10 posts tagged “whatleydude”

Go Team Six!

I mentioned in a post a while back that I was taking part in the Food 2.0 project - aptly named:

"Nom Nom Nom".

Well, it's all done now, so you can nip over and have a look at my team's page here and you can also vote for the winner too.

- vote for us - vote for us - vote for us -

So PLEASE jump on over and check it out...

:)

WOOOOO!

                                                                   ...to bring you these EXCLUSIVE interviews

This piece first appeared over at the SpinVox Blog in the early hours of this morning. But upon re-reading it this afternoon I figured I'd publish it here too on my VOX as I don't consider it a just another ad for them but rather a personal recommendation of some of their FREE services.

And anyway, it's my blog, I'll post what the hell I like!
;)

As ever, all comments welcome.
Enjoy..

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SpinVox For You - YES YOU! - cross-posted from The SpinVox Blog

MobbyLondon6.jpg

That's right! You! There! Reading this!
:)

So I was chatting away to one of my peers the other day and I happened to mention I worked for SpinVox and their immediate (and rather dismissal) response was:

"Oh, that Voicemail thingy?"

And I said: "Well... Yeah.. but NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! As well.."

Y'see - Whilst I do agree that one of the killer applications of the SpinVox product is Voicemail... (we'll come back to this one another time - it really has saved my life on more than one occasion) ...there are still SO MANY other ways you can have SpinVox in your life.

1) Ok. Let's start with group text messaging. Know what that is? The 'one to many' thing yeah? No? Well look, let me tell you about Blast.

Blast through SpinVox has two cool benefits: First up, (which I think is just damn cool on its own), you can speak a text message. That's right. SPEAK. A. TEXT. Cool as.
The second benefit is not only can you speak your SMS but you can also set up a predefined list of up to TWENTY recipients. That's right, Twenty.
That is cool. I honestly had no idea it was that many... (I thought it was like five or something) ...I think I'm going to have to review my account definitely.
I only have the numbers  of a couple of loved ones in my group at the moment. Maybe I'll delete them and create a new group of blast buddies: "Pub friends" - yeah, that'll work. :)

2) Next - You're out and about and you remember - (like me) - "Damn, I must remember to pack that thing for tomorrow" - so what do I do? I call my Memo through SpinVox number, leave myself a little reminder message, and then - when I get home - it's there in my email inbox: "Dude, don't forget to pack that thing for tomorrow".

Cool? Maybe.
Handy? Hell yeah!

Especially if you like to keep notes throughout the day and don't have time to write anything down.

3) Finally, one of my favourite applications of the SpinVox product: Blog through SpinVox.
Admittedly, something I'm yet to demonstrate on this blog - (we're currently midway through redesigning the place - I'll activate voice posting after that goes live) - but I have used it before on my own blog and I'm glad to report it works very well.

You can literally blog from anywhere. Well... anywhere where you can make a phone call anyway... Mount Everest for instance!

Thing is, and this is what makes it a 'must-have' instead of a 'nice to have':

With Blog through SpinVox the 'I was' becomes 'I am'.

And that, to me, is just SO powerful.

Try it. I dare you.

EDIT - I've just finished this and felt the need to come back and add images and links and stuff.
The links I'm doing now... But no images fit right. So I've done a "Welcome Video".

Happy viewing....

....and I thanks for reading.

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Right - excuse me for a minute - I need to rant...

I tried to make this blog more about 'me' but that was because I was saving my mobile mutterings for my column over at SMS Text News. Well - that's fine - but I still have a lot to say on sodding social media tools - so excuse me while I just get a few things off my chest -

...as well as deliver some well-deserved self back slapping because this year, so far, has been friggin' awesome.

And yes I KNOW I'm yet to write up a whole load of stuff that I've been promising for AGES!
Well y'know what? Here's a summary:

San Francisco was awesome. You should all go. End of.
Social Networks through SpinVox. I made it. It's mine. Go get it now. You can SPEAK to your FACEBOOK!!!
Mobile Geeks of London III - I've lined it up for the end of Feb and will be issuing deets shortly.

Job done.

NEXT!

Right - here are some things that have been pissing me off annoying me (around the web) of late:

1) Gizmodo's Prank at CES.

This involved going round the event with a gadget that turns off TVs and ....turning off TVs.  Which is all well and good and funny the first two or three times. After that it becomes irritating. Annoying in fact. Special sympathies go out to the poor Motorola guy trying to give his presentation while some idiots continually turned off his plasmas. As much I can't stand Motorola handsets (they are rubbish), no one deserves this.
Not only that - but also apparently some key members of the blogosphere are NOT happy:

Already finding it difficult to gain respectability at these trade events it must be pretty frustrating to find you'd been given a bloody nose by the very people you'd count amongst your peers. I wouldn't be surprised if CES bans bloggers next year... Which would be a huge shame.

Anyway - the backlash against Gizmodo is already happening apparently - I'm just adding to it.. so let's see what the outcome is... They have apologised.. but whether that counts for anything now remains to be seen.

