comes to mind, "You can pay for school, but you can't buy class." Most of all, congratulations.

Seattle is a beautiful, if not gray, city. It's got tons of stuff to do. You need to go there. The music is dirty hot, the people are confidently individualistic, the city is proud, the coffee will fry your brain, and the scenery is like sucking in air after you bite in an Altoid: fresh. It also helps if you have a first class host, and my friend Greg delivered in spades. Thanks, Greg.

Props to David and Ji-Hye. It was a white hot wedding and a crazy delicious reception. No one could've bust out a high class matrimony in less than 5 months better than you guys. It was an awesome wedding. Congratulations.

2010 Is Mine

I'm going back to school, friends. I'm going back to burn money, lose more sleep, and drink loads of coffee. I've recently been accepted into the IIT - Institute of Design [Chicago] gearing up for a Masters in Design. That's right, design. No finance, no business, no management - at least, not now.

It would take a whole entry to explain, but I'm going back to school to engage in the world of design thinking and how it affects organizations through products and services. I'm psyched to have an opportunity to learn about design and how, on a higher level, it addresses the dynamic needs of people through business, psychology and engineering. These will be learned in the context of the interaction, industrial, product, and planning design fields. More later.

Books I enjoyed:

The Tipping Point
Ignore Everbody
The Design of Everyday Things
Blink
Made to Stick
Tribes
Currently reading: Change by Design

I don't think Posterous allows me to post two separate photo galleries, so I'll just chop all the photographs together in a gallery for you below.

Memories 2009. It was a good time.

Cheers.

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Filed under // Family Friends Good Times joku Memories Weddings

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2009 11 2 | 16:24

Add Some Photo Flavor to Your Party

Two nights ago we had a chill Halloween party. Drink, food, games, etc.

It was a really chill night - nothing crazy or delinquent.

For kicks, I decided to add in a real-time photo hot-wall. I took pictures of people posing in their costumes on a digital camera and printed them out. Then, I doubled-backed some Scotch tape on them and started a collage on the wall. I got the idea from those photobooths available at wedding receptions for guests to just stop by and take photos as souvenirs.

To my surprise, it was a hit and people enjoyed posing and looking at other ridiculous pictures. I recommend offering something like this the next time you plan for a similar event. It's fun, it's a conversation/gathering piece, and it's a great way to document the event.

For the next time, I'll think of a better way to automate the event since my method [described below] is completely ad hoc and ineloquent. I'm thinking somewhere along the lines of Eye-fi card, wireless printer, [better] camera with tripod, and weak wall adhesives.

The Method [note: you're going to need someone to actually take the pictures unless you think of a better way to do it, like a photobooth at a wedding reception.]

Grab a digital camera. Have two memory cards ready.
Get a hold of a digital photo printer, preferably one that can download photos directly from a flash memory card. Most Canon PIXMA printers can do this.
- Note that the print speed is more important than the print quality. At events like this, the quality of the physical photograph itself is not as important to people who just want to see it. We need to still see it, but it's not being framed [maybe], get it?
- Use medium-grade 4x6 photo paper.
Take pictures. Post them on a wall where people can see them using the adhesive. Keep the wall close, but not that close to you so you can post pictures quickly but people can see them without you in the way.
I used two memory cards so I could maintain a take-pictures-while-pictures-are-printing rotation so the momentum didn't die.

As you can see - totally scrappy, but it worked.

Lastly, make sure it's not awkward, but the more random the photo, the better. The more comfortable the people, the funnier. Halloween is easy because everyone is whack - it's standard. However, for other events I would add in props associated with the theme of the event [i.e. birthday, holiday, house party] to provide some randomness.

Enjoy.