A VC - Latest Comments in It's About People, Not Technology

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

kuya — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:14:41 -0000

how can sharing information if technology can't using to be full

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

bayu — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:09:48 -0000

technology is good he can help , but technology can kill you too

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

planetrussell — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:26:56 -0000

You're more than welcome. Actually, the spirited exchange here has prompted some additional thinking about this topic for me.

I've written (or should that be composed?) a new blog post which may be of interest: http://tr.im/toomanynotes - If social media is "music"...Can There Ever be “Too Many Notes?”

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

Ari Herzog — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:54:22 -0000

Thanks for the shout-out, Fred. I'd heard about it via a follower on Twitter, of course, but I was on the road for the weekend and my BlackBerry, oddly, couldn't view or respond to Disqus. (Which says something else about technology.)

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

markslater — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:10:24 -0000

seth godin helped me understand my issue - i think its to do with the digital 'rubberknecking' that twitter enables that i don't like -

http://sethgodin.typepad.co...

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

fredwilson — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:42:30 -0000

At least it doesn¹t slow down the traffic

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

Harold G. — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:30:08 -0000

Marshal,

I like your ideas. The convention right now is to link your review with a quick tag. Your quick Tweet ("Read more about the Anatomy of Melancholy in my new blog post") catches the eye of your audience and leads back to a substantial non-twitter system for distributing anything you care to distribute.

I can imagine the worth of a tiered system for convenience, but it is hard to imagine people adopting it when there is already a free way to conveniently move all the data you like.

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

Harold G. — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:42:57 -0000

David,

Thanks for injecting some information into the discussion. Illustrating positives rather than claiming them is always fruitful.

Thanks, Harold

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

John Sjölander — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:06:13 -0000

I would love to see that deck on slideshare. No links from either you or the commenters. Is it available?

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

fredwilson — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 07:15:18 -0000

Don¹t think so.

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

fredwilson — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 06:51:13 -0000

Great story about the cricket toy

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

fredwilson — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 06:38:14 -0000

Great comment Yule, as usual

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

fredwilson — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 06:34:09 -0000

That¹s a valid criticism

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

pruett — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:44:08 -0000

Twitter's simplistic take on social media is absolutely brilliant. The future of the "real time web" has a lot to owe to Twitter : http://tinyurl.com/94b88x

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

David Feldt — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 12:37:07 -0000

Here are three examples of the triumph of humanity enabled via Twitter:
1 . HOHOTO (http://cli.gs/2S4ZgS),
2. Twestival (http://twestival.com)
3. Tweetsgiving (http://cli.gs/pNU0dA)

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

marshal sandler — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 11:30:06 -0000

Thanks for your kudo's , I am 72 years old and can only be guided by an index ! I follow Mr Wilson's projects as a book reader I now use a Firefox Browser Add on from Adaptive Blue -Glue ! As a book addict I have been able to post on Glue my recent list of re reads-from the past like Naked Lunch that predicted the rise of Drug Addiciton, and the book by Robert Burton Anatomy of Melancholy possible the original book on psychiatry. It described one of our great social problems Depression, but was written in 1620. Since in fact Social Media as well as Microblogging are in their infancy Twitter and Glue have a real shot at defining social media! To read older great books is not ot live in the past but give us a reference point for the future ! Kids today are becoming tech addicts I hope some day the Kids will find a Kindle in every home and they will become Kindle Addicts and lay off the French Fries ! Puede Ser

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

fredwilson — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 11:28:18 -0000

Of course I meet people in the real world. Last night my wife and I met
three women from indiana who were in NY for the weekend at a wine bar in the
east village.

Something like that happens to me every day.

And exactly why are you talking about a service you¹ve never even used?

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

Yule Heibel — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:06:24 -0000

A couple of comments question Fred's use of the expression "citizen journalism" by asking whether being in the right place at the right time is enough to qualify as journalism. I'd argue that it does - if the persons who are there and take photos then also take the extra step to produce the content online (i.e., post it). It's all about whether or not someone moves from consuming an event to becoming a producer/ contributor.

I live in a much much smaller city, which incidentally is filled with all sorts of quirky, creative people, but it is HARD to get folks to produce in a socially shared space in which professional identity is more fluid. It's hard. You'll find many more consumers than producers any day.

One reason for this could be that people are still so married to categories: "I'm a writer," "I'm an artist," "I'm a journalist" - all professional categories. And somehow I'm supposed to leave the writing to the writer, the art-making to the artist, the reporting to the journalist. The artist sees something interesting, the writer witnesses an event - and they don't post their product (a photo, an account) online because that's the purview of the professional journalist.

But the journalist wasn't there.

Half a day later, the journalist writes up a third-hand account. It's good, but what's missing? The people who were there first hand.

If Twitter helps to dissolve the inhibition to wear the other guy's hat from time to time, that's not gawking or exploitation, that's human growth, isn't it?

Anyway, major news events are exceptions - but think about all the ways that participation (moving from consumption to production) can enrich community life at the local level, where people actually live? Ask yourself how many times you've heard about an interesting event in your city / community days *after* it happened, and how much better served you would have been if you had known "just in time" (perhaps so you could have attended it, in the case of a concert or lecture or political meeting)?

One of the only ways we'll see things change is if many, many citizens (citizen journalists) overcome their hangups and shift from being mere consumers of news to becoming producers, too. If Twitter or any other online tool / service helps to make this happen, more power to it.

PS: I also really liked what Marshal Sandler suggested, re. parsing out the various streams into subscription(s).

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

marshal sandler — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 18:14:27 -0000

I think the real value in Twitter shall be when it is a subscription service with subscriptions offered in certain categories ! I read a lot of books and would have not problem paying for a Literature Category ! Yes the Free service could be kept alive but the interface could have other paid categories we could subscribe to ! Business exists for profit and if Twitter had a few million people paying $1.00 per month per category Twitter could build a profit structure to add more features ! I think the paid categories should add larger tweet sections ! Hard to do a book review in 140 ! Many are not interested in Tech, Movies Books Television Art have a larger audience ! The free Twitter could be an engine to expand our interests
I am sure a Tech Person does not really want me to tweet about The Anatomy of Melancholy but a Psychiatrist would ! Micro Blogging is a tough call !

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

markslater — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:43:26 -0000

great analogy

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

Fraser — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:16:51 -0000

I remember a few amazing posts from Chartreuse about this very topic. It's a lesson that I preach everyday at work.

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

Rich Becker — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:16:23 -0000

It has always been about people. Where technology comes into play, especially social media, is that it accelerates the message and allows people to connect regardless of physical limitations. It's works together.

If the programming wasn't right, then Twitter would be Jaiku.

Best,
Rich

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

markslater — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 16:54:34 -0000

maybe i was being a bit harsh.

i actually dont really use twitter - simply because i have not found a real world use for it as such. i do manage a page of a football company i am involved with (www.concave.com/blog) and i have a tweet up there - but frankly have not figured out its use or usefulness yet.

and as the toronto example clearly shows - there are infinite ways that twitter may be of real use to people and yes to humanity - i guess my comments were aimed at the twitterrazzi element.

but come on fred - 'triumph of humanity' is a bit strong by any measure. It comes off to me as really cocky.

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

stoweboyd — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:23:54 -0000

Who's the creator of the slide? Link?

Re: It's About People, Not Technology

Drama 2.0 — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:19:49 -0000

Fred: I think that says more about you than it does about Twitter. While it's great that you've built new real-world relationships through Twitter, Twitter is a small world and the way it's structured is less-than-ideal (social media twats interact with social media twats, etc.).

When was the last time you made a new friend at the airport? When was the last time you started talking to a complete stranger at a coffee shop, bar or sporting event that turned into a friendship? Have you stopped to "engage" somebody on the street in the past year because they were doing something interesting, looked like they were having a good time or just felt like making someone's day?

At the risk of sounding pretentious, I'll say this: if you're meeting most of your new friends in a single place, let alone on a website, you might want to consider expanding your "social presence" in the world. Variety is the spice of life and it sounds like your spice rack has but one type of spice. How can you cook a flavorful meal with that?

By the way, since I'm not a Twitter user, I don't know what goes on via Twitter first-hand. I only know of what Twitter users themselves promote. And by that measurement, inane and insensitive gawking and self-congratulation seems to be what you and your peers find to be most deserving of promotion to the rest of the world.