12seconds.tv

“12seconds is the best place online for video status updates. It’s a super easy way to share what you’re doing with your friends and family using short video clips. You can use your web cam or mobile phone. Show your friends where you are, share your thoughts, or tell them how you’re doing. We are building a video status platform that will help you keep up to date with your friends 12 seconds at a time.”

Why only 12 seconds?

“Because anything longer is boring. The scientists here at the 12seconds dodecaplex have conducted countless hours of research to determine the precise amount of time it takes for boredom or apathy to set in during typical Internet video viewing. Our patent pending Electro-Tear-Duct Prongers have determined that exactly 12 seconds of video is the ideal amount of time to keep anything interesting.”

The thing that caught my attention was how 12seconds.tv. integrates with Twitter. You’re walking down the street and spot to dogs doing the wild thing. You whip out your camera phone and shoot 12 seconds of video and off it goes to your page on 12seconds.tv. With corresponding tweet.

This reminds me of Twitpic, a similar service for still images. And eyejolt, which makes it easy to email short videos to friends. Not sure why I couldn’t get it to work with Twitter but I’ll fiddle some more. This is the kind of app that might get my to buy a phone that can shoot/send video.

On a down note, I didn’t think quality of the resulting video was very good.

Will everyone need a web page?

WSJ’s Jason Fry wonders if we’re getting closer to the day when everyone will need a web page. He starts with the question of how we’re to find each other in a rapidly evolving future.

“…landlines are disappearing, yet there’s no “white pages” for cellphones. And we don’t want one — the rise of email, IM and other forms of messaging have transformed the phone call into an intrusive way to communicate, best reserved for certain situations between people who already have a relationship. Which is fine, but raises the issue of how we’re supposed to get in touch with people we don’t already know. The most likely solution to the problem is a single point of contact, with additional levels of contact information unlocked by us as we deem appropriate. A Web page — whether it’s on an outpost such as Facebook or LinkedIn or a site built out with communications tools — can serve that function pretty well.

A personal Web page is an opportunity to tell your story and balance out other narratives that you can’t control.”

I found this piece very interesting. When I google “steve mays” I want this blog to show up on the first page of results. Ego? Sure, for now. And it will probably never have financial or business implications for me but that might not be true for a twenty-something.

All networking will be social

Planet Nelson points us to this insightful article on social networking from Managing Technology:

“…how we exchange information is changing, from sharing information actively (emailing photos to friends) to sharing it passively (uploading those photos to Facebook and emailing notification to friends). “What’s happening is that we’re separating access from notification,” said Kraus. This leads to more sharing because people don’t worry as much about interrupting others with emails, calling attention to themselves and appearing too self-important.

Third, and most important, Kraus sees the web eventually becoming entirely social. “Today, social computing is something you do at a specific site,” said Kraus. “But we’re realizing that being social is not a site. It’s a concept.”

If you don’t use Twitter, flickr, YouTube, Facebook, My Space, Digg or any of the countless other social networking tool, this idea seems ridiculus. Just as the Internets once seemed like a silly waste of time.

Role of social media in Obama’s success

Podcating News points to (and excerpts) CIOZone article that takes a look at the IT strategy behind Obama’s campaign, which includes Chris Hughes, who was one of the three co-founders of Facebook and now runs the campaign’s my.barackobama.com, which itself is a sort of social network.

"The Web site allows the campaign to be “owned by the masses,” Spinner says, but he encourages even big donors to complete the transaction through the Web site, saving himself the time it would take to drive to their home or office to collect a check. Although hillaryclinton.com eventually matched most of the features of barackobama.com, the Obama campaign embraced the Web more enthusiastically and fielded many of those capabilities about six months ahead of the competition, Spinner says. “The DNA of everyone working on the Obama campaign is very much a startup mentality, where what matters is how you build it, how fast you roll it out, and how you tie it together.”

Six months. A long time in the online world. Will be interesting to see how the McCain campaign does in this space.