Endopolis

I've got a facebook account that I use regularly, a linkedin profile, a digg account, a mixx account, a myspace page that I hardly ever use anymore... the list goes on. I have a limited amount of time to check the websites and news sites I like, plus keep up with my social networks.

Enter Twitter. I resisted the urge to join for a long time until recently. Friends and co-workers of mine have been on it seemingly forever, but not me. Call me late to the game, but it occurred to me a few months ago that Twitter is an extremely powerful news site and information source, not just a lame micro-blogging vanity tool for geeks. Then, the Twitter coverage of Sarah Lacy's interview of Mark Zuckerberg finally pushed me over the edge, convincing me that what is going on there is real. Plenty of others have seen the light for a long time, but I wasn't compelled to join until then. Not that Twitter itself is aggregating news or building a content site. But its users are breaking news, and I finally realized that it's worth paying close attention and participating.

The general public hasn't taken to Twitter yet -- who knows if it will. My mom doesn't know what Twitter is. But there's an interesting thing happening over there that is worth watching. So far and to my knowledge, Twitter users have only made news. In other words, they post items that are relatively or collectively newsworthy and other news outlets have picked it up as part of a broader event (see Lacy vs. Zuckerberg). Less often, a Twitter post qualifies as an event within itself (see the Berkeley grad student who tweeted himself out of Egyptian prison). Like other social networks, users are connected to friends or interest groups. There's no way to know who is worth watching or when news will be made by what someone posts to Twitter. There's no Twitter news bureau or reporting staff (yet).

I guess that's what's fascinating about it -- you never know what will happen on Twitter. Now if only someone could reveal those hidden news gems. For now, the mainstream media is doing it. But, you have to think that won't go on forever.
   

Posted by senders at 07:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today (at 3am PT!) we launched Good Morning Yahoo!, a project that I've been working on since drawing it on a white board last Fall. The site is pretty simple by design -- the goal was to create a morning news "show" centered around video, and provide users the ability to gather around the water cooler to discuss the topics of the day.

The project has been a fun one to work on for a couple of reasons. I've done a number of original and special projects for Yahoo! News, but this is the first that has gone from concept to reality so quickly, and in conjunction with a major sponsorship. I'm happy about that. Unfortunately, it didn't move the YHOO stock price up this morning. Oh well.

The concept was born from brainstorming in Santa Monica, and with the engineering team here in Sunnyvale. The crew built a working prototype from scratch for a Yahoo Hack Day last year. It placed among the top few hacks at the company, which proved we were on to something. We took that back to Santa Monica and shopped it around a bit, and almost immediately were in contact with an advertising team on the East Coast that was working on a deal with Dunkin Donuts. We presented the concept, brainstormed the idea further, agreed on a spec, secured the sponsorship, and voila, we have our site.

The site is also fairly challenging from a production and editorial standpoint. I won't get into details, but let's just say there's a lot of thought and work going into the content mix and keeping the site fresh every day.

Hope you like it. 

Posted by senders at 09:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

We got to see one of my rock n' roll heroes on Saturday night. Eddie Vedder played a (mostly) solo and (mostly) acoustic show at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium as part of his brief, current west coast tour.  He packed the sold-out house with probably about 2,500 people and had them all captivated for well over two hours.

He played a mix of classic Pearl Jam tunes, songs from his Into the Wild soundtrack, a few other covers, and even a song about Santa Cruz that he apparently wrote after pulling into town. It was fun, but I don't think the song has quite the staying power as "Do you know the way to San Jose," "New York, New York," etc.

Anyway, the show was awesome, and who knew that Eddie really had enough guitar chops to blaze through two hours of music? Believe it - he rips and can do it all from fast punk-inspired stuff (fast  power chords on "Lubens" with an acoustic guitar) to more intricate work on the Wild songs like "Guaranteed."

He kept the show personal, telling a few stories and opening up to the crowd. The punk/rock show feel was still in effect though, as some in the crowd shouted and fired back "Who cares!?" All the more fun. Even he laughed about it, as well as laughing after flubbing the opening lyrics to one of the songs. 

Later, he had the crowd up on its feet, especially when he played a rousing "Hard Sun" (arguably the best song on the Wild album) as the final encore alongside opening act Liam Finn. Totally inspiring stuff.

Here's the Mercury News' official review. Nice to be validated. 

Posted by senders at 03:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)