In the theory of limited time and resources, if people do more of one thing then they do less of something else.  So if Twitter is growing, what is losing out?  Are Twitter, WordPress, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yammer, etc. competitors, or do they complement each other?  I have accounts on all these services, and for me they complement each other nicely: Read the rest of this entry »

WordCamp NYC had so much good stuff going I missed plenty of interesting talks.  One thread I caught a whiff of, and made a note to explore further, is the use of child themes in WordPress site design.  The feature is quite new, just appearing in version 2.7.  The ideal is that the parent part of the theme handles the structural type elements, and the child handles the decorative stuff.  I missed the child-theme talk at WordCamp, but luckily the session is now posted on WordPress.tv – explore your inner child and get own WordPress child themes going!

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In a recent post and at a session at last weekend’s WordCamp NYC Jim Groom questions how much commercialization belongs in the WordPress community.  A post on the WPMU.ORG blog, holds that WordPress’ future is in premium, purchased plug-ins, a point Jim takes great exception to.  He points out that the strength and quality of WordPress is a direct result of the active, sharing community, and if increased commercialization displaced this shared ethos, then WordPress might well suffer.  And while I agree with Jim, I also wonder if this isn’t an inevitable phase in the growth of WordPress and other active open source projects.

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We had a good group watching the Effective Use of Social Media for Student Recruitment webcast last week.  The session was nicely moderated by Jacques Steinberg of the New York Times, with speakers Robert Moore a consultant and Greg Carroll from Furman University.  A couple of take-aways: Read the rest of this entry »

LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and now Yammer?  How many Adobe Air desktop clients can I have running at once?  TweetDeck does Twitter and Facebook, but not Yammer (yet).  How many live streams should I keep up with?  Once you start on a social network can you stop?  Why can’t everyone just agree on one for personal and one for business use?

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Twitter and other companies are smart enough to let their users innovate — see what catches on — and then integrate the successful features.  At the university can we empower students to do the same with classroom technology systems and course management/learning systems?  Why not?  Our users are certainly a cut above the average Twitter user — at least more selectively chosen!

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