This one time at BarCamp…

Image via Wikipedia

My first BarCamp experience was amazing. It was open, inclusive, thought-provoking, and downright incredible. Basically, it was a big get together for hackers, coders, designers, marketers, and enthusiasts. There was no pre-ordained schedule, if you had a topic you wanted to discuss, you could discuss it.

The topics ranged from the deadly serious (internet privacy) to the not-so-serious-but-fun (record collecting). My greatest contribution was to the topic of online identity management — and why protecting your online handle is just as important as protecting your “real life” name. But that is for another post

But of course, the best part of BarCamp was the people. All the social media regulars were there like Miss604, but I also got to mingle with hackers and coders from isoHunt, Microsoft, and BCIT. There, I also learned how to get my HP Mini to run Snow Leopard — and that Mac OS X is actually more responsive on an Atom processor than Windows XP and Linux. Go figure!

Perhaps my best discovery at BarCamp was the Vancouver Hacker Space (check out their logo). From what I can tell, this cooperative is all about creativity. Their call a number get a URL project is fun, exciting, and promising. But the bigger question is: will they destroy the moon?

Will I attend again? Definitely. BarCamp was a refreshing perspective on tech and echoed the openness of net culture. Everyone who is interested computers, the Internet, and the future needs to attend BarCamp.

We Live in Public… Or Do We?

I was privileged to watch We Live in Public at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Great film, and my intent isn’t to do a review. (Here’s one, though). Rather, it’s to offer a different and opposing perspective.

Image via Wikipedia

Josh Harris believes the future lies in an Orwellian surveillance culture where everyone will watch everyone. And that may be true — if everyone was extraordinary. The big bold truth, though, is that most people are boring and not worth watching.

Is Everyone Interesting?

Few people are interesting, therefore few people are worth watching. If it were otherwise, all content would sell, the price of advertising would reach obscene levels, and we’d all be celebrities.

At present, the vast majority of tweets, blog posts, photos, YouTube videos, and Facebook profiles is the object of attention to perhaps ten people for five seconds — before being diverted elsewhere.

We may be broadcasting ourselves but we are boring, mundane people who — despite ourselves — sometimes do extraordinary things. The question is: who’s going to invest millions of dollars trying to uncover the interesting aspect of our lives?

The Future is WTF/OMG

For something to reach a critical mass of consumption, it must either have millions of dollars of marketing behind it, or must be so extraordinary it makes us utter “WTF” or “OMG”. Guess what? Companies willing to market mundane content are few: 20th century mass media is dying.

Image via Wikipedia

On the flip side, creating “WTF” is cheap, easy to produce, and easy to share. It advertises itself. If you have doubts, consider the insane word of mouth goatse, and 2 Girls 1 Cup generated. Naturally, no mainstream company is going to associate themselves with such extreme content. But the point remains, extraordinary things generates extraordinary attention.

I strongly believe the future of media is in “WTF”.

Actually, We Live in Private

Many describe Josh Harris’ QUIET social experiment as Orwellian. Actually, it was Randian. Those who participated were not bland, everyday people but a community of extraordinary artists. The resemblance to Bioshock is eery — including the guns. QUIET birthed profound creativity followed by painful destruction.

Josh Harris’ downfall came because he thought he was an extraordinary person, and not a lucky schmuck who chanced upon an $80 million fortune. In this, he decided to lifecast himself believing  he’d have a ready audience. Unfortunately, towards the end of his experience, few people were interested. He was not a celebrity. He was a man in denial.

Further Thoughts

Most of us live private lives by virtue of being uninteresting. In fact, we are doomed to a life of privacy because of the multitude of Facebook and Twitter statuses. Really, what in the mountain of data is worth more than five seconds of our attention?

The lesson of We Live in Public isn’t about the dangers of the Everyman being a celebrity. It’s the dangers of the Everyman trying to be a celebrity but failing because he’s boring. In fact, that’s why Josh Harris lost his fortune.

Review of the Stiletto 2

One day, I realized I needed new music. Problem is: where to find it? None of my friends share my taste in music. I hate local radio. And I tend to listen to music on the go.

So one day I asked Twitter, “What do you think of Sirius?” Taylor Mitchell from TSS-Radio was on the case and offered me an offer I couldn’t refuse. He offered a Stiletto 2 for review, and let me keep it if I like it. So will I keep it? Hell yeah! Let me explain.

It’s a Satellite Radio

This is what the Stiletto 2 does best — and for good reason. Satellite radio is clear, lacks static that comes with terrestrial radio, and offers affordable but premium service. If you’ve used satellite radio before, you know what to expect.

