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Psych-out: What do your Twitter messages say about you?

Posted by andreaitis on June 15, 2009

Those 140 characters are feeling pretty heavy about now.

Social media and marketing researcher Dan Zarrella is debuting a new way to see into the minds of Twitter users by analyzing their most recent 1,000 tweets.

TweetPsych uses two linguistic analysis methods to build a psychological profile of a person based on the content of their tweets. It compares the content of a user’s tweets to a baseline reading Zarella built by analyzing over 1.5 million random tweets and shows the areas where that user stands out.

via What the Little Bird Told Me About You: Three Twitter Apps for Psych Analysis

Other tweet-analyzing apps:  Mailana, showing Twitter conversations and links between different users,  and  WhenDidYouJoinTwitter which shows, um, the date when you joined Twitter.

I really don’t want my Twitter messages analyzed.  I don’t want to have to think about my Twitter messages being analyzed.   I would like to opt out of Twitter analysis.

Meanwhile, I hear Twitter’s considering a new tagline: “Where id was, there shall ego tweet.”  And, in case you were wondering, @sigmundfreud has only one follower.

Posted in technology | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Deny no more: AP Stylebook includes Twitter

Posted by andreaitis on June 12, 2009

AP Stylebook, 2004 edition

Image via Wikipedia

As if the media bandwagon needed more incentive to jump – or more proof of the need to experiment, adapt and change – the bible for newsrooms everywhere has now legitimized Twitter.

Twitter, the social networking tool that has turned millions of people around the world into instant micro-bloggers, has made it into the 2009 edition of The Associated Press Stylebook, along with complicated business terms such as credit default swaps and derivatives that have gained more exposure amid the global recession.

Twitter, the Middle Eastern eggplant dish baba ghanoush and texting as a verb are among more than 60 new or updated entries in the new AP Stylebook, which includes more business, food, medical and Arabic terms and expanded information on major U.S. and international companies.

via Associated Press

Of course, CNN was way ahead of this curve.

Posted in Newspapers, technology | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

True/Slant News Cruise

Posted by andreaitis on June 9, 2009

I read Jeff Koyen’s post The world’s 10 worst cruises yesterday with a sense of superiority and snark.  Who would go on an Adventures in Parrotdise Cruise? Or a Float2Paradise Psychic Medium Cruise?  Do I even know anyone who knows anyone who would go?   The only possible reason I could fathom dramamine-ing up for ShipRocked or Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Simple Man Cruise would be to cover it for a story.

Except… late at night,  as I was waiting for the Beta day adrenaline to dissipate,  my mind wandered.   Jeff identified the top 10 plus several more of these wacky theme cruises.  Clearly, people are going.  It must be a lot of people, making lots of money for the cruise lines, or there wouldn’t be so many of them.

And that’s when it hit me: a True/Slant News Cruise

Before you scoff and smirk, let me explain.  We’re a new business in a tough economy.  We know it’ll take a while for the advertising market to bounce back, so it makes sense to look at other revenue opportunities.  If James Carville and Mary Matalin can do it, why can’t we?

Here’s how it would work:

* Our 100+ contributors would be on board.  They would sit with passengers during meals and chat and be generally sociable.  Except for Taibbi.  We’ll exempt him from this part.

* We’ll set up discussions on various news topics, featuring our contributors.  We’ll also set up some debates.  Rick Ungar will argue with everyone.

* We’ll have News Tech 101 sessions, where we teach people how to find news on the Internet and their mobile devices, how to use Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, etc.

* We’ll have some special cooking seminars with Robin Dorian, Mike Hess and Susan Toepfer.

* At night, we’ll have a T/S Jam Session.  After all, we have some real-live musicians on the site.  Rozzo, Knowles and Carlozo, start working on the set list now.

These are just initial thoughts, but you can see the potential.

I’ll get to work on the business plan.  Who’s in, and what’re you bringing to the (floating) table?

Posted in technology, travel | Tagged: , , , | 22 Comments »

True/Slant Beta: What's in it for you?

Posted by andreaitis on June 7, 2009

On July 1st,  LD, Coates and I sat in a room.

End of August, Steve joined us.

