The speaker/lecturer is in the video is,  Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody. I’ll admit, I do have the book but have yet to read it.

This is a superb view of how something like Twitter became so successful in what we may deem as “third world” countries like Kenya or rural China. It is odd to think of this as almost reverse technology – taking for granted when others use the same tool out of necessity.

This is a very, very good audio and video presentation.

How Cellphones, Twitter, Facebook Can Make History

I am late to the game, per se, in getting on Twitter, Facebook, and social media/networking modality. Yet, I can see and have my own data to measure just how successful my endeavors have been since getting on Twitter. Facebook remains to be seen as I have been on a grand total of, egad, three days now.

When Twitter users put up a banner or post Follow Me, there is unprecedented power in those words.

We are witnessing a revolution on many fronts right before our eyes. A revolution of a nation, of people and of the mystique of microblogging – limiting to 140 characters.

This is not the first time it Twitter and microblogging have been at the forefront of news. Such means of communications were utilized to report an imprisionment and subsequent release in Egypt, an earthquake in China, a jet liner landing on the Hudson River, and now potentially the second Iranian revolution that many of us have witnessed.

Events in Iran started to unfold and the seams of iron fisted control began days ago when the election results were announced within a couple of hours. The fraud charges against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his main political party were almost immediate. How was it possible to declare a winner within hours of polls closing when tens of millions of ballots had been cast, sealed, and required hand counting? It is not possible.

When the protests began, main media coverage was present beaming signals and images to us. Even with a government order banning these demonstrations did not dispel the crowds. Police with batons racing through the crowd on motorcyles did nothing to break up days of protests.

Then the Iranian government pulled the plug on internet access and feeds. One thing they could not control nor confinscate was the tens of millions of mobile phones capable of passing on live images from the scene and live 140 character tweets from the throngs of users.

Twitter is indeed at the head of the pack in this revolution. Microblogging has come of age. Microblogging has become a tool that may just be the catalyst in over throughing a corrupt, defiant, and dangerous regime.

The Twitter thing, as mentioned, was brought to my attention last night. A friend who runs Microblogging.com sent a link that was quite amazing.

There was a scheduled Twitter mantainance that would have taken Twitter off-line for one hour. Hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions) of twitter users PLEADED for Twitter not to do this as Twitter was now the only true and viable means of getting overnight news out to the world from Tehran.

And Twitter obliged the cries of holding off.

Twitter and Iran stayed connected to the world.

President Barack Obama knows the power of Twitter and microblogging. So do his followers. As well as his staff.

And now I see an unusual headline:

US State Department Working With Twitter to Keep Service Up for Iranians

Elise Labott of CNN reports: “The halls of Foggy Bottom are ringing with the Tweets coming with Iran and the State Department is working to ensure they keep coming. Senior officials say the State Department is working with Twitter and other social networking sites to ensure Iranians are able to continue to communicate to each other and the outside world.”

Read full story: CNN

Laying before us is a revolution in the making of a goverment and of mobile wireless communication.

For the State Department to step in a supporting role to keep Twitter on line is revolutionary in itself. To me it is a green light giving the “go ahead” to topple the government of a regime that is not only anti-American and Israel. It is a regime that is so anti-anyone who does not think and speak using the party tone. This is truly an unprecedented manner in which the US Government supports the ousting of another government by supporting the opposition’s use of Twitter, social networking, microblogging, mobile and wireless media.

It was a few months ago when I read an established blogger stating that the mobile internet does not exist, the internet is one, and it was of no value except to those promoting it. Read that statement again.

mobile internet does not exit, there is only one internet, and it is of no value except to those promoting it.

This is paraphrased and suffer with me as I will not make a public spectacle of the person who blogged this. Suffice to  say, she has a tough go from “those that supported” the mobile internet.

It was only perhaps a month or so ago I made a pitch to a health care provider, now the fifth largest hospital chain in the USA, that they should be using Twitter to gather real time feedback from users of its facilities and to respond in real time to concerns and complaints. One person armed with the directory to each Risk Management and Customer Service personnel could immediately post the person to contact regarding the issue. REAL customer service in REAL TIME.

The Asst. Director of Marketing emailed back that the matter was discussed with his superior and they were not interested.

It wasn’t that they were not interested in my proposal.

There were not interested in Twitter at all. They saw no value to marketing via social networking. There was no perceived need to utilize Twitter as an external measure of customer satisfaction. There was no use for a microblogging service to exist in their handling of internal and external issues in real time as they arise.

Imagine as a customer you tweet about the un-necessary wait in the ER to be seen. A person responds back not only with a supporting tweet but within minutes a real live person from customer service is standing in front of them wanting to make their waiting more comfortable.

As an employee nurse, you are concerned about staffing issues and the nurse to patient ratios. You tweet about how you are incapable of giving the proper attention to the patients. No one cares. Yet you just tweeted this message to the entire world! Then comes a starnge tweet: it is a message to call an internal number. You call and a person in the Nursing Administration inquires what the issue is, where is the shortage, and replies “help is on the way.”

Imagine a new way of business.

Imagine a new way of customer service.

