Bill Cammack » Michelle DeForest

Michelle, Tim, Irene, Bre & Caroline

Bill Cammack — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:45:26 +0000

DSC_4054, originally uploaded by brianvan.

Michelle DeForest, Tim Shey, Irene Polnyi, Bre Pettis & Caroline McCarthy
All-Star Pointers. RAWK! :D

Michelle & Bill

Bill Cammack — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:42:32 +0000

Michelle & Bill, originally uploaded by Bill Cammack.

Michelle DeForest & Bill Cammack
Next New Networks / Barely Digital Launch Party
February 10, 2009

Next New Networks / Barely Digital Launch Party

Bill Cammack — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:29:32 +0000

Next New Networks / Barely Digital Launch Party – February 10, 2009

Twitter? Or Your Blog?

Bill Cammack — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:24:14 +0000

Twitter changed the game as far as blogging. Instead of posting something, and MAYBE people would stop by your blog and MAYBE they’d read your articles and MAYBE they’d leave a comment, all of a sudden, what you had to say was being pushed to people who actually REQUESTED to hear what you had to say by following you and then either checking the site itself or installing an app or widget on their computers or phones.

Twitter > Bill

I noticed that the traffic on the Yahoo Videoblogging Group fell off DRASTICALLY as Twitter presented a far better and faster way for people to get immediate responses to questions than an email list.

I also noticed A LOT OF PEOPLE putting a lot of their ideas on Twitter instead of their own blogs. I didn’t really think much of that until I talked with Tyme White about it ten (10) months ago, back in March, 2008:

Tyme: “Yes, the conversations are moving away from blogs but the problem is the same problem that has always existed, one I warned about at least two years ago. How many times has a writer published an article, a larger site wrote about it, and the conversation took place every where but on the writerâ€™s site? Same problem – the writer would have to keep up with those conversations. Now, the same root problem exists, but there are many more sites where the conversation can take place. The writer publishes the entry and now a discussion can happen on the originating blog, any blogs that write about it, any site that aggregates content (Reddit, Chawlk, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc.), Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, any of the social sites that are popping up, forumsâ€¦the list is long.”

The question is: does it matter to the writer if the conversation takes place in other places? If the answer is no, the writer would have one strategy. If the answer is yes, it does matter and the preference is for the conversation to take place on their blog, well, that would take a different strategy, wouldnâ€™t it?”

So, referencing that practically-one-year-old post by Tyme… Does it matter where *YOU* blog your material? I blog mine to BillCammack.com. I post references to my blog posts on Twitter and Tumblr.

On December 18th, 2008, Wayne Sutton blogged about the advice he received from Tyme months and months ago:

Wayne: Earlier this year I had a conversation with Tyme White about twitter and personal branding that had stuck in my head ever since I got off the phone with her. She brought up the fact that I had a lot of twitter followers but where or how would I stay connected with those followers if twitter goes down (fail whale) , twitter gets purchased by google & closed like Pownce or their business model just doesnâ€™t work and everyone leaves the community.

* For the record, that conversation actually happened months before Pownce got shut down, but I understand what Wayne was trying to say as far as making his point. *

So Wayne has over 11,000 twitter followers. It would seem to make sense for him to post to twitter a lot…

Tyme: “The reason why the conversation goes on without the writer being involved (and this is going to hurt but itâ€™s the truth) is because the commenter doesnâ€™t really care about talking to the writer. The commenter cares about commenting on the article. Unless the writer has a direct connection with their audience, the hurdle of converting a reader to a commenter is tough enough. If the reader finds the article on another site, it is a tougher hurdle to get the reader to leave the site he or she is on (particularly if it is a favorite site), and convert that reader into a commenter on the original site the article was published on. To achieve that type of interaction a deeper connection than publishing articles and hoping someone reads them is required.”

On December 20th, 2008, Chris Brogan wrote “Of Streams and Stopping Points”:

Chris: “Twitter is a stream. Facebook is both a stream and a stopping point (but mostly a stream). Your blog is a stopping point pretending to be a stream.

Itâ€™s important to think about where you want information to live, and how you want it to impact the world. For everything you toss into a stream rolls past, and if Iâ€™m not at the stream when you throw your leaf onto the waters, Iâ€™ll miss the leaf entirely, or perhaps catch only the ripples.”

I think this is a really good way to think about this topic. Do you want to post your ideas to a stream or to a stopping point? Like I said earlier, I post my ideas to stopping points, but I publicize them in streams. The question is… Which style is more relevant to the information you have for the public? Should you use streams, stopping points, or a combination of the two?

I think the answer depends upon the type of information that you’re presenting to the world.

There are lots of people who write tech blogs who are entirely derivative. All they’re really doing is regurgitating what they read or heard somewhere else and MAYBE.. if we’re LUCKY… adding literally two cents worth of their own commentary to the original information. These people are more like reporters than bloggers. They’re like the television news, informing you about what happened or what MIGHT happen. I’ve done blog posts like this, like this 2007 post where I “reported” that there was a New Joost Version Available”.

There’s no information there other than the facts that you could have read anywhere else. On top of that, that post ceased to be relevant almost immediately. Nobody cares on December 29, 2008 that a new Joost version was available on April 03, 2007.

