Outside.in, which is one of my favorite NYC startup teams, launched their discussions feature very quietly last week.

It's something similar to when Zillow launched their neighborhood and discussion features.  Zillow faced the aggregator problem of not having a site where people normally contribute directly to the site and now opening up a centralized community feature.  The great thing about these sites is that they reach out and find the community and bring it to you, but discussions require that the communities are on-site.  

My suggestion to Zillow at the time was to go seek out some Outside.in content.

Now what do I suggest to Outside.in?

I thought they should start pulling the comments off of the blog posts they aggregate and using those to start discussion.  The discussion topic could be my blog post title or some summary, and the comments could show up as discussion comments on Outside.in.

Wait... but isn't that "stealing" the community from my blog??

No, not if you resyndicate the comments back to my blog and leave them there.

So, someone could find an article from my blog about Bay Ridge through Outside.in, leave a comment right there on the Bay Ridge discussion board, and I get the benefit of the comment.  And vice versa, any of my comments get resyndicated out to Outside.in.

What would be the net effect of my traffic?  I'm not sure, but even if I sacrificed some of my Outside.in traffic, I'd get lots more comments and probably engage my own users a lot more, because they'd think of my blog as a much more lively place.

Also, maybe each comment on the last.fm discussion board could permalink back to my blog...   "Comment syndicated from This is going to be BIG!".   So, perhaps I'd get even more traffic with a whole new set of links.

Either way, it's going to be tough sledding to cause people to get interested in a new discussion board in a place they don't usually do community stuff on... and so I think you need to start greasing the wheels with some aggregated content. 

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I hope the news that Facebook has just opened up its API to applications that sit outside of it is true.  Frankly, as cool as the concept of Facebook apps are, needing to build inside their little box is very constricting.  At Path 101, we were definitely going to leverage the Facebook platform around our personality testing, because we thought that comparing results to friends could be very viral, but, to be honest, needing to build that app to live within Facebook wasn't so exciting.

Now, we can just take the existing application and have the social aspect "powered by Facebook".  That's very compelling. 

It seems that Facebook understands that users don't spend 100% of their time on Facebook, so there's no sense trying to keep them there.  By extending out to the rest of the web, they're making membership in Facebook that much more valuable.  Even people who might not want to spend a lot of time on the site could see value in keeping their social network there, kind of like an address book. 

I wonder if there's a business model in here.  What if this made Facebook the defacto social dialtone on the web?  Could they charge for API access, kind of like Amazon is doing with S3?  What if it cost websites a few pennies everytime a user spread their app to their friends via the Facebook API anywhere on the web.  Certainly most sites pay for user acquisition on some way.  If they could set the right throttles and controls, I could see Facebook taking a small sliver of every single social transaction on the web--that's IF they get the social thing right.

In its current form, the viral spread of Facebook apps is, while trendsetting, still kind of hokey and it clutters up the user's experience.  I like the fact that they're continuing to experiment, and this move could give them a whole new playing ground.  When if you went to an app on the web, and it automatically told you that 25 of your friends have already used it and you could compare data with one click?  That would be pretty neat, I think.

Thoughts?

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If I take the last downturn as my guide, I can say with confidence that venture investors would be well suited to continue to invest right through the downturn - in 2002 and 2003 terrific companies were formed and funded at very reasonable valuations and with business models that reflected the demand for capital efficiency and economic viability.

A while back, Scott Adams wrote how blogging wasn't really boosting his bottom line the way he thought it would, so he decided to make some changes.  He has decided not only to blog less, but also to go to partial RSS feeds. 

His reasoning is that, unless you were coming to the site, he couldn't monetize you as well.  It wasn't clear that he had ever heard of Feedburner ads for RSS.

So, he made the calculation that he could force those reading his RSS feed to come to the site to read full feeds.  In my case, he can't, because I read a lot of my RSS feeds offline, when I'm on the subway reading through my phone, though Newsgator Mobile.  When I like a post, I clip it, and often send it to others or tag it in del.icio.us for later, meaning the link winds up on my blog and I send some traffic his way.

