Trevor Cook › Comments

It's interesting to watch where traditional journalism is heading. It seems to me that someday there will be be some hybrid form or intermediary between the immediacy of Twitter (and its sometimes sad failings of fact) and the delayed irrelevancy of the newspaper. - Glen Mistletoe

"The other argument they were making, which also to me reflects on why traditional journalists will be gone in a matter of years, is that they actually thought that we bloggers get our news from them. One of them hinted at the fact that we sit there watching TV, writing about the content they post. When in reality we're the ones getting the news first, before they even know about it, and because they don't look online, they never know it was reported here first." - j1m

Get the gist of this piece, but don't agree. Faster isn't always better. Sometimes it's what's not said, or what is said in private that is the real news. I used to be one of those pro journalists who would go to press conferences early and stay until everyone else had left. I promise you I broke more great stories than anyone else in the room. Anyone can type what people are saying,... more... - Dominic Jones from twhirl

@IRWeb, you are right and Jesse is right. Regardless of the medium, there are those who investigate, and those who report. But his observations show that a good number of them are naive to the way things are changing, and if they don't change with it, they will continue to be in trouble. - Louis Gray

[your diety here] help us if our only source of detail or analysis is a freakin' microblogging platform. We might as well just start speaking in grunts, too. - abacab

Print media teeters on music industry sized failure when it comes to online. they simply don't know what to do. Wish more artices were on what to do versus the problem. It's been a problem basically since the consumer internet was invented. :) - Patricia

excellent piece and so true about traditional media - Trevor Cook

PeopleBrowsr FTW, that's for sure - Sociosophy Reviews from twhirl

now we need a peoplebrowsr desktop client! - sixbit

No breakthrough:( - YaDuMMeR

It's very nice. Kinda reminds me of TweetDeck in the presentation. Now they just need to expand to some more of the social services. - R. Alexander Spoerer

I know its alpha and all that but it seems wildly over-hyped to me - Trevor Cook

Remember the scene in "Big" where Tom Hanks keeps saying "I don't get it" to the toy presentation? Well, "I don't get it". - Chris Stevenson

You can *tell* (ask?) it to refresh every X minute but it, uh, doesn't. Pondering. - techPR

Great Tom Hanks reference in "Big". - Kevin Whalen

I am still yet to check out PeopleBrowsr - Joe Dawson

I like the idea but found that the UI still needs some polishing. - Davide D'Incau

Still needs work. I see the value in it, but it is slow...and odd to add panes. - Kreg Steppe

Geez, and I thought FF was overwhelming when I first signed in... - ronin

The really need to work on some of the usability / features around the non-twitter services. - Chip Childers

I just tried it out. At first glance I don't see any value here. Then again I don't really use Twitter very much. I couldn't find any interesting FF integration and got nothing from the Flickr integration. Maybe I'm just not using it right though. - Thomas Hawk

They need to pare down the number of features - much of what is there outside of twitter offers little to no clear value. That said, the twitter stuff has potential. - Andy Roth

+1 Thomas Hawk - wasn't impressed - William Harryman

Their UI is action packed and they have some great ideas implemented for grouping and messaging. I could see it being useful even if if you're not a power user. - Thropic

This looks fantastic! Thanks for the heads-up! - Flora from twhirl

Had a try with it this morning and it reckoned my name on FriendFeed and Flickr was Mohamed. Very strange... - Martin Bryant

Lovin' it so far - Charlie Anzman

I love the search feature, grouping, bulk messaging and the richness of user profiles. Definitely a fun app to hang out and explore in. - Maria Sipka

I loved it the minute I saw it... impressive concept, design and functionality. Needs on-screen UIX helps so users can easily navigate - too complex. I am very app savvy and had a hard time getting my way around ALL the features... I think I've got about 70% covered. The panes are a "pain" to use - Susan Beebe

Chokes on my primary browser. Not a fan of Flash. Seeing what other networks other people are on is interesting, although if they're on FF, then you can see that already. - Victor Ganata

great for alpha release...performance a little slow, but I like the concept - Tom Mack

I do like it, but the group function did not function as I expected. I tried sending to a group, but it just created a bunch of twitter messages with @ signs and just a part of my message. Will have to play a bit more. - Kenley Neufeld

Great interview, Robert. I'm excited to try this service. Is it something you're using on a daily basis? - Devon Campbell

Nice job Video man .... :) - Charlie Anzman

Cute, but slow and clumsy interface - Nick

Not impressed. Confusing and hard to use. Keep it simple. - David Jacobs

It definitely has potential, but at this point it has a clumsy UI and some performance/stability issues (understandable in an alpha). Does anyone else agree that it is just plain hard to beat the simplicity of the FF RealTime UI for following and participating in conversations? - Robert Clockedile

