Twitter will be replaced

Yeah, yeah, I know everyone is talking about how sexy twitter is getting. It’s the place to be right now. If you aren’t on twitter – then you need to get with the program….

blah, blah, blah

My mom is on twitter, my wife is on twitter, my company is on twitter, mostly everyone I know is on twitter. This is all good for twitter, it makes twitter useful. In fact, it has inspired twitter to go look at selling, make some improvements, and look at making money again. Have a look at Read Write Web’s latest post regarding the proliferation of twitter. This thing is definitely going mainstream (hint: if you are mainstream – go create an account)!!

A couple years ago, we were at the same cross roads with blogs and blogging. We may be a little earlier in the cycle with twitter, but I would also pose that our culture is more accepting of these tools, so it’s still the right time to make the prediction. When we were at this cross roads last time, I wrote a nice little prediction blog post. Dated December 18th, 2006 – My 2007 Prediction: Blogs Will Be Replaced garnered a bunch of people telling me I was wrong, telling me that blogs were growing in proliferation and would be the ultimate supremacy for brand management, community interaction, etc. Yes – blogs didn’t disapear. Yes – blogs are great community interaction tools. Yes – Dave Winer is still blogging (despite his promise). Yes – the concept of blogging is great for news reporting, signaling, and information disimenation….

But Blogs were replaced – they were replaced by twitter and to some degree facebook. As marketing departments took over blogs and corporate employees (such as Microsoft PMs) began getting blog posts added to their annual and quarterly goals, the early adopters, the people who made blogging popular, the crowd that tested, evangelized, and vetted the technology moved on. Sure the bloggers still blog a bit (I still blog at this blog) – but along with everyone else (including Dave Winer), I spend a lot more time on twitter – twitter has replaced my excitement for blogging the same as it has for most bloggers who started earlier in this decade with the new cool thing called blogging.

So the question is – what will replacae twitter? Like my earlier blog post about blogging being replaced, I don’t know the answer. I do know that an opportunity exists for a few entrepreneurs. There is the space of helping people get onto twitter (some entrepreneurial consultants have started this already – but there is room for more). There is also the space of creating the next thing for all of us early adopters of social/community interactive/writing/commenting tools to use.

We need to go somewhere – our current tool has been taken over by the mainstream and thus will be replaced.

GOOO Sounders!!

Finally got our season tickets split up, well at least a start to getting the season tickets split up. With the three mystery tickets (no mention of which tickets go to which game we are not entirely certain which ones to use for which friendly games), we still have some splitting to do. At this point it looks like we’re set to go to the following games…..

Thursday, March 19, 2009	New York Red Bulls	6p	Yes
Saturday, April 11, 2009	Kansas City Wizards	7:30p	Yes
Saturday, April 25, 2009	San Jose Earthquakes	7:30p	Yes
Sunday, May 10, 2009	Los Angeles Galaxy	12p	Yes
Wednesday, June 17, 2009	D.C. United	8p	Yes
Saturday, July 18, 2009	Chelsea FC	12p	Yes
Saturday, August 29, 2009	Toronto FC	1p	Yes
Saturday, Sept 19, 2009	Chivas Usa	12p	Yes
Saturday, October 24, 2009	FC Dallas	7:30p	Yes

Of course the MLS Cup and the other mystery ticket are ones we’re looking to go to, but we’ll see what works out. We’re down in Section 113 towards the front, if you’re coming to a game, come by and say hi!!

Seattle Lunch 2.0 Happy Hour @ Axios/TalentSpring

Who: You

When: March 6, 2009

Time: 4:30pm – 6pm

Where: Axios Law & TalentSpring‘s shared offices
1525 Fourth Ave
Suite 800
Seattle, WA 98101

What: What do you get when a law firm and a software startup share an office?
Heck if I know, but I want to find out!! Axios Law and TalentSpring – two well known Seattle companies share some nice space in downtown Seattle and Seattle Lunch 2.0 is going to give you the usual peek under the covers… Need an IP lawyer?, looking to make use of Semantic Search for resumes?, or just need a drink? Come by the next Seattle Lunch 2.0 happy hour sponsored by Axios Law and TalentSpring. We will have the usual mix of Seattle’s greatest technologists and entrepreneurs and have put together some great networking and a wonderful speaker.

