ryan l.

With the rise of Twitter and the like, it seems that bloggers, to a great degree, have forgotten that short blog posts can be just as valuable and effective when literally published to a blog as they can in 140 characters or less. It’s with that thought in mind that I put this simple yet intriguing (imho) question out there:

When does “new media” become un-new?

Ok, so I made up a word here, but new media may never become old since it’s constantly evolving, but as time goes on and more and more people begin picking up on social media concepts and tools, when do these things move from being considered new to not new, or un-new?

The best example I have is found in how long Voce has been in the social media game - we’re going on four years now, or so - and it makes me wonder why we need to continue referring to concepts that are relatively dated, at least to some, as ‘new’.

Maybe we should just settle on “social media” as the blanket descriptor of what we do and start referring to those just getting started as “new to social media”? Ok, maybe that’s a little condescending … you get the idea.

After nearly eight years of a president I, admittedly, helped put in office, I can agree with everyone else that the ‘08 election couldn’t come faster. But, on a day like today, when many state electorates hit the polls, it’s certainly healthy to think about your motivations for voting and for whom.

Following my ill-fated alignment with so-called conservatives, I went indie this year in an effort to free myself from the mental obligations of voting for “my party”. Why be constrained by what you’re “supposed” to do, right?

So, on this Super Tuesday, vote with your head and not your heart. We need government that has heart, but governs with its head.

Why shouldn’t we vote that way?

And, no matter who wins, no matter whether I voted for them or not, they will be my president. You won’t see any nonsensical bumper stickers on my car …

Part of my life reset starts here on this blog, but in order to get started I need to repost some of my old stuff that I actually deleted when I was trying to overhaul everything … yes, I deleted about 90+ blog entries and was only able to save those from the early days, but I do have an archive of a few more recent ones. So, those are going up, especially one about my wife’s friend that died last Summer. The most upsetting part about deleting that entry was losing the comments left by her friends and family that, in effect, turned the post into a memorial of sorts.

I have to find a way to get back to those. Maybe the internet archive has them by now … we’ll see.

UPDATE: Well, what a shame. I thought I still had Ecto installed, which is where these alleged posts were living offline, but turns out I deleted it because I wasn’t using it. Totally forgot. On to Archive.org … nothing. Only stuff from April 2007 … not what I was looking for. Damn it.

Starting over sure does feel good. Whether it be in life, at work, in your love life, or just resetting your routine. It’s nice to start anew. The problem is that it’s easy to talk about starting over, but harder to follow through and actually do it. Often you fall back in to what is comfortable and familiar, afraid to leave your normal path.

Well, I’m sick of the normal path. I want to start over in the way I define it. I just need to remind myself that today is different than yesterday and to not get too comfortable.

Change is coming. Too bad it won’t be a politician that actually brings it.

Not sure if I’m still getting actual readers here or if it’s just a bunch of splogs, but I never mentioned that I’ve switched blogging platforms and now contribute to a new blog.

If anyone actually reads this still and cares to check out my new blog, visit here.

It's interesting to see questions/arguments like this about a possible MySpace downturn after reaching a ridiculous "peak" of 80+ million registered users, and then to see article's like this one from Ad Age, discussing social networking sites recently securing major advertising opportunities with companies like Wendy's and Toyota. 

So, what is it? My guess is that, like others believe, the downturn talk is a bit premature. But, with more social networking copycats like Bebo.com popping up, you never know where the finicky teen and young adult markets will choose to go. 

Oh lord. Both good and bad news from JetBlue today.

JetBlue Airways Corp. won a government auction Friday for wireless spectrum that could be used to provide in-flight telephone, Internet, or entertainment services.

The winning bid of $7.02 million was placed through New York-based JetBlue's entertainment subsidiary, LiveTV LLC, which provides DirecTV service on JetBlue flights.

I think we can all agree that internet access would be beneficial to a ton of people, particularly those business travelers, but I'm going to pretend that the telephone option doesn't exist. I can't even imagine flying with people on the phone. I can't even stand the babies.

Someone please tell me that Wee Man from MTV's Jackass show and TJ Lavin from its Road Rules / Real World Challenge and also competitive BMX racing fame are not the same person. So what if one is a little person and the other of average height - they're the same!

As counselors, yes, we have a job to do, but often there are situations where we have no pull, no sway, no leverage. Greater success in this profession will come when you learn how to identify the situations you cannot change among the ones you can, and figure out how to work with what you can to make a program work.

For a while in my young career I was getting lost in the emotions of situations I couldn't change instead of focusing on the things I could and, more importantly, should.

Don't make the same mistake. Clients won't always listen or agree–even if you know you and your team are right–and it took me a while to really get that.

Sorry if this seems like an overly simplistic idea to most, but when you're starting out there's so much you must become technically proficient at that it's easy to forget all that other stuff.

MySpace's instant messaging client launched today, as some probably already know. It looks pretty clean and simple, but leaves a few remaining questions.

Surely MySpace, with its 60 million+ users, have a built-in user base for the client–which is all well and good–but that number in no way rivals that of the current market dominators (AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, etc.). Introducing another client futher fragments the instant messaging market and makes me wonder how sustainable the MySpace app. really is. Granted, tons of people will download and use the software, but will they do away with the standbys? Doubtful.

With so many different protocols out there, it seems the best bets these days are on applications like Trillian or GAIM, which enable users to add each of their respective accounts into one buddy list - so you're operating with Yahoo! and AIM in the same window. If the MySpace client gets picked up in this way–being added to consolidated apps. like Trillian–then I can see it having a better chance at sticking around.

Steve also brings up a good point, that there is space in the IM window for an ad, but again, a la the Opera browser, how long will people put up with having ads they didn't ask for shoved in their face?