Social Software Explored

I used to work in the CMS world (now I just work with a CMS) and we always talked about “Content is King”.  That statement “Content is King” reigns over many aspects of our lives.  For me its felt hardest in my decision to not use traditional cable or satellite for my daily viewing entertainment.

Instead, I use a combination of Free content (YouTube, ESPN3), Paid content (Netflix, NBA League Pass) and “borrowed” content (HBO Go, ESPN).  I also have some avenues for retrieving content but lets not review that currently (*cough* say no to SOPA).

On December 22nd I purchased NBA League Pass Broadband Premium for $169.00 which would allow me to “Watch my favorite team – at home, on the road or anywhere”.  In fact, the features listed on the website state that I could “Watch Every Team”.  For me, the first statement is true – I am a Knicks fan so that means I do get to watch my favorite team play.  However, the second statement is FALSE.  I CAN NOT “Watch Every Team”.  I CAN NOT watch a Celtics game.  This is complete false advertising.

Even though I am a Knicks fan, I enjoy watching the Celtics.  I also enjoy watching the Lakers, and the Heat and the Clippers and the Mavericks and all the other great NBA teams.  And while I am an NBA fan I am not all that interested in watching are two 2-25 teams go at it. And what I can’t do is put my head around the “Blackout” terms for the NBA League Pass service which reads:

Local and national market blackout rules apply based on your location. Nationally and locally televised games are subject to blackouts and are therefore not available via NBA LEAGUE PASS BROADBAND (regardless of home or away).

It goes on to state that the service doesn’t work through VPN, accelerators or proxies which means that “Watch Every Team” really means that if you live in the LA area you can never watch either of those teams unless you are traveling and watching the games outside of California.

What you get with NBA League Pass

Here was the schedule for the 24 games I got to watch via League Pass for 1/15 – 1/9 (with their records on the date of the game in parenthesis)

1/15 Golden State (3-8) @ Detriot (3-9)

1/15 Utah (7-4) @ Denver (8-4)

1/16 Orlando (9-3) @ New York (6-6)

1/16 Milwaukee (4-7) @ Philadelphia (9-3)

1/16 Houston (5-7) @ Washington (1-11)

1/16 Cleveland (5-6) @ Charlotte (3-10)

1/16 Portland (7-3) @ New Orleans (3-7)

1/16 New Jersey (2-9) @ LA Clippers (5-3)

1/16 Sacramento (4-7) @ Minnesota (3-7)

1/17 Charlotte (3-11) @ Orlando (9-3)

1/17 Golden State (4-8) @ Cleveland (3-10)

1/17 Phoenix (4-8) @ Chicago (12-3)

1/17 Denver (8-5) @ Milwaukee (4-8)

1/17 Detroit (3-10) @ Houston (6-7)

1/17 LA Clippers (7-3) @ Utah (8-4)

1/18 Denver (9-5) @ Philadelphia (10-3)

1/18 Oklahoma City (12-2) @ Washington (1-12)

1/18 San Antonio (9-5) @ Orlando (10-3)

1/18 Golden State (5-8) @ New Jersey (3-11)

1/18 Phoenix (4-9) @ New York (6-7)

1/18 Detroit (3-11) @ Minnesota (5-8)

1/18 Memphis (6-6) @ New Orleans (3-10)

1/18 Indiana (9-3) @ Sacramento (4-10)

1/19 New Orleans (3-11) @ Houston (7-7)

Only 4 of the 24 games listed from Sunday to Thursday have a matchup featuring two teams with a winning record.  Yes! only 17% of the games listed for these days had a descent matchup.

• Missing from this list: Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, Dallas Mavericks, Portland Trailblazers, Boston *
• Only listed once: San Antonio, Oklahoma City

* I don’t actually get to see the Boston Celtics play – because they are in my local area.

What you miss with NBA League Pass

Meanwhile here were the games that were shown on TNT, ESPN and the NBATV network during this same time period:

1/15 Phoenix (4-7) @ San Antonio (8-4)

1/16 Chicago (12-3) @ Memphis (6-6)

1/16 Oklahoma City (11-2) @ Boston (4-7)

1/16 Dallas (8-5) @ LA Lakers (9-5)

1/17 San Antonio (9-4) @ Miami (8-4)

1/18 Toronto (4-10) @ Boston (4-8)

1/18 Portland (8-5) @ Atlanta (10-4)

1/18 Dallas (8-6) @ LA Clippers (7-4)

1/19 LA Lakers (10-5) @ Miami (9-4)

1/19 Dallas (8-7) @ Utah (9-4)

With the normal cable package I could have watched 10 more games 8 of them where both teams had an even or winning record. 80%.  Additionally, there were 2 Lakers games, 2 Miami games, 2 Boston games, 3 Dallas games, 2 San Antonio games.

Add to the fact that the Celtics at 4-7 and 4-8 (and now 4-9) is completely crazy and you can see the picture I am drawing:

NBA League Pass is a sham

Why?

I can only speculate that the decision to restrict the games that are televised locally and nationally on popular cable/satellite stations is based solely on money.  The NBA doesn’t want to share revenue with NBA and TNT and they really want you to subscribe to cable and buy packages that include NBATV.  NBA owns the content.  And content is King.

I don’t watch a ton of Network TV, and therefore I don’t watch a lot of commercials. So when I saw the abnormally large display at Target for Skylanders during my Christmas shopping extravaganzas this year, I just said to myself “hmmmm seems like that game is being pushed kind of hard, but it looks so dumb.”

Boy was I wrong. This game is simple and fantastic. It’s Dungeons and Dragons meets Pokemon meets Bakugon. My prediction is that this game should have the longevity of games like Final Fantasy and Zelda. Maybe not as big as Mario but who knows.

The game has an interesting hook (and by hook, I mean great money making scheme). Your character in the game matches the figurine you place on the “portal” (a small battery operated pedestal that connects to your Wii, Xbox or PS3 via USB) and when ur character dies in the game, it must be removed from the portal and u must replace it with a new character.

Currently, there are 8 groups of 4 characters which means you essentially have 32 lives per level. The starter pack came with 3 characters, and after today’s visit to target we now have 9. My son Dillon had a $50 gift card and while the Target employee was busy restocking the depleted shelves, Dillon was re-depleting them. Each character costs $7.99. Each character has their own unique abilities and the longer you play with that character the stronger it gets.

What’s even better about these characters is that the abilities they gain are transferred to the physical character through the pedestal. I am assuming via RFID? While the boys were at their friends house, they brought their characters (only the original 3 since we hadn’t been to Target yet). Each of their characters leveled up and gained special powers. What’s interesting is that their friend has an Xbox while they have a Wii. When they returned home, all of the abilities they had gained were still intact. Genius!

What is amazing is the simplicity of this. Play the game, improve your characters and then bring them over to your friends house. Gain some more value at your friends house and then bring it home. And all you need to do is place the character on a glowing pedestal. Genius!

On top of the characters there are other objects that can be introduced into the game by putting it on the pedestal (you know – after you buy it of course). This game is endless. Endless characters. Endless objects. Endless worlds. It’s genius!

Went to get my car washed today.  The owner told me he was at the Apple store last night and “there was no shortage of money being spent there”.  He owns a car wash and he has 3 iPads (didn’t ask why he needed that many) and a new MBP (that he purchased last night).  He owns a car wash.

But he’s correct.  We are in one of the worst financial crisis’ our country has ever seen and yet you go to almost any Apple store after 5 PM and its packed.  And the shit’s not cheap there.  We talk about Apple the Hardware and Software company.  And sometimes we talk about Apple the Retailer (Store).  You can actually purchase Apples products at several retailers (including Target).  There really isn’t a store like it and I don’t mean “like it” in terms of what they sell but “how” they sell.

What’s even more interesting is they are changing that too.  They just released a “self checkout” application that can be used for “on the shelf” items.  ”Self checkout” it self isn’t new.  But one of the things that separates the Apple self checkout from say Stop and Shop or Walmart or other retailers is one thing: you won’t need to take out your wallet.  You will be able to purchase items directly from your phone.

A lot has been written lately about NFC (Near Field Communications) and if you follow this technology talk you know that its not quite ready yet (Neither iOS or Android have native support for this service – yet).  But what if you didn’t even need that.  What if the device that “scans” an item – also purchased it – automatically?  It’s actually enjoyable scanning your own items especially when you have little ones doing it for you.  I think that Apple is a creative company that continues to help push change into our lives.  Excited about the future.

The more that I think about that post about the Google employee who “outed” Google as a company that doesn’t focus on the Platform the more disappointed I get.  If this is true, then Google is doomed.  Changing fundamental issues in a small company is difficult and is rarely successful.  Doing the same in a large company with levels of bureaucracy is down right impossible.

I was actually quite surprised that Google+ Messenger didn’t have an API.  Everything has an API. Especially, when it comes to all of the devices out there.  This means that development of the Android, iOS and Web version (Oh wait – there is no web version of Messenger) were done from the ground up – twice!  This seems ridiculous.  Isn’t the web all about the API.  I mean for me, I would look at services and API’s as the beginning part of development.  The foundation.

The more I think about it the more it gets me frustrated.  I think mentally, I have invested a lot of thought into what Google has done (and is doing) and overall I like it.  But how can I invest my energies in a company that has clearly ignored a key concept in web development today?

Build the API’s, use them in your own applications and then make them available publicly – right?

I am an avid Internet content consumptionist (I may have just coined that term).  I have no cable or satellite service, only Internet (which is through Comcast).  I have been “borrowing” my friends HBO Go service (something that I would actually pay for separately if there was an option).  During my usage of this service I have watched HBO Go on my TV (through a dedicated computer), laptop, iPad and iPhone. Kudos for the iPad and iPhone apps – the following criticism for their Web based offering (and actually some feedback for apps too).

The next time I log into HBO Go I want to see a pop-up message across the screen that says welcome back Dave (remember that I am borrowing this service).  We notice that you are currently watching The Wire.  We hope that you are enjoying the series.  It appears that there is 22 seconds remaining on Episode 8: “Lessons”, would you like to continue watching that episode or start Episode 9: “Game Day”?  There would obviously be appropriate (accessible) links available to help me make my choice as well as a “No thank you, bring me to the home page of HBO Go” link prominently positioned somewhere on the screen along with a checkbox that reads “Please do not show this screen again”.

Cue Netflix.  I know that Netflix has none of these features either and I can’t quite understand why.  We are in the time of Engagement, I know this because I used to work in the CMS – Content Management System space which has been recently renamed Engagement Management System.  The one thing that separates HBO Go and Netflix and other online services from its sad predecessor (DVD Rental and Network Television) is that with the Web (and apps) I am known.  Lots about me is known and trackable.  What shows I watch (Netflix’s recommendation engine will soon become a device I will use on other sites), how often I watch – what show I am watching RIGHT NOW (that’s a figure of speech since I am clearly writing and not watching RIGHT NOW).  Information that network television (includes cable and satellite) could only guess at.  However, neither of these two giants (include Hulu and Amazon in this mix too) get it.  There is a medium available to enhance my viewing pleasure.  Use it.

So here are the things that HBO Go needs to do to make me a more engaged customer

1. Change the font for all of their content so that is scalable (truly scalable – like 46″+ HDTV scalable)
2. Add an option to “Watch a Show” – which would include the ability to track which episodes I watched and which I haven’t
3. Provide a “Watch Next Episode” button at the end of show (Netflix +1 for already offering this)
4. When I move from one device to the next – track me – please.  Bring me right where I left off previously
5. Build larger images for your movies and shows with a larger “mouseover” that doesn’t require me to get out of my chair to read (Netflix +0.5 you are ok at this but your recent changes to movie “scrolling” sucks)
6. Make some freaking recommendations already

I am excited about where this new streaming medium will take us but it has a long way to go.  Hey HBO – you hiring – I think you need me.