What makes the Stiletto 2 different is portability. You can listen to satellite radio when jogging — try doing that with most satellite receivers. Just be sure to be under clear blue sky.

My favourite feature of satellite radio is the ability to record songs you like. When Sirius means “record”, what they really mean is you can store the entire song on the Stiletto 2 for perpetuity. As soon as you hear it, you get to keep it for no extra fee. That beats Zune subscriptions any day.

Satellite radio is awesome, but you need clear blue sky

It’s an Internet Radio

If you can’t access satellite radio, you can receive Sirius progamming through WiFi. The bitrate quality isn’t on par with satellite, but if you need your Howard Stern fix, it suffices.

Again, it is nice to have a portable device that accesses radio through Internet. I can’t carry a laptop around when I’m in the gym, nor is streaming internet radio from a tower convenient. Why not get radio direct from WiFi? That’s exactly what the Stiletto 2 does.

Unfortunately, you cannot record music off the Internet like you can off satellite. I assume the RIAA has something to do with this.

Internet radio is also great -- especially if you're using a dedicated portable device

It’s an MP3 Player

As is, the Stiletto 2 has 2GB of onboard storage. However, a 16GB micro SD card can be inserted for total storage of 18GB. This gives the Stiletto 2 more storage capacity than a high end iPod Nano.

The Stiletto 2 is an excellent device for music. Like an iPod, its got a scroll wheel for easy navigation. Unlike an iPod, it can be used with a plethora of  music services like Yahoo! Music, Rhapsody, and Napster.

Here’s something other MP3 players cannot do: if you’re listening to Internet radio, you can mark a track for purchase at a later date. That makes for easy remembering.

The Stiletto 2 is compatible with Rhapsody

Synopsis

3 1/2 stars is my rating for the Stiletto 2. It’s not the perfect music device but it fits my lifestyle and does what it’s supposed to do. My biggest criticism is the Stiletto 2’s inability to record music off Internet radio. One other minor quibble is that the Stiletto 2 needs clear blue sky to work well.

Should you buy it? Absolutely. And if you do, be sure to check out TSS-Radio because they have excellent service and treat their customers well. Also be sure to follow @TSSTaylor and @TSSMario on Twitter for excellent insight into the satellite radio industry.

Adventures with YouTube and Flickr

One of my many goals on the Internet is to be an expert in all social media. I’m doing pretty well on a number of fronts: social bookmarking, blogging, and microblogging. However, I confess ignorance in visual social media — a blind spot I hope to rectify immediately.

Because of this, I have created accounts on Flickr and YouTube , and have begun to explore how these services can add to my social profile. Here are my initial observations.

YouTube

As I said in the above video, I’m destined for YouTube comedy because my pronounciation of the letter “S” is hilarious. With that said, my first passion is viral video, and the prospect of more lively interaction thrills me. This is why the Internet was made.

So far, I’m liking the social services that integrate with YouTube: Twitter, Facebook, and Google Reader. Whenever you upload a video or add a new subscription, other social services are pinged, and your friends are promptly notified.

YouTube also exists as a social network — with the ability to add friends. However, I question the relevance of this service, and wonder if it is abused by spammers. Thus far, the majority of my friends are from Twitter — people who are already familiar with me — so the social network function still holds promise.

Flickr

Had my Flickr account for a couple weeks now, and I’m pretty enthusiastic about its potential. So far, I’m averaging 30 views for each photo I upload — and that may increase as I add more pictures. Whenever I share these photos across my social networks, I get positive comments, and they are an excellent way to engage my audience.

What drove me to Flickr was the new iPhone app. Now I can upload my iPhone pictures — while also giving them a title, description, and tags. With this app, sharing photos has become more spontaneous and thus more social.

Flickr is the best photo sharing site for a reason: its features are many, and its community is tight knit. Clearly, the service was built for enthusiasts first. My only complaint is that its not obvious to me how to create a vanity URL, a la Facebook. This is forgiveable as I’m sure to spend days exploring Flickr’s many features.

#BlockMonday: Taking Back Twitter

#BlockMonday is a goalie and spam is a puck

In my last post, I revealed spammers’ evil Twitter marketing techniques. Let me reiterate, something must be done about Twitter’s spam problem. That “something” is #BlockMonday.

What is #BlockMonday?

#BlockMonday is a brilliant idea by @jcatw to report spammers to Twitter and to your friends. Think of it as the reverse of #FollowFriday. By typing “#BlockMonday @username” you are telling your followers that they, too, should block particular spammers.

Doesn’t Twitter Already Have Spam Reporting Mechanisms?

Yes, it does. By DMing @spam, Twitter management’s attention is called towards malicious spammers — in theory. The problem with this is you’re waiting for Twitter management to investigate whether a particular spammer is indeed that spammy.

#BlockMonday is more proactive. You don’t need to wait for a spammer’s account to be suspended by Twitter management. You block, and then you tell the Twitter community to block. Through this, a spammer will reach less victims.

What if a Spammer Retaliates?

This is a valid concern. If you believe spam reporting will make you a further target of spammers, don’t mention any names. Instead, report behaviour. Are you noticing that spammers have certain habits on Twitter? Report them, and tag them under #BlockMonday. This will help your followers differentiate between who should be followed, unfollowed, and — especially — blocked.

Spread the Word

For #BlockMonday to be a success, it needs a mass amount of participants. Tell your followers about the importance of fighting spam, and encourage their participation in #BlockMonday. Let’s make this hashtag a trending topic.

Evil Twitter Marketing Techniques

In a previous post, I spoke about how to monetize Twitter ethically. The keyword was “ethically” — because the truth is, it’s darn easy to monetize Twitter unethically. With this post, I will document less savoury tactics. Keep in mind I do not condone these techniques. The purpose of this post is to call attention to Twitter’s spam problem, and make you aware of how spammers abuse Twitter.

So what is the dirtiest, most evil way to do marketing on Twitter?

Afilliate Marketing is quite lucrative

Become an Affiliate

First, you need to find a lucrative niche that appeals to Twitter’s demographic. Because the median age of a Twitter user is 31, let’s go with golf. Interestingly, Google reveals many sites offer a golf affiliate program – some as a high as a 75% commision.

Gauge your competition. How many affiliates also concentrate on golf? What is the ratio of marketing-related tweets to “genuine” tweets about golf? And how many clicks will it take for you to live pretty?

The next step: swipe some Twitter profiles

Swipe Identities From Your Target Audience

Now you need to do research on the “typical” golf fan on Twitter. Is he a family man or a bachelor? Is he a CEO or blue collar worker? Study your audience’s one word bio. Copy it into your database for your own use later.

You’re then going to need some need photos for your various avatars. Use images that will appeal to your audience: golf clubs, CEOs exchanging handshakes, or a professional woman revealing copious cleavage. Now to start building an army Twitter profiles.

Now you need an army of clones

Friend Yourself 10,000 Times

What you need to do is create Twitter profiles. Lots of them. Use names that make your purpose plain: “GolfManiac” or “HoleInOne”. If you lack imagination, use numbers (for example: “GolfManiac2010”).

Now for the hard part. You need to establish social status on Twitter – and do it quickly. Gaining followers is the easiest way since it is assume that if 10,000 people follow you, your feed must be worth reading.

No problem! If you’ve created 10,000 Twitter identities, friend yourself 10,000 times. This will take a long time since Twitter’s API maxes out at 1,000 a day, but within 10 days, all your bot accounts will be respected member of Twitter – even though they didn’t tweet a damn thing yet.

Friends: they'll be there for you

Get Followers

To be successful, you need “real” followers. So should you follow any random person hoping they will follow you back? Not exactly. You need indiscriminate followers, preferably someone who is also trying to build their following. Therefore, you will aim for people who are following 5,000 people rather than 50.

But where to find such a person? Don’t fear. There is software that automatically vets your followship candidates. All you need to do is feed @guykawasaki’s follower’s into a database. Then tabulate who is following more than 5,000 people. Now you know who your bots should follow.

Now to feed your bots…

Set up an RSS feed

This next step isn’t an essential step, but it will prolong the effectiveness of your campaigns. You need tweets that people will pay attention to but also requires minimal effort. RSS does this. Do a search in Google News for “golf”. Now take the RSS feed of this search and set it up with Twitterfeed. Repeat ad infinitum with all your bots.

Eventually, your bots will be blocked en masse. Perhaps, Twitter will suspend your accounts. You cannot avoid this. But setting up a somewhat relevant RSS feed will prolong their lives.

Once the trigger gets pulled, the damage is done.

Release the Trigger

Now for the main event. You want clicks, and getting them is simple math. If each of your 10,000 bots has 500 “legitimate” followers, that’s 5,000,000 opportunities to make money.

Let’s automate the process. You’re going to manage this from one account. With TweetLater, schedule when tweets containing affiliate links will go out. Then take the RSS of your “pilot” account and feed them into bots using (you guessed it) Twitterfeed.