...Perhaps FF should just let us drop our other social streams into the RealTime interface. Add cross-service posting, a la Posterous or Ping.fm, and that would be the killer app - Robert Clockedile

Trying this now...thanks. - Jen

Flag burning is protest; book burning is censorship. - Gabe

My first reaction was book burning, because like Chris says, books are useful. but they are both symbolic destruction of an idea or ideal. Flag burning wouldn't work as a protest unless it were offensive. This question made me rethink an automatic, underlying belief, which is why I shared it with you here on FF. - Clare Dibble

both are fun, but I guess it depends on the material. Plastic can release some fairly offensive toxins when burned. - Paul Buchheit

I think Gabe has dismantled this question properly. - Akiva Moskovitz

I think it depends on the book. - Jeanette Bosman

Possibly the flag as well. Like if the flag had my face, or a picture of a kitten... - Jeanette Bosman

Perhaps a better question is which is more fun? Books are great for creating heat, but they're pretty boring to burn. A burning flag means you can wave around fire. How awesome is that? - Gabe

Indeed both but i agree with Jeantte too.I think flag is symbol of a country and its people so burning it is more insulting. - shannon

I don't think mere offensiveness can cover both of them. Speech can be offensive to some people, and flag-burning is a sort of speech. Book-burning is an attempt to shut down speech, and while that may be technically "offensive", hurting people's feelings is the least of its problems. - Neil Kandalgaonkar

Both acts are symbols of expression. They are neither offensive or respectful without additional context. (I do like the question.) - Kevin Gamble

As part of a larger question of politics, I find it interesting that people tend to pick teams and go with one or the other. Not too long ago, it occurred to me that it is kind of funny that in the US we have one team that is for the death penalty for criminals, but against a woman's right to choose, and the other one is vice versa. It would make more sense if abortion options, assisted suicide and death penalty advocates were on the same team, as they all involve the government interference with life. - Clare Dibble

I also agree with Kevin that context is important: for example I believe burning is the proper way to retire a flag. But burning old love letters might be a way to release that part of the story back to the universe, so that could also be true of books. Burning doesn't have to imply censorship (though in practice it has). And Gabe is right that fire you can wave around is cooler than fire that just sits there. - Clare Dibble

Book burning, per Gabe's first comment. - Ruchira S. Datta

Is there any philosophical difference between, say, burning a Nazi flag versus burning a copy of Mein Kampf? - Gabe

Such a good question. I think I find book burning more upsetting than flag burning for I find more value within a book than in a flag. A book represents far more important concepts to me than a flag. Pledging allegiance to a flag or to what a flag stands for can be done blindly and without much thought, but to be able to read, comprehend, and glean knowledge from books requires more skill. - April Buchheit

In fact, it takes far less than setting a book on fire to cause me some distress. Just seeing Camilla crumple up or tear pages off from her books or throw her books around can be quite disconcerting for me. - April Buchheit

Book burning. A flag is a tribal symbol which arguably does more harm than good. - Tanath

Bump. Sorry! Neither is particularly offensive to me. Objects are objects. All things are, in time, rendered unto dust. Our thoughts remain. - Slappy Line

Limitations can cause creative condensation of communication. - Phil Boiarski

To me Twitter is the "news ticker", and Friendfeed is more interactive. While both can do the other's job, each one is suited mainly toward those roles. - David Bisset (sn)

@phil - that's both true and a familiar field of discourse in the Visual Arts - I'm reminded of Matisse affixing charcoal to a long stick to get his "hand" out if his drawing. I'm fascinated by these self-imposed limitations - anyone know of others? - Marko Bon from fftogo

Oh, the irony. - Nate Pilling

I think 140 characters is a great filter. - Nicola Quinn

I also find the Like function on FF useful to squirrel things away in your Comments/Likes for later perusal. - Nicola Quinn

Robert's response explains why I find myself spending more time on friendfeed now. - Nation Hahn

Marko, the film "The Five Obstructions" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...) is an interesting take on the idea. Lars Von Trier forces Jorgen Leth to re-make a short film five different times, each with a different "obstruction" or imposed limitation. In the first example, Von Trier forces Leth to remake the film, but the limitation is that each shot can be no more than 12 frames (1/2 second) long. In essence, Von Trier forces a "twitterization" of the original. ;-) - Karim

