Learning, Technology & Change

A good post by Guy Kawasaki on Twitterhawk . In their own words, from their site TwitterHawk is a real time targeted marketing engine that will find people talking on twitter now by your chosen topic and location, allowing you to really hit your target mid conversation with ease. So twitterhawk will search tweets, based on your criteria, then send out appropriate responses to tweeters to provide meaningful information. Local stores could find customers looking for a particular product or service in the area. Many people consult their friends for recommendations, this would allow people to eliminate the middle man. So how could this kill twitter? When I can't ask a friend where to buy rims without having ten Tire stores sending me spam/ads. Twitterhawk does have cost of 5 cent/tweet and spam-prevention policies. The problem will happen when me-too services popup that don't have the same good-hearted intentions. Then when I look for tires I'll get replies about how a fake deg...

I have been a huge proponent of NetVibes and start pages in general. RSS has such potential, I still evangelize to friends on the benefits of creating a start page and monitoring their favourite sites. The ability to aggregate great content and not have to actively find it is great. It's basically putting a filter on the web. Sure some articles will lead to others but for the most part I have a "manageable" container of key information. The manageable concept is a tricky one. As I come across new sites and blogs, I add feeds while deleting few. I find myself now with 9 pages with 12+ feeds per page. There is a lot of great content. The idea of important vs urgent is different in my surfing. A lot of surfing is about staying current. Sticking to the same RSS feeds will keep me current on the topics of my chosen sites but not at a larger view. I as a person look to adapt and stay current. Feeds typically stay focussed on their niches. Twitter provides a very current vie...

Every time you repeat a task, make progress on automating it. It doesn’t have to be big… It just has to be progress I came across this from one of my favourite twitter feeds venturehacks . Pointing to this article on Emergent Properties of Continuous Automation . There are so many mundane tasks that I have great ideas towards automating and making more efficient. Typically my great ideas require a lot of effort. A more incremental approach could diminish the pain each iteration. The big point is that it's not a big massively funded project. It's not some impressive consultant it's a mindset a change in your culture. Not easy to do, but immensely rewarding.

Keeping up-to-date with the news these days is great way to get depressed. Each day multiple companies are announcing layoffs in the Thousands. The leading indicator - the stock market appears to have settled down but it still takes hits when a few pieces of bad economic news comes out on the same day. The comparisons between now and previous downturns are relentless. There is one difference. The internet has flattened the world in many ways, both good and bad. News spreads much faster today, and unfortunately bad news trumps good (if it bleeds it leads). We are much more exposed to more negativity than generations before. The economy has been largely quoted as an issue of confidence. With the increase in communication and transparency the economy can suffer much more, much quicker. In a smaller sense the continuous bombardment of bad news can hurt the individual psyche as well. Too much info in dark times can be very painful. I don't think all is lost. In the same way the internet...