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One of my favorite tech journalists Om Malik coins the descriptor the 'Alive Web'. He says, "But, I think more than sharing—the discussion & the interaction—are what matter most." Is this the ethos of Namesake? Is the 'Alive Web' about to happen?
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I only want to repost one paragraph from his email newsletter because I he hasn't yet linked to the story.
Immediacy matters (by Om Malik)
These interactions are what made BBS, IRC and AOL Chat Rooms so popular. These interactions are why Twitter feels more alive than its bigger rival, Facebook. On this new Alive Web, what we miss doesn’t matter. What matters is the connection and the interactions. We get online to socialize instead of posting status updates, just as we would when we would go to our favorite club or a neighborhood bar.
This new web is less about page views and it is more about engagement and the economics of attention, two topics I have written about in the past. As I start to look into the future, it is clear that services and apps need to optimize around attention.
Tomorrow’s apps and services need to not only be social and mobile, but they need to be engaging and immediate. They should have the ability to signal to us that there is someone on the other side of the wire. Some of the instant messaging networks do a great job of signaling — always letting you know that someone on the other side is typing, so you wait for their response. This synchronicity is what makes Q&A service Quora feel more alive. Try it; it’s quite a thrill to see someone typing out answers. -
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It's awfully crazy reading this piece because this is *exactly* what we have tailored our product experience toward. We realize we're moving beyond a status update. People are looking to connect, learn and socialize through the act of sharing social objects. Is this new? Not really. Is this important? Very much so. Why? We're all much more comfortable n this new medium. With that comfort level—and far better tools—we can start to form true digital identities (and relationships). As I see it, the consumer Internet is becoming one large mashup. Every tool that we love YouTube, SouldCloud, Vimeo, Instagram, Flickr, etc are actors in the play of 'Alive Web'... How we thread these social objects together and form meaningful conversations is the next vista.
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The concept of Namesake and the ideas behind it definitely sound like the 'alive web' to me.
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@Brian Norgard Alive Web is a grasp at a new term, its what innovators do. I don't like it, but it could fit if it speaks to many people and signals the same meaning.
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This is so funny. This is literally how I contrasted Namesake v. several other social services last week. I said, "once you use Namesake for awhile...everything else just feels kind of dead. Too static. Not happening."
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@Andrew Skotzko It's an email newsletter item that won't be linked to for a few hours. You have to subscribe.
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Alive web is much more than sharing youtube videos, sharing music, sharing movie quotes, playing a game.
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Alive web is where we co-exist as whole personas.
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Where as a whole person we can transition from thought to physical relationships easily.
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@mark round Exactly. And from politics, to impressionist art, to sexual preference, to cooking. I'm me.
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What is missing are the tools for someone who isn't real-time participating with me, to gain a picture of who I am.
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"Some of the instant messaging networks do a great job of signaling — always letting you know that someone on the other side is typing, so you wait for their response. This synchronicity is what makes Q&A service Quora feel more alive. Try it; it’s quite a thrill to see someone typing out answers. "
Quora = coma alive. kidding.
@Brian Norgard I think it would be unbelievably amazing if we can get Om to discuss the Alive Web here on Namesake. How cool would that be. -
What is missing is the ability to emulate appreciation of the individual WITHIN the whole. What is working and is present is our real names, topics, following, endorsements, so many things that have provided Namesake with a unique if blended advantage over other social services.
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@Mike Puangmalai @Erik Engstrom @mark round @Andrew Skotzko We should all invite Om to Namesake via Twitter. I think he'll like it. How is in?
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If I wrote about the "alive web", I think it be pretty darn cool if someone tweeted/messaged me that there was a real time conversation discussing it.
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You might recall back to Namesake Live, the reason I'm here is to pursue the ability to make myself understood as a real person. In some ways that isn't possible in real life. How would I meet you? Where and what physical interests do we share that bring us together? In that way, pushing to make an alive Namesake with real people, real conversation, real integrity and shared experience... is socially greater impact than Twitter, if smaller in scope.
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@Brian Norgard Was this on his "Om Says" newsletter? I subscribed to that awhile ago but didn't see it.
