Thoughts
Bad Twitter, Good Twitter
09.04.2009 @ 2:06pm
This week there were two examples of how companies are using Twitter – one bad, one good.
The ‘bad Twitter’ came from Macheist. Now Macheist is an awesome idea and I myself purchased a Macheist bundle, mostly because it had World of Goo and Espresso, and the cost of the bundle was less than the cost of Espresso on its own. You get great value and 25% of sales go to charity, so it’s win-win all around. This year they sold over 88,000 bundles and raised over $850,000 for charity.
Where it went slightly off the rails for me was in its ‘Tweetblast’ offer. Tweet about purchasing the Macheist bundle and you got Delicious Library 2 and a game I’ve never heard of (doesn’t mean it’s not good, of course). ... I felt like if I tweeted about the bundle, even though I thought it was a great thing, just to get the software, my recommendation/tweet all of sudden became less valuable.
The good Twitter came from Microsoft. Yeah, I know. I had a lot of difficulty writing the words ‘good’ and ‘Microsoft’ in the same sentence, but they used Twitter this week in a fantastic, community building way...
Ephemera
Technology
Awwww ... Geocities is closing. I built my first ever 'websites' there. An online journal and my cv. *feels twinge of nostalgia*
Web 2.0
Some people/organisations just don't get it. First the AP says it's going to police the web to determine if their content is being "legally" used (fair use be damned!). Now one of their execs has told an AP affiliate to stop embedding AP YouTube videos – videos found on the AP's own YouTube channel – despite the fact that the embed code is there on their YouTube page. /facepalm. (via TechCrunch)
Social Networks
If Courtney Love uses a Ghost Twitterer, I will be so disillusioned & so disappointed that I will delete all my Hole MP3s and throw away my CDs. I'm totally addicted to her feed.
Technology
It's Sunshine Week! (15–22 March) What the hell is Sunshine Week, you ask? According to WiRED, it's the EFF's "annual, non-partisan initiative to promote government transparency and the public's 'right to know'." As part of the celebration, EFF has put a lot of uncovered US government documents online, along with a new search tool. Go forth and discover! (Yeah, it's US-centric but still.)
Gaming
I had a frighteningly large number of these "forgotten electronic games" when I was growing up. I think I was geekier than I remember being. Merlin was by far and away my favourite.
Watching
John Oliver Visits the Large Hadron Collider, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart