Has Twitter Reached the Tipping Point?

Image via CrunchBase The buzz around Twitter as well as the usage continues to grow, I blogged about my reasons for using in an earlier post.

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell talks about the underlying factors that push a service, product or even an epidemic over the top and into high growth rates.

I recently finished his book and if you look at the articles that are appearing across the internet, it might be that Twitter has reached that point or might be there very soon.

Some of the indicators that I see are fairly obvious like growth. As you can see in the following post there has been tremendous growth over the past year. This appears to show that the 'Connectors' in the online world have done their job and the followers are now starting to connect to one another to drive this growth.

Twitter is Growing Like Crazy: Up 422% in 12 Months

But for me, the factor that shows me there may be a real growth spurt that will continue is the use by more and more 'Mavens'. Mavens are people that are very knowledgeable in their fields and are ready to share with others. Not for profit, but just because they want to.

I currently follow a combination of 'Mavens' in various fields. Several of them are very conversant in the stock market and financial's of the world, which has been very interesting reading during the current market meltdown. Others I follow are professional journalists where you get some of the back story discussions behind the headlines. And then there are other times you just get lucky and find someone that is in New Orleans during Hurricane Gustav.

Whatever the actual reason is I see Twitter growth continuing and I am excited to be a part of it. Do you Twitter?

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Burn After Reading

Image via Wikipedia Burn after Reading is a fun offbeat movie from the Coen brothers, who are also know for the likes of Fargo.

There was a nice crowd last night at the late showing and they were treated to a fun movie with some rather interesting twists and just general nonsense. I had a great time.

George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malcovick and the resat of the cast were put into some very interesting characters by the Coen brothers and thye made for a fun night with a film where we didn't really learn anything (watch the movie to understand that).

The movie scene the last couple of months has been pretty barren in my opinion, but this is a movie worth going to see, but be advised these are not typical roles for the stars that are in this movie.

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Radio, Radio

Image via Wikipedia I found a little time today during lunch and decided to write up Last.fm.

I'm listening to 'Arcade Fire - Intervention' right now, you can see what I have been listening to lately in the widget on the sidebar of this page.

I don't own any 'Arcade Fire' CD's yet, but I might soon. I caught this group on 'Austin City Limits' a while back and have been meaning to look into more of them.

This is very cool, Stevie Wonder's Superstition just came on. I haven't heard that in a while and I have always loved that.

Last.fm is an online service that allows you to set up your own list of favorite artists and then plays a stream of songs for you from that list. You can add artists and select favorites. Then the service streams a continuous flow of music from the artists you have in your library.

I still have a lot of exploring to do. I need to figure out how neighbors works. What is a scroble? There are videos and a section for events. It looks like they can tell you where the artist is performing in the near future.

There are other options that I need to look into further, but so far I am loving this.

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Politics and Technology

Image via Wikipedia What do you think the role of technology will have in this years election?

In my opinion I see the Obama campaign hoping to leverage their apparent advantage in web savvy over the McCain campaign.

Now I don't expect there is any great advantage between the two campaigns in their technical skills or knowledge. No I just see a better flow of information and connections on the Democratic side and a more natural feel when you hear Barack Obama talking about such things. The Republican message is just as prominent on the web, but the flow throughout the entire organization doesn't seem as smooth or natural.

Will this mean anything when we go to the polls? It might, but then again even though everyone reading this is connected to the web somehow, there are millions of Americans that are not.

With the closeness of the last few elections I see any advantage as being an important one. I hear of, but I am not aware of, online campaigns to sign new voters and grow the democratic party in areas that may not of been fertile grounds before. If these types of efforts are successful there could be shifts in some of the states that were not considered battleground states before.

If this gets more people involved it is a good thing, no matter where you stand in party affiliation.

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Chrome - All Polish or Substance Too?

Image by Doblonaut via Flickr Talk about a buzz.

The tech world is all about Google's new browser, Chrome. There doesn't appear to be much else out there right now, so Google has succeeded. They are the story.

This is a Beta release for public review and feedback. If they aren't overwhelmed by the feedback they could end up with the most reviewed and evaluated release ever. I wonder if Chrome had download levels near the FF3 global release party a while back. Probably not, but they didn't really push it.

This has been really viral among the early adopters in the tech industry.

From the sources I have read so far, the early feedback is very positive, with several shortcomings. This should be expected. Google has the people and brainpower to develop a quality product, but this is a Beta release that was meant to generate feedback.

I will wait for a while to see more the early feedback and to see what comes of some of the more significant problems that have been seen. I am looking forward to trying this out.

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Phillies and Other Thoughts

Image via Wikipedia Sitting here watching the Phillies against the Washington Nationals. The once unhittable Chad Durbin is looking very hittable. The Mets already won, so losing to the Nats is not a good option.

This late in the season last year, we were probably further out, but the Phils are struggling to get the hits when they should be carrying the team. The bullpen has carried them most of the season. Now is the time for the hitters to step up.

If we don't put something together to finish this game, we will be in a precarious position for the weekend series against the Mets. A late season sweep would be ideal, but the Mets are playing well right now, so hoping to get two at this point.

I may even need to watch the Republican convention if things don't start turing around. Well you know how it goes in Citizens Bank Park late in a game like this, E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES.

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