Twitter: The Criterion Collection from sween on Vimeo.
Quirky, funny, odd, twisted and inane, this is Twitter-Frankenstein incarnate!
Need to explain social media to your grandmother? Tip: print out this PDF first.
Have you used picnik? It’s an online image-editing software that’s free, easy and powerful. And it integrates nicely with flickr, facebook, etc. It’s no PhotoShop, but did I mention that it’s free?
image via mashable.com
via vook.com
WHAT IS A VOOK?
A vook is a new innovation in reading that blends a well-written book, high-quality video and the power of the Internet into a single, complete story.
You can read your book, watch videos that enhance the story and connect with authors and your friends through social media all on one screen, without switching between platforms. [via vook.com]
Fascinated with the idea of a vook. It might only be the first step, but it feels like we’re finally on the way to portable, integrated digital storytelling. The marriage of prose publishing and scrap-booking for the digital age. What sort of book would lend itself to this innovative new format?
Poor Kelly Corrigan, first-time author, didn’t get invited to this weekend’s National Book Festival on the Mall to plug her 2008 memoir, “The Middle Place.” She won’t be rubbing shoulders with heavyweight authors such as Sue Monk Kidd, John Grisham or Pulitzer winner Junot Diaz. No major newspaper bothered to review the California mom’s tale about cancer and family and recovery when it was released. Her publisher didn’t send her on tour. All the old-school staples of book promotion — the book festival, the tour, the glowing newspaper review — Corrigan got none of them.
What was a newbie author to do?
She cobbled together a trailer for her book on her home computer, using iMovie software, downloading a free tune off the Web for background music, and stuck it on her Web site. Her agent helped get her on one network television morning show. About 20 friends hosted book parties, which she hit on a self-funded three-week blitz, selling books out of the trunk of her car. A guy shot video of her reading an essay at one of these parties, and she posted it on YouTube when the paperback came out.
A year later, the book has sold about 80,000 copies in hardcover and another 260,000 in paperback, according to Nielsen BookScan data. It sat on the New York Times bestseller list for 20 weeks, peaking at No. 2. That homemade trailer has been viewed more than 100,000 times. The video of her reading has drawn 4.5 million hits. She’s in Washington on Thursday, speaking at the Congressional Families Cancer Prevention Award luncheon. Then she will plow into more than a dozen paid speaking gigs across the country in the next six weeks.
This news, via ReadWriteWeb.com, claims that “Twitter grew at a rapid pace, peaking at a growth rate of 13% in March 2009”, but has since declined to 3.5% currently. But “18% of all Twitter users have more than 100 followers… Just six months ago, the average user was just following around 40 accounts.” So, what does all this mean? Saturation? Twitter’s improved their spam control? Existing twitter users are taking better advantage of the service?
Posted by virtualDavis via web from virtualDavis’s posterous
After many moons of sidestepping the Twitter, Facebook questions, I’ve waded into the sea of tweets. Now, mind you “told you so” types, it’s just the tip of my big toe at this point. And I reserve the right to head back to the beach at any moment if the waves start to whip up and the dread of drowning in a Twitter typhoon kidnaps my imagination… But for now, I’m going to try bberry-ing some updates to twitter.com/virtualDavis.
Flickr is nearly as perfect a procrastination tool as Facebook or Twitter. Better than Twitter, maybe. Recent discoveries include a couple of shots of our dockhouse.
Ever have that feeling that you’re late to the party? Like everyone’s already had a cocktail and an appetizer or two, and then you stroll in with your hair still wet from the shower and your shirt buttoned up crooked?
I’ve been feeling that a little bit lately. Especially while trying to decide whether or not to join Facebook. It rose rapidly and quickly eclipsed all equivalent social networking sites during the last couple of years that Susan and I renovated a pair of old buildings in Essex, NY. Prior to catching the residential rehabilitation bug — or at least prior to the last 3-4 years during which I’ve been 110% consumed with revitalizing five distressed buildings from the early 1800s and 1900s — I considered myself at least near the vanguard of the new media movement. No longer. While I blundered around in a dusty, plaster splattered purgatory, the wired world has catapulted forward. Now, fumbling around like a man blinded by sunlight after too long among the troglodytes, I’m trying to get my bearings. And there is no question; I’m very, very late to the party!
LinkedIn happened to be my first encounter. I was at Susan’s Hamilton College reunion a year and a half ago, and I met Dan Nye who was the much heralded CEO of LinkedIn at the time. He made a presentation about the service to fellow alumni, and by the time I connected with him that afternoon I’d already joined. The concept fascinated me, and his down-to-earth pitch and sharp wit convinced me to act. Since then, my LinkedIn profile has proven to be an invaluable networking tool.
Twitter was next. I’d toyed with it a couple of times before, mostly because it seemed simple and serendipitous. And because it was viable from Blackberry which was indispensable this last couple of years. But it also seemed frivolous during a time where I was rationing minutes for eating and sleeping. So it slipped. Until a few weeks ago when I posted my first tweet to virtualDavis on Twitter. I’m still a newbie for sure, but I’m having a blast. I’ve been really surprised by how quickly I’m connecting to all sorts of great tweeters, and frankly it was the incredibly welcoming atmosphere that I’ve experienced with Twitter that prompted me to take the Facebook plunge. It’s sort of ironic since the Twitter vs. Facebook debate surfaces so often online. For me, a great Twitter experience is what motivated to set up a virtualDavis on Facebook account. And they seem like totally complimentary services, each so totally niched and overdelivering w/in their niches.
So, last night I finally accepted an invitation to join Facebook and I’m off and running! I’m taking a little ribbing from friends who have mocked me for not getting on sooner, but it’s been in good spirits. And I’ve been overwhelmed with the positive response and with the number of friends who’ve quickly connected me. That tells me I’m lucky to have good friends, but it also serves as a gentle warning. These folks must be on Facebook all the time! I’ve been amazed at how instantaneous interaction is on Facebook, which makes me wonder how anyone gets anything else done… Late last night, I realized that I’ll have to learn how to close the browser and go to sleep!
To everyone who’s welcomed me into the 21st century, thank you!
That image above is one of the “picture poems” I included in 40×41: Midlife Crisis Postponed and it combines contour drawings that I made in 1994 during my final year in college with abstractions from photographs that I took in Peru in 2011. I’ve previously posted elements of “Contours & Artifacts” in Choice (June 4, 2012) and Wonder (December […]