If this is the type of information that you have to offer the blogosphere, put it on Twitter. People will see it quickly, react to it, give you credit for it, and then it will blow away in the wind. Nobody cares that it blew away, because your information was only as useful as it was timely and relevant.

OTOH, some people post original ideas that happen to be evergreen. These would be posts that are just as relevant today as they were on April 03, 2007. You do NOT want “How To Break Up With Your Girl” or “Why professionals avoid web video” to blow away, because people always want to know these things.

This is why I post to my own blog and use twitter/tumblr/etc for announcement purposes. I post evergreen, consistently relevant and interesting material, so it needs to be available when someone new searches Google for something that I wrote two years ago.

You wouldn’t, for instance, want this TIMELESS CLASSIC to go unseen, because you only referred to it on Twitter! hahahaha :D :

Permalink: Wayne Sutton TV

* Yes. I know that the video above gives an error message. Go to Wayne’s site if you want to actually see it. That’s really smart, making a video not embeddable….. *

So where should your material “live”? Should it rest on the temporary stream of twitter or the stopping point of your own blog? Who’s going to care next year about what you posted this year? Who’s going to care tomorrow about what you posted yesterday? Who’s going to care an hour from now about what you posted just now?

If you think people are going to care, make sure people can find your material on Google by posting it on a stopping point instead of tossing it away, down the stream.

~Bill

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Tech Stole Your Girlfriend!

Bill Cammack — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:28:22 +0000

A lot of guys are paranoid that they’re going to lose their women or that they’re going to cheat on them with the next man. Those days are over. There’s a new sheriff in town… A new menace, threatening the raps and relationships of guys across the country and throughout the entire world. This menace needs to be recognized and STOPPED IN ITS TRACKS before it’s able to take down all of human civilization….

Fellaz!!! Gather together in UNITY, against our COMMON ENEMY!!!

TECH!!! :(

Morpheus: We don’t know who struck first. Us or them. But we do know it was us that scorched the sky. At the time, they were dependent on solar power. It was believed they would be unable to survive without an energy source as abundant as the sun……

Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony…..

Now, I know you’re probably laughing and you think The Kid’s trippin’, but hold on to your hats. I have evidence! :D

I didn’t think anything of it at the time… but NINE MONTHS AGO, back in January, 2008, I was at a TweetUp and tried to take this picture:

Now… Joyce, Julia, Jesse and myself are all looking right at the camera. That would appear to indicate that the photographer had called everyone’s attention to the fact that a picture was about to be taken… But Wait A Minute!!!… Where’s LAURA looking? That’s right… at TECH. Now, in case you thought she wasn’t AWARE that a picture was being taken, look how she has that “I’m about to be in a picture” smile on her face… YET she CAIN’T tear herself away from TECH to fully engage the photographer with everyone else. :/

Like I said, I didn’t think anything of it at the time. It was just a funny aspect of one of my myriad Flickr pictures.

So fast forward six months to June, 2008. I go to a NNN / Tumblr Rock Band party, and I’m trying to talk to Michelle:

BOOM! Look at that! TECH rears its ugly head again! See the disparity? A brotha’z gettin’ his DRINK on, and a sistah’z gettin’ her TECH on! You see where this is going? This is a serious problem, guys. :(

So a couple of weeks later, still in June 2008, (even though Mike jacked up the shot, and you can’t see the TECH), I’m trying to get Lux’s attention, but nooooooooo… TECH wins AGAIN! :(

So the last straw, and where I realized this post needed to be written, was three months after that, in September, 2008. I attended TechSet, and Bryan wanted to take a picture of Chrissie & The Kid:

Photo by Bryan Thatcher

Notice how I’m already posing, the shot is already framed and the flash is mounted on the camera and working properly. Meanwhile, Chrissie’s FULL ATTENTION is on TECH, except for the motor skills she’s siphoned off to tell me something that was probably “Right after I finish Twittering…” :/

Now, to all of my friends’ credit, I have great, non-Tech-cockblocked pictures with Michelle, Lux, Laura AND Chrissie, hahaha :D Still… The problem has been REVEALED and must be ADDRESSED!

If your girl seems distant, do NOT blame the next man… blame TECH! :(
If your girl is late to meet you somewhere, BLAME TECH!
If your girl doesn’t show up AT ALL, it’s probably because TECH changed the location in her calendar application.
If your girl doesn’t answer her phone, it’s probably because TECH is redirecting *YOUR* calls to her voicemail.
Every time your girlfriend “dialed you with her ass”, that was TECH calling you up to inform you how good a time she was having WITHOUT. YOU!

Get the picture? Guys, we have GOT to band together, before it’s too late!!!

If you STILL don’t believe me… Did you notice that the next big thing is called… ANDROID?

Check these guys out! hahaha “Hi ………… Wel Come To Moun Tain View California…… I Am Spea King Here At Goo Gle’s Headquarters” hahaha

I guarantee you the android phones will steal their women, ASAP. Watch! :D

Go ahead and keep sleeping, dudes, but when it happens TO YOU… Just remember that The Kid warned you to keep your girl FAR. AWAY. FROM. TECH!

If she wants to go to Cancun with her girlfriends, no problem. If she wants to get a new Tech Gadget, *VETO* that ish WITH THA QUICKNEZZ!!! :D

~Bill

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