Also, Frank Herbert's "Destination: Void" series of sci-fi novels starts off with a series of space missions that end in disaster. SPOILER ALERT: one of the missions eventually figures out that the disasters are actually *intentional,* the idea being that the experiment can only succeed if the crew figures out how to avert disaster. It is only through overcoming the *intentional* limitation that they go on to achieve greatness... - Karim

sometimes you do need more than 140 chars, but the limit does make the writing more concise and limited to usually one thought which is a good thing - Todd Dewell

@Karim, a Destination: Void shoutout, you are my hero! - Christopher Galtenberg

So is FriendFeed an aggregator with community features or a community that aggregates content? :) - Bwana ☠

Bwana, I think people start out using it as the former but are more satisfied with the service when they use it as the latter. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

+1 Tina, It is much easier to track a conversation on ff - even given search and hashtags on twitter - Alistair (alpinefolk)

Every time this pops up, I think the person being responded to @negrophobe. - Admiral Anika

lol Christopher :-D - Karim

Down with logorrhea! - Phil Boiarski

*buries her head in her hands* - Helen Sventitsky

>.< No. - Yolanda

Yeah, I am going to throw up. They took their unhealthy crap to Romania and fed it to farmers in the countryside. BK, KEEP YOUR CRAP HERE IN THE STATES. You and McDonald's have gotten enough people sick on your BS food. Stay the heck out of Romania. - Raoul Pop

:| - Anna Haro

who is responsible for this brilliant idea?? - Jay

Wow that's so lame. - Brandon

I can't believe this shit. - Mo Kargas

No No No No no NO NO nO NO....make it not be true - WorldofHiglet

*face-palm* - MikeAmundsen

Maybe they'll give me one if I pretend to be a Whopper Virgin. :) - Morton Fox

Jason, yes. Better still: I'm not 100% sure (hence it's not in the post)but I think there's a TV campaign to go with it as well. PR gone bad. - Duncan Riley

There is a TV campaign... just saw a commercial today on CBS while watching a game. Bleah. - Dan Monzelowsky

forgot to add: it's on the same IP address as owned I presume by the PR company, but I can't confirm the name, only that it shares the IP with official sites for Bayer and Florida area Audi dealers - Duncan Riley

i could get behind this, if they'd helicopter in some whoppers to refugee camps and places where people were starving to death. - Karim

Honestly, did not find this 'offensive' at all..borderline may be. Nothing that a little tolerance and open discussion cannot solve. If this were packaged as art would there be so much discussion? - Mahesh CR

Mahesh, what's not offensive about flying into somewhere in the third world and asking people who struggle to feed their family to pick which tastes better: a whopper or a Big Mac. - Duncan Riley

Wow, great marketing BK, lets ruin the diets of the last remaining people on earth that have not had their eating habits corrupted by western processed food, loaded with hollow carbohydrates, saturated fat and salt. - Jeff P. Henderson

Exactly, Jeff. Would it be as cool if we were hunting down "crack virgins" and teaching them the ways of the crazy-pipe? - Anthony Citrano

give me a break. you'd all love a juicy tasty whopper right now. - Dave Winer

Social media vs PR. Let battle commence! :) - David Sim

social media is the delivery mechanism, PR is the outcome... PR agencies should be offering Social media solutions... IMHO - Simon T Small

This is brilliant and offensive at the same time. I can only imagine sitting in on all the meetings that led up to this. Someone needs to track down the PPT ASAP. - Josh

Duncan, as I said, it can be considered borderline offensive. we conversations like these around McDonalds coming into India. I like to distinguish between the product and the communication around it. I concur with most comments about BK being route to unhealthy eating practices. The communication I take with a pinch of salt. As always the ability to choose or not gives us control over... more... - Mahesh CR from twhirl

Mahesh CR do you work for the PR firm spinning this disaster? - Samantha DeWitt

Samantha + 1 - Duncan Riley

thanks for the tip Duncan I posted about it - Trevor Cook

If you get a chance go eat at "El Bulli" and tell us how it was. On many lists as the best restaurant in the world. Wiki page for Restaurant Magazine's top 50 lists for the last 6 years...and it's won the last 3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Mark Krynsky

damn it. the envy's setting in deeper every time my fingers touch a key - Enrique Gutierrez from twhirl

Nice have fun :) - Richard from twhirl

El Bulli is shut for the winter months and Ronaldinho was sold to Milan but there are plenty of other places to eat and there will be a great football(soccer) game tonight against Sevilla. - Jack Sagel

@Robert, you mentioned you were bringing a Netbook on your trip, which one are you bringing, how long have you had it, and what is your experience with it so far? - Jeff P. Henderson

It's a Lenovo model. I have to set it up tonight. Will report more when I get some mileage on it. - Robert Scoble