Either way, as an RSS reader, I'm still net positive on total pageviews.  Moving me to partial feeds doesn't make me add pageviews, it makes me completely disappear.  This is the case for a lot of RSS readers...  going to partial feeds will make your RSS audience dry up, engage less, and certainly never pass the site to others.

I kept the feed in my reader hoping it would change back, but he seems pretty set in his ways, so I'm unsubscribing.  I read RSS feeds and if you're not going to publish a full feed, then I'm not going to read you.  It's a shame, b/c the Dilbert Blog was one of my favorites.

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As always, any trend that I notice occuring because of technology's effect on people should be taken with a grain of salt... you know, because of that vaccuous Web 2.0 echo chamber that I sleep in.

That being said, I'm realizing that a lot of the relationships I've built up with people lately have been built up over time, nutured slowly by tiny bits of information and without the pressure of thinking that if you don't do a complete data download on the first meeting, you'll lose the chance to reconnect. For example, I started reading Rob May's BusinessPundit blog (He's now over at CoconutHeadsets.com...sorry no link, posting by mobile) about two years before I ever met him in person. His blog just had to be readable enough for me to think I might want to go back to it again for it to get a tryout in my RSS reader...not a very high bar. But, it stuck, and we both wound up at last year's SXSW conference. Not only did it not seem weird, but all the previous back history of communication between us made the first inperson meeting that much easier. I didn't have all sorts of unfulfilled expectations or bad assumptions... I learned enough over time that I had a much more realistic view of him. Plus, I knew that, even if we didn't become best buds right then and there, our digital connection would keep conversation going, probably enable other chances to meet...It really took any pressure to form an immediate strong link off the table.

The same thing seems to be happening in poltics. I'll bet that when you had one chance to meet a candidate--the one time their election train rolled through your town, your first impression of them became a lot more meaningful. In today's world, we've swung to the opposite. Everyday, you see a new video clip. One day you think Hillary's a bitch, the next day you think she's warm and sensitive because she cries at a cafe hundreds of miles away. And what about John McCain? Didn't we have him left for dead not too long ago... wasn't Rudy the leading Republican candidate at one time? Turned out Rudy was a one trick pony and McCain can haz nine livez.

The ability to hang around the rim...to lurk, engage lightly, linger, subscribe, connect means that we have increased the window of opportunity we have to get to know each other...almost indefinately. I think that's great, because prejudgements are often wrong. How many of your favorite people did you initially have a not so great first impression of? Plus, how much could you really get to know someone on a first pass? People are so deep and complex, more information and a longer window to make judgements can only be a good thing. I mean, imagine if you could only hire employees based on resumes--no interviews, no trial periods...just a small bit of superficial information that corralates little to the lifetime value of what this person can bring to the table.

That's why I'm excited about Path 101' ability to help people get to know themselves better in relation to career discovery, because it will also allow potential employers to get to know them better as well.

When's the last time you worked until tomorrow and had a great time? How many meetings have you had in the last week with more than four people that went nowhere and accomplished nothing? More than five people? Eight? Have you ever heard your boss say, "Well, if we run low on cash, I'll just take a salary cut, eat less, and tap my savings a little more?" Are you passionate about what your company does? Do you have enough skin in the game where you start to think, "Wow, if we really kick ass, I could buy that car/house/island" or are you kissing all the ass you can to make sure your boss and coworkers give you good reviews during bonus time so you can just pay off your credit card bill? When you tell people where you work, do they say, "Wow, that's a really cool idea" or do they mention someone who also works for the same 55,000 employee company and ask if you know them...as if the whole goddamn company goes out for a huge picnic with "hello my name is" nametags once a week. Has your company ever gone on a picnic with "hello my name is" nametags? Has your company ever done anything requiring "hello my name is" nametags? Is the whole reason for your company's existance to find a new way of doing something or do you find spreadsheets, code, and docs related to your job that date back to 1999 on the company's servers? Do you jump up excitedly when a random ass conversation with someone in a completely different field helps you figure out some problem you've been thinking about? Maybe even leave to go back home or to work to fix it right then and there? Or do you chastise friends for bringing up work? Are there companies whose products you love to hate that you're going to blow out of the water or is it your company whose products your customers love to hate? Do you get letters from customers and supporters telling you how much they love your product? Do you get hate mail telling you how much your product sucks? Do you get any feedback at all? Every actually met anyone who uses your product that you didn't sell to directly? Do you even think that half of those people use it? When you talk about what you do, do you get so infectiously excited about it that, all of the sudden, everyone around you is talking about it, too?

