Exit171… it’s all about the journey

Twitter can be fun. If you follow some interesting people, it can be amusing to read the witty comments or silly updates about people doing shots at the local bar (note: drunk tweets can be *very* entertaining). Even I like to tell my “followers” when I’ve arrived in Hoboken or that I’m eating some kick-ass sushi in Midtown. It’s all in good fun, but when it gets down to it I like to turn to Twitter for THE NEWS! Yup, the news… breaking news… in 140 character chunks… in real-time!

When the last earthquake hit California I knew about it within seconds. People *at the scene* were tweeting it as it unfolded and reported it faster than any news agency. Granted, the quantity of information was limited (Twitter limits each tweet to 140 characters or less), but the notification of the event was pretty much real-time… a huge value in this day and age of real-time *everything*.

Over the years I’ve gone from newspapers, television, web browsing, and even RSS Feeds to get my news. I still use all of those, but now my GO-TO news source is Twitter. Besides learning about breaking news from first-hand witnesses, I also follow the mainstream news agencies and their Twitter alerts. Pretty much anyone who’s anyone in news is now tweeting… CNN, Reuters, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, etc. When I’m out and about and have a spare minute I’m usually checking Twittelator on my iPhone for the latest. It truly has become an efficient way for me to keep up with news, events, and trends… without having to open up Google Reader, CNN.com, or turn on the television (or in my case, my SlingPlayer).

If you’re not on Twitter yet, you may want to see what it’s about. Create an account, grab your iPhone, download a free copy of Twitterific from the App Store, and follow a few news services. If you’ve got unlimited text messaging, you can also opt to have the tweets texted directly to your phone. Bottom line is if you’re one who likes being informed, you’ll be hooked!

P.S. Once you’re onboard you’ll also want to check out TwitScoop.com and Roomatic.com. Besides breaking news you’ll also find those sites keeping you apprised of the hot topics the Twittersphere is tweeting about. You’ll quickly find that those same topics are the ones you eventually see a few hours later… on TV.

Have I been neglecting Exit171? It may seem like that (based on my last post being on 09/24), but actually I’ve been updating quietly in-and-around Exit171. In addition to adding a couple new buttons on my header bar (Dio.TV and my photography Portfolio), I’ve also been adding new entries to my Links page… more Social Media sites and some new blogroll entries like Bend Over and I’ll Show You and This is Sanjana.

Despite my blog posts being light, my microblogging on Twitter is in full effect… I’m quickly approaching 600 updates. Likewise, moblog posts from my iPhone to my Flickr continue to increase. FWIW, if I could get rid of the ~15 second delay every time I try to startup my iPhone camera, I’d have A LOT MORE pics up on my Flickr. I’ve lost count of how many good photo opps have passed me by! @#$%

Overall, the missing link for me at the moment is some video moblogging. Since I don’t feel like jail-breaking my iPhone again (so I can add a video app), I’m going to have to wait for a new video-capable mobile before I can really start lifecasting. In the meantime I’m going to start posting to 12seconds.tv or Viddler.com more often from my MacBook Pro. Be sure to check out Dio.TV for my video projects. Yup, some fun senseless content.

I’ve been testing pretty much every social media site out there and it has been fun. The past few months have been a blur of microblogging and status updates on sites like Twitter, Plurk, Jaiku, Pownce, Brightkite, Tumblr, etc. It’s been working well (using Ping.FM to crosspost everything), but I’ve decided it’s now time to scale back a bit and go with just two sites for my updates — Twitter and Brightkite.

Why?  Well, I never intended to keep on using all of these sites.  I was merely testing the waters… I wanted to check it out firsthand.  But no worries, I will continue testing new sites as they’re released (and there’s no shortage of that lately).  Here’s where I stand for now…

I intend to use Twitter for all my microblogging *and* status updates. I may post an occasional update on Facebook, but it’s pretty much going to be just Twitter. I think this will give me the best flexibility to use the various Twitter clients out there, e.g. Twitterific, TweetDeck, Twittelator, Hahlo, TwitFire, and even just plain old Twitter.com.

With Brightkite I plan to continue using it for location related services, e.g. “checking in” when I visit places. For the most part, social networking with Brightkite has been light, but it seems like more people are using it lately. It will be neat if Brightkite really catches on… definitely some interesting possibilities for social networking.

As for the other sites I’m “abandoning”:

Plurk: Neat concept (threaded replies, timeline, karma, etc.), but Twitter is simply more popular.  Hopefully Twitter implements similar features in the future.

Pownce: So much potential, but the majority of my friends are *not* using it. The file sharing concept is great, but now with Drop Box I don’t really need it.

Jaiku: Nice interface, but once again not many of my friends are using it. I do like the “channel” concept, but with Roomatic and TwitScoop for Twitter, it’s not that compelling anymore.

Tumblr: I still love it and will continue using it for experimental stuff, e.g. www.kw2dio.net. For now it’s just an informal life stream… pretty much a regurgitation of my FriendFeed (but prettier).

Facebook: I always use it. Although, the status updates were awkward when I was crossposting from Ping.FM (I never started my updates with “is” — primarily because I geared them for Twitter).  In a nutshell, Facebook wins for social networking. Most of my friends are on it and the wave just keeps on getting bigger. For the record, I actually LIKE the “new” Facebook. There, I said it!

Posterous: Although I don’t use it for status updates or microblogging, I thought I’d mention it anyway. Very simple to use and they’ve been adding new features very quickly. For now, Posterous is my informal moblog — pretty much the same pics I post from my iPhone to Flickr.  In my eyes Posterous is very similar to Tumblr, but Tumblr wins for it’s custom theme capabilities (for now at least).  Either way, I will continue using it.

Finally, with me scaling back all of the above I’m not sure where that puts Ping.FM in my ecosystem. Ping.FM has been awesome for posting to multiple sites simultaneously — fast, effective, and easy. However, I’m not certain I’ll be needing it now. Time will tell.

Aidan wanted some air time…

Just messing around with Viddler. Figured I’d post my first video. Feel free to post a video comment or experiment with the tagging.  Fun stuff.

Here’s an updated graphic of the Social Media related sites I’m using. Fun, fun, fun…

Click on the image for a full-size view on my Flickr.

I’m loving the Social Media scene lately.  Here’s a graphic of the sites I belong to (I don’t use all of them actively).  Links to most of these are in my sidebar.

Current Favorites:

Hmmm, I used a similar title when I left Blogger.com a few years ago. However, this time I think I’m going to focus on MicroBlogging (140 characters or less) instead of traditional blogging… I’ll leave that for the real writers out there.

Exit171.com isn’t going away just yet, but expect to see most of my stream of thoughts (or lack of) communicated via Twitter, Plurk, Tumblr, etc. I’m already cross-posting most of my updates via Ping.fm to my Social Media sites, but for a full view of my “Life Stream” be sure to see my FriendFeed. FYI, the updates on my sidebar are just a sampler.

See you in the Microblogosphere!