Micro Persuasion

Three Ways to Mitigate the Attention Crash, Yet Still Feel Informed

The following is also my column in next week's AdAge.

One of the most important skills executives need today is the know-how to manage and harness their personal information flow.

The Attention Crash is a crisis in global business that is getting worse every day. By 2009, the Radicati Group predicts that we’ll spend 41% of our time managing email. Now add to that the IMs, documents, Facebook pokes, RSS feeds, Twitter tweets and text messages coming at us and we’re officially way oversubscribed.

Unfortunately, the problem will not abate. Human attention is finite. It doesn’t scale. Worse, the pace of change today is so rapid there’s a huge need to stay digitally savvy.

The key is in wrangling your information flow. Here are three of my best tips.

Inbox Zero (www.inboxzero.com) - Blogger Merlin Mann has created a simple way to effectively manage email. His approach involves setting aside blocks of time for “email dashes,” quickly triaging messages and automating some of the processes with search folders – a powerful Outlook feature that most never use. Be sure to watch the video on Merlin’s site.

Invest in Search – When in doubt, let search tools - either on your desktop or online - do the work for you. The time you invest to set up these systems can pay huge dividends.

For example, I subscribe to around 500 RSS feeds in Google Reader. The great thing about my reader is that it’s searchable and acts as a personal database. So recently when my colleague asked me for March Madness online video statistics, was able to pull them up in seconds by searching my archive.

Make Unusable Time Usable – I read a ton. However, I have mastered how to stuff it into pockets of time that are normally “unusable.”

I get through about one business book a week by listening to them when I commute, travel and run errands. Most of the key books are available from Audible.com or iTunes. I am currently "reading" Groundswell by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li.

In addition, I use Instapaper.com to bookmark articles I want to read. I can access this site from any computer or mobile device. I also keep a reading folder in my email nerve center that syncs up with my different devices. It’s even available when I am offline.

These are just a few of the best tips. For more “lifehacks”, check out my bookmarks.

Even if Twitter is Just a Geek Haven, It's Still Very Influential

There's been an interesting discussion over the last few days about Twitter's reach. WSJ reporter Kara Swisher surveyed her dinner party and found out that no one there uses the micro-blogging site. Meanwhile Gina Trapani on Lifehacker is running a survey asking if Web 2.0 benefits only the tech elite.

Now let's look at the data. According to figures just out from Hitwise, Twitter is the 439th largest social networking site and 4309 overall. To be sure, growth is booming. But the site is still niche.

So all of the signs generally point the same way. Most of the social networking and online communities are definitely geek havens. MySpace, Facebook and YoutTube are three that have gone mainstream. So does that mean these smaller sites, like Twitter, are not worthy of a brand's time? Hardly.

Geeks are by far more influential than any other online contingency, except the big media. Geeks pass the puck from Twitter to blogs back to Twitter. Eventually it hits Techmeme, Saul Hansell at the Times takes notice and then the whole world knows.

That's why smart companies like JetBlue and Zappos are legitimately engaging on Twitter. It's becoming a front line for customer service. At a minimum, every consumer facing company should be monitoring the chatter. Even better, participating can cut problems off at the pass or even better foster evangelists. The numbers may never tell this story. For more, see Chris WInfield's mini case study.

Using Friendfeed's Imaginary Friends as a Master Aggregator

Like lots of bloggers, my latest fascination these days is Friendfeed. The site, which opened up to everyone about three weeks ago, has been on fire. It aggregates the various streams of all your friends from across all the big social sites into a flowing river organized by date. You can find my stream here.

However, when you dig into Friendfeed, there's much more than meets the eye here. Using the site's Imaginary Friends feature you can turn it into a powerful, master aggregator.

First, sign up for a Friendfeed account. Then head over to the settings page where you can create an unlimited number of imaginary friends. Each of these can collect any number of feeds or streams that you tell it to. I have two for starters. One that tracks all of my in-bound links and Twitter replies and another that tracks my favorite RSS feeds and news. These are private and they work great on a mobile devices as well. In addition, the headlines (not the full text) are also searchable.

I am sure we can dream up even more creative applications for Friendfeed's Imaginary Friends feature. For example, it's easy to create a mashed up stream of news feeds and then to re-syndicate it out elsewhere. If you have ideas share them in the comments.

Three Bookmarklets for Happier Mobile Browsing

With smartphone sales soaring and Citigroup projecting year-over-year growth of 50-60%, it's a safe bet that a lot of you are increasingly surfing the web from your mobile devices.

Still, even with the iPhone, the mobile browsing experience leaves lots to be desired because of the bandwidth and reception issues. Enter bookmarklets. These utilities add one-click functionality to your mobile device and they're terrific time savers.

Here are three such links I use constantly on the go. Drag the first two to your bookmarks/favorites and sync them to your device and you're all set. For the final bookmarklet, you need to first visit each service to configure them.

Mobilize This!

Google, Mowser and Skweezer are mobile transcoders that take any URL you throw at it and strip away the graphics for faster browsing. I prefer to use Google's version since it also gives me the option to browse the feed. The next time you want to get to a page quickly and your browser keeps loading the page. Stop it mid-stream and simply tap your Mobilize This! bookmarklet.

Wikipedia This!

Need to settle a bar bet like the name of Boba Fett's dad? Wikipedia of course has all the answers. Access this bookmarklet, enter your search term and you'll be whisked away to the answer.

ToRead and Instapaper

The great thing about the mobile web is that it's always with you. The downside is that sometimes it's hard to read a long story. Enter ToRead.cc and Instapaper. Both of these sites help you bookmark articles for the future. In the case of ToRead, it will email you the full text of the page. Instapaper assembles a reading list you can access from anywhere.

Happy browsing, travelers!

The MacBook Air is the Biggest Test Yet for Cloud Computing

I can't remember a product since the G4 Cube that has stirred up as much polarity in the Mac community as last week's release of the MacBook Air (MBA). It's either adored or derided. There's no in between. This is not only evident from what I read online, but also in conversations with colleagues and friends.

While some are very excited to finally have a thin, three-pound Mac they can tote everywhere, others are far more cautious. Pundits like Leo Laporte and crew, John Gruber and thousands more cite the following MBA shortcomings: the small hard drive, the price, the omission of a built-in Ethernet port and optical drive, the irreplaceable battery and even the exclusion of a Kensington security slot. Others correctly point out that the Air requires more compromises than notebooks in the same class made by Dell, Lenovo and HP (our new client).

However, now that the news has been out a week and I've had a chance to reflect on it, I believe the debate here is actually broader. Take a bird's eye view and you will see what is shaping up to be the biggest and most public test yet of consumer mettle for cloud computing and remote data storage.

