#RefreshCA Geo-Social Showdown
If you missed out on the January meeting of the Central Arkansas Refresh group where Nick Brewer from CJRW did a presentation on PODS CMS for Wordpress, you missed out on an awesome presentation. Nick did an awesome job presenting PODS, hopefully we will have his presentation slides and audio online for you to download in the very near future, he is working on them now.
When we opened the meeting I asked the group what they wanted to do for the next months meeting, since the conversations prior to opening the meeting that night were primarily about all of the Geo-Social apps that are on the market right now such as Gowalla, Foursquare, loopt, Brightkite, and Waze, I proposed that we have some sort of broad scope group discussion on these apps to discuss where we all see these apps going. I think we all agreed that this is the next wave of social media.
The idea that we came up with was that we could have different representatives from within our group kind of give a 5 minute overview of their favorite Geo-Social app and then we could open the floor to discuss these apps and how we can leverage them to meet our clients needs as well as our own moving forward from an industry perspective.
Now, here’s where I need some feedback:
- What does everyone think of this meeting layout?
- Do you have any format suggestions?
- If this is cool, then we will need volunteers to do 5 minute overviews of each product, here’s what we have so far in terms of volunteers: * Cotton Rohrscheib (Gowalla), Khara Cavaness (Yelp), ** Amy Bradley Hole (Foursquare), and Bryan Jones (Loopt). I guess that leaves us needing someone to do an overview of Brightkite and Waze, any takers?? @AkValley, @tsudo, @brantc ???
The meeting is scheduled for the last Tuesday in February, that falls on February 23, 2010, I think given the popularity of this topic we stand a chance of having another really good turnout, possibly rivaling our Google Wave discussion. The location will still be The Flying Saucer in Downtown Little Rock and will kick off around 6-6:30pm.
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* = I can easily speak on Waze too if someone wants to take Gowalla
** = She is awesome and was volunteered by the group. Hopefully we can convince her!!! 
EP:002 – The Social Radar
Keith Crawford and I recorded Episode 2 tonight of The Social Radar podcast. Tonight Keith was gracious enough to allow me to start out the show w/ a rant of my own regarding Facebook’s lax privacy in regards to wall posts from applications to profile pages. This is something that I will never understand, especially realizing the cluttered path that MySpace went down to their demise.
We also discussed some Lifestreaming practices that are good for both individuals and businesses that utilize social media. Keith also offered up an awesome definition of Lifestreaming as opposed to what can be found in Wikipedia. After briefly touching on the hot topic of Geo-location / Geo-social applications we went right on into our weekly run down of our favorite new iPhone applications.
Again, we are still in the process of getting everything setup in iTunes for The Social Radar but we hope to have that very soon so that all of our loyal listeners can subscribe. In the meantime, here’s a brief overview of what we covered on tonight’s show:
In the second episode of The Social Radar Podcast, hosts Cotton Rohrscheib & Keith Crawford discuss a wide variety of topics related to Social Media including a rant by Cotton regarding Facebook’s recent lapse of privacy concerning applications posting to profiles, an awesome definition of Lifestreaming from Keith as well as a need that is not presently being met by todays geo-social applications. As usual the guys also run down some of their favorite iPhone applications to close out the show.
Click here to listen to this weeks show on The Social Radar podcast website…
Road Trip Using Waze (Updated)
Okay, so this past weekend my wife and I went on a road trip to see Bill Engvall in Texas with some friends. I blogged before we headed out that I was going to use Waze the entire trip, you can read that post here… For the most part I was extremely, extremely impressed w/ Waze during this trip. I did run into a few things that I wanted to mention though about the software.
Before I go into a lot of detail I want to reiterate again that for a free software app, Waze is probably the most impressive thing I have downloaded since owning my iPhone. This whole Geo-Social thing is just getting fired up with apps like Gowalla, Foursquare, and Loopt on the market, and each one getting stronger, I think we are all going to witness some amazing things in 2010 related to Geo-Social applications. Being that these apps are all new, it’s obvious that there are going to be some kinks, or bugs, here and there. In addition to bugs, there are some items of functionality that we might also want right now that are just going to take the developers a little bit of time to put in place, I am a software guy, I totally get it.
