paul mooney - Likes - FriendFeed

Congrats Robert... best wishes to all - Rhys Amos

323 more comments

Congrats. Now the fun begins!!! - Mike Shields

Awesome! - dstamand

Congratulations! - Stephan Planken

Congratulations! Welcome, Ryan! - Lance M. Brown

Awesome - RetiredTeacherD

Yay! Congratulations! - Jesse Stay

YAYAYAYAYAY! Congrats to you and Maryam!@#!@#! - drew olanoff

congrats Robert and Maryam, Welcome Ryan. - rick

Welcome to the world. - Dave Mora

Congratulations!!! - Mike Doeff

!!! - sean percival

Born 11:32. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

LOL He was keepin ya'll on yer toes. CONGRATS! - Danny Minick

Yay! Congratulations to you and your wife! Now off to buy RSS and iPhone - Lise

Congrats!!!!! - Mark Evans

Congratulations! - Kenneth

I hope you're well rested, Robert ... ;-) - Hieronymus Murphy

Congrats Robert! - Charlie Anzman

Congratulations! - 321

He looks like you. - Cjay

Congratulations! - Mahendra (SkepticGeek)

Congrats to you all - JanLawrence

Congrats Robert and welcome RSS! - Robb Brock

Congratulations! Happy Birthday Ryan! Lots of love to the whole family. - Jodi Church

SUBSCRIBED! - drew olanoff

Hello World! - CannonGod

Congratulations!! Welcome to the world Ryan!! :) - Laura Zickus

<rss> awesome! </rss> - sean percival

welcome to the new world little one! all hail our pink squirming screaming overlord! - bear (aka Mike Taylor)

LOL at CannonGod's comment. It's like he started a Wordpress blog. XD - Danny Minick

When does he start micro blogging? - Cjay

20.5 inches long. 7 lbs. 13 oz. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

nice alpha version. welcome RSS ! - Kaïs Miled

congrats!! welcome rss! - barbarars

Ryan is no longer in beta! LOL :D Congrats, Scoble! - Danny Minick

oww congrats.. welcome ryan.. be happy forever sweety(: - Cherry Mei Chan♥

Congratulations :) - امیرعباس

RSS is finally here! Congrats Robert & Maryam - Dennis Jernberg

Congrats Robert... best wishes to all - joupy

Congratulations! - Aaman (Clone of FF)

Blessings, and the best Robert! - Nakeva Corothers

Cute! - Charlie Anzman

مبارک باشه Congratulations - حضرت لپ

Congrats!!! - Jim Williams

Grats! - Denverken

مبارکه رفیق رابرت . خدا حفظش کنه - جـوان ایرانی

If Dave Winer comes on here and claims to have invented RSS I will smack him. - drew olanoff

Congratulations! - joey

Congratulations and all the best. - Bryce, Low in Sodium

Welcome Ryan!!! - Phil

Welcome Ryan :) - giuseppe c. | markgreene

Awesome. Congratulations! - John McCrea

Congratulations :-) - ѕнαнιη

Congratulations! - anna sauce

Congratulations :) Welcome Ryan :) - Mohamed Marwen Meddah

Congrats, Imagine where RSS and the web will be when he turns 30! - James Watters

Congratulations to you both. - Don McAllister

congrats Robert and Maryam :))))) - Conformist بـی نظرگـاه ™

congrats to the family!! - erik yuzwa

Welcome to RSS in Pubsubhub mode :) - Ouriel Ohayon

Congrats to you all!! We had our second child, a boy, on Tuesday. Enjoy!! - Alex Cordiner from iPhone

Yay! Congrats to you, but mostly congrats to your wife for doing all of the hard work. ;-) xo - Jennifer Leggio

Mazel Tov! - Robb Vaules

Congrats Robert....wishing all the best to your family.... - Carlos

Congratulations! Wow! Seems like we were there just the other day! Looking forward to your late-night feeds and tweets and blog posts! - Louis Gray

You rock! Congrats. Thanks for sharing. How's mum doing? - Steve Lacey from iPhone

congrats! and welcome ryan - Daniel Levine

Congrats Robert - It is a fine family.... - Simarprit Singh

"beautiful new baby" by Robert Scoble, photojournalist. I stepped away for coffee and bang! RSS - Brian Hendrickson

nice! - Josh Haley from iPhone

Thank you so much for sharing - Sherrie Belken

:) congrats - Shandiz

Born on Talk like a Pirate Day, too! Yarrrr! - Josh Haley from iPhone

congrads ms & mr scoble, :) - chaz2b

Thanks to the good Docs! - Keith Rowland

congrats!! ^_^ - Christine Lu

Congrats! - Mycaptain

Steve: mum is sleeping but got to hold Ryan. Instant love! - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Welcome, Guest dear to our world / Now the world is on your own - Conformist بـی نظرگـاه ™

that feels good - Brian Hendrickson

Gonna have to learn to operate that iPhone with one hand. - Keith Rowland

Congratulations! - Parth Awasthi

Congratulations. Hope Maryam iis doing well - Rachel Clarke

Congrats man - Holden Page

Congratulations! Wish him all the best! - philos

Welcome Baby Ryan!!! My baby Ryan (17 years!) and I are honored to welcome another superstar to our planet! Love, hugs, and lots of kisses to Baby Ryan, Mommy Maryam, Dad Robert and big brothers Milan & Patrick and of course Grandma!!! My guess on Ryan's arrival (predication) was only 23 hours off. I thought he would arrive on Friday, Sept. 18th at 11:45 pm. Love to all, Kelly & Ryan Kim - Kelly S. Kim

Congrats, Robert and Maryam. - Derrick

Congratulations Robert, and well done Maryam! You are truly blessed :) - Nicola Quinn

So happy for you Robert and Maryam. Yeay...another FF baby! - Mark Krynsky

Congratulations! - Surachart Opun

What a moment, eh? I remember when my daughter came into this world, it was so exciting there were no words for it. Congrats on your wonderful baby boy! - Michael J. Carrasquillo

Congratulations - testbeta

Congratulations! Welcome to the world, Ryan. :-) - Yvette Ferry

Congratulations Robert and Maryam! And welcome Ryan. If I was having a baby today, I'd begin a blog for him/her straight away as an online diary they could look back on when grown up. - Sandra Large

he's so cute... - Sinem Vural

Robert, Congratulations to you and Maryamie! - Mike Fruchter

Wow, congrats to all of you! - Paul Salzman

Congratulations to you both! - Forrest W. Kobayashi

Great news guys! All the best! - Chris Nixon

الهــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــی چقده ناز نازیه.اینو فارسی نوشتم مریم جان بخونن ....راستی به باباش که نرفته:)) خوشگلتره:)) پس به شما رفته - joupy

congratulations!! - Jeroen De Miranda

Congratulations to you and your wife Robert! - Randy

Congrats Robert! - Terry Jones

congratz and welcome RSS! - Jon Winters

Congrats Maryam :-) - Terry Jones

Felicitations and humble prayers for your new son. - Victor Panlilio

congrats and best wishes! - Mike Chelen

Congratulations Robert! Welcome Ryan! - Jeff P. Henderson

Congrats!! - Tan Kaiquan

congrats and best wishes to all. :) - Naor Mark

Congratulations - Meral Alabaz

I was a c-section six week preemie in an era when that was seriously life-threatening, they didn't know if I would make for the first week. It always gets me a see a c-section / preemie come howling into the world. Welcome, little guy! - Bob Morris (polizeros) from iPhone

Beautiful baby! Congratulations daddy man :) - Gary

:) Congrats Robert... best wishes to your family! Get her name in twitter and ff! - Business Blogger【ツ】™

Congratulations to you and Maryam! - Elwin Witzke

AmazinG!! congratulations :) - Nakul

cutie pie baby - Debby Bruck

Congratulations :) - Baard @ Pixum

Ryan, good to see you. - Burçak Çubukçu

تولدش مبارک ^_^ Congratulations! - ‎‎Emad

Warm wishes and congratulations. Love that you posted him crying. - Irene Koehler

Congratulation to all of you! All the best for baby ryan!!! - Arne Krueger

Congrats to both of you :) - zephyrlily

Congratulation....best wishes to all - Opium

woooow like :) - کلیشه

Congrats M. & R. - Giuseppe M.

ووووی مبارکه، به مریم خانوم هم تبریک ما رو بگو - Zahra (raoros)

Congrats Robert and Maryam, Welcome to geekdom Ryan! - Andrew Wardlaw

Contrats!!! I'm so excited!! - Jannifer @wordsforliving

Congrats.That pic brings back memories of my own baby's birth only ten months ago. C-section baby boys rock! - Georgiana Comsa

Mazel Tov to you and Maryam. - Michael Markman

Congrats... a few more Scobles make the world a better place ;-) - Aad 't Hart

Congrats! - George Mitsopoulos

Congrats... and Welcome Ryan. Good to have you among us. - fatima

Congratulations! I - Michael Fidler

Wonderful news. Congrats. - Keri

Congrats Robert, and the best to you, Maryam, and of course Ryan! - Chris, Taskerrific Guy

Congratulations Congratulations !! - Farzad

Congrats - Sandeep Swaminathan

looking to to the same in 3 weeks - ROBIN SMITH

Congrats on the blessed event! :D - Joel Lovato

Congrats Robert and Maryam. Welcome Ryan !!!!!!!!! - Nir Ben Yona

Congratulations, Robert! - Mark Trapp

Congratulations to Robert and Maryam. - George Hall (Australia)

Right ON! I am so happy for you. I have 4 kids of my own and they are my greatest joys. Take care and I hope all goes so smooth for him and mom. - Robert Anderson

Congratulations! - J. Abdul-Qahhar

Daddy Scobleizer!!!!!!!!!! First things first....when will he be signed up for Twitter and FF? - krystyl

Congrats!!! - eric susch

welcome Ryan, it's a beautiful world - Michele Costabile

Congrats!! - Olivia Lovag

Congrats to the Scoble family from South Africa! Welcome to the world @RSS - Shaun Trennery

Congratulations to you all. - Roland Harvey

Good luck beatiful baby. - Oğulcan Selçuk Akbulut

Congrats, Robert! :-D - Kol Tregaskes

Congratulations Robert, and welcome Ryan! - Giorgio Zarrelli

Congratulations Robert and R.S.S.: "Hello World" Cheers! - Louis Trapani

warmest congratulations - Peter Holland

what a beautiful baby=)Congratulations=) - Candan Celik

Such a miracle and a blessing - Congratulations to you and Maryam and "big" brothers! - Marla Schulman

Congrats, Robert. Amazing pictures! - Jordi Soler

Congratulations to all of your family! Enjoy! - Ed Richardson

Congratulations ... enjoy! - Hitesh Parashar

Congratulations!!!! He's beautiful! Welcome little one! I'm proud to share a birthday with you! - Martha

Congratulations Robert and Maryam! Welcome to the world Ryan :-) - Rasmus Lauridsen

happy birthday BABY - ≤ M@RzI

Best congratulations!!!! :) - Lucio Riccardi - CantorJF

Congrat Robert. It is wonderful what this new media could do to share your joy! - Gianto Widianto

congrats! - Pradhap Nirmal Natarajan

Congratulations! - Steve Garfield

به به . قدم نو رسیده مبارک مریم جان . خیلی نازه :) - RokhSaare

Hope the baby and mum are well. Congratz. Happy Ied Mubarak =) - zʍıɔ

WoW,Congratulations! - atalmatal from MojiPage

Congrats on the blessed event! Welcome to the world, Ryan - Jazz Baker

Congratulations! - Jim Hearts FF

appena nato e già dal dentista? - paolo beneforti

Congrats :) - Maryam Ardakani from FreshFeed

He was delivered by a Blue Man? - paul mooney

Congrats Robert. It's allways a special moment. I still have my child birth in my memory! - Rui

What a happy day! A healthy new Scoble and mom. - Dave Winer

آخي ، بچته ؟؟؟ مبارك باشه تو روز به اين عزيزي به دنيا اومده ، بت نميخوره بچه انقدري داشته باشي شيطون - mohammad

My goodness, congratulations! - DGentry

Congrats! - Ivo Mortani

Congratulations!! and best wishes - Johni Fisher

congrats! - masstrovato

Congratulations! I hope everyone's ok?! - Holger Eilhard

حاجي خانومت ايرانيه جدي ؟؟؟ پس خيلي مباركه ديگه - mohammad

Congratulations, Scoble family! - Bill Scherer

wonderfull - braciolanet from BuddyFeed

Congratulations to you and your family Robert! A very handsome baby boy! Cant wait to see more pictures! - TiffanyCarr

Congratulations, Robert. - motownmutt

Congratulations! - :: Kim Sherrell ::::

congrats :) - £lham

مبارکه :) - خیزران Has gone

Congrats! - Roozbeh

Congrats to Robert and Maryam! - Bec Rowe @d0tski

WooHoo! My best to the whole family. I hope Maryam is getting some rest after all that hard work! - Robert Couture

Congrats to you and your fam, Robert :) - LANjackal

Ryan was born when the Berlin Marathon was finishing. Perhaps he'll be a long-distance runner. Congrats. - Carl Jacobsen

Congratulations to you and the wife, Robert! Job well done. I see he is gonna take after his Daddy! ;-0 ,hehe:-) - Duliece

One more congrats won't hurt, right? Thanks for sharing the pics. - Kevin Sablan

Congratulations :) - A35G

Congrats - Exciting & now the fun begins :-) - PXLated

Wishing you and yours the best on this wonderful day! Congratulations! - Steve

Congrats on the RSS feed update :) I hope you've pinged both rsscloud and pubsubhubbahubba ! - Ahsan Ali aka. Slick

Starting today. Sleep will be nothing more than a fond memory. :) Congrats. - Richard

Congrats! - Herb Hernandez from iPhone

Congrats! - YusufOzanTasdemir

Congrats Robert!! - Taehoon Kim

Congratulations! - Thomas Hawk

Congratulations to you both :) - 1x29

Congratulations to all! - malackey

fantastic !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - michele ficara

Awe!! Congrats =) - Brodie Beta

Congratulazioni!! ^______^ - Andrea | amnesiak1978

congrats!! - Clarita

Congratulations to your whole family, Robert :-) - Glen Campbell

Welcome Ryan! Congratulations Robert and family! - Tim Probst from iPhone

Congratulations!!! God bless.... - Bob DeMarco

Congrats! - Jason Williams from iPhone

Congratulations Robert, Maryam and Milan! All the best to the four of you. - Eiso Kant

Congratulations :-) - Jalada

Congrats! Enjoy. - Jim Peake

Congrats - BeeLing

Congratulations!! - Paolo Leonardi

Congratulations, Robert and Maryam! - Helen Sventitsky

Congratulations! - John (a.k.a. dendroica)

Congratulations. - ashish

Congrats - Brian Appleby

oooww wonderfulll :)) - Ucandepik

Well done, my son's name as well. - Robert Kenney

Congratulations - Caleb Scribner

Congrats - Manuel Mas

Congrats! Best wishes to you, Ryan and all your family! - Lenny Post

congrats ^_^ - Furkan Tunalı

Conga Rats! - Michael R. Bernstein

Wonderful! Enjoy! - Alan Morris

Hello! - N.G. Gordon - RadarSync

Absolutely wonderful. Welcome to the world Ryan! - Loren Heiny from iPhone

Congrats :) - Hasan Al Shehabi

Congratulations to both of you. - Roberto Bonini

OMG Congrats to both of you, he looks healthy and promising. - Jeunelle Foster

Congratulations to everyone! He looks healthy! I am sure you must all be very happy! ;) - Altan Khendup

Congratulations! May your tribe ever increase in happiness, joy, and fulfilment. - trey pennington

Congrats! - Ben Parr

what would be ryan's reaction when he would read this post someday, so many folks who knew dad congratulating him! - testbeta

Congratulations! - Anne Bouey

hiya RSS! - Laura Norvig

Yah!! Congratulations. - Micah Wittman

Congratulations to the whole Scoble family! - WorldofHiglet

Congratulations to the whole family! Enjoy these most precious times. - Marylene Delbourg-Delphis

best wishes to all - Hamza Şamlıoğlu

congrats Robert and Maryam - Kevin Tunis

Congratulations, Robert! - Sabri Küstür from FreshFeed

Wonderful. Best wishes to Ryan... - Mitchell Tsai

Congratulations to the whole family :) - Chris Saad

Congratulations - Samaneh

Congratulations. cute :) - FFTornado

Congratulations. First picture on twitter! - Cindy Makonin

I just came to make sure you were getting a proper congratulations - Sherrie Belken

Welcome :))) - Flynn (Michael A. Volz)

congrats;) - خاتون

Congratulations to the Scobles! - Carlton Prest

Congrats Robert! - Jorge Escobar

congratulations, Robert and Maryam. - Valeria Maltoni

congrats! - Daniel Brusilovsky

WOW - what a miracle - congrats! - Mark Harai

Congratulations Robert & Maryam! - Rodrigo Jaroszewski

Congrats from Italy, Ryan! - Federico Bolsoman from iPhone

Congratulations Robert and sorry for delay, Best wishes - erfan

He is crying: "I want an iPhone". Felicitations! - William Mougayar

May he be blessed throughout his life! God bless you, Robert and Maryam! - Melanie Reed

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!! - Greg Ness

congrats :) - Erdinc [bilimdiyari.com]

Congrats Robert & your family :) - Sampad Swain

what a beautiful little guy! congratulations! rock on! - B.L. Ochman

great day, congrats - imran

Wow congratulations to both you and Maryam you must be so proud :) - David Richardson from Android

Congratulations - Eric Logan

Wow, Congratulations, Robert and Maryam!! Ryan looks beautiful.:-) - Cathryn Hrudicka

Congrats man. That's so awesome. - Got Love For DB™?

