I came across this photo of Robert Scoble after he picked up an iPad over the weekend. I’m not sure there’s anything that I’ve purchased that has made me as happy!
Robert Scoble
I’m Taking a Pass on Foursquare
There’s an awful lot of excitement about Foursquare, a mobile social media service that lets you share and broadcast your location. Based on your activity, you badges and can become the mayor of a particular location (e.g. Starbucks) by visiting it more often than other Foursquare users.
After being scolded by Robert Scoble recently for not getting Foursquare, I decided to try it out. Although my test was fairly brief, it didn’t take long to realize Foursquare isn’t my cup of tea. While I can certainly see the appeal for some people, the idea of broadcasting my location doesn’t feel right. In fact, it makes me think of George Orwell’s
“1984″ as opposed to feeling that I’m on the cutting edge of social media activity.
Hey, we’re living in a world where we’re increasingly sharing more of what we do, think, see and eat but where does it end? For me, Twitter and my blogs are the tools to share things. At the same time, I like the idea of other people not exactly knowing where I’m located and what I’m doing.
Sure, you have to submit your location to Foursquare so it’s not like your mobile device is broadcast beacon. And I get that some (many?) people may like the idea of being able to tell friends where they are and what they’re doing so they can easily connect but there are other ways to do it – Twitter and Facebook.
My lack of interest in Foursquare may be off-base, and I may be overly concerned about my privacy or the amount of information that really needs to be shared with other people, but my spider-sense tingles when it comes to the service.
Is it just me or does Foursquare not resonate with other people? Am I missing something?
More: According to CNet, Foursquare is now available in many places around the world.
WordPress Takes It On the Chin
Over the weekend, Robert Scoble had a public (and well warranted) temper tantrum after his WordPress blog was hacked. Not surprisingly, the experience left him upset and digitally vulnerable. But what really disappointed Scoble was WordPress’ casual and, arguably, cavalier, reaction it could have been avoided if he had upgraded to version 2.8.4.
This led to a lively discussion on Friendfeed between Scoble and WordPress domo Matt Mullenweg.
Looking back, WordPress was technically correct in stating that blog users must be diligent by upgrading to avoid any security attacks. There’s a never-ending war going on between software makers and hackers, software makers new to keep counter-attacking.
That said, WordPress dropped the ball by publicly “shrugging its shoulders” with the you should have upgraded message. When your blog has been hacked, the last thing you want to be told is you’ve done something wrong by not upgrading.
From a PR perspective that doesn’t help the situation or make anyone feel any better about things. Instead, many WordPress users wanted to be told what to do, how to fix things, and whether there was anything else they should be worried about such as rogue plug-ins.
If there are lessons to be learned, WordPress has to be more pro-active approach to Web security. If it’s not safe to use versions of WordPress that may only be a few weeks old, then WordPress has to really spread the word – and more than a short message on the WordPress dashboard.
As Elliott Ng suggests, WordPress also needs to create a directory or system that identifies what plug-ins are “safe and which ones are funky”.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m big WordPress fan and user, and respect the work that Mullenweg has done to create and evangelize the technology. But WordPress needs to re-load on how it handles security, and how it deals with its millions of users from a communications and PR perspective.
More: Daring Fireball has some thoughts, including an observation that Movable Type users don’t get penalized for not upgrading, while econsultancy’s Patricio Robles offers some security tips.
(Note: This blog was hacked a couple of weeks ago, apparently by Black Hat SEO hackers. As you can imagine, it spooked me about the security of everything I do online, not just my WordPress blogs.)
Twitter Isn’t Over-Hyped; It’s Just Misunderstood
A week or so ago, I wrote a post looking at whether the shine was going to come off Twitter soon, and how it appeared that Twitter fatigue was creeping into the scene.
Recently, there have been some articles and blog posts about how anything and everything Twitter is over-reported – another sign that people are tiring of the Twitter story, if not Twitter itself.
Robert Scoble steps into the fray with a solid post about how he believes Twitter is under-hyped, and that it’s just starting to to scratch its potential as a valuable communications, business and marketing tool.
“I’m now convinced that Twitter has locked up a whole raft of businesses and that Twitter is actually worth five to 10 billion dollars,” he says.
