So, lessons? 1. it's hard to get onto the top of the popularity lists and wasn't made easier when a new service came out. 2. such lists favor people who network their behinds off at physical events. 3. Participation in FriendFeed helps you move up a little bit, but only if you are both very active and throw interesting content into FriendFeed (like, say, Mona). What else do you learn by looking at this list? - Robert Scoble
Johnny: well, you might claim you don't care about them, but in aggregate I see that most of us follow people who are already popular, not people who actually participate. Of course, since FriendFeed is, at top, an aggregator, just putting your RSS feeds into here is participation, I guess. - Robert Scoble
We do subscribe to them, because they are beacons. But you also have to weigh that list by the amount of 'active' users who subscribe to them. I know of at least 5 people who are members here on FriendFeed, who subscribe to most if not all of the top 20 yet never come on here. The core group is what matters. Those who are recognizable names will always get more follows, but the core of the group http://www.ffholic.com/Users.a... is what drives it. Rankings are always skewed. - Johnny Worthington
I think part of this is that many people use FriendFeed as an aggregator. - Aram Zucker-Scharff
via bTT
This list just looks like every top 100 for every mainstream (in tech) online service. It shows that in the main, the top 100 don't use friend feed but send feeds to it, I don't think that = participation, at all. - Kevin Dixie
Kevin: there is a participation effect, though. On Twitter Leo Laporte has twice the followers that I do, but not here. Why? The participation effect. I've gathered quite a few followers by participating here. - Robert Scoble
I agree - participation is key to any community see my example here (a userguide to my community) http://www.fuelmyblog.com/inde... Online has the very same rules as offline and glad you are showing that - Kevin Dixie
FriendFeed is far more of a 'community' than Twitter is, participating here counts for far more than almost anywhere else, however, participation (and how much you participate) is also a lot less visible here, in my opinion. FriendFeed (as a system) favors those who create content to import into the stream, not those who contribute to the community. - Aram Zucker-Scharff
The smart people (like you, Tina, Mona, and others) know better. The result is that being active on the community nets your rewards from the community itself, not the system. Is that a bad thing? - Aram Zucker-Scharff
Kevin : I disagree, when you are sending feeds in FF, you are pointing at us, poor human, what you find interesting. I think this is a kind of participation. Robert is doing that very well (too well ?). The only exception is twitter for me. I find it very hard to follow a twitter conversation here on friendfeed. - Olivier CASTETS
Good discussion. I interact and participate much more on FF than on Twitter. Why? Because FF is a much better tool for enabling engaging communication. I find myself being very careful conversing on Twitter because I feel it's easy to pollute the stream, whereas on FF you can do this without the same effects. - Mark Krynsky
The first thing I notice about the list is that NOBODY on FF has more than 20,000 subscribers. I reach more people through my blog on a regular basis. Is FF really all that influential? It does seem to be a great way to connect with the geek elite, but is that its only value? - Eric Hamilton
Is finally FF the blogging tool of the near future? You just posted one line and a link and the most interesting and remarkable thoughts and comments appeared in minutes from all over! - philos
I'm finding that this is the case. In a way, this microblogging is easier to do and maintain than having your own blog. I find it takes a lot of time to maintain my blog, but it is so easy to update using microblogging. And you can easily track the conversations. - Alvin
@Eric - That is because people at FF actually read the people who they subscribe too (for the most part) instead of the Twitter method of following everyone. - Aram Zucker-Scharff
you've been there a week, you'd think you'd speak fluently by now...jeez... - Zee from WeDoCreative
If you can't understand it then...ok, nevermind! - WorldofHiglet
Looks like someone should've invested some time with Rosetta Stone. - Akiva Moskovitz
any cool tech company addressing the language issue? seems like a huge opportunity to make this country and whats happening more accessible - simonpure
xiha btw, is a very cool cross-alphabet, polyglot social network - anna awesomesauce
I'm not finding droppings but haven't looked too hard either. Adobe Connect was all (or seemed to be) Flash which meant nothing new to install. WebEx is this ugly old school Java applet. - David Recordon
I feel for you. I hated using WebEx in the late '90s. Fast forward 10 years and you can still hate using exactly the same app I was using then. - Rick Turoczy
You kids should count yourselves lucky. Intel people can't seem to stop using NetMeeting. What do you think the REAL reason that they decided not to deploy Vista? That's right. It doesn't have NetMeeting. ;-) - Josh Bancroft
Wow, when I search for NetMeeting I get a Microsoft knowledge base article titled "What happened to NetMeeting?" - David Recordon
MS stopped letting people download NetMeeting in 1998. But it stayed in the OSes until Vista. It's quite handy in a pinch, actually. But I can't tell you how many hours of meetings I've sat through on the phone where we're all staring at someone's PowerPoint over NetMeeting... :-) - Josh Bancroft
Do they still show your own full body image as you walk by? When SARS was on everyone's lips, it was interesting watching people go by... some wanted to stop and look, while MANY others wanted to race by without seeing for themselves. It gave new insight to me on the meaning of the cliche "whistling by the graveyard" and how prevalent the desire to hide from the truth is.... and just how wide spread the practice of ignoring symptoms of treatable diseases (until the disease is no longer treatable) might really be. - David HC Soul
No, the lady walked over, aimed something that looked like a gun, then moved onto the next person in the car. It went so fast I didn't have much time to be freaked out until she was gone. Our driver explained that it was a new kind of thermometer that looked for SARS victims. - Robert Scoble
Too bad... I was fascinated by the image and where all the "hot spots" are - I was trying to decide whether the left side of my face seeming to be distinctly warmer than the right side had any significance when they asked me to move along as I was delaying the line a bit. - David HC Soul
You know how many moms would kill for a thermometer like that? That's even easier that chasing a kid to use that thermometer that goes in the ear. We sure have come a long way from the glass rod with the mercury that goes in the mouth for 5 minutes that was used when I was a kid. - April Russo
sars got that tech going .. disaster=progress - Gregory Lent
i commented on this elsewhere, but moms or anyone else can buy these things now. you can find cheap ones for less than $50, but that is unfortunately still several times more than a cheap drugstore digital thermometer, and the accuracy of the infrared thermometers tends to be only +/- 2 degrees on the cheap ones... you could tell if someone was REALLY feverish but not check for a low-grade fever reliably. - Karim
"What can you buy in America for $1,000? A flat-screen television, perhaps. A weekend break in the sun. Or a three-bedroom suburban home with stripped wood floors and a garage in the country's motor capital." - Dave Winer
via Bookmarklet
When was that Roger & Me movie made again? - Chris White
Except Roger forgot abot the whole "unions choking the life out of the very members they represent" part... This has nothing to do with the auto industry or the recent economic corrections. It has everything to do with corrupt leadership in the "Motor" city. - Mark VandenBerg
Mark, so you think US auto companies have been turning out quality product for the last 20 years? - Chris White
No, but ward after ward of abandonned houses in Detroit aren't caused by plant closings in Louisville... - Mark VandenBerg
Mark, I plead ignorance. I have no inside knowledge of the Detroit landscape. - Chris White
Chris, the city is currently searching for a new mayor. The last one, Kwame Kilpatrick, is on his way to prison. He is but one of a long line of whack-nut thiefs that have done nothing to improve the city in the last few decades. - Mark VandenBerg
if he's good enough for scoble, he's good enough for me - friended! - Adam Singer
Apparently I do =D And I'm guessing those receiving your shoutouts would agree, don't you think? - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)
Tina: one reason why I say it's more important to pick carefully who you are following is just this reason. Why is anyone following someone just because I talked about them? That seems that you're setting yourself up for disappointment. I might not choose the people I'm following as carefully as you might (in fact, I have plenty of evidence that I'm not that careful at all). - Robert Scoble
the fact that Robert follows me is major evidence of his carelessness - Sean Reiser
Yeah, Sean, I've been meaning to talk to you about that! :-) - Robert Scoble
Mathew: you telling me you aren't smart? Damn... - Robert Scoble
Robert, like it or not people respect your opinion. While you following someone may very well not be a recommendation, you specifically mentioning them can be. And that's not a bad thing. FF needs as much positive exposure as it can get, and I'm just happy to see someone with a wider reach doing just that. - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)
But still I have no idea for an @ profile like webhat : ) Cool! Come on webhat, ff is yours. - Erhan Erdogan
When Robert started following me on FF my feed was dominated by upcoming Massachusetts events and political youtube videos. I've had smarter content since then, but I did notice he wasn't being very selective with follows. :-) - Bruce Lewis
Robert: I hate doing that too... but get on it or you end up with a whole shoe-box full of receipts like I did a couple years ago... Not pretty when I got the call from my accountant! - Mark VandenBerg
Wow you followed my cause I think I am smart, what the heck did I say to deserve that! :-) - Bill Pennington
via twhirl
Bill: that's not a very low bar, if you think about it. How many people in the world would know about wordpress and would link to articles about it? In my experience not many. - Robert Scoble
Fair enough I will try to live up to the inclusion on your list of smart people - Bill Pennington
via twhirl
Robert: I didn't mean that as a bad thing (that i friended him just because you friended him) - but the fact that you pointed him out to me meant he was probably interesting. I've friended a few people you pointed out and almost ALL turned out to be great people. It's not a blind follow, I respect your opinion. - Adam Singer
Katie: my favorite restaurant, Tres Amigos, is on Kelley. - Robert Scoble
Yes yes...good stuff! We walk there when I visit! - Katie
I used to live right by Tres Amigos. Loved that place. Who needed to cook? - todd
Exactly. I think we eat there at least twice when I visit and I visit once a year at least. And we spend at least every morning at the Coffee Company not as much for the food as much for the meeting spot. - Katie
Katie and todd: makes me think we should do a FriendFeed meetup there soon! - Robert Scoble
If I get up there, I"ll have to mention it. I was hoping for the holidays but I may have to work. - Katie
“You never hear about Microsoft Dynamics on Twitter or FriendFeed, but when I was in China last week I was watching an entire supply chain switch to it.”