Happy Babbie Day! - Jack (a.k.a. Jeber)

Congrats! - Zachary TG

Congrats! I wish a long and healthy life. - Muammer Okumuş

Robert, you newest addition is too freaking adorable. I hope you and Maryam are doing well. Congratulations! Here's to a long, prosperous future! - Mike Nayyar

Welcome, Ryan - you picked a good family! - Matthew Blaisdell

congrats to you and Maryam! And welcome, RSS! - Joshua Allen from fftogo

congrats!!! Welcome to Ryan - Dario Salvelli

Congratulations to you and Maryam! E benvenuto Ryan! - Marco Fabbri

Congrats! :) - Emmanuel Anumonwo

Congratulations! - mlazopoulou

Such auspicious times... Welcome, Ryan! - Red Label

O HAI, Ryan! Congratulations to Daddy and Mommy, too! - Ladybug Heather

What's Ryan's Twitter address? - MVB (Curmudgeon of FF) from iPod

قدم نو رسیده مبارک!congratulations - Jan Valjan

Congrats, best wishes. :) - Hunt

حوزه جان بیا در گوشش اذان بگو - مـــــــــمد

woohoo! congrats! - Tyson

That is a wonderful moment! All the best to momma, baby and the family! - Mary Gilmour

Congrats Robert! Welcome Ryan! - Garin Kilpatrick

Awesome, Congratulations Robert and Maryam! And welcome to the world Ryan. - Mitch Baldwin

Happy parenting! Congrats! - Natallini

Groovy + one geek on the planet - Yann Ropars

Congrats!!! Robert - Steve Chou

To the proud Papa.....Congratulations!! - Bonnie Foster

http://www.youtube.com/watch... - kevin fitts

Congratulations Team Scoble. Best of good wishes to all of you. - Morrie Johnston

Congrats Robert and family!!! Welcome Ryan :) - buvanesh

congrats Robert! - Joshua Guffey

Congratulations! RS - Sean Kelly

Congrats :D - Emre Misvaklı

Congratulations. he's so cute :) - Armando Grati

Beautiful! - Ryan Sholin

Congratulations - Kreg Steppe

Congratulations! - Gordon Saunders

Congratulations! - Hamid Reza

Congrats Robert....How amny more before you have your baseball team :-) - Alex Marrow

Seriously, Best whishes.............God Bless...... - Alex Marrow

Mazal Tov! - Raanan Avidor

All the best! Fun Times!!!! - Jim Turner

congrads now the fun starts, beautiful baby - Debra Moore

congrads ! - ★ Soner Gönül

Congrats and Best Wishes! - Tracy Benham

Looks like the baby's first trip to the dentist - Steve Borgman

Welcome, Ryan! Congrats, Robert! - Thierry R. Andriamirado

We came in this morning for an aversion proceedure (turn the baby into position). They were expecting to induce if they could get him aimed the right way. Five minutes before they were supposed to do the procedure he turned the right way by himself. Then 20 minutes later he turned again. Drat. Anyway, now they are in the process of inducing and watching. Won't know for sure what's going on until later tonight. - - Robert Scoble

48 more comments

Right now we're just resting and waiting for the inducing agents to start their jobs. It's still possible that we might have to have a caesarian section, because little Ryan isn't in the right position. More probably later this evening, for now I get to geek out while Maryam takes a nap. - Robert Scoble

Sending lots of beams to Maryam (and you too!) I am out of the loop. I had no idea that the family was growing (and tell M, I'm going to be a grammy come March 1) - Nancy White

Fingers crossed for a natural delivery... unless Maryam would prefer a c-section ;) Good Luck. - Travis Koger

What a handsome name you've chosen ;) - Ryan Whitwam

Robert: I wish you and your wife the safest and best possible birth experience! Here's to a healthy baby boy and Mom!! Keeping you in my thoughts. Leslie - Leslie Carothers

Congrats, Robert. Can't wait to meet the newest Scoble :-) - Daniel Brusilovsky from iPhone

sending good thoughts for the easiest possible delivery, for both Ryan and Maryam - B.L. - B.L. Ochman

Best wishes, Robert. - Raju Vegesna

Are his initials really going to be R.S.S.? - Carlton Prest

Thinking good thoughts for your wife and the baby - Sherrie Belken

Carlton: yes. His name will be Ryan Soroush Scoble. Thanks everyone. - Robert Scoble

Wishing you both well, hoping it all goes to plan - Rachel Clarke

Fingers crossed for a smooth delivery and sending congratulations on your new son! - Jennifer Leggio

All the best, Scoble family! :) - Micah Wittman

bit of a pretentious name, named after one of the wisest Iranian thinkers of the last century. - David Lloyd

Good luck to you & yours :) - Blue_cat_online

Good luck to you both; hope all goes smoothly & swiftly. - Rachel Luxemburg

Nothing but good and positive wishes to Maryam and you and that RSS will come out the second to prettiest baby ever (naturally ours is the prettiest) *wink* - Rene Wirtz

David: my other son, Patrick, was named for a saint and Milan was named for one of the best writers ever. So there. - Robert Scoble

Best wishes, Robert! - Mike Hussein Cohen

Good luck to Robert and Maryam. A big week ahead. - Louis Gray

Thanks Louis and Mike. - Robert Scoble

Robert!!!!! What great news; it will be early. Why did they induce if the due date was the 25th, or was I wrong? - Francine Hardaway

wishing you the best. we have a girl due in a few months :) - Stalyn☂

Francine: because hospitals like to schedule babies, is my guess (Sequoia is like a hotel). But he was breech and they wanted to get him into position, now that she's here they are doing the induction thing. - Robert Scoble

Good wishes to all. I've never met you and even I'm nervous. - Amyloo

Good luck with everything, Robert!!! Very exciting! I hope everything turns out perfect in the end!! - Her Lindsay-ness

Best wishes Scobs! This must be a very exiting day! - Jadito

All the best, Robert. This is Realtime Scoble Scoop (RSS)! - Mahendra (SkepticGeek)

Good luck, everyone! - Glen Campbell

Good luck, Robert, Maryam, and Baby Scoble! - Michael R. Bernstein

So the doctor said that Ryan is one of the five most active babies she has seen in her practice which is why they didn't let us go home. Usually babies at this stage stay heads down. Ryan isn't. I think we have a wild one! :-) - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Congratulation and best wishes! - Heather Solos

5 is an odd number to recall. Good luck, best wishes. - Benjamin Taylor

Guarantee he gets a best friend named Adam. - Vezquex: God of FF

Congratulations and good luck. - Luiz Fuzaro

So exciting! Congrats, and good luck Robert! Enjoy the geek out time - that's always one of my favorite parts of having a baby. :-) - Jesse Stay

Very happy for you! Best of luck and hope everyone stays happy and healthy! - Martha

Robert wishing you and your wife a speedy delivery. May you have a happy, healthy baby. - Paul Blasman from iPhone

conggrats! - Alrady

Congrats Scoble! Wishing you , the wife and baby the best of early life. - Nakeva Corothers

Best wishes for this exciting event! - Anne Bouey

Sending good thoughts to your family. Good luck and congrats! - Alex Hellstrom from iPod

Congrats and best wishes - Love the name - you must have made Dave Winer's year with that one! - Steve Lacey from iPhone

Ahh, so looks like I haven't missed anything Robert as its now morning here...hurrah! - Sandra Large

Congratulations Robert and Welcome Ryan! - Martha

Congratulations :) xx - Joe Dawson

Congrats! Everybody doing ok? - Patrick Mackaaij

Robert, we're thinking best thoughts for you, Maryam and R.S.S. (cool initials for the new baby!) Congratulations!!! - Cathryn Hrudicka

Awesome Congrats! - Jessica Stevens

6 more comments

congratulations ...rob and family best wishes - johnpiercy

agreed congrat's my friend - good wishes to your ever growing family :) - mike "glemak" dunn

How's Maryam doing? - paul mooney

I'm surprised Techcrunch didn't brake this BIG Story - paul mooney

good luck! - Thomas Hawk

No offense to Dave, but P.U.B.S.U.B.H.U.B.B.U.B. is too many initials... :) - John E. Bredehoft

Thomas: I was just looking back at the photos you shot after Milan was born. What a gift that was! - Robert Scoble

I think most mean it's not as comfortable as FriendFeed. - Amit Morson

141 more comments

I think some of the stuff I'm reading about Facebook is laughable. Really? I went over and used it tonight and the news feed is very similar to FriendFeed. The technology from here will fit right in. - Robert Scoble

Actually, Robert's right. FriendFeed's basically a superior version of the Facebook news feed. - Dennis Jernberg

I wish Friend Feed was keyboard navigatable though. Google Reader and GMail have spoiled me; making me think that web apps can be usable as well. I don't like using the mouse so much. - Travis B. Hartwell

It's gotten a bit easier since they started copying Twitter/Friendfeed...but its the third-party silly stuff that puts me off. Serious stuff was always better here in Friendfeed. - George Hall (Australia)

we are compatable, hell the wedding is over put the shotguns down and lets all party like geeks. go to bed. love you all. you may friend me at any one of these places as lisbethwest. gnite! - lisbethwest

George: I ignore all that stuff, it never bothered me. - Robert Scoble

When do do we get hear what the plan actually is? I have used the FF app in facebook from time to time. But the problem is facebook is clunky due to it's massive membership so I tend click back to here. Is FB really going to get faster? It be smart to have both running in tandem methinks no? - BairdWilliamson

Facebook is like the social housing estate next door. There are some decent people living there, and there are some pockets of nobs who will steal the hubcaps off your car and throw them through your windows while trying to sell some dodgy dvd's on the street corners. - Gilbert Harding

PS yoono makes it groovy and friendbar keeps it happy - lisbethwest

Almost everyone I know IRL uses Facebook, but increasingly grudgingly. - LogEx

I know millions of people who use four remote controls to watch TV. - Luca Sofri

It is not usable in the way that friendfeed is (I know there are problems) - Paul Kinlan

but facebook is soo complicated - Paul Kinlan

I'll go with the train. If the train heads to Facebook I suppose thats where I need to go as well :) I'm absolute certain that FF staff will have a great impact on the user experience of FB. Trying to be positive I also think it's a great thing that FB still strive to evolve. - Patrik Arwengrim

Facebook is ugly, looks like a corporate site and very slow and clunky, like a busy factory with adds at every corner - Thierry Lhôte

Baird: software takes months. Paul is right. But Paul, you can just ignore a lot of the complexity there. - Robert Scoble

hhahaha, sth. like that i thought this second too, Luca :) - Ronald

Facebook is unusable to do the things that FriendFeed can do - Anthony Feint

lol, the #1 excuse I hear for people migrating from FriendFeed to Facebook is the annoying applications on the home feed. You can edit those out of your view you know. Same for people you don't want to converse with (privacy settings). - Hugh Isaacs II

@Robert - I find Facebook extremely useful... for playing Mafia and FarmTown style games. Engagement is just difficult there. I'm not sure if it's the UI, the crowd I have there, or what, but I just don't get into a comfortable conversational groove there on FB the way I do on Twitter or here. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins

in fact, the four founders of Friendfeed recieved a trader bonus, for doing real-time search on Facebook, not changing Facebook to become Friendfeed - Thierry Lhôte

Robert - you're confusing number of users with ease of use. Millions of people of all ages used to be happy with their cellphones, but it wasn't until the iPhone came along that those people saw how usable a phone *could* be. - Andrew Terry

Anthony: like start a mob war? :-) - Robert Scoble

robert: I think it is hard to ignore the complexity, it took me ages to upload a phote once (or even find where to do it) - Paul Kinlan

robert: and there is no discovery... I love ff for its friend of a friend features and best of the day.... oh and my discussions. - Paul Kinlan

On Facebook i really only have my closest friends and family as "friends". I think i will not change that. I believe i am not the only one - Flynn (Michael A. Volz)

I think someone hit the nail on the head. The one thing really missing from the Facebook experience is the sort of engagement we have here at Friendfeed. - George Hall (Australia)

exactly - Flynn (Michael A. Volz)

robert: no sharing content is what im talking about. I actually don't personally know the people I follow on FriendFeed. many are influencers like yourself. This is where I get my news. On Facebook you have Friends not Followers - Anthony Feint

anyway, the key way to tell something is not friendly to someone, it is listening to that someone. That someone says it's not. You can't go and tell him he's wrong in what he doesn't like. - Luca Sofri

Anthony: that's changing and quickly. My Facebook looks exactly like FriendFeed. - Robert Scoble

Why are you using FF and Twitter and not FB then? Besides, they totally hid the applications so anything not out of the box is hard to get to. Advanced functionalities are hard to get to. It's the only site I can think of that I had to use the Help section to find stuff... - Eran Kampf from iPhone

@Anthony Actually Facebook has a following feature http://startupmeme.com/faceboo.... - Hugh Isaacs II

That and facebook is full of punk teenagers that I don't want to talk to ;) - Paul Kinlan

@Paul, Then delete them from your friends list, or don't add them. - Hugh Isaacs II

You choose your own friends on facebook, right? - TobiasVerhoog.com

also I do believe the UI on Facebook is terrible. It took me 5 attempts to try and create a page on Facebook and I still have to do a search for it when I want to view it - Anthony Feint

Robert, its all the poking and quizzes and other jejune stuff on Facebook - Aaman (Clone of FF)

Of course Facebook is usable. The point is what do you want to use it for. It was the one place where I could have family and close friends in a CLOSED network. I don't want the world and his missus to see my birthday party - sorry. Friendfeed is a completely different thing. Use it as a lifestream - have all sorts of friends/ acquiaintances/ whatever on there. They are not one and the same and I don't see how they can be. - sofiagk

@Aaman, block the quizzes from your home feed. - Hugh Isaacs II

Aaman: I've been on Facebook for a long time and I just ignore that stuff. No harm to me. - Robert Scoble

Facebook is cluttered. It's not a platform for sharing information and discussion. They're intended for two entirely separate purposes. That being said, I definitely am looking forward to what the FriendFeed team can do with Facebook. If real-time search is where they stop, it'll be hell. - Adam Reyher from Alert Thingy

On Facebook you choose your friends, just like here. Some differences, plus over there you have to decide whether you're going to be public or private up front. - Robert Scoble

