Everybody is on Facebook

“For a long while—from about the late ’80s to the late-middle ’90s, Wall Street to Jerry Maguire—carrying a mobile phone seemed like a haughty affectation. But as more people got phones, they became more useful for everyone—and then one day enough people had cell phones that everyone began to assume that you did, too. Your friends stopped prearranging where they would meet up on Saturday night because it was assumed that everyone would call from wherever they were to find out what was going on. From that moment on, it became an affectation not to carry a mobile phone; they’d grown so deeply entwined with modern life that the only reason to be without one was to make a statement by abstaining. Facebook is now at that same point—whether or not you intend it, you’re saying something by staying away.”

— Slate

I am not that smays

I was trying out the new People Search feature on Twitter and discovered another “smays.” And he is also “Steve Mays.” There should be no confusion, however, because he appears to be very smart and successful.

“Steve Mays, Chief Technical Officer — Steve has over 15 years experience in senior technology development positions. His former roles include Director of Infrastructure Services and IT Security Analyst for Semaphore Partners, Chief Information Officer for Xamplify, Inc., Director of Technology and Founder of Gloss.com and Manager of Online Operations for Vivendi Universal. Steve holds a BS in Business Management and an MBA in Global Business Management from University of Phoenix.”

Couldn’t find an email but maybe he’ll see this. We could drive up to Seattle and have a beer with the other Steve Mays West

“a stats geek behind the scenes tweeting interesting stuff”

I’ve been beating the Twitter drum ever since that digital light bulb came on for me. I did my best to offer some practical applications for our various businesses. But none were as spot-on as StatTweets. From the StatTweet website:

“Most sports-related media outlets that have a Twitter account simply blast everything through a single account. I don’t know about you, but I don’t find this very useful. I prefer Twitter updates targeted at just the teams I’m interested in. And I’m not talking about just a news feed. It needs to be as if each sports team had a twitter account and a stats geek behind the scenes tweeting interesting stuff.

That’s exactly what the StatTweets accounts are intended to do (but it is all automated). Not only can you follow just the teams you are interested in, but you can interact with each account to retrieve team and player stats dynamically.”

Twitter: 140 characters, 0 thought and effort

TwitterlogoI haven’t said much about Twitter of late. In part because it’s just too exhausting trying to explain it. But I’m relying on it more and more. It’s the one social networking tool that seems to work for me.

smays.com (the blog) is where I think (a little) about what I want to say before I post it. http://twitter.com/smaysdotcom is where I poop out 140 characters without using any neurons whatsoever. It’s so easy, in fact, I’ve have twittered almost 2,000 times.

Increasingly, Twitter is how I keep up with many of my online pals. If you decide to give Twitter a try, let me know. But please don’t ask me to explain it or justify my interest in this tool. I wouldn’t know where to begin.

If you don’t have time or inclination to blog, you might consider giving Twitter a try. Do it for a week. If you’re a regular reader of smays.com, follow my Twitter feed for that week instead.

Social media and other new technologies could be used by terrorists

A draft US Army intelligence report looks at ways Twitter, social media and other new technologies could be used by terrorists. The report bases its concerns on the fact that Twitter has ”become a social activism tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others to communicate with each other and to send messages to broader audiences.”

Hunt For Bin Laden Moves To Twitter