As we become more dependent on technology, people crave small and thin computers and mobile devices. They want to travel light, yet still remain as productive as they can at home or work with a desktop. This will require that manufacturers rely more on "the cloud" (e.g. the Internet) and local area networks, rather than on-board hardware to do more of the work - at least for now. That's the compromise we make with any lightweight device. I can't edit photos on a phone, but it's conceivable that one day I will be able to through say Picnik or an online version of Adobe Photoshop.

Apple is planning for the future where cloud services help consumers mitigate the sacrifices of size and weight. In launching the MacBook Air, Apple deliberately created a new notebook that tests our mettle for remote data storage - be it on the cloud or a local network.

Steve Jobs talked about this explicitly during his Macworld keynote by showing how the network attached storage/computers and wireless movie downloads replace what DVDs to date have managed. However, he went even further by creating a new category of computers that sits between the MacBook and MacBook Pro - both of which offer a full array of ports, drives plus more oomph, not to mention poundage.

So the success of the MacBook Air is really dependent on much more than just Apple and its marketing mojo. It's about the network. The question is this: will the benefits of mobility outweigh any privacy or data availability concerns that consumers may have to deal with by leaving some data either on the cloud or the local network? It will for some, but just how many is anyone's guess.

The success or failure of this product is important to watch because it's a harbinger of just how much appetite consumers and business people have for cloud and remote data storage. Much more than Apple hangs in the balance here. Google and Microsoft - each of which takes a different approach to web services - will be watching too.

2008 Digital Trends Part II: Living Room 2.0

Entertainment, Mac Fan Version by Horrortaxi

This is the second in a series of posts on the big digital trends to watch in 2008. Part I is here.

---

For much of the 20th Century, the living room was our virtual social hub - a tangential connection to the broader world around us. The experiences, however, were never really social. However, they felt that way because we all experienced the same events from the same spot in our homes at precisely the same time.

Let's call this era Living Room 1.0. It was marked by dates like December 8, 1941 when 81 million of us flocked to the living room to get closer to the radio to hear FDR's famous "Infamy speech." Years later, as television began to dominate, it was where we "participated" in major global events, such as the Challenger Disaster, the Thrilla in Manila or Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon. The living room kindles strong memories (both positive and negative) for anyone 30 or older. And while the technology changed from radio to TVs and later video games, the experiences were really universal.

In the broadband era, however, the living room appears to have lost relevance. Today, the web is where we turn connect with others - and the connections are real, not imagined.

Consider, for example, the big news this week - the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Many of us I bet, unlike days of old, did not participate in this global event from our living rooms. Rather, we did so in real-time with peers on Twitter via a gaggle of connected devices that really can be anywhere - bedrooms, offices, home offices or, above all, our pockets. (Consider too that Bhutto's son and heir apparent is a Facebook user.)

So is the living room as a social hub dying? Hardly. It's quietly undergoing a revival - dare we call it Living Room 2.0. The revolution started with the advent of HDTV, which is now in 13% of US homes and growing - slowly. However, the real magic happens when we connect Internet-enabled devices and services to those sets. Suddenly, the living room becomes social again because it bridges our offline connections (the family) to our online friends around the world.

Right now it's largely the early adopters who are benefiting from the revival of the living room as a social hub. There are very few Robert Scobles of the world who connect Mac Minis to 50" TVs so they can use Dave Winer's Flickr Fan to view photos of their friends in glorious hi-def. This will change, however, as the devices get simpler, cheaper and the benefits are more pronounced.

For example, one of the biggest Living Room 2.0 successes is arguably XBox Live, which is now becoming a social network. (Edelman handles all XBox PR for Microsoft.) They won't be alone. By the end of 2008 every device that already has a place in an home theater set-up will connect not only to the web but, increasingly, to existing social networking platforms like OpenSocial, MySpace, Facebook and others. This means that devices like the Wii, Slingbox, Vudu, TiVo, Apple TV or even your trusty digital cable set-top box will start to allow you to connect with the rest of the world online. And then it will become more mainstream.

So don't reminisce about the days of old when we gathered around the TV or radio and felt a sense of connection to the world at large. What's old is new again. This time your living room is going to get a lot more crowded. Get ready to invite the world over because Living Room 2.0 is going mainstream in 2008.

Become a Knowledge Management Ninja with Google Reader

In this era of data smog, the knowledge worker who can act like an agile ninja by consuming vast quantities of information, synthesizing it and getting it in the hands of the right people at the right time is invaluable. For knowledge worker ninjas, RSS is your shuriken.

I have been using various RSS readers for nearly five years now - I've tried them all. However, none matches the power of Google Reader. I have found that if you tap into all of its features, it's the Holy Grail of Personal Knowledge Management.

So as 2007 winds down and thoughts turn to productivity and prosperity in the new year, I offer these tips to help. Share your own thoughts in the comments. (Some of these may work with RSS readers from Newsgator, Bloglines and others but they are written with Google in mind.)

This post has several parts ...

* The Core Philosophy: Google Reader is a database and a feed reader
* Continually add tons of feeds in organized, methodical way
* Establish a taxonomy that makes retrieval and sharing easy using on-the-fly tagging
* Annotate your data by connecting Reader to Gmail or Blogger
* Putting it all together - sorting, searching and sharing

The Core Philosophy: Google Reader is a database and a feed reader

Most people who use RSS readers do so with the intent of subscribing to an aggregated river of news feeds, persistent searches and blogs. However with the recent addition of search, the Google Reader became much more. Like Gmail, Reader should be viewed as a database that you can build from scratch and continually hone. I wrote about this in September when the feature launched, but I see far more potential now than I did then. This philosophy is key - Google Reader = news aggregator + custom feed database.

Continually add tons of feeds in organized, methodical way

Second, I encourage you to throw as many feeds as you can at the Google Reader just so you can capture and mine it. This should include relevant feeds that you never have any intention of reading or even scanning. For example, I subscribe to high volume streams like Twitter timelines, AP news syndicates, various digg feeds and more. These generate a torrent of posts but I don't let them get in my way. The key is to add them to a special folder that is separate from other feeds that you actually read or scan. This way, with a click of a button you can clear these items but still cache 'em. However, the great news is that you can always go back and search and/or retrieve them later, as you can see below.

For those feeds you do want to read or scan, I would also suggest filing them away by context as Daniel Miessler recommends here. The great thing that Google Reader does is a allow feeds to sit in multiple folders. This allows me to store some feeds in a "mobile" folder that I have bookmarked on my mobile phone, even as they also reside in a "blogs" folder. Set up folders by context - including computers, contexts (online/offline/etc) and devices.

Establish a taxonomy that makes retrieval and sharing easy using on-the-fly tagging

One of Google's best, yet underutilized features is tagging. This differs from folders. As I mentioned earlier this week, Google let you tag individual posts/items and then easily retrieve these later using the keyboard shortcut. Lifehacker covers all of this here.