Why aren't you working for a startup?

FeedDemon was the first RSS reader I ever used, back in 2004.

I really liked it, but it felt so disconnected.  I moved to NewsGator because I wanted an automatic blogroll, a mobile application, and I wanted it to be all synced up. 

Then, after Newsgator acquired FeedDemon and got things all synced up, I just didn't want to pay for it. 

I did pay for NewsGator Mobile, which I love, but I wasn't willing to pay anything for synced destop software.  Despite improvements to the interface, I still didn't really love Newsgator Online, nor did I love being unable to read feeds on my laptop while offline. 

Last week, Newsgator took the pricetags off and went free.

Not surprisingly, they're also supporting APML, which means that they're going after the data.  I always felt like the feed reading folks were in a unique position to see who was paying attention to what (as is FeedBurner) and build interesting applications on top of that.  For example, I can't wait to use their list of feeds I pay the most attention to.  Going free and building up attention data: not only very Web 2.0, but also so much more useful to me. 

This is a major step in my continuing quest to bring stuff back out of the browser and onto my desktop in a way that is still synced to my phone.  First, I successfully brought all my Gmail/Gcal functionality out of the browser and enable phone syncing through a combo of Thunderbird and other apps.  Now I'll be able to read feeds offline but also sync those feeds to my phone.   That's great because the browser, thus far, doesn't seem like it's a place to efficiently run things that need applications.  I've also started using the GTalk client and never got much use out of Meebo. 

Now if I could only manage edit/upload/manage videos in a connected client.  Phanfare doesn't have editing. 

Hats off to the Newsgator team!

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Everyone uses the web quite differently, but I've noticed some strong usage patterns among social network, tagging, and blogging users that I think hold true.

The first type avoids social media altogether.  It scares them.  They say things like, "I don't want to expose my whole life on the web."  They can't be found on Google and actively attempt to clean up their digital tracks.  These people are to be avoided at all costs.  Clearly they either a) have something to hide, like a body in the trunk of their car,  b) have serious impulse control issues and if given a Flickr account or blog will immediately start posting pictures of their genitalia, or c) suffer from Usenet related alcoholism, because its all to easy to do a shot everytime someone responds to an annoying thread with "unsubscribe" in the body.

The second kind is a closet social media user.  They've secretly had a LiveJournal since the first time they heard Ani DiFranco.  (Mood: Angsty) They break into a cold sweat anytime they read stories about people fired from blogging, but secretly, they're hoping to be found...to be led to freedom by an LJ revolt where everyone goes to the window, opens it, sticks they're head out and yells, "I have an angsty LiveJournal blog, and I'm not going to keep it private anymore."

Of course, it never occurred to them that they use the same screename on their AdultFriendFinder profile.

The third kind of social media user is the happy medium most social users hope to achieve.  They don't know how many RSS subscribers they have to their Tumblog-- and its mostly people they know anyway.  They read Perez Hilton just as often, if not more, than TechCrunch and edited Wikipedia just once--to erase one benign sentence just to see if it would work.  They like the idea of Twitter, but they only know 2 people who use it and fail to see the value of following Scoble or Calcanis, because they've never met either of them.

The fourth kind of social media user uses social networks to reflect and leverage their real life with worldclass efficiency.  When their cable goes out, they LinkedIn their way to the night shift operations manager at Cablevision, who also happens to share the same music tastes (Wow, you like Radiohead, too!)... Cable back on in 4 minutes.  Everything gets delivered, and expenses get tracked by both their social expense tracking community and Najesh, the Skype enabled personal assistant from Mumbai.  Never alone, this user is always a Twitter or Dopplr notification from meeting up with someone they know, even snorkling in Fiji.

