Robert Scoble interviews Eric Kim of Twylah.com.

Eric demonstrates Twylah, and how it aggregates a Twitter stream into buckets.

Here’s a taste of how it turned my Tweets as Tojosan on the word ‘app’:

Twylah.com Screenshot

The links within a tweet are previewed on the right of the page. Embedding works with photos, videos and more.

Twylah is in beta with more features yet to be rolled out. Coming are statistics and custom design of Twylah pages.

You can follow @twylah and @kabaim on Twitter for updates, and chatting them about about features, bugs, and getting your account going.

What would you do with your Twylah page? Curate your business’ Tweets? Highlight haiku you’ve shared or retweeted? Perhaps you’ll see what your Twitter followers really love you to share?!

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Empire Avenue – Have you heard of it?

Empire Avenue is like those Facebook games where you buy your friends, but image it as a full fledged game with a life all its own.

Wondering if  Empire Avenue is an Evil Empire? I was at first. Up front opinion – it’s all fun and games.

What is Empire Avenue?

Think stock market of social media. On the avenue your registration, via Facebook, is an IPO. You pick the stock ticker!  I chose TOJO, short for @tojosan.

Your stock starts off with 10, 000 shares available for purchase. A bank account of eaves, read money, is loaded up allowing you to make some stock purchase.

Stock trading your profile is just the beginning. Completing registration includes the standard bio, list of interests, and connecting blogs, and other social networking accounts.  Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and even Flickr are included as choices.

The site doesn’t import every post on all those sites with the exception of Twitter.  There are settings for all of these.

Blogs don’t automatically connect. Unusual unless you’ve used Networked Blogs on Facebook. Each blog requires an endorsement before being credited against a profile.

So how do I grow my Empire?

It grows on its own. No. Really.

Note in the image counts for each connection. Each post, tweet, comment and video adds incremental value to stock value.

Initially Empire Avenue assigns a value with a question mark. This settles over the course of the next few days up to a week.

Twitter, Facebook, and other icons are easy to spot.  The e icon represents Empire Avenue engagement. The values of the connections isn’t a direct one for one.  Scores are based on posts over time and recency.

How do I get rich?

Short answer? Play the stock market.

Here’s a few tips gleaned from my time on the avenue, and Team Zen on EA.

• watch for IPOs – invest early – value rises quickly between registration and a few days out
• join communities – ask for help. Team Zen is a huge group and the players are great at helping out.
• create content – connection values go up. Also, without content the values go down over time.
• get your blogs endorsed – easy value increase
• complete profile portions – interests, bio, photo – both add value and earn achievements.
• check out the Achievements section – these give their own rewards as they are earned. Most are basic – accumulate eaves, post a bio, buy stock, etc.
• connect with friends and exchange listenings and recommendations – huge value for the effort. There’s a button on each profile for WATCH and RECOMMEND. These cost nothing to click and give that person a boost.
• Play once/day. Gives your stock value a boost and provides a chance to buy stock.  All the work can be done in less time than this blog post took to write.

How do I win?!

Empire Avenue has a FAQ page about winning – How to “win” at Empire Avenue.

Winning, as described in the FAQ, is what you make of it.

Is there value here?

Yes! Put aside the stock market schtick and gaming, what’s left is a tool that doesn’t drag in the content you create as much as count and measure it.

Watching the numbers on my Tweets, Facebook posts, and YouTube actions isn’t just interesting. It gave me immediate feedback on my idleness and the fact I tweet too much.

Example – the reminder to visit YouTube and minimally watch and comment was spot on.

Is it for you?

That’s for you to decide.  Time waster? Definitely! Fun? Yep! Addicting? Overly so!

Tell me if you’d join, already did, or you’ve got better things to do.

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Someone is watching you

Datasift and Twitter have entered into a deal for your tweets. Datasift bargained for the whole fire hose of data. If you tweet and it’s public, they’re recording it.

Big data? That’s what @nik calls what they store at Datasift. So what can Datasift do with all this data? Just about anything.

Mentioned in the interview conducted by Robert Scoble are a few key sift, sorting, and search possibilities:

• massive geo-location searching and sorting – imagine being able to put hands on all of the tweets from Japan during the earthquake and tsunami. Imagine taking that down to a city on the coast.
• capturing football scores of all the games across the world – as the goals are scored!
• how about all of the photos taken during the ball drop on New Years Eve – now take that up a notch and include only the ones geo-tagged from Times Square.

