Pownce tee provided by Startups Schwag.

As you already know, I’m a big fan of the 2.0 social nets. I was an early adopter of the big three 2.0s: Facebook, Twitter, and Pownce. (We shall not mention myspace. I like to pretend that it doesn’t exist). So far I’ve maintained active accounts in all three, but lately I find my ability to keep up witty repartee a la hotdogladies on all three almost impossible.

After a while, I find my tweets turning more into “What are you putting on your toast this morning?” than intelligent commentary of the technerdy things I’m doing. Plus, with the audience of these three nets differing so dramatically it’s not really appropriate to copy and paste or feed your status from one soc net to the others.

Twitter’s audience is uber geeky, from the tech, design, and blogging elite, to the politically active, to the dot com moguls. Anyone who is anyone on the www is on Twitter. Pownce seems to draw in a mixed bunch of users. For me, Pownce’s audience seems quite diverse, somewhere in between Twitter and Facebook with a huge teenage population who love youtube clips. Wowie! And the behemoth Facebook seems to attract everyone, including grandparents, ex-flings, your 9th grade English teacher, your arch nemisis, your 12 year-old Turkish penpal, and that annoying kid that ate Beefaroni out of old camping thermos everyday for lunch… Seriously, who isn’t on Facebook? I can only think of one person I know who isn’t on Facebook.

So if you are to keep the peace between your geeky Twitter iFriends and your tech-illiterate Facebook friends and your uber trendy Pownce friends you probably shouldn’t feed your daily WP plug-in tweets to your other nets. I find that it confuses people and then I have to explain things to people who think that Google is the internet and then I get annoyed and then bored and then I fall asleep in mid-sentence. And people seem to not like it when you fall asleep during dinner time discussions. Oops. Plus, with so many people on multiple nets, you don’t want to be double, or triple posting stuff to the same people.

What’s the solution then you lazy smart arse? Well, I think if you want to maximize your networking and community building opportunities you really need all three. I feel the same way with IM programs. You really need Adium, iChat, and Skype to communicate to all your iPeeps. But, in order to minimize the amount of time and effort you need pick one 2.0 net as your home base. This is where the majority of your updates and networking happens.

For me it’s Twitter. I have the most contacts on twitter and find it to be the best resource for tech updates, random geekiness, and general good times, including drunk tweets (:p) But, I must say there are a lot of fun times on Pownce. The ability to share photos, vids, and muxtapes is pretty awesome. I do think that Pownce is underrated, and I think in the next year it we will see it really catch on. But for some reason I don’t think that the Twitterati will ever abandon the little bird, no matter how many times they see him upside down or robotized or 404ed.

What’s your 2.0 home base? What do you find good or bad about this trifecta of 2.0? Do you use Twitter, Pownce, and Facebook? Opinions? Thoughts? Or comments on my drumming skills?

PS. Why am I sat in front of an uber kit? Kind of random isn’t it? More sweet photos and a special DIY photo blog from my latest shoot with uber Vancouver drummer, Jesse Godin this week!

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Opera T-shirt provided by Startup Schwag.

Captions for these photo are welcome.

PS. I already thought of “Horny for Opera”

In the last year, I have been on a quest to find an application that will allow me to upload and organize my flickr photos from my desktop. I’ll be honest, I hate the navigation and homepage on Flickr. I just don’t vibe with the work flow. It’s just not instinctive to me and I find myself constantly backtracking and fiddling with tags and sets and clicking on avatars and drop down menus… Uh. Enough!

Today, my quest finally ended when I met: Photonic: Flickr Client for Mac OS X.

Looks nice. Uploading, tagging, setting privacy, and adding photos to sets and groups is easy peasy. You can even view your contacts photos and explore the flickr universe all from the comfort of your desktop. And after playing around with it for several hours, I can find no real fault with it. Also, it appears to run smoothly with Leopard. Yeah! That’s some good news.