It’s just a matter of time. Once your bots tweet your affiliate links, your followers will be bombarded by one singular message. Since almost all your tweets are automated, even if 99% of your followers do not click, you’ve still made money with little effort. Afterall, one “pilot” tweet has 5,000,000 opportunities to make money.

We need to talk about Twitter's spam problem!

Why Talk About This?

Doubtless, there are many who will question my motivation for writing this post. However, by highlighting highly unethical marketing tactics, I spread awareness about Twitter’s spam problem. The problem will only get worse if nothing is done now.

So what can you do? Report spam. Participate in #BlockMonday. Share this post on Twitter. But above all, be picky with who you friend.

Why the Ow.ly Bar Owns

I am a keen fan of social bars. I think su.pr is the bees knees. And before DiggBar ceased to be a link shortener, I used it almost exclusively. Since then, Ow.ly has become my favourite.

Why? Because I think links should integrate with all social services. Facebook, Google Bookmarks, Digg, Reddit: the ow.ly bar rules them all.

Ow.ly is controversial, though. One particular Twitter user, @skitzzo, is fanatical against it. But I have counterpoints.

The Ow.ly Bar is an amazing cinematic experience

The Ow.ly Bar is Meant to Be Seen

@skitzzo believes you should only see the bar if you opt in. He is wrong. If people had to opt in, by default, they wouldn’t know it existed. Believe me, I actually want people to use the bar.

Using the Ow.ly Bar encourages retweets and gets people submitting content to social networks. Since my userpic stares them in the face, visitors know who sent the original tweet. Even better, I can track clicks with ow.ly, letting me know a particular link’s effectiveness.

So why not offer people a choice to see it? Actually, there is. If you don’t want to see it, you can opt out in the bar’s preferences. Sounds like a great compromise.

The Ow.ly Bar is an Important Piece to the Puzzle

The Ow.ly Bar is Great for Sharing

@skitzzo believes you don’t need social bar for sharing. He is right. Some websites have ShareThis buttons that make it easy. These sites don’t need the Ow.ly Bar.

Most sites don’t have said button, and I don’t have time to have a social omnipresence. Someone out of my nearly 16,000 followers will have a strong presence on a particular social site. Perhaps one of my them will make use of the Ow.ly Bar, and help content go viral. I could use all the help I can get.

The Ow.ly Bar does something every website should already do: optimize their content for sharing.

Know Your Rights!

Ow.ly Bar Preserves Content Rights

It is said that social bars steal content. This is @skitzzo’s real bone. He’s dead wrong too. Ow.ly doesn’t plagiarize, nor does it host content, therefore violates no copyright laws.

In fact, the Ow.ly Bar is no different from Google Reader or Pageflakes. It houses content but cites proper attribution. What is the difference between Google Reader, Pageflakes, and the Ow.ly Bar then?

Answer: it allows visitors to be ignorant of source URLs. Sure, they could find out if they curious. But if they’re too lazy or just don’t care, source URLs remains obscure.

The crux of the matter

What’s The Actual Beef?

The beef with the Ow.ly Bar isn’t about opt-in/opt-out, sharing, or copyright. It’s about advertising. The Ow.ly Bar doesn’t reveal source URL unless a visitor is curious. For those who must know what the source URL is, Ow.ly offers an opt-out option.

Even then, content producers have options. Like the New York Times does, iframes can be blocked. No one’s being held hostage.

So why don’t the majority of content producers block iframes? Because though they obscure source URLs, they also send traffic. It seems then that social bars have more positives than negatives.

Beware of Yahoo Answers

Is he really gay? REALLY?!

During the past few years, Yahoo Answers has been the go to place for stupid people with stupid questions. And consequently, it has been the go to place to laugh at said stupid people. The thing is, though, that’s not true. The Internet has been trolled.

Consider the following:

My 23 year old son “Harold” is a gay pornstar, however me and my wife have been assured by him that he is only “gay for pay” and is completely heterosexual. For one thing he is NEVER a bottom always uses a condom and only receives oral sex.

A few red flags. What son admits to his parents that he has gay sex — on film no less — yet is afraid to confess same-sex romantic feelings? Even more, which gay or straight son explains in gory detail the intricacies of his sex life?

Answer: none. We have been trolled. Anyone who seriously replies to this question has been trolled. Anyone who shares this URL has been trolled. Nobody is stupid enough ask this question unless they are looking for a certain response.