All of these are possible not just in history but in real time. Datasift didn’t just contract with Twitter for their fire hose but with several other social networks. Layered on top are deep connections with ranking services such as Klout.

How do I feel about this?

I love the idea that all this data is available in one place to search, analyze and share. I also see the flip side.

You’ve seen the TV shows where the guy at a computer pulls up all of the images from traffic cams and such? Imagine, without a warrant, probable cause, or even a crime, that any agency can track your history on the large scale and follow you live as you move about the city.

Sure there are some ways individuals could do this now, but they’re limited by the same search tools that you can somewhat avoid. The average criminal doesn’t have the volume this tool will provide.

I’m thinking of become a private detective. Ha. I can follow you anywhere through not just your information but a flexible search programming language.

Okay. Enough of my rant.  How do you feel about it? Dangerous? Epic? Did you just love Nik’s voice?

Cheers and watch what you share.

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Flickr, my first big social network, ups the social sharing.  Here’s the scoop from their blog:

Today we’re announcing an update to our share functionality to help you make Flickr the hub for your photos on the Internet. If you’re anything like us, you probably have multiple places out there on the Internet where you express yourself. Maybe you use Facebook to connect to your college friends, Twitter for people who share your interests, or your blog as your megaphone to the world. The changes we’re releasing today make it easier to upload once to Flickr and get your photos out to other places you showcase your photos on the web!

What’s in it for you? One button sharing to your Twitter and Facebook accounts, and to your blogs.

icons - (l-r) email, Twitter, Facebook, More

This replaces the old style drop down for sharing. You’re going to ask about being logged in right?  No more! Even if you don’t have a Flickr account you’ll be able to share photos, sets, and more.

How does it work?

Across the top of the image, the menu includes Favorite, Actions, and little icons.  Each icon represents a one-click sharing option – email, Twitter, Facebook. That fourth icon down arrow opens the box shown above, Share this on.

The pop up box includes Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Blogger, and WordPress by default. Don’t see your old favorites? They’re gone.

NOTE: email option replaces the previous ‘share with’ option on photos. Use this to not only email but also share photos with other Flickr users. TO box takes either.

This is also where you’ll find the Grab the link and Grab the HTML options.

Something else to notice here – share preferences and more ways to share.

Share preferences leads to the setup options for blogs, Twitter, and Facebook accounts. As well, here you’ll find those other services you’ve granted access to your Flickr account.

More ways to share simply opens an additional block of blog buttons, adding Livejournal as an option.

Summary:

Flickr gives you one click sharing for the most common choices. It works better as well, not requiring leaving the screen.

Flickr added Livejournal and removed the requirement to be a Flickr user.

The downside is some of the options have moved around. Once through the navigation will ease that pain.

The question:

How has your experience been with the update sharing interface? Have you discovered something else about this change to share? Hate it? Love it?

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Trey Ratcliff has the #1 travel photo blog. Here you see a cool new iPad app that he showed Robert Scoble at SXSW. You can learn more about it at http://www.stuckincustoms.com/

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Leadership in the 21st century has been a hot topic for years. It’s a big topic, with a broad swath being covered.  Today let’s focus on IS leadership for the 21st century, specifically those responsible for programmers.

Programmers still exist. Programmers largely aren’t programming games, smart phone applications or best of breed web sites. Most programmers are supporting and upgrading existing business systems. You know, those systems the customer never sees or uses.

Times are moving fast in this world even as the program languages have yet to fully catch up. Gone are the free-wheeling days when users could drop by and ask for a report change and have it before getting back to their desk.  Sarbanes-Oxley took care of that.

On the other hand, the use of spec programmers has gone down as budgets have tightened. IS leadership can no longer afford an extra body that can only heads down code.

Modern IS leadership’s biggest issue: constraints. Budget, paperwork overhead, and an aging workforce.

What hasn’t emerged along with increased constraints are better tools to managed and measure the work. Here’s where we can focus on a bit of what being a 21st century leader entails.

Most leaders are still measuring success by total project hours versus projected. Beginning work now requires paperwork and an hours estimate. Managers compile the projected hours up to a grand total for each programmer and then lay out the plan. This worked well enough in the days when user interaction wasn’t required to move the process along, nor did paperwork time equal programming time.

The factory mindset and approach no longer works. What are those in charge to do now?

Modern leaders must be obstacle removers and overhead reducers. It’s not a role most have adopted.

How about some techniques that help!

• Centralize the paperwork requirements and make one person responsible – put them on a share drive and designate Tom as the curator. If it’s in that folder, it’s current. This removes the necessity of figuring it out each time a programmer begins work.
• Centralize time tracking – let the programmer write code and solve problems by making timekeeping a one stop shop.  Use an Access database/app, a web app, or let them turn in time sheets. Apps are best.
• Don’t ask for daily hours and progress updates – work isn’t linear anymore. If the plan is 8 hours, that’s not equal to one day. Eight hours means eight hours of continuous work. Interruptions for status updates don’t add value. Check the time tracking software.
• Centralize support functions – don’t share the support line across all the programmers.  Rotate or designate – one person answers the phone and checks the email system. Likewise, appoint someone to track open tickets and help resolve them, regardless of who is assigned the work.
• Include the programmer early in the project – primary bonus is  getting realistic estimates. Secondary to that is giving the programmer a direct idea of desired outcomes, and the use cases involved. Requirement complexity is greater than ever. Don’t handicap the team.

Sure seems like a lot more than Monday morning team meetings where the manager hands out assignments and shouts, ‘Get to i!’ It is.

I’m blessed to have a manager that’s cozying up to these ideas. He’s become more of a problem solver than a delegator. Oh, there’s more tips I could share, and more concepts to being a 21st century leader, but the ones above are strong building blocks.

What can you do? Go.Educate.Succeed!

Notes: This is week 2 of #usblogs weekly blogging endeavor by the Twitter group, #usguys. The following is taken from Brand Directions #usblogs post.

HOW #USBLOGS WORKS

Monday-Thursday: we all suggest themes for the following week-end; any #usguys member can suggest a theme, to keep the game open to all, not just those who already posted; to suggest, simply send a tweet with the following format: “Theme: xxxxx #usblogs #usguys Please RT to Vote!”

Friday: we’ll pick one theme on a simple popular votes basis – the most retweeted; this ensures themes have broad appeal for both writers and readers – and hopefully enough controversy to stimulate different perspectives and opinions: I’ll be happy to keep track and announce the theme each Friday pm, around 6pm NY time.

Saturday & Sunday: we all write and post on our own blogs…

Before Monday Mid-Day: we all tweet our posts with the #usblogs hashtag, and update our own posts with a round up of all other #usblogs posts.

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Paper.li – you’ve seen them all over Twitter – Joe’s Daily, Robyn’s Women of Uberness, The XXX Daily.  Follow these links and you’re headed to a Paper.li Twitter aggregation page. Aggregation selected by a Twitter user.

Shel Israel describes Paper.li:

The virtual publications are  aggregations of links that were shared on Twitter in a 24-hour period. They are organized into a very readable format that looks like an old-fashioned newspaper. You can peruse the front page or read from one of 4-5 topical news sections.

A publication is created by a Twitter user, for example @Sample_User, by selecting a search, a list, or a hashtag to be the base.  Links are culled from tweeps that @Sample_User follows. Videos get a section, topics another, and other links get bigger boxes based on what’s linked.

Note: I had published three of these Paper.li papers; each was pushed to Twitter once per day.

A quick opinion poll regarding clicking through on a Paper.li link brought this feedback:

• I haven’t found them useful. But then, dismiss every other link I see. Even media articles. #toomuchdrama #justthefactsplease
• To be honest, I don’t even click-thru when I’m mentioned.
• I’m on record as not being ‘s biggest fan. http://bit.ly/dJ7GsD
• maybe. but I am often disappointed when I get mentioned. it’s often a RT – and I’m not the author!
• Truth? I only follow paper.li links to see what was written about me. #ego #damageControl
• I have this sense that paper.li has hit its apex and is starting to receded–no data, just a hunch.
• sure, if I’m one of the contributors to that edition – just to see what paper.li picked up on
• very rarely – paper.li is a nice idea but so little of the content interests me
• Negative :-/

Wow. This wasn’t my expectation.  That’s when I went back and again read Shel’s Twitter Daily article.

