Insider Chatter by Donna Bogatin

Hey! Did I convince Fred Wilson to drive his portfolio company Twitter to work to BE the next Google, rather than merely the next Google flip on the cheap?

After all, despite conventional blogosphere wisdom, a Google buy out of Jaiku does NOT directly translate to a Twitter loss in the great “success” by Google acquisition game.

Guys, maybe, just maybe, Twitter is NOT FOR SALE!

I underscored over the weekend that too many hacker entrepreneurs sell themselves short by aiming to only sell themselves to Google, rather than striving to be the next Google: Y Combinator’s Zenter hacker team big case in low expectations point.

Nevertheless, most likely, Union Square Ventures IS indeed, deep down, twittering some unhappy tweets for the Googley canary that got away, this time.

READ MORE: Hey Paul and Fred: Hackers, NOT Startups, Are the Commodity and Y Combinator to Hackers: Dream SMALL and Code for Google on the Cheap,

ALSO: Techmeme vs. Facebook: Scoble Wants Quality Over Quantity? and Is a Facebook vs. LinkedIn Showdown Near?

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

Facebook may want to keep Robert Scoble down at a mere 5000 “friends, fans and enemies,” but Twitter to the Scobleizer rescue: 5,900 Twitterers in tow, AND COUNTING!

YES, now that the Scobleizer has reached his Facebook limit, he is looking to Twitter to pick up the slack:

Why don’t YOU JOIN? I automatically follow anyone following me know.

Scoble handily provided the Web a video for how to become his “friend” on Facebook. With no more open Facebook slots, he is now leaning on the apparently more friendly Twitter. Nevertheless, while Scoble’s appetite for Web 2.0 “friending” is bottomless, the hours in a day are indeed finite!

Scoble claims each and every Twitterer he “watches” is worthy of his “A List.” Between his 5,900 Tweeting buddies at Twitter and his 5000 poking pals at Facebook, though, HOW MUCH QUALITY TIME CAN THE SCOBLEIZER ACTUALLY BE ACCORDING HIS 10,900 “FRIENDS,” and counting?

Even at an unrealizable 12 waking hours of non-stop Twitter and/or Facebook time, Scoble’s 10,900 “A List” friends would only be accorded FOUR SECONDS EACH (duplicates get 4 seconds bonus Scobleizer time!)

Is that any way to treat 10,900 personal “A-Listers”!

PS: I AM THE PROUD AUTHOR OF A “REAL BLOG,” HERE AT INSIDER CHATTER!

ALSO: TechMeme Algorithm: The New PageRank? and YAY! InsiderChatter.com on WebbAlert: NO Google Barbarians at Microsoft Gate

PLUS: Hey, Henry: Doesn’t CNET Have a Blog Network, aka ZDNet?

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

The summer of Facebook love yields to falling for Twitter, big time!

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways”? in Scobleizer’s one of a kind way:

The 10 rules of Twitter, and I how I break every one.

In a Scobleizer nutshell: Tweet often, at length, for many…and “screw” any other Twitterer that doesn’t like it.

Robert Scoble is also emulating his Facebook personal media mass distribution network strategy on Twitter:

Don’t put things into Twitter that aren’t designed for Twitter like photos, audio, etc. Me? I use TwitterGram and am playing with Flickr embeds too. Why not push it around?

Scoble wants even more Twittering:

Are there other rules I don’t know about? I’s like to break those, too.

BUT, what happens if/when Twitter itself breaks. After all, the fledgling startup–even while recently reinforced by some Union Square Ventures money–is famously prone to periods of “downtime.” TechCrunch characterized a lengthy Twitter disconnect earlier in the month as just a “regular outage with sugar coating.”

The precarious nature of the free-for-all and free to users “service” is apparently of little concern to Scoble, even as he seeks to do rely more and more on Twitter.

But what about fellow Twitter evangelist, Dave Winer, who has declared the nascent, Web 2.0 blogger fave no longer an experiment, for him.

For Winer, Twitter is a “mission critical” part of his “communication suite.”

