The idiocy of immediacy

In: Tech

17 Feb 2010
Google Buzz

So here’s the problem. I like the idea of Foursquare. I like the little competitive elements. I’m the mayor of a few places in Dublin. I check in whenever I remember to. In a recent post, I spoke about how I hoped that cafes, bars and restaurants would get in on the idea by offering deals for Foursquare users. However, after a few short weeks of using it, I’m getting a little bit sick of it. Not because of the interface or the application, but because of oversharing. People share their location too often. I know, you can switch off the push notifications, and I have, but for some reason, it irrationally irritates me when people check in at their workplace, or in different rooms of their house (I’m not kidding).

It’s irritating, and I also get the creeping feeling that it’s an accident waiting to happen. Paul Carr wrote about location based privacy on Techcrunch a few weeks ago. He talked about how people were checking into parties in San Francisco – pinging out the full address and a convenient map for potential gatecrashers. Granted, Foursquare only has 100,000 users worldwide at the moment, but that number is growing. However, Twitter have added geotagging, and there’s no reason to believe we won’t be seeing it on Facebook in the short term as well.

Now, the good thing is that your data is theoretically safe. Or is it? Here’s a nifty little idea that some Dutch programmers had. Please Rob Me is a little mashup of Twitter and Foursquare. Here’s what they say about the project:

The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you’re definitely not… home. So here we are; on one end we’re leaving lights on when we’re going on a holiday, and on the other we’re telling everybody on the internet we’re not home. It gets even worse if you have “friends” who want to colonize your house. That means they have to enter your address, to tell everyone where they are. Your address.. on the internet.. Now you know what to do when people reach for their phone as soon as they enter your home. That’s right, slap them across the face.

The goal of this website is to raise some awareness on this issue and have people think about how they use services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz etc.

I must admit that I’ve seriously cut back on using Foursquare recently. I still use Twitter quite a lot, but I don’t tag my location. I occasionally use Buzz from my phone, but I’m very wary about broadcasting my location, cause you just never know who’s watching. This is just the tip of the iceberg – when you think about how a stalker or similar headcase could use a combination of Buzz, Twitter, Foursquare and others to find people, it’s quite scary….

If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is…

In: Tech

15 Feb 2010
Google Buzz

So if you’re one of the multitude of people who have signed up for this group on Facebook – I have some news for you. It’s a scam. Seriously – did you really think you were going to get a free iPad? Did you really think that Apple wouldn’t have a closed user group testing it to within an inch of its life? Did you seriously think that people would just give them away on Facebook?

It’s a scam.

I had a whole post prepared in my head, but then I found this one – which does a much better job than mine would have. It also has a lot more pictures. Which should help a lot.

In all seriousness though – as the title of this post says, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Gmail going social

In: Tech

8 Feb 2010
Google Buzz

This is very interesting:

Google Inc. is set to unveil a new feature to Gmail designed to make it easier and faster for users to share media and status updates with friends, according to people familiar with the matter.

These people said Google could launch the new feature, which aims to make its Gmail email application more social, as soon as this week.

The change is a new module that will allow Gmail users to view a stream of status updates from people they choose to connect with, according to one of these people.

Currently, Gmail has a chat bar that can display a short “away message” for each user’s contacts. But the new interface will have an area that users can click through to see updates from more friends in a stream—a format popularized by Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., these people said.

Google also plans to integrate content that is shared through its YouTube video-sharing service and its Picasa photo-sharing service into the stream of status updates, according to one person familiar with the matter. But whether Google will launch those features in the coming days remains unclear.

A Google spokeswoman declined to comment

via the Wall Street Journal

So is this Google’s response to Facebook’s Project Titan? Only time will tell. I’m still not sure if I’d use Facebook as my primary webmail – especially since I have about 6 years worth of old mails in my current Gmail inbox. It will be interesting to see if this is a Google only status update, or if it’s tied into an existing product…

I guess this is a natural evolution from Wave. It’s just a way of creating a more fully featured social stream.