I for one am very excited about the upcoming split of Netflix and Qwikster however, I don’t think this will make Netflix better (for me at least).  As a note, I don’t rent DVD so in the future I will remain a Netflix customer (paying the exact same price I have now been paying for over 24 months).

If you rent DVD’s AND stream online (I doubt many of you do since the recent price changes) then you will be annoyed – completely annoyed (more than you were when the price changed) but you know what – I don’t care.  DVD movie rental will die.  Maybe not tomorrow, or next week or even in 5 years, but it WILL happen.  Streaming (one copy) will happen.

Netflix MUST do the following in order to succeed (as in they will not be here in 5 years):
1.) Get more streaming content – its pretty obvious that the future of Netflix (the company that the original CEO Reed Hastings will be managing closely) is streaming.  And it is pretty obvious that the biggest complaint that streaming subscribers has is the lack of content.
[I could seriously stop here because this is the biggest issue that Netflix has.  Bottom line - the Netflix technology is heads above the rest]

2.) Fix their PR/Customer Service image – sometimes perception is everything (checked the stock prices for Netflix lately).  The blog post by Reed definitely goes a long way, it seemed more like a press release about the separation of DVD from streaming then a public apology.  I have to imagine those who were upset by the raise in prices aren’t going to be excited about this press release and will not see the apology anywhere in there.

3.) Offer live sports – the heart of Netflix is just as much about the technology as it is about big time relationships with content providers (Netflix is more awesome in technology right now – see MUST 1 from above).  With ESPN revamping (and rebranding) its ESPN3.com site last week its obvious that streaming sports content is on its way (hell, streaming everything is on its way).  Don’t underestimate the changes to the landscape of television coming in the next 5-10 years (think Internet content rivaling the cable and dish providers).  From a technical perspective this is actually more difficult as encoding live content is a lot different then serving up recorded content.

4.) Think about a TV specific interface – I would bet that connecting a computer to your 46″+ television is probably the least popular streaming device. However, I have to imagine that with more “TV Ready” devices, large screen usability will become a focus.  The current UI isn’t horrible (and has fluctuated from worse to better recently) but its not great.  If another service came up with similar content available, similar price and a better interface – I would switch – instantly.

Bottom line, streaming is here and Netflix (currently) is the best.  Hands-down.

I woke up this morning and for some reason it occurred to me that it was Friday the 13th.  As I lay in bed waiting for my eldest son to roll in as he so often does, I thought, what an interesting way to end it…

Today, is my last day at PaperThin, Inc.  The company that I have called home for the past 9 years will be moving on without me on Monday.  It has been the most amazing 9 years.  I have had my life’s highest high’s and lowest low’s working at PaperThin.  I have met so many amazing people and made some life long friends here.  I fell completely blessed at the opportunity that I have been given here and I personally would like to thank Todd and Barbara Peters for believing in me.

I started out as a developer here at PaperThin and have had the following roles attached to my belt along the way.

• Support Engineer
• Sales Engineer
• Development Manager
• Product Strategist
• Director of Professional Services

None of those titles really meant a thing to me.  I had one goal here and one goal only:

Show everyone and anyone how awesome the CommonSpot Content Management System is.

I did that in many different ways.  I taught classes, trained employees, wrote applications, delivered conference and company presentations, coached consultants and talked A LOT!

After all is said and done, I am quite proud of the work that I did here and more proud of the people that will continue on without me.  PaperThin is at an amazing inflection point now.  With the advent of CommonSpot Cloud I feel strongly that PaperThin and CommonSpot are poised to reach places that they weren’t able to in the past.

The drive and determination of the team here is unfounded.  It rivals organizations that are 5-10 times its size (and that is absolutely no exaggeration). I have been so happy working here with these people and they will truly all be missed.