So why you were then one of the sincerest ambassadors for FF and NOT FB? But taste changes... - Ronald

@Hugh what I was implying was that FF is open participation, so I am talking to you, I might not be following you but I am still talking to you; FB is open to 300 million users most of which I couldn't stop talking to me even if I wanted. Usage wise (from my perception) FB is closed to your personal groups, FF is discovery, the twain shall never mesh - Paul Kinlan

Robert Scoble was more interesting when he actually had a defensible opinion, rather than just went along with whatever the industry seemed to be doing and worked to egg people on. We remember those times, don't we? - Andy Bakun

I always laugh at people saying "what's the problem? Just do this, and it is ok". But the reason we use computers and software is we don't want to do this. We want to have things exactly the way we need them, not the way we need them if we just do this and this. - Luca Sofri

Facebook is not designed to be a public tool - think back to its roots. It's more of a private thing. If I am forced to use it like Friendfeed then I am deleting at least 80% of my info - sofiagk

@Paul, I think that's going to change with the FriendFeed acquisition. Facebook's aiming more for the public stuff instead of only focusing on close relationships now. - Hugh Isaacs II

cool, I used the word twain (evern if it is wrong) - Paul Kinlan

@sofiagk that´s exactly my point - Flynn (Michael A. Volz)

@sofiagk, Everything on Facebook is choice, I doubt they'll force you to be public, it'll probably be very tightly controlled. - Hugh Isaacs II

Think of the privacy settings. - Hugh Isaacs II

@Hugh, I would love FB to change to be more like FF but I can't see it happening, I would love to get to see the real-time search (someone said they just released it). - Paul Kinlan

sofiagk: I completely agree - Facebook was built for closed and private networks. Which is the complete opposite of FF. I don't want to setup complex privacy settings becasue I don't want my family to be inundated with php and coding articles. - Anthony Feint

If we are talking about privacy settings you might want to check out my FB app http://www.knowyourprivacy.com - Paul Kinlan

do i really want to search facebook? really? - Flynn (Michael A. Volz)

FB's great strength was for the private stuff. If I'm forced to choose between public and private, I'm going to stay private, because that's where my IRL friends are. Sorry, FFers. - James Myatt

@Michael A. "Flynn" Volz +1 - sofiagk

@Paul, I don't think Facebook plans to continue as just a closed network anymore, I think their goal is to cover all types of social interactions on the web so it's very likely they'll have FriendFeed like features. - Hugh Isaacs II

We use each tool to our own purposes but that doesn't mean that each tool is not better suited to a type of use. - sofiagk

@sofiagk, What's to say Facebook can't act as two tools instead of one? - Hugh Isaacs II

@hugh, the had better change their API to support that type activity then. - Paul Kinlan

@Paul, They already did. - Hugh Isaacs II

Hugh, I'm sure it can, but it's going to be really awkward. Like using a Swiss army knife to put shelves together and then skin a rabbit. - James Myatt

@James, Yea, I can't defend that, lol. - Hugh Isaacs II

@Hugh Isaacs II well if they are planning to open up then half of the apps are more or less redundant I would guess. You spend all of your time becoming something and then strip down to become something else? What's the point? I'm sorry I just don't understand what is the point with competing with twitter. Facebook vs Twitter is just a silly question, how would you compare them? Using some ff feature to make the stream on facebook better - sure I get that. - sofiagk

I think Facebook really need to sketch out what they're going to do with Friendfeed, and that might help people adapt to the idea better. At the moment, too much speculation and people really have no idea what to expect of this. - George Hall (Australia)

I've never beeon a big user of FF. I still don't quite get it. I use FB to keep in touch with people I know. As far as I can see FF is more for discovering stuff and discussing it with people I don't. Or have I missed the point? - Marc A. Price

@sofiagk, When you look at what Facebooks done so far, it seems like they just want all of the internets social interactions in one place. I mean it does sound silly but sticking to one thing is what killed off Friendster, Classmates, MySpace and so on. - Hugh Isaacs II

Marc, I think that is exactly the point - James Myatt

Being on FF is like publishing only things you want. With advanced privacy settings, you can just filter what to share on FB. BUT (a big but) I don't trust Facebook and I've seen it enabling stuff like alerts and configuration settings just because they had some error in their system. I don't share my private life on FF but I share family pictures, my personal details like my cell phone because I only allow people I know personally on FB. - Burak "cyrus" Bayburtlu

My biggest problems with using Facebook like Friendfeed are lack of friend-of-friend content (if someone else likes / comments on something, I don't get that in my feed), barriers to engagement (subscribing to someone you don't really "know" on FF is fine; sending a friend request to someone you don't really "know" on FB is not cool), and the fact that stuff falls down the feed too quickly because likes / comments don't bump it to the top again. - Tristan Seligmann

@hugh, they haven't changed their api at all, the status stream is a bit of a joke. - Paul Kinlan

@Hugh Isaacs II if they want to get all of social interaction in one place they have grossly misunderstood the nature of social interaction generally. People do not have ONE identity which they use to interact with EVERYONE. Rather we have MULTIPLE. I don't talk to my boss the same way as I talk to my friend. That's why I need multiple tools. So if there is only one on offer I will not use it. - sofiagk

@sofiagk i totally agree with that - Flynn (Michael A. Volz)

@sofiagk, that's what the privacy settings are for. In real life you don't take on multiple personas (well at least I don't think you do) so why do it on the internet? And in real life certain conversations are private, kept from others. You shouldn't require separate identities for that. - Hugh Isaacs II

And you can't expect them to know the perfect network for human interaction. The fact that they're trying gives me confidence though. It's like Googles goal to store all of the worlds information in one place, it won't happen but it definitely made some great products. - Hugh Isaacs II

@Hugh Isaacs II do you really trust facebook with the complicated settings and permissions and groups. I don't. I will agree with what @Burak "cyrus" Bayburtlu said above. I get what you are saying about trying. But at the end of the day Google has multiple product offerings. Facebook doesn't (for now). - sofiagk

Hugh, you do need separate places for that so that there's no risk of being overheard accidentally. - James Myatt

@sofiagk, I don't honestly. I'm defending them based off of idealism not favoritism. And yea, handling all of that stuff will probably end up in a million mistakes but it's a product, that happens. Also what's to say Facebook can't have multiple products? (That could be apart of this whole FriendFeed thing) - Hugh Isaacs II

@Hugh Isaacs II well - let's see what's gonna happen. Btw thanks for the lively chat a blog post is being drafted in my head as I type :-) - sofiagk

multiple products, like google does, that would be a really good idea. rename friendfeed and go on - Flynn (Michael A. Volz)

Your welcome, also if it's of any help, the maker of FriendFeed posted up something of reassurance http://friendfeed.com/paul... - Hugh Isaacs II

I think it makes more sense to have multiple "spaces" (work / private / whatever) in the same tool than arbitrarily dividing those up across multiple tools. - Tristan Seligmann

For example, most people would probably not create a Yahoo email account for emailing some people, and a GMail account for emailing others; they would just create two GMail accounts. - Tristan Seligmann

@Tristan, It's funny alot of people on FriendFeed are talking about migrating to Google Wave because of the whole Facebook thing, and in reality that's what Wave is going to do. - Hugh Isaacs II

All of the big companies whether open or not are aiming at owning your internet identity, they don't want separate identities because it doesn't define everything correctly. That's why Google has their profiles feature, why so many companies support OpenID, etc... It may not be something you're used to but over time it will just be one account per person, based on how social networking evolves. - Hugh Isaacs II

I bet even FriendFeed had that idea (Hint: Google, Facebook and Twitter log in feature). - Hugh Isaacs II

Carefully observe how someone communicates on phone call versus a face-to-face conversation. It's different—for one thing speaking in a louder volume on the phone. The medium influences the communication itself (but don't get me started on McLuhan ;) So multiple tools can help achieve a certain dynamic that would not have happened just by using another feature inside a single service/construct. That's certainly been my experience on FriendFeed. - Micah Wittman

@Micah Wittman +1 - sofiagk

@Micah, Wouldn't Facebook count as multiple tools in itself. You can have a toolbox, that doesn't mean all of it's contents equal one tool. - Hugh Isaacs II

Well, I guess this is more of a Swiss Army knife, but the analogy still applies. - Hugh Isaacs II

Hugh, typically, the same culture/available resources produce stuff under a certain paradigm. - Micah Wittman

@Micah, I doubt they'd just stuff all of your social interactions under one blanket. - Hugh Isaacs II

They've already separated all of my friends by relation. - Hugh Isaacs II

I mean, look at FriendFeed, I used the Facebook Connect feature to log in, but I don't interact on here as I would with my friends - Hugh Isaacs II

The last post I see from Robert on his FB Fan page is June 4th. Being a fan on FB is certainly not the same as subscribing here. If you tried to post all these comments on FB, they would take up 4-5 times more screen space. Like others, I use FB for private family and friends, and FF for subscribing to other public feeds. I like the differences. - Keith Rowland

Facebook is just really cluttered, and it's UI looses focus on so many fronts. Take the start page - i've missed events, birthdays and other stuff because its burried with a million things on one page. But that's where the people are. I - Shawn Roos

Or you are SO wrong here. People pretend they are using it - then their wife asks - btw, honey, how did you create that fan page about me? And he says - WTF? :) - Sasha Kovaliov(.com)

Apostol, lol :) The idea is that usability could have been much-much better! Right now it's a total mess and there is a lot of room for improvement. Yes, people use it everyday, but do they use all of it? - Sasha Kovaliov(.com)

@Sasha, do you use all of FriendFeed? (Example: Last.Fm, Brightkite, desktop notifications, google talk integration, etc...) - Hugh Isaacs II

Then why use people not using all of Facebook as an argument? - Hugh Isaacs II from iPod

FB is not unusable, but it is bloated. Tough to set things up the way that I want. Too many new toys/apps popping up almost in every second. I'm tired of hiding this, hiding that from the feeds - ilter

It's still pretty simple and pleasant to use provided you don't install any applications IMO :P. - James Stephenson

James: what about not being able to stop some favorite friends from installing any applications? :) - ilter

ilter: Ummm ... I guess you could start selecting your friends based on their Facebook Applications :P? That would be a sad, sad day... - James Stephenson

Maybe we need a seperate facebook application. Wait... are there ANY facebook desktop applications? AIR-free preferred (for now) :) - ilter

Throws a sheep at Robert. - Mark Davidson from BuddyFeed

Hat tip to this discussion and to @Hugh Isaacs II - I explain my point on facents and identities better here http://www.digital-era.org/renditi... (I know this is a shameless plug - Robert fee free to delete, I just thought it is relevant) - sofiagk

@sofiagk, I read your blog post and understand your argument but the same rule still stands. You only have one body. As with the friend list feature on Facebook you have social barriers that keep some people away from what others may see. I know it sounds foolish to push all of your social interactions under one service, but if that service can recreate the same personas you use in real life, the only argument against it would be ease of use, comfort and bugs. - Hugh Isaacs II

@Hugh Isaacs II with you all the way if we can find some way to meaningfuly separate functions and feeds - to actually control what info we send to whom. - sofiagk

@sofiagk, that's what I've been getting at this whole time. I mean I know Facebook in it's current state doesn't do a great job of controlling who sees what, but I'm sure they've been working on that. The FriendFeed acquisition is probably to cater to that. - Hugh Isaacs II

Facebook has lots of usability issue. For example, they hid all the apps in that ridiculous bottom toolbar making them less accessible. It took me a while to find that my events are now there... If you want to do anything a bit more advanced than the basic functions then you'll probably lost without their help site (took me a while to figure out how to set permissions to different groups... ). Facebook should be way easier to use... - Eran Kampf

@Eran, Windows does the same thing. Hides all of the apps in that ridiculous bottom toolbar. ^_^ - Hugh Isaacs II

scobble: it's close to unusable. - Gal Granov גל גרנוב

If its so good and usable... why do you use FriendFeed\Twitter? - Eran Kampf

@Eran, Facebook doesn't let me hold public conversations like the one we're currently having (which I think is bound to change). - Hugh Isaacs II

It's not unusable... it's TOO usable. Too easily gamed by spam apps, too visible to employers who want to block it, too easy for advertisers to target your feed and use your stuff. And way, way too cluttered. It's like the boardwalk in Atlantic City... I avoid it if I can but every so often I make the mistake of going and find that it hasn't changed. Friendfeed on the other hand has none of the crap, while it does have a boatload of interesting, engaged people. - Jim Hearts FF

well said Jim.... +1 - Kim

++++jim - BEX from iPhone

I totally (!) agree with Jim *thumbs up* - Ronald

@Jim, you know you can actually filter out the applications from your view, even keep them from posting on your wall. - Hugh Isaacs II

You are spot on, Robert. The proof is in the pudding. - thinkQuick

Hugh... yes, I know. But while facebook is very easy to begin using it requires a fair amount of effort to set up all that stuff and get the look/feel you want. For all the talk I've heard about how Friendfeed is difficult to figure out, I've never had that problem here. - Jim Hearts FF

@Jim, yea but FriendFeed is a very young website. I'm not content just knowing that I can't filter out which of my friends can see what. If FriendFeed lasted longer it would've probably gotten more complex and you would've lost interest, or it would've stayed the same and you would've lost interest. Either way judging from your comment I think you would've moved on to something new at some point (this is Facebooks attempt at being relevant to you). - Hugh Isaacs II

Hugh... I guess you missed the part of my comment that spoke about interesting, engaged people. I will not be losing interest in them anytime soon. In fact, I've been (and still am) on facebook longer than I've been here. I've never been that interested in facebook and still am not. It was just the opposite on FF. I was skeptical and used it very little at first but as the service (for... more... - Jim Hearts FF

Slow... Bogged down with apps... And who wants to refresh a page or discussion manually? Although it does allow me to stay connected with people I would have otherwise lost touch with. - Walt Ruppar from iPhone

@Walt, Facebook + Realtime experts = Facebook in Realtime. It's an assumption but not one without merit. - Hugh Isaacs II

Good to connect with friends of friends but do not like the stupid apps - Randy Allen Bishop

people who barely know the net are ALL on facebook. you know what i would like? friend group settings. think about it. post photos to your personal group, your online friends or something else entirely. and WHO KNOWS - with the smart people working for the boogie men, it might happen too! - Terry O'Fee

@Hugh yes I know it is coming... Just wanted to share my top three issues with #facebook and why I use it to help this wonderful R&D discussion... :) - Walt Ruppar from iPhone

I think Facebook is perfectly usable. I just can't use it for the same sort of things. Honestly, most people think Facebook is unusable because of all the applications that their friends use, and which those people are too lazy to block. There are some legit problems though, like the quiz applications which, literally, make new applications, so that they show up and you have to block... more... - Otto

Logging into Facebook means a 10-12 minute commitment just to catch up on a half-day's worth of communication. By contrast, I can get in and out of Twitter or Friendfeed in a minute or two if that's all I have. Facebook is just...heavy. - Ed Moltzen

I know people that work at Facebook. They're good people. But I have serious doubts about their abilities to make an interface that doesn't totally suck. Face facts, Facebook's interface absolutely blows. It is very difficult to do anything that you actually need to do. A good friend of mine is a teacher, and she stopped using Facebook because she didn't want to reject her students on... more... - Otto

I think FB is/has reached a level of importance as SOFTWARE that there needs to be detailed guides/documentation/tutorials. Think about it, most of FB's functionality is simply put out there for people to discover. When you sign up you aren't introduced to a 1/4 of what is available or provided any kind of best practices guidance. Software we buy for our systems generally comes with some type of manual or instruction. Most webapps like FB do not, you have to go to the community or hunt through the interface - Martin Johnson

It's not unusable but it is quite a challenge to new users. I wrote this post about how Twitter is the gateway drug to social networking. http://blog.adam-jackson.net/2009... - Adam Jackson

I may have to have two accounts on FB, one private and one public - outofmyarse

It might come as a shock to the designers out there but usability is not the most important aspect of an application. Facebook's success in the face of its sucky usability proves that. People are on facebook, and other on-line social networks, because they want to interact with the other members, not because of usability. - sjjh