Jack, what about Sunday? Or later in the week? Would love to meet up with other FriendFeed users there too. - Robert Scoble

What are you doing in Barcelona? - Jack Sagel

sunday is great for me-my son is running in a big race at 10am at Montjuic(where the Olympic stadium is) - Jack Sagel

Jack: NokiaWorld is next week. I have to finish my expense report, then I can work on my schedule. Sigh. - Robert Scoble

well if sun you want a giuded tour of Bcelona let me know - Jack Sagel

Bring your woolies...there's a cold wind blowing here :-) - eduardo

NokiaWorld?!?!? Oh man... swing by San Diego and just smuggle me there in your luggage. I'm testing the N96 right now & gotta say - it's "better enough" than the N95... <3 me some Nokia - Enrique Gutierrez

Jack: that would be fun! Maryam and the baby will be along too. Eduardo, thanks for the warning! - Robert Scoble

Enrique: I have an N96. It rocks. Love the Nokia stuff. I hear there's a new touch-screen Nokia coming out. Will be interesting to compare that to iPhone. - Robert Scoble

Spain is one of the countries I'd like to visit someday... Scoble is soo lucky! - Susan Beebe

no problem-let me know where u are staying and I will pick you up around midday if you're all not too jet lagged - Jack Sagel

godspeed scoble , have fun;) - Alemsah Ozturk

Robert: The Nokia 5600, touchscreen. Now that I've fanboye'd the N-series, it might be hard for me to pay attention to the 5600... time will tell though. I'll be nagging WomWorld for one of those as well, I'm sure. - Enrique Gutierrez from twhirl

Susan: there are major downsides. For instance, my expense reports are freaking a pain in the behind. And there is all that travel. 125,000 miles so far this year on United alone. I actually look forward to weeks when I stay home and next year I'm turning down all sorts of travel. Spain, though, is one place I've wanted to go. I agree, I am lucky. The people I've met and the experiences I've had are really magical. - Robert Scoble

I hope your trip goes smoothly - interesting but uneventful. - Internet Strategist

Oh, and this will be Milan's third trip to Europe since being born (he's only 14-months old). He's done more traveling than I did in first 25 years of life. - Robert Scoble

So Robert don't miss the "vaso de oro" in barcelloneta old town close to the see.. It's the best ever real tapas in barca, my Spanish friends use to take me there. - Christian

visit gaudi's sagrada familia one of the most amazing buildings in the world and the Miro and Picasso galleries are well worth visiting of course. And Barca FC has one of the best trophy rooms in world football - Trevor Cook

check out: http://www.qype.co.uk/es511-b... - eduardo

If you're a meat fan, check out the El Paraguayo restaurant: http://www.barcelona-metropolitan.com/Article... - Luke Robinson

strongly recommending: http://barcelona.unlike.net/ the definitive city guide for the mobile generation - enjoy Barcelona! - Margit Hinke

Robert, may I suggest an Offbeat Guide to Barcelona: http://www.offbeatguides.com/destina... - David Sifry from twhirl

I hear it's a great city - I'm sure you'll let us know how you like it - Tim Ake

Check out the Gaudi architecture. Dude was a visionary. - Phil Boiarski

I've played with the Nokia touchscreen, although not sure it was a fully ready for release one. it was lovely and fun through - Rachel Clarke

That's where the beef comes from, right? - Chris Baskind

no, Chris, beef comes from cows. - Trent Olson

PeopleBrowsr is getting tons of users -- all through passalong on Twitter. No blog needed. No PR needed. Release next week. - Robert Scoble

genieyclo: yes, but it's really fun to watch the news spread through Twitter and FriendFeed. It's the new way news gets out. Most people never see the original poster, though, so getting credit in this new world is going to be tough. - Robert Scoble

Finally going to try PeopleBrowsr now that enough people have thrown it around here. - Tyson Key

Grr, it doesn't seem to work in Firefox 2.5.x, and I don't want to switch to Firefox 3.x until I can either install it alongside 2.5.x or the add-ons I use are available. :( - Tyson Key

apart from seeing stuff in side by side panels I can't see much use for it, i could only to get it to work with twitter not with facebook etc - Trevor Cook

Trevor: it's in early alpha right now. They are working on smoothing out the problems. Beta starts next week. It'll need a few months of tuning and bug fixing to work right with everything. - Robert Scoble

thanks Robert don't mean to be overly critical I see the potential for a place where you can engage across social media tools - Trevor Cook

PeopleBrowsr is killing Safari 3.2 on my XP PC. All I'm trying to do is view Twitter and FaceBook side-by-side. I will wait for the beta. - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

I was using safari too perhaps there's an issue there - Trevor Cook