Me and My iPad

Let me be clear: as far as the iPad is concerned, I want one. Preferably now.

I’ve been following the screeds about this device with a lot of amusement and enjoy reading as many of the pros and cons as I can. I get a lot of the “here’s why the iPad is awesome” posts through RSS. One of the people I follow on Twitter (you know who you are, @williamgarrity!) has been helpfully forwarding along many of the “here’s why the iPad sucks” sources.

Who knew there were so many things to love? Who knew there were so many things to hate? Especially because this is a device that only a few hundred people have actually seen and held. Whatever happened to “wait and see?”

I’m especially amused by the folks who already despise the iPad because it’s not all-inclusive—it doesn’t play Flash; it doesn’t have a huge array of connectors (USB! HDMI! Firewire!)—or because it’s not a netbook of some kind or because you can’t mod an iPad or because .

Katie Hafner gets it: she wrote an intriguing piece for the Times on Sunday. The article, When Phones Are Just Too Smart, appeared in the Fashion Section of the paper edition—so it’s amazing that I saw it. But the point Hafner makes is that while a lot of people own a lot of iPhone apps, they tend to use 5-10 apps regularly.

There was another article in the Times onn Sunday that made a related point. In Steve Jobs and the Economics of Elitism, Steve Lohr writes,

From computers to smartphones, Apple products are known for being stylish, powerful and pleasing to use. They are edited products that cut through complexity, by consciously leaving things out — not cramming every feature that came into an engineer’s head, an affliction known as “featuritis” that burdens so many technology products.

KISS, we were reminded just yesterday by @bluefuego.

Indeed. I don’t want really complex stuff on websites I visit. And I certainly don’t have the time or patience to deal with highly complex products. I have a lot to do, every day, and I don’t enjoy having to figure out how to use a highly complex tool with largely inscrutable instructions.

So am I that strange? I don’t think so. I think many people yearn for simplicity and respond to a product that provides a very high level of functionality, even as it eschews needless complexity. Some of my friends like to tinker with stuff and figure out how it works. I admire them, I really do. But I’m someone who’ll pick up a santoku rather than start up a food processor to julienne a carrot or chop some garlic.

Why is the iPod so successful? Not because, feature-for-feature, it’s the best MP3 player, but because Apple made smart choices in creating a device that many people could use, easily. [It doesn’t hurt that the iPod looks great and that iTunes makes it easy to buy content and download it to an iPod.]

So back to that iPad. I’m expecting a small, light, multi-purpose device that can replace my laptop in some situations like when I travel, especially when I travel for pleasure. I’ll be able to read on it, watch movies on it, check websites, do light email. It’ll be great in that situtation. Will it be perfect? Nope, you can bet it won’t be.

But I expect it to be most of these things because it’s an Apple product.

Can I have one, now, please? Naysayers be damned.

And who knows? It might even be good for the web. I, for one, won’t be sorry to see fewer stupid deployments of Flash.

Posted by Michael Stoner
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Intervention! You are eating too much Internet!

Are you getting info-fat? Are all those Laugh Out Loud Cat videos finally catching up to you? Are you finding you can’t knowledge-gorge the way you used to when you were two years old? You are not alone. Here’s a list of things to try the next time you start to notice some cellulite on your synapses.

1. Browse with a purpose. Keep in mind what actually interests you. Sites are getting better and better at writing enticing headlines and designing highly-tempting “Other Top Stories” widgets. Did (celebrity) and (celebrity) break up? Did someone give birth to an alarming number of babies? Do you have to know? NO. You do not. Unless you make your living via a celebrity gossip column or blog or maybe Reader’s Digest, you will most likely be able to gather all you need to know about these things from other people on the bus or while you’re buying groceries. If this kind of stuff is your junk food (yes, I do enjoy BWE as much as the next person), and you have to have it sometimes, see #3.

2. Skim. Things gets trickier when you come across an article that might be of use to you. Do you really need to know “How to Use Social Media Marketing as a Tool For Business” right now? Haven’t you already read six other articles on the same subject? Do you still have leftover questions? If so, fine. Skim it. It’s taken me a long time to realize that I don’t have to process every word of every article I read (sorry, writers). Peruse and pause at the interesting parts. You will add years to your life.

3. Set a time to stop. Diversion is good and conducive to productivity but not if you never start working again. Tell yourself to close the Videogum tab at a specific time or after a specific number of minutes (or, I suppose, hours if your case is severe).

4. Use RSS Feeds. Viewing only the top headlines from your favorite sites is the fastest way from point A to point B in terms of keeping up-to-date on topics that interest you without slogging through dozens of other posts (and possibly getting diverted multiple times).

