Month: March 2008

Twitter Thoughts from BarCampNYC3

twitter2 I started using Twitter a little over a year ago, when I first encountered it while at Northern Voice 2007, and am still active there at http://twitter.com/JeffreyKeefer. Since then, it has become more popular in the last year. I am still surprised with how many people use it for such a variety of purposes, yet there are no usage costs or advertisements on it or otherwise anything that seems questionable.

One of the BarCampNYC3 sessions yesterday speculated about several future revenue models that may or may not be in their business plan. What struck me is that Twitter allows, and even encourages, developers to use the Twitter data in other applications, which is interesting since all of the Twitter data and posts have been available and indexed on Google for some time. If it goes on Twitter, count on it being part of the public Web.

While I do not know Twitter’s business model and am not an investor in their technology, as a user I find their product the pinnacle of clarity and openness. Let’s hope as the technology begins to go mainstream, that they do not turn on their customers.

Come to think of it, does Twitter even have customers?

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Jeffrey’s Twitter Updates for 2008-03-15

  • @maniactive Wow, you should start mail order of them. Sound even better thinking about them now. #
  • @betsyweber VA is closer to Europe . . . #
  • The 1 2 and 3 trains are delayed due to a stalled train. Running late for #barcampnyc. #
  • Seems the trains are starting to run again, but rather delayed. #
  • Forgot my camera for #barcampnyc3. Will have to blog more instead. #
  • Forgot if the tag should be #barcampnyc or #barcampnyc3. It would have been easier to remember but the Twitter name has changed for it. #
  • I see Eric just used the tag #barcampnyc3 so I guess that is the tag to use. #
  • Would help with boxes but still stuck for the delayed trains. Here it comes! #
  • Bible woman on the street, with pamphlet in hand, asked me if there was such a thing as true religion. "No, there’s not" I responded. #
  • Give her something to think about. #
  • At #barcampnyc3. Seems the unconference involves the sign-in, too. Sweet t-shirts, already worth the trip. #
  • @injenuity Once a teacher, always a teacher! #
  • @injenuity It took me many years to not be threatened by open questions. #
  • #BarCampNYC3 is starting. About 100 people here for this. #
  • I see fewer laptops liveblogging #BarCampNYC3 during the intro session than I expected. Perhaps still early? #
  • @mashable Feel better, Pete. #
  • Wonder if the is a #barcampnyc3 back channel for chat? #
  • Muffins at #barcampnyc3 are really good. #
  • The wall for the unconference session is in a cramped hallway. Not cool. Literally. #
  • @ChrisRicca I feel the same about the initial awkwardness. #
  • @ChrisRicca I feel the same about the initial awkwardness. #
  • Interesting discusion at #barcampnyc3 about OpenID and identification and authentication system. Lots of ideas, but no solutions. #
  • More than that, people seem really excited to discuss all the problems with these different systems. The facilitator asked for solutions. #
  • Bought a sandwich in the cafeteria. Very long line. Getting a latte at Starbucks now. #
  • Gorgeous and sunny out. Hope to find outdoor seating. #
  • Found a seat in this little outdoor plaza. First time I have eaten outside this year. Helps put me in a rosier mood. #
  • @slmader Very true. When will you be out here again? #
  • @arjunsingh I just liveblogged about another Canadian blogging politician. #
  • @leelefever I was plugging your Twitter video at #BarCampNYC3 this morning. #
  • Attending a #barcampnyc3 session on Twitter’s business model. #
  • Discussing Twitter’s business model. #
  • @cogdog Good thing you are not working in fast food and hospitality services then! Really, it is better for us you are not working there! #
  • Major wifi access problems at Polytechnic for #barcampnyc3. #
  • Burgers at Corner Bistro again. Yumm. #

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What is Chumby?

This is a session to discuss Chumby, which I recall hearing about but have never seen. Alexandre Rafalovitch was the presenter.

Chumby is Linux-based, uses wifi, flash lite widget, touchscreen, accelerometer, speakers, and usb. It is corded and small.

It is not supposed to be a computer replacement, but an augmenter.

It integrates with Winamp, radio stations, iPod, alarm, and has open architecture so things can be written for it.

There is a Chumby forum where people make suggestions and other people then consider writing their own applications for it. One of them suggested having a pill reminder, which reminds me of the medication management issues in and around telehealth.

Chumby seems like a great piece of hardware, and I want to look into this tool more. This has been one of the more interesting sessions today!

Blogs as Community

Max from Microsoft started to speak about Microsoft Channel 9. The goal was to get information out to the developers within the company. It was called Channel 9 since that is the airline channel where the information between the pilots and the control tower can be heard.

Max is speaking about Channel 8. He showed us the current blog appearance of the Channel 8, which looks and feels like a blog with reversed chronological feeds.

On the new appearance, Max was showing us elements of the new site design. He then used the people in this session as a usability discussion group. There was some interesting feedback from a usability perspective. It included some work on anonymity, including your personal avatar, and even a rotating discussion post.

The moderator plays a larger roll.

There is some discussion about chatting and how advertising has colored our use and expectations of technology. There was an example of some building of a community because there was user input into the building of a computer, and then it was given away at the end. The give-away seemed to help community.

There is really a big issue with the wifi access here at BarCampNYC3. I do not see a lot of people using laptops here, perhaps less than 20%. I do not think the wifi system here at Polytechnic can handle this small number.

What causes people to interact, even here in our sessions? There is a fear of not looking stupid, or lacking in information.

The discussion is starting to get a bit unfocused, as can happen in unconference sessions, but I am no longer paying much attention.

Ahh, time to go and thus to post this.

Twitter’s Business Model

So, a session on Twitter’s business model. There is no idea what this is, so it may be an interesting discussion.

Twitter seems to be focusing on their traction. Andrew Parker is the presenter, or discussant. He did not introduce himself, so I asked.

He is starting to speak about different kinds of business models, such as generic and native business models. People are speaking about service charges for sending and receiving sms text messages.

I have no idea where this discussion is going. I will give it 3 more minutes before I change to another session.

Traction can precede a business model, and while Biz Stone has gone on record claiming that Twitter does not have a business model and is only working on traction, they have still gained funding. Twitter has a huge data set, and there was some discussion about what to do with this set of data.

Should Twitter be creating bots (such as weather), or should they continue to allow others to create these based on the Twitter data source? How about bots that bring data into Twitter?

How about if Twitter started adding ads, like Facebook has done? Facebook started this after the critical mass, and perhaps that is what Twitter is doing? Perhaps also they can have an ad every 20 Tweets or so, and then charge a few dollars a month.

I wonder if that would make people move to another service, as the next shiny object! Interesting how the different ways people access Twitter shows different business models.