Tagging is an incredibly powerful tool for becoming a knowledge management ninja - especially in PR. As you're reading feeds you can tag them for sharing with a select group or for easy retrieval in the future.

For example, let's say your job is to compile a report to your boss at the end of the week. As you scan, simply tag all of the potential items you want to include with "report." Now you can easily retrieve these posts. However, there's more. You can search them too! This is powerful because you are adding a layer of structure to what is basically a giant pile of information that someone else decided to organize for you when the feed was established.

Anotate your data by connecting Reader to Gmail or Blogger

Other than simple tags, Google Reader doesn't let you add notes to your posts or feeds. However, when you email items out of Google Reader you can add up to 1,000 characters. I recommend sending these into your Gmail Personal Nerve Center so that they get filed away with a certain tag. Another option is to email them into a private Blogger blog using their post by email function. Ruud Hein suggests another way of doing this with Feedburner. I would suggest coupling this with tags as opposed to starred items.

Putting it all together - sorting, searching and sharing

Now that you have your personal knowledge management system up and running, you can begin to pull it all together. For example, start filing away items under tags. Share the tag (privately) with colleagues and get this information out more widely. If you want to make this less kludgy, run the feed through Feebdurner as Ruud describes above and let every one subscribe via email.

Here's another idea. If you are tagging items by client name or project name, you can later go back and run a scoped search within that tag. Even better, you can do the same with specific feeds and folders. So if your boss calls you up and asks you how many times The New York Times used the name of your company in a headline, you can easily give him or her an answer.

This is all just the beginning but you can see where I am going. Set this system up in a way that works best for you. Don't be afraid of too much information. Embrace it. Revel in it. But wrangle it like cattle to make it truly work for you. Be a ninja in 08. Go forward and good luck.

Charting 2007's Three Big Web 2.0 Trends

"The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time." - Abraham Lincoln

Thinking about the future is fun. It's what I am paid to do. However, I never contemplate the days ahead without the context of the past. After all, the future is always grounded in history. That's why I have become a heavy user of Google Trends.

The tool is closest thing we have to a global rear-view mirror. Blog search and conversation charts only go so far. They capture what a small subset of the most vocal, tech-savvy users are saying. Search engines, on the other hand, show us what's on everyone's mind - including the giant underwater iceberg of silent users.

Like 2006, this was a big year for Web 2.0. Here are Google Trends charts I pulled looking at three broad 2007 Web 2.0 trends, along with my comments. I chose to focus here on broad trends, as opposed to the gyrations of individual sites, which always change with fickle users. (Micro blogging is an exception because the term is rarely used so I looked at Twitter instead.)

All of the data is global in scope and only as current as mid-December. Of course, all of this is just directional. Ideally, it would be great to cross-reference all of this with other sources, like Compete.com. Still, they do provide perspective.

Trend I: Social Networking

* Data: Searches for social networking and news volume both doubled in 2007. However, more recently, the volume has started to show some signs of weakness. Meanwhile, geographically, interest in social networking from India and Singapore is skyrocketing. Search volume for individual sites, like Facebook, appear to track the broader meme.

* Insight: Social networking is evolving from a group of sites into several competing platforms that power thousands of sites. Eventually, we won't think of social networks as sites but as a feature. This data might just be the first sign of such a progression.

Trend II: Micro Blogging

* Data: Micro blogging doesn't register on Google Trends, so I chose to compare Twitter and blogging (as opposed to "blogs" which is a much broader term). What's fascinating here is that searches for Twitter surpassed for "blogging" in April and never looked back. Meanwhile, news volume for the two are neck and neck. Twitter is particularly strong in Japan. That said, interest in micro blogging has dropped off dramatically this (nearly 50% off their peak in the spring).

* Insight: Blogging is work and the payoff (emotional or monetary) can be hard to come by, particularly for those of us who want to see a rapid return on our investment in time. Meanwhile, personal publishing is evolving because of the increasing sophistication of mobile devices and the Attention Crash. Micro blogging fosters connection with less work all while working well with mobile devices. Blogging remains important, however, as the traditional press rapidly embraced blogging, it has encouraged individual publishers to find new ways to spread their influence.

Trend III:: Web Applications

* Data: Google searches for web apps doubled in the second half of the year. That said they are dwarfed by stalwarts like Microsoft Office or Apple's iWork suite. Interest in Google Docs has flattened since they rolled out their presentation application. The US leads the way in web based applications.

* Insight: The search data seems to reflect what others have said - that web applications are not on most people's radar. This data is consistent with what Microsoft and Apple have said - people like their desktop apps. Web applications are in their infancy. It should be interesting to see if they will remain a niche category in the years ahead. The lack of the ubiquitous connectivity could be a major stumbling block.

How to Set Up a Portable Personal Nerve Center

There has been some debate the last few days about the merits of web-based vs. desktop applications. This was sparked by a big article in last weekend's New York Times about Google and Microsoft (an Edelman client). Ionut Alex Chitu is moving his information to the cloud. Meanwhile James Kendrick at JKOntheRun continues to like his desktop apps.

There is a hybrid solution. You can get the best of both worlds by setting up a web-based Personal Nerve Center (PNC) and making it ubiquitous and redundant so it's available from anywhere, even offline. I find this system makes it easier to manage the information overload drag. (If the entire PNC concept is new to you, then I invite you to read my initial posts on the subject first.)

All of these tips require any IMAP or hosted Exchange email account to work. I wrote this with GMail in mind, which now thankfully supports IMAP. This post has several parts...

• Make the Personal Nerve Center the hub of your online life (Productivity Apps + GMail/IMAP)
• Create a portable, offline version of the PNC that works on any computer or mobile device (USB drive + Portable Thunderbird + iPhone/Treo/Blackberry/Windows Mobile + GMail/IMAP)
• Build an "in case of emergency, break glass" PNC (Portable Thunderbird + Box.net + GMail/IMAP)
• Pump up your PNC with the power of search folders (Outlook/T-Bird/Mail.app + GMail/IMAP)

Establish the Personal Nerve Center as the Hub of your Online Life

I use lots of applications both on the desktop and online. However, I learned from Leo Babauta to become a Cyber Minimalist. This means once the stuff is created, I email into into GMail so that it archives and labels copies of my photos, personal word docs, meeting notes, web pages/PDFs I want to read and even MP3s. I also send "takeout" articles from Google Reader into GMail by using that site's email functionality - e.g. articles that I want to read later. This way, my essential stuff is available anytime, anywhere from any device, even offline (as you will soon see).

For example, when I create a list in Google Docs (which I use for GTD), I always email a copy to a secret "plus sign" GMail address. This automatically gets filtered and archived under my "Lists" label, which I can access from anywhere.