5. Manage your RSS Feeds. My strategy for feeds is “quantity provides quality” in that if you subscribe to a bunch of sites that interest you, you’re more likely to find a great article while browsing your feed reader. That said, as soon as you start to notice that one of your subscriptions is dead weight, get rid of it. Your reader ain’t a day care.

6. Acknowledge that while voyeurism is fun, your friends are not that interesting. By all means, use social media to find out what they’re up to and keep abreast of what they’re interested in (be it the apparently surprising talent of someone generally thought to be unattractive, Star Wars Retold by Someone Who Hasn’t Seen It, or How to Greet Your Friends during an Epidemic), but when you start looking at a friend of a friend’s Cinco de Mayo party ‘03 pictures, you should probably close that tab.

7. Don’t take every quiz the Internet offers you.

8. Acknowledge that getting the highest score on or beating any Flash game is not actually going to be that fulfilling. It’s a lot like when you finally complete a sudoku puzzle. It’s very, “Well, all of those numbers are in place now.” No beam of light suddenly emits from the newspaper expounding some ancient wisdom, you’re just sitting there with some numbers in some squares. It’s the same thing with stacking multicolored jewels and using gerbils to catch cupcakes. The sense of accomplishment is hazy and fleeting.

9. Start doing something else. This is the “Look! Something shiny!” approach. Take a walk. Make something to eat. Pet the cat. Perhaps, while you’re not looking at the browser, close it using a keyboard shortcut.

10. Can’t do it yourself? Download Browser Timer. It’s like a computer-warden that shuts down your browser at a specified time. Consider it the methadone of internet addiction. For PCs. For Macs.

Posted by Laurel Hechanova
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@ShayTotten Reports: Using Twitter to Report Breaking News

Totten is investigative and political columnist at Seven Days, an alternative weekly in Burlington, Vermont. And while many reporters and writers have been quick to adopt new technologies—and many reporters are using Twitter—much of their tweeting is focused on trolling for leads, sharing resources and stories they’ve reported, and personal brand-building. Totten’s reporting illustrated how powerful Twitter can be in the hands of a pro reporting on a breaking news story.

Two weeks ago, Vermonters (and people in other states) were riveted by discussion in our Legislature about a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. Passed by both houses of the Legislature, it was vetoed by Governor Jim Douglas. There was never a question about whether the Senate could muster enough votes to override the Governor’s vetto, but no one knew what the House would do. The galleries were packed as discussion began.

Shay Totten was not content to sit in the press box and file his report when the debate was over. Tweeting as @ShayTotten, he offered real-time debate updates via Twitter, which were tracked using the #vtfreetomarry hashtag and became part of an ongoing Twitter conversation.* [If you don’t understand what these terms mean, see the introduction to Twitter below.]

A reporter’s insights about tweeting breaking news

We asked Totten to share some insights about using Twitter to cover an event like this. Here are his comments.

How did you decide to use Twitter to report on the Senate and House civil marriage debates?

At Seven Days, we’ve been experimenting with a different social media and other online tools to engage readers in real-time discussions during big news events. In some cases, we partner with other media (WPTZ and Channel 17) to provide live video streaming. But, at the presidential health care forum on 19 March, we used Twitter almost exclusively. This foray proved to be a hit with readers, so we thought I should try it again during the same-sex marriage debates—which we all knew would have much more interest to Vermont readers and readers around the country. It was also something different than hosting a live blog, which other media were already doing (along with a lot of live streaming). Also, this gives us a chance to cover breaking news, which is hard to do in our weekly newspaper.

Because you were tweeting about the debate, you were communicating in real-time with your followers.* It strikes me that that’s quite different than taking notes and digesting them in a report written after the debate is over. What was the experience like for you?

Communicating with readers in real-time is different than taking notes (in fact, it’s more like letting people read your notes in real-time), but it’s not completely unlike being in a press gallery where there are sometimes brief bursts of conversations, commentary, or “who said that?” queries. Live-blogging while reporting is much more arduous than replying on Twitter—and most of the questions that came in while I was Twittering were pretty straightforward and easy to answer.

That said, the reader queries served two important elements for my reporting: There are always some lulls in live debate coverage, so answering reader queries kept the coverage moving forward even when the debate wasn’t. And followers often bring up some of the “obvious” questions reporters often overlook while in the throes of taking notes.

In the end, though, I think reader interaction is what I’m after—whether through DMs, re-Tweets or @replies during the event.* I’m their eyes, ears, and typing fingers (if not a personal news ticker) during an event and I like to know there’s someone on the other end who is doing more than just scrolling along.

Did you face any obstacles in using Twitter in the House and Senate galleries?