The last kind of social media maintains social media as their one and only form of social.  "What do you mean offline?"  They live in places with the lowest population density to downstream rate ratio in the country--not another man made structure for 22 miles, but they've got fiber to the home.  All of their profile photos have that grainy blue glow of a webcam shot and they don't get it when people decline their friend invites because they're not friends.  "Yeah...duh... that's why you click accept... to become friends!"

Any of these too close to home?

Don't mind me... I just wanted to say "I told you so..."

Remind  us not to sell Path 101 too early, before it's achieved enough scale to weather big company neglect.

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So this morning's tech news is that one person got kicked off of Facebook.

Yawn.

But, since Techmeme is the geek water cooler, I guess we should all be talking about it.  I suppose Scoble is like Desperate Housewives or Grey's Anatomy--the shows aren't even that good, but you gotta watch because it seems everyone else is talking about it.

Today, Mr. Scoble got booted from Facebook for violating their terms of service... for running some kind of script that seems to scrape social graph data off of Facebook.

People seem to forget what "I agree to the Terms of Service" means.  If you join a service, and invite all your friends to it, contribute all sorts of data, etc., don't get all pissy when you break the rules and they boot you. 

Why?

Because these are the rules that everyone else agreed to as well.

If I was your friend, I wouldn't want you using some script to scrape my data and take it off Facebook.  People seem to forget that friendships are two way relationships...  those are people on the other end, not just data... and you don't own the data on the other people.  These are people that looked at the Facebook TOS (or should have), were fine with it, and decided to set up shop.  They don't want to live in a digital place where people who violate the TOS pulling their data run amuck.  Not that I think Scoble is malintentioned, but unless he gets every single one of his friends to accept the porting of their data to another place, I don't see what kind of case he his.  I don't remember anything in the "accept friend request" thing that says, "accept it when your friend wants to run a script that yanks data about you off of Facebook and brings it to some other place who's TOS you will never see."

Does the script take into consideration the privacy preferences of Scoble's friends, or does it assume they're all as public to everyone as they are to him, because he's logged in with his account?

When are the geeks going to realize that 99.99% of the world's population doesn't need or want data portability.  Sure, it would make our lives more convenient if my I could see the restaurants my friends frequent through their credit card purchase data, but rather than try and convince Mastercard to accept open data standards, build an app with a simple hack that allows me to download it, and moreover, a reason to.  That's what Mint and Wesabe are doing with financial data.

And as for the social networks, MOST people don't care about being on 3423 social networks at once with 43,000 friends, and sharing apps and data between these friends.

In fact, I can't think of a single situation where I thought to myself, "Boy, I'd really love to be able to listen to the music that my LinkedIn contacts do."

And I have no problem keeping professional contacts on LinkedIn and real friends on Facebook, and I'm unapologetic about it. 

Last time I checked, real life was about different social spheres.  My "real" social graph isn't a completely intermingled, open flow of data, nor do I want it to be.  My digital life works best not just when it improves my real life, but also reflects it.  I'm not friends with everyone.  I don't want everyone's data.  I don't want to show everyone else my data.  There's enough of me already out there with very little effort on my part. 

So, Mr. Scoble, please stay off Facebook if you plan on running scripts that the rest of us agreed weren't cool in the TOS.  If you think the TOS needs to be changed, tell us about the app, tell Facebook, and gather support without breaking the rules first.  While they've made mistakes in the past, Facebook seems pretty responsive to users when they gather a large amount of support.

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Q: Why did the porn site put MyBlogLog widgets on their pages?

A: So you could see all the people that came before you.

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I think this is an amazing graph, because its not just about getting users, but getting each user to find more and more utility in your site month over month.  Users can be obtained, but there's no substitute for this kind of single user growth in activity.

via Brad Kellett's Twitter Graphs.

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There, I said it.

