Twitter Not Helping Me Much…Maybe???

I’ve been experimenting with Twitter to broadcast my scanlation releases and looking at my blog analytics, Twitter is completely ineffective.  Of the 69 sources of visits to my blog, Twitter accounted for 1 out of the over 2000 visits to my anime and manga blog last week.  Most of the visits to my blog originated from the popular manga websites, Google searches, links from other people’s blogs, or people directly going to my blog.

And here comes the VERY BIG BUT

There is a big unknown, though, with respect to Twitter.  I often don’t directly “follow” people on Twitter because I don’t want to broadcast to the world or the person that I’m following them, so instead I pull an RSS feed of the tweets into Outlook.  Clicking on link from Outlook gets counted as a “direct” visit to my blog.  I don’t know how to get information on pulls from RSS feeds, so I have no idea who pulling RSS from my Twitter or my blog.

Soooo….now a simple comparision:  there’s a BIG jump in visitors from the popular manga sites on days when I release compared to days in between releases.  On the days that I release, 70 – 80% of traffic comes from those sites.  On the days in between most of the traffic comes from Google searches and direct visits (about 50% combined).    I tweet the release at time of the release, so from this I conclude, that Twitter is most likely ineffective and the best way to get the news out about my scanlations is to go where the audience is and that appears to be the popular manga websites and their forums.

I don’t know how Twitter is working for other people who are trying to promote themselves or their products.  But this is my story and I imagine it’s not an uncommon one.  What does this mean for Twitter?  Well, it may not be the best tool for advertisement as hoped, but I think it needs more time and some serious studies to make a conclusion either way.   As always, its good to know where your audience is and to tap into those sources.  Following that logic, if your audience isn’t on Twitter, you certainly aren’t going to bring them there and it’s probably best not to waste your resources on maintaining a Twitter account.  A good way to find out if people are tweeting about you or your product is do a search of Twitter and see what comes up.  I did is for myself and my “product” and not much came up.   As for my future on Twitter: the experiment continues …

When Laptops and E-Reader Converge in the Classroom

I’ve been hearing bits and pieces of news stories about the digital revolution that is happening in the classroom.  Coupled with the histrionics about state of the US education system and the seemingly constant cutbacks, it’s got me thinking about how the digital revolution can help.

Let’s face it, textbooks are a scam.  Most cost over $70 each, with some college textbooks approaching $200 each!  K-12 schools struggle with wear-and-tear of paper textbooks and publishers put out new editions yearly, thereby putting a damper on used book sales.  It only seems natural to go to electrons to cut the cost of firing up a printing press for a limited run of specialized books and to save schools the burden of having to replace worn out or outdated textbooks (not to mention the trees).  When coupled with input features like highlighting and notes, digital books are just as powerful, if not more, than paper books (especially considering in K-12 public schools, student cannot write in the textbooks).  The news reports that electronic textbooks run about half the price of paper textbooks.  There are also experiments around teacher tailored content and textbook mash-ups to add diversity to the content.  This is all very exciting and I can’t wait to see how the copyright laws will change to accommodate these innovations.

The most exciting thing to me about the classroom digital revolution is all the technology that will spawn from it.  I can see E-readers converging with laptops as E-readers gain functionality and laptops limit functionality to meet pricing goals.  There will be new ways of collaboration within a class, between classes, and potentially on a worldwide scale.  I can see blackboards replaced with large touchscreens that broadcast the content (both visual and audio) to the student’s devices.  The blackboard can seamlessly display handwritten content as well as display content from the Internet, and feeds from places outside the classroom.  There can be fun stuff like class polling, instant pop quizzes, and in general, easier ways for more student to get more involved in the class.  Of course, this also facilitates cheating — but I think this just requires a new way of looking at learning and understanding how people will collaborate in the future given all the new technology.  Maybe in the future, it’ll will be commonsense to ask those available for assistance and to be able to search to the find the answers needed on a test — that is the way work gets done now, isn’t it?  Anyhow, this all means that screen technology will have to leap to bigger manufacturing formats (or better stitching of smaller units into big ones) and there needs to be a significant jump in durability to withstand the beating a chalkboard takes and the abuse children inflict upon paper textbooks.  There will also be breakthroughs in collaboration.  Something constant has to stitch all the communication together and it doesn’t necessarily have to be one piece of SW, but rather there needs to be a set of protocols so all software can work together regardless of device (I imagine most of that’s in place now, and it’s just a matter of following the rules).  That’s a tall order, but I’m a believer!  The digital revolution is a big task!  Lots of hardware will be needed, lots of people will be needed to design the hardware and the software, and lots of people will be needed to install the infrastructure.  The contracts will be huge!  And in the end the digital divide will be no more and there will be efficiencies gained with the demise of the paper textbook (plus battery and power optimization technologies for convenience and greenness).    I think it will be a leveler and hopefully lead to more prosperity for everyone.  Or so that is what this wide-eyed idealist believes …