Personally, I don’t think Twitter is under-hyped or over-hyped.
Instead, Twitter is just misunderstand – at least for now. Here’s why:
1. The 140-character (or less) limit seems like a restriction to many people. In fact, it’s a way of forcing companies and businesses to get to the point. You have to deliver the message quickly and succinctly without frills or hyperbole.
2. The fact it’s free and shows no signs of having a business model has likely caused many people to think Twitter is just SMS for older people, while teenagers use Facebook and text-messaging.
3. The ROI on Twitter is different from traditional ROI metrics within the marketing and advertising markets where the bottom line is higher sales.
With Twitter, you’re penalized if you blatantly try to sell because Twitter is a conversation medium, not a sales medium. On Twitter, you’re looking to build new and stronger relationships, which could lead to a more enhanced brand, word of mouth and, hopefully, higher sales.
4. Twitter is a platform so it’s a mistake to just focus Twitter itself as opposed to the ecosystem of third-party services built on the Twitter API. In fact, I would argue that the third-party services are far more interesting than Twitter, which continues to be a no-frills service.
5. While high-profile marketers such as Dell, Zappos, Comcast and Ford have embraced Twitter, and received a lot of attention for doing it, the vast majority of companies are still on the sidelines trying to figure out what it’s all about. In time, many of these companies will get Twitter, which will bolster Twitter’s role and value as a marketing and communications platform.
6. Twitter is still new and shiny, and growing like a weed so it’s attracting a lot of attention. In some respects, the tsunami of media and blog coverage has made it challenging for people to get Twitter because there’s just so much information being thrown at them. When the hype disappears, it could become easier for people to get their heads around Twitter the service.
7. From a public relations perspective, Twitter has taken a shotgun approach with its founder – Biz Stone, Ev Williams and Jack Dorsey – doing a flurry of interviews as the mainstream media tries to tell the Twitter story.
In some ways, this has confused many people because there seems to be a new story (e.g. Twitter will never charge people to use the service; Twitter will charge business users; Twitter doesn’t want advertising; Twitter wants advertising, etc.). This has made it hard to get a handle on what Twitter is going to do when it grows up.
7. It’s still early days for Twitter. It’s really only been a year since Twitter has seen strong growth – a report by Sysomos shows that 73% of Twitter users have joined this year. Like many companies and communications mediums, it will change, evolve and improve.
So, what do you think? Is Twitter over-hyped? Is it under-hyped as Scoble contends? Or it is misunderstood?
More: Ken Camp has a good post addressing each of Scoble’s points about Twitter on his blog, Stardust Global Ventures.
Cloud Computing: The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?
We’re in the midst of a revolution or maybe an evolution when it comes to how we use software.
Everything is going to be browser-based. The new OS is the Web browser. The cloud is the computer.
But is it really?
As much as I’m a Web 2.0 junkie (beta, anyone?), I’m also using a lot of software programs to work and play. The list includes:
- Microsoft Office
- Blogo and Ecto (blog publishing tools)
- TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop (Twitter)
- iTunes
- Apple Mail
- iCal
- Skype
And on my iPhone, I’ve happily downloaded a bunch of applications that have nothing to do with the Web browser.
So, the question is: are we over-hyping cloud computing? Are we putting too much faith in the cloud? Are we overly confident the services and data we have “out there” will be available any time and all the time?
I think the answer is “Yes”. There is no doubt cloud computing is going to dramatically change how we use applications and data. It is going to evolutionize the computing industry and how we interact with computers.
But it’s also important not to let the pendulum swing too far to one extreme. Right now, cloud computing is far from perfect, which means there is a role for offline software to happily co-exist.
For some interesting perspectives on cloud computing, check out a recent blog post by Robert Scoble, which he did after Twitter was crippled recently by a hacker attack. Scoble talks about how putting your data in someone else’s hands is a “pretty significant risk”, citing his experience with Flickr, which locked him out because his pro account had lapsed.
Another take – albeit characteristically flamboyant – comes from Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who riffs about how cloud computing is completely over-blown.
In looking at the hype surrounding cloud computing, Ellison opines that the “computer industry the only industry more fashion driven than the fashion industry”.
So, what do you think? Is cloud computing living up to the hype or over-blown?