Apple just "came to an agreement" with Nick from the ThinkSecret blog--you know, the one that a 13 year old started in 1998 about Apple product rumors.  He wound up getting one too many rumors (truths) out before Apple was ready to make it public, so they sued him.  They settled... meaning that Apple will drop the suit and Nick will shut the site down.

Remember... this is a guy who liked Apple so much he started a website dedicated to the company. 

They shut him down... a college student.

What is it going to take from this company for people to stop drinking the Apple kool-aid?  Seriously, folks, its just another company.  Let's take an inventory:

iPod...  They charge people a license to make products for it... like those iPod home stereo things.  Plus, they insist on selling drm music.  "Don't blame us, blame the record companies."  Yeah, because I'm sure the record companies wouldn't budge if the company that has a near monopoly on online music distribution decided they wouldn't sell DRM music anymore.  Oh, and you can't replace the battery on your own without voiding the warranty...  and video Ipod screens... yeah..   do I need to go on?

iPhone...   One carrier gets an exclusive deal.   People build apps for it and then Apple crushes the apps in an upgrade.  Screen?  Cracks.  Battery.  Can't replace it.

Safari...   The browser caching problem means that it will display the version of your site that it sees fit, not as it sits on your server. 

I own an iPod and that's the only Apple product I use.  I had no urge to own an iPhone.  Hey, Windows products may suck, but at least Microsoft doesn't tease me and make me think they're my friend.  By the way, how many of you know someone (maybe you) whose iPhone has cracked already.  I think I'll buy a Zune or something next time. 

Hell, they don't even buy anyone.  Google may be the borg and Microsoft may be evil, but at least they spend a few bucks from the coffers filling the pockets of entrepreneurs once in a while.

Yeah... Apple makes beautiful things... that break... and that hurt you when they violate you with them. 

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Over the last couple of weeks, I've had the same conversation with three different startups.  They were all started by businesspeople and they were frustrated over the fact that they couldn't find a great tech person to build their dream into a reality.

So I asked them if they were willing to actually make it a partnership and give them an equal share of the business.

They all balked.  Didn't even hesitate.  No way.

Well, if I was a tech guy capable of building your application, then I wouldn't work with you either.   Good luck, buddy.

One of the reasons people work at startups to begin with is because they feel like their work will be a lot more rewarding versus working in a big company.  If their work isn't highly valued by the people that start the business, then what's the point of even working for a startup?  No one's going to join a business team as the CTO for a 5% stake in the company or if your first thought is, "I don't want to give that much away."

I've never had that thought, when it comes to making offers to people, of "That's too much to give away."   (My angels have talked me down to reasonable numbers, not to worry...)  But, I'm always thinking, for the right person, that this person makes my business worth that much more... so why wouldn't I give away more equity?  If anything, it's the financing rounds you need to be careful about giving up equity on, not people costs (within reason).

The right CTO can make all the difference.  It's not just getting the site built...  it's making sure the site scales appropriately, and in a cost effective way, too.  A partner is going to care about not overbuying hardware, because his or her stake is tied to how much cash is left in the bank.  They're going to spend the late nights solving some untraceable bug and not charge you by the hour for it.  A contract lead developer?  Meh.

And best of all, they're not going to walk away right when you need them the most... at least, not if they're properly incentivized.  I can't tell you how many times I've heard of nightmare scenarios of contract developers that not only flake out, but maliciously break code or leave startups in a jam.  It's fine to do some outsourcing, but if you don't have a founding partner who can build, I think you're up a creek. 

And if you don't realize that it takes more than just a business idea and a little cash to make a successful business, I'd have no interest in coming to work for you if I was a CTO or even just a great developer. 

If you find the person who can not only build your idea, be committed to it for the long haul, and that you can get along with, give 'em an equal share (with proper vesting, of course... 1 year cliff...).   Trust me that you'll thank me later.

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"Our architecture is also based on a reliable template - lightweight caching reverse proxys in front, proxying to the heavier app servers, which in turn are driven by the databases. We will aim for a shared-nothing architecture - decouple everything, push the state out to the client, compress, minify, and cache the static content, eventually pushing it out to a CDN."

