I have a bad feeling about this

The GeoWars were in full frontal attack this week at SXSW. While the main battle was being fought between Foursquare and hometown favorite, Gowalla there were dozens of other location based services hoping to get some attention. I have said several times that there is no “offline” or “online” there just is. This is becoming even more apparent as geolocation heats up.

Twitter itself kept prompting me all week to enable my location on posts and we know that Facebook will soon be adding geolocation data to their status updates. But something you may not realize is that even if you opt out of Twitters location feature your location can still be identified.

I’m going to repeat that for the people just scanning the post:

Even if you opt out of location based features your location can still be identified!

Lego Star Wars meets Dr Who

Forthcoming tools like Recognizr make it impossible to hide who you are from the Web now a new set of tools make it so you can’t hide where you are from the Web. And actually hiding from the Web seems outdated. It’s more like the fourth dimension or the Matrix.

The main reason for this is because of the rise of mobile. Even without mobile, IP addresses are easily enough identified but mobile has many more ways. Anytime you post on your phone the location of  your updated can be tracked by GPS, by triangulating your location based on cell towers, plus every picture you take on smartphones has geolocation data embedded in the code. That’s why people can do cool Flickr map mashups.

I saw two services this week that demonstrated how it’s impossible to hide in this new matrixed world we live in.

Tweetsii – Is available for the iPhone only and besides being a full Twitter client also pulls in data from Foursquare and Gowalla. From their own site:

Tweetsii connects people and places across networks. Tweetsii is breaking the wall between the real world and the digital world, where power of the Internet is in real time to have more fun, meet more people, and do more cool stuff…

Stalqer: Is also available for the iPhone only but goes a step further by achieving an “always on” in the background state by setting up an email address on your phone. This provides for a lot more functionality. From TechCrunch:

In addition to background functionality, Stalqer lets you import your Facebook friends, via Facebook Connect, to the app. If your friends have made their general location public via Facebook, The app then syncs your friends with your iPhone contacts and will then show you where your friends are. So, Stalqer will basically pull any public information about your friend (i.e. what city they live in) and show where the friends is on your application, if if they haven’t downloaded the app. At the moment, you cannot see anyone on Stalqer who is not your friend on Facebook.

Don't upset a Wookie

These location based services are being driven by marketers. In our quest for better marketing data are we becoming too reckless? At SXSW danah boyd presented on the dangers of marketers assuming that data should be public by default and private when necessary. The general public is not aware of the potential ramifications, or even how public and identifiable their data is. And to be honest I don’t think anyone understands the full ramifications. We need to tread lightly, if for no other reason that we’re about to scare the general public really bad. I don’t think having our data open puts in anymore risk than we were before, but I could easily be wrong.

My advise to clients is to be very careful here. Treat marketing with location data like approaching a wild animal. Make lots of noise, make sure they know what you’re doing and have respect. Because when the public gets scared by this, they will rip someones face off.

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Photo 1: by Don Solo
Photo 2: by icedsoul photography .:teymur madjderey
Photo 3: by BalakovSimilar Posts:

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The Splinternet means the end of the Web’s golden age

Now with iPhones, Androids, Kindles, Tablets, and TVs connecting to the Web, that’s not true. Your site may not work right on these devices, especially if it includes flash or assumes mouse-based navigation. Apps that work on the iPhone don’t work on the Android. Widgets for FiOS TV don’t work anywhere else.

Meanwhile, more and more of the interesting stuff on the Web is hidden behind a login and password. Take Facebook for example. Not only do its applications not work anywhere else, Google can’t see most of it. And News Corp. and the New York Times are talking about putting more and more content behind a login.

Web marketing has grown since 1995, based on the idea that everything is connected. Click-throughs, ad networks, analytics, search-engine optimization — it all works because the Web is standardized. Google works because the Web is standardized.

Not any more. Each new device has its own ad networks, format, and technology. Each new social site has its login and many hide content from search engines.

Josh also has an updated post declaring proof of the Splinternet. He doesn’t so much offer proof of the Splinternet’s existence but more of a hypothetical index that allows you check your own Web stats for the fragmentation he’s mentioning.

Josh’s index is good if you’re a webmaster or Web marketer with access your analytics. But your average tech geek need to look no further that your iPhone. That very device which has fuled the rise of the Splinternet like no other.

