The Inflatable Soapbox

I just received a new follower on twitter this morning. He sent me a direct message thanking me for following him back and offering this tip on a way to gain new followers quickly.  I’ve been using twitter in a haphazard fashion for a little over 2 years.  I’ve seen some pitches like this before.  I’ve never tried them.  I’m not sure what value there is in adding a large number of people that you don’t actually engage in discussion.  For instance, what use would it be for me to add someone who, say, works in Aviva or sells health and beauty supplies if I don’t have anything in common with them. But, today, I’m in a mood for adventure.  This is the text suggested by tweetergetter for emailing:

Hey check this out…

I just found this site that shows you a
way of getting 1000’s of new followers
on twitter, I just started using it
myself and its starting to work
already.

http://tweetergetter.com/TheRainKing

Thought it might interest you.

TheRainKing

I’ll refrain from spamming my contacts with this but, if you are interested in trying to increase your twitter audience, perhaps you’ll click through and try it yourself.  Let me know what your results are and I’ll post my progress in a week or so.

I’ve only been on Twitter about one month. In that time, it has impressed me greatly with it’s potential for building relationships in such a simple way. I didn’t know Ashley but, as John Donne observed:

No man is an island… Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

The world is filled with pain and it’s easy to turn away. But we don’t have to solve all the problems to make a difference. If you’ll allow me one more quote, it’s so eloquently expressed by Loren Eisley in The Starfish Story:

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed
a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.

Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”

The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean.
The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”

“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish?
You can’t make a difference!”

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish,
and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said…”
I made a difference for that one.”

Ashley Spencer Memorial Fund(click for more info)

You can make a difference. Give if you can.
Spread the word.
It works if we all stick together. Peace.

I followed a link on Twitter this afternoon from Dave Sifry, founder of Linuxcare and Technorati, to this post by Glyn Moody. Sifry has started a new service, hoosgot, that allows you to post a request to the web at large for anything: information, stuff, a job, whatever. You can also see the stream of requests from others and respond to it, if you have what they need. A pretty cool and simple idea, resurrecting lazyweb for 2008.

This has been the idea behind GNU/Linux and open source from the outset: create an ever-growing shared library of freely usable, modifiable standards-based tools. Then use those, with a little code glue, to quickly create new applications. Great stuff! Thanks to Dave Sifry for demonstrating this so competently, and to Glyn Moody for bringing attention to it.

This will be my prediction for 2008: Free and Open Source software will be recognized as secure, reliable tools for achieving business  goals. It’s about time.

According to Jack, who posted these updates on twitter Saturday morning, the failure of T-Mobile/Twitter SMS gateway is resolved. Furthermore, it was not a T-Mobile policy issue. I am not convinced. Why is T-Mobile not even listed as a carrier on Facebook’s mobile settings page? I’ll add to this later. It’s 5:30 am and I should probably take a nap.