In my on-going quest to simplify my iLife and increase productivity, I have decided to dump one of the 15 social nets I belong to each week. Is it really 15? That explains my ability to procrastinate building Redpilot’s web site for a year. *guilty as charged*

This week, I’m leaning towards Mashable. I joined just over a week ago and haven’t really given it a go, but to be honest, I just don’t like the look and feel of “mymashable”. While I like the site for keeping up to date with all 2.0 mash-up news, the community seems scattered an inaccessible. Plus, the ratio of bikini bum, girls-sucking-on-lollipops, and lol cat avatars likens this community population to myspace. And that ain’t a good thing. While I hope my 13 friends will forgive me and find me on my other social nets, I’m afraid that Mashable just doesn’t quite cut it.

Unable to make the final decision myself, I have enlisted my good friend, Speak & Spell the talking computer, to help me decide.

There it is. The Speak & Spell has spoken. Mashable, you have one day to pack up your belongings, iFriends, and leave my bookmarks bar forever.

PS. I’m off to the airport to catch my flight to sunny England! don’t worry I packed a few of my favourite Wired items in my suitcase. Cheerio!

Ok, so you know how last week I said that I was spending way too much time joining, profiling, friending, surfing and searching for lost passwords on the plethora of buzzing social nets on the www? And how I was gonna start to take control of my iLife by chucking out the social nets I didn’t think were useful/cool/interesting/informative and committing my time to more useful pursuits?

Yeah. Well. After one week I have been about thiiiis successful:

AKA: Not. So. Much.

(Aside: Remember how Xander used to say that all the time? Sometimes I miss the Scoobies so much it hurts).

I guess it’s my rebellious nature, but after making that “resolution”, the temptation for joining new social nets was even greater. And my delight in breaking the rules, resulted in the following:

Stumbleupon
Mashable
9 rules

So far the thing that’s annoyed me the most is that Mashable, StumbleUpon, and Digg are all incompatible with Safari? What gives? I had to download Firefox again just to complete my profile. This does not bode well for these nets as I am a Safari only user. And although I love the beautifully designed FF logo and the ease of the delicious plug-in I’m just feel more, well, “me” when I use Safari. And let’s not downplay the importance of feeling comfortable with your browser. I mean if you can’t be yourself with your browser, then how can you really be legit with your IM client?

I also got avatar friendly with the following blogging communities:

Twenty Something Bloggers
BlogCatalog
Bloglog

If you have any valid reasons for me to dump any of these or the nets on my sidebar i.e. Jaiku totally blows OR Pownce artificially inseminated me with evil alien spawn OR my ex-boyfriend stalked me on Facebook (all true by the way… mostly).

**Please help me. I have a problem. Perhaps someone should intervene and take temporary legal control over my social net affairs and assets.

I cannot tell you how giddy I am right now. I have been through the ringer trying to embed videos, create photo galleries, post videos, make buttons, side bar video thumbnails … It’s always a hassle, especially since I’m not a whizz at flash. I used Widgetbox.com for quite a few JS widgets for my revver videos, 2.0 mashups on my old blogspot blog. And since moving to Wordpress, I’ve relied on the plethora of WP plug-ins. But more often than not, they don’t work, or do what I want them to do. I’ve always wanted a really clean, simple, and functional image gallery. And the Flicker Albums plug-in ain’t cutting it.

But at 2am this eve, Techcrunch brought Sprout: The Online WYSIWYG Editor for Flash into my world. I’ve been playing with it for about 30 minutes and it is dead easy to use, especially if you have a PS background. You can create a video album, audio player or a music playlist, and a image slideshow in seconds that the lovely Sprout coding monkey will publish to most social net sites i.e., Facebook, Myspace, blogger, WordPress, LiveJournal, page flakes, etc.

To test the new site, I made my first “Sprout”: An image slideshow of some shots I took at my first Wedding shoot. It took me less than 15 mins to create and customize my sprout. All I had to do was import my flickr photos and Sprout did the rest. There are controllers at the bottom for pause/play and fwd/back. I was also able to add a hyperlink to my flicker album at the bottom. (Takes a few seconds to load)

The other day I met up with an old friend from my Blades of Glory days who asked, “When did you get so geeky with all that stuff on the internet?” (he’s not so technologically inclined). “You used to be so… organic,” he continued. I’m not entirely sure what he meant by “organic”… i blended well with shrubbery… i smelled a bit like dirt… i was tasty, good for you, and wasn’t sprayed in loads of pesticides???