Create a Portable, Offline Version of the PNC that Works on Any Computer or Mobile Device

Getting your information online is just the beginning. The real magic happens when you sync the web with devices and computers.

I carry a USB drive wherever I go. On the stick I carry two copies of Portable Thunderbird - one that runs on Macs, the other on PCs. Both are synced to my IMAP account and have most of my essential PNC data cached - specific folders of articles, bookmarks, notes, GTD lists, etc. In both cases, these copies of Portable Thunderbird are password protected and encrypted. (The Mac version sits on an encrypted disk image.)

The advantage of this system, even though it's not always completely current, is that I can find any computer in the world and even if it's offline, have access to my critical information. That's not all, however.

I also keep my cell phone in sync with my GMail PNC. I always make sure key labels/folders like @Lists, @Reading, @Docs, @Meetings and @Personal stay in sync with my iPhone. This way, even if I am in the air and without connectivity, I have access to my essential data and files. This will work on any IMAP capable smartphone. I wrote about this over the summer but have since simplified the system now that GMail supports IMAP.

Build an "In Case of Emergency, Break Glass" PNC

In addition to keeping my USB key and iPhone in sync with my Personal Nerve Center, I also store encrypted copies of Portable Thunderbird on Box.net. This way, if for some reason I don't have my USB stick or mobile device (pretend I am Will Smith in I am Legend), I can log onto Box.net and download the copy of Thunderbird to a new USB drive. It's a backup for the backup and may one day be handy for the rare occasion when Gmail goes down.

Pump up your PNC with the Power of Search Folders

Last but not least, when I am accessing my PNC offline - be it from Mail.app, Thunderbird or Outlook - I use search folders to easily find certain information that's in my PNC. Lifehacker explains how here.

For example, I can find use these to easily pull up all my Twitter posts and replies from the last six months. I can certainly achieve this in Gmail using sophisticated searches, but you get more power and speed on the desktop than you do with the Web-based version of GMail.

This is what I am experimenting with now. It's clear to me that for the time being, there is no substitute for desktop apps - even though webware is catching up. The magical nexus is when you combine them so that your information is ubiquitous and that's exactly what I have going right now. Eventually, I expect this will all become more seamless and not require as many hacks.

Study: 25% of Entertainment Will Be Created by Peer Groups

A fascinating new study from Nokia predicts that by 2012 a quarter of all entertainment will be created, edited and shared within peer groups rather than coming out of traditional media.

What's unclear in my mind is where the boundaries are. In other words, what constitute peer content vs. pro content when the lines increasingly blur. Still, this is a big number and there's a lot of money at stake here to those who can create sustainable platforms that enable it all while monetizing.

To that point, TV Week conducted an analysis and found that while it's easy to get attention for your work, making money is a tougher climb. This might keep the figure from going higher than 25%.

Simple Ways to Go "Media Green"

Like lots of people I have become more aware of what I can and should be doing to help the environment. (Thanks, Al.) Now I am taking this to the next level by getting toward what I call a "Media Green" state. Basically, I am converting all the media I consume (and there is a lot of it) into the most environmentally friendly format I can find, without sacrificing too much of the experience.

This is the last big piece of my effort to get more green. I bank and pay bills online. Earlier this year I traded in my small SUV for a very efficient hybrid car. Further, I am more conscious of little things that I really ignored until recently - like turning the thermostat off when I leave the apartment.

In addition, thanks to my extensive use (or maybe that's misuse!) of Gmail and IMAP, I have already moved 100% of my work stuff, like meeting notes and documents, to bits. People are amazed when they come into my apartment or office and see no paper at all. I don't even know how to add the network printer at work! Media was the last frontier.

Here are the three steps I took to go "Media Green" ...

In: Audiobooks | Out: Printed Books

I "read" somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-50 books a year - mostly business, nonfiction and sports. However, nowadays I rarely buy printed books and instead download audiobooks from either Audible.com or iTunes. Now that MP3 players are ubiquitous - and cheap - their selection has grown a lot over the years.

For starters, I love that I can carry several audiobooks with me at once. Try that with bound books. You'll break your back. I keep two or three at all times lined up on my iPhone ready to go.

Second, audiobooks fill tons of unusable time - such as when I am waiting on line at Whole Foods or at the security checkpoint at the airport or when I am driving to client meetings. In addition, if you get an Audible subscription they actually cost less over time than hard copy books. I wish publishers made all of their titles available in audio format. Still, many of the more popular books are available as audiobooks.

If you have an iPhone, it gets more fun. Sometimes when commuting by train into the city I take notes via Gmail IMAP about what I am listening to. Of course, you don't need an iPhone to do this. Audible supports tons of devices, including Palm Treos and more.

My next step is to start storing audiobooks in Gmail or Box.net so that I can access them if I am out of content or space on the iPhone.

In: RSS, IMAP-enabled GMail and the iPhone | Out: Printed Magazines and Newspapers

Years ago I used to read three daily newspapers - the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Newsday, my local paper. I also used to buy dozens of magazines on computers, business and sports. I used to store them in a snazzy rack. Of course, I read lots of trade pubs too - AdAge, AdWeek, PR Week, etc. Now, however, I have almost completely ditched print in favor of reading online. (I just have to cancel a few remaining subscriptions.)

I now subscribe to the RSS feeds for every publication mentioned above plus hundreds of blogs. The beauty of this is that I only subscribe to what I care about and ditch the rest. So, for example, for the Times I subscribe to top news, NY, business, tech, NBA and football feeds but not the movie reviews.

Once I find articles I want to read, I clip them by emailing each into the Gmail Personal Nerve Center using a special email address so they get filtered. Then the articles show up in my "Reading" folder on my iPhone as well as on the desktop and web thanks to the new IMAP features in Gmail. This will work with any modern cell phone that supports IMAP, not just the iPhone.

In: XBox Live, DVR, Apple TV/iTunes/iPhone | Out: DVD Movies

I am not a huge movie buff, but I enjoy a flick every now and then. However, I have found that between the three boxes I have connected to my set - an XBox, cable box w/DVR and an Apple TV - I am more than covered. (This tip is not for hardcore movie fans who love DVD extras.)

XBox Live Marketplace (an Edelman client) is one of my favorite services. They have 350 movies for rental with more added all the time (subscribe to the feeds here). Many of them are in HD. Basically, all you need to do is sign up for an account and rent the movies online via the console. Movies begin to download and after about five minutes you can start watching. The rest of the flick downloads as you watch. After a few days, they expire and no longer work. It's a very elegant system and cheap too.

A lot of people have DVRs these days. Here's how I use mine. I scan the listings online a few weeks in advance and flag the movies I want. Then I record them and keep them stored for a rainy day when I want to watch a movie. I keep a library of about five to ten movies. As a next step, I may add additional storage to my DVR.