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The single greatest pitfall of the internet has been the intellectual shallows created by instant-on contact with little investment or effort required to cultivate relationships. I am being myself, but I'm also looking for friends and villains here. The consumer web hasn't made us better conversationalists, cable news has robbed us of individual critical thinking and opinion. Even innovations like twitter rarely lead strangers following strangers unless there is a downstream interest.
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@Mike Puangmalai Hey in the Alive web we're free to experience a deep sensation of envy and inadequacy - and hopefully garner genuine laughs sharing it.
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@Brian Norgard @Andrew Skotzko Technical challenge/cost aside, isn't it intuitive that moving forward, bringing user generated voice, real-time discussion, video, still images into context of topics, time and real conversation as the outcome of this generation of innovation?
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Love the, "economics of attention" - It was Herb Allen who said, "Content is how a user chooses to spend time" Ah, the cliche, "Time is money", yes, but not emphatically so on digital pricing models? - when will the media economy catch up with how we're spending time?? (perhaps Pandora's success today a good indicator of attention moving w/ old content/new delivery?
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Brian - thanks for the kind words. I would say Alive web is already happening, we just have not noticed it too much and been busy with distractions.
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@Om Malik That's the nature of the Alive Web—it builds upon the massive mashup that is media and makes use of our societal ADHD.
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@Brian Norgard here is the link to the original post. http://t.co/Mog2FFN. @Scott Hurff it is mostly because of the persistent connectivity that the web is beginning to come "alive".
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@Om Malik so because we have pretty much always-on connectedness, the natural evolution is to create experiences where we have more things to do in the moment vs. waiting -- because we don't have to wait anymore to interact?
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@Andrew Skotzko there are a few other examples unfortunately cannot use them because of confidentiality issues.
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@Om Malik We have our bias at Namesake but it would be really interesting to hear your commentary on the subject matter.
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@Om Malik I've always wondered when the clouds would part and people would begin to see a world through a different lens than Facebook. I think that trend is upon us but what the hell do I know. I am just a dude, building stuff in the basement of my house.
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@Om Malik we've found that it triggers something very human. Lots of debate on the web end up a tendentious screeds or flame wars. Once you're in a converastion, you start to interact as people. This lets you quckly get at the root of issues.
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@Scott Hurff @Brian Norgard mobile is part of the connectedness continuum and what it is another screen that makes it easy to get access to interaction anytime, anywhere. As for Facebook, I think it is an issue for them that they are unable to
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@Om Malik We released 'expressive media' yesterday because we're also learning part of the 'Alive Web' is allowing users to remix content from anywhere, at anytime—this is how we create digital identity (through sharing media and conversing around it with friends).
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Sorry I hit return too soon. I think as for facebook, they do have an issue and they do need to make sure that they are not too caught up in in their own little user experience and start to change with times. My theory (as @Dan Gould would attest) are always based in the notion of broadband, persistent connectivity and why it matters.
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@Om Malik Could FB have experience block? Interesting to note their world view could be obfuscating their view.
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One of the things that is important here is that the conversations have identity, genesisge and persistence. Unlike IM and simple event/message-based communication channels, there is a hook to hang our attention on here, to return to, etc. That being said, I would also like to imagine a set of operations to merge, fork and otherwise interconnect conversations because existing ones spawn other ones, other ones can be collapsed down, marked as redundant, etc. The UI should reflect these operations a little more seamlessly than they already do.
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@Om Malik you seem to be placing Facebook at the center of the bullseye here -- that they're most at risk of missing out on this trend. Are they too caught up in their own massive world to care at this point?
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Lol @Dan Gould @Brian Norgard I think FB's decision to release their photo app shows that they are not sitting still. @Scott Hurff Hurff I think FB needs to adapt and change their approach to the web and the feed.
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FB definitely seems to care about not screwing it up. They're willing to take risks and try things.
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@Om Malik But they will have to challenge some longstanding beliefs about UX and how they integrate into the broader consumer Web.
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@Brian Norgard they're changed big parts of their UI before... even with a big installed base. But are they locked in to being the "family and college friends photo-shaing site" outside of the SV elite?
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@Om Malik @Dave Morin 's With.me pivot is something I don't think you'd ever see from Facebook. Call it Innovator's Dilemma of the highest order.