Not many, but there does seem to be a technical glitch with the Statehouse wifi system when working in the Senate gallery. For some reason after a certain period of time, the security certificate for Twitter is rejected and therefore I can no longer use the laptop. So, I then switch to my iPhone, which can be a bit of a pain in the thumbs, but it’s not all that much slower. Makes for more difficult simultaneous note-taking, so I have to switch between the laptop and the phone more. The House gallery does not seem to have this issue. During big events like the same-sex marriage debate, it always pays to get there early and stake your claim as space is limited and once the TV crews show up they take up a lot of space.

You used a hashtag—#vtfreetomarry—for your tweets. Were you tracking the conversation associated with the hashtag. If so, what was it like to do that? Did it affect your reporting?

I was tracking the conversation associated with #vtfreetomarry, and at times (during the lulls) I was able to get a sense of what those who were impassioned about the issue were saying about either my Tweets, or observations of others, or their own observations based on watching a live stream or live audio feed. I wouldn’t say it affected my reporting, but it did reinforce for me that what I was doing was important and relevant in a different way than just making commentary. I was truly trying to achieve a dialogue of the debate—from all sides—to boil it down for those who might not have access to these other media.

One other fun tidbit regarding a conversation associated with a hashtag. At one point during the debate, #vtfreetomarry had trended in the top 10 on Twitter and I was the most reTweeted of that hashtag. My brief flash of Twitter fame and glory.*

Will Twitter be part of your reporting arsenal in the future? When might it be inappropriate to use it?

Absolutely. I’ve already done a little bit more at Burlington City Council meetings. I believe large protests, gatherings and major legislative debates are a perfect time to use it. As for when not to use it, I think it all comes down to what your audience wants to read and what it doesn’t. That’s an ongoing dialogue that columnists such as myself, and the newspapers we work for, have on a regular basis. I would say it might not be appropriate when in closed quarters with an interview subject, or when the news value is low (arduous debates about zoning regulations, for example).

What advice would you give to other reporters using Twitter to cover breaking events? Anything you wish you’d done differently?

To other reporters, I say give a whirl. It’s a lot of fun, and you can use the “transcripts” to inform your stories for the next morning, that afternoon or next week. I’ve used Tweets for same-day blog posts, and weekly columns. There are always aspects of a story that can’t be easily told in 140-character bursts. Tweets are components of a narrative, not the complete narrative. While I try to provide context while I live-Twitter, it’s more appropriate to provide such contexts in a long form.

If you work at a big-enough news operation that runs a simultaneous live-blog, you can have a hashtag feed into your live blog so reportage can inform—and inspire—debate on the live blog (this takes the onus off of reporters to report and reply all the time).

As for doing anything differently next time, I’m not sure yet. I think this last iteration of using Twitter worked much better than in my past attempts (election night, health care forum, city council meetings, etc.) as I learned how to inspire a dialogue and to get people to reTweet or DM during an event. Each time, I tend to hone my skills given the 140-character limitation. One thing I’m trying to do better is provide people with links to stories and blog posts (by myself and others) during a debate to provide additional resources. Already, I reTweet posts from colleagues in the media so people know there are other ways to track a debate.

*Intro to Twitter
A quick description of how Twitter works, for those who don’t use it: Twitter is a microblogging service, allowing users to send 140-character messages (called “tweets”) to people who’ve signed up to “follow” their messages. A person’s Twitter ID is indicated by an “@” followed by a word or phrase (I tweet as @mstonerblog.) On Twitter, “hashtags”—designated by the “#” followed by a word or phrase—to track a subject. Searching for a hashtag on Twitter helps you find out what people are saying about a specific topic. If you like something someone tweets, you can “retweet” it to your own followers; you can reply in public; or you can direct message (DM) them with a comment. Avid Twitter users follow topics in the news by watching the hashtags and topics that emerge as ”trending topics” throughout the day. But now that even @Oprah is using Twitter, you need to find out about it for yourself.

Posted by Michael Stoner
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Why Net Neutrality Is Important

Anyway, I was reminded this morning by a Wired article just how important Internet neutrality really is. I need to get active—and so do you!

There’s a lot of activism in Europe right now focusing on getting EU regulators to support Internet neutrality. The New York Times did a article on this topic earlier in the week. American corporations are lobbying the EU because if they influence policy in Europe, they’ll be able to force their agenda on us here in America. According to the Times, here’s what’s at stake:

For consumers in Europe and the United States, the outcome of the debate could influence whether they will continue to be able to download unlimited data using their flat-rate broadband plans or be forced to pay higher rates related to the amount of data they download.

The outcome could also legally empower operators to focus on users of file-sharing software that can be used for illegal downloading.

This is important to all of us, not only because it affects what we can and can’t do at home, but because it has the potential to limit what we can and can’t do at work. The post that inspired the Wired article, reporting on a presentation to Parliament, succinctly reveals the stakes:

He [Robert Topolski, chief technologist of the Open Technology Initiative] suggested that if those administrators had had access to data filtering technology, like that becoming popular with companies and governments today, they would have used it to exclude Berners-Lee’s invention, and kill off the World Wide Web.

