Twitter makes it easy to be up to date

Holiday World has opened its gates for another season of fun. I normally wouldn't have known this because I'm not much of a theme park guy, but the park set up an account on Twitter (http://twitter.com/HolidayWorld) that I began following. Twitter is the micro-blogging service that allows users to share their thoughts via the Web or their mobile phone.

Several times a day, someone inside the park would post about painting Santa, tweaking the landscaping and even a weather scare. Holiday World's use of Twitter is just one example of how Twitter is easily the most useful and fun service launched in the past five years.

Many of the detractors point out that Twitter is mind-numbing mediocrity and just gives people another outlet to vent about what they are eating or their adorable cat, but that's the minority of users.

Twitter is the quickest venue for breaking news I have found. All three of the major cable news outlets and large newspapers such as The New York Times have their own Twitter accounts that automatically notify users when new stories are published on the site. I'm still waiting for the Courier & Press to establish its Twitter account.

When it comes to local news, other Twitter users are even quicker at breaking news than the major media outlets. When the initial earthquake hit April 18, Twitter was the first place many people in the area discussed the quake.

My favorite use of Twitter is as the digital watercooler. I work out of my house, so things I would normally chat about in the break room or with the guy across the hall I now share on Twitter. Since it's a public conversation, others around the world can also chime in with their thoughts and ideas. The daily conversation covers major tech news, politics or just the latest YouTube sensation.

Twitter is quickly replacing instant messaging as the best way to keep up to date with friends and colleagues.

If you want to get involved with Twitter, first sign up for a free account at http://twitter.com. You can then update your status either via the Web site or by establishing a connection with your mobile phone and sending updates via text messages. If you don't have an unlimited texting plan, using it with Twitter can grow costly.

Twitter also provides instructions that allow third-party developers to write their own Twitter-powered applications. For Windows users, my favorite is Twhirl (http://www.twhirl.org/). For Mac users, Icon Factory's Twitterrific is in a league of its own (http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific/). Both applications are free, though Twitterrific offers a $15 version that removes its ads.

When I first started using Twitter two years ago, I didn't understand what the fuss was about. Today, I couldn't imagine not posting to it. In the next year, Twitter usage is going to explode as it becomes even more mainstream.

Justin Williams is a local blogger and the owner of Second Gear, a local Web and software development firm. He can be reached at justin@secondgearllc.com.

Originally published in the Evansville Courier & Press

Social networking sites help you make contact with world

People are often shocked when I tell them all of the social networking sites I use daily. Twitter, Pownce, MySpace, Flickr, Facebook, LinkedIn ... you get the point.

I feel that it is my duty to try to embrace as many of these services as possible. Some of them stick, while I dismiss others after only a few hours of use. Some sites are innovative and can enrich your life. Others are puzzling and their usefulness questionable.

Social networks are no longer just a way for teenagers and college students to pass the time. Social networking is a great way to connect with business colleagues and to establish new relationships.

These are the five sites I use daily.

The major player in social networking both today and in the future is Facebook. Facebook allows users to create a profile with personal contact information. Users can also connect with friends, leave messages and track what is going on in their lives.

LinkedIn is the business professional's Facebook. LinkedIn's focus is on keeping up-to-date contact information for your business contacts. LinkedIn focuses on prior work history and allows connections to recommend your work. It is an online resume and reference tool more than anything.

Once a user connects with his professional colleagues on LinkedIn, he has the opportunity to be introduced to other contacts through those connections.

The grandfather of all the social networks is MySpace. While I question the usefulness of MySpace versus other services these days, it's hard to ignore the sheer amount of users who are on the service.

Bands and businesses are joining MySpace because it's a great advertising platform. I use the service to point out articles I publish on ItsEvansville.com.

Many of my MySpace friends will then come to the site and read what was posted. Unless you have something to promote, I've yet to find the usefulness of MySpace.

Many people have the same feeling for Twitter.

Twitter is the micro-blogging service that allows users to post what they are doing via the Web or mobile phone. The key to Twitter is that your posts are limited to 140 characters: the maximum message length for SMS text messages.

Twitter is a great way to track what friends and colleagues. I look at Twitter like a chat room among friends. Many times during the day there will be an ongoing dialogue about politics, new technology or the news of the day. Each person chimes in with an opinion.

Twitter can also work as news wire service. When Heath Ledger passed away last month, I first heard it from one of my friends on Twitter, who published a link to the story.

Social networking is an excellent way to keep up with classmates, friends and professional colleagues. It's also just fun. I don't know how I waited for a table at a restaurant before Twitter, Facebook and the iPhone existed.

Justin Williams is a local blogger and the owner of Second Gear, a local Web and software development firm. He can be reached at justin@secondgearllc.com.

Originally published in The Evansville Courier & Press

Pownce service offers way to have fun with friends

I am an avid Twitter user, but whenever I try to explain the micro-blogging service to a non-tech hipster, I usually get the same response: "What's the point?"

Trying to explain the idea behind posting what you are currently doing in 140 or fewer characters and then passing that around to all your friends' mobile phones just doesn't resonate with some people.

If Twitter feels too limited or you want something with a bit more functionality, the newly released Pownce service might be for you. Pownce is the newest brainchild from Silicon Valley golden boy Kevin Rose. Rose is the same guy behind the social news site Digg.com and Internet TV company Revision3.

Rose and three friends have been building Pownce in their spare time over the past few months as a fun way to send different types of information to your friends.

Rose's main role with Pownce is adviser, because he still puts most of his time and effort behind building Digg. But having his name attached to the project has given it instant credibility.

Like Twitter, you are able to share what you are doing with your friends and the rest of the Pownce community, but beyond that, you can also share files. If you have a song or video you'd like to share with a group of friends, Pownce allows you to upload it to your account and it will be available for download to whomever you delegate.

With Pownce's free account, file uploads are limited to 10MB, which is about the same size as most Web-based e-mail accounts. A Pownce Pro account ($20 a year) allows you to upload up to 100MB files. You can also use Pownce to share Web links and events you are attending around the country.

The biggest difference between the two micro-blogging services is how your updates are shared.

With Pownce, you have the option of sharing each message, file, link or event with the entire Pownce community, only your friends or just a single person.

Pownce also lets you group your friends into sets. For example, if everyone in your office were using Pownce, you could privately share files and links among one another using the service rather than each other's crowded e-mail inbox.

Twitter, on the other hand, takes an all-or-nothing approach to privacy. All of your updates are public in Twitter unless you set your account to be private.

With a private account, your Twitter updates will be exclusive to your friends list.

Ultimately, Pownce and Twitter's feature sets will be compared as you determine which service is right for you. Pownce's feature set in terms of what types of data you can post is currently superior to Twitter, but unlike Twitter, Pownce is available only via the Web or the Windows or Mac OS X desktop client. Twitter, on the other hand, allows you to send and see updates via the Web, your cell phone or instant messaging client.

You can also use a third party client such as Twitterrific (Mac OS X) or Twitteroo (Windows).

Pownce is currently an invite-only service. I have a few invites to distribute, so if you're interested in trying Pownce, e-mail me.

Justin Williams is a local blogger and the owner of Second Gear, a local Web and software development firm. He can be reached at justin@secondgearllc.com.

Originally published in the Evansville Courier & Press