Yesterday marked our fourth edition of Thinkup App Talks, a growing community I'm proud to be a part of. Among the core developers are two people I've followed for a while, Gina Trapani @GinaTrapani and Andy Baio @waxpancake, but there are many others I've met in the past few months who are bright, interesting, diverse people, excited to be a part of this effort. We all gather on the IRC channel #thinkup on irc.freenode.net which you can join via the web at http://lnx.so/tuirc.

Thinkup is an application that is installed on a server. Thinkup has a plugin architecture which will allow many new possibilities, but the first and most basic thing Thinkup does is monitor your Twitter feed, saving all posts you make. It then finds mentions of you and replies, calculates and displays interesting statistics about following and follower numbers and how they vary over time. Thinkup also has displays of posted photos, Google Maps display of replier locations and retweets and much more. There is a Facebook plugin that will follow activity on multiple Facebook pages of which you are a fan. If you are a fervent user of Twitter, be sure to take a look!

Information on how to install, configure and run Thinkup is here. There is a plan brewing to offer hosted Thinkup, which is in my opinion, a very good idea for those who don't run servers. This is the equivalent of using Wordpress.com for your blog. All the setup, management, housekeeping, updates, etc. are taking care of by this managed system. Here is our latest chat with Gina and Thinkup Community:

Thinkup App Talks, April Edition by Thinkup

I had a phone meeting set up with a new member of an agency's team, someone I've never met. After the obligatory Google, following the Linkedin profile link gave me the official bio and career info. But it wasn't until I looked up his Twitter account that I got to the more human factors. I saw that he joined Twitter a relatively short time ago, that he has posted a few hundred times since then, that he is on a small number of lists, has a small number of friends and even smaller number of followers, and his last post was two weeks ago. This would be a typical example of the average "ham sandwich" Twitter user, but since he's in Internet technology and has been for years, it surprised me. It was even more enlightening to look at the posts, absorb the interests, the level of acumen (how links are shared, use of @, RT, via), the choice of retweets and people he follows. Looking at this, you almost know the person, or at least one or two facets of the personality.

As opposed to Facebook, which will not be so revealing unless you "friend" the person, Twitter gives you a lot of the essentials of "knowing" someone without meeting them, without friending them, and without them knowing you looked at it at all.

When people try to proselytize me in the street, I find it not only annoying, but insulting. It's like saying, "since you're not capable of doing your own thinking, I'm telling you what the Truth really is." The relationship to automatic messages is this. Here's the typical DM when you follow someone:

"Hey $screen_name, great to connect! You might enjoy reading my blog, too at http://douchebagblog.com"

So basically, this says, "You followed me, but I guess you're not sufficiently competent to have looked at my Twitter profile for this URL and other info, so I'm going to send you a link, which you may also get by email."

Twitter mentions that "Many Twitter users receive email notifications when someone follows their account or check out the profiles of new followers to see if they share common interests." This isn't practical if your account is very active so often people automate replies to follows. Occasionally, one comes through that is original enough to actually evoke a laugh or some admiration, but most are dismally lame or even spammy.

The solution? You aren't too busy to actually write to a follower you care about to thank them personally, are you? And for those who aren't of particular interest, there's no need to thank them or comment. Do your research, it will pay off. And stop with the auto DMs!

If you happen to land here from somewhere

I gave up on Diaspora Project weeks ago. I have higher hopes for Google Plus because of the high number of Gmail accounts, plus it's a much more complete and completed project.

 

Here are a few reasons you might be into trying Diaspora which is in alpha testing with limited invites right now.

1. You're a geek and you want to try everything that comes out
2. You don't like Facebook and never have. The reasons are way too numerous to list
3. You're looking for a place to exchange ideas in a longer form than Twitter
4. You found Google Wave way too heavy, yet you worked hard to get invites
5. Google Buzz gave too much away and was too much a copy of Twitter
6. You are continuing your search for the "ultimate social network"
7. Whatever the future of Diaspora, it doesn't seem to be linked to a single company
8. Invites are scarce and you like to be in that exclusive group on that bleeding edge
9. You are an experienced tester and like testing and providing input to a group of creative people
10. The early joiners may have some influence on how Diaspora shapes up.
11. It's the middle on the night and you can't sleep

Many of my own reasons are above, except I'm posting this at 11:50 AM and I've already experienced the ultimate social network, which happened before the Internet existed. I do think there's room for more ideas and I hope Diaspora will reach critical mass. I'll do what I can to bring people in.

You can reach me on diaspora here : randulo@joindiaspora.com- it's not an email address

I think for me it happened around 1977. I was living in L.A. at that time, and since I had been interested in amateur radio as a kid, I found out there was a whole social network out there on VHF and UHF repeaters in the L.A. Basin, mountains and valleys. People used to check in all day, just like Twitter or Facebook, and meet up in person all over the area. In fact, I met a few women back in the day. One of them went on to become a radio operator on an Arco ship. I wonder if she's still working for an oil company? Her passport said, "Occupaton: Seaman", which made her (and us) laugh.