Thank you PaperThin.

P.S. as the day wore on, I realized today wasn’t Friday the 13th which is actually a better way to end things here.

I have to start off that I was “prompted” to write this post because a friend of mine posted this article on Facebook with the message “and I quote”:

“A refreshing bit of common sense about cloud computing from Jim Turley”

I will admit the term “Cloud Computing” is unfortunately as ubiquitous today as the term i[Anything] – and that sucks.  And in the article by Jim, it appears that he is actually using the term “Cloud Computing” as a synonym for “Software as a Service”.  Unfortunately, for him those two terms are not interchangeable so maybe I am here because of semantics but I do have a new found opinion here and maybe Jim has just watched too many Microsoft commercials.

I used to hate the term “Cloud”.  The word actually became more distasteful to me than Web 2.0 (and faster).  It seemed that we were using the word Cloud for anything and everything.  Along the way intelligent people lost their desire to truly address the revolution that is Cloud Computing which Wikipedia defines simply as:

“…using multiple server computers via a digital network, as though they were one computer”

Its in this definition that I believe that the true value of Cloud computers comes to light – “using multiple server computers”.  In most cases, we aren’t talking 2 or 3 servers here.  The value of Cloud computing comes when we start to talk about 100′s or even 1000′s servers.  And I believe that there are 4 inherent values that comes with managing servers in the Cloud:

1. You pay for what you use (this one is huge and becomes the basis for some of the other values)
2. Auto-scaling (in a different way than is possible in traditional networked servers)
3. Programmatic access to servers (basing this off of my current experience with Amazons servers – but this is largely becoming a part of the offering from other hosting provides like Rackspace and HostMySite – which both have Cloud offerings)
4. Open access to many pre-configured instances

You pay for what you use
Not sure the message here can come out loud and clear enough but its rather simple.  Picture an application used internally by many employees in your organization.  Maybe an HR application or the like.  Imagine that your organization keeps rational hours (even 8AM to 8PM provides a good example).  When the clock strikes “quitting time” everyone leaves.  Except for those lonely servers sitting in the server room.  The one with the redundant network connection, cooling system, power backup etc…  It stays, turned on and ready to go.  Except no one is using.  Wasted.

Placing that application in the cloud would allow you to turn off the instance when not in use.  If we use the 8-8 M-F usage time frame you would essentially be renting that server for 240 hours a month – instead of the 740+ hours in a given month it remains on in your network.  The economies of scale here are something that we haven’t seen since the days of mainframes (google that if you aren’t sure what those ares)

Auto-scaling
Now take an application that fluctuates in usage.  A good example of this would be at College or University (registering for classes) – however now ideas spikes in web traffic can be caused by almost anything.  Most web infrastructures are based on current capacity.  Rarely are they set up to handle double or triple the load.  In most cases organizations are ill equipped to handle increases in traffic related to national press coverage (like a visit from the president or other dignitaries)

One of the features available with the services provided by Amazon (and probably others) is the ability to automatically spin up copies of an instance automatically, based on thresholds on CPU, disk I/O, network traffic etc…  And since you pay for only what you use its like a “free” insurance policy.

API’s
Its truly amazing how scriptable the servers are at Amazon.  Everything that you can do with the UI in the Amazon Management Console (create an instance, copy a volume, save an instance to an AMI, launch more instances from an AMI) are all built on a public API that you can use to control all of the servers in your account.  I believe that this is the truly revolutionary factor which has brought me to this article (and Jim to his).

Preconfigured instances
Need a machine running PHP and MySQL? WordPress 3.2? How about an instance running the Apache Traffic Server? ColdFusion, Weblogic, Ubuntu 10.4?? Its all there.  Again, if you haven’t managed servers before or been asked to setup something specific for a newly acquired application then this may not be a good enough reason for you.  But these openly available instances also make it easy to upgrade from one OS to another (I am currently moving files from a Windows instance to a standardized Linux instance – the whole process will take me less than 20 minutes, the customer won’t know the difference and it will cost my organization $0.22 – if I can finish this blog post else it may be double that.

Apps not Computing
So, back to Jim’s post (and my friend).  I agree.  A lot of applications that are “written for the cloud” are everything you said: slow, cumbersome, redundant etc… However, I use Salesforce every day and we have paid for this service since I started over 9 years ago.  Its move to the Cloud has no doubt saved them tons of money and time.  The application is fast, reliable and is updated with new features quarterly.  It is in my mind the model all Software as a Service vendors should shoot for.  Cloud computing is rather new.  It will take time.  Its not going away.  So dust off your Members Only jackets and join the club.  There is room for everyone in the cloud.

I told a friend today that if TweetDeck were to be bought by Twitter and subsequently killed (http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/18/five-reasons-why-twitter-will-kill-tweetdeck/) that it would symbolize the end of my use of Twitter.  I would like to redact that statement (if I may).

I am not a huge fan of the twitter.com interface. I welcome the improvements made in the #newtwitter interface (which surprisingly just went “live” last week) however they usability of twitter.com (at least for the way I use Twitter) is very poor.  I have sung the praises of TweetDeck for many months (or years not quite sure how long its been) and I was very disappointed when I downloaded the iPad app.  So much so that I hardly use Twitter to view status updates on my iPad (read never).

Then I got to thinking about a few things.  One was why do I even use Twitter.  The days of using Twitter to keep up with how many times (or what) a person eats a day have long been gone for me.  Using Twitter to talk about how your day is going and you won’t make it into any of my TweetDeck columns.  Currently I have 6 valuable TweetDeck columns:

1.) Friends – the only column that I care about when it comes to how your day is going or what you are doing.
2.) Mentions – if you aren’t tracking tweets that mention you (and getting depressed when 12 days go by without a mention – and conversely psyched when you get 2 in one day) then why are you on Twitter? Twitters about cool man.
3.) CommonSpot – mention the word “CommonSpot” in any of your tweets and I will find you
4.) Using-CommonSpot – I have compiled a list of 95 people (and counting) that use CommonSpot and are on Twitter
5.) Social Media Experts – when I first got into Social Media these people were the ballz (most still are). Most of them have a Follower to Following ratio of thousands to 1. Red carpet SXSW ballz.
6.) DM’s – gotta make sure you don’t miss out on the private messages from your followers – like Mentions this is all about conversations

I also have an “All Friends” which is basically all of the people that I follow but rarely do I even look at this column.  And today this is Twitter to me.  Its how I make sense of the mess and what helps me keep on top of the world.

Facebook vs. Twitter

I don’t want to spend too much time on the Facebook vs. Twitter topic here but I think there is a small value in understanding how I separate the two.  Its kind of simple and it became clear to me early on why I needed the two.  Facebook is about me.  Me as a person.  Who I am, my thoughts, actions and experiences outside of work.  I try not to talk to much about work on Facebook.  I tried once but I got a lot of feedback about “speaking greek” and “what the hell are you talking about”.
It was clear from me at an early stage that the two brought different meaning to me and I follow some people on Twitter and Facebook and I believe most of those people share the same sentiment I do.  Twitter is for learning, sharing knowledge, starting ideas and keeping up with technology (work in my case).  Its not about my checkin at the movie theater with the boys.

Social Reading

I purchased an iPad so that I could “force” myself to read more.  In school, reading was the last thing I ever wanted to do.  My reading comprehension was horrible and I would often have to re-read a page 2-3 times to make sure I knew what characters were interacting and who was saying what.  Not fun. While I don’t read as much as I would like my reading has certainly increased (which I think is a direct correlation to my writing improving – which is my ultimate goal here).
So back to my statement – “If Twitter buys TweetDeck it will symbolize the demise of Twitter for me”.  TweetDeck IS Twitter for me.  Without TweetDeck I wouldn’t read half the tweets I do today.  Twitter is freaking firehose and without TweetDeck its useless.  AND I only follow 261 people.  I see some people that follow 3K people and I am like – really? How?   Well if you read the following excerpt from the Twitter Platform’s Inflection Point message posted by Twitter and you think about the fact that a company called “Flipbook” (sounds like a comic strip maker) just received $50M in funding and is valued at $200M you start to see why I will probably still “use” Twitter:

I think there are a number of non-obvious places, like desktop publishing was on the Mac, where something entirely new will be built on top of Twitter.