2) Facebook Events.

WHY OH WHY can I not just hit ONE BUTTON and sync my events on facebook with every other sodding calendar I have to keep? See Plaxo/Yahoo/Google/iCal/And any bloody S60 calendar app I tend to be running on my N95 right now...
WHY?!

Talk about a blinkin' walled garden. Apparently the walls are coming down. Well blow me if that's not about time. I wrote a piece (that I never published here but hacked it to pieces, updated it and edited the mobile parts of it together here for smstextnews) wayback in September detailing what a pain in the ass backside this was/is.

The piece (entitled 'Think of the Children') talked (well - the unpublished parts did anyway) about Jaiku and Twitter and how they can happily 'co-exist' within the industry... Hang on - Let me go get the quote:

I'm sorry if this is out of context - but you'll get the idea:

"The walled garden appproach that these services offer mean that interoperability between the competition* (*my definition of competition is anything that competes for my spare time - my Nintendo DS is competition for the book that I'm currently reading for example) is impossible.
Imagine if you will Yahoo Mail refusing to send your emails to a Hotmail (sorry - Windows Live) account and/or a Gmail account.. Ridiculous huh? But this is what is happening currently with MySpace/facebook.

The Operators/Carriers of this world have finally come round to the idea that interoperability is the way forward. A quick glance at any website proves this as I would imagine you'd be hard pushed to find a tariff that doesn't include Xnetwork minutes. Of course, this has not always been the case... but, eventually they (the operators) sat up and listened.
This is what the social networking sites of today should be working towards..

I'm a big fan of the micro-blogging service known as Jaiku. But more so am I a fan of one of the co-founders - Jyri Engelstrom.
He believes [or at least I think he does] in complete and open syncronosity across such services..
This is evident not just through recurring themes on his blog but also whenever he is asked the question:

'Which is better; Twitter or Jaiku?'

You would think that, if pressed, he would of course say 'Jaiku'. He would have to! Right? Wrong.
No. Jyri is an evangelist of co-existence... What do I mean?
Twitter works. Jaiku works. Why shouldn't they work together?
Why insist that the user must choose one or the other and not both?

Taking this theme and expanding on it... - Why can't I send a message from my facebook to my friend's myspace?
If I tag a photo on flickr why aren't my bebo friends notified?
One day, I hope, this will be the case... much like, as mentioned, how Xnetwork minutes are now 'as standard'. "

So yeah - interoperability (or lack thereof) really hacks me off..

But hey - while we're still on the subject of facebook (ish):

3) What the hell is facebook for anyway?

Well - a few things come to mind and it's probably a mixture of these things... (and this is good that I'm writing this down actually because I've been meaning to shoehorn this into a project at work for bloody ages now) ...right so:

Facebook - and I loathe that I'm dedicating blogspace to the ubiquitous behemoth that it is - but I need to:

There's the facebook fiends that go round collecting friends like I collect socks (and I do - H&M is my best friend when it comes to socks). Like those people I know from school who I never spoke to, who in fact probably wouldn't actually spit on me if I was on fire back then... They have NO PROBLEM with hitting the 'add friend' button on my profile! WTF?!

WHY?!

Were we friends at school? No - scrap that - ARE we friends NOW?! No.
(on this - have any of you hit the 'ignore' button on a friend request yet? Do it. It is SO empowering)

Maybe facebook needs to bring in hidden 'layered' friends:

• Friends who I know and love and see/speak to regularly
• People I work with
• Some bloke I met down the pub last night
• You who's name I don't actually remember who sat four tables away from me in Science class.
  

And YES I know that facebook has just introduced that stupid friend grouping thing etc but that's not the point.
Maybe it's my definition of the word 'friend' which - between you and me - I don't bandy about lightly...

Right so yeah - Facebook fiends. Adding friends like it's some kind of race. Well it ain't. So you lose.

Then there's the facebook address bookers. Now these people I don't really mind that much. Having read about them online a fair bit of late... these folk actually use the 'social tool' (that's right - it's a TOOL not a NETWORK, but we'll come back to that) for a single purpose and that is: As a very active contacts list.

What do I mean?

Well - instead of searching my contacts in outlook or in my N95 et al - I can search my 'friends list' on facebook and immediately glean a whole bunch of info about that person.

Email (do people still use this medium socially? I think I read somewhere that in 2007 email usage went down by about 80%. I think that figure could be wank rubbish. But still, food for thought) addresses, phone numbers, current status etc... ie: "Steve is planning beers tonight.." that there is a reason for me to call him.
Plus it gives you reminders about upcoming birthdays and events and such like as a personal contacts/diary would do so... but oh look..  We've come back to the walled garden thing again.
Grrr...

Ok - moving on from them - there's folk like me. The sharers. I've built my social network up around me using facebook and now I use this tool for one function (as I am growing to dislike the site somewhat of late) and that is to share cool things I find online with my non-geeky friends.