Initially I noticed that Waze allowed users to check in using Foursquare but not Gowalla. I would LOVE to see Gowalla added to the mix since it’s my primary Geo-Social app. I am sure that it’s just a matter of time before Gowalla support is added, it’s growing in popularity every day…
Trips Over 200 Miles…
When programming in our trip, we learned that presently Waze will only accommodate for trips under 200 miles. Since our trip was about 300 miles, we just picked a center location and programmed that in and hit the road. I am not for sure if I expected the audible turn by turn directions from a free application but it was certainly nice. I am not for certain but I think the voice on the app telling me which way to turn was a little bit easier to understand than the one on our Garmin. My wife and I debated the voices a few minutes, we had gotten used to our directions girl on the Garmin.
Outside 3G Coverage Areas…
I could hear the audible directions being cued or downloaded to my phone before they actually spoke. While we were in 3G areas it seemed that we got our turn by turn directions in a very timely manner, enough time to make our turns. Outside the 3G central Arkansas area, near the Texas line was a little bit different story however, we almost missed a turn for our off ramp because the audio came in at the last second and I had to cross two lanes of traffic.
Recalculating Routes after Detours…
Once I got into Texas I programmed in our final destination. As soon as our route was calculated I started driving. About halfway into the metro Tyler area we missed a turn and it took a little while for it to recalculate our route, and this was in 3G service area. I am not for sure if this was a fluke or not but I had to pull over and allow it a few minutes to get us back on track. The other times that I ventured off the pre-determined route I noticed that the recalculation time lagged here as well. I am sure that there is a lot involved with downloading, etc., but I bet that the folks at Waze improve this as time goes on. As far as outside the 3G area goes, I am not for sure if there is anything they can do on their end as programmers to adjust for that… and it’s understandable.
Reporting Traffic Jams and Speed Traps…
On more than one occasion we were able to locate speed traps before we happened upon them. We also in turn posted speed traps that we encountered a long the way, 6 of them to be exact. I really like this feature. We also reported some slower traffic areas on our way back.
Directions Near Louisiana…
We decided on our way back to detour through Shreveport, LA to visit some friends and watch the Saints game and enjoy a bowl of Duck Gumbo. As we got close to Shreveport we noticed that some of the turns the app was telling us to make simply weren’t there. This happened a few times, I am not for sure why this was the case, it could have been that the interstate system there is stacked one on top of the other, about 4 high, and maybe it saw us on one of the other roads, but it sure made for some confusion.
Once we got onto flat roads and made our exit everything started functioning normally again.
Reporting Wildlife on the Highway…
On our return trip, we traveled back roads into Hope, AR. On these back roads and even once we got on the Interstate we saw at least 100 deer grazing on the side of the road. Now, anyone that has traveled Arkansas for any length of time knows that this can be extremely hazardous. I think it would be cool if Waze added a section to their Report area that allowed you to report Wildlife hazards in the area so you could keep your eyes open.
In closing, I am still very impressed with this App and i hope to have Diann from Waze on The Cotton Club podcast one of these days very soon…
Road Trip Using Waze
I am going on a road trip this weekend w/ some friends to the bottom of the Earth (South Texas). Normally I am not that big of a fan of road trips, I guess I outgrew that a few years back. I guess for the most part I am just not that much fun anymore. However, something about this trip has me a little excited.
As someone who sits behind a desk for the most part of everyday, I don’t do a lot of commuting, and the only time I travel is when I am heading to and from meetings. There is a social application called Waze that I have been wanting to test out for a while now.
Waze is a free social mobile app that enables drivers to build and use live maps, real-time traffic updates and turn-by-turn navigation for an optimal commute. Waze is 100% powered by users and the more you drive the better it gets. I have played w/ the app a little bit just driving around town and have been able to report speed traps, backed up traffic, and even accidents just by having their app open.
