Jim Barraud

I’m always excited when I find a solution to a problem that works within my existing workflow. For example, I’ll be attending the Nine Inch Nails show at the IZOD center tomorrow night and I need to remember to bring the tickets. Because for one I’ll be leaving from work so I need to grab them first thing in the morning and two, my memory is crap. I’ve tried various reminder services in the past, but since they don’t fit into my existing workflow I always forget to use them. Ironic, I know.

Since I’m an avid Twitter user and Twitter is a notifcation/messaging service, I thought it would be great if I could tell Twitter to send me a reminder at a particular time to remember the tickets. A quick Google search later and I discover timer. A Twitter bot that serves this exact purpose. Add timer to your following list and send it a direct message with the minute count of when you’d like to be notified and the message you’d like to receive in the following format “d timer 30 Remind me about that thing”. You’ll then be reminded of that thing in 30 minutes via a direct message.

This really shines if you setup Twitter to notify of direct messages via SMS. This allows you to both set and receive reminders from anywhere via your cell.

One downside is you need to set your reminder time via minutes. So if you want to be reminded the next day at a particular time you need to figure out how many minutes that is. It would be great if you could set the units of time. For example, if you wanted to be reminded in two days of an event it would be cool if you could format it as “d timer 2d Do that thing you need to do”.

Other downsides revolve around the fact that this is done through Twitter (which as I’ve said is also the advantage). And Twitter is known for having it’s share of outages. So if Twitter is down, so are your reminders. There’s also no way to edit existing reminders or view the reminders you’ve set. But for me those are minor gripes.

Location based social networking isn’t exactly a new thing. One of the earliest and more popular services in this area was Dodgeball. Dodgeball was eventually bought by Google, but nothing has been done with the service since it’s purchase in 2005. But location based services seem to be on the rise again and Brightkite is one of the newer players on the location based social networking scene.

I was blessed with a Brightkite invite by Mr. Jon Sykes. While Jon has been singing it’s praises, I’ve been more on the fence. Being a big fan of Twitter, I wasn’t sure I needed another Twitter-like service to keep tabs on and update. Plus there’s the selling point of the service, it’s all bout location, location, location. Whenever you’re at a new location, you can check-in via your phone, computer or other mobile device. With your location set, you can then post notes and photos about that location. Notes and photos are essentially twitter-like messages with the ability to post photos. While I can see the value in this for those who work/live in large cities or those who are big into the social scene, it was hard to see the value for someone who’s location may not change that often or who doesn’t have the flexibility to spontaneously meet-up with friends.

Over the past couple weeks I’ve used the service on and off. And honestly, it’s been fun seeing what friends are up to and the photos they’re posting. The challenge for me has been finding where Brightkite fits in my “digital lifestyle”. I already use Twitter for posting short messages and Flickr for posting photos. But lately I’ve been more selective about the photos I post on Flickr and the messages I post on Twitter. I’m not posting as many “going to the store” type of posts to Twitter and I’ve refrained from posting lower quality photos (such as cameraphone) to flickr. But now I’m finding this is the space where Brightkite fits in nicely.

With Brightkite you have various privacy settings available to you. At the high level, it’s public or private. Public is no holds barred. All info about your checkin location will be posted. Private on the other hand has a subset of privacy settings for how to handle your photos, notes and location while you’re in private mode. You could choose to display your exact location to only your friends while the non-friends will only see the city from which you posted. These settings are applied on a per-post basis. So while you’re home you can set your privacy level to private and all posts while in private mode will be marked as such. Then while your out and about getting lunch, set your privacy level to public while you’re at that location. All posts marked private previously will remain private. My only pet-peeve with this is that if you mistakenly post a photo or note as public, you can’t change it to private. You’ll need to delete that post if you’re concerned about the info being public. What I would like to see when it comes to the privacy settings is the ability to set privacy by location. For example, being able say “When I checkin at home, automatically set my privacy level to private”.

I’m now using Brightkite to post the short location based posts I would normally restrain myself from posting on Twitter. Because that post is now within the context of the location it was posted from. And I can set the privacy of that post so only my trusted friends will be able to see it, making Brightkite more personal than something like Twitter. While you can make your Twitter stream private, it’s an all or nothing option, you don’t get the level of privacy controls you get with Brightkite. I’m also using it to post location based photos that I normally wouldn’t be posting on Flickr. In addition to the personal aspects I’m using it for, I can see it being a great tool while traveling or attending conferences.

While I gave Brightkite a hard time at first, I’m beginning to see where it could fit in the current social networking ecosystem. Will I stick with it? Who knows. Ask anyone I know, I’m the most fickle person when it comes to… well, anything. Currently Brightkite is in private beta and is invitation only. I currently have 5 invitations left, so if you’re interested in checking out Brightkite and you want an invite, drop a comment on this post.

The latest phenomenon scorching across the net is a little service called Twitter. Even though twitter recently turned a year old, it’s been the past few months that the service has begun to grow beyond the typical first adopter crowd. Everyone from the Dark Lord to presidential candidates can be found on the service. But what exactly is Twitter?

It’s a question not easily answered. It’s been described as a mini blog and an IM status on steroids. It’s accessible from the web, via IM, through SMS on your cellphone or a plethora of other mini applications and plug-ins. It’s a question the folks at twitter choose to answer with a question. What are you doing?

That’s the question you’re presented with. Some choose to take it literally (my current twitter status is “writing about twitter”). Some use it as a sort-of stream of consciousness tool. Others use it a communication device. However you choose to use it, your limited by 140 characters. While this limit is to account for SMS compatibility, I believe it’s part of what gives the service it’s identity. Anything more, it’s just another blog. Anything less, it’s a standard IM status message.

The first question most people new to the service ask is “Why do I want to do this?”. I asked myself the same question. It’s not until you start using it that you kind of get it. For one, it’s fun coming up with something to write within the character restrictions. But the more fascinating aspect for me is looking at your twitter stream. You get a mini history of what was apparently important enough for you to twitter about, but not necessarily important enough to blog about. A kind of “lifestream”. Even more fascinating is watching your friends streams or even the public timeline. At times you can get a “collective” feel to what’s going on in the world.

Now thanks to it’s open API, it’s begun to be utilized in other ways. Twittermap combines Google maps and Twitter allowing to you to see who’s twittering from where. And Twittervision takes that to the next level by updating in realtime.

Overall this is a service that is still trying to define itself. But in the end it will be the Twitter API and how the users choose to utilize it that shape it’s direction. However it evolves, it’s developers know they have something special. Twitter’s parent company Obvious is selling off it’s other service Odeo, a podcasting service, to concentrate on Twitter. They probably don’t have much to worry about though. After all, they do have the Dark Lord on their side.