Behold the Splinternet in the wild:

The Splinternet

News allerts, missed calls, email, And this is just my iPhone 3GS. On my Windows Mobile, HTC Touch Pro2 I have my work email, other voice messages, missed calls and text messages. On my HTC, MyTouch 3G with Google other apps that need updating, the same Twitter, Facebook and Brightkite  messages as well as GTalk IM messages waiting for me.

Each one of those messages sends alerts, notifications to multiple “inboxes” but all of them can only be managed in their proprietary walled garden.

Have you spotted the Splinternet in the wild?

Join the New Comm Biz Facebook Page or follow the Twitter account.

None Found

Twitter Search will probably be the most popular real time way to keep up on all the sxsw activities. The biggest problem is that you will see everything. There is no real granular way to sort by certain people or events

FriendFeed search for SXSW will aggregate the most types of sources. FriendFeed has the most granular level of search. You can either search from just your friends or just by content source or from everything.

BrightKite Place Stream is another great way to follow SXSW and has more emphasis on pictures. You won’t have as much to sort through which could be a plus or a minus.

The BrightKite Wall is a cool feature that unlike the other mentioned services won’t have you hitting the refresh button over and over again. It also has the ability to pull in other feeds like Twitter search.

Flickr of course is a great way to actually see the events and people you’re following at SXSW. You can also choose to search by most recent uploads, which I recommend.

IceRocket is probably the best blog search engine out there and has quietly been building better functionality while Technorati and Google Blog search get most of the attention.  If you want better detail about SXSW than 140 characters then you’ll want to do an IceRocket search and I’d recommend grabbing the RSS feed since some of the best reports won’t come out until after the event.

There it is. Everything I could think of to help you catch as much of SXSW without having to be there. Did I miss anything? Do you have any virtual conference tips?

None Found

So one of my goals for 2009 is to share more. Now many of you may be thinking, “Tac how can I get you to shut up? You’re constantly on Twitter, BrightKite, FriendFeed and multiple blogs. I know more about you than I feel comfortable with.”

My goal isn’t to share more volume, it’s to share more quality. The last half of 2008 was overwhelming. Besides my job at HP I’ve been working with the VC group Highway 12 Ventures and staying active in my local tech startup community.

While I’ve been sharing stuff I haven’t really been sharing the stuff I’ve been learning. Obviously there are a lot of things I can’t share, especially specifics around certain startups, proprietary HP stuff and NDA discussions with the VC’s. That doesn’t mean I can’t share the stuff I’m learning.

I feel fortunate. I’ve read several blog posts saying that 2009 was the year to start doing more and talking less. For me 2008 was the year that I really got to start doing all the stuff I’ve been talking about.  That means that in 2009 I can continue to do more but I can also start sharing the stuff I’ve already done.

Part of this goal is to put together more case studies of the projects I’ve been doing.  For me this means that I’ll start by blogging it aka taking it out of my head and examining it more closely.

In the end I hope this means I get to share more signal and less noise. As always I hope you’ll chime in with your thoughts and feedback, that the biggest part of the social learning piece.

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I haven’t been as active on this blog lately for a lot of reasons and it may get even quieter for a while.

I’ve been blogging a lot on my locally focused tech blog, TechBoise.
I’ve still been relatively active on Twitter, FriendFeed and BrightKite.

But mostly I’ve been thinking.

There’s a lot of noise out there and it’s growing exponentially. (BTW, I believe that’s a good thing.)

Unfortunately most of the noise in my world (Marketing/Web 2.0) sounds the same. It’s just repackaged versions of the same ideas from 4 years ago.

I turn 36 this month and while it’s not a huge milestone it has me thinking.

I made a choice 4 years ago to pursue new media wholeheartedly and I have never regretted that decision. It was the best professional decision I’ve ever made. I only wonder where this road will lead me next?

I think the time for talk is over. I’m tired of talk. I find myself getting bored (not overwhelmed) with all the noise.

The shift has happened and while everyone else is sitting around
wondering what that shift is or what it means, the competitive
advantages are already being taken advantage of.

If you’re still sitting around talking about it someone’s eating your lunch and you don’t even know it.

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