I, for one, vividly remember when Gopher was getting the same kind of attention that Second Life got and that Twitter is getting now. And I, for one, am glad to be working in the era of Web 2.0 (or is it now Web 3.0: I forget!), rather than talking about Gopher 4.0 and looking at websites that look like this:

More resources on Internet neutrality at SavetheInternet.com. Learn more and get active today!

Image: Gopher Screenshots

Posted by Michael Stoner
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This Electric Life: Bearing Bad News

“That’s the thing. Danny wants to be liked, and that gets tricky.”

She was speaking about a man who had just been drowned in a huge pot of gazpacho. Midsomer Murders, Season Three, brilliant!

The scene reminded me of something that one of my high-school professors once said. Fr. Hal Stanger told me “If you want to be liked by everyone, you’re going to be an unhappy little cowboy.” Tricky advice, for a consultant. Got me thinking about some of the bad news I’ve had to deliver lately …

“No one reads your welcome message.”

“Everyone has small classes, professors who know your name, opportunities for leadership, and a strong alumni network.”

“I don’t think the library belongs on the homepage.”

“That’s a tagline, not a brand.”

“That’s a wonderful idea … and totally out of scope.”

“Senior cabinet shouldn’t be choosing the design direction for the site.”

“Your timeline is optimistic to the point of impossible.”

“People don’t understand or care about how your division is structured organizationally.”

“This is a process, not a project—the work doesn’t end when the site launches.”

“Migration hurts.”

I often joke with our clients about how part of our fees are purely hazard pay, but there’s a ring of truth to that. The hardest work oftentimes isn’t the design or content or testing or programming—it’s successfully swaying people’s opinions in a different direction, helping them not to make bad decisions out of good intentions, and setting reasonable expectations not only for our work, but for what people will expect of the internal team that will have to support what we put into place together.

P.S. Off to sunny L.A. for a few days of R and R. Have a terrific week!

Posted by Voltaire Santos Miran
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This Electric Life: Paper

You know there’s potential for magic when you meet a prospective client for the first time and you both pull out your Levenger notepads and then you bond over their index cards, notebooks, and fountain pens.

Yes, ma’am, I’m back to paper.

It’s a switch I’ve been contemplating for awhile—something that started last summer while I was wandering through a Filofax store in Paris and I only just suppressed the urge to forego my iPhone for the old-fashioned comfort of a weekly planner and contact book bound in tan pebbled leather. Only just.

One day a few weeks back—during a break between intake sessions in the city—I strolled over to Macy’s in the Water Tower, up the escalator to the Levenger nook, and picked up a three-pack of gridded paper, a workhorse fountain pen, and a box of Empyrean ink cartridges. And after years of typing notes into my laptop, I began to write again.

Which felt strange; it literally took a full half-day to get my cursive groove back, and my hand cramped a few times as I scrawled my notes through the afternoon.

But I think it was—and continues to be—worth it. There’s something to be said about the absence of bright shiny objects—tweets, inbox counters, facebook notifications, and document icons—in front of you when you’re really trying to think and listen. For this technogeek, paper’s the new must-have gadget.

N.B.: Voltaire spends his weekends trying to figure out how Andy Rooney got his sweet gig. Until 60 Minutes calls him to fill Andy’s spot, The Electric Life must suffice.

Posted by Voltaire Santos Miran
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This Electric Life: Two Apps I’m Loving

My mom called me earlier this week to get my advice on mobile phones. Blackberry or iPhone, she asked. I asked in return, how important it was for her to be able to dial out. Let me be clear, I love my iPhone with the same blind and loyal passion of people who adore their VW Jettas (repair records be damned!). And once I wrapped my head around the idea that my iPhone is a nifty little mini-computer that has a bunch of cool specialized apps and sometimes dials out and almost reliably drops every call I make, I was all smiles. And of those specialized apps, two are proving indispensible to my life-at-the-moment:

1. Gratitude! (http://www.happytapper.com/, $0.99)
This little app allows you to keep a daily microjournal of things you’re grateful for—it also allows you to rate each day and assign a picture to each entry. Simple, yes, and just small and easy enough to make the thought of daily journaling feasible. And I really appreciate the fact that this app is about keeping a record of things you’re grateful for—after all, we don’t need any help remembering the bad stuff.

2. Lose It! (http://www.freshapps.com/lose-it/, free)
Another year, another resolution to lose weight. This app actually helps the cause—fully featured with a fairly large database of foods, it lets me track my meal calories and my exercises in real time. Nice, clean interface, too! And for those who are wondering, 2.5 pounds down, 22.5 pounds to go. 

Posted by Voltaire Santos Miran
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