Category: techno

web 2.0 rant

[rant]

So I love this idea of ambient intimacy. I love that I can get to know the folks in my community better and better through things like twitter, and facebook status updates and even their blogs.

I love that I can learn so much about people in short 140-character thoughts and quotes and comments throughout the day.

But I’m also getting annoyed that twitter is starting to become a “link dump” and/or a “read my new blog post!” @tonyjones twittered about this last week and I originally thought, well that’s a bit unkind – then I realized how many text messages (aka noise) I get throughout the day that are nothing more than “read my new blog post!”

I hate it because while I don’t mind seeing these things in facebook’s news feed or on my twitter friend feed I also see them in my RSS reader. So having an announcement about them show up on my cellphone as text messages really bugs me.

I know, I know – everyone just wants to plug their stuff — and honestly I’ve plugged a blog post here or there too. But I guess what gets me about the whole scenario is that for those folks I chose to go the extra mile in getting to know and actually opt-in to get their tweets sent to my cellphone (rather than just following them via the web). I don’t need a reminder to check your blog. And the fact that you automatically send me announcements every time you update your blog (rather than just highlighting the really good stuff) — or send a mass of tweets 3 or 4 times a day that share all your blog posts from the last several hours — makes me that less interested in following you or subscribing to your twitter feed. All the automatic posts just add to the noise and turn me off.

Am I making any sense? Maybe not — but I guess that’s why it’s a rant.

In full disclosure, the encounter blog and website are setup to automatically post a tweet anytime and every time a new blog post is updated and/or we post a new announcement or podcast to the website. So you can probably rant and rave about that and argue that I’m being biased (maybe this is where my rant/argument falls apart). However, I would argue in response that both the blog and the website are updated on a fairly limited basis and I’m/you’re not following the encounter twitter feed because you want to get to know someone better – it’s setup as a “news/announcement/prayer feed” for folks interested in encounter.

So there you have it. What say you?

[/rant]

I better post a link to this via twitter to be sure everyone knows about it and responds. 🙂

[rant continued]

update :: I also hate reading RSS feeds that don’t show the entire blog post. I don’t want to have to click “read more” or “this post continues elsewhere.” Just put the entire blog post in your RSS feed — PLEASE! I’m dumping a lot of RSS feeds right now that make me click on another link to read — it makes the entire point of RSS rather pointless.

[/rant]

re: Google Earth updates Jos Nigeria


Screen shot of Jos Nigeria
Originally uploaded by Jonathan D. Blundell.

Back in July I reported that Google Earth had updated their satellite images of Jos, Nigeria (where Rob and a group of others from Lakepoint spent two weeks).

I shared the info with Mike Blythe, a missionary there working with the ECWA hospital.

Mike just sent me a link for a killer KMZ file that highlights lots of areas around Jos – including many of the sites that we saw and worked at while we were there.

To view it – be sure you have Google Earth installed and the open the link. It should automatically populate your “My places” with all the sites in Jos.

Big props to Mike! Makes me really want to go back there.

Related ::
Google Earth
the Jos, Nigeria KMZ file
SSL :: Google Earth updates Jos Nigeria
Mike Blythe’s blog
Google Earth :: Jos Nigeria KMZ file
Photos from my 2006 trip to Jos
Photos of the football/soccer stadium mentioned in the KMZ file :: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
CWF photos from Nigeria 2007
CWF :: Christian Wrestling Federation

testing WPhone

Just installed the WPhone plugin for my blog. Its made to make updating/administrating my blog easier from my cell phone (Blackberry 8310). Looks and works better than the default admin on a cellphone. Still wish there was a Blackberry ap for WordPress like there is for iPhone. Oh well.

Google to launch new browser

Google announced today that they will release a new Internet browser tomorrow – Google Chrome.

On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn’t the browser that matters. It’s only a tool to run the important stuff — the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.

Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today’s complex web applications much better. By keeping each tab in an isolated “sandbox”, we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren’t even possible in today’s browsers.

This is just the beginning — Google Chrome is far from done. We’re releasing this beta for Windows to start the broader discussion and hear from you as quickly as possible. We’re hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too, and will continue to make it even faster and more robust.

We owe a great debt to many open source projects, and we’re committed to continuing on their path. We’ve used components from Apple’s WebKit and Mozilla’s Firefox, among others — and in that spirit, we are making all of our code open source as well. We hope to collaborate with the entire community to help drive the web forward.

I’m a huge fan of open source and Mozilla Firefox. Don’t know if Google’s new browser will take the place of Firefox – but I’ll be downloading it for sure. I can guarantee it will beat Microsoft’s new IE8.

What do you think?

how then shall we blog?

