The New Bloggers Dilemma (NBD)

In the fast paced world of blogging, just like nascar you build a following and hold on to them. If you don't you fall to the wayside and wither away. There are a lot of people who claim you should not promote your own website or submit your own stories to digg. The majority of those people have fallen to the wayside and are withering away. Promote your website, it is not SPAM, it is something you have worked hard to produce. Let quality determine if you succeed.
The new bloggers dilemma (NBD) is a catch 22. Those without exposure will not have a user base. However to get exposure you need a user base. You also need to provide quality content to retain a following. Again you need a following to ensure your content is quality. The last statement is a bit counterintuitive, so I will restate it. Having a consistent user base will offer contructive critisim on those thing which are good and bad, which will help create high quality posting and insights. This does not mean let everyone else hijack your site and opinions. It does however, allow you to gear your grammar, layout, and topics to those who use your site regularly. This in turn allows them to point others with the same interest to your site, which expands your user base.
The second NBD is what do you talk about. Talk about everything and anything, screw niche blogs. If you find one you love, great, one thats not over run with established persons, even better. But as a whole people have many interests and many subjects they know something about, talk about them. There is alot of expertise languishing in the minds of people who only write about one topic. IT WANTS TO BE FREE, so let it go!

2.0? Whats next?

The internet has had a birthday! Apparently the web turned 2.0 at some point in time and everyone decided it was time to party. So, interactive web pages, fully customizable profiles, and more ways to stay connected than you can keep track of, are now running rampant. Its all about the user experience and user generated content. Wait a minute! You mean to tell me that 2.0 is the greatest thing since well the internet? No, this can't be right. I have a theory.... Bare with me for a moment.
During the early days of the internet, the whole motif was information quickly. The problem was the user had no way of interacting with the expert. It was a single sided conversation, a lecture if you will. The exception being in newsgroups. And to be quite frank most websites then looked like crap, no curb appeal.
Then the internet hit its teenage years where everyone became an expert. More people had ways of sharing their own expertise. The problem was still in the interaction, It was limited. People could have real conversations through Irc, chat, and Instant messaging. The problem there was SPAM. Web design took a good look at itself and began to improve. The big problem was Everyone being an expert always said they could do it better.
So, now we have v2.0!!! Where do I start...

MySpace, FaceBook, and a slew of others. You said " I can design a better site than that." v2.0 says "You said you can design a better site, prove it."

Twitter, pownce, and a whole host of others. You said "Chat rooms have too much spam and bots." v2.0 said "I will block everyone to start, you unblock whoever you want." follow= unblock :)

Finally you said no interaction. v2.0 said "You asked for it!" Blogs, comments, twitter, qik, forums, wiki's, texting, expo's, and a vast array of way to get in contact or talk to whoever you want , wherever you want, how ever you want.

To be honest I know what the next step is in web evolution. its not 3 its 2.1.
2.1 differs from 2.0 in the how information is presented. v2.0 says you can create whatever you want and make it look how you want, but you have no control over how everything else is presented to you.
v2.1 changes that. User created content ,such as blogs, are transformed into simple text, link, and picture formats. The format and templates are defined by the end user not the creator.
This is the next natural solution, the information is then passed on more efficiently. As the end user I don't have to worry about your color choices or layout or template. I define them so information exchange is improved. If I don't like the choices then I can change them.

Twitter. What?

Twitter is a microblogging utility that lets you share little bits of information about whatever you want. Period.

I have been using it for a few months now and I have found it to be one of the easiest ways to keep informed and to de-stress. Twitter doesn't want a lengthy blog post or even something that has been researched and proofread. It wants to know one thing "What are you doing?" at least that is how it started. Now you can have conversations, polls, links, and opinions on virtually any topic that interests you. So you like underwater kniting of three toed socks, big deal someone will probably be interested in what you are doing. Or you might see someone who posts about the inner workings of lawn gnomes. Its all about you. It doesn't matter what when who or how, as long as its shorter than 140 characters.

Why 140? Too be honest I have no clue but it helps get to the meat real quick, no extranious words or flowery sentence structures. Its more of a get to the point quickly application. Twitter also lets you peruse alot at one time without getting too involved. For example say I like robots, linux, gardening, stocks, and music. Now where would I go to find out about all these things in one place? Twitter, I just choose to follow people who like gardening and some who like robots and some who like the same kind of music. Then anything they come across in any of those fields they share and I get to see what they do. I also get to know them a little better and they feel more like a person to me not just a website that wants to make money.
In effect I get to read about others who have the same interests I do, learn about different parts of the world, learn about people whom I have never met (and maybe become friends), read about things that interest me (from places that I may have never looked), get introduced to related topics and unrelated that I might possibly enjoy, all in 140 characters or less which takes about 10 seconds to write.

Yahoo! I'm scared

In light of the whole merger/takeover that Microsoft has initiated towards Yahoo! I have become a little wary. Whilst I do not have any bad feelings towards Microsoft, I feel that after so long as the industry leader they have become a bit lacksidasical. Yahoo! whle once a superior service has slowly declined in into medeocraty. Hopefully this fight between the great behemoths will get the ball moving a little faster on both sides. However, after many years of using Yahoo! mail as my primary mail account, I have switched to Gmail. I found this to be prudent for two reasons, one Gmail is a little more flexible. Two, Google while being elitist and a bit arrogant, provides an excellent service and still has the drive to continue innovating. I still use Yahoo! don't get me wrong, I also still use Microsoft products. But as for being the one that I rely on I am thinking that both will be in for some net shattering shakedowns, that will cause more harm than good in the begining. I can't predict the future and it could all work out well in the end. I still feel that after this knock down drag out fight the greatest winner will be Google.

My view on politics

While following the political race for president of the United States, I have come to a conclusion. This conclusion stems from a few things I have noticed. First is that this race seems to be between Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton. Granted Sen. McCain has all but sealed his fate his party’s nominee. Obama and Clinton seem to be the two the world is watching or at least America. Personally, I don’t really care which garners the nomination; this is kind of like the Olympics for me. I watch but don’t participate.

Why do I choose not to participate? I don’t feel that any candidate has touched on issues that affect me in a substantial way. Don’t get me wrong, health care for the elderly and the nation’s children, are important factors. I agree that education breaks and tax breaks for the middle class are also equally important. However, as a single person who barely classifies as middle class with friends and neighbors who also fall into the same category, I feel that we are an over looked demographic. As a member of this demographic I should note that we have a lot of interest in issues that are being debated and voted on that is marketed to married couples or those with children. As a whole we help drive the market in areas that others shy away from or have to skip due to budget constraints; areas that deal in entertainment, fashion, and consumer goods. This is not to say that as a group, single persons do not have money concerns, the opposite is true in fact. A single person will use more or the same gas, time, and money then their married counterparts. The reason for this is they are responsible for all aspects of their life. However, a single person will also spend money that will help drive our economy where as a married couple will try to save more for the future. They also don’t have someone who can take part of the responsibility. Most married couples, on the other hand, delegate responsibility, i.e. you take out the trash and I will wash the dishes.

With one swath of the generalization sword I can say most candidates have to reach the broadest category of voters, and married and elderly fit that bill to a tee, the single under thirty votes could be a source of untapped potential. Granted we are not consistent voters and there is no real way to gauge which way we will vote, it could very well go badly for any person who decides to bring in this demographic. I still say we are Americans and we are just as important as the middle class, the elderly, the poor, and the affluent.