Socialmedian Beta Launch Let’s You Filter Out The Noise

For the last several months I’ve been participating in the alpha testing of a new social news site, Socialmedian. The site has just launched it’s public beta version. When I discovered it my first reaction (and probably your thought as well) was, “Does the Web really need another social news site?” After all, we already have Digg, Reddit, Friendfeed, Google Reader among many others. Socialmedian is similar to existing social news sites, but there are some additional features that set it apart from the crowd.

The main differentiator is the ability for the user to create his/her own personalized networks or choose from existing networks.  Your network monitors your specific keywords for stories submitted across the entire site and generates a list of related stories. Users can also pick RSS feeds they’d like to automatically pull stories from. The most interesting feature for me is a sliding “Noise” meter that limits the number of stories displayed, which could be very helpful if you’re suffering from information overload.

Founder Jason Goldberg says Socialmedian was created to focus is on helping you find stories that you’ll be interested in, rather than finding stories that are popular and appeal to the masses. On sites like Digg you can browse the top content in several high-level categories, but the top content is selected based on popularity, not your personal interests. Admittedly, to get the most out of Socialmedian you’ll have to invest some time and thought by following other users you like (flag them as a ‘Newsmaker’), trying different News Networks to subscribe to, and using the service’s feedback loops.

Like all good social networks there are easy opportunities to share: by saving a ‘Clip’ of an article to your network, adding a ‘Snip’ (a note), sending via email and even sending it to Twitter. Goldberg says the service includes 350 “user-generated features” submitted by the 4,000+ alpha users.

Give Socialmedian a try and let me know what YOU think about it. While you’re there follow me at http://www.socialmedian.com/sschablow .

Socialmedian founder Jason Goldberg decides to take the service to beta after getting my input.

The Triumph of High Achievement

I see quite a few posts around the Fourth of July that pay tribute to patriotism and democracy. The one that really captured my attention and fueled my passion was more about individual challenge. See if you can guess who said it:

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

It’s from Teddy Roosevelt speaking at the Sorbonne in 1910. It resonates with me nearly 100 years later. It seems these days in the corporate world, in government and elsewhere we are surrounded by naysayers, critics and those who have simply have given in. I have never been one of those cold and timid souls. I’m the one marked by the dust and sweat and blood. I refuse to settle for underachievement. I refuse to put up with negativism. I refuse to give in or give up. I’m going to get up again and again. I’m going to reach deeper and stand taller than ever. I’m going to put more guts and courage in everything I do! How about you? Are you challenging yourself to be the person that you KNOW you can be? Are you reaching beyond the limits that others shackle you with? Are you striving for the triumph of high achievement?

Twitter + Webinar = Twebinar and a Huge Crowd

Yesterday I participated in the world’s first Twebinar along with 999 others interested to hear social media thought leaders talk about Game Changing Moves - Doing Business With Social Media. The Twebinar was a combination of taped video interviews and a Twitter session for audience comments and discussion.  The Twebinar was organized by Chris Brogan at CrossTech Media and David Alston at Radian6 and was wildly popular.  Before the Twebinar, Twitter was all abuzz with talk about the upcoming event. Registration for two sessions was limited to 500 each. There were many that did not make the cutoff or could not get in once the video host reached the 500 limit.

For those of us that did manage to get in, we saw Chris Brogan live in the left corner, introducing taped video interviews. It would have been nice to have live guests but understandably much more complicated. The all-star lineup of guests had great comments and provided a few top-line case studies. With so many guests (6 in all I think) there wasn’t time to delve deep enough into any topic. In fact, I’ve already heard most of what the speakers had to say. In fairness though, I spend a lot of time reading and interacting with many of the guests. There were lots of Twitter comments that indicated a sizable portion of the audience was hearing this for the first time.

Many also Tweeted (a Tweet is a post on Twitter) that they found using Twitter as a back-channel was difficult. I found it to be awkward as well.  I had video window open, but I also needed a Twitter browser window or

client application (I use Twhirl) open to input your comments. You needed a third window open with Summize real time search to aggregate all the Twebinar comments. I could not pay attention to the video, read comments and participate the discussion all at once. I prefer the interface on Ustream for such presentations. They give you the live feed in one window and have an integrated chat window below or beside the video window. I know, the point of the Twebinar was to tap into the Twitter community and generate buzz. It worked well enough and I congratulate Chris and David for coming up with the idea and making it happen. There are two more Twebinars planned in July and August and as soon as registration is opened up, I’ll be fighting for my ’seat’ in the room.

My Blogging Hiatus Ends Today

As you know I’ve been in a career shift recently and have not been posting. The dust is settling and I’ll be back bringing you information and commentary about emerging technology and social media. Please check back soon.

GPSHelp on Twitter

From time-to-time I get random Twitter notices about new users following me. I almost always go look at the profile to try and understand what kind of person/account is following me. Sometimes they are large account (2000+ followed) whom I assume are just trying to rack up followers (looking for reciprocal following). Sometimes they’re even bots mechanically gathering followers for what ever reason. Occasionally they are individuals with only a few dozen people they are following. In these cases the mystery becomes “how do they know me” I can often sift though their followers list and find a common link.

Well, this morning I got a notice from gpshelp that took some more time to figure out (okay… not that much more time, but still). The user only has 6 posts, the oldest of which is only 17 hours. The users is only following 23 people, none of which I have a common link with and only one person following them. The 6 tweets are in a curious format, too. Each one is preceded by either Asking: or Reporting: and each contains a TinyURL-like link. They all point back to Satisfaction Unlimited (http://getsatisfaction.com/) which appears to be a. . . Customer Service Social Network? Each of the Asking: Tweets is a technical-support-like question about various makes and models for portable GPSs. But none of this sheds any light on why gpshelp is following me. Then I noticed there are 9 favorite posts, so I click to check itout. Low and behold, there was a Tweet I made on Tuesday wishing for GPS integration on the iPhone.

But that only partially solves the mystery. I know how they found me, but I’m still not sure why. My single GPS-related post doesn’t really make me a GPS maven (although if they knew me, I am kind-of a GPS geek). Was it just the timing of my message in relation to the kick-off of this “service”? And what is the service? I guess I’m intrigued because I myself have recently been discussing new ways to make Social Media, and Twitter specifically, a useful business tool.

Check it out for yourself and give me your thoughts.