AdReady just got funding from Bain and Khosla Ventures for "do it yourself" display advertising on websites. 

They have "...developed an online library of about 600 prefabricated display ads in categories such as real estate, education and travel. Customers choose an ad, customize it and then -- with AdReady's help -- launch it into the ad networks from Google and Yahoo's Right Media."

Clickable "makes creating and managing search advertising simple and effective."  They can recommend keywords and ad copy for you and manage all your search campaigns in one place.

Hmm...   imagine a place where small businesses could go to create and manage ALL their online campaigns, both search and display.  These two things are very different from each other, so to combine two companies that have expertise in each area seems like a natural fit.

So many companies would love to go to search engine marketing shops, but don't have enough traffic to make it worth the time of those shops.  And forget display... I don't think anyone's really helping small businesses with display advertising.  There's a huge, untapped market for both of these services and since they serve the same customers--customers who want to sign into one place to manage their online campaigns--I think it would benefit everyone to see them work together.

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At first, we weren't sure if we were going to do a holiday party, because there were so many going on, but we had so much fun last year and it was such a great turnout that we decided to do one again.  The best part is that it coinsides with the ITP Winter Show, and so you can go to that, and then meet us for drinks at Apple Bar right around the corner.

Here's the RSVP list... you can show up anyway, but its always nice to let others know you're coming.

Monday, December 17th.  7PM - 10PM

Apple Restaurant and Bom Bar:
http://www.applerestaurant.com/
located at
17 Waverly Pl. Between Green and Mercer

Blogged with Flock

So, here's my dilemma:

Given:

• I use Gmail for my personal mail.
• I use Gmail apps for my Path 101 domain for corporate mail.
• I'm very particular about my address book.  I have 2000+ contacts and I try to keep them to people I actually want to remember, not just anyone I've ever e-mailed.
• I need a calendar on my phone.
• I have a Windows Mobile 6 based phone.
  

• I'd like use GCal for my calendar, because I get calendar invites to these Google addresses
• Also, I share calendars with @ptrain, so we can see what weekends I'm coming up to Boston, figure out when to call each other (even though we're not big phone people), plan dinners with other couples, etc.  This is easily done in the GCal interface.
• I want over the air syncing.

• Sitting in a browser all day with your calendar and e-mail open, if you're using Firefox or Flock, is a good way to fist the memory hole and make the leak even bigger. 
• Outlook is big, bloated, and slow.  It eats memory and is unwieldy to keep flipping back and forth to.
• Google contacts suck.  It takes everyone you've ever e-mailed and records them.
• Google doesn't normally play nice with mobile phones for syncing calendar and contacts anyway.

So, first thing I did was to download Thunderbird, at the advice of Gina Trapani, who is just awesome.  Now that Gmail supports IMAP, Thunderbird makes for a really lightweight and easy to use desktop e-mail client. 

However, that's all it is, until you start adding extensions.  I added a couple key ones.

First, I added Lightning.  Lightning is a Thunderbird extension that adds calendaring functionality to your application.  If you're using gmail calendars, you're going to also need the Provider extension.  This allows bidirectional access to Google Calendar.

What's neat is that you can get more than just access to your own calendar.  You can add any calendar you can see in GCal... just by going to File>New>Calendar>On the network and providing the address of the Ical URL.  (in GCal, My Calendars>pick the calendar>Calendar Settings) and add it.   Here's a tip... if you subscribe to a calendar someone shares with you, it will ask you for their e-mail and password.  Just use whatever e-mail and password you use to login to the account that can see this calendar.  You don't need theirs specifically.

Ok, so now I've ported my e-mail and calendar into a lightweight desktop client.  Still much work to do.  How do I get my contacts from Exchange to Thunderbird.

Here's where you might have a bitter taste in your mouth... but I say you need to bite the bullet. 

Enter Plaxo.