The removal process should give a clue how this business is run. Here’s what shows up following the opt-out link:

Paper.li made the clean up list for 2011. It’s gone for me and I opted out of being include.

Will you opt-out of Paper.li or at least stop publishing?

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Why wait for Spring?  The New Year is the perfect time to clean up and clean out your social networks!

Clean up – it means different things based on context. Social network clean up is about removing dead weight, be it contacts or entire network profiles, subscriptions or even what you publish. Accumulating new contacts, signing up for new feeds, and adding networks is easy to done and often done without though of future removal.

You’re likely making hundreds of additions or more in a year. How many do you delete?

How about some clean up steps to get you started?  A few easy tips follow:

• Facebook
  • Remove unused applications
    • Bonus – block them as well
  • Remove groups
  • Remove contacts
    • Remove those who have no wall posts
    • Remove those who you share no interests with
      • This is easier if you’ve removed unwanted apps and groups
    • Remove anyone you don’t know or recognize
• Twitter
  • Remove zero contributors
    • If they only tweet links to their blog, just subscribe to their blog – unfollow
    • If they only tweet get (rich, followers, etc) quick – unfollow
    • If they have no replies to anyone – unfollow
  • Remove unwanted junk contributors
    • If they tweet about porn and you’re not into that – unfollow
    • If they constantly tweet pictures and no text – unfollow
    • If they use a lot of hate speech – unfollow
  • Remove bots (self explanatory)
• Other networks – Should you stay?
  • Do you follow people here in a way you can’t follow them elsewhere?
  • Do you create content here you can’t create or share from anywhere else?
  • Is this the only network your family can use?
  • Is it the only place you can connect with people you must keep in contact with?

Realize Other Networks recommended for review should include LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and more.  Don’t cut yourself any slack.

Bonus: unsubscribe from any emails you don’t read at least twice a week. Do this step now!

I’ve already begun this process by unsubscribing from several mailings. Facebook contacts are already being paired down. Twitter contacts get screened at addition but I have another bonus tip there – create a private Probation list.  Add folks to this list when you follow them if you suspect they might be trouble.

Go.Cleanup.Smile.  - What are your clean up tips?

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Each year our culture challenges us to make resolutions. Resolutions are sort of like goal. Goals though with no fixed location, time, or specific achievement end point making them of not much value.

Year after year though we jot things down, tell them to family and friends, and now record them on websites. The end of the year comes though and few of us have achieved any of these resolutions.

Chris Brogan, blogger, writer and entrepreneur, has a suggestion to replace resolutions, Three Words.

Three words that represent behaviors and attitudes replace resolutions but still aim us in the right direction.

Let’s take some examples:

• Healthy – replaces diet, exercise more, etc. You are choosing to be healthy. Choices will be guided by this approach. Is that healthy for me? That activity, is it helping my health.
• Consistent – replaces be at work on time, make doctors appointments, be at the kids’ practices. Evaluate each choice against the behavior of consistency. Stop worrying about each potential situation, and begin to act with consistency.

So why three? Why not seven or just one? Three words are easy to remember without being trivial. Three words are words you can own and remember and perhaps tie together.

What are my three words?

• Professionalism – I’m going to bounce my choices against whether it’s the professional way to handle myself or the amateur way. Am I going to work the work and worry less about the rewards or will I put myself on a pedestal?
• Faith – Stepping out, jumping in, and moving forward is what this embodies for me.  Faith to do what needs to be done and worry less about where it goes, success or failure, or rewards. Faith for me is about not waiting on the cheerleaders or the ‘right time’ but going for it knowing chips will fall where they may.
• Happiness – You can’t make someone happy. There is no magic dollar amount, or specific gadget that gives out happiness. No app yet that provides more than entertainment.  Happiness for me is about sharing my own, encouraging it in others, and owning the fact that happiness is largely a matter of choice. Happiness is contagious, so building from within to outside hopefully happens naturally.

Will I write these down in stone? Will I expect others to remind me of these? Will I feel guilty if I don’t align my life with these all the time?

No.  I’ll keep going, keep working, keep smiling. None of these relies on circumstances, chance, or generosity of others.

So things are magically going to be better? No.

You get the idea.

So given the examples above, and my own three words, what words will guide you in 2011?

Will it be patience? Generosity? Sex?

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