Is it really prudent, though, for any professional or business to abdicate control over “misssion critical” operations to a new, unproven, consumer facing, free Web 2.0 tool that is offered on an “as is” basis to be used “at your own risk.”

The Twitter non-performance “guarantee”:

We reserve the right to modify or terminate the Twitter.com service for any reason, without notice at any time.

Twitter is NOT very “mission-critical” friendly.

ALSO:  Reid Hoffman On How LinkedIn Beats Facebook for Business, EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW and Jeff Pulver Grows Old on Facebook: Many Happy (non Business) Returns

PLUS: FeedBurner VC Smart Money on the Cheap: $4 CPM 

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

The music industry is gearing up for the mainstream holiday selling season. Twitter is hoping for a little mainstream music fan love as well. 

Brad Stone sprinted over to Las Vegas for the weekend because, as he announced at Twitter’s blog, ”MTV has introduced a bunch of artists to Twitter and they’re going to integrate the celebrity status updates into this weekend’s on-air programming” of the Video Music Award show.

I got into the pre-VMA Twitter following action, and did my best to bring tech celebrity Twitterers–Dave Winer, notably–along for the MTV ride as well. My weekend pre VMA shoutout: MTV Twitter Power: Tweet Some VMA Love, Twitterers.

I underscored: It is time to REALLY give back to your beloved Twitter. Twitter Grams was a fine contribution, but Brad Stone and team could really use your support now, when Twitter is looking for a little mass media Twitter action. After all, Dave, do you think Twitter can survive on purely geek love alone?

I eagerly tuned in last night to the big MTV show for the Twitter “on-air programing” integration teased by Stone, but from 9pm to 11:15pm–live show and commercials–I did not catch any live Twittering on-air and did not hear any mention of Twitter.

What gives? The official press release announcing “2007 MTV VMA ushers in unprecedented viewer access and interactivity” pushed many online initiatives:

From VMA.MTV.com to MTV Mobile on Sprint TV to the Virtual VMAs to MTV On Demand, MTV is setting a number of important firsts: the first viewer-inspired remix; the first mobile simulcast of the VMAs; the first awards show ever recreated virtually, and the first nearly instantaneous VOD updates.

Twitter got a (small) mention:

MTV’s famed Moonman - will be Twitter-ing (sending text messages) so viewers can follow them throughout the weekend and during the show - and Twitter back.(2) Viewers simply text “Follow VMA” to 40404 to stay connected to the VMA performers and nominees.

No on-air Twitter promo though. MTV VMA on-air promo prorities were:

1) Viewer voting for “Best New Artist” by texting “VMA” to 23882 and

2) “Viewer’s Choice” remix voting for favorite show elements at VMA.MTV.com.

Poor Twitter? If Twitter wants to play in the big leagues, it needs to play like the big boys.

The “official sponsors” of the 2007 MTV VMA were: Chevy, Herbal Essences, Neutrogena, Pepsi, Smash, Rhapsody, Sprint and Taco Bell; NOT Twitter.

The recent Twitter funding round undoubtedly is not targeting big-ticket corporate sponsorships.

Nevertheless, Twitter could have reached out more to their Twitterers pre-show for some Twitter props, as I did!

Moreover, the Twitter MTV VMA feed itself was uninspiring. MTV Moonman Twittering? Since when can an unreal, inanimate corporate icon spur real interaction with real people? Don’t expect Winer and company to fall for those Tweets!

The big bad Twitter crossover dream problem: Losing Twitter early adopter tech-cred cool.

Twitter is already having a tough go of getting the cool underage hipsters on board, as I noted over the weekend, citing Ken Rodoff’s “A moment of ‘twitter-shock’:

Asked students at my high school if they had heard of twitter. Nope.

Has MTV Moonman really “heard of” Twitter?

ALSO READ: Twitter: Lifelogging Platform or Self Promotional Tool? and Apple iPhone Million Member Pushover Club

PLUS: Blodget & Ryan: Cool, or Suck? WHAT Silicon Valley ‘Insider’!

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

Why DO individuals seek to announce to the world their “states and life histories” in excruciatingly, self-absorbed detail?

Jamais Cascio presents to the Singularity Summitt and fittingly posts his remarks to the open Web.

