As I was signing up for yet another Web2.0 service, I realized that the interoperability between these services is growing. I’m starting to rely more and more on specific websites to take away the job that PC applications and other communication tools used to take care of. There are some core communication hubs and supporting technologies.
My communication hubs are:
My supporting technologies are:
Using all these tools and services might sound chaotic. And in a way it is. For me they all serve a specific purpose. I sign up for a lot of these services to try them out, but these are the ones that stuck.
There is overlap. Twitter, Utterz, Facebook and my blog all have “status” for example. But through web services I’m able to update them all in one shot. If I update Utterz, it will automatically create an entry in Twitter and that in return triggers a status update in Facebook and on my blog. That’s the cool thing that’s happening on the web today.
Below is a diagram of how all my services “talk” to each other.
Some other examples:
A new Photo on Flickr will automatically appear on my blog.
The last music I’ve listened to shows on my Facebook profile through a Facebook application
My latest blog entries are displayed on my facebook profile
By connecting these services, I can create relevancy for the people on my networks. Showing the last songs from Last.fm doesn’t make sense on my blog because it’s primarily oriented to my work, but it makes perfect sense on my facebook profile because it is a lot more about my personal life.
There’s still a long way to go but you can see the potential. We’ll see more of these services starting to connect better hopefully. A few services won’t let you extract data yet for example. I can use my Flickr images everywhere I want, I can embed them and there are API’s. But my images in Facebook are locked in. But Facebook has a great tool to help you share your images. So right now I end up uploading some pictures twice for two different purposes.
I’m also unable to transport my “social graph”. A social graph is a person’s network of relationships with other people. Right now I need to befriend everybody all over again for every service I sign ip with. I should just be able to tell all these services once who is able to be my friend where. I also should be able to create groups of people. A “friend group”, a “family” group, a “colleagues” group, a “soccer team” group, etc. I should then be able to assign privacy levels to each group. My friends and family can see my all photos, my colleagues can’t see any, and my soccer team only the pictures tagged “soccer” for example.
Initiative like Open Social are looking to solve this problem, but not everybody is playing along yet. Primarily because it’s in their interest to “lock” people in. But that will change. The internet is an open architecture and “walled gardens” have never, and will never work.
[UPDATE: here’s a nice interview with Google’s Kevin Marks about Open Social and the Social Graph API’s]
I know I’ve been light on postings in recent weeks. January and February are busy months here at Tourism BC. I hope to pick up the pace soon.
In the meantime, here’s where you can find me in the next few weeks:
Phil from rezgo interviewed me last week at the Canada-E-Connect conference last week. I just walked out of a conversation with another DMO who expressed frustrations about the office politics. That probably skewed my response. And I want to apologize to Jeremy for confusing his trend hunter company with trend watchers.
We just finished our blogging summit and panel at the PhoCusWright conference. Ram Badrinathan, Jens Thraenhart, Kevin May, Stephen Joyce and myself talked about our blogs, the opportunity User Generated Content brings for the travel industry and how blogs can be used in corporate PR. The room was packed, probably 50 people or more. The conversation was very diverse and insightful. Lots of people stayed after the session to ask questions and gave good feedback about the session. I’m very please about it.
Our blogger summit was also a great success. I was wondering how it would unfold. The first session before our panel was attended by about 15 people, most of whom blog. It was very nice to meet some of the people I follow online, and also to meet new people who blog.
The session after our panel was huge. The room was packed with people and was almost a continuation of the panel conversation, but this time with the whole room. Very cool. Lots of travel companies are struggling about developing strategies about how to deal with social media. Marthy from aimClear provided valuable insight and entertainment about social media marketing.
I’m very proud of a new term I invented when we were talking about the Tips from the T-List book; offline link baiting. That’s essentially what the book is.
The hour and a half flew by. I had a great time. Thanks everybody for attending the sessions.
I just launched the new look for my blog. Only for the homepage; not very professional, but I need to put pressure on myself to finish the other templates. The old template was the default Movable Type template and I wanted something more personal. Some details:
Header
The identification in the header is my own handwriting for a personal touch. The picture on the right is taken by my friend Steve on our trip in Holland, just after we arrived. So it’s me without sleep for 20 hours and a 9 hour flight.
Colour schema
Yes, it’s busy. But that’s intended. I wanted a geeky look and took my inspiration from a Dilbert cartoon and the colour schema of van Gogh’s Starry Night.
Web 2.0
I added two areas above my blog entries that are syndicated from Twitter and del.icio.us. The Twitter box grabs my latest tweed my my latest thoughts. The del.icio.us area displays the last links I’ve bookmarked. There is also a Flickr area in the right column where the last photos I’ve uploaded on Flickr are displayed.
I’m reasonably happy with it.
Chris Clarke interviewed me on the Canada-e-Connect blog. If you’re visiting from this blog and are interested in more information, check out these posts:
Karin Schmollgruber from the Fastenyourseatbelts blog also interviewed me a while ago.
I’m in Amsterdam for a week with my friend Steve. Just a quick break to visit some friends and family and show Steve around. It’s nice to have somebody with you who’s never been here. Makes you appreciate everything more. We’re staying at my Mom’s house at the moment. The first night, Steve suffered through an organized attach by my Mom’s four cats. One after another they decided to wake him up at periodic intervals while one of them tried to stare him down non-stop. It worked, we woke up at 4am (or was it the jet-lag?). We spend they day in Amsterdam were we walked around the city. We watched the sunset on the beach in Noordwijk (how romantic..). The next night Steve got the upper hand on the cats and slept for 15 hours uninterupted (so did I I).
A geek and a photographer at the start of their “Canadian Klootzak Tour”. That can’t be good…
Busted. You can’t get a geek away from his email.
Steve brought a camera from the 60’s for special back & white shots.
Amsterdam’s red light district in two words: sex and drugs
People in Amsterdam are strange, everybody that knows me will probably agree.
We also ran into my buddy Darth.
A break from our marathon walk on a patio at a canal, around the corner from the Anne Frank house. We opted not to visit due to the 300 person line-up.
Karin Schmollgruber provides great insights into travel and eBusiness. She also has great interviews. I found her interview with Ian Rumgay from Tripadvisor very interesting.
Karin interviewed me last week about our Blogging and User Generated Content efforts. It’s now published on her website.
My mother turns 60 today. Happy birthday mom.
My sister, who also lives in Vancouver, and I made a little website for her to mark to occasion.