Plaxo has a Thunderbird toolbar that works quite well for syncing contacts.  So put your contacts on Plaxo, sync them with the Outlook Toolbar, and sync them right into Thunderbird.  Plaxo 3.0 makes connecting all the dots on the back end really easy.

Now my desktop experience is complete...  E-mail, calendar, and contacts... but what about syncing?  I'm still syncing to my hosted Exchange account for mobile calendar and contacts.  

On paper, Plaxo Premium is supposed to help with both of these things.  They just realized a Windows Mobile app for syncing exactly these two things.  The trouble is, there's a missing link that makes only one of them work.

Let's start with what does work.  Unlink the ActiveSync connections to your calendar and contacts on your phone.  That will erase all those contacts and cal entries, so I'm assuming you still have them on the desktop somewhere.   What does work is Contacts.  This has always been Plaxo's strong suit...  keeping all your contacts in one place... and now you can plug directly into your Plaxo contact database using their WM6 app.  Sah-weet... worked on the first try.

But syncing to my Plaxo calendar... wait...  that could work, but my Plaxo calendar is no longer synced to anything else.  If I'm disconnecting my hosted Exchange, and the Thunderbird toolbar is only for contacts, how do I make sure Plaxo always has my latest calendar.

Well, they do have a Sync point for connecting to Google Calendar listed, but the damn thing just doesn't work.  So, the Thunderbird toolbar won't sync your calendar to Plaxo, and Plaxo won't sync to your underlying GCal.  

So, I went out and got a second application for the phone--GooSync, and paid for that one, too.  GooSync promises to sync your Calendar and Contacts to Google, but I only keep my calendar on Google, because as I said before, Google contacts sucks.  So, I turn off Plaxo's calendar sync, and I turn off GooSync's contacts sync.   I let Goosync just sync directly to my Google Calender.  So this way, thanks to Provider, I can change things on my desktop, have it write directly to Gcal, and then have Gcal always syncing to the phone with GooSync.

Results:

• Lightweight calendar and e-mail app
• Viewable and writable shared calendars
• Over the air syncing for e-mail, contacts, and calendaring for Windows Mobile 6
• No Exchange or desktop Outlook

I'm going to hold on to that hosted exchange account for a few weeks just in case, but then I can just toss it.

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Scott Karp isn't using Twitter anymore.  That's the biggest story on Techmeme right now.... and now I'm perpetuating the problem by linking to it.  I'm sorry.

Scott's a smart guy and I've been reading Publishing 2.0 for a while now, but when I see all Web 2.0 pundits jumping into a social app way after other people, opening it up to the world, and then point out all the issues with it, it makes me think of a conversation I used to have when I was 5...

"Sssssssstttttooooooooooop!!  Gimmmeee it baaack!  You're gonna break it!!!  Gimme!!"

You know the drill.  You hand one of your favorite toys to a family member who proceeds to completely mishandle it.  Ugh!  

If you're connected to people on Twitter and you have high signal to noise, perhaps you should just disconnect to the noisy people.

A simple suggestion to Scott from John Zeratsky:

"It seems like people have lost sight of the simplest Twitter use-case: Follow a bunch of your friends so you know what they’re up to.

That’s what I do, and I love it. Then again, I only have about a dozen friends "

Why, Scott?  Why fill your phone with meaningless fluff about kayaking, Fordham, softball, and my lunch habits?  There are like 6 people on the face of the earth who should care about such things and they've all met me. 

It's the same with Facebook, like when Jason declared Facebook bankruptcy.  I'm sorry, but who has 2800 friggin' Facebook friends?  

Seriously guys, just put the social apps down before you hurt yourselves.  If you can't learn how to play nice with them, then maybe you need to take a little timeout.

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I just started using the Disqus e-mail response feature.  This way, I can respond to your blog comments just by responding to the notification through e-mail.  When I get notified that you comment, I can instantly, with one e-mail, post my own comment without even going to the blog. 

That means that you're so much more likely to get timely responses from me in the comments! I can also delete comment spam by just responding with "delete".  Sah-weet!  

So comment away and expect this to be much more of a discussion.

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