Speaking of L.A. reminds me of a moment down there in 1993. I was down in Orange County somewhere, we were recording What Kind of World with Larry Taylor who was playing with Tom Waits at the time, and the drummer from Waits' band whose name escapes me for the moment. Larry and I were staying in a motel, on the PCH, I think and there was some slow traffic going by even in the middle of the night. Then came a van with a 1,000 watt boom box system playing at 11. What's funny is, it was playing opera music. Only in L.A. would you get this!

Twenty years after my first experience with L.A. social networking, in 1987, I was using a tool at the office daily that I didn't understand at all, called the Internet. You typed some commands on a Unix console and were copying or fetching files between France and the USA at a rate so slow it took all day for source code archives, which is all text.

In 2006, I heard about this crazy new thing called Twitter, which mostly did what my Chez DiDi site was doing ten years before, a kind of chat on  a regular HTML web site. In those days (only 4 years ago!) you could call the guys from Twitter on their cells, so I did that early in 2007 and Jack was nice enough to put our Kiva Talkathon on the front page of Twitter for a week before it happened. Yes, we were  a trending topic! But how many people were on Twitter 3 years ago? A hundred thousand? Maybe less?

In 2007 I joined Facebook, although I also left it in 2007. At that time you got the "you can come back anytime" and the answer to how to delete an account was "you can't". That's right, I had to argue via email for two weeks with someone over there until they promised to delete my account and all associated data. Not that there was much of that, since I didn't post much. I don't use Facebook except on behalf of other people, and every time I get on the site I marvel at how bad it is as a web site. Searching is confused and works poorly, finding hard info on dealing with various problems is hard.

A lot has happened since 1997, but the basic concepts of social networks haven't changed and probably never will. Note that because radio waves travel at the speed of light, communication on those social networks was faster in 1997 than it is now.

 

I'll use myself as an example in this, but this expresses my own philosophy.

Like most of the billions of humans on the planet, I have some unique aspects, good and bad. I've lived half my life in the USA, half in Europe. I have had numerous careers in music, tech, PR, radiotelephony, voip and I've hung out with a lot of different types of people, not just one crowd. I try to curate links I find of interest and post them when I feel they are appropriate. I retweet, not to curry favor, but to reinforce things freinds have posted. I usually keep four-letter words at bay on Twitter even though those who know me have heard me say them all the time.

Twitter is a cocktail party. Walk around, mingle, but walk away from conversations or people that don't engage your interest.

photo: MediaBistro

So, follow me if you are interested in what I have to say, based on your interests.

You should periodically look at those you follow and remove people who never catch or retain your interest. There is no stigma to someone you stop following, even though there are tools for the insecure to know the exact Tweet before someone unfollows you. Was it that tuna pizza with Croze Hermitage that made you unfollow? Or the security alert about ATM hacking? If I post about food, it won't be a ham sandwich. If I post about wine, it will usually be about one that surprised me. If I post about sex... well I probably won't. And religion is in the heart, not to be bandied about on a lightweight medium with 140 characters to express an idea.

Unfollow me if:

- I start systematically notifying the world of my location

- I use any service that auto-posts something you don't care about (like a new avatar or a wine I drank) evey time I use it

- my stream is nothing but links to my own sites

- I try to sell you something

- I shill for a contest to win something I could easily afford

- I use sponsored links that insert ads at the top for a commission paid to me

- I direct-message you with a generic thanks for the follow

- I insult or disrespect any individual or group publicly (does not include companies, who so often deserve to be publically berated)

- anything I say offends you deeply (politics, religion, sex, Ebay, Orange)

- you lose interest in what I'm saying for any reason

Make sense?

Now get outta here, I mean it! (Bill Murray, SNL)

Isn't social networking great? It can be, anyway. It's fun and it
feels good, mostly. It can advance your business, get you help by
"crowdsourcing", give you a Zen-like feeling about being part of the
universe. The Internet has fulfilled many of my own dreams and gone
beyond them in some ways.

 I have had the chance to interact in a meaningful way with authors of
technical books I bought, ask questions, get answers, and give them
valuable feedback. I have also taken the trouble to post a few reviews
of expensive technical books, when I thought it was a good idea to
warn people off buying them. While this wasn't a service to the author
of the bad book, it is to the prospective buyers. I have also met many
interesting people in person after getting to know them online. We've
all had these experiences, positive, enriching, win-win situations,
often turning into friendships.

 So what am I bitching about? The Internet is but a reflection of human
nature with a bit of a magnifying glass effect since people will often
be a little more extreme knowing they're not risking being punched
out, slapped or - and this is the big one - not going to be re-invited
to the party. Social networking over the last few years, has created
one type of person I am totally tired of seeing appear everywhere:
the user.

 Everyone knows that on Twitter, for example, you at least occasionally
will re-tweet someone you know or suggest them as worthy of following.
You scratch my back, and I scratch yours, the French call it "sending
the elevator back". On forums, you'll try to come up with useful
answers to queries, share your experience and refrain from always
tooting your own horn. Unfortunately, there are always people who
somehow don't get the party beyond self-promotion. They just use the
media, which doesn't bother as much as when they use people.
Eventually, this grates on the most patient people's nerves. Sure, you
can ignore the borderline spam, but then it interferes with the
efficient reading of a discussion.

 Do you know anyone who constantly answers every forum post with an
invitation to join her site and post content there (thus enriching her
content capital free)? I see this constantly from one specific person
ona forum I frequent. Now here's the punchline: you know who I'm
talking about, right? Yet, we're probably not thinking of the same
person at all, because it's a personality type, not just a unique
person. Not only do I avoid people who promise you the moon and suck
up content from you, but I recommend to real friends they stay away
from these media vampires. The world keeps getting smaller and
eventually the users will be cornered and lynched, metaphorically
speaking.

I have been running my own company since 1989, but in the past, I've had a lot of different ways of bringing home the bacon, which I don't eat anymore:

 American Petrochemical: Lab assistant in a plastics and paint factory

 Chicken Delight: Cole slaw maker, blow torch operator, delivery boy

 Vincent Van Go-Go: 6 night a week bar gig (all day free at the beach)

 various music gigs in Twin Cities

 USAF: Cryptographer (not fun)

 various music gigs and recordings in California

 John Mayall tours to Europe and Asia

 Various blues and jazz gigs with John Lee Hooker, John Klemmer

 Laser Images: Laserist and Laserist manager in Van Nuys, CA.

 Universal Studios: Radio technician

 KMEX: video technician

 Générale des Eaux: programmer for small systems, then mini-computers

 GTIE: CAD/CAM manager

 Intergraph France: Liaison for software developed in France (We were on the Internet in 1987 using things like rpipe and telnet.)

 Independent, then founded the company

 Of all the stuff on the list, only a few things really stand out, things that when learned early in life can serve you well. For example,

 - after working in fast food, I can tell you: you should never eat things made be teenagers unless they live with you. Even then, you probably wouldn't want to.

 - you should be thankful there is no obligatory military service, although you learn a lot from the experience which basically amounts to incarceration. Fortunately, I did not get sent to 'Nam.

 - I learned a lot about computing by taking advantage of the training a DEC for operating systems like RT-11, RSX-11 both running on the PDP-11. I took home each of the 20 volumes of documentation of each system and read them through.

 - earning your money as a musician is "fantastically awesome" during the time of your life when you can say those words with conviction. After about 35, it's not that great. Good money (when you can sleep in a room), lots of chicks and playing is a great expression of emotion. Seeing what the guys become later in life is another story. Several of my musician friends are dead.

 - one of the most memorable moments I had was working as a laserist at Griffith Park Observatory. On a few rare nights, the entire L.A. basin was covered in clouds and the observatory was above them. I looked out over a white, fluffy sea of clouds, covered in the bright moonlight from a small island that was to top of the hill. Unforgettable! Someone must have photographed this?

At the end of a hard day, we like to look at 100% fantasy from the heavy Millenium to the light and airy The Pretender. What made me think of the Pretender just now was the opening sequence:

There are Pretenders among us. Geniuses with the ability to become anyone they want to be.

You don't need to be a genius to invent yourself on Twitter, but a little creativity goes a long way. I've been reading through countless 140-character bios of Twitter users, and it's pretty amazing what you find. The Pretender opening line popped into my head while reading some them. My own profile is pretty pedestrian, basically a list of my interests. What is fascinating is how people re-invent themselves in the mini bios.
 
I wonder if in a few years there will be psychology majors pumping out doctorates about how people fashion their personae on social networks (regardless of which social networks survive). [By the way, it's pretty amazing that a spell checker in my mail client knew the plural of persona, don't you think?]
 
How's Second Life doing? I have the impression it's faltering. Are companies leaving? Talk about Pretenders though, that's the place to invent yourself from A to Z. Back to Twitter, less is more is definitely true of much great art, but are all artists good at minimalism?
 
Here are a few comments I have about Twitter:
 
I don't care how many people are following me or how many read this Posterous series nor do I care how many people follow the people I follow. What I care about is the quality of connectivity. Can we have a short conversation of some kind? I just had three or four this morning. Actual thoughts and ideas were exchanged. The numbers are only important for the Pretenders among us.
 
If you have SEO, diva, expert and other like words in your bio, I know you are not of interest to me. You see, you are no better or worse than me or anyone else on Twitter. Calling yourself a diva or an expert marks you as a one of the Pretenders among us. My step mom used to say, "He who says, doesn't know. He who knows, doesn't say." You're one in a sea of Pretenders, humility and sincerity are in order.
 
When you auto-DM followers with "Check out my site" you are being like the people that come up to you on the street and try to talk you into their religion. This is an insult, in the one case because the religious claim to have a monopoly on the Truth and on the other because I've been on the Internet long enough to find your site if I'm interested. The auto-DM thing comes from the Pretenders among us.
 
You can be a successful Pretender on Twitter, but you won't be among me for long.