Aug 13

Aug 13 Sometimes a phone is just a phone and a web site is just a web site...

Android, Apple, Mobile Tech, Smartphone, , Twitter, iPhone

I’ve been researching which smartphone to buy after my current Verizon agreement (and its associated dumbphone) expire. I’m not interested in broadcasting my whereabouts to everyone (no Foursquare for me) but I do recognize the value of mobile maps, search, and occasional email on the go.

Aug 10

Aug 10 Twitter's Annoying WtF (Who to Follow) Feature

Dennis D. McDonald

Reputation, , Twitter

I’ve been using Twitter since the beginning. I enjoy it. Right now I’m “following” 885 people and 1,568 are “following me. Mostly it’s people in the DC area, people interested in topics like e-Government and collaboration, social media practitioners, and a smattering of academics and consultants whose specialties or interests overlap in some way with mine.

Jul 27

Jul 27 How Many Dead People Are On Your Online "Friends" Lists?

Dennis D. McDonald

Metrics, Personal Data Ownership, Privacy, , , Statistics, Twitter

Here are some data on U.S. deaths by age group based on deaths per 100,000 of population:

Oct 22
Oct 22 Social Media Engagement Tips: Twitter Alone is Not a Strategy

Dennis D. McDonald

DataPortability, Strategy, Twitter, tips

I admit it — I use Twitter. If I’m at my desk I check in throughout the day (I don’t access it by phone but by browser). Right now I follow 690 and 1,432 follow me, so I’m no “A-lister.”

Aug 28
Aug 28 Twittering for Science Fiction Advice

Dennis D. McDonald

Expertise Management, Twitter

I’ve been reading a lot of history and non-fiction recently. I think I need a change. A good science fiction novel is just what the doctor ordered. But what novel?

Mar 24

Mar 24 Why I Don't Use a Ghost Writer

Dennis D. McDonald

Identity, RSS, Reputation, , Trust, Turing, Twitter

And that’s why I would never use a ghost writer on my personal web site. It’s a public expression of myself and my interests, an online resume, and a personal soapbox, all rolled into one.

Mar 23
Mar 23 More Challenges to Web Based Advertising

Dennis D. McDonald

Advertising, Artificial Intelligence, , , Twitter

Dr. Eric Clemons’ editorial Why Advertising Is Failing On The Internet misses a couple of points.

Feb 27
Feb 27 The Twitter Business Card Survey

Dennis D. McDonald

Card, Surveys, Twitter

Do you use Twitter? Do you have your Twitter ID on your business card? On my own I’ve created a short 4-question survey about this topic that is located here:

Jan 29
Jan 29 My Professional Networking Map is Updated

Dennis D. McDonald

Blogging, Community, Facebook, FriendFeed, Linkedin, Microblogging, MindMeister, Mindmapping, MySpace, , , Twitter, Web 2.0, del.icio.us

This Mindmeister “mindmap” updates my list of professional networking tools that I started here. I’ve made the following changes:

Jan 17
Jan 17 Free Rides Can't Last Forever

Dennis D. McDonald

Advertising, FriendFeed, Monetization, Twitter

The “free ride” we’re getting can’t last forever. Web users can’t expect to get 100% of all content free forever, otherwise certain types of content will eventually dry up. So I think outrage about what Scoble is doing is misplaced.

Jan 12
Jan 12 My Personal Twitter Rules So Far

Dennis D. McDonald

Basics, Lists, Twitter

So far I’ve found Twitter useful for keeping in touch, for getting quick questions answered, and for announcing new blog posts. I check in a couple of times a day if I’m at my computer. Here are my personal Twitter rules so far:

Dec 16
Dec 16 Are You Building Professional Relationships or a Publishing Platform?

Dennis D. McDonald

Basics, Consolidation, Fatigue, Linkedin, Microblogging, , Twitter

Years ago when I first joined Linkedin I started receiving connection requests from people I’d never met before. Some were recruiters, some were fellow IT management consultants, and some were people I would probably never meet in a million years.

Dec 9
Dec 9 Introduction: Blogging and Social Networking Basics for Professionals

Dennis D. McDonald

Basics, Blogging, Facebook, Linkedin, , , Twitter

I’ve been getting an increasing number of requests lately from friends and colleagues to explain or help with inividual blogging and professional networking practices. To help I’ve tagged a few of the entries on this web site with the category tag “basics.”

Nov 24

Nov 24 How Closely do Traditional and Social Media Based Customer Support Services Need to be Coordinated?

Dennis D. McDonald

CRM, Call Center, Contact Center, Customer Care, Customer Communication, Customer Support, Facebook, Mindmapping, , , Twitter

In Five Challenges Government Faces When Adopting Web 2.0 I wrote about the need to consider the cost impact on the organization of hiring additional “community managers” to support the addition of social media and social networking to overall customer support operations:

Oct 11
Oct 11 Recommended: Command Line's Podcast Interview about Microblogging with Evan Prodromou

Dennis D. McDonald

Blogging, Business Models, Community, DataPortability, Microblogging, Open Source, Twitter

Command Line continues a tradition of intelligent, literate, and thoughtful interviews with his October 1, 2008 interview with Evan Prodromou of Control Yourself. The interview provides insight into the related topics of open source software commercialization, and the possible “federated” nature of post-Twitter micro-blogging.

Jul 12
Jul 12 "Twitter" on the Factory Floor?

Dennis D. McDonald

Collaboration, Innovation, Manufacturing, Process, Twitter, YouTube

In Finally! Relevant Applications for YouTube and Twitter in the Enterprise! Jim MacLennan suggests some interesting ideas about using Twitter and YouTube in the context of an industrial manufacturing operation.

May 19

May 19 What Comes After Web Sites and Online Social Networks?

Dennis D. McDonald

Blogging, DataPortability, Facebook, Google, Identity, Internet, OpenSocial, Personal Data Ownership, Semantic Web, , , Standards, Tagging, Twitter, Web 2.0

Today we use the web in many ways. Traditional web sites — “places we go” on the web to do things — still exist. But increasingly, web based transactions also depend on the nature of our online relationships with other people.

May 1
May 1 One Thing I Don't Like About Twitter

Dennis D. McDonald

Conferences, Curmudgeon, Twitter

I’ve already written positively about my use of Twitter. Here I write about a pet peeve: the popular practice of reporting on conference sessions via Twitter.

Apr 29

Apr 29 What Happens When 20-Somethings Settle Down?

Dennis D. McDonald

Avatar, Cell Phones, Curmudgeon, DataPortability, Demographics, Email, Facebook, Google, Internet, Privacy, , , , Twitter, Video, Wikipedia, Wireless, YouTube, communications

Mar 21
Mar 21 Is It Too Late to Reverse the Fragmentation of the Web?

Dennis D. McDonald

Change, Collaboration, DataPortability, Fragmentation, Network Effects, Search, Semantic Web, , , , Software Islands, Twitter

One year ago I published Balkanization of the Web - or Just Better Focus? There I expressed concern that the proliferation of specialized search engines — and the indexing to support them — would lead to a more fragmented web. I thought that gaining the benefits of specialization could ultimately reduce the benefits we experience from the nearly universal access to web based contents that we’ve been taking for granted.