Whatever he meant, I’ll admit that I’ve gotten pretty intensely geeky with social nets over the last few years. My very first experience was with MySpace in 2004. I lasted one month. During that month, I received over 100 creepy messages from internet suitors and Sir Spam-a-Lot. That, and the design aesthetic alone, was enough to turn me off MySpace permanently. But having a small taste of an internet community started an insatiable hunger in me to connect and be heard.

After finishing graduate school, I had a wee bit of a “Post-University-WTF-do-I-do-with-My-Life-Now?!?” Crisis. I literally ran screaming from my MA defense all the way down the west coast to Anaheim, California, through the Disneyland gates, to Futureland and up the steps to Space Mountain, then across the park to Splash Mountain, then finally settled during Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride (Peter Pan was closed. Lame.)

This was the beginning of my “Return-to-Childhood-Shirk-All-Adult-Responsibilities” phase. So far it’s lasted 4 years. I may push it through 2008, just for good luck.

So after uni ended, I moved from Victoria to the big city of Vancouver to find work and I was lonely and needed a creative outlet so I started my first blog “they mostly come out at night… mostly @blogspot in November 2006. The community was immense, but I am a bit of an elitist snob so I moved to Wordpress shortly thereafter. And it was in one of these blogging commuities, that I read about the Facebook phenomenon.

I was most reluctant to join Facebook and put it off for quite some time. It’s reputation as an American college dating site really turned me off. But one day I joined, and ever since I’ve been moaning about it. For every good experience there seem to be 10 bad ones. The wasted time looking at crappy, poorly lit, drunken self-portraits kills me, yet I can’t seem to part with the random delight of connecting with some really cool people.

Which brings me to my beloved Twitter. On June 20, 2007, I began my journey with Twitter. I started out slow, twittering to myself in the wee hours. And then within a month, I got literally obsessed with tweeting my every move and @tweeting everyone elses’. ‘What are you doing?’ became ‘What are you wearing, eating, drinking, listening to, thinking about?’ and most importantly ‘What techno iGadget are you lusting after?’ It was brilliant. it changed my everyday mundane existence into a bright and shiny one that I could share with glittering iFriends. And they are so beautiful.

And that’s how it started. And from there it all went pear-shaped. I lost control and the beast started controlling me. I was literally signing up to a new social net everyday. I’d create a profile, surf for a bit, add a few friends, then I’d lose my password, get locked out, and forget about it all by the next morning when more fresh, crispy bacn arrived in my inbox.

I’m at the point now where I can’t keep track of it all and I’m finding myself aimlessly wandering the 2.0 www for hours without a single recollection of what I’m doing, what I just did, and the kicker, why?

So over the next couple months I’m gonna start chucking the 2.0 losers and committing to the 2.0 winners.

Here’s the list I’ll be dealing with:
Twitter
Flickr
Lastfm
Facebook
Revver
Pownce
Virb
Vimeo
Digg
Jaiku
MyBlogLog
del.icio.us
Technorati
StumbleUpon

I know there are more, but I’ve already forgotten what they were. Anyway, this post is too long. I’m boring myself. I’d rather hear what you have to say. So lemme know what your favourite 2.0 nets are and what you love and hate about them. Much Love.

Hizzah Hizzah. Thanks to Jonathan, and all the uber l33t people at Revver for creating this much needed plug-in for Revver and WP users.

Publish, manage, and track your video content all without ever leaving your own website, and even allow your subscribers to submit their own video responses to your posts! It’s your own interactive video portal, made simple with Revver and Wordpress.

I totally digg this new plug-in. I will ftp this up to my new site (what? you have a new site??? oh yes, my new super sweet blag is nearing completion and will be up and running in the next few weeks. excited??? i sure am. i’m ready to move to the big leagues of blogging!)

no scrobbling… no listening to Mark and Tom’s sweet sweet indie rock playlists… and Slaff’s pumpin’ dance beats, or mopatop’s crazy rave mixes… wha- wha- whaddam i gunna do now?

breathe in. breath out. calm yourself… AND to make matters worse, on September 5th, my bff Facebook launched their “public listing search” which means that your profile picture and full name and your network & friends names (if you haven’t set your privacy settings) are searchable by anyone, even if they not belong to facebook. They now have ability to search for you and message you, poke you, or add you as a friend.

