Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Category: Web/Tech (Page 1 of 21)

Blogging Gone Wild

TechSurfBlog-post1 People who've been reading this blog for a while may know I started it in 2005. That's a long time in blog years, and it's resulted in a monstrous archive of what people now call "long-form blogging" — at least it is for me, as one, lone writer.  My quick tally is about 400,000-500,000 words (several books' worth), and I can't even begin to guess the *time* I have into it. Let's just say it's been countless thousands of hours that I've spent filling this space — planning, thinking, writing, editing, covering events, managing comments, and, not the least, all the time spent in the behind-the-scenes (pain in the ass) administration of the site. That last part is especially a challenge with Typepad, the platform I chose way back when. Unfortunately, it hasn't kept up with bloggers' needs, especially from a UI/ease-of-use standpoint. (But the time to convert my blog to WordPress, as I might like, has just been way too much of a time hurdle to consider if I want to keep paying the bills with the income I have to generate in the non-blogging part of my business life.)

The whole notion of "micro" blogging wasn't even in our minds back in 2005. But, of course, those of you who follow me regularly know I've been posting the majority of my online content for the past few years on a certain site that starts with a "T"Twitter-logo With 11,000+ tweets there, at 140 characters each, that works out to some 200,000 words. And to say that's cut into my long-form blogging frequency here on this blog would be a gross understatement. Twitter, as it turned out, opened the floodgates on short-form, real-time blogging. But "blogging" almost seems like the wrong word these days, doesn't it?  Seems like it's really just about "content sharing" anymore, in the age we're in of never-ending "status updates." Speaking of which, yes, I'm of course on Facebook, too — here and here. Friend me at the first (my personal page) and fan me at the second (my company page). Or is it all about "Likes"? Whatever! Just click something there, will ya, and I'll be happy… :-)  [Note you can also now hit the little "Like" icon at the bottom of each of my blog posts here, as well as "Like" my blog overall in the sidebar to the right. We all *so* need to be liked these days…]

Where does it all end? Well, it doesn't. Which is the reason for this post. It's not to bore you with stats about my huge trove of blog content (which, along with $3.00, will get me a nice cup of coffee anywhere), but to tell you about other places where I'm now doing even more of that shorter-form blogging thing, in case you haven't run into me there yet. Flickr-GraemeAt least I'm having fun (I think). Just gotta keep sharing! These other domains of mine are more for my personal, random thoughts — and for sharing photos when I have some text to go along with them. Sure, I can share photos on Twitter (and I do, often, from my iPhone, with various Twitter apps) — but there are times when 140 characters just won't do. And then I have my Flickr account, which I think I've had about as long as this blog, where I can share anything I shoot — and I've done that with some 4500+ images, all neatly organized into sets.

Medium-Form Blogging?

But I like to say these other blogging places I'm about to tell you about are "somewhere in the vast expanse between my long-form and short-form blogging."  Here's one of them: my Posterous blog, which I've actually had for several months now. PosterousBlog-GraemeOn a site like this, I put up all kinds of stuff — I don't think much about it (unlike this site, which is really all about my serious, professional life). I can even email something to Posterous that instantly becomes a post. So, you'll see a whole array of…stuff. And maybe you've heard of PicPlz? It has an iPhone app I've started to use to share photos. Well, I've set those pix to also show up on my Posterous blog as individual posts.

TumblrBlog-Graeme As opposed to Instagram, another iPhone photo-sharing app (which I like even more). I have the pix I shoot with that app set to show up on my Tumblr blog, where I also post…other stuff. Just kinda started that one. Actually, there's no telling what posts will show up where, really. They just kinda happen, I guess, which I 'spose is the whole idea of real-time content sharing, right? I even did a kind of long post there recently (at least for Tumblr), a rarety — most people on it are just blogging a single photo, or maybe a video. But what is blogging, I say, without a little text, huh?  Words, baby! They make the world go round, don't they? (But, hey, that's a blogger talking.)

Like I say, blogging — it's gone wild.

A Chat with Fliptop – DEMOspring10 Presenter

Fliptop My last chance for an interview on the Pavilion floor at DEMO on Tuesday, before the final General Session was to begin, was to grab some time with the guys at Fliptop, a company that had introduced two new products in the Social & Media Technologies category on Monday. Take a listen as I interview CEO and founder Doug Camplejohn as he talks about "Fliptop for Publishers" and the "Fliptop Browser Button." (In the photo, that's Dan Chiao on the left, Director of Engineering, and John Haden, Account Manager, in the middle — a fellow Surfrider Foundation member!  CEO Doug Camplejohn is in the background, being interviewed by my friend Amanda Coolong.)

Download or listen to Graeme's interview with Fliptop (MP3)"

A Chat with Infusionsoft – DEMOspring10 Presenter

InfusionSoft As the extended lunch session on the Pavilion floor at DEMO wound down on Tuesday, I had the opportunity to get some time with two of the cofounders of Infusionsoft, a company I had just seen present in the Enterprise Technologies category. This company was introducing its new "Email Marketing 2.0" platform, which sure caught my attention.  I interviewed the cofounder and CEO, Clate Mask (right), and cofounder and VP-Customer Experience, Scott Martineau.

Download or listen to Graeme's interview with Infusionsoft (MP3)"

A Chat with SocialWish – DEMOspring10 Presenter

SocialWish As I continued moving around the Pavilion floor at DEMO on Tuesday, I decided to interview the cofounder of SocialWish, whom I’d seen present the day before. Her company’s site is a type of universal gift registry, for any kind of wish you may have, whether for yourself or someone else. Listen in to my interview with Tanya Strigach, cofounder and SVP of Customer Service.

Download or listen to Graeme’s interview with SocialWish (MP3)”

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