What that statements means to me (combined with the advent of Flipbook) is that Twitter is ready for the next phase (if it can handle it).  We all use Twitter for different reasons but one thing is for sure we all use it share links.  If it wasn’t for Twitter and the shortened text framework we would have never seen the rise in popularity of sites like bit.ly, tinyurl.com and goo.gl.  It was so easy for people to share a link with many people at one time.  It became so common that one of the requirements of the Twitter client was that it not only had to automatically shorten the link you pasted it had to offer multiple site options to do it with.  To put it into perspective, all major social media publishers and service providers all have their own URL shortners: 4sq.com, on.mash.to, rrw.to, youtu.be, meetu.ps – its crazy.

What I believe Twitter is saying is that we need to think beyond the Twitter clients that produce traditional interfaces to view tweets and links.  We need to start to go one layer up where Twitter is the driving force behind a product but you may not know it.

Enter: Flipboard

There are many products like Flipboard but there is only one Flipboard.  I was told that once I used Flipboard my view of how we will use social media services like Twitter would change.  He (@brosnaro) was correct.

I believe that social reading will begin to take form when the tablet reaches critical mass (possible cellphone style critical mass).  For me, the tablet presents the best method to read.  Although in their 2nd coming, I feel they are still an infantile tool with many subpar applications.  I also believe that it is this subpar status which makes companies like Flipboard so tantilizing.  Unfortunately, IMHO the only real value Flipboard brought to the to table of social reading are the posibilities and some of the features that I would like to see (and I think we need to see are not quite there).  However, I don’t want to turn this into a discussion about the app but more a discussion about what is changing.

There is a LOT of content on the web

Where I think products like Flipboard will help us is discovery of new content.  Here are the facts:

1.) I will never be an expert on more than a dozen or so topics.
2.) It is very difficult for me to find trusted sources for information on the web (Especially, if I am trying to find information about a particular topic outside of my knowledge comfort zone)
3.) I know a lot of people that are experts in fields that I am not an expert in
4.) We can only become more knowledgeable if we read and sculpt our thoughts through conversation

Take these basic four facts and apply them to Twitter.  Hopefully, the people that I know which I deem to be experts in their respective fields are connected with other people within their field (or at least follow other respected individuals within their field). Additionally, you have to hope that those people who use a tool like Twitter have discovered that its impossible to drink from the fire hose and have devised plans like I have to trim down the info into logical buckets (read: Twitter lists). In summary, if I think a person is an expert in a field than wouldn’t the Twitter lists they create in the proposed field be that much more valuable to me as real source for information?

Question: If I think my dad is smart and he reads the Wall Street Journal wouldn’t I then too have an opportunity to be smart (or at least hold an intelligent conversation with him) if I read from the same sources as he did?

The obvious answer here is: Yes!

So now plug in Fliboard.  One of the best features of this product is to be able to take a Twitter List and “subscribe” to it.  The revolutionary aspect of Fliboard is in how it presents the information.  It presents the information in the form of a magazine.  With article headings, by lines, dates and a simple means to “read more” without leaving the app.  In fact, I think that some of the social features of the application are lacking and could add even more value to the product.  For instance, it isn’t as easy as you would think to “subscribe” to one of my followers’ list.  Or to see the Flipboard sections for someone that I follow.  Heck, you can’t even “connect” with another Flipboard user so I don’t even know how many of my “friends” use it.

Google has been rumored to be building a “Flipboard Killer“.  I know that some of the ventures undertaken by Google fail but their reach is big and the fact that their entry into the tablet market is a full year behind (maybe more) the iPad it points to a key fact: social reading will be a large part of our future and sites like Twitter will be engine underneath these apps (and most people may not even know it).

I never owned a computer growing up. Unless you count the Apple IIe that my friend Ryon had at his house or the few that were in the computer lab when I was in 5th and 6th grade. I don’t count those because I didn’t have enough access to them to really make it count. So, I wasn’t totally enamored with computers – they always seemed like something that other people had.

It wasn’t until college that I truly realized that computers were a fantastic tool to do amazing things (read: chat with my college girlfriend – which didn’t really save me any money on phone bills). I also didn’t know much about the difference between PC’s and Macs. Our computer labs at URI were all Mac labs. You just used them and didn’t think twice about why. Good thing too, because it was my “knowledge” of the Mac computers that got me my first job.

Fast forward to now. I am less than one year into the “switch”. The “switch” that I had talked to many people about for many years. Many pro and anti Mac people. In the last 10 months I have actually had 3 different macbook pros in my possesion. My first (15″ macbook pro) was stolen (or lost or whatever) while I was in DC. My second one (the one I am actually using now) is a 13″ (learned a bit from the time I spent with the larger one). The third one well … here’s what happened:

Last Sunday my son spilled a glass of water on the table. The same table that my Mac had been sitting on. He actually didn’t spill the water directly on the Mac. However, the slot in the back of the Mac must have taken some of the splash action of the spill because my computer wouldn’t work. It would start up (after drying it all day and night) and the screen would work but the keyboard wouldn’t and the touchpad was well “touchy”. So, I brought it to the Apple store. They said it needed to go back to the mothership for repairs but that if it wasn’t totally destroyed (and based on the fact that it booted and the screen worked it probably wasn’t) that they would cover it – free of charge. Not bad since the estimated cost to fix this sort of thing was $755.

That was great except, that I was leaving on Tuesday AM for a training that I had to conduct in DC and I hadn’t finished the training material (they were half done on my defunct computer which needed to be sent in for repair). I asked the technician at the Genius Bar what the options were, he told me how I could connect another Mac to be defunct Mac and essentially restore the new Mac from my old one. Programs, settings, data – everything!

I couldn’t be without a computer so I went to BestBuy and bought a new Mac (which had been upgraded from the Core Duo to the i5) and I connected it to my water logged baby. Within 57 minutes (seemed more like an hour and a half) I was up and running. Same username/password, same desktop settings, same dock, same programs, data – EVERYTHING! The same. Amazing. I had to re-enter some serial numbers for software but it was the same computer. Did I say Amazing.

For those of you that have ever bought a new iPhone (like upgrading from the 3G or 3GS to the 4) and had to load your old iPhone settings – synching a Mac from a current running Mac is even easier. The word Amazing comes to mind.

Now maybe Apple knew that I was tweeting about my switch, and maybe somewhere inside their organization they have some crazy formula that states I have a 1 and 49 chance of writing a blog post or telling “n” number of people about my experience with their products (I have told n x n to nth degree). Maybe they thought that if I had a great “first” experience with my Mac that I would stay with them longer. Maybe they thought that if they didn’t I may cut my loses and go to a cheaper Windows based laptop instead. Chalking it up to not being “right” or “chosen” to run an Apple PC. Or maybe all of them.

Scott Stratten (@unmarketing) will tell you that companies should invest more money in existing (loyal and potentially loyal) customers. Instead, of wasting money on advertisements or gimmicks to bring on new customers. I think that Apple is smart enough to see that. Hence this blog post and hence (but hopefully not) a label of fan boy.

Thanks Apple, your company, software and hardware are better than the rest.

Oh, and I say reason 134.5 because there were a few odd things like having to reconfigure Apache and MySQL but since most of you don’t run that kind of stuff on your computer I figured it was only worth a half of a point.