Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-04-26

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Published by Carter Harkins, on April 26th, 2009 at 8:39 am. Filled under: USEFUL LINKS Tags: , , • No Comments

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-04-19

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Published by Carter Harkins, on April 19th, 2009 at 8:39 am. Filled under: USEFUL LINKS Tags: , , • No Comments

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-04-12

  • Photoshop Poll: Do you have a default for text rendering- Sharp, Crisp, Strong, Smooth, or None? (Pls RT) #
  • Okay, just decided to compose a more formal survey of Photoshop habits. Will link soon… #
  • 5 Question Survey on Photoshop Preferences: http://bit.ly/z0nPG (Please Retweet!) #
  • Fascinating Look at Social Media and CRM: http://bit.ly/2K1cGr #
  • 3 Unintended Yet Valuable Consequences of the Social Web: http://bit.ly/37Hb3m #
  • 5 Question Survey on Photoshop Preferences: http://bit.ly/z0nPG (Please Retweet!) #
  • I’ve always said that a retweet is currency, but this? http://bit.ly/PTi0 Any thoughts about this? #
  • Segway Meets GM Meets…Social Networking? Story here: http://bit.ly/a5Y5B #
  • RT @gfranks: T-Shirts for Hairy-Chested Men (It seemed like a good idea in paper!) http://adjix.com/4fp4 AC (via @guykawasaki) #
  • RT @imjustcreative: awesome BackType Connect WordPress plugin on IJC, looks great : http://www.backtype.com/plugins *Nice! #
  • Anyone have experience with Blender vs. other 3D apps? I’m evaluating 3D apps trying to decide… #
  • RT @obox: Peeps have a look at @liammckay’s latest design: http://ecoki.com/ the guy is just too good! *Beautiful! #
  • w00t! I just crossed the 900 followers mark! Thanks to all the new followers today. Welcome, and let me know how I can help. #

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Published by Carter Harkins, on April 12th, 2009 at 8:39 am. Filled under: USEFUL LINKS Tags: , , • No Comments

3 Unintended and Valuable Consequences of Social Web Technologies

It’s always fascinating to read about ways that the social web is being used. The staggering growth and acceptance rate of technologies that were not even a blueprint two months ago is itself a staggering thought. The social web, for all its fickle-minded users and fad-chasing business models, has always had a bleeding edge where the “cool stuff” gets made. I should know, I’ve been involved in creating some of it.

But it is because of the fast and wide-scale adoption of these platforms and technologies that we have a full and healthy dose of the Law of Unintended Consequences operating today. For every new break-away service that comes into the light, there are a crop of parallel (and some would say “parasitic”) technologies that emerge alongside. Given the popular trend of public data APIs, this sideline innovation is often where the bleeding edge is found, much to the chagrin of the original technologies’ founders.

I’ll give you a few examples of the unintended consequences I am talking about.

  1. Search. Platforms like Twitter are poised to benefit from an emerging view about the data being batted about on any given day in the social web. Turns out that this data is valuable, and once it was made searchable and discoverable, it shines as a plausible replacement to search giant Google as an even more real-time search engine. Who would’ve thunk it? Certainly not the tops at Twitter, at least not from the beginning, and I’d bet money on that.
  2. Marketing. Facebook knows something about the data it has in its system. It’s a freakin’ gold mine. And if it can ever transition the unrealistic expectations of its user base to accept a business model that allows Facebook to sell more of this data (anonymous or otherwise) Facebook will be worth triple the inflated numbers that were bandied about several months ago. Marketers are standing by with very long extension cords, just waiting for Facebook to tell them where the high-voltage power receptacles will be located. Because marketers instinctively understand that knowing what Facebook already knows about its users, based solely on their organic and voluntary use of the platform, will likely fuel a global economic recovery. But if Facebook had realized the full value to marketers from the start, I think they would have laid some ground rules that would have made it much easier to do business without sparking user-generated revolt.
  3. CRM. How would you like to find out what people are saying about your brand, and quickly respond before an influential rogue micro-blogger can do real damage? The social web is already changing the way businesses manage customer relationships. But I am positive that blogs and microblogging platforms were not conceived out of that desire. It’s another beneficial yet unintended consequence, and it has incredible value to those interested in harvesting the data.

The real party-pooper in the above scenarios is the user and his/her expectations about the social web and the platforms that prop it up.  For now, the social web remains a Fortress of Free, and the expectation that the user-added data in these public systems will remain private and untargeted (ridiculous notions, by the way) are so strong that any wholesale moves toward marketing the vast data sets are met with rigid and unwavering protest. Yet another unintended consequence of making everything free from the start…

Published by Carter Harkins, on April 8th, 2009 at 11:22 am. Filled under: social web Tags: , • No Comments

Photoshop Survey

I have always wondered how other designers use some of the common settings in Photoshop. So I decided to take a poll to find out! It’s five questions, and shouldn’t take you too long, I’ll leave it up all week, and then release the results next week. Thanks for participating!

Published by Carter Harkins, on April 8th, 2009 at 9:32 am. Filled under: Uncategorized • No Comments

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-04-05

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Published by Carter Harkins, on April 5th, 2009 at 8:39 am. Filled under: USEFUL LINKS Tags: , , • No Comments