Sweet.

And by the end of the month, Fb’s public search listings will be opening up to the entire www via search engines. That means that Google have your number and that annoying ex-boyfriend you’ve been trying to hide from for like 3 years will be able to Googly you easy peazy!

My opinion: “That Sucz Big time Fb!” — and you can quote me.

My advice: “Lock up your privacy settings tiiiiigght! OR *run far far away* AND join twitter! yay!

i will now just go sulk in a corner whilst listening to unscrobbled music on my ancient iPod Mini (that is still kicking… mostly. battery life approx. 8 mins or about one Sigur Rós song.)

So. Very. Extremely. A bit too much actually. People are actually concerned about me. I know I probably shouldn’t join another social net, but I get caught up in the moment. It’s such a rush. The joining. The setting up. The customizing. The friending. The snooping around. I’ll admit it. I get Zissou *crazy eyes* every time i jack into a new net of uber nerds. FYI. Matrix references are so 1.0.

Some 2.0s i’m currently digging.

Lastfm

I was slow to jump on this bandwagon. But I joined today and I am totally loving it. It’s like Pandora (which is now unaccessible to people outside of the US) + a social net of music lovers. Sharing, listening and talking about music is one of my favourite things and getting introduced to new wikkid music is the best thing ever.

The lastfm OSX App is pretty sweet. I love reading the bios of my fav artists, looking at their album art, and getting cool music recommendations.

Pownce

Though i still have been utilizing Pownce to it’s full awesomeness. This theme has made me want to. Love this Theme.

Gleamd is all about sheading light on cool people. You can vote for people to make them uber cool or learn about new cool people that you might not have known about. It’s all kinda inspiring!

Twitter. Lovable Twitter.

I love twitter. Some people (ahem… Tom) don’t get twitter. But after joining over 10 different social nets, twitter remains the ultimate champion. I can’t get enough of the my Twitter iFriends’ updates. They are my personal digg guide to the uber cool on the www. Somehow, they always seem to get to the latest and greatest news before anyone else. they are pretty much online all day and night which makes me feel more “normal” and less c-c-crazy and ob.sess.d.

And now a special high five to my beloved Twitter iFriends!

Here are some of my all time favourite Tweets. (I keep them for sentimental reasons).

Dmitry – Paid $70 for a new card because bank said the old one had been compromised. Biz idea: a bank that “compromises” cards and asks for reissue.

Vladimir – taking a meal in Russian Ministry of Emergencies. Bean soup+plov+salade=49 rubles (~$1.9), how do you like it?:)

Nik Amazed at how much BS some people will talk on Twitter to seem “cool” to people they will never meet. It’s just pathetic.

Nathan – Is there a way to turn down the pitch on Amber MacArthur?

Merlin – They should make a Bluetooth earpiece that squirts cologne and yells at waitresses for you. I’d call it “Le Douchebagoir™.”

oh Merlin! I am still laughing. There are so many more… but i’m totally dunzo. Dunzo. And I am shooting a campaign for Reflections eyewear. As the model. I know. A little role reversal never hurt anyone… or did it? Should be defo cool to work with uber photog Darryl Humphrey.

Later Peeps.

My Blog? they mostly come out at night …mostly?

Really? Me too. Wow. I feel so connected to you right now.

Kidding. As if I would have my own blog as my homepage?! That’s so vain!!! Jeez, how self-involved is that? *awkward laughter*

Is it? *awkward pause*

Guys? I can’t see your wall? Why can’t I see your fb wall? huh. so weird.

Serious Now.

Recently, I set-up my iGoogle (a personalized Google homepage). I was almost too chill to jump on the bandwagon… but it just looked too cool totally uber geeky… so I just couldn’t stop myself.

Nerdy Google Gadgets I Like:

1. Twitter (of course. first gadget added).
2. Wordpress Post Gadget
3. Ambient Clock (uber nerdy)
4. Macworld
5. Mashable!
6. AppleInsider
7. MacRumors
8. Engadget

So if your life ain’t Googly enough… Google yourself an iGoogle.

~ and Google then said, “Jump for me little techno monkey!”
And I said, “How Hiiiigh!!”
And then I did a nerdy little dance. *shameful*