Ben Huh (yes, the CEO of the company that runs FAIL Blog, I Can Has

Cheezburger?, GraphJam and other Interweb time sinks), will swing by and give a talk about his view on the world, building a lean business, and how to make a business out of being a blogger.

RSVP: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1899438/?ps=7

Obey The Decider – one week later

Well it’s been a week and Obey The Decider has received a fair amount of traffic, a fair amount of merchandise purchases, and some interest from sponsors….

On the site itself we have added a more comprehensive list of neighborhoods (Ballard, Belltown, Capitol Hill, Downtown, Freemont, Greenwood, Pioneer Square, Queen Anne, University District, Wallingford, & West Seattle). There are a few more options for visitors in Seattle. We are currently experimenting with how to make the front end a little more usable for a wider variety of cities. The backend has already been built to support a wide variety of cities/neighborhoods – so yes, we will be nationwide in due time. If you have any thoughts on how you would like to use Obey The Decider – send me an email!! I can also give you a link to use for your city if your interested in the meantime :)

The Backend development does continue, despite the immediate hit of our proprietary decision engine, we are working to improve decisions. Andrew Woods pointed out a cultural opportunity that we missed – Weekend Brunch!!! As you use Obey The Decider over the next couple of weeks for making your lunch, dinner, coffee, & drink plans – please send me feedback on your impressions of the decisions (remember, when the decider decides it is final and you must OBEY).

 Of course on the sponsorship side of things – we’re looking for sponsors now, so if you or someone you know owns an establishment where nurishment is served – please contact me – Josh@ObeyTheDecider.com!!

Thoughts on Seattle Startup Weekend 2

Seattle Startup Weekend was a great experience, I came into the weekend not sure what to expect. I didn’t understand the potential from the weekend, nor did I realize the number of passionate peers in the industry who were ready and able to make significant contributions over a weekend to produce some great things.

Nonetheless I was excited and tweeted a fair amount about the weekend. As the weekend got started I was still a bit unsure, 48 ideas being pitched, the group running out of time and being kicked out of the Google offices before any teams could be formed. This appeared like a train wreck waiting to happen. Then again, that may have just been me actively lowering my expectations. After the opening evening on Friday, we all hit Brouwers for drinks and I had an opportunity to meet with more of the people attending.

By Saturday I was still unsure, are any of these teams really going to form and create something? As I walked around the room, looking for teams that could work I saw groups who had spent the night before organizing instead of drinking (and I wasn’t even sure about their idea). I saw other ideas that were selected, but were not in the process of any team formation. The two ideas that I liked were starting to fall into this category (they were selected but, no one was following through with them). This is a problem in life – people have great ideas and never follow through with them. Lucky for me, this problem resolved itself over time for both of the ideas I liked.

I saw some rogue folks grabbing whiteboards and chairs and moving them to a convenient location and I wondered if this was yet another new idea that was not pitched or selected the night prior? On inquiry, I found that the team was going to work on The Decider. Hey, that is one of the ideas I liked, but where was the man behind the idea? I didn’t see Tom in the group. Had he ditched like so many other idea pitchers? This group didn’t seem to care. They wanted to make the product anyway. Sofi invited me to join the team and I found they were all developers and lawyers so my skills would be a welcomed addition. I’ll save the rest of the Obey The Decider story for another post. 

As the weekend progressed I did see small teams producing quickly and large teams producing slowly. The larger the team or the larger the goal, the longer it was taking. The teams with small goals and/or small goals (we are going to build this small part of the product – not the whole thing) were making progess very quickly and with the diverse groups (no group with more then three people had only developers), progress was being made on all fronts.

It was interesting to see teams worried about traditional problems such as sprint planning and organizing large teams to develop something in relation to teams who were simply sharing a common goal and a shared understanding of that goal was all that mattered. These teams (mine included) were able to execute tremendously well. There was no overhead of “planning” simply discussions about our goal/vision and then a lot of independant work that moved us all in the same direction. Quite harmonious I must say and from experience – nearly impossible on a larger team or on team working to meet customer demands etc.

The only unfortunate part about the whole weekend? Well I enjoyed this approach to working much more than I have enjoyed other approaches….

The good thing? Obey The Decider still lives and is progressing!