Last but not least, I have an iPhone and Apple TV. I purchase movies off of iTunes and download them for later viewing. The selection of movies on iTunes is not that great. XBox Live is better. However, I like the convenience of viewing them on my iPhone when I travel. I even take a cable with me so that I can plug my phone into the hotel TV (this works with iPods too). I may also explore storing movies on Box.net so that I basically increase my iPhone storage, provided wifi is plentiful.

These are just three simple steps I took to go "Media Green." If you have other ideas, leave them in the comments.

Use Your Cameraphone as a Visual To Do List

OK, since you clearly like these hackery posts (e.g. the one I wrote last night), here's one more on the topic. Then it's back to the normal fare here.

I am on a quest to figure out how I can use web services to run my entire life at home and work. I have two key requirements: 1) that I can easily get data in and out of the online service and b) that I can access my information quickly using my cell phone or download it to the device or my computer. Usually this means the web service has to have email in and out capability.

When it comes to remembering things, I am really bad at it. I subscribe to the Getting Things Done productivity program and The David's philosophy of getting things out of your head. My iPhone is my ubiquitous capture device. However, when I can I create to do lists that consist not of text but photos! It's faster. Plus, like Mark Cuban, I have terrible handwriting so digital is the way to go for me. So far I am using this mostly for personal errands but I am dreaming up new schemes to create all my GTD lists by taking pictures of people that I need to do something for, etc.

Here's an example. When I run out of cleaning supplies, I don't make a shopping list. I snap a photo of the empty container with my iPhone (however any old cameraphone will do). Then I email it into Flickr, which is free. I mark all the photos as private. In addition, I tag them "todo". Oh and the emails get backed up into the Gmail nerve center since I use their SMTP server. I could probably add a filter and a label here too.

Here's what my todo page looks like. It's reminding me of two things - to pick up cleaning supplies and to buy a nice present like flowers for my Mom. (Oh and to my consumer package good client friends out there - you know who you are - my cleaning woman picks the supplies not me!)

Then, when I am ready to head to the store, I call up Flickr Mobile from my phone. You can use any other photo service here that supports email - Flickr, Apple's .Mac, etc. Sometimes I will use .Mac Web Gallery but I like Flickr's simplicity. Of course, you don't need email. You can simply keep the images on your phone. But I would rather back up my images.

This is just the beginning, however. I am thinking about giving out the special Flickr email address for the page to a small group of others (hmm, my boss?). That way they can put things for me on my visual list and I will get updates via RSS. I may even make a game out of it - give me the best mnemonic possible so that I really remember to do something!

Anyway, even if I don't take this further, I love having a visual to do list. And it's fun!

Turn Gmail (or any E-mail Account) Into a Social Network Hub

There's been a lot of chatter about the entire concept of social graphing. I have no idea if there is validity here or not. And certainly people smarter than I am are talking about the potential viability of the entire concept.

However, what I do know is that a lot of us are increasingly participating in social networks and we need a way to track it all. Also, most of us are hooked on email too. So, the good news is you can easily combine these addictions (um I mean "tools") to your advantage.

Thanks to gobs of storage, a pretty strong reason to stay locked-in (three and a half years of heavy email use), my Gmail account is the nerve center that runs my life. Yes, just as Gmail remains my personal nerve center, it now also tracks my social graph. I use Gmail as a Grand Central Station-sized hub that helps me track every social network I participate in and my friends' activity there - as well as my own.

Here are four tips that have helped me. Many of these tips will work on most social networks that provide RSS, SMS or email alerts as well as on all big webmail sites - e.g. Windows Live Hotmail, AOL Mail, Yahoo Mail or even Exchange.  What I love about it is that it also works great with Treos, Blackberries and iPhones. This series has several parts...

• How to use Gmail to post to social networks
• How to track your friends and their replies using Gmail
• How to build a "lifebase" inside Gmail that maintains a record of your various friends/connections
• How to use Gmail to prioritize the right friends and weed out the ones you want to un-friend

Use Gmail to post to Social Nets

Let's face it, life is busy. Who has time to go to a site, log in and post something new. SInce I already spend a tremendous amount of time inside Gmail, I have rigged it so I can easily post directly to the social nets where I choose participate. In my case, this consists of Twitter and Facebook. It's simple.

In Twitter's case I use Twittermail. I have a super secret address that I send mail to and it automatically posts to Twitter, edits me down to 160 characters and formats my links. 

Facebook doesn't have email in functionality for status updates, but you can use Teleflip  or another email to SMS gateway to get around this. Configure it so that any mail you send it auto forwards to FBOOK (32665). Use the @ symbol to update your status. Other commands are posted here and listed below.

Track Your Friends and their Responses with Gmail

So now that we covered how to get stuff posted to social networks from Gmail, let's start using it to get updates so you can track your peeps - and their replies back at 'ya.

In the case of Twitter, it's simple again thanks to their API. Twittermail can automatically email you any replies to your Tweets. In addition, I use Twitter Digest to generate  a feed of all of the friends I want to follow the most. I then stick this feed in my Gmail clips, which rotates whenever I am using the account. Even better, you can run a Twitter Digest feed through R-Mail (now owned by NBC and soon to be called SendMeRSS) and have it land in your inbox as an email message once daily.

How about Facebook? Easy. Log into your account, find the status update page, grab the RSS feed and run it through Feedburner. Why Feebdurner? Because you can keep it the feed and your friends updates safe from search engines, yet still subscribe to it via email. This doesn't just apply to Facebook but any site that lets you track friends via RSS.

Use Gmail (or other Webmail Service) to Build "a Lifebase" of Friends

Now, I don't know about you, but in my business relationships are everything. Increasingly social networks are becoming a theater of operations for PR. So we need ways to track our interactions over time. Enter email.

Using any of the methods described above, start subscribing to feeds via email for the friends you want to follow closely. If a feed doesn't exist in the social net you want to track and there's only text message capes (like Facebook), use an SMS to email gateway.

With the emails set up, then build some very smart filters in Gmail. For example - "from:R-mail subject:Scoble." This will find all messages that come in from R-mail from Scoble's Twitter stream. I have this search automatically filtered and archived to a special "Friends" label as Lifehacker describes here. Using this method, you now have a nice way to track a friend's entire stream - should you wish.

Use Gmail to Prioritize Friends You Care About Most and Weed Out Duds

If you follow the steps above you will start to amass a lifebase of all your friends and their social networking activities. This works especially well on services that offer unlimited storage, like AOL and Yahoo. Over time, you will open certain messages and ignore others. This will reveal just how valuable a particular friend's update is to you.

Using Gmail you can find these all instantly with a command like this - from:R-mail subject:Twitter is:unread. Then you know which friends you should toss - at least from Gmail.

These are just a handful of tips and this concept is evolving but even before someone builds the big social graph in the sky, I am just getting along fine using Gmail, thanks to a bit of hackery.