Unnecessary to chew gum. But it's called billion dolar industry. - Burçak Çubukçu

The selling point of friendfeed is that it's a social interface utterly different from facebook. The default is open, shareable, aggregrates, and the UI isn't overridden with crud. - Mark Essel

there are more stranger things that people do, not everything could be explained, asked a wrong question. like say if there aren't any ghosts why more than half the world believe, if there is any god or isn't why are people theist/atheist. why men cut their hair both head/facial when they are there for sexual and heat exchange purposes at first places, you asked it out of your sentiment for facebook and i wrote it because i don't like facebook ;) - testbeta

I personally prefer intensedebate to disqus... I don't know that disqus is far and away the leader?? - Justin Long

18 more comments

Justin - I think Intense Debate is a fine product but they don't excel at extending and gathering conversations. - Keith - @tsudo

Apostol - You've identified my major issue with Facebook. It is a one way street leading to a walled garden - Keith - @tsudo

I've tried all three of these. I found Disqus incredibly difficult to use and set up, and Intense Debate marginally less so. But the problem with both of these is that really, your comments are no longer your own. That is to say, when somebody comments on your blog post using these two comment systems, the comments are not on your site anymore, they're on this third parties site. Sure,... more... - Otto

Honestly I've never gotten this control issue. My website sits on server that doesn't reside in my home or use my internet connection. My email, my RSS, everything is relying on someoneelse's system. I just don't get the mindset of hoarding comments. The reward for using one of the platforms is just to great to miss - Keith - @tsudo

Yes, my email and my website and everything else is indeed relying on somebody else's system. I pay them for that service, in fact. However, my content remains under my control. Comments I display on my sites are my content as well. Why would I want to give up any form of control over them for some "bling" that in the end doesn't seem all that useful. Better to take the useful bits I do find and reproduce them on my own site. - Otto

Unrelated, but similar, example of why maintaining control over your own data is so important: http://friendfeed.com/scoblei... - Otto

I don't really see the comment's as my property. If anyone property they are that of the person who left the comment. - Keith - @tsudo

What is the down side of releasing control when there is so much to gain? - Keith - @tsudo

It's not about "property". It's about control over what I display and where my working data resides. Why should I trust a company with my data? Why should I trust these companies with my data? Why should I give them that trust in exchange for just minor bits of functionality? - Otto

So much? No, I see it as so little, actually. What these services provide is minor functionality, at best. With just a few hours work, one could replicate the best parts he's discussing on their own site with minimal effort. Facebook Connect, Twitter integration, FriendFeed, etc, these can be easily done without that type of thing. If you run a common blog platform like WordPress, there's plugins for that. - Otto

Ok, well I guess I'll just have to agree to disagree. I'm a big fan of Disqus and different opinions make the world go round. Thanks for conversation - Keith - @tsudo

Side note: If you were using BackType Connect, this conversation we're having right here, on FriendFeed, would show up on your site. Discus and Intense Debate can't do that. - Otto

Backtype is too noisy for me. - Keith - @tsudo

Samuel, that's not true. Disqus would show it on your site. - Anika

Anika: Well, it's not working then, because this conversation is not showing up on his site. - Otto

I'm not sure I understand what you mean about comments not being on your site. IntenseDebate automatically mirrors the comments back to your wordpress blog so that if you should disable it, all your comments are there. I think Disqus does the same thing, because when I moved from Disqus to ID all of the comments on my blog were automatically migrated to ID. - Justin Long

How does the new Echo platform from the JS-Kit people compare to Disqus or Intense Debate? I'm interested in getting one of those integrated with my blog soon. - Travis B. Hartwell

@Justin Long: Yes, they do, but the problem with that is that the functionality to do that mirroring is buggy as all hell. Last time I tried Disqus, I ended up with a horked up database that had to be manually repaired (not to mention that it duplicated every single comment on the site). Intense Debate has had similar problems. The fact that it has to mirror the comments at all is the main problem, the comments should not need mirroring. Let them live where they belong: on the site itself. - Otto

Samuel - I realize things go fubar but I've never had any trouble with Disqus and comment mirroring. Perhaps it was the exception and not the rule. Good point Justin - Keith - @tsudo

"Dave, I just wrote about Twitter's Platform Shortcomings here: http://scobleizer.com/2009......" - Robert Scoble

2 more comments

http://tweetmeme.com/about... shows how bit.ly (as default twitter shortener) makes it a market leader in url shorteners with 80% share. Compare with stats from 3 months ago http://www.techcrunch.com/2009... - Atul Arora

Hmm, what if bit.ly dies like tr.im just announced it is going to do? Short links need life insurance. Now there's a business idea. - Dominic Jones

Nambu is a Social Messaging Trainwreck and the only way they can come-up with to make money from Twitter is a tr.im extortion play - paul mooney

It's a beautiful day in NJ, ask Patrick what's up with Google Voice? - paul mooney

5 more comments

"hi, who are you?" - Mark from iPhone

Aren't you afraid someone will use your number malicously? - Californian

No - Robert Scoble from iPhone

425? isn't that an LA area code? Make that SEA? - Bret Rowe

DARN, I would have done it if I hadn't been gardening at home! - Shari Weiss

@Bret - technically 425 is the eastern suburbs of Seattle: Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, etc. - Aaron Brethorst

Probably 10% of the Twitter Spam that's out there - I'd expect more drops to follow if Twitter is trying to combat this growing problem. - AJ Kohn

3 more comments

My guess is they just removed a bunch of suspended accounts. This happens occasionally - it just looks more with larger accounts. Also, the API is often incorrect for higher profile accounts - often very incorrect. I've had to disable auto-unfollow for our higher-profile users because of this. - Jesse Stay

I lost 250, if you see them send them back to me - paul mooney

I've found that most Twitter users with TinyURL links in their bio are 99% spammers. From my experience. - Amir

there was a press release on that. they are cleaning dead and spam accounts. basically they corrected the statistics.... - christoph richter

I used to talk about Twitter every day to my blog readers back in 2007 (and Facebook too). That's what I do. I tell you what the best new stuff in my life is, and I get passionate about it. Today FriendFeed's technology is WAY better than Twitter's for a whole lot of reasons. So, I will talk about it now and I really don't care that you don't like it. - Robert Scoble

Where's Dvorak lol don't mention Twitter around him - Robert Burgin

Tomorrow if something else even better comes out, I will talk about that as well, to the chagrin of my FriendFeed followers who will quickly get sick of hearing about it thanks to the aggregating feature here. - Robert Scoble

It's the cycle of life. I always push the best of breed. If you can't handle the best of breed, don't follow me. It'll just frustrate you. - Robert Scoble

I learned how to post to my feed and groups and cc Twitter recently. I think Im posting 90% of the time here instead of Twitter now. - beersage

Selling my i phone 3gs Just send me a e mail at thorntec@gmail.com - Aaron Thorn

but I like just arguing about your latest fad with you!!!! - Rachel Clarke

Aaron: you've been warned. If you post off topic in my items again you'll get blocked. - Robert Scoble

Rachel: yes, well, arguing is fun! It's how people figure out the truth. - Robert Scoble

Scobes: how do we get more people onto Friendfeed then? I wanted to share a wine article but couldn't find a decent active wine group on here. Need more people to FF to flourish. - beersage

beersage: yeah, that takes time. Build a room. Bring good wine content into it, and slowly the people will show up. I still need to get GaryVee into here. Getting people to change behavior is VERY difficult. That's why I think Facebook is going to win this battle. - Robert Scoble

At least until FriendFeed finds a way to change the game in a way that Facebook isn't willing to replicate. - Robert Scoble

I can't see Gary not trying this he is so pumped to try new things to drive his business - Robert Burgin

Do you think friendfeed will overtake twitter and then facebook? My money is on friendfeed! - Craig Shipp

Craig: nope, not with its current form. They need to do some serious stuff that's different than Facebook and Twitter. I think the themes are a very serious hint of what's to come. - Robert Scoble

I resisted using twitter for a year before I finally succumbed - because of its 'silly' name - I was lost for three weeks when I first signed up nearly two years ago - now one of my twitter accounts is taking over my life - and it's all your fault Robert Scoble. - Chris Loft

I am a media nobody but managed to drive comments on guardian.co.uk and their twitter-story. Guardian-Readers complaining about the Guradian's coverage of Twitter. Funny old people;) - Alex 'BuckyBit' Covic

I see Twitter's popularity increasing based on Mobile exposure .,, recently kevin spacey on Letterman pulls out the BB and sends a Tweet . I think Friendfeed needs to make its Mobile experience easier to understand/use for the everyday joe ... - johnpiercy

johnpiercy: that's what I've said many times here. The FriendFeed mobile experience is non-existent. I know Robert likes their iPhone mobile web page. But I'm sorry, when you're used to superior custom apps for Twitter and then you look at that joke of a mobile web page, no wonder people walk away. Now, this is a bit of a chicken & egg situation. Getting developers to make a kick-arse... more... - Christopher A. Wichura

Now, as to FriendFeed taking on Twitter and Facebook. Facebook is really a very different beast than FriendFeed. I don't see that happening. Twitter, on the other hand, is ripe to be destroyed. It's overrun by spambots these days. It's extremely frustrating to actually converse with people there due to the 140 character limit and lack of proper conversation flows. And it just overall... more... - Christopher A. Wichura

You're going to run out of fingers and toes - paul mooney

Don't forget to count me! - Dave Slusher

andrew keen is 1st - Steve Gillmor

you mean i'm first to be clueless? - andrewkeen

yes - Steve Gillmor

Professional clueless - paul mooney

:-) - Johni Fisher

I'm in the cult of the amateur clueless - Dave Slusher

Don't forget to take your real watch.. - Dale

Back: everybody is. thanks for playing. - Steve Gillmor

oh gee. the one day I turn everything off because I'm trying to get work done that actually pays and you play this game. LOL - Karoli

no, feldman is exempt - Steve Gillmor

FF needs Like blocking capability - Steve Gillmor

btw, I saw this on Facebook. - Karoli

I hate Facebook. - Nattjenta Moon

turns out Keen is the only one who doesn't get it. Guessed that, but data confirms it. - Steve Gillmor

Natjenta, me too. was there to approve a friend request, steve's message was at the top of the news feed. LOL - Karoli

The new Steve is cracking me up in real time. - Louis Gray

I'm not in real time. I was at the Sonos event listening to music and saw this two hours after it was posted. - Robert Scoble

Did someone delete some comments here? Demonstrates if you don't watch in real time you might miss all the fun. Sigh. - Robert Scoble

I resent this to test out FriendFeed's email feature. - Robert Scoble from email

42 more comments

This was a brochure for college students back in 1992 that advertised the Mac IIci and one of the first PowerBooks. Yes, I used to be an Apple shill! :-) - Robert Scoble from iPhone

awesome! thanks for sharing LOL - Susan Beebe

My son was amazed. He didn't know about it. But then he was born in 1994. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Lol, that's awesome Scoble... - Colin

you look like you were about 12 .... - angela penny

haha easy to upgrade mac's. oh how times have changed, not that i'm complaining. - Yaniel Cantelar

nothing comes between you and your calvins, er, i mean macintosh. - Greg Verdino

Angela: it was when I was in college. 17 years ago. Yikes. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

That's really fun! You've lived an interesting life - Andrew

that's pretty awful rob. As Bender would say: "You come a long way, baby" - Mark

I like how you cited your reason for buying a Mac as being "expandable". My, how times have changed. - Hunt

LOL. you look too young, not 17:)) - Oğuz Serdar

WOW! That's hilarious! What a cool thing to have. - James Hull

Ah. 1992. I would love to go back in time to 1992 with a Macbook Pro or something, and show you some tech from the future and then take it off you and bugger off back to the future. - Mark

You were a girl in 1992? Oh wait - you mean you were the guy on the LEFT! :) :) - Lee Drake

Lee, I was thinking the same thing. :) - Jimminy

Tiger Beat pose FTW - Jay Cuthrell

Prasoon: Microsoft made the best Macintosh software back then. I worked at Microsoft from 2003-2006. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

I was an Apple fanboi long before I was a Microsoft one. Funny that in 1993 I started switching to Windows. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

look at you robert! cool stuff. - sean percival

lovely (and it doesn't look as if so many years have passed by the way) - sofiagk

I rotated it for you. http://images.scripting.com/archive... - Dave Winer

1 sexy pose - polou/indigo_bow

Hmm....Hey RObert....I still have a photo of you in the Norseman that I'm sure will get a bigger reaction than this one! Think graba$$. - Nick

Nick: those photos would be quite amusing! (Nick was on newspaper staff when we attended community college together). - Robert Scoble from iPhone

OMG how cool is that? - BEX

Not cool at all really.... - Joe

My son thinks it is cool. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

If my dad was in an Apple ad my cool factor for my dad would go up like forty some odd notches lol - Holden Page

You never know what the future will bring... - Seth Eagelfeld

Woz and I talked later about the Mac IIcx's. They were so easy to upgrade. I miss that era of computers. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

I remember attending Apple's IIci announcement at the Universal Ampitheater in October 1990? Later in the day I met with Guy Kawasaki and discussed his ideas for a board game. I ordered a IIci on the developer's discount at just over $4600. I still have it and the copy of the check I used to pay for it. - Mike Shulman

nice picture Robert! - Jeremiah Owyang

Barbara Kruger style ... - Onur Gündüz

Like the ad. I was testing FF email feature yesterday. Did you send from your phone or desktop? - Nakeva Corothers

Interesting how Apple has always worked so hard going after the college/university student market, especially in the context of the way they dominate sales of computers over the $1000 mark now. It's not only targeting young minds, it's also targeting young minds that are disproportionately likely to be wealthier than average in their careers and invest in themselves. - Jed White

This is great. I love the come-hither pose. - Mike Doeff from iPhone

WOW! 4-8MB is standard... - Joe....