The thought provoking treatise on “metaverse singularity” addresses “lifelogging.”

“What are you doing”? is the user-facing, philosophical underpinnings of the Twitter technology.

Cascio on the implications of systems that “record and report the states and life histories of objects and users” which he indicates as “enhancing observation, recall, and communication”:

The observation tools of an Augmented Reality world get turned inward, serving as an adjunct memory. Lifelogging systems are less apt to be attuned to the digital comments left at a bar than to the spoken words of the person at the table next to you. These tools would be used to capture both the practical and the ephemeral, like where you left your car in the lot and what it was that made your spouse laugh so much….significant personal implications: what does the world look like when we know that everything we say or do is likely to be recorded?

Moreover, what does personal, direct experience become when observation and archiving of experience is the ultimate end game, rather than the activity itself? In other words, whatever happened to the joy of serendipitously living in the moment?

I enjoyed the once in a lifetime experience of ringing in a new millenium at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City: New Year’s Eve 2000. I partied like it was (no longer) 1999 with my husband with the standard, old school, party accessories–noisemakers and champagne. Our unforgettable new millenium experience, however, was not encumbered by the new standard digital party accessories–cameras, still and video.

I was on the dance floor with my husband for intimate, one-on-one mutual celebration; We were surrounded, however, by couples that were actually threesomes: man, woman and video camera!

The party scene was abstractly surreal, couples were not in reality dancing with each other, they were purposefully moving on the dance floor, literally in their own individual worlds, for the sole purpose of recording supposed spontaneous enjoyment for their future lifelong reviewing pleasure.

Lifelogging extracts a heavy price: While people perceive they are enhancing their experiences by capturing ephemeral moments for a lifetime, they are actually depriving themselves of fully living each important moment.

Twitter? Not a real “stream of consciousness” either.

The Twitter team says it is fueling a “global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: “what are you doing?’ The answers though are self-selected, self-turned, self-edited public sign posts for self-motivated reasons, not actual unfiltered, disinterested snapshots of “what you are doing” in a precise moment of time.

What are celebrity Twitterers Dave Winer, Robert Scoble, Michael Arrington “doing”? Often promoing their latest blog posts.

ALSO: Jaiku Rules: Facebook Addict Kicks the Zuckerberg Habit and Twitter VMA Power or MTV Crossover Dreams?

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

UPDATE: Twitter VMA Power or MTV Crossover Dreams?

Twitter is the newest kid on the tech block hoping to be the next mainstream thing. HOW SO?

What ARE you doing, Dave Winer and Twitter friends! It is time to start your MTV VMA Twittering engines!

Missed out on the hottest ticket in Las Vegas town? No worry, you can live the MTV Video Music Awards magic AND show some reciprocal Twitter love all at the same Twittering time: That time is now!

Countdown to red carpet MTV VMA glory with fellow Twitterer extraordinaire: MTV Moonman!

Come on Dave, it is time to REALLY give back to your beloved Twitter. Twitter Grams was a fine contribution, but Brad Stone and team could really use your support now, when Twitter is looking for a little mass media Twitter action.

After all, Dave, do you think Twitter can survive on purely geek love alone?

You proclaim that “for many people Twitter isn’t an experiment, it’s a mission-critical part of their communication suite.” Well, for that “communication suite” to carry on for you, ITS mission critical is to bring Twitter to the uninitated masses.

YOU CAN HELP IN THAT CRITICAL TWITTER MISSION BY SHOWING A LITTLE MTV VMA TWEET LOVE, DAVE!

Start Twittering, MTV style: twitter.com/vma

Who knows, you might even meet up with the new Twitter money man, Fred Wilson.

Don’t worry though, you will be safe from the high school kiddies. Ken Rodoff:

A moment of ‘twitter-shock’:
Asked students at my high school if they had heard of twitter.
Nope.
Said that they might want to check it out.
Nope.
Asked them why.
Adults use it.
It’s all about the messenger, I guess.

ALSO: Twitter: Lifelogging Platform or Self Promotional Tool? and Twitter VMA Power or MTV Crossover Dreams?

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN