Alan Weinkrantz’s Stream of Life

I was fortunate to attend a talk this evening in Tel Aviv given by Twitter's Biz Stone. (Thank you Kfir Pravda for inviting me.)

(photo: my name tag in Hebrew)

While Biz gave some interesting insights and snippets of information on how the company came to be, the real message that Biz focused on, was the driving belief that Twitter is not a triumph of technology, but rather one of humanity.

Biz said that if you give people a simple tool like Twitter, they can communicate in an open manner and that great things can happen. He pointed not to the business applications so much as to the power of this platform, but how Twitter has been used in social causes, and political movements such as Iran in disrupting traditional news media, and how if we can just foster a network of open communication, good things do happen.

His message seemed timely, especially in light of the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday. And speaking of Thanksgiving - yes, there's a Tweetsgiving in Tel Aviv tomorrow night that I will be taking part in.

I look forward to meeting the community that makes this yet another region of the world where the social web meets social good.

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If you are a credentialed media or blogger with an interest in China, the #140Conf / LA - October 27 and 28 is the place to be.  The event will be held at the Kodak Theater with #Kodak being our lead sponsor.

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Here's @jeffpulver creator of the #140Conf  - he was the guest of Pimm Fox on his Bloomberg TV show "Taking Stock."

During the segment Jeff spoke about the emerging real-time Internet and spoke briefly about the upcoming Los Angeles conference, The 140 Characters Conference taking place October 27-28 at the Kodak Theater / Sponsored by Kodak.

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In advance of the #140Conf coming up in LA and London, here is Jeff Pulver's view on the "State of Now"

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Here's an update that will provide a few more details on motivation and plans for the 140 Characters Conference NOW Award.

The NOW Award arose as an experiment in tracking Twittersphere merit and to supplement follower count as the measure of merit status quo. The relatively mild endorsement reflected in following someone leads to the quality versus quantity dispute. The NOW Award nomination process offers a mechanism for strong endorsement, because the nomination happens after the fact of following and requires the proactive nomination step (#140Conf vote @ <nominee>). 

As a result, the NOW Award creates a "best of" followers dynamic. Multiple means for assessing merit make sense in a context like Twitter where the number of options make trial and error navigation impossible. The growing volume of people active on Twitter meant a NOW Award along the lines of the People's Choice Award rather than Zagat's expert opinion route. The NOW Award team did not even attempt to shrink the pool of candidates via filtering phase as in the case of The America Idol. 

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In thinking how I use twitter, or for that matter, any type of social network, I find myself still thinking and operating in geographic regions of the world.

Sure, there are exceptions to the rule, and yes, I get that the world is flat, but I still find myself focused on specific regions and for different reasons. I live, work and have friends and some clients in San Antonio, where I "live."

But I also have the same thing happening in California and New York, and Israel. As far as Massachusetts and the UK, it's mostly "friends," both real and virtual.

In my areas of interest, I focus on PR, Social Media, Technology and of course my love of music.

This is my view and my map of my "#twittersphere."

What about yours?

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