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once you're that huge its harder to change the course of a supertanker
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@Dan Gould @Brian Norgard i don't disagree with your on FB's ability to adapt/adopt and mutate. They have to and they have shown the willingness to do it anytime and that's what makes them fearsome. @Scott Hurff hurffAs for the new FB feed -- i have some ideas though not ready to share just yet :-)
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It's very centered on family/HS+college buddies for most folks.
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@Om Malik That's like driving an ice cream truck in front of office, turning on the music and then bailing! We're hungry for ideas. LOL.
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@Dan Gould their graph is their biggest strength and they are going to figure out a way to leverage it. Just as you are leveraging their graph to your advantage. @Brian Norgard Norgard you are funny.
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Seriously, I've never seen a company more focused, tactical and competitive than Facebook. I *know* they're going to morph into something very different in the next 2-3 years. Having a product lead like Zuck makes this a reality.
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@Dave Morin yep, with.me is gorgeous and I for some reason like having 5 push notifications every minute. Seriously.
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@Dave Morin I like the Zinka/80s surf culture colors you used in the application. You're speaking my language.
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So what was the motivation behind it vs. the concept of Path?
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So what was the motivation behind it vs. the concept of Path?
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@Dave Morin You've made 2 beautiful iPhone apps now—w/ and Path—are you going to shift fully from Path to with.me?
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I wrote up a blog post about it. But, it was an idea that had been brewing for quite some time at Path, actually. Back to even the earliest days.
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We have always talked about the idea of "crossing paths"
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We do hackathons once a month, and so this idea sort of continued to have legs.
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And, we built a simple web prototype in one day. People started using it and liked it.
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And kept trying it out (without photos actually).
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@Dave Morin And you ask yourself why we concoct multi year plans when great ideas can emerge in a weekend.
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So we decided to take our quality design and iOS engineering teams and point it at it.
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Our focus here is on creating high quality networks.
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We think With falls into that mission, just like Path.
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@Dave Morin how'd you seed the initial set of users?
I'm also seeing trends where people tag companies or restaurants they're currently with...an intriguing trend. -
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Or, I should say, companies they're using or restaurants they're at...it's like a more dynamic foursquare.
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@Dave Morin I get where you're going even if I disagree that you're using a hyper visual wedge (smartly).
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@Scott Hurff yeah, we saw the tagging of other objects in the initial user patterns and we thought it was really interesting.
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Our goal here was to build a similar experience to Path, but for the open web.
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The initial idea behind Path was to build the best way to bookmark your life and share it with people you trust.
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And, for those that like to share on the open web, we think With accomplishes this mission for those as well.
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I love this conversation. Going from talking about @Om Malik to talking with @Om Malik to having @Dave Morin talk about Path/Withme. Talk about alive conversations.
Anyway, to me, Facebook is a very linear/explicit place and we seem to be moving towards non-linear/implicit. -
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I wanted to tell him that I think he is right on point.
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@Dave Morin and how you're using Twitter as a backbone is interesting for sparking distribution. Businesses can instantly respond to people when they're interacting with it in whatever way (if they're on Twitter, of course) and people can easily identify with who's with who at any given time. I'm interested to see how you spread past Twitter.
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Iv'e been thinking about this a lot lately as well. However, I've been calling it "Live".
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@Dave Morin The 'Live' Web is for real because it takes us closer to how humans interact in the real world.
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I think of it fairly simply. At any given point there are millions of people connected to the Internet. Experiences like Namesake and Turntable enable you to have a live shared experience with some of those people.
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We're not there yet—but we're getting closer.
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We deepen connections with each other through shared experiences.
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@Dave Morin turntable.fm really got me thinking, and I'm glad you mentioned us in the same sentence.
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It's now possible to really do that through the Internet.
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I think that the desktop internet enables this is some ways (like this on Namesake).
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For mobile, I think it is more about actually getting people to share experiences in real life.
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@Dave Morin We've transitioned the experience to the mobile device and it's so much more fun... We can't wait to drop our application.
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Where you can dive deep into an experience -- but that experience has to be connected to the larger social Web. People want to be able to dive deep into something like music or photos with others.
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All of this is very exciting. Live is going to be an awesome new vein in the social web.
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Immediacy isn't new, as @Om Malik pointed out in the article - it dates back to at least BBSs. What *is* new is that now a vast number of people have a smartphone on them at all times, which amounts to a handheld portal into a virtual world. It's crazy that I can whip out my iPhone in line somewhere, have a 30 second conversation with someone in Russia, catch up on the news, and buy that book someone was telling me about - without ever even so much as sitting down.