And, of course, the response is always the same — for any similar question. The aim is to get everyone to tsk tsk about the stupidity of Yahoo Answers. We inquire: “How can anyone ask such a stupid question?”

Yet nobody asks, “Why were we hoodwinked yet again by humble Yahoo Answers?” We won’t ask. We’re too clever for them.

100 Front Page Stories on Digg — And Counting

This headline pretty much captures my enthusiasm

Today marks a personal milestone for me. After lots of trial, and a whole lot of error, I got my 100th front paged story on Digg. It’s been a marathon. My first 450 submissions had no front page whatsoever. But after that, everything seemed to snap into place. I learned many lessons — not all of them fun — but they were all valuable. Let me share five of them with you.

Be Picky

Be picky about people you friend, and which stories you digg. There are a lot of shady characters on Digg: spammers, ponzi schemers, and social bottomfeeders. Even reputable journalists think nothing about using you for their own benefit. People who genuinely like you, those are the people to engage. Who are they? The ones who talk to you on AIM, reply to your tweets, and digg your submissions.

But just because someone is your friend doesn’t mean you should digg all their stuff. Only digg stuff you actually like. Make your friends work for your diggs. This way, everyone is held accountable.

Content is King

Yes, we all know personality has something to do with a submission’s success. At the end of the day, though, content has to be good. Out of my 838 submissions, only 100 have reached front page. Why is this? 738 of them were not up to par.

As I alluded, some power users have developed personality cults. With that said, this does not necessarily work in their favour. Personality cults attract buries. For something to hit front page, it must transcend the submitter’s popularity.

Engage People

On the other hand, content cannot speak for itself. The “social” in “social media” is there for a reason. Think something’s awesome? Convince people. Give it a good title, and an amazing description. Share it on Facebook and Twitter. Respond to peoples’ comments.

It’s a two way street, though. If you want people to give a damn about what you’re doing, give a damn about them. Comment on their submissions, share it on Twitter, and actually tell them you like their stuff. The point is, be social because you want to participate in media — no passively consume it.

Don’t Please Everyone

In fact, it’s impossible. Personally speaking, I love comedy and offbeat human interest stories. There’s a segment on Digg, though, that wants none of it. To them, Digg is about technology and politics — and there is no place for the lighter side of life. But so what? There’s plenty of Diggers who do want that material. Have those guys in mind when you submit stuff.

Otherwise everything you submit will be boring and lack spice.

Why So Serious?

There were times I got angry when a submission got buried. If people had taste, they’d see things my way. But in the end, a submission’s success is not in your hands but in the community’s. This is a good thing.

Sometimes, you just got to laugh it off, leave your computer, and go outside. Life’s too short to be taking Digg seriously.

Conclusion

Wow, it’s been 100 front page stories. It feels good to be exposing people to such amazing content. There will be more of that. Maybe at 200 front page stories, I’ll have more thoughts to share.

Have a New Site? You Need Community, Not Traffic

The first time a blog of mine hit Digg’s front page, I thought it hit the big time. Within a day, it got over 40,000 unique visitors. It got over 1700 diggs. The Digg community loved the content so much, someone produced a commentary that hit the front page again.

“This is it. I’ve finally arrived as a blogger,” I thought.

Then came reality. The next day, 15,000 unique visitors came to my blog. Then 7,000. Then 2,000. It was as though it never made Digg’s front page. But you know what the real kick in the eye was? I only made $35 with AdSense throughout this endeavour.

What was I doing wrong?

Lots, actually. Visitor bounce rate was 92% — a figure quite typical for Digg. The length of time spent on my blog was 30 seconds. Clearly, people were coming to see that one piece of content – then leaving. They were not interested in anything else.

They had no reason to stay. I was not established as a reliable source for unique content. My blog lacked personality. Most importantly, there was no community.

What was I lacking?

My blog had no community, no active commenters, no mindshare. When it blew up on Digg, no one bothered to visit again. This is because I didn’t interact with regular readers. Passive lurkers were not becoming active contributors.

So, how do you engage those people? As I learned, it’s not just about content. It’s about personality too. Give a personal opinion. Ask questions. Participate with commenters. Be willing to crack open your email and IM clients, and be responsive to your most loyal readers because they are the best resource you have.

This is how community is built. It’s a lot of work, is not easy to measure, and can be unpredictable. However, your first efforts should go into engaging passionate participants. These people will, in turn, convert casual readers into passionate participants. Soon, a community is born.

Want to blow up on Digg? First build a community to engage the Digg community. That’s when traffic from Digg will matter.