Michael Dell started his company in his collage dorm room - paul mooney

Ok, you asked for it. I am going to scan them in and post them somewhere harmful! lol. - Nick

Just remember Nick I have a few of you too! :-) - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Almost the same.. almost :) http://www.businesspundit.com/wp-cont... - Diego Barros 

Cute! - Kathy Fitch

you don't need to open it up for us to see that... - Mike White

97 more comments

Why not do that with your normal Twitter? I don't understand the philosophy of courtesy re-follows at all. - Trent Hamm

Trent: you can't DM me if I don't follow you. - Robert Scoble

Can you follow me on your other account? - Zachary TG

Zachary: no. I will only follow people I know and can tell a story about (that I've met face-to-face). - Robert Scoble

And even then I'm not going to follow everyone. I want to keep the numbers of people I'm following with that account way down. - Robert Scoble

@notsecretscoble's bio says "...but he's not going to be very picky...". I think thats a typo, should be "...but he's going to be very picky..." - DGentry

DGentry: yeah, what you said! :-) - Robert Scoble

I think that is interesting about any account and how I end up following a lot of the time. - David Gross

I thought you disliked DMs Robert. Have you changed your position on this? Curious. ps - remember that one time at Moscone when we all mounted cameras on our heads and walked around like crazy people? Those were the days :) - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

Courtesy refollows allows someone who follows you to DM you if they need to - Its just courtious - Nicholas Paul Gordon from iPhone

Robert: Yeah, you should keep the numbers low our else you will be getting a lot of the junky tweets. Keep it to a minimum so you can get all the good stuff. - Amir

I'm sure Robert will follow as many as he wants or doesn't want.. I do similar, but for me it is facebook where I have the few friends I know better. - David Gross

Why not just follow the people you want on FF? the twitter integration works very well, now, IMO - adam garrett

now Scoble its no longer a secret lol - polou/indigo_bow

Adam: because not everyone I want to follow is on FriendFeed. - Robert Scoble

Hey, aren't you that guy who follows the whole internet? =) - Jered Hofker

Glad @SecretScoble is following me, I made the "interesting" cut - Yay! - Susan Beebe

Jered - Scoble does NOT follow trolls, jerks or assholes, just to be clear ;P - Susan Beebe

@Susan did you meet him personally? That's what he keeps telling me as the reason that he doesn't follow me on his secret account - Jorge Escobar

Jorge: there are a few exceptions to that rule. - Robert Scoble

I get it. - Jorge Escobar

Scoble: So are you saying that tools like TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop are not good enough filters? - Mike Bracco

Mike: right. Who you follow decides your inbound. If you follow 100,000 you still can't filter it down enough. There is value to following 100,000, though. Serendipity, for instance. - Robert Scoble

Scoble: Gotcha. I wrote a blog post a little while back calling for a group twitter framework to be developed (http://thenextweb.com/2009...) which could solve some of the filtering issues. - Mike Bracco

Mike: groups are going to be invaluable in the future for searching. - Robert Scoble

Groups is EVERYTHING for listening, engaging and building your network - Susan Beebe

There are lots of startups working on mass follow/unfollow frameworks and spam blocking. Filters, indeed. - Steve Lynch from twhirl

Yes - groups are really valuable to if easily created and then disposed of after they are needed. (IE a conference for example). Imagine if when you signed up for a conference your twitter handle was added to the conference group (which you could subscribe to and then unsubscribe after the conference was over). That would be cool. - Mike Bracco

Your own suggested users list. Cool. - Jason Nunnelley

Hey -- what Twitter grouping/filtering services do people find most interesting? - Steve Lynch from twhirl

Steve: none. I'm waiting for Twitter to do it. Jason: yeah, imagine that those 500 people were at a conference together. What a conference! - Robert Scoble

robert would you add notsecretscoble to your FF account so we don't have to create YAIF - Steve Gillmor

Steve: sure! - Robert Scoble

This is the real scoble graph. - Christian Burns from iPhone

Bah! like Groucho Marx said: "I'd never follow anyone who'd be willing to follow me". Or something like that. - BryanSchuetz

Christian: I don't think even this is the real Scoble graph. The real Scoble graph, the people whose judgements he trusts and is willing to depend upon, has to be even smaller than @notsecretscoble. The human brain just doesn't work that way, 500 people is an entire village not a circle of close friends. @notsecretscoble is a certainly a group of people to whom he feels a closer... more... - DGentry

So are you going to follow anyone you have met and hung out with? And is if I ask to be followed by you does that mean that I am disqualified :) - Christian Burns from iPhone

You should probably still grab @secretscoble given that it was linked from a few blogs and sites before someone else abuses it. - Tony Ruscoe

Christian: nope. But people I've met face-to-face definitely are in a different group than people I haven't met yet. - Robert Scoble

But just because I've met you doesn't mean I'll follow you on this Twitter account. - Robert Scoble

Robert: one twitter question please. Best twitter application for the Jesus Phone ? - Mark

Mark: Safari. - Robert Scoble

thank you my dear - Mark

So, if I ever get to buy Robert a beer, he'll follow me? It's good to know the rules, lol. (And I will buy you one Robert, if you're ever in my neighborhood.) - Kathy Fitch

Kathy: maybe. :-) - Robert Scoble

You should have named your secret account 'Scobert Roble.' - Tomy Thomson

I was Following Secretscoble, what ever happened to him? - paul mooney

I changed Secretscoble to notscretscoble - Robert Scoble

Oh, so it has to be something *better* than beer. Picky, picky. Still, I'd think about it. My husband is about the world's best party bartender. He knows how to put some wrist into the thing. A few of those, and I'd be in, fer shure . . .<grin> (Also, I'm a fabulously engaging and enlightening conversationalist, plus just self-effacing enough to be charming. Just ask me . . .) - Kathy Fitch

Thank you for this, more signal to the noise - Aaman (Clone of FF)

Wow, It would be nice to meet more people from here face to face, but so far I‘ve only met a dozen in person.. It would be nice to meet you in person some time as well. I followed your new account by mistake, so don't take it the wrong way if I unfollow you now. I didn't understand what you were doing with the account initially. It's a great idea for you though and I hope you enjoy it.. I'll have to check the comments and see if there's a feed I can follow here. - Michael Fidler

Michael: it's not important who follows you. It's important who you are following. You should only follow me if I'm providing value to you, no other reason. If you're following me because you think I'll be nice to you, or follow you back, or include you in some sort of list or group, you're following for the wrong reason. - Robert Scoble

On the other side, I will follow people for lots of different reasons and I have lots of different ways of following people. On some accounts I follow everyone. On others I have stupid, lame, reasons for following who I am following. The best account to follow me on, though, is my Likes Feed here on FriendFeed. http://friendfeed.com/scoblei... -- it shows ONLY OTHER PEOPLE that I like. - Robert Scoble

Robert, if I could "like" that last comment, I would. Wish folks would get that. - Karoli

Yeah, Karoli, too many people follow for stupid reasons and try to make it into a contest. It's interesting that following fewer people is actually far better than following more. But you have to pick the right people for that to be the case. - Robert Scoble

I agree with your last comment Robert but of course if there were folders in Twitter, I could follow people in a much more organized way like in FF. - manielse (Mark Nielsen)

Manielse: yeah, I agree. I just run two different Twitter accounts on two different computers. - Robert Scoble

I was just hoping to be able to do it from here. I follow a ton of people who don't follow back; because I find their feeds valuable. Honestly, I could care less who follows me back. I didn't see a feed here, so it will stay as is. - Michael Fidler

It's just a shame you need to do that. Live multiple lives in Twitter for a simple feature missing... - manielse (Mark Nielsen)

Michael: if you hang out here for even 20 seconds you'll know I spend most of my time here, so following me here is far better than following my Twitter accounts. Anyway, I see you're following me, and I'm following you, so no worries! - Robert Scoble

Exactly! - Michael Fidler

I'm happy you've done this, I've long thought your main Twitter account must be impossible to read because of how many people you've followed on it. - Colin

I find it so interesting that this now means you have a 'stance' on DMs or other SM phenomena. I see this as a human trying to navigate the insanity that technology is affording us. How can you NOT experiment. Scoble does it in front of us, but I feel as if everyone should be trying to make this stuff more useful and rewarding. - Derek Shanahan

Good point Derek, for example I use PowerTwitter in Firefox "Top Friends" feature to do the same thing without needing multiple accounts. We all tackle the "make stuff more useful" in different ways... - manielse (Mark Nielsen)

Great point. I've always found Scoble's dedication to FriendFeed a bit mysterious, although I also see him using it for more personal interaction than he could ever use the main twitter account for. A second twitter account, to me, isn't a statement of fact as to "How To Use Twitter"; it's a representation of the drive to figure out how these tools actually make all of our unique lives better. Plenty...PLENTY...of people only need one tool. Many of us are building our perfect buffets. - Derek Shanahan

I think it's only a matter of time before Twitter has to add server side support for 'groups' as a feature. - Alex Knight

@alex - I kind of thought the hacked twitter docs would reveal more in the way of group functionality, but it seems they have more pressing issues. - Derek Shanahan

I'm wary of notions like "the right people." That can become quite the echo chamber. It's very fun and edifying to discover a new voice with a unique angle. Of course, it's a matter of taste. One person's "right people" list is another person's poison. - Kathy Fitch

@kathy I agree...and I don't think Scoble finding a way to make a 'wanted list' makes it anyone's wanted list other than his own. - Derek Shanahan

Kathy: echo chambers can be quite good. Why? There's a reason you're listening to those people: they have something to say that's interesting to you. - Robert Scoble

Possibly, Derek. Of course, his sharing it makes it public, and gives it weight in the public domain. - Kathy Fitch

If you're only following people you've met face to face, Scoble, then I will have to arrange a beer the next time you are in the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia area. Bring that brother of yours along, too. - Mike Nayyar

@kathy but that's only when you choose to decide that RS's list means more than your own! And I'll admit that I think at time RS thinks his list means more than anyone elses, but I also think he's mostly interested in making all this stuff useful. Making the best list isn't useful. Making a tool make more sense is useful. - Derek Shanahan

Robert, I don't agree, or at least not entirely. Anyone's "wanted" list is of course valuable to them personally, but when I say "echo chamber" I mean that the ultimate effect is often like the RT phenomenon writ even larger. It's the same weakness that the old "blog roll" notion brought into play. If I'm seeing the same darned roll everywhere, after awhile it gets to be a bit inbred, and that's not useful. Nothing fresh there. See what I mean? Echo, echo, echo. - Kathy Fitch

Derek: actually that's not true. I've discovered that some people are 100x times more able to get you tech news than others. Some are even 10,000x more able (like Mashable or GigaOm or TechCrunch). So, if you have a list of the right people who have proven expertise in a certain area that list itself will have huge value. At least to me. - Robert Scoble

I was just checking out your likes feed, and there’s a lot of great stuff there. It’s amazing how you’ve been able to find all that great content from this: http://friendfeed.com/scoblei.... Although I’m following many of the same people, I just noticed how much I’ve been missing here. Thanks for sharing it. I realize now that it’s time for me to start separating my feed into... more... - Michael Fidler

Derek--oh, please. As far as reach and weight go, his *does* mean more than mine, and way more. I don't feel at all bad about that, but it does seem inescapably so. Just a fact of life, and one he's worked hard on making a fact. That doesn't make my little collection of favorites less valuable to me, it just makes it something quite entirely different. - Kathy Fitch

michael, i bet robert uses lists more than anyone else - and for good reason too! i have a few lists, but spend most of my time in the home feed - Chris Heath

Kathy: after looking through 100,000 people I've learned there's a reason that certain people get paid attention to. Most are not providing value. - Robert Scoble

Michael, yeah, my likes feed at http://friendfeed.com/scoblei... is fun to compare to my inbound feed, which you posted. That's a good example of how few people provide what I'm looking for. I need to do the Kyte video over again because the UI has changed so much on FriendFeed. - Robert Scoble

Can't disagree with you there, Robert. There's a whole lotta fluff going on. Then again, there's a great deal of insight that goes untapped. I will always follow some of the a-list folks that I find truly valuable, but some part of me (big slice) will forever be in "go west" mode, too--looking for the new twist, the fresh insight, the uncharted territory, the bold disagreement with the in crowd. It's the academic in me, I suppose. - Kathy Fitch

Chris, I have varied interest, and I think I might benefit from creating a few of them. For example; I would like to have one for the people I like to check in on daily. It would be more organized then trying to remember them every day. Robert, it was a great video. I think It would help a lot of people out if you did it again. - Michael Fidler

@kathy I don't mean to underweight the value of the insight that someone like RS can afford us. @RS, you are right in pushing the idea that certain 'likes' matter than others...I've seen your position that further evolution of these mediums will place more value on the attention of the people who actually have authority or value in a space. I don't dispute that, and I guess I've... more... - Derek Shanahan

re: friendfeed lists - I have one for reading blogs, one for locals to me (carolinas counts), one for devs, one for my ego, one for the ff-team, one for ff centric groups (spam, feedback), one for funny pics and videos type groups, one for netcasts, one for 'back home' people, one for all the groups i've sub'd to, one for all the people subd to me, one for my twitter imports, and one... more... - Chris Heath

those are all lists btw, if that's not clear (i've edited to make sure it is) - Chris Heath

Chris you are incredibly organized! Wow! - Kathy Fitch

Thrill the world, make it a better place, for you and for me & the entire Twitterverse... - Majento

Kathy: that's why I still follow 100,000 too, just to make sure I'm seeing a broad range of people, not just the ones who did something cool yesterday. - Robert Scoble

Robert: Do you think the tool (Twitter) requires both tactics to be optimally useful? How does FriendFeed equate to your desire to follow the conversation in the way you want to follow it? - Derek Shanahan

Derek: yes. FriendFeed lets you choose a variety of models due to lists built in (and you can use lists to filter your searches!!!) - Robert Scoble

Yes, it's the constant push-me, pull-you thing. I want to reach, explore, fly high, discover new things, but not make things so dilute that they're worthless, or so vast that they're impossible to absorb in any meaningful way. - Kathy Fitch

And I think RS feels that FriendFeed gives you the ability to segregate your stream so that a vast reach is possible and dilution isn't necessary. I won't argue with that. - Derek Shanahan

Robert; I found, "20 things". It wasn't easy with the ambiguous title. If the update turns out as good as the original, (but hopefully it will be better), it should be posted on the sign up page for all new users to see. But, that's just my opinion:) - Michael Fidler

When did you meet Tom Hanks? What was he like? - Shari Weiss

Michael, I think I'm biased in favor of beginnings. In those moments, most of those we are keeping company with are still unknown quantities, drawn together only by a shared interest in beginnings. "Beta-fishers" is how I think of them, but not in the anxious, over-the-top, I-must-win-the-race twitterville way--just a genuine and shared love of exploration. I've met some of the people I love best that way, and have yet to meet most of them in person. Harder to do, now? Hmm. - Kathy Fitch

I met you face-to-face last Christmas, did you go back to that restaurant with the Travelling Geeks? - Joe Dawson

I thought there was an embargo on this ?? - Charlie Anzman

Scoble has a secret account, huh? You know you want to follow me. C'mon, you can't deny it, I'm geektastic too. You know you love crazy redheads who can't behave like civilized Tweeple. You're an outlier too. MMMMWAH! - Sheree Motiska

Those books were stolen property. Amazon had every right to delete them. Police will come into your house and take your TV if it was stolen. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

108 more comments

Amazon had no right to sell those books to you in the first place. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

If that's the case, I agree. And if you buy stolen goods, the cops don't refund your money. - Chris Baskind

Interesting to see who was anti-Arrington and anti-Amazon too. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

We sure knee-jerk online, don't we? - Chris Baskind

If you are anti-arrington you must be pro Amazon today. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Chris: yeah. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

About a month ago, I put a 3 x 5 index card on the board behind my computer. It says WAIT. I think it has helped. ;-) - Chris Baskind

The stolen TV analogy only goes so far since it was Amazon that was selling the stolen merchandise in the first place. I wonder how this has affected Kindle sales. - Justin Doub

If a printing company illegally produced copies of your book, you could rightly expect the rights-holder to go after them and even demand that unsold copies be destroyed but they certainly wouldn't demand to burn all copies sold to customers. See my comments here: http://www.torgo.com/blog... - Daniel Appelquist

You guys need to go to law school. If you buy stolen property from a store, you are the rightful owner of the goods. The police won't bother you. - Ward Mundy

Ward: is that true? I always thought that receiving stolen goods would get them taken from you. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

That's not to say Amazon wouldn't be liable for damages to the legitimate copyright holder. Just not the buyer in the ordinary course of business. - Ward Mundy

I disagree. Amazon should have found a way to work it out with the publisher (i.e. write a check). You should NEVER do what Amazon did. Pull it from the store, don't sell any new copies, fine. Don't yank content from a consumer's device. Ever. - Brian Baggett

Amazon is still at fault here, by the way. For selling something it didn't have the legal right to sell. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

We can all agree on that. :-) - Ward Mundy

George Orwell is rolling over in his grave. http://nerdvittles.com - Ward Mundy

Brian: I agree, and it looks like Amazon agrees now too but those arguments have less teeth today. By the way did you argue for or against TechCrunch publishing the stolen Twitter documents? - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Amazon should have communicated to their customers before taking any action. Amazon = Fail - paul mooney

Ward: Orwell has lots of reasons to roll over in his grave. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Paul: agreed. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Paul: I completely agree. Their actions caused uproar that could have been avoided by sending a clear message before preforming the pull. - Joshua

Amen, Big Bro. - Ward Mundy

Seeing the Twitter docs pop up over at Techcrunch felt ... "dirty". Just because you can doesn't mean you should. - Brian Baggett

I was also under the impression that stolen goods are subject to seizure. But I've no interest in law school. ;-) - Chris Baskind

Brian: lots of journalism is done with stolen info. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