I mean - I can share links through my Google reader to the 10 or so people that care to read or I can send a TinyURL out to the 50 or so people who are following me on Twitter... OR I can use my Jaiku to do something similar but ultimately - by using the social tool of choice (facebook) - I can share anything cool I find with over 400 of my friends/acquaintances/business contacts/etc... so of late, that's all I've been doing. Sharing.

Incidentally -

'Share' is going to be THE theme of 2008.

In every sense of the word. That's what I think anyway.
This is based a whole bunch of shit great stuff I've seen happening in '007 and in the first ten days of '008.
I'll prolly expand upon this another time - already I feel like I've written bloody loads. But who cares... it's my first proper post of the year - allow me a little self indulgence already!

Ok - coming back to the thing about facebook...

4) It's a Social TOOL - not a SOCIAL NETWORK!

As I've previously stated, I'm a huge fan of Jyri Engelstrom, creator of not only Jaiku but also the dude to first come up with the theory of Social Objects. I could explain what they are - but Hugh MacLeod, he of Gaping Void fame (read his website - it will change your life) has already nailed it to the wall better than I ever could. So go.
Read. Read some more. And get yourself an education.

EDIT - someone else who gets it: Russell Beattie

So yeah - facebook is a social TOOL. People throw objectives like: "We need to make money out of these social networks..."

To the point actually where recently I was unfortunate enough to be invited along to the Telecommunications Executive Network evening (a 'TEN' event) which was subtitled:

"Social Networking: What's Telcoms got to do with it?"

And it was all tally ho and where's the money and ad-sales this and monetization that... but everyone just seemed to miss the effing point.

To the point where I raised it as a question:

"Good evening. James Whatley, SpinVox... There's a school of thought that the money is not in fact in Social Networks but in fact Social Objects. Here we are in this room and I know maybeeee... one or two people here. They aren't in my social network and I doubt very much that I am in theirs. But here we all are gathered here tonight around this Social Object. The network builds itself around it. The money, therefore... is in the object. Not the network. If you build it they will come. Your comments please?"

Well - that went down a treat!
(especially as the last question of the evening!)

The following exchange:

The guy from Ogilvy: "Is that yours? I'm stealing it..."
Me: "Er no. Actually it's Jyri Engelstrom's. Co-founder of Jaiku..."
Ogilvy: "Ah.. see! Another Aggregation site!"

AN AGGREGATION SITE?! AAAAAAAAARGH!

That. Says. It. All.

*sigh*

Ahem - anywhoo - that was a lovely evening.. :)

I was clearly the youngest person in the room and yet I felt completely out of my depth.
And in this instance being OUT of my depth meant swimming around in the shallows...

But hey - let's not bitch moan - it was a very good evening... and I was known at the canapés afterwards as 'The Social Object Guy' which was quite amusing...

But yeah - Social Objects. They are what form the foundations of Social Networks. Plant the seed of a network with a Social Gesture from your Social Object.

Again - as Hugh Macloed rightly points out - it ain't Rocket Science.

I seem to have gone off on a tangent... Where were we? Oh yeah - things that are annoying me online...
Err... I've had my Mobile Web Rant elsewhere... and I've raged about facebook to the nth degree...
What else...

Hmm.

No. I think that's it.

I'm done.

For now anyway...

...and yet so little time!

I've got SO MUCH to write about... stuff like:

- Going to the FOWAs and all the awesomeness that came with that.

- Meeting one of my all time industry heroes, Jyri Engestrom of Jaiku, (so stoked!).

- Then there's the launch of Mippin (which was the last thing I worked on before I left Refresh Mobile)...
Gotta hand it to 'em - they've done a great job.

- But before that I need to mention my first ever proper podcast interview thingy!
Download it HERE care of Ricky Cadden of Symbian-Guru.

- Of course I need to spend some time talking about the next Mobile Geeks of London event:
 Mobile Geeks of London II - which is gonna ROCK!

...even though I can't make it - BECAUSE:

I'm of to San Francisco on Tuesday! Wooo!

Off to not only go to CTIA but to also launch some SUPER exciting stuff with my new employer SpinVox.
Anyone who's been following my Tweets, Jaikus and Facebook updates will probably have a jolly good idea as to what I'm working on - but all will be revealed next week!

So... all of that and probably a whole lot more.. coming VERY soon!

Promise!

24092007

2 comments

Second attempt at uploading my Meetku Video. The outtakes were fine.. But this bad boy never made it up before. Try, try again..

As the great Eric Idle once sang... 'Don't Grumble, Give a Whistle! ...and this'll make things turn out for the Best!'

What on Earth am I going on about? Why not watch the vidjo below and seeeeeeeee.........!

:)

This is the view from my seat as I sip my glass of milk awaiting my boarding information.. Whatleydude is off on his Holidays. A well deserved break before I start my new job at Spinvox. I'm actually going to try and unplug from my mobile the whole time I'm there.. So I guess I'll see you when I get back! Bye!

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