I recently learned that Waze also acts as a turn by turn navigation system, I am looking forward to testing their service versus the GPS navigation system that we presently have. I was talking w/ Keith Crawford last night on our podcast, The Social Radar, about the Waze app and he and I both agreed that they have probably one of the coolest applications going right now. I look forward to reporting back how my weekend road trip went w/ Waze.
Now, here’s the only thing. My wife complains that I spend too much time Twittering and all of that, I am sure that some of you have caught heat about this before too. Well, I am going to have to try to use Waze covertly on this trip so that I am not accused of spending too much time on my iPhone. It’s going to be tough, wish me luck… If you want to know more about Waze, here’s a guided tour I pulled from their website. (also, I have been in communication w/ Daniel from Waze about someone from their group being a guest on one of our upcoming podcasts, stay tuned)
EP:001 – The Social Radar
Earlier I posted a short post about the soft launch of The Social Radar, a project I am doing with Keith Crawford. Since The Social Radar isn’t listed on iTunes yet and is still in beta more or less, I decided to go ahead and post the audio to The Cotton Club also to help get our name out there…
Below you will find a description of the podcast taken from The Social Radar website (ep001-the-social-radar). Keith and I have several really cool interviews setup in the very near future for The Social Radar, so stay tuned…
In the first episode of ‘The Social Radar’ podcast Cotton Rohrscheib and Keith Crawford discuss a wide variety of related to social media, from desktop applications to wireless and mobile apps. Some of the applications discussed in this episode include Twazzup, Posterous, PicPosterous, Ustream U Recorder, Bambuser, TweetMic, My6Sense, Newsstand, Google Wave, Waveboard, Waze, Seesmic (Look, Desktop, Twhirl), Delicious, Diigo, and Toodledo.
In addition to social media applications we also debate the hot “Re-Tweets” versus “mentions” or “via’s” topic on Twitter as well as how trends play an important role in how we receive our news. Keith also discusses his adoption of lists and how he uses them to manage his stream.
To listen to this podcast in it’s entirety, simply click the play button below:
EP:001 - The Social Radar:
Current Projects: The Social Radar
My good friend Keith Crawford and I have been working on a sideline project / podcast for the past month or so called The Social Radar. The Social Radar is a weekly podcast that Keith and I record to discuss the ever changing world of social media. Some of the areas we cover include desktop and wireless applications used to manage social media (ie. Tweetdeck, Seesmic, Twhirl, etc.).
We also plan to cover new products that are released onto the market that are of a social nature. It is our goal to update our show on a weekly basis with new information. The Social Radar podcast will soon be available for download from iTunes, stay tuned for that announcement in the very near future…
The initial design for The Social Radar is extremely simple but expect it to evolve as we add new shows. Below is a screenshot for The Social Radar in it’s current state:
You can click the screenshot above to visit The Social Radar online and listen to our first podcast…
Let’s Talk NASCAR – Follow @cottonr_nascar on Twitter!
I mentioned earlier this year that I was going to be adding NASCAR to my list of blog topics for 2010, and the more I think about it, the more excited I am about it. I was talking to Keith Crawford the other night during the first episode of The Cotton Club Podcast about the upcoming Daytona race and it got me to thinking that I needed to setup a dedicated Twitter account for all of my NASCAR trash talk during the season. I went out today and setup @cottonr_nascar (many of my NASCAR friends are already connected since this was an old account linked to a past NASCAR project my partners and I launched last year.)
Something that I am hoping to have locked down very soon is how my blog posts are pushed into my new NASCAR twitter account. Most of the friends that I am going to make this next season on Twitter related to NASCAR will probably share very little or no interest in some of the other topics I discuss like Wordpress, PHP, or Facebook. I am looking at several methods to filtering this blogs RSS Feed Automation for the @cottonr_nascar twitter account, hopefully I will have this locked down very soon!
EP:000 – The Cotton Club – Test
In the next couple of days I will be launching the first installment of The Cotton Club Podcast. The Cotton Club is one of two podcasts that I am going to be a part of this year, the other is a project that I am going to be working w/ Keith Crawford on called The Social Radar, stay tuned for details on that podcast in the very near future.
