I was late arriving at ConvergeSouth, located at A&T University - Greensboro, NC, but I heard the Robert Scoble talk. The best quote is shown below. His talk focused on the voice each of us has, the private broadcasting studio we each represent given the new accessible technology. Very good talk.

From Twitter.com:
usernames above quote
(harvested at 11:20PM, 09-03-08, just after Sarah Palin spoke)

film_girl
“I seriously want to shoot my television set a la Elivis. Palin sucks. Ferraro 2.0. Way to set us back lady! ”

roztedford
“I just threw up in my mouth a little…I’m going to bed…. ”

rosebeezy
“who needs to watch any news when you have people on twitter to tweet it for you, and it’s much more amusing to boot. ”

NandRPolitics
“Palin’s speech: So, if you watched Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s speech at the convention Wednesday ni.. http://tinyurl.com/6fxgm3 ”

laurenpressley
“i cannot believe she just said that ”

brandonpierce
“Wow. Elizabeth Dole commercial. http://tinyurl.com/5lpvok ”

Scobleizer
“I’ve been watching the Tweets and Palin hit a major home run. Enough politics, got some deadlines to meet now… “

jrmozart
“Look at Mr. Palin spanking that baby! “

We achieve greater awareness of possible leaders by having a white woman in the race and a black man on the ticket. Regardless of outcome, and I refer to what either party will do with the presidency (be he Democrat or Republican), our society now sees (in a VERY public theater) minority people stepping into leadership roles.

Let me state it one more time, in the simplest of terms I can:
Regardless of outcome, our society now sees minority people stepping into leadership roles.

This is a great thing for the advancement of equality in America. Moving forward perhaps we will see more options across the entire political spectrum.

All gone by the afternoon, but at 11:30AM this morning it was basketball underwater.

The creek’s far bank is past the trees, the line of shrubbery in front of the electricity tower. I don’t know how far that is, but it must be more than 100 feet the water washed over the banks of the creek into the park.

This is Lake Daniel Park, Greensboro, NC seen from the bridge that crosses the creek north towards Benjamin Parkway. The restrooms building is to my left, the bridge is behind me on the right.

Jonathon perches on the railing of the east facing bridge, the one that goes through to E. Lake Drive. I estimate the water to be around 20 feet deep under the bridge. The current was strong near the creeks, I worried I’d slip with my camera. I was wading in the water up to my thighs.

I don’t know what this playground piece is called, but it must be about two or more feet under water.

I drove by and wondered, but the cat was fine. All water logged, the cat was laying on the sidewalk as if dead. I stopped and received a plaintive meow, then a staggering towards me. I just hope the little guy found his way home.

News & Record, Greensboro reported 1200 gallons of untreated water was released at 3740 Battleground Ave. for one hour. Horsepen Creek tributary of the Haw River basin received some untreated water as well. Along with other locations throughout the city of Greensboro.

I can not confirm this, but I believe North Buffalo Creek runs through Lake Daniel park. There was no mention in the article of untreated water spillage in that neighborhood. I’m glad it’s still raining nonetheless.

These photos are from the park next to Benjamin Parkway. Unbelievable!

Brandon Pierce - Copyright 2008

It seems obvious when you think about it. I mean, come on, play by play scrolling commentary on each of our lives: “What are you doing?” becomes “What is he/she doing?”. It encourages voyeurism, and that said, there are those that go exhibitionist.

Tweets are the small micro-BLOG uploads a user sends to their Twitter page, only 140 characters long. Following someone is when a user elects to subscribe to another user’s Tweets. An email announcement is sent to the user when he/she acquires a new Follower. Each user’s page displays the Followers and those that user is Following. A user can elect not to be on the public timeline, meaning they are hidden from everyone but their Followers. For subscribing to these private “tweeple” a request must be sent. It’s silly, and it’s fun. It also has a lot of obvious exploits.

As a platform for self expression Twitter holds tremendous potential. Users can micro-BLOG about anything. But some few have become quite popular, with as many as 11,489 subscribers (darthvader - as of 12:35AM August 18th, 2008, EST). These are not all messages of wisdom and hope, or education and learning, most are silly little play by plays of that user’s life. “I’m doing my laundry.” or “Just ate pizza with my sis.” The vast majority of Tweets are inane, boring out of context. Now ask yourself why would people want to read these? I find myself reading them… Why?

From a marketing perspective the number of Followers is an additional piece of hard data. The number of Followers is a built in metric for analyzing the user’s page Following,. In addition to the usual web metrics, such as page visits, unique visitors, etc. , the Follower is a locked in subscriber to that user’s platform of self expression. Much higher chance the Follower’s eyeballs are on that user’s Tweets. I am surprised there isn’t a larger ad presence.

I could write a lot more on this subject. And later I likely will, but I want to publish it as is. I’ll leave you with one last bit:

Now back to the stalker…

Yeah, that creepy stranger that just added you last week. She has joined the ranks of your Followers. Her, the one you keep running into when you go to the coffee shop, that is that creepy new Follower, isn’t it? She must be on your schedule right? Or maybe its because she is reading your Tweets and unconsciously she craves coffee when you do. Her thumbnail is so small, you just don’t know. So you stop Tweeting about your coffee trips. You do Tweet about going to see the new Batman movie. Wasn’t that her about six people behind you in line? Are you paranoid? Is it all just coincidence? Maybe the new Follower isn’t even female…

Are you being Followed?

____________________

Suggested Reading:
CommonCraft: Twitter in Plain English
We’re Obvious (the creators of Twitter)
Twitter: Open for Sexual Stalking

Who Killed The Electric Car
Writer/Director Chris Pain
(2006)

http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com/

This documentary follows the course of a large car manufacturer giving fully electric test vehicles to a small group of people (some were famous, some not). The test drivers were given each one electric car to try out and report back on their experience. The drivers loved the cars. The car manufacturer shredded the cars at the end of the test period. Watch the movie. Very interesting and disturbing.

Ask why they might shred those vehicles…

I am Brandon Pierce. I live in Greensboro, NC, where I own and operate a small web development company called SHIFTERTV. I started this BLOG to give me a public voice to shout about whatever inane or highly important things I have to shout about. Sometimes it will appear I am being overly personal. Do not mistake however, I know this to be a public forum. (otherwise you wouldn’t have found this page)

I hope you enjoy these rantings, as I know I will. Thanks for visiting.