Although the true address of this blog is http://blog.stuartthompson.net, there are several alternate URLs that you can use to get here:
All of the above links will redirect to this blog. It may seem like a strange setup, but there is actually some method to the madness. stuartthompson.net is my domain, not just my blog. I want to move to hosting a dashboard there that contains more than just blog entries, rather a aggregation of twitter, the blog, flickr, facebook, all of my social media presence in one location. However, as more and more of those services are added there is more information that is specific to me and less that is specific to both Meaghan and I. Meaghan has a separate twitter feed and flickr, for example, and might someday want a dashboard of her own. I’m integrating stuartthompson.name with this site too, as an alternate portal access location.
However, for stuartandmeaghan.* I thought that the most pertenant location was our group blog. I could actually host the blog at stuartandmeaghan.com, and I thought about that, but then realized that as Meaghs gets more into blogging she may well want a space of her own. She already has a space of her own on wordpress for our wedding blog. At some point if she wants a blog of her own, I would probably set it up at meaghanbrown.com or meaghanthompson.com once we are married. Something personal to her. For now, I host the blog at stuartthompson.net but have the group urls redirect there. It made me realize in our age of permanence and location on the web that the tradition of having women who marry change their last name causes them quite a problem. I’ll always be Stuart Thompson, so accounts on facebook, twitter, flickr, etc… where I can grab stuart.thompson, stuartthompson, sthompson or some other variation will always be in one place. Anything registered to Meaghan Brown or any derivative might either a) have to change after we marry or b) stay with her maiden name (which introduces it’s own problems). Either way, there is going to be difficulty for some people in finding her online profiles after we are married. I wonder how many Web 2.0 companies have planned for this in their products. It would be nice to see a “my name changed, now what?” use case in their UI. I haven’t really researched it as the thought only occured to me recently, so it might already exist. Either way, I think it has to be a use-case that is accounted for as web 2.0, social media, and online presence become increasingly important.
November 19th, 2008
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Blogging, Social Media, Technology |
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I’ve been making a few updates to the layout of the blog recently. One of the things I added was a Flickr photostream preview in the right-hand sidebar. It will show the 3 most recent additions to my photostream. I’ve only recently moved to flickr, having mostly uploaded pictures to my blog in the past and then to Facebook over the last couple of months. However, it seems that many of my friends are using Flickr so this morning I decided to starting using it more actively. I upgraded to a pro account and started uploading some of the photos from our trip to England. If you’re on flickr and want to add me, my profile name is stuart.thompson. You should be able to search for me and add from there (or you could just click through one of the photos in the photostream preview on the right). Even though the stream is named stuart thompson, just like this website the content will actually be both from myself and Meaghan. I’ve been so used to using my own name for these things that I automatically pick stuartthompson, stuart.thompson, or stuart.d.thompson when prompted for a username.
See you there!
October 7th, 2008
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stuartthompson |
Social Media |
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I found a new tech toy today that I’ve been having a heck of a lot of fun with. I recognize that I’m fairly slow jumping on board with this one and have heard it talked about for several months; for some reason it just took me a little longer to fell intrigued enough to go and check it out. Basically Twitter is centered around the concept of micro-blogging. For those occasions on which you might not have quite enough to say to justify a blog post, email, or even a lengthy SMS text message, you might consider sharing a “tweet”. That’s the core concept at work here. No tweet can be longer than 140 characters and should simply be a few words to update your friends on whatever it is you’re doing right now.
For the ludites among us or for those who still respect and honor their privacy or uninterrupted alone time this might seem like your worst nightmare come true. I respect and understand the need for disconnection and often take times without any techno-communication devices at my fingertips. However, while I’m sitting here refactoring some code in our system (or not as the case may be while I type this blog entry) it’s rather nice to have the occasional tweet run by. I get a quick peek into an idea or thought from one of my friends and take a moment to think about what’s going on in their lives too. Twitter is not limited only to my close friends either, as I have already registered the Oregonian, CNN breaking news, and the Barack Obama campaign trail users in my friends list. I’m feeling quite amused watching headlines of news stories pop up for a few seconds or getting the latest update from the Obama campaign trail. If a particular tweet holds no interest, it disappears from view almost as quickly as it materialized never to be thought of again. For those that are of interest, I can flick my mouse over the “favorite” icon and mark it for review later. One can never tell how long the novelty of such tech toys will last. Some are uninstalled within a few days, while others (like instant messenger) are an integral part of my daily work life. Twitter has that feeling of longevity because it fills a neat little gap. When something isn’t quite big enough to justify a blog post, and I don’t have enough time to chat with one of my friends about it on IM, I can always take ten seconds to type less than 140 characters and share it with my friends.
I’m encouraging anyone who reads the blog or wants to keep in contact to check out www.twitter.com, create an account, and try it out for a few days. If it ends up in the techno toy trash bin a couple of days later then there is nothing lost, but for those who enjoy it this could be another great way to keep in touch in an increasingly disconnected world. It’s oddly amusing to see my friends tweet about what they’re thinking of for the names of their upcoming children, or even just what they might cook for dinner tonight. Then again, I’m a geek and I love this kind of stuff!
If you get twitter then look me up and “follow” my tweets. That’s the twitter paradigm. You choose to “follow” a list of people meaning that any time one of them tweets you will see it. When you tweet, you can “direct” a response to one particular person, or simply tweet to all of your followers. Either way, everyone who is following you will see it, the “direction” of a tweet to someone simply gives context to the conversation. It’s sometimes amusing to trace the conversations back and see where comments like “Only if the coffee won’t be offended!” originated from.
If you’re concerned about privacy, you can require authorization before allowing people to follow you. This means that you will receive an email each time someone wishes to sign up as a follower of your tweets where you get to approve or deny their request before they can do so. You can be as public or private as you wish. There is no requirement to tweet yourself either, in fact many of the community are simply interested in keeping up to date with the affairs of those around them.
Chalk up another great idea to the modern technological revolution. I love the internet. If it keeps me more in touch with my family and friends then I’m happy. :)
If you do create an account and want to follow me but are having trouble finding my username or just have questions about how to signup or use the software then just drop me an email and we’ll work through it together. See you online!
May 1st, 2008
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stuartthompson |
Social Media |
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