It depends upon where you purchased the stolen goods. - Ward Mundy

Ward: even from a second hand store? - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Absolutely Brian, starting to read that I felt as if I were a part of some sort of espionage... I stopped reading. I think I may be done with Arrington/TechCrunch... :( - Trae Ruge

The real root of the anti-Amazon, anti-whoever, sentiment is that we all know copyright is broken and that these books SHOULD be free. - tollie williams

If the store is in the business of selling the type of goods you buy, then you are a buyer in the ordinary course and are protected. - Ward Mundy

Yeah, I realize that. The difference is when it's something like Watergate or exposing massive corporate fraud, that's one thing ... when it's exposing the inner thoughts of a company that's yet to make a dime ... it just seems senseless. Know what I mean? - Brian Baggett

Not to be pedantic, but it's important...it's not stolen property. It's a work under copyright sold w/o a license. There's a difference. "STOLEN PROPERTY" (in caps, no less) means you don't have the property anymore. That isn't the case here. It's still wrong, no question, and Amazon is in the process of working through this. But it's different, and it's complicated. All caps doesn't help. - Ken Kennedy

Robert re:"lots of journalism is done with stolen info." http://kara.allthingsd.com/2009071... - Ian Paul

Robert: Amazon isn't the police; remember the analogy; if Books Inc sold me an illicit copy of 1984, they have no right to come into my house to get it back; they'd have to follow a legal process to do that. - Stuart Liroff

Wouldn't the police need a warrant to come into my house and get the stolen property. I mean they couldn't just break into and then leave. That's what makes Amazon's action so bad, they made no attempt to inform the consumer of what they were doing. After all the consumer didn't know the item was stolen and had no reasonable expectation it was stolen. - Kim Landwehr

Oops...I capped the whole thing "ABOUT STOLEN". Sorry. I'll not edit above, but consider this my oopsie acknowledgement. - Ken Kennedy

Ken Kennedy: Excellent point and that isn't pedantic at all. - Brian Baggett

Ward, if you buy my stolen t.v. I have every right to get it back. Your money is gone and you could face charges for receiving stolen property, depending on the circumstances. - Kimber Scott from BuddyFeed

Ian: Kara is wrong there. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Ken: so if this isn't "stolen property" but content sold without out a license, doesn't that mean it was illegally obtained--at least by Amazon if not the end user? - Ian Paul

The end user asserted to Amazon that they had the rights to publish the work. - Ken Kennedy

I wonder if Amazon will ever start removing books from the kindle that you got from somewhere else, i.e. pirated content. - RobinDotNet

Robin: I doubt that. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

If somone took one of David Pogue's (the NYT writer that one of of the first to write about this), OCR'd it, put it up on Amazon via the Kindle's small authors publishing programs, and sold a couple thousand copies at $0.10 before Pogue figured out what was going on, what do you think he'd want to do? Leave them out there, or make Amazon take them back?? (I'm willing to bet $20 right here on the latter). - Ken Kennedy

Robert: I don't want to go too far off topic here, but why don't you buy the argument that there's a difference between taking company documents in the name of the public good versus a hacker doing a cyber B 'n' E? Wasn't the whole Twitter affair basically a case of prurient (okay, prurient isn't the right word here, but you get my drift) interest for the reading public? - Ian Paul

@Robin. There's no technological way to make sure that you don't have the right to that work. I think Amazon would be crazy to even try. - Ken Kennedy

Scoble: I absolutely believe the content providers won't put pressure on Amazon & Apple eventually to do just that ... - Brian Baggett

Robert i think you're conflating things again, maybe just to be a gadfly or "start a conversation," but you're equating things that aren't equal. Amazon thought they had the right to sell the book -- they didn't not *knowingly and wilfully* violate copyright. morally speaking, that is not the same kind of "crime" as buying something you KNOW is stolen from a self-admitted thief. - Karim

I misspoke. I meant to say "I absolutely believe the content providers will put pressure on Amazon & Apple eventually to do just that" - Brian Baggett

Ian: My public interest is your purient interest. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Amazon's already said: "“We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers’ devices in these circumstances". Props for that...probably. But what happens when someone scarfs the next "Harry Potter-alike", uploads it with a slightly different name a day before release, sells TENS of thousands of copies before they're caught (because I bet lots of... more... - Ken Kennedy

Amazon made a mistake that had no financial benefit for the receiver of the goods. Arrington received stuff he *knew* was stolen and used it for page views. HUGE moral difference. - Karim

So they only remove content that *they* allow you to put on there illegally? That's good, bec. if Amazon did that, think what Apple could do to people's iPods... - RobinDotNet

Robert: Amazon had the right to _lawfully_ request the 1984 copies to be returned. They didn't have the right to commit a felony by "breaking and entering" in order to retrieve the property: Definition: "Entering can involve either physical entry by a person or the insertion of an instrument with which to remove property. " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Stuart Liroff

Robert: maybe I don't see it the same because I am not a journalist, but I am a banker. If your information is stolen and sent to Tech Crunch et al. you would not want to see it posted I would imagine. Perhaps this isn't similar, but posting anything privat be it account balances, personal info, loan committee minutes, business dealings etc. they are all private information... - Trae Ruge

KenKennedy -- they could compare title against copyright availability. - RobinDotNet

I'm still dismayed about the reports that some books can only be downloaded a specific number of times, and that's not documented. Anybody had any problems downloading books repeatedly? (I have 2 kindles, and use iPhone kindle app too). - RobinDotNet

Robert: I think we'd need a new thread to keep this discussion going. I just can't believe that the Twitter info was in the public interest. - Ian Paul

Robin: Why would you want to download books repeatedly anyway? - Ian Paul

@Stuart: C'mon. This wasn't a masked Amazon employee in your bedroom. It's a wireless device that you authorize (and in fact expect them) to move stuff around on. You agree to a lengthy terms at purchase. Amazon can't agree to give you rights to a permanent copy of something that they don't have the rights to give you period. - Ken Kennedy

IanPaul: I might want to download it to multiple kindles. But sometimes I download a book, read it, and remove it, so my list isn't so cluttered, since they don't let you folder them. - RobinDotNet

Robin's comment brings up a good point: http://medialoper.com/hot-top... - Brian Baggett

Isn't it ironic that the books by Orwell were deleted. "He who controls the past, controls the future" is the party slogan of the govt. in 1984. Maybe Amazon thought they could go back and change history too. - Robert

BrianBaggett -- I agree, they should disclose it. I feel like I need to back up the files from my kindle to my PC just in case. Because you CAN copy them off, then copy them back on there, yourself. - RobinDotNet

Oh, the Orwell irony I think is "great" (note the quotes). It's part of what gave this story legs, IMO. - Ken Kennedy

Ken: If the perception is you're buying something from Amazon rather than renting it, then it is unreasonable. Obviously, they just made clear to anyone who wasn't sure that you own nothing on the device; you're just renting. - Brian Baggett

Robin: I see. Can the Kindle sync with your computer or a memory card and you can put them on your hard drive instead? I don't have a Kindle, just interested to hear how it works . - Ian Paul

@Brian @Robert I wholeheartedly agree...back up your files. It's trivial. - Ken Kennedy

Robert -- It would have been ironic if it happened with Fahrenheit 451 !! - RobinDotNet

IanPaul -- you can connect it to your compute and see the files, and just copy them off to your PC or wherever. - RobinDotNet

From my attorney (just a quickie, simplistic answer): "Yes, stolen property is generally subject to seizure. The buyer would have recourse against the vendor." And Ken is right: It's the Orwell angle that gave this story da sexy. - Chris Baskind

They can reclaim stolen property, but they would tell you, they wouldn't just steal it back from you secretly. - RobinDotNet

@Brian The Ars Technica article is good on this: http://arstechnica.com/tech-po... Amazon does consider that you have a permanent license; it's no "rental". But...(and there's always a but in contracts), it can't give you a license to something it doesn't have rights to license! That's what happened. - Ken Kennedy

Whoever said stolen property can't be taken away is wrong. In California, receiving stolen property is punishable by the law and often includes jail time. Even if you didn't know it was stolen and paid for the item. It can and will be taken by the law and held as evidence until a hearing or trial. - Marc Flores

It's NOT stolen property. It's unlicensed property. And the short answer is Amazon should have bought a license for the number of copies they already had sold. - Ward Mundy

If you buy a book from a book store, you have an absolute right to keep the book whether it was originally stolen or not. - Ward Mundy

If you buy a stolen book from somebody on the street corner, you do not have a right to keep the book. - Ward Mundy

Ken, Amazon's License and Terms of Use clearly gives the purchaser the non-exclusive rights to keep a permanent copy of the digital content on your device; nowhere does it give Amazon the right to delete it. http://www.amazon.com/gp... - Stuart Liroff

Why worry about the stolen property statues of 50 states? This isn't a big-screen TV! @Ward, that's not a bad idea (short answer), except a) what if I don't WANT to license my work, for any price. You can't make me. b) after the fact, maybe I am willing to license to Amazon...for $100,000 a pop. - Ken Kennedy

@Stuart: I know, since I quoted that about 2 minutes ago. *grin* But they can't license stuff they don't have a license to license! - Ken Kennedy

"Copies of copyrighted works CANNOT BE REGARDED AS STOLEN PROPERTY for the purposes of a prosecution under a statute criminalizing the interstate transportation of such property." -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Karim

You might also search for Buyer in Ordinary Course under UCC which applies in most states. http://bit.ly/49QRid - Ward Mundy

So do those who bought 1984 have the legal standing to launch a class action suit against Amazon? A case that like that could have some serious implications for the future treatment of digital content. - Ian Paul

Depends if you can make a case that the users suffered damage, I would think. - Chris Baskind

I still don't see why Amazon deleted the books from the Kindle. Apple doesn't do the same thing for their apps. Kindle may be okay, but I'm sticking with Stanza on the iPhone for now. - darnell from BuddyFeed

So wait. I unknowingly buy a book from a store that doesn't know it's stolen. The store owner realizes it was stolen, comes to my house, breaks in and takes the book back? Since when does he have the right to do that? The police, probably. The store owner? Definitely not. - shandel from iPhone

What if you bought a car and the maker decided they didn't like how they designed the dashboard. Would it be ok for them to come take your car back that you already paid for? - Bradley Farless from iPhone

shandel, the police can't enter your home to retrieve stolen goods without 1) your permission, or 2) a search warrant issued by a court. So what Amazon did was purely breaking and entering, unless their TOS said they could do so. - Jeff P. Henderson

I think the point is that if it was a real book they couldn't do anything about it. In this case they can. This situation won't be the last since music and dvd's are also going digital - brendaries

You do not own the kindle downloads. Amazon licenses them to you. - russellcoleman

Yes, you own a license to the books. Where is it stated that Amazon has a right to yank your license? - Jeff P. Henderson

@Jeff: That's the point; you own a bogus license...what does that give you? Amazon didn't have a legitimate license. Orwell's estate pointed that out; they had no choice but to stop selling. I imagine Amazon's interpretation of the TOS is that you never had a legitimate license either. They appear to be changing that interpretation now, based on feedback. - Ken Kennedy

Ken, there is something called due process that should have been used in order to right the wrong. Amazon should not have 'broken in' and taken the books back. They should have used the proper legal procedures for doing so if that was their best resolution to the problem. - Jeff P. Henderson

Disagree Scoble. This is not about STOLEN property. This is about censorship and the rights of individuals. This is about TYRANNY pure and simple. - Richard

The Kindle is a nascent, emerging technology (sure e-book readers have been around for years, but like the iPod was to MP3 players, this is to e-books) and Amazon should do everything in their power to not leave a bad taste in consumer's mouths. Period. That 'kill switch' should be for viruses or malicious trojans or something that is really a problem. - Brian Baggett

In a case like this, the publisher should've worked behind the scenes with Amazon to license the books. If the publisher wouldn't budge, Amazon could've had the courtesy to email or post a notice on what the publisher was asking them to do. The widespread ill-will would've shifted from Amazon in a heartbeat. They could've spun this blunder into a PR opportunity if they were smart ("The big bad publisher wants us to delete your content, but we said no ...") - Brian Baggett

@Brian --- It's not any of my (or Amazon's) business why Orwell's estate (or anyone else) does or doesn't want to license electronic distribution. I personally think it's short-sighted for people not to do so, but that doesn't mean I think leaning on them the way you're describing is a good idea. Heck, I'd be MORE pissed w/ Amazon if they sent a letter like that. That's them using mob... more... - Ken Kennedy

@Brian -- there are lots of (academic, for example) works that I'd like to see on the Kindle that aren't there. I unfailingly click the "I'd like to see the on the Kindle" button, and I hope Amazon does something with it. I've even emailed authors and publishers directly. But I DON'T hope that someone rips them off and publishes things illegally, giving Amazon leverage to send "big bad publisher" letters. - Ken Kennedy

The whole debate raises a question about tightly controlled platforms such as the Kindle and iPhone, versus their ancestors that you could load with anything you liked... - Jonathan Beckett

@Ken - Had Amazon *intentionally* sold something it wasn't licensed to sell, sure they should be held accountable. However, a publisher they deal with sold Amazon something that *they* didn't own. That's not Amazon's fault; the ill will should be focused at the publisher who sold it to Amazon rather than Amazon playing copyright-cop. - Brian Baggett

"MobileReference, the publisher in question, formats and sells public domain books on Amazon. The only problem is that George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984 are not yet in the public domain, at least not in the US. According to Amazon's statement to Ars Technica, "These books were added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books." -- http://bit.ly/Depgj - Brian Baggett

I really think Amazon's learnt a very important lesson today. I guess the kindle marketplace is a nascent one, and a new foray for Amazon into DRM-encumbered file distribution. One would assume this will not happen again. - Bryce, Low in Sodium from iPod

Do I have to be anti either? - Jesse Stay from iPhone

Robert Scoble 2009: "Wait a second the whole Amazon Kindle thing yesterday was ABOUT STOLEN property! That changes ALL the anti-Amazon arguments." Philip Mauro, 1906: "All talk about dishonesty and theft in this connection from however high a source is the merest claptrap for there exists no property in ideas musical, literary or artistic except as defined by statute." - Loryn Jenkins

Another point: this story has nothing in particular to do w/ the DRM on Kindle files. The "big deal" is the always-on (by default) connection that you don't often think about, since you don't pay monthly for it. WhisperNet is convenient, but that convenience has a downside. File DRM isn't the issue is b/c Amazon can and does sell ebooks w/o DRM; I bought a Kindle copy Mur Lafferty's... more... - Ken Kennedy

DRM isn't exclusive to a file; DRM can be an aspect of the hardware. - Brian Baggett

Valid point, Brian. But the Kindle isn't really DRM'd in a direct hardware sense...it mounts as a drive if you connect it to a USB port, and you can drag off the files. Most people don't, but there's absolutely nothing stopping you. I backup all my purchases (and yes, that includes stripping the encryption; I have unencrypted backups of all my books). If Amazon made it impossible for... more... - Ken Kennedy

@Brian...just saw your earlier comment: "the ill will should be focused at the publisher who sold it to Amazon". I agree 110%; sorry if it seemed otherwise. There's an argument that could be made that the complicated nature of copyright makes this stuff confusing (ie, the fact that these books are in the public domain in Canada, Australia, and Russia already), but that's no excuse. If... more... - Ken Kennedy

Amazon clearly violated federal "computer tampering" laws. See http://cid-c072ace4f752027c.sp... - Brian K. Stanley, Att'y

http://www.nasa.gov/centers... - Robert Scoble from iPhone

60 more comments

Chief research scientist. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Anyone want to know something about Mars? You have three minutes to ask. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Dr. Tore Straume - OakleighVermont

Do Martians really talk like Marvin? - MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)

He says we have to go to the moon first. Moon by 2020. Mars by 2030. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

what evidence is their from Mars that it once had a dense atmosphere? - Mark

"It is only 10 years!" - Robert Scoble from iPhone

i want to know the 3 biggest contributions of nasa in the last 10 years. is the US getting a return on its investment? - lew

Moon as a test-run? There's almost nothing there worth anything - KyNam Doan

KyNam: the moon will be a way station. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