It seems that I’m reading more and more thoughts from followers of Christ (and maybe those who aren’t) who are looking at the proper etiquette and attitude we should have towards blogging.

Brian McLaren said in a recent interview:

It’s way easier to talk than to actually do, and the people I respect the most spend less and less time critiquing and more and more time serving, loving, showing hospitality, listening, visiting, solving, caring, worshiping, praying, and so on.

I know for myself, I hope my blog shares more good than bad. I hope I’m writing for the common good rather than casting judgment or slinging arrows from afar. I hope my writing is amusing for some and causes others to think. I hope that the stories and thoughts I share preach good news to the poor, free the prisoners, give sight to the blind, release oppression and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. I know this isn’t a hard and fast creed of mine. I don’t double check what I write by these standards (probably even less so when it comes to politics) but I hope that some of these thoughts/standards/ideas become more fast and true when it comes to what I share here on my blog.

I started my blog back in 2005 originally as a way to share some of my thoughts/columns/writings I had after the death of my sister. The blog then developed into a cross between a place to share my weekly newspaper column with friends and family as well as a “link dump” in which I shared things I came across that I might have formerly e-mailed to a mass group in my address book (wish more people would take that route). Of course like all things, it’s evolved from that somewhat over the last 3 years.

It’s still a link dump at times (especially thanks to the automatic delicious link posts), its still commentary on how I see life and its a place where from time to time I share what’s going on in my world (although Twitter and Flickr have become the primary aggregates for that information.

Anyways….

I hope that this blog does more to show the good in people and ideas rather than the bad. I hope it holds to a generous orthodoxy. And I hope you still enjoy it regardless and you often walk away seeing things in a different light.

On that note, Tall Skinny Kiwi shares a poem he wrote back in 2005. (still trying to get back in touch with him for a podcast interview).

how shall we then blog?

with smile we publish glad tidings daily
with giggle we reveal our mundane humanity
with sigh we mirror the tragedies of broken people
with shout we send healing words through a keyboard
with bitten lip we offer more cheek to those who despise us
with double-take we acknowledge the publisher on the screen
with mumbling we paint mysteries with strange palette
with softened voice we offer answer from ourselves
with whisper we speak beyond ourselves
with twinkle we welcome past friends

to reawaken childhood dreams
to publish our journeys
to record our stories
to be noticed
to be heard
to point to
others
who
must
be heard also.

what standards do you try to uphold when blogging? what attitudes do you try to follow? what is challenging about it for you?

related ::
duncan mcfadzean :: blogging is not the solution
jesus manifesto :: brian mclaren – a new kind of ancient
tall skinny kiwi :: how then shall we blog
SSL :: first blog post
my links on delicious
my micro-blogging on twitter
my photos on flickr

140 characters of prayer

I feel like I’ve been sending a lot of prayer–related txt messages and tweets lately. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. I actually have only heard positive things from folks getting them (however please let me know if you’d rather not receive them).

I’ve found that txt messages, Twitter and e-mail have turned the traditional “prayer chain” into a rapid fire prayer blast. Within seconds/minutes folks all around the world can be updated with the latest prayer needs.

I’ve used txt messaging and e-mail for some time now. And with my new phone I love the ability to assign folks to message groups so I’m not selecting multiple people each and every time I send a message out.

But I have to wonder if there’s still yet a better way to send out rapid-fire prayer needs/requests. If more folks signed up to Twitter it could really become an informational network where folks could chose to receive updates via the web or txt messages. Perhaps an alternative Twitter feed could be setup just for prayer requests/alerts.

I wonder what it would take to build a system for churches or ministries where prayer alerts could be entered into a system and a message would be sent to Twitter, Plurk (get the most responses from Plurk), Jaiku, etc feeds (140 characters max of course), sent to those requesting cell phone updates, and then a longer more detailed message could also go directly to an RSS feed that could be subscribed to via traditional RSS readers and or e-mail.

Ultimately folks could subsubscribe, unsubscribe and also choose how to receive the prayer alerts.

Is this asking too much? Am I over thinking this? Is it already there? I bet with a little planning a system could be built using WordPress and a couple different plugins.

Hmmm…. could lead to some great possibilities.

What do you prefer? How is your church spreading news/announcements/prayer requests? Still using traditional mediums like bulletins, announcements and prayer chains? Are you on the “cutting edge” and using txt messages, or RSS?

Share you thoughts and ideas!

related ::
my twitter feed
10 best twitter tools for wordpress
SSL :: twitter in plain english
SSL :: twitter peeps
SSL :: texting in church
SSL :: twittering in the old testament
SSL :: texting the church
twitter your testimony