My 25 Year Love Affair with Computers

Next month will mark 25 years since I started using a home computer. Brad Feld and I were talking about this in my office a few weeks ago and I have been meaning to write this post since. Twenty-five years is a long time! So I thought it might be fun this summer, being geeks and all, if we wrote about "all the computers we have loved before." Here's my run at the highlights, to the best of my recollection. Share yours with the tag: myfirstcomputer. Oh and skip to the end for a peek at the future if this doesn't interest you ...

1982: Atari 800

Ahh the summer of 1982. I was 12 years old and a video game junkie. The Go-Gos dominated the radio. Even today if I hear Pac Man music or "Head Over Heels" I start to jiggle my pocket for quarters.

I had used a Radio Shack TRS 80 (often called the Trash 80) at sleep away camp in 1981 and loved it. From then on I was dying to have my own computer. My parents bought me the Atari for my Bar Mitzvah. We upgraded it to 64K of RAM (yes, I said K) and added a cassette tape drive and a dot-matrix printer. I connected it to the Sony Trinitron TV in my room.

The Atari 800 was a good computer. My Dad, an engineer, and I made it do all kinds of cool stuff. For example, we programed in Basic to plot out ones and zeros on a dot matrix paper to to draw pictures of Snoopy. I subscribed to Compute! magazine and Antic. The magazine came with pages of code that you would input by hand. The result: usually a fun snake game or something like that. (I know I know. You probably think I lived in a Log Cabin too.)

1985: Atari 800 XL

This was basically the family upgrade to the Atari 800. I used a word processor called AtariWriter to write school reports. This is what it looked like...

More importantly, this was also the first computer I used to get online with a 300 baud modem.

I first subscribed to an Atari online service called Plato that was really cool, but it went bust. Then I logged on to Compuserve and GEnie, a service that General Electric ran. I hung out in the chat rooms and forums. It was all text based but really cool and fun. It was like digg with its knuckles on the ground.

Later on I signed up for a USA Today online service that was for sports junkies. We ran up huge bills on all of these because it was all charged by the hour back then. The 'rents were not too pleased at the time but clearly it was all worth it.

Last but not least, during the mid-1980s I set up a BBS - what was then called bulletin boards. You dialed into a phone number via your modem that you found on other BBSes. Each one was a private network with content. I ran one about sports but shut it down when we started getting calls in the middle of the night.

1986-1991: The Computerless Dark Ages

From 1986 to basically 1991 or so I didn't actually get a new computer. I largely used the ones I had access to in school. They were all Apple computers.

In high school I used an Apple IIe, Apple III. I took a class in computer graphics and used the Apple III to draw and saw that the computer could be a creative tool too.

In college I used Macs. By then Macs were starting to gain steam. My friend in high school had a Mac Classic and I was jealous but it was too expensive for me to buy at the time. However, in college I used a Mac SE and Microsoft Word extensively for word processing. I really didn't spend as much time online as I did in high school but still used GEnie a fair amount.

More importantly, I got my first taste of desktop publishing in 1990. We used Macs to design and layout the school newspaper, which I was a contributor to. I was fascinated with Pagemaker and what it could do.

1992: Apple Macintosh LC

After I graduated I wanted to get a Mac so I saved up everything I could muster and purchased a Macintosh LC, PageMaker, Photoshop and Illustrator. I taught myself these programs inside and out and later Quark as well.

This computer was perhaps the one that was most important because it's the one I used when I fell in love with the Internet. In 1992 I reconnected online by signing up for America Online. I will never forget the feeling of dialing in and seeing everything I could discover online. Back then AOL was a closed service - a walled garden. However, it had a wealth of content.

1993: Apple PowerBook 145B

My Dad had an IBM luggable computer in the late 1980s and I saw that portable computing was going to be a big deal one day. It was really unaffordable at the time. However, by 1991 or so with the introduction of the ThinkPads and Powerbooks, they were becoming within reach.

In 1993 I bought the most affordable PowerBook - the 145B. It had a black and white screen but it was great for writing, which I was doing a lot of at the time. I began in fact to freelance for MacUser (then a US magazine) and Mac Home Journal. I also attended my first Macworld conference. I used a 44mb Syquest Drive for back up and to shuttle files back and forth.

1995-2002: Dell Dimension (several models)

By 1995 the Microsoft marketing machine was in full motion. You knew Windows 95 was going to be a big deal. I switched from the Mac to the PC as my main computer. I was also not doing as much graphic design and more research/writing and PR so it was time to go corporate.

In 1995 I was still an AOL member but by then they had truly began to embrace the Web. In 1994 I began to explore Archie and Gopher. By 1995 I was using Mosaic then Netscape, but connecting through AOL and later an ISP. Finally, like everyone, I started to use Internet Explorer. My Dell Dimension was the computer I first used to explore the Net. I also joined MSN and liked it a lot too.

Later on, I upgraded to a new Dell every few years. Each time, I purchased more power. Finally in 1999 I added a broadband connection and began to use the computer a lot more.

1996-2003: Various Laptops from Dell, Toshiba and IBM

Separately, I also had a computer at work that I took home. I have worked on a laptop since 1996. These included IBM Thinkpads, a Toshiba Tecra and various Dell Inspirons. I also briefly used an Apple Powerbook (the Wallstreet Model) during the dot-com boom when I worked at a small agency. To some degree, I used these more than I did my desktop, especially as I added wifi in 2001. During this time I ran Windows 95, 98, ME and eventually XP.

2004: Apple PowerBook G4

By 2004 I was ready to ditch the desktop. I really liked working off the smaller screen. Also, my job really became a lot more mobile as I began to travel the country speaking and consulting. I bought an Apple PowerBook G4. This was the computer I started this blog on. It was also the machine I used to podcast and experiment with lots of other sites. I also started to take this computer to work in my last job. It ran double duty.

Switching over to the Mac had pros/cons. I loved the Mac OS X interface, but I missed many windows apps. Also, I found that many sites would not work with Safari or Firefox and longed for a way to experience the best of both worlds.

2006 - Today: Apple MacBook (Black edition, version 1)

Finally, in 2006, everything came together in just the way I wanted it. I bought the first generation Macbook. This is the computer I use today at home and on the road (more on that part in a bit). It's perfect because I am able to run both Mac OS X Tiger and Windows Vista. I was running them both under Bootcamp but have switched to Parallels so that I can operate both at the same time.

More importantly, these days much of what I need is accessible from any computer because it's in the cloud. Work files are all on servers accessible from anywhere. Personal files too are backed up to the web and are available. This is a big trend that will extend out to mobile phones too. For a peek, take a look at Soonr.

The Future

What will my computing experience look like in the next 25 years? The devices I use today will look even more quaint than an Atari 800 does today. I don't have the answers. None of us do. But directionally you can see where it is going.