In September we started to build…  A few contributors started to post in November… In April we launched our Alpha release… and now, on June 8th, we bring you our True/Slant Beta.

What’s in it for you?

Topics: We now have several places to easily find contributors and content by topic, including a Topics button in the black navigation bar and a By Topic tab in the contributor module, top right on our homepage.

Index pages: Improvements to Contributor, Headline Grabs and RSS pages, including a See All button for an easier way to scan.

Contributor Activity Feeds: Expanded activity feeds on contributor pages so you can follow their new posts, active conversations and see whose comments they’ve called out.

Account area: Log in and click on your name in red at the top of the page to see the new and improved account area.

Ads: Okay, this one’s for us but we’re excited to launch with ads from The Economist.

RSS 2.0 feeds: New and updated feeds available across the site for Topics, Contributors and more.

Search Results: Better searching, better results.  Try it.

New registration process: Simpler and streamlined.

And let’s not forget: Behind-the-scenes updates especially for our 100+ contributors, to make it easier for them to post, share and engage.  Also, behind-the-scenes updates especially for you, to make T/S  faster and stronger.

We consider our Beta release just the beginning.   If you’ve been with us before, we hope you enjoy these updates.   If you’re new to True/Slant, jump in and join us.  Sign up, follow a few contributors and comment on some posts.

Most of all, welcome to True/Slant.


Posted in technology, Uncategorized | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

7 Million Twitter accounts and the sounds of silence

Posted by andreaitis on June 6, 2009

Web security firm Purewire just released an analysis of seven million Twitter accounts.   Techcrunch did some number-crunching:

What stands out from this data is that about a quarter of all accounts are not following anybody, nearly 30 percent have zero followers, and more than a third have not posted a single Tweet. The problem with all of this data, however, is that it includes abandoned accounts (as most likely does the Harvard data as well).

Like any popular Web service, millions of people create a Twitter account, try it once, and never come back again. The Purewire data shows that about 40 percent of users have not sent out a Tweet since the day they created their accounts. You can compare this with the 60 percent abandonment rate claimed by Nielsen. But even these may not be the true abandonment rates. Just because you are not Tweeting does not mean you are not listening.

via On Twitter, Most People Are Sheep: 80 Percent Of Accounts Have Fewer Than 10 Followers

Are these numbers surprising? Nope.  But the last sentence is key: Just because you are not Tweeting does not mean you are not listening.

In online communities — forums, message boards, even blogs — there has always been a common ratio of active vs passive users.   That ratio shows that you will, without a doubt, always find more lurkers than post-ers.  Many more people will engage passively than participate actively.  At AOL, this was a constant, sometimes by a huge margin of readers to post-er.

Does that mean the ‘readers’ aren’t participating?  Of course not.  The word ‘follower’ gets a bad rap. One doesn’t have to post Twitter messages to be an engaged user. The followers are out there, and they’re not going away.  That only increases the need for organization of content on Twitter through search, trending and grouping mechanisms.

Now, come follow me at twitter.com/andreaitis.

Posted in technology, twitter | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Google's Sergey Brin remembers his teacher

Posted by andreaitis on June 6, 2009

Rajeev Motwani

Image by drona via Flickr

We know the faces of modern technology: Bill Gates. Steve Jobs. Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

We don’t often know the faces behind them, the people who advise and guide and push.

Stanford Professor and savvy angel investor Rajeev Motwani was one of those faces. Today, the tech community is still reeling from his unexpected and untimely death.  Google founder Sergey Brin is among those trying to make sense of it.

As he wrote on his blog:

It is with great sadness that I write about the passing of my teacher and good friend Professor Rajeev Motwani. But I would rather not dwell on the sorrow of his death and instead celebrate his life.

Officially, Rajeev was not my advisor, and yet he played just as big a role in my research, education, and professional development. In addition to being a brilliant computer scientist, Rajeev was a very kind and amicable person and his door was always open. No matter what was going on with my life or work, I could always stop by his office for an interesting conversation and a friendly smile.