What does he think of the mars biosphere guys in the arctic. Cooks, or science that Nasa actually pays attention to? - Jay Shapiro from iPhone

But his bio doesn't say anything about Mars. Says he worked on the effects of radiation exposure. Japan, not Mars. - Kirk Biglione

can Mars be terraformed? - Bob Blunk

Turn on http://www.Qik.com/scobleizer and we will try live video. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Lew - Return on investment? Knowledge! - KyNam Doan

Bummer can't do live video. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

If we can't colonize the moon, there's no way we'll be able to colonize Mars. And it'll be a lot easier to rescue a failed colony on the moon. - Victor Ganata

Ask him what's the most interesting thing he can tell us about Mars. - Bruce Lewis

Can you ask him if we can send Astronauts to Mars before Obama's first term is up, and if current technology will protect the astronauts enough from the radiation - Charbax

Bob he says that is a big job with many uncertainties. He says some don't want us to do that. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Will magnetic bubbles really be sufficient to protect explorers from radiation? - Todd Hoff

Charbox: no. Current plan is 2019 for next human mission to moon. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

I believe NASA should send Astrunauts to Mars as soon as possible. Skip the whole Moon thing and cancel ISS and the Shuttle. Priority should be a world collaboration project using Russian heavy lift rockets and going direct to Mars for $30 Billion before Obama's first term is up - Charbax

Does he use Wolfram Alpha? - Benjamin Taylor

The argument is that we are much closer to having the technology to go to Mars today then we were to going to the Moon when Kennedy did the speech in 1961 So why not focus the world space efforts on fitting the Humans to Mars mission in the relatively still recent 1988 Heavy lift Russian Energia rocket technology - Charbax

Will we use nuclear energy on Mars? - Bob Blunk

Todd: he gave me a long answer but yes but it will need a lot of power. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

I have to go. I will answer rest when I get to London. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Charbax 3 years is an unrealistic timeframe for a safe and prolonged mission to Mars - KyNam Doan

we need to find ways of creating various things - space borne farms, various stations in between Earth, moon and mars. The more humans we can ship off this planet, the greater the impact we will have upon it and the greater amount of goods we can produce to support this number of us. - alphaxion

KyNam: ok, i want to know what knowledge that has had a big impact. everything is a trade. i am not doubting it, but i think NASA has a marketing problem in that I cannot tell you the key knowledge we have gained and its impact. should we spend the next $ on space or sea exploration? and that is just one option - lew

How far ahead is NASA planning? Is anyone thinking about trying to reach any of the exoplanets? Generation ships? A little closer to home, are they sending any probes out to the Kuiper belt to study any of the new dwarf planets? Any missions to the Oort cloud? - Victor Ganata

Cool, thanks Robert. It seems like high magic to me. - Todd Hoff

Basic science is never sexy. If we based all our research targets on market value, we may never have figured out how to make fire. - Victor Ganata

You should definitely try to get a Wimbledon tennis final ticket for Sunday. It'd be really nice to see some live real-time blogging from there. And IBM has TONS of awesome new technologies they are showcasing at Wimbledon, like this http://www.youtube.com/watch... IBM Seer is the best Android application ever made, one of the most impressive mobile phone applications - Charbax

Victor nobody would invest in fire. Too risky. They would invest in a new rock that was more accurate in flight because the was just an incremental technology leap. Low risk high reward. - Todd Hoff

Robert, this is excellent thanks. I'm sure he's a bit shocked - Jay Shapiro from iPhone

KyNam Doan, Obama can announce the Mission to Mars for within his second term then. And the safety should not be the absolute priority. We are 6 billion people waiting for scientific results and there are thousands of Astronauts who would line up to go on a Mission to Mars even if it was very dangerous. - Charbax

Charbax, the thing is, if we sent a mission to Mars and it failed, would we even have any hope of attempting a second venture? - Victor Ganata

There are Astronauts that have been irradiated for years on Mir and on ISS already. So I wonder how much worse the irradiation can be for the Humans to Mars program. As long as the Astronauts can make it through the 6 months journey there, and eventually the 2.5 year journey if they have to come back. - Charbax

We should send at least 4 teams of 4 Astronauts up to Mars at the same time, to multiply the chances of success. - Charbax

Charbax, Of course I'm concerned for the lives of the astronauts, but safety refers also to the integrity of the mission itself. 6 months transit time each way + playtime is a lot of time for things to go wrong and blow billions of dollars into space. - KyNam Doan

Yeah, obviously, I don't want anyone killed, but like KyNam Doan, I'm thinking that a failed mission to the Moon would be far less costly than a failed mission to Mars. And we'll definitely learn things about colonizing planets just by going to the Moon. - Victor Ganata

The argument of the Mars Direct mission is of course it's advanced technology and we need to spend $30 Billion developing and building it, but the basic technology of building those Humans to Mars lander and return vehicles (that could also generate fuel for the return vehicles mixing Hydrogen with the Methane on Mars), those technologies are not _that_ much different then the technologies we had in the 70ies for Appollo or the technologies we have with Shuttle and the ISS - Charbax

ask him what he thinks of the Navy's SPAWAR lab finding fast neutrons in their Cold Fusion experiments. :-) - Karim

Going back to the Moon, unless we want to somehow Mine it for some type of ressource, I think would be a total waste of time! we can get 1000x more science out of going to Mars, and it is _not_ much more expensive. Sending a vehicle to Mars is not much different than the one sent to the Moon, it's just a different trajectory and 6 months instead of 3 days of travel. - Charbax

Make it a one-way flight. That should cut down on the weight for fuel and increase the amount of equipment they have to create a base on Mars. Land them at the pole so they have a chance of extracting water and oxygen from the atmosphere and with enough supplies to last years on the surface while they try and figure out how we will survive there. As unlikely the success of such a venture would be you will still get people signing up for it and you know that necessity is the mother of invention. - Sam Pullara

There are astronauts living on ISS for more than 6 months already, they eat and have a fine time up there. So why not simply put them on a trajectory to Mars and that's it. - Charbax

Yeah, but once they're out of Earth orbit, they won't be getting those shuttle visits to resupply and repair stuff. - Victor Ganata

Sam Pullara, what you can easilly do is send more empty ships up there. One other ship could have a lot of Hydrogen, it would mix with the Methane on mars to generate enough fuel to launch the Astronauts back to Earth 1.5 years after they land. You can if you want, land another ship close by with extra food and tools. You simply launch several ships at the same time. - Charbax

I'm all for taking it straight to Mars, was just skeptical about such a short time frame. The one-way trip Sam suggested may be the best bet for "success." Sans family et al + spaceskills, I'd sign up :P - KyNam Doan

Well the Mars Direct plan is essentially a one way trip, until you walk or drive over to the Earth-return vehicle that was sent before or at the same time. Also, you can send the Astronauts now, and figure out later how to send them back. In the US, there are millions of people that have to stay in small prison cells for years and years. Why can't we have a few volunteer scientists up there for at least 1.5 years and maybe more, this shouldn't take 20 years to find a solution before something is done. - Charbax

Does NASA only take flight surgeons/aerospace medicine-boarded physicians? - Victor Ganata

I think NASA should take video-bloggers and broadcast the whole thing live in HD, it'd be the Mars HD channel. Over the years of the project, just ad revenue could finance perhaps as much as half the $30 Billion Humans to Mars project cost. - Charbax

How about robotic collaboration? Why not send the robots first to build some infrastructure collect, process resources. Once we have a very high probability that there are enough resources to build and return humans the humans land in a plush, and luxurious mars pad? Basically, I am strongly in favor of Human - Mars, but dont see it as the rush, we should have some time to do it in style. - Robert Higgins

Prasoon: when he says they have to go to the moon first, he means they need to establish a base on the moon as a jumping off point for Mars. So, if your goal is Mars, you gotta go to the moon first. - Robert Scoble

It was an incredible 10 hours. We tasted wine, talked about philosophy, talked about radiation and how they are building new sensors to sense increases in radiation due to random sun activity so that people in space can seek shelter in time, talked about why humans explore (he thinks we're programmed to explore by evolution), and a bunch of other things. - Robert Scoble

All you need to explore I think is mobility + curiosity + irrationality. Those drives make for explorers. - Todd Hoff

my faovorite NASA JPL geek is my Dad http://www.nasa.gov/offices.... - Sonya

Agree that humans are hard-wired to explore, but desire to build a way-station on Mars will build as people understand that we live on an unpredictable and active planet in an active solar system with an active sun in an active galaxy. The sci-fi movies are right; we are always close to disaster of some sort. Thus, the need for shelter elsewhere. - Brenda Young

put simply, until we have colonies on other planets, our species is already dead. Just a matter of time. - alphaxion

The best way to search it: http://friendfeed.com/search... - Robert Scoble from Bookmarklet

35 more comments

Here's the main conference URL: http://parnassusgroup.com/twitter... - Robert Scoble

I will be live blogging the conference here. - Robert Scoble

No video feeds? - Simon Wicks

Right now I'm sitting next to Steve Broback, who runs the conference. It sold out, by the way. - Robert Scoble

It's the only conference (TechCrunch reported that there's actually six Twitter conferences) that Twitter is semi officially supporting. Alex Payne, API Lead at Twitter, is speaking this morning. - Robert Scoble

Just how many people are there also blogging or tweeting the conference? - Robert Freeze

I am watching the live stream coming from the conference and will click "like" on any Tweet that has a really great point. That way you can see the stream with less noise than you'll see in the search above. Here's a search for #140tc but with display set to only show Tweets and other items with one like or more: http://friendfeed.com/search... - Robert Scoble

The first speech, by Alex Payne, Twitter's API lead, starts at 9 a.m. Pacific Time, which is about one and a half hours from now. - Robert Scoble

I want to swim in the pool instead of tweeting - Jacque

Are you only talking about a live stream of twitter and friendfeed messages? Or is there an actual live video stream going to be available from somewhere? If someone would post a live ustream, kyte or such stream from the conference, that would be cool! - Charbax

Robert Freeze: there are more than 300 people here (or will be in about an hour). I'd expect most of them to be Twittering the conference, so anything that Alex Payne says will probably be repeated many many times. Having filters is going to be very important to be able to find the "needles" in the haystack that is headed our way in real time. - Robert Scoble

Charbax: Andru Edwards is shooting video of the sessions but we're not sure it'll be streamed live. I'll try to turn on my Kyte cam if they don't, at least for Alex Payne's speech. - Robert Scoble

There's an article about Twitter on the front page of USA Today, by the way.The article is at http://www.usatoday.com/tech... - Robert Scoble

Thanks for doing this, Robert! I hope some cool stuff is talked about and shared :) - Sam Houston

I'm with Sam - thanks - I wish I was there. - Robert Freeze

Excellent day is done here so can follow this undisturbed :) I am seriously interested in hearing if Alex Payne says anything about their spam issues. Tx Robert looking forward to updates - Peter du Toit (S.Africa)

Peter: I'm sure that will come up. - Robert Scoble

Robert: quick question before the action starts here. You covering Google I/O from tomorrow? - Peter du Toit (S.Africa)

Robert has said he will cover Google I/O, I can't wait. It's the point Google is going to launch a Twitter/friendfeed killer app, an Intel/Microsoft killer Android OS for netbooks, a TV/Cinema killer Youtube HD monetization plan, a hosting provider killer in PHP support for Google App Engine, a Facebook killer in updated Google Friend Connect and Google Open Social and an iphone/nokia killer in Android 2.0 - Charbax

Looks like we're in for an exciting two days then! - Peter du Toit (S.Africa)

Peter: I should be there in the morning, but won't be covering everything. You will have TONS of news from there. I am sure it'll be hard to avoid for the next two days. :-) - Robert Scoble

Steve Broback just opened the conference here. So will have more soon. - Robert Scoble

Alex Payne is showing off the early days and explaining how he got to Twitter. The stories are all out there, unfortunately not enough bandwidth here for live video streaming. Sigh. - Robert Scoble

Oh well, we trust you to bring us the best stuff :) - Simon Wicks

no updates in a hour Robert? - Capn' One Eye - adrift

Sorry Capn: you should have watched the search. I live reported here http://friendfeed.com/scoblei... - Robert Scoble

no worries - I found it! - Capn' One Eye - adrift

140tc through Robert's eyes: http://friendfeed.com/search... - Daniel J. Pritchett from IM

Is twitter going to support OpenMicroBlogging protocol? There should be public pressure for them to adopt this, and adopt federation with other OMB capable services - Jon

here's another proposal, quit enabling url shortening. This trend is breaking the web, and it sets users up for a bad experience. There are two options that come to mind, either take URL data out of the message and into a separate structured data field just for URL data, or just get rid of the arbitrary 140 character limit. - Jon

I'll take Door #1, Jon! - Daniel J. Pritchett from IM

while they're at it, they can add data fields for just about anything, such as location or hashtags. these really don't belong in the message do they? - Jon

To clarify, people who are interacting with Twitter via an SMS-only interface have no use for links anyway, why not strip them out and only make them available as supplementary metadata for API/web clients - Daniel J. Pritchett from IM

or http://140tc.tweetmeme.com - for the best stories, videos and pictures from the conference - Nick Halstead

In case you're curious, that's "Nick Halstead of TweetMeme". http://blog.tweetmeme.com/2009... - Daniel J. Pritchett

Daniel, correct! :) - Nick Halstead

Go get 'em CL! - Fred Garrett

7 more comments

sue him for bad naming an awesome company (with just a bad website) - sadiq kassamali

That is insane... CL knows that they have done nothing wrong and the AG is just trying to scare them. Cmon... - Manny

I read this post on TC last Tuesday. I found the comments quite entertaining, though ;) - http://www.techcrunch.com/2009... - Gambit Fauri

I've been following this story, its one of the more entertaining items in the news in a long time, albeit with some very serious consequences depending on how the saga ends. - jcunwired

Good ol' South Carolina. They still don't allow sorority houses at universities on the grounds that six or more women in a residence constitutes a brothel. - charlestm

charlestm, et al.: I know this is off-topic and further that SC isn't the most advanced of states but: USC at least has a Greek Village with 9 sorority houses and 11 fraternity houses. The land belongs to the university, though the houses are privately owned. Are you referring to house ownership particularly? - Steve Lowe

Hill Billy Barristeers at their best! So glad I live in California where the politicians at least pretend to understand tech! - Sonya

I just find sentiments over North and South between Northerners and Southerners very entertaining. Isn't the civil war over - really over?! Try living in different countries and I guarantee one will have a bigger picture of the world, not regions of US! :) - Moushumi Kabir

I think that Seth is the top marketer blogger. - Apostolos Papadopoulos from IM

132 more comments

although as you said he doesn't participate. - Apostolos Papadopoulos from IM

i think its based on a number of stats Scoble, rather than participation. But of course, i'm just pleased we're in the top 20 of the list :) - Zee.

Zee: stats are lies. - Robert Scoble

well they make me feel good :) - Zee.

Zee: Seth Godin is a great guy, great author, great speaker, very well known, etc. But no way is he the top social media blogger. - Robert Scoble

Agreed. Like Godin's insight but he isnt regular enough. Also really like Jeremiah! - Richard Zeidel

I subscribe to Seth's blog and have yet to figure out why there is such a fuss about him. Chris seems to put more effort into his posts and write things of significance. - Chris Luckhardt

lol but what do u mean with the stats zee? - Apostolos Papadopoulos from IM

Often attributed to Mark Twain: "There are lies, damn lies and statistics." - CAJ, somewhere else

have you subscribed to us yet Scoble? Would love you to give us a chance for a couple of weeks. Think you'll be highly impressed - Zee.

Seth is good for those little sparks that get your own thinking going. But yeah, wouldn't put him in the top SM blogger category. - Virante

Richard: yeah, Jeremiah should be in top two or three yet. Zee: I'm following you here on friendfeed, is that what you mean? - Robert Scoble

sorry i mean at TheNextWeb.com - check out our recent content, i'm sure you'll be impressed. - Zee.