The gap between cell phones and laptops will narrow dramatically in the next several years. The iPhone and Palm's Foleo are two notable examples. (Palm is a client.) Windows Mobile too will power many of these devices, as will Web services. Take a look at iZoho for example.

This week I took my first overnight business trip in 10 years without a laptop. All I took was my iPhone and a travel router. It worked perfectly, though it was only one night. Still, it's a big deal that I was able to do this. Other execs I know only travel with their Blackberries.

Soon, all of these devices will connect to peripherals - flash-based storage, keyboards, full-sized monitors, mice. And they will do so seamlessly and wirelessly. In five years very few of us will be lugging around laptops. The cell phone will be our computer, both at home and in the office.

In addition, more of our data will live not on hard drives but "in the cloud." They will be accessible from everywhere, particularly as high speed broadband becomes more ubiquitous.

When I was out in the Valley a few weeks ago Intel indicated that they see no end for Moore's Law. That's good news and clearly if this post is around in five years it will be interesting to see just how much more we can do with technology. I intend to be around for the ride.

Search Wikipedia and RSS News Feeds via SMS

Lately I have been experimenting a lot with text messaging services since it's the primary way people interact with data on their cell phones. Plus, as you know, I am into the whole microblogging revolution.

You can do a lot with SMS, including send them from your desktop, query the Web or even use it to find a clean public restroom believe it or not. Here's another one I really like.

GoLiveMobile has set up a way to query Wikipedia via text messages using their Text2WAP technology. All you need to do is send a text message to the number 23907 with the word ABOUT followed by your search topic - e.g. ABOUT WIKIPEDIA. You will then get a link back to a special mobile-friendly version of the Wikipeida entry.

In addition, the company has a news search engine as well that scans RSS feeds. Simply text NEWS [Search Term] - eg NEWS MINNEAPOLIS - to 23907 and you will get back a link to a special formatted web page.

The service is free but typical SMS charges apply. Handy stuff.

End Mobile Browser Sniffing and Give Consumers Choices

Photo by John Pastor

The iPhone has completely changed how I interact with information on the go. When I travel I leave the notebook at home. I take the iPhone, an Airport Express for the hotel room (or anywhere) and an APC power pack for heavier use days. Everything else lives on a 8 GB USB stick or "the cloud." The exception is if I think I am going to need to create or edit rich content, like a Powerpoint deck.

Still, for all of the enthusiasm about the iPhone and it's ability to browse most of the broader web, it's made me realize that there will always be a place for the mobile Internet. More than two-thirds of the time I am accessing the web from my iPhone, I am connecting to mobile or "iPhonized" sites that are in between the stripped down versions and the real thing. This includes when I am using wifi. I have two bookmarks for many of my favorite sites - one for the mobile or iPhone-specific version, another for the real thing.

That's bad news for web developers who are hoping that one day they won't need to re-code sites for handheld devices. The problem is they will always have to even if broadband is truly ubiquitous. The reason is cell phones and other gadgets are designed to fit in your hand. It doesn't matter if it's a PSP, a Treo or an iPhone or whatever comes next. From a UI perspective, mobile sites work beautifully on phones - as do information apps if the platform supports it.

This means web sites increasingly need to give consumers a choice when browsing from a mobile device. Many do not. They "sniff" what browser you're using and then serve up the site that will give you the best experience. The problem is that browser sniffing, particularly on devices like the iPhone, doesn't work because it supports all page formats. (Big disclaimer here: Edelman represents dot-mobi, but I don't personally consult to them.)

Consider weather.com, for example. The popular weather site determines your browser and then serves up a site that's best formatted for it. Enter the iPhone, however. There are times you want to browse the lite version and other times you want the big daddy. Unfortunately, they don't give you a choice and this in particular has caused some iPhone users to get upset.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is digg. You can browse the full version, a mobile site or an iPhone flavor. You get to decide.

The mobile web is far from dead but consumer choice is just as critical as these devices get more sophisticated.

Wither Blogging? Not Yet, But Perhaps Soon

Earlier this week we chatted - here and on Twitter - about Shiny Object Syndrome (SOS). Our appetite for new technologies and channels is certainly insatiable, but it points to a larger trend. Perhaps we're in search of a new format (or formats) to replace the almighty blog.

What, wither blogging? Not quite. I believe blogs remain extremely powerful and I plan to be a multi-format contributor. Still, a perfect storm is brewing that could one day mark the decline of the long form blog as we know and love it today.  BL Ochman and Michael Tangeman are two that are pondering the same trend.

Let's take a closer look at what's happening. There are three big forces at bay here.

First, there's the Attention Crash. The demands on our time, be they work, family, shiny objects or all of the above loom large. This is changing our media habits. We crave what's pithy and fun. That's one reason why YouTube and widgets got hot.

Second, there's the proliferation of mobile Internet usage. I don't have the statistics handy but my gut is that the upper strata of Forrester's participation ladder includes many smart-phone owners.

As a reporter from MSNBC found, you can increasingly do a lot with these devices by themselves. On my next short trip I plan to leave my laptop at home in favor of my iPhone, especially if I can plan it all so that I am around wifi.

What this all means is that mobile platforms and devices encourages people to publish more often, but in a far shorter format.

Last but not least we have social networking. These sites and services make it easier for us to tune into "signals" - e.g. people and topics we care about - and tune out noise.

So what does this mean all for blogging? I imagine over time some erosion. We will unsubscribe from low quality blogs written by strangers that we truly don't have time for, in favor of tuning into friends and their mobile streams. Perhaps it's already happening.

Turn Your iPhone into a Mobile Nerve Center

I have been a happy iPhone user for about 10 days now. It didn't come easy. I waited on line for several hours (unnecessarily) and then had a big hassle getting it activated. But it was all worth it. The iPhone is a terrific web device and it's great to see that already it has spawned some outstanding apps

However, the iPhone doesn't go far enough by itself. You can make it go even further with these free undocumented techniques I have implemented over the past few days. It will turn your iPhone into a mobile nerve center that allows you to keep essential information at your fingertips. These tips can be used by themselves or in conjunction with the GMail Nerve Center techniques I wrote about in February.

Read on and share your tips too in the comments.

Turn Your iPhone into a Hard Drive Using a Free IMAP Account
Requires: An IMAP account, desktop mail program like Mail.app for OS X, Thunderbird or Windows Mail

If you have an IMAP mail account and a desktop mail program, you can turn your iPhone into a hard drive that stores Word and Excel docs, Powerpoint frames (in the form of Jpegs) or MP3 files.  If you don't have an IMAP account you can get a free one from AOL. I have tested this successfully using Mail.app.