Now is that saying something about Twitter/FriendFeed or about Microsoft Dynamics? =) - RAD Moose
RAD: talking about enterprise software isn't as interesting as cat photos. - Robert Scoble
That's not completely true, lolcatz about enterprise software are fun too :) - Daniel W. Crompton
We are going to start using MS Dynamics for our Help Desk system (Nelnet, Inc. NNI) - Susan Beebe
As a former admin/developer, there really isn't much exciting to talk about - Wayne Arthurton
I kind of wish we'd look into it for our help desk. I hate Remedy (it needs a remedy), and we've already got our heads so far stuck into Outlook, Exchange and SharePoint that it might make sense. I'm no expert on these things, though, so I could be totally wrong. - MiɳiMagɘ (Sexy Scimitar)
Define your terms... Dynamic AX? GP? CRM? We use them all and, as a general rule, they are solid. To anyone contemplating CRM, consider publishing the Outlook client via 2008 Terminal Services. It will make your life much simpler. - John Denver
I think the Microsoft Across America events I attended were CRM. I am rather clueless beyond all that. - MiɳiMagɘ (Sexy Scimitar)
It is popular in India too, especially for small businesses. I know a couple of rapidly growing solution providers implementing and customizing Microsoft apps and not able to keep up with the load. - Dorai
It really does work well with Outlook and thus it makes it easier to go through the same processes. Their early versions were a big buggy when it first came out, but in the last year the program just flies and they did good with it, beats the heck out of SAP if you are already using Outlook by all means. - Barbara Duck
Speaking of SAP things must be a little tight there, working on SAP in "Second life", maybe the customers are more friendly there (grin). SAP has software that goes beyond CRM but that is a large part of it..http://feedproxy.google.com/~r... - Barbara Duck
There's a web based version as well which I have not had time to play around with yet, and I can't remember if it is out of beta yet, but I should connect it to my "Office Live" set up which is solid as a rock and works with the desktop applications very well. - Barbara Duck
Not sure why, but there are some sharp MS-platform minds on Twitter, and there are some sharp MS focused folks here of FF. I'm a mostly MS focused guy and our podcast has plenty of info on it from our collective experience with the products. I guess you just have to find them. - Eric @ CS Techcast
"I find it somewhat ironic that I'm commenting on this post having signed in with an identifier that IntenseDebate describes as my "OpenID". If they didn't call it "OpenID", what should they have called it? Furthermore, you might have made the same argument about "email" years ago... and thankfully that happened or else we might be asking each other for our "AOLs, Prodigies and Compuserves" and we all know how relevant those "household" names are today. The point is, we need to call these special URL-based identifiers something, because NOT ALL URLs are OpenIDs. If I asked you for your blog address to sign in, not all blog addresses are OpenIDs; sure I can ask you for your AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, MySpace and other accounts -- but one, that doesn't reflect the decentralized model of the web and two, is a list that EVERYONE is going to want to get on (and will probably use dirty tricks, as you suggested). As much as I don't want OpenID's inner workings to be seen by people, I..." - Chris Messina
"Chris Messina wrote: Not like it's going to be of much interest, but I wonder if when you've turned on voice search and you're not speaking, the silence.wav file is being transmitted (it's only 124 bytes and can be found in Google 0.3.142.ipa/Payload/Google/) (there are other WAV files in that directory). I also found references to Sony Sound Forge, but I also saw references to ImageReady and Fireworks. Not that interesting. There's also a curious localization string: "Search only works in English, and works best for North American English accents." And, in the Preferences.plist file, there are loads of goodies: http://www.pastie.org/318386 Check out the array starting #323, this is the array for debugging the app! There are references to a "kGMOPrefVoiceSearchServer" option (342) and to "kGMOPrefLogUtterances" (352) which is an option to "Log Utterances to Disk". The next array, at 376, is the "Bells and Whistles" set of options, referred to as "kGMOPrefGroupSecretSettings". Here you..." - Chris Messina
"Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google." - Chris Messina
via Mento
"The result: my 36-minute recording was transcribed while I slept, in less than three hours, for a grand total of $15.40.
This is a fraction of the cost/time of any other transcription service online, including the Turk-driven Casting Words, though you potentially sacrifice some quality. In my experience, though, there were virtually no errors." - Chris Messina
via Mento