Unlike The Social Radar Podcast project, The Cotton Club is going to be a lot less focused and a lot more laid back. The Social Radar will deal mostly with the topic of Social Media and Marketing as to where The Cotton Club could end up being a free for all! I am pretty passionate about what I do so it’s probably a safe bet that a large portion of each show will be dedicated to the web in general, including development, blogging, social media, seo, etc., but since I am also passionate about things such as NASCAR and Football, there is a high probability that there will be a certain amount of trash talking as well.
If you know me very well, you will probably know that I am also somewhat of a joker, and no matter how hard I try, weird occurrences seem to find me. Highlights from these occurrences as well as some older stories will also be a big part of this project.
If you have iTunes and would like to subscribe to The Cotton Club, you may do so by clicking here (iTunes will open in a new window, just hit the subscribe button).
Thoughts on Geolocation Apps (Gowalla & Foursquare)
Probably one of the hottest things going right now in the mobile / social / wireless community has to be Geolocation applications like Gowalla, Foursquare, Brightkite, and Loopt. I am sure that there are several other applications on the market that I don’t know about but for the most part the two leaders of the pack right now are Gowalla and Foursquare.
Both Gowalla and Foursquare debuted at South by Southwest Interactive Festival this past year and have picked up a lot of momentum since then. I first started using Loopt on my iPhone but quickly downloaded Foursquare and Gowalla after seeing a lot of my friends become early adopters of these applications.
Of course both of these applications integrate w/ Twitter and Facebook just like you would expect them to, but instead of seeing these applications as “services” or “tools” a lot of the bloggers I read have labeled them “games”, and this just doesn’t resonate with me. I suppose I can see where they are coming from, both applications are somewhat unique.
Foursquare allows it’s users to become Mayors of a particular location, and they can oust their friends or co-workers anytime based on their number of check-ins.
Gowalla, which is my favorite of the two applications, takes a little bit different approach in that it is more like a scavenger hunt. One of the things that I like the most about Gowalla is that it is crowdsourced. Gowalla users can pick up various items at random when they check in at new locations, these items can consist of anything such as Guitar Amps, Skull Caps, Belt Buckles, or Longhorn Cattle (like I picked up today while getting my haircut). These items can be dropped at new locations that the user adds so that they can become the founders of that particular location. Granted, I know that this sounds a lot like a game, and for the most part in it’s infant stage right now, it probably is, but the opportunities for location based social media tools like Gowalla for businesses are endless.
Both Gowalla (@gowalla) and Foursquare (@foursquare) both have an intense presence on Twitter, both of whom have responded to questions I have had in just a few minutes. Last week I mentioned that both of these companies should work w/ businesses to build promotions, etc. and they both responded that they were already doing this. One of my friends on Twitter also notified me that they are already in talks w/ Foursquare about enhancing their Geo-presence.
In closing, my favorite of these two applications is still Gowalla, although I occasionally use Foursquare just to keep things balanced out. I think that there is definitely room in the marketplace for at least two geo-service providers / applications, if not more down the road, but for the time being I am giving Gowalla my nod. One other thing that is worth noting about Gowalla is that in December of last year, Alamofire, the company that released Gowalla received almost 9 million dollars in funding from investors. I know that there are some people out there that will disagree with me and prefer Foursquare, in fact some of my friends are power users and are the mayors of multiple locations. I would love to hear from someone who prefers Foursquare as to why it’s their favorite app right now.
One area of improvement that I think Gowalla can make, and it’s probably already in the works, is that there is no real connection between Gowalla friends and Twitter friends that I can tell. For example, I recently had a neighbor (that I previously did not know) check in at my home on Gowalla. I didn’t know this person at all. I was interested as to who they were so I added them as a friend on Gowalla, okay, so we are now Gowalla friends. Well, to add that person as a friend on Twitter required an additional step for me in looking them up and adding them. I think that this should be a “given” at some point in the future, and I am not for sure why this isn’t already a core feature of the application, could be its coming out very soon.
If you are a Foursquare user and prefer that service over Gowalla, be sure to drop me a comment and enlighten me as to why that is. I would love to hear from you.