First, set up your IMAP account in your desktop app and on your iPhone. Then, create a folder in your account and call it @Files. Now, all you need to do to store a file on your phone is to send yourself a new message and attach the file to it. Then simply drag that file out of in into your @Files folder and it's ready to be accessed anytime. Even better, you can always ship it elsewhere via email. I tried to accomplish this using a draft email but it failed.

It gets better. You can also use this technique to send yourself MP3 podcasts without having to sync them through iTunes. Simply send then delete the message when your done. No mess.

Why IMAP? Because you have access it to the file from everywhere - the desktop, Web and iPhone. You can even set up a filter that automatically files away an attachment you email yourself into the files Folder by setting up the following criteria: from: (your email address), to: (your email address), has: attachment.

Turn your iPhone in to a Notebook

Requires: An IMAP account, desktop mail program like Mail.app for OS X, Thunderbird or Windows Mail

The iPhone has a decent note taking app. However it doesn't sync with the desktop. Enter IMAP. If you simply create notes in your desktop program and save them as draft they will show up in your draft folder on your iPhone. Then you can drag these to a @Notes folder either on the desktop, web iPhone. Again, like with files, the advantage here is that the note follows you everywhere.

Send Takeout Info to Your iPhone
Requires: Any email account, Google Reader

I do a lot of reading as part of my job. Often it can be overwhelming. A lot of this information comes from Google Reader that I come across while scanning my feeds. I don't have time at the moment to read the longer posts but I send them to what I call my "takeout" folder using this special technique.

First, I set up a special email address in Gmail labeled iPhone that I use to send stuff to my IMAP account. At the bottom of a Google Reader post you will see a link that says Email. Click on that link and type the word iPhone or your secret address. Then in your desktop mail program, set up a filter that sends any message with the phrase "Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites" into your @Reading folder. That's the viral tag Google puts on all of these messages. If you have an IMAP account all of your articles will be get filed for reading later on. The folder on your phone will look identical to the desktop and web.

Here's another similar tip. I send myself reference information like train schedules to my IMAP account. I take these with an @Reference subject. These all get filtered to my @Reference folder and sync to my iPhone.

Last but not least, I do the same using Google Docs, where I keep my GTD lists. I click on the email this file link in Google Docs and add @Lists to the prefix. Then these messages get filtered to my @Lists folder in my desktop mail program and also on the iPhone. I also write docs on the iPhone and send them into Google for later editing.

Bookmark Mobile Sites and Regular Sites
Requires: Web browser that syncs your bookmarks to the iPhone

Although the iPhone browser displays regular web sites nicely, it really is only effective when you're in a wifi zone. So, I keep a folder of mobile sites that I use when using EDGE (for example bofa.mobi - my bank) as well as another for when wifi is available (bankofamerica.com). I keep the mobile ones in a special iPhone folder.

Ok, but what if your favorite web site - like a blog let's say - doesn't have a mobile site? Easy. Bookmark the RSS feed. It will load in the iPhone's reader much faster than it will if you loaded the normal page. If you're on wifi you can indulge in the full glory of HTML.

Build and Store an Arsenal of Bookmarklets
Requires: Web browser that syncs your bookmarks to the iPhone

Here's a little know fact - most bookmarklets work beautifully on the iPhone. So add a bunch to your browser and make sure they sync to the phone. Some of these add incredible functionality to your iPhone. For example....

* Search and highlight finds every instance of a word on a page and colors it yellow. The iPhone doesn't have a find in page button so this is the next best thing

* Flickr Search opens a Flickr search box and will whisk you off to find photos

* Wikipedia Look-up pops open a Wikipedia search box right on your iPhone

* TwitThis takes a link you're looking at and feeds it into Twitter. You need to be registered for the site

Most bookmarklets will work on your iPhone. Start with these. Also check out my Mini-Me pop-up bookmarklets too. They open up new browser windows.

Those are my initial tips so far. As I come up with others I will share them.

Community Glues Offline and Online, Real and Virtual

Community is the glue that unities us all, as humans. It has for thousands of years. We identify ourselves with the physical communities in which we live - local, national and global. Our family is a community. Our circle of friends and fellow alumni are communities. The workplace is a community. Even Starbucks - the third place - is a community for thousands of web workers and new moms.

More recently, thanks to Web 2.0, search and mobile devices, community is becoming an equally huge part of our online lives. Technology has given rise to thousands of micro global villages where people find each other, talk and collaborate around shared interests and/or goals.

This isn't a new idea, of course. I remember spending hours on GEnie's RoundTables as a teenager in the mid-1980s. When the web blossomed in the late 1990s, many of us hung out on community sites like GeoCities and the late great Six Degrees.

Today this is all much easier and natural because of broadband. It has changed the way we view the web and the time we spend online. It's important to note the role that community has always played in driving the Internet revolution and how that will continue.

The aforementioned communities were the prehistoric predecessors to the water coolers where we spend time today. This includes the blogosphere (a giant, distributed community), social networks like Facebook and MySpace and virtual worlds like There.com and Second Life.

Community, however, is no longer limited to just the specialist sites. It's becoming completely ubiquitous online, just as it is off.

You can find it everywhere, really, if you look. USAToday.com, MLB.com, Edelman.com and even Apple.com all are, at least in part, communities. In the near future, every corporate-owned site will either have community features, showcase content from communities in a picture-in-picture approach, or simply point people to where they can find them.

This is just the beginning, however. The most exciting moments will come when online communities are increasingly used to foster offline connections. That's the big idea behind Meetup.com, for example, and why it's thriving. It's also why eBay Live and Gnomedex (and soon Techcrunch 20) are very successful events.

During the Paley Center summit I attended earlier this month in Silicon Valley, Vint Cerf talked about this at length. He was referring specifically to the power of video inside virtual worlds. He echoed many of the themes he covered in this recent piece in Forbes. Video is a hybrid between offline and on.

The lesson here for media, entrepreneurs, marketers and PR pros is that even though we are spending tons of time online, it does not replace what happens offline. In fact, it amplifies it. Last night during an event I participated in at Wharton School of Business, Ed Keller discussed his research into this phenomenon. More here (PDF)

The secret to success is gluing together online with offline and real and virutal. Use the web to make the physical connections we have stronger. That's one big reason why the words public relations are really finally beginning to have a literal meaning.

Mowser is a Command Line for Mobile Browsing

Mobile-friendly versions of big web sites are becoming a lot more common. Most news sites have them, as do the portals. Edelman too has one that's on a dot-mobi URL (one of our clients). Still, lots of sites don't have a mini companions.

Enter Mowser. The site, which is run by mobile guru Russ Beattie, is a great home page for your your phone. You can enter any URL and it will shrink it down for you. Even better, if the site you want to view has a feed it will auto-detect it and present it in a very clean, efficient way that's perfect for phones. For example, here's Lifehacker as viewed through Mowser. A list of popular feeds can be found here. There's also