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BTW I would also put Yobongo in the "Live" camp. They're doing really innovative things on Mobile.
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Solving for local liquidity is painful and very hard.
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@Brian Norgard I just stepped away to take a phone call. I think this conversation is pretty awesome and definitely needs beers ;-) even if they are virtual ones.
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I think we're at the point where enough people are online that you can use location + some broad filter. But there's not enough density for location cross some specific criteria. We're far away from the "walk in to a room and there's someone you might want to date"
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@Dave Morin @Om Malik we should have a scheduled conversation about the "Live/Alive Web" meme. People want to hear about this stuff. This would be a ton of fun.
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@Dave Morin I'm playing around in with.me right now and there's this blank square in the bottom left of the screen that I can click, but it doesn't do anything. What is that?
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I'd like to make another comment: we're all so lucky to be innovating, investing, writing and participating in this time in history.
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@Brian Norgard , Om newsletter in my inbox 10:37 PM, invite to the Namesake conversation centering around the newsletter 8:58 AM. Seeing them in chronological order concurrently… dangerous stuff, and I'm speaking from the point before @Om Malik ans @Dave Morin joined to conversation and made things really interesting.
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Andrew, that is your profile. Try rebooting the app.
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@briannorgard interesting concept. I like it a lot. I do believe this is the core of Namesake. I find his comment "what were missing doesn't matter" very interesting.
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@Dave Morin OK it worked on a reboot, after I went to my profile and gave it a sec to think, it finally pulled my thumbnail.
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@Dave Morin Had to fully shut down to app by double clicking home button and then click/holding the app, hitting minus button, etc.
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Be well. And, yes Brian, we are all incredibly lucky.
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I think the "fly on the wall" concept just became possible!!!
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Finally caught up. Step away to hire someone and poof, life happens.
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What the epic just happened? lol So much knowledge before lunch.
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So here's my question on iOS. I don't use it. Am I not worthy of participating in these apps and culture? Will these concepts, businesses and culture cross to other platforms and user bases? Will the same thing that appeals to an iPhone user appeal to an Android user?
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@briannorgard - to answer your specific question : I do feel the 'alive web' is a good name - descriptive. Not sure if someone will think of something catchier down the line - but this would be great if it did stick. It speaks of energy, and 'constant motion'
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@Erik Engstrom can you explain this a bit more? curious what your thought is on how to create this. "What is missing are the tools for someone who isn't real-time participating with me, to gain a picture of who I am."
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@Andrew Skotzko andrew - think you linked to the wrong twitter. this link you provide is to dccancel???
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How well are you really connecting with people if you use some of these Social Media tools - where you can set up your tweets for a week? That means, you have no idea what people will be thinking about in 4 days, or want to talk about, or what the hot topic will be - but your tweet - whatever you are choosing to type at that time so you can set this up and not have to tend to it again until next week - will be relevant to that person.
A lot of people use twitter to just put up motivational quotes, or announce something about their business/service. That isn't conversation. If you are tweeting and you are doing it 'in real time' - to me that is more 'alive' or relevant to the day than the former. -
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@Jaxi West A conversation has "real-time" interpretive meaning and context that is harder to grasp after the fact, or what I call "over-time". Watch the way a rapid pace real-time conversation goes as a participant and compare the energy and the effectiveness of comprehension after the fact. While there may be some really good points, information and some understanding of personality and response to another personality, I believe much is lost.
I believe that adjustments can be made that will greatly increase the ability for an "over-time" participant to quickly and more readily understand conversations, people, cliques of people, humor, points of similarity and interest. One of those could be adjusting the profile stream to show comments, instead of conversations and events of the user. Maybe another change also under profile would be to show voted comments and track back to the comment with a
I think it is essential that micro-topics and breakout conversation or ideas within the greater conversation thread can be zoomed into, linked in some way, or through mousing over participants, filter their comments. Anything that helps speed up the absorption, IMMERSES the reader (both real-time and over-time) will increase the ability of an individual to be understood, understand others and go places we can only dream of together. -
Just catching up - awesome conversation & sick addition of media. Nice work Namesakers
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