Feedburner Socialize Service (Push RSS to Twitter)
Lately I have had a lot of frustrations regarding Feedburner regarding the way they randomly drop my subscription counts. On any given day my subscription counts can drop from somewhere in the 900’s to the 300’s for no apparent reason.
Most of the lost subscriptions can usually be tracked back to FriendFeed but after going back and forth w/ Google (Feedburner) about this issue, I am confident the problem itself doesn’t lie w/ FriendFeed, instead I think it’s something Feedburner has an issue with. Also, I am not alone w/ this issue, I have had several people contact me stating the exact same thing. Hopefully one day soon Feedburner will get this worked out.
Now that I have bashed Feedburner, I am going to go ahead and go on record and give them credit for doing something pretty cool. They have a new service for Feedburner users called Socialize that allows you to input your burned feeds into Twitter. Previously if you wanted to do this you had a wide variety of plugins to chose from, some of which like Twitme are somewhat problematic (especially since wordpress 2.9 was released).
With the Socialize service inside of Feedburner, you can configure your settings to push your RSS feed onto Twitter, which eliminates the need for additional plugins. Here’s some more information about the settings you can control w/ Socialize if you are interested:
Select Account (Handles Multiple Accounts)
At this time, the Socialize service only supports Twitter. You may have one or several Twitter accounts associated with your Google account (which is shared by FeedBurner and other Google products), but each feed may only post to one Twitter account at a time. If for some reason you need the same feed to post to multiple Twitter accounts, you may create a copy of your feed and have that version post to a separate Twitter account.
Formatting OptionsYou may format your feed for Twitter with a number of options. In all cases, the formatting must fit within the 140 character limit imposed by Twitter. If the options you choose create messages longer than 140 characters, FeedBurner will automatically truncate your messages into 140 character tweets.
Post Content Options for Your Tweets
You may post the feed title, title and body, or just the body as the tweet. If you choose to include a link to the feed item, your feed item permalinks will be rewritten as a shortened URL by Google on the goo.gl domain. These links redirect to your normal FeedBurner URLs so that analytics tracking will not be affected. If you select "Leave room for retweets" we will truncate the message to leave room for rewteeting using the many Twitter clients that support this function.
Hash Tags for Your Tweets
Hash tags are the way that Twitter supports tagging or labeling tweets so that they can easily be grouped by Twitter clients that allow sorting and filtering by these tags. By default, the Socialize service does not add any hash tags to your tweets, however if you select "Create hash tags from item categories" we will automatically create hash tags in the tweet according to any <category> elements attached to the feed item. These categories may be added by your blogging platform or CMS publishing system. In Blogger, these are called "Labels" so if you label your posts in Blogger, these labels will get added as hash tags in Twitter.
Additional Text for Your Tweets
You may choose to add a custom message preceding or following the message that is created from your feed item to add more context. As an example you may choose to prepend "From my blog:" to the beginning of the tweet so that Twitter followers can see which messages you are tweeting directly versus posting links from your long form blog.
Item Selection / Item Limits for Updates
As your feed updates throughout the day, FeedBurner picks up your feed and looks for new items. The Socialize service will detect these new items and post up to 5 of them to twitter at a time. Note that the speed with which feed updates can get to FeedBurner will affect this service. To ensure your feed updates in near real time, make sure you ping us immediately after your feed updates and that your blog platform is configured to use PubSubHubub. If none of these options are used for making your feed near real time, the Socialize service will look for and update with any new feed items every 30 minutes.
Keyword Filters for Your Tweets
You may choose to only send certain feed items to Twitter, filtered either by the Category, or text in the title, body, or the entire item. To enable this filter enter text, with terms separated by commas, and then choose where you would like Socialize to look for these keywords. If this service is enabled, an item will only be tweeted if one of the filtered terms is found.
Preview Your Tweets
Preview lets you see how your tweets will look in your feed as you change Socialize options. If your feed content is not available, the preview uses its own sample text. Note that Preview uses the existing items in the feed, but only new feed items published after the service is activated will actually get posted to Twitter.