When my interest turned to data mining, Rajeev helped to coordinate a regular meeting group on the subject. Even though I was just one of hundreds of graduate students in the department, he always made the time and effort to help. Later, when Larry and I began to work together on the research that would lead to Google, Rajeev was there to support us and guide us through challenges, both technical and organizational.

via too: Remembering Rajeev

Professor Motwani founded the Mining Data at Stanford project (MIDAS), an umbrella organization exploring next-gen data management concepts. As an academic, he focused on web search,  data privacy, robotics, computational drug design and theoretical computer science.  He As a friend and advisor, he was always helpful…and always there.

Om Malik remembers:

I have known Rajeev, his wife Asha and their family for a long time. Rajeev, like me, was from New Delhi. In my professional career (and personal moments of crisis) Rajeev was only a phone call away, sharing his vast rolodex. Just like a true friend. Only a few weeks back, I had a simple Indian lunch in his house with his family. I am sure, I am not the only one who has benefited from his generosity of time and knowledge and his ability to create connections and help others.

Events like this force us to reflect, to think of and hopefully thank those who have helped us along our way.  While many never even  heard of  Professor Motwani before now, Sergey Brin reminds us:

Today, whenever you use a piece of technology, there is a good chance a little bit of Rajeev Motwani is behind it.

We wish his family comfort and strength.

Posted in technology | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Google Wave vs Microsoft Vine: Who wins the Next Big Thing contest?

Posted by andreaitis on May 29, 2009

Google unveiled its Next Big Thing at the  I/O Developer conference this week.   Geeks everywhere are drooling all over their keyboards, waiting to get their twitchy fingers on Google Wave.  A project more than four years in the making, its primary goal is to bring all communication needs together in a single, fluid experience.

A “wave” is equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

Google Wave

Here’s how it works: In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It’s concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content — it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use “playback” to rewind the wave and see how it evolved.

Official Google Blog: Went Walkabout. Brought back Google Wave

Sounds pretty cool…but, also sounded a little familiar…and then I remembered another recent announcement, microsoft-vinefrom another big gig company: Microsoft Vine, blending Twitter, Facebook and Google in its own  attempt to be the Next Big Thing.

They are not identical offerings, but they are trending in the same direction and there is some overlap.    Microsoft is taking a more traditional approach, looking at a particular type of communication between smaller groups,  and trying to make that multi-dimensional with mapping, alerts and location (see the demo here).  Google is using a much broader definition, thinking about communication tied to personal interaction, work and collaboration, in addition to streamlining tools we currently use.  If Google succeeds, email, IM, texting and twittering may merge into a single experience.

With Wave and Vine in the works and the continuing Twitter buzz, we see what our future holds.  The next phase of digital innovation will focus on  social and  real-time aspects of communication, search and mobility.   With hope, that means greater flexibility and interaction using fewer tools and devices.

Who will conquer this world?  When you add Wave to Android, Chrome, Maps, Earth, Gmail, Gtalk and (of course) Search…the smart money’s still on Google.   I say that begrudgingly because, at the end of the day, it all comes at a price.   Big Brother’s not watching.  Google is.

Posted in technology | Tagged: , , , , | 6 Comments »

Mark Cuban says Internet has jumped the shark (except for his DWTS videos)

Posted by andreaitis on May 28, 2009

You always know when Mark Cuban is in the room.  Or on the basketball court.  Or the dance floor.  This time, he was speaking at D7, the All Things D conference.   Did he say newspapers are dead?  Nope.  He said the thing that’s killing newspapers is dead.  That’s right, the Internet is staid and boring.  And video on the Internet? Utterly disappointing.

“I think it’s a real disappointment to see where Internet video has come,” Cuban said, noting that the industry still doesn’t have advertising standards, among other shortcomings.

Other shortcomings…hmm…like his Dancing with the Stars videos up on YouTube?

[youtubevid id=JkFS1aa9Lz4]

Posted in Entertainment, technology | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Traditional media makes an untraditional move

Posted by andreaitis on May 26, 2009

First, the June 1 cover of The New Yorker is created using a $4.99 iPhone app.

Now, the New York Times has hired a social media editor.

Right about here someone should yell “Stop the presses!”.

As readwriteweb.com notes:

It has come to this; the flagship institution of traditional journalism now has an editor level position dedicated to new media.