Imagine a new way of employee satisfaction and retention.

There is no imagination necessary as all these wonderful tools exists and are being utilized as I type this.

Imagine 140 characters texting their way to a Revolution.

Imagine the revolutionary changes these tools can make in your business.

In your life.

- and -

large list of mix & match geo, generic, and foreign language words.

I was noticing the gross amount of wrong, misleading, or hyper BS regarding the Swine Flu Outbreak.

For the past several days, I have been working feverishly to creates sites the I would recommend as being official news, such as the CDC and WHO.

Recently states have gotten into the news as local and state health departments are releasing their own news and updates. Several school districts have closed for what may be the remainder of the school years.

I manage several Twitter accounts and that gave me a pretty good insight as to what was out there and what whas needed.

I released and have been revising FluAct.com which now includes:

• CDC
• WHO
• Google Pandemic Map
• Dr. Sanjay Gupta
• State Health Departments

Actually, the first site I released was several days ago.

mCDC.mobi started out being just mobile CDC news.

It rapidly evolved along with the flu outbreak. WHO was perhaps simply monitoring the situation. But as the virus began to spread to several continents, WHO became more involved.

mCDC.mobi added WHO for regional and international news. This led to the addition of a Multi Lingual module which could provide translation into 13 languages. Then Local Clinic search for those who were new to the area they were in or perhaps on the road. RSS feeds became part of the front page. Finally, Local and State Health Departments.

All of this is where knowing basic programming skills or knowing a structure like Joomla or Wordpress comes in handy. Having a medical background and deep knowledge of the events also helps. Most of all, in a situation like this being flexible to add additional features as news and information evolves.

Just hit my inbox;

Developers: Submit Your Mobile and Web Apps for use on Nokia Devices and Win $30,000

To have a qualified entry in this category, you will need to submit either:

* A WRT widget, submitted in the .WGZ format.
* A URL for your mobile-optimised website, along with any supporting screenshots and/or sitemap information that includes the optimisation logic, such as, whether it’s a mobile specific site (.mobi etc.) or browser optimisation with the same URL as the one for the desktop

2 hours ago he reported this:

All 85 staffers at Portfolio magazine will be leaving Conde Nast due to its closure, writes BW’s Jon Fine. http://is.gd/cWUL

This is a mag I subscribed to eons ago as it was an exceptional show piece for artists and illustrators. I had a sketch published in one issue in the mid 80’s.

The cost of paper has gone up. The cost of printing ink has gone up. The cost of labor has gone up. The cost of retaining good talent and work team has gone up.

Meanwhile, readership was on the decline long before the recession for numerous magazines. PC World closed their Australian/New Zealand edition and office last fall. Several other magazines have either folded, cut out regional editions, or scaled back

Ten Major Newspapers That Will Fold Or Go Digital, An Update

Several newspapers have already folded. One analyst predicts 80% of daily papers will fold withing 18 months.

What this means to me is classified ads are going out as well. Seems like now, more than ever, is an ideal time to start building sites that are of directory type sites. Keeping them updated will also be necessary to ensure seasonal news and ads – push beach in the summer and snow ski in the winter.

It also looks like geo names are soon to be even more en-vogue. Something has to take the place of all that local, regional, and state news. Sure, the paper may end being an online edition. But some of these suckers are closing up shop PERIOD!

Just some food for thought to be learning or honing site skills. Know your market. An easy place to start is matches your personal interests with the locale you are in. If you have a favorite sport, past time, fishing spot, hunting story then share it. Start locally and broaden out.

It is hard as hell to learn something new and different.

Start out with and stick with what you know.

Reallocation of Sunrise .info Domains

1,400 domains had never been awarded from the sunrise phase in 2001.

At the time, they had not cleared the challenge process or were subject to litigation.

I am anxious to see this list. This was the first time the sunrise period was used to allocate a gTLD.

Extremist Web sites are using U.S. host

This is exactly what does not need to be forefront at a time when internet security is being reviewed.

This just adds fuel to the fire. A recent discussion here and elsewhere condemned the proposed cybersecurity bill co-sponsored by Snowe and Rockefeller.

The fear was control of private internet space and loss of freedom.

Well, when you have headlines like this posted on MSNBC.com, it really strengthens their cause and their cry for further restrictions.

Domains are mentioned towards the end as a point to illustrate how quickly a site taken down can re-emerge using a different domain name.

The irony here is the bill proposed would grant tighter security yet at the same time how not to interfere with gathering intelligence by permitting the site to stay live.

Be sure not to glance over the Mumbai massacre and how the Pakistani authorities are pissed off at the Americans.

Still in my taxes so here we go with some quick hits and quick picks:

NV.mobi is live

- The official mobile site of Nevada Commission on Tourism

Goggle warns go Mobile or Die

It was a warning to newspapers.

Domainers could get the Leading Role in a remake of The Wizard of Oz

Oh yeah, it was also a warning to domainers.

The Leading Role thing? I made that up.

All the nonsense I have been reading on the forums make me think of the Wizard of Oz Scarecrow singing -

If I Only Had a Brain