Teens are Not Driving Twitter Growth

Thank goodness someone is finally debunking the myth that children and teens drive all technology movements!  Forgive me, but teens are NOT all that tech savvy.  Here’s an interesting article about how adults are driving Twitter adoption while teens stick to texting over mobiles.

Link

It is interesting that the teens interviewed for this article said that Twitter is for professionals and that Twitter is redundant with texting.  I think the important thing, and this sorta gets glossed over in the article, is the one-to-many nature of Twitter.  Teenagers’ lives revolve around their friends.  I recall, as a teenager, people outside of my immediate clique were non-existent.  So it makes sense to me that teens would want to stick to ways that maximize connections within their clique and texting over a mobile is probably the best way to do that now.

I also think it’s a good thing kids and teens are not adopting Twitter en masse.  About 90% of the folks that try to follow me are either people peddling porn or people peddling some sort of get-rich-quick scheme.  For me, the number of people I have to kick off my Twitter almost makes it not worth doing.  I think most kids are smart enough to stay away from unsavory people, but at the same time, people can disguise themselves as normal and “Twitter Stalk.”  Thinking about children’s safety, I wouldn’t want some unsavory people stalking kids over the Internet.  (I think, though, that starts with teaching kids about the dangers of the Internet and technology, rather than banning or limiting use.)

As for the “professional” aspect, I can sorta see that.  I mainly use Twitter to “advertise” my manga activities and the people I follow are mainly “advertising” too.  I could see teens following a string of “advertisements” they want to know about, but I don’t see them actively Tweeting into the vast ether.

Anyhow, it is an interesting article and one that I will probably mentally chew on for the next few days.

trent_reznor leaves Twitter

I had only been following for a couple of weeks before I had  the misfortune of watching the trolls run “trent_reznor” away from Twitter.  It’s sad, but sometimes people forget that it’s other people on the other side of the Internet (I think everyone does this to some extent — even I’m guilty to a small extent).   It seems that “trent_reznor” was emotionally hurt by the whole experience.  I think, though, when people open up their personal lives online  they are setting themselves up for hurt and rejection by people who had imagined the real person to be much different.  This is why I think celebrities should keep most of their private lives to themselves, because, in the in the end, what they say will only be treated like tabloid fodder.  But it seems that was a risk “trent_reznor” took in order to try to feel close to his fans.

This bothered me somewhat, because I feel that anyone should be able to go out there on the Internet and engage with people.  I think for renown people, followers get caught up with the celebrity’s name, hence why it’s best for all to hide behind an avatar.  Hiding behind an avatar is a way to fit in because it levels the playing field.  This way renown people can infiltrate whatever community they are interested in and have a more authentic conversation and perhaps makes some close online friends.  As for “fan service” — well, that is part of the marketing machine and it needs to be done.  I think celebrities have accept along with fans,  they, also,  have the focus of a small group of haters and crazy people.   Haters and crazy people can’t be transformed outside of themselves to rational people, so it’s best not to worry about them and keep tight security to keep the violent ones away.  But I don’t fault Twitter for this, because haters and crazy people will always find some way to vent.  The Internet, though, makes it much easier to be heard by a large audience and possibly the celebrity.