Little is known about Preston’s personal use of social media, she’s either using aliases or is remarkably quiet around the web, and details are still forthcoming about the new position she’ll fill. The Times has done a remarkable job of engaging with social media so far, though, and we have high hopes for this new post.

Preston has worked at the New York Times for more than a decade, and spent the last two years running the regional weekly sections and content for nytimes.com/intheregion.  She’s also an adjunct professor at Columbia University and a book author.   When RWW did some due diligence on her social media prowess, this is what they found:

She has a private Twitter account that she’s just begun to open up this morning – but apparently she hasn’t published any tweets there yet, ever. She is following almost 160 people so far, though, far more than are following her to date. So she could be using it for listening.

She’s also got a private FriendFeed account, a private Yahoo account and an unused Tumblr account. The BackType comment search engine can’t find any comments she’s left on blogs around the web.

After this announcement, her Twitter followers shot up to over 2000, and she was actively engaging with twitterers in her debut as Social Media Editor.

Two  steps forward in this expect-the-unexpected week.  Are they gimmicks, shallow nods…or a real effort to move beyond the page?  Does it really matter?  It’ll get people talking and thinking and perhaps push others to do something unexpected and untraditional.   Traditional media needs to try and test and tamper, to experiment and maybe even blow up now and then.    You gotta light the match before you start the fire.  And lord knows, there’s plenty of paper to burn.

Posted in media, technology | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Twitter to make a TV show about…nothing

Posted by andreaitis on May 25, 2009

Braun HF 1, Germany, 1959

Image via Wikipedia

I saw this and thought: Well, of course. Why not turn Twitter loose on TV, if for no other reason than it’s the N.H.T. New.  Hot. Thing.  Can’t blame the Twitter guys, who wouldn’t take advantage of the surge in popularity?  But I feel compelled to translate this story about the up-and-coming collaboration.

The San Francisco-based web phenom has partnered with Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment to develop an unscripted TV skein…

Stop right there.  An “unscripted TV skein”?  What does that even mean??  Maybe we’ll get a clue in the rest of the sentence.

…described as “putting ordinary people on the trail of celebrities in a revolutionary competitive format.”

Nope, no clue.  Not even a quarter to buy a clue.  Sounds like ordinary people will stalk celebrities. Maybe it’s a cross between Punk’d and Amazing Race.  Maybe it’s totally ripping off Shaq’s twitter technique, where he twitters his location and whoever gets to him first gets basketball tix. Maybe they have no idea what the show is about so they’re using vague phrasing, an incoherent skein of words.

Project was announced with few details…

Few details! Shocker.

…Monday by Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment. Series concept was created by novelist/screenwriter Amy Ephron, who will exec produce with Kevin Foxe and Steve Latham, Reveille’s Mark Koops and Howard T. Owens, Brillstein’s Jon Liebman and Lee Kernis.

If my math is correct, that’s seven executive producers.  S-E-V-E-N.  They’re already over budget.

“We’ve found a compelling way to bring the immediacy of Twitter to life on TV,” Liebman said.

Another sentence that says nothing.

Worldwide rights to the show will be repped by ShineReveille Intl.

And there’s the pitch, they’re already trying to sell rights to a show about nothing so the rest of the world can share in the compelling revolutionary twitastic television experience.

via Twitter, Brillstein develop TV series – Entertainment News, Technology News, Media – Variety

To recap: Seven executive producers, two mediums melding, a fraction of a concept. I know nothing worked for Seinfeld, but can nothing become something this time?  Call me a cynic, but sounds like the traditional TV development machine is already processing them like cheese.  I’d have more faith if they had done the TV pitch in 140 characters.

Update:  One of Twitter’s founders, Biz Stone,  posted on the Twitter blog to clear up the confusion.

There is no official Twitter TV show—although if there were it would be fun to cast! In dealing with networks and production companies we sometimes have simple agreements. Regarding the Reveille and Brillstein project reported today, we have a lightweight, non-exclusive, agreement with the producers which helps them move forward more freely.

Lightweight, non-exclusive agreement.   That almost sounds like it’s an agreement to agree about something at some point which, for now, pretty much adds up to….yeah, nothing.

Posted in Entertainment, technology | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

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