Zee: what's the friendfeed URL? - Robert Scoble

If you turn off comments (engagement) and blog about engagement (with comments off) then you get lots of linketylinks (Google love) in. Helps with those stats :) - Laurel Papworth

@virante agree with you. I think Seth is more intellectual from Brogan and he is not social media blogger. And I don't say that Brogan isn't great! In fact, he is! - Apostolos Papadopoulos from IM

Love your post. I stopped following Seth a while ago for the same reason. He does not participate in the conversation. He writes posts high above from the mountain of Social Media Gods (SMG). - John Flynn

http://friendfeed.com/thenext... and we have a group with content from all over here: http://friendfeed.com/the-nex... (nearly 6000 members) - Zee.

The # of people he follows and learns from is an indicator as to his view of his role in the conversation...I mean monologue, - Kevin Murray

In fact, thinking about it, it is hard to pick between Brogan and Owyang. I should have named both. - Robert Scoble

Agreed. Great stuff, but Seth's not interested in conversation. Since that's the case, how can he possibly rate high in the social media space? - Leo Bottary

I like the perspective Seth brings to Social Media, but I agree that he's not participating as much as others. How are we defining "top"? - Joel Zehring

I think the behaviors of many people claiming to be the "best" of something will be monitored more closely now that FF is around ... I watch the number of people "these bloggers" subscribe to and watch for their participation ... - LPH™ and his dog P™

methinks that Seth is not blogging about Social Media, but about marketing. - Apostolos Papadopoulos from IM

That list doesn't seem particularly focused. Bunch of great sites there that don't seem SM to me. I can't believe they didn't run them past me first. ;-) - Chris Baskind

Joel: the blog that made this list is using popularity ranking algorithms. Judging people by popularity will take you down a bad path. - Robert Scoble

Seth is like God. He disappears for a long time then pops up with the old miracle. He's a good helicopter view of what's going on whilst people like Scobles and Chris Brogran are the day to day practioneers. You need both. - Ross McMinn

Definitely Brogan is much better. I think Godin is miscategorized here. That said he's not conversing much in any space, just thinking out loud, which is great, but not so much social. - Bailey McCann

I think we need universal portable influence metric - something peer mediated - micro celebrities need community validation. - Richard Zeidel

Zee would be in the conversation. At least if I were having the conversation. - Matthew DeVries

I don't even know Chris Brogan - maybe I should.. - Arnaldo M Pereira

I like it that Seth doesn't participate in everything. It makes it easier to follow him. Has anyone tried to email him or connect through his "Tribes" projects? - Joel Zehring

what apostolos said. seth is marketing, not social media. - James

Joel, that's like saying Chuck Nevitt is the best basketball player, because he's so easy to follow, cause most of the time he's on the bench, and the 3 minutes a season he got to play, he moved very slowly. - Matthew DeVries

Arnaldo M Pereira: Check out Chris here ==> http://friendfeed.com/chrisbr... He's very active. - LPH™ and his dog P™

Exactly, Social Media and Seth Godin? WTF? And how come RWW team is not in the 1st three? - Sasha Kovaliov(.com)

lol +1 to Matthew - Bailey McCann

I'd say Amber Mac would be up there, but I guess she's more like the little girl who gets every freakin new toy on the planet the day it comes out, tells everyone it's a great toy, then tosses it aside, and goes back to playing with movable type. - Matthew DeVries

Good guy, but last I checked Seth doesn't even tweet! - Ryan Miller from Nambu

Ryan: we were on a radio show together and he told me he doesn't Tweet. I tried to get him on friendfeed and he didn't have any part of that. - Robert Scoble

Seth is tops in several areas....just not social media; not even close..I'm sure he would agree - Daniel Kenney

agreed scoble. - Ted Bradford II

Seth is definitely a top blogger..but because social media is about conversation, then you're right...others have a right to that honor. - Bill Reichart

Seth is a snake oil salesman, but Chris Brogan sees him as a role model. I've predicted that Chris will be the first to Tweet from the Lincoln bedroom in the White House. - paul mooney

Maybe they should call him the top social media spammer. He's broadcast-only. Woot for Chris Brogan though. - Dave Saunders

+1 with taryn930 - Apostolos Papadopoulos from IM

Seth Godin uses email primarily to respond to people - he doesnt believe in the other media and he has explained that in some of his interviews. Chris Brogan on the other hand uses social media channels extensively and in my opinion should rank higher as a social media exponent. - Mahesh Patwardhan

blogger or not.. moot question... is seth a good "social network" or "web2.0" (as much as i dislike that term!!!) media personality... *no* he's hardly a participant - he's more a "dictactor" - one way communication (mostly)... still worth reading i guess if you're into that sort of marketing guffy stuff (i'm only into technical stuff :) ... - simran

I like Chris Brogan and Perry Belcher too! - Vicki Z Lauter

I agree that Seth, smart as he is, is not representative of social media blogging. Having said that, what makes us so sure Chris Brogan, and I love Chris, Or Jeremiah, who I also love, are more engaged than Susie from Detroit? Because their numbers are higher hence the stats ranking. Why are their numbers higher? Because they're sort of viral. I often wonder how people become popular.... more... - Sheryl

Chris Brogan I know about and I follow on Twitter and FF, I just Googled Seth Godin, wasn't sure who he was.... - Mike Nencetti

I don't feel like I should weigh in or anything, but I wanted you to know I'm listening and I'm here. I really love what Seth does. I read him religiously. He's NOT a social media blogger. He writes about marketing. That said, he writes about the part of social media that matters to me: how humans can be more human. So, to me, he's still #1, because he's writing about humans, and that's... more... - Chris Brogan

see what I was tolding ya? 1) Seth is not a social media blogger 2) both Chris and Seth are the best on what they do ;-) - Apostolos Papadopoulos from IM

For the record, Wolverine is the best at what he does. I'm just a working schlub. - Chris Brogan

I like and respect what both Chris and Seth have to say tremendously. Not sure I care that much about who is the "top" blogger or whatever because either way I'm gonna keep reading their stuff and learning. - Miguel Rodriguez

I do appreciate that Chris is present here (hi Chris!) and feel that his participation in "the discussion" adds another dimension to his insights. I wonder sometimes why Seth limits his interaction. When he's on camera being interviewed, such as by @loic most recently, he seems quite comfortable.. why that comfort doesn't extend to places like FF and twitter I am still scratching my head over. - Miguel Rodriguez

Seth reminds me of Yoda, Chris reminds me of Obiwan. First one's cool, simple, philosophical, and ass-kicking. Second one's down to earth, practical, trained in highly useful Jedi stabs for day to day fights. Follow both, learn from both. - waraney rawung

How would you classify Gary Vaynerchuck in the Marketing/Social Media environments? - Owen Greaves

I watched a video of Seth essentially saying that much of social networking is superficial. http://blog.angelaconnor.com/2009... - Angela

waraney - I think you nailed it :-) - PXLated

I had an interesting connection w/ Seth. Back when I was doing Biznik Live interviews, Seth's answer was to ask about our listener numbers. ("10k gets my attention"...Understandable from a guy who is #5 in Google out of 3 billion hits for "blog") However, when I sent him a video of Bizniks discussing Tribes, he liked that & agreed to an interview. It was an experimental brady-bunch style video interview on the importance of Tribes in business. Edited version: http://tinyurl.com/r9f9qz - Leif Hansen

@ChrisBrogan I bet being compared to ObiWan just made your day ;) I think I'm probably more like Luke -whiny guy with father-figure issues who gradually grows into his vocation through the grace/luck of the force and of friends and some serious hard knocks with his own dark side. Though I've got plenty of Solo juice flowing through my veins as well :) - Leif Hansen

I agree with Chris, but Chris and Jeremiah are still up there IMO, especially when it comes to Social Media specifically. - Jesse Stay

Apart from the fact Chris Brogan is hardly even here lol - Rob Sellen :o)

Is Gary V. on that list? - Jesse Stay

That's my point...shouldn't he be on the list? - Owen Greaves

But seriously, oranges are so much better than apples. Come on guys... - Leif Hansen

We know Scoble doesn't like lists. He really doesn't like those where it's easy to find holes in the lists. If this were written as "200 Social Media Blogs" with stats, and without rankings, it'd be easier. I was just surprised to see I was included at all. - Louis Gray

But Louis, You are a legend here :) - Owen Greaves

Great point about Godin not participating. In my niche there are some "experts" who have huge following numbers, but follow very few themselves. If you don't interact with your followers are you really participating in the conversation? - Richard Byrne

Godin doesn't need to participate... he has sneezers. :o) - Rob Sellen :o)

@Rob Sellen - Yeah, I'm not really deep into FriendFeed. I use it, and try to stay on top, and I get that lots of people say it's a big next stage. This is where Seth and I agree and are somewhat alike: we both believe you don't have to be present at EVERY conversation at every touchpoint. He picks his places; I pick mine. I just find the velocity of the social web to be more my speed. He likes email. No foul. - Chris Brogan

Nothing wrong with that... ;o) .. just thought it odd for someone to say somone is the top social media blogger and not be in the social media sites itself... after all, that's exactly what scoble has said in the title here ;o) - Rob Sellen :o)

concur - chris brogan is the man - mike "glemak" dunn

Why Mike, do you think that? what is it that Chris does that's so different to anyone else? - Rob Sellen :o)

Not a chance. And Seth doesn't make it as top marketing blogger either. - AJ Kohn

@Rob - oh, I'm in tons of social media sites. I just don't spend all 14 of my working hours in each one. I don't use Utterli, Plurk, Jaiku, Hyves, Orkut, Digg, Sphinn, and 300 other folks either. - Chris Brogan

like scoble you mean? or was that 7 hours lol? I never said you weren't in any, just that scoble posted that here... and you are not here as much, nor is seth.. so scoble to me was just replacing one for another, if that makes any sense? :o/ - Rob Sellen :o)

Woot woot "Seth Godin is the top social media blogger?" - nawwwwww.. he's the world's biggest liar.. hey after all he did write "all marketers are liars" !! He connectes with people because of his views and he also disconnects to people b'coz of that too.. As for interaction and collobrative particiaption.. hes got his nose still stuck n da air.. yeah Chris wins hands down ! - Peter Dawson

One thing I will say about Seth, ha can say a lot in few words... other times he says things that are a bit broad... but if it makes you think, that is the point. :o) - Rob Sellen :o)

So Scoble chose FriendFeed. I've chosen Twitter. He also really loved the hell out of Facebook and used it up. I didn't. Which tools you use doesn't make you a better or worse social media person. How you get the job done counts the most to me. - Chris Brogan

I agree... just thought it odd in the context of friendfeed you know. ;o) - Rob Sellen :o)

Agree Chris. Darth Maul's double-edged sabre is as useful as Yoda's tiny one. I'm a beginner at social media, and trying to keep in touch with what's new and what's useful. You, Scoble, Seth and many others have been very helpful for a rookie like me. - waraney rawung

What is a social media blogger, and why don't I get on this list? I've been doing this longer and better than any of you guys. Geez Louise what's a guy gotta do to get a little recognition. - Dave Winer

Which reminds me, a lot of early adopters in Indonesia are using FriendFeed, but they're not really into discussions in FF. On the contrary, geeks in Indonesia love and are very active in Twitter and Plurk (sometimes behaving differently in each site), with Facebook as their personal online central nerve. - waraney rawung

It's all subjective anyway. ;o) - Rob Sellen :o)

@DaveWiner - here here. You're who *I* read, anyhow. : ) - Chris Brogan

shouldn't that be "hear hear" sorry... lol. that's coming from a deaf bloke! ;o) - Rob Sellen :o)

@Rob - Beats me... what do I know? : ) - Chris Brogan

I wouldn't even call Seth a top marketing blogger, jeez - Sally Church

lol... I see that alot, and wonder if it should really be hear hear... makes more sense that would. ;o) - Rob Sellen :o)

I think it probably is. Like "hear hear" me? - Chris Brogan

yeah, what I was thinking...even if I can't "hear hear"" lol... . ah well. we learn sommat new everyday... - Rob Sellen :o)

Gotta run, Rob. Thanks for the chat hidden in Robert's rant. : ) - Chris Brogan

lol.. welcome mate.... hang on.. does Robert NOT rant? ;o) - Rob Sellen :o)

The 'what tools you use' debate is interesting. While I agree that, as long as you get the job done, the tools don't matter, there's also the ability to understand new paradigms. It's difficult to talk about and grok something without really immersing yourself in it. I didn't get blogging until I really did it. Ditto Twitter. Certainly FriendFeed. They *are* different ... meaningful... more... - AJ Kohn

I really like the comment on social media being about connection vs. the technology that allows it to take place. That is one reason I enjoy friendfeed so much more than twitter & even facebook. Much easier to connect and join conversations with people. I find myself looking at stats of who I am listening to much less in here than twitter. The result, better conversations, more... more... - Kevin Murray

I think Seth is great at what he does, I'm just not sure "Social Media Blogger" is the right description. Perhaps evidence that that's not his focus is that a conversation of this magnitude can go on without his commenting/participating. For anyone interested, here's a post from my blog about something recent I have disagreed with Godin about: http://tinyurl.com/po62js - Brian Broveleit

Chris Brogan rocks! - Morten Blaabjerg

thats ok Morten..as long as it's not while sat in the corner on his own ;o) - Rob Sellen :o)

lol - what's so impressive about @chrisbrogan is that he responds - or at least gives the impression that he does. He works like a maniac. And he _gets_ what _it_ is. This makes his posts small gems of insights, even the less revolutionary ones. - Morten Blaabjerg

lol "gives the impression that he does" - what does that even mean morten? - mike "glemak" dunn

Agreed that Chis walks the talk and puts out great stuff. - John Blossom

Seth Godin is practical and sees through the hype - something that most social media commentators are guilty of. - BLOGBloke

Social Networking/Media Sites Staying Relevant: (humor) http://www.youtube.com/watch...& - Kevin Murray

Seth may be an expert in his own realm. Social media is certainly not it, but I have heard Seth make some valuable points about how to not use social media. Obviously Chris is doing something right, as evidenced by showing up to speak him mind, and pay Seth some respect. You gotta respect guys like Chris, Robert, Dave, and Louis (who are the ones on the tip of my tongue right now) -... more... - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

Ditto Robert! What is it with the "online marketing copywriters" all wanting to act like they're the top social media bloggers now? Oh... that's right... social media is the hip thing! Thus they flock to it. I respect Seth for particular forms of copy writing, but lots of better social media bloggers... like Chris Brogan, like Leslie Poston, like you, and others. - Arleen Anderson

I agree Robert. (And thank you, Arleen *blushes*) Mahalo - Leslie Poston

Amen x heaps! Seth is a genius... but certainly doesn't spring to mind in the context of "top" in social media. Chris is for sure in my top 5!! - Mari Smith

Chris Brogan is the best example of what bloggers should try to achieve, IMO. Like any great writer, his stuff is worth reading even if you are not close tot he subject of a particular post. That means a lot. - randulo

Agreed. Seth stuff is good, but he does he even get social media? - Warren Whitlock

@glemak There are limits to one's attention span when you've got a lot around your ears (like Chris has) but it means a lot that you give the impression that you're listening and responding, even though you may not always be on your high marks. Noone can be. It's only human. But appearances still matter and are greatly appreciated. Chris is good at that too. - Morten Blaabjerg

gotcha - level of attention - mike "glemak" dunn

Thanks to those who mentioned me. Scoble is for sure one I looked up to and still do. - Jeremiah Owyang

Jeremiah isnt the best at what he does - he's just the only one who does it! ;) - let's not be exclusionary - thank you to all the top minds for sharing. - Richard Zeidel

I think Chris Brogan is THE man. Many of the social media experts are now engaging only with those who are also 'experts' and not with the new comers or followers. Brogan, on the other hand, very rarely to missed a conversation. As for marketing bloggers, I still stand behind Kyle Lacy as the best one. - Gambit Fauri

Seth "gets" social media tools but he is not the top participant--where Chris is. I am dubious,

paul mooney › Likes