Now addressing the technology:  Twitter is lightly regulated free-for-all.  Twitter tried to make it such that only followers could send replies, but people balked at that.  There are no readily available filters, rather if someone wanted to filter the stream of Tweets coming at them, they have to pull their own feeds and apply an external filter.  It seems to me there is plenty of opportunity for Twitter to develop some tools to help people make sense of their Tweets for a fee.

All-in-all, I feel bad that “trent-reznor” is leaving Twitter.  I’m not the kind of person who cares deeply about the lives of celebs, but I like the person “trent-reznor” showed his fans.  And, though, 90% of his Tweets were pointless, they did provide passing entertainment for me.  I follow people on Twitter because they have some important information, like news headlines, or because I find their pointless Tweets entertaining.  It lets me know I’m not alone in my small existence and there are others out there who enjoy small everyday things, even “trent_reznor.”  Twitter doesn’t have to be about anything, though, it can be powerful when used for a purpose.  I firmly believe people should Tweet and Blog for themselves.  100% of my my Tweets and 100% of what I write in this blog are me pointlessly rambling my opinion.  It is for me and I put it out there for me, kinda like that “Kilroy” guy — I was here.  If people read it and want to communicate with me, then that’s the icing on the cake .

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Addendum:  Looks like “trent_reznor” is waiting for Twitter to improve blocking.  Agreed.  Twitter needs more improvements than that, though.  Twitter also has horrific spam and lolita problems.

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Addendum 2:  Looks like “trent_reznor” is back.   Hahaha!!!  Hopefully he’s Tweeting for himself and not worrying about the trolls .  I get the feeling this may be a cyclical thing with him .  Well, to each his or her own.  Tweet on man, tweet on … It’s still very interesting to observe.

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Addendum 3:  “trent_reznor” blew away his Twitter account today.  Hahaha!  I would too!  Having 600,000+ followers is just too many to be useful and enjoyable.  Well hopefully he comes back under a different alias, so he can enjoy Twitter without the burden of being “Trent Reznor.”

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Addendum 4 (10/20/2009): “trent_reznor” is back on Twitter again.  It looks like he’s promoting the 20th anniversary of the “Pretty Hate Machine” album.  I wonder whether this is just a “peek-a-boo” or whether he gonna be around on Twitter for a while.

PC Makers Considering Android for Netbooks

Here’s a link to the article.  I have a netbook with Window’s XP, but I’m not beholden to XP.   I can’t install anything like Office on my netbook because it’s too much of a resource hog and required installation from a DVD drive.  However the basic version of MS Office that comes with the laptop is fine for the things I do on it.

What I do need with respect to my netbook is the ability to get on the Internet and to view whatever parts of the Internet I desire.  On my iPhone my current limitation is Flash –  but that more of a problem with Adobe than anyone else.  My feeling is as long as the browser works well, I’m golden since I will most likely used web-based software because a netbook doesn’t have much on board storage.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that netbooks will be treated as the lowest-end computer.  I did witness over the holidays, many financially pinched people considering a netbook as their first PC purchase or as a replacement for an ancient computer that was too old to allow access to the Internet.  When I think about this user, I really don’t know what’s best.  They may be used to “ancient versions” of software or they may be computer illiterate.  This tends to make me think, the simpler the better.  But when I consider which is easier to use, my PC or my iPhone, I would have to say they are about the same since the iPhone mimics a PC experience.  In other words, to successfully use most mobile devices beyond basic dialing phone numbers, there is an expectation of computer literacy.  Thinking in this vein, does the OS matter?  No, just as long as there’s a big clear “Internet” button,  links to do basic things like calendars and view images, and the presentation is professional.   This is most important because I think past attempts at Internet appliances failed because the interface design “looked down” on potential customers (the young, the elderly, and the computer illiterate).  It has to look like a real PC and it has to function like a real PC.

For the more savvy user, I think speed is the key. If Android turns out to be the speedier OS that allows similar functionality and software selection to PC and smartphones, then I think Android will be a winner.  I hope, though, that Microsoft isn’t resting on its laurels and are, instead, working dilligently on a Windows-lite for netbooks.  It’ll be a tough fight once the cell phone makers enter the fray.   However, this competition will be good for everyone because it will force innovation.  I’m looking forward to it.