Listen to the radio (but only if you want)

In: Uncategorized

15 Jan 2010
Google Buzz

I don’t know if any of you are Nancy Griffith fans, but I’m sure those of you who are familiar with her nasal stylings will know her song ‘Listen To The Radio’. I’m going to be on the radio a wee bit over the next few days, and I couldn’t get that song out of my head, so I figured I’d inflict it on you guys.

For those of you who are interested in what I’m doing with URBN and what we’re going to be doing out in Beirut, tune in to The Right Hook with George Hook on Newstalk between 6.30 and 7pm on Monday evening (the 18th). I’ll be telling George about my time in Beirut, what we’re doing with URBN and generally shooting the breeze. I’m quite looking forward to doing this interview. Some of you will know that one of my first jobs in the media was working on Newstalk. I haven’t been in to see their fancy dan new offices yet, so it will be fun to go in and catch up with George and the team in there.

For those of you who simply can’t wait that long to hear from me, you can set your alarms for 9am on Saturday and Sunday morning. I’ll be on RTE 2FM with Ruth Scott to review the Saturday/Sunday papers and chat about life, the universe and everything.

Those of you outside Ireland should be able to tune into both stations using the ‘Listen Live’ buttons that are pretty prominent on both homepages. Hopefully I’ll get to stick up some MP3s before too long as well.

And for those of you who don’t know Nancy Griffith and the song I mentioned earlier – here you go.

Beirut Graffiti

In: Stuff

14 Dec 2009
Google Buzz

I think it’s safe to say that our trip to Beirut to pitch URBN was an unqualified success. I say this because I didn’t want to come home! We met some amazing people over there, had a great experience pitching the concept – including arguing quite vehemently with one judge. As a city, Beirut is amazing. There’s a great atmosphere around the place – the redevelopment is continuing apace – land prices are going up on an almost hourly basis. There’s enough of the Mediterranean familiarity to keep fans of Rome and Barcelona happy, and enough of the Middle East to add some level of exoticism. I’m writing a travel article based on my experiences, so I’ll update this blog when that appears.

However, one thing did grab my attention. For the last few years, I’ve been trying to raise a bit of interest among broadcasters and other in relation to a documentary about Graffiti in the Middle East. I’ve travelled around the region a bit, and I’ve always been a fan of the graffiti and the stencilling that adorns walls, roadsides and anywhere there is space. Obviously, finding support for a documentary about graffiti in the Middle East – regardless of any political elements that might make commissioning editors happy – is not easy. I reckon I’m going to keep going.

Anyway, here are some of the highlights from the walls of Beirut. I’m not going to pretend to know what they all mean. I just think they look cool….

IMG_0823IMG_0874IMG_0824IMG_0877

These are just some of the best images I took. There are far better resources and images here, here, here and here.

Update

Maya Zankoul, who I was lucky enough to catch up with on Thursday night in Beirut, pointed me in the direction of Beirut/Archewallogy (great name). Well worth checking out. Here’s a music video that came about off the back of the project…

Archewallogy

Big news on the way and Beirut

In: Uncategorized

9 Dec 2009
Google Buzz

It’s been a while. So sorry about that.

Things have been busy here at Random Thoughts over the last few weeks, and we’re on the verge of telling you all about what’s happening. For now, we’ll drip feed news.

Our big news this week is that a little acorn that grew out of a Random Thoughts idea is about to be pitched for the first time. URBN is a concept that I’ve been working on with a college friend, Conor Purcell, for the last while.

URBN will launch soon, with a webapp that will work across multiple mobile devices. Our first native apps will start to roll out early next year, and we’re quite excited about that. We’re working on some travel content for some of the coolest cities in the world.

With that in mind, we’re on the way to one of those cities this week. The New York Times recommended Beirut as one of the best places in the world to visit. Likewise, the guys from Lonely Planet said it’s one of the hippest cities in the world right now. Conor, our Chairman, Narain Jashanmal and I are going to Beirut to tell some interesting folks there about URBN and what we’re doing.

Pitching any new company for the first time is always exciting. This project is particularly cool (but then, I would say that), and the fact that we’re doing our meetings in Beirut is really just the icing on the cake. I look forward to sharing our news with you over the coming days and weeks. Hopefully I’ll also get to recommend a few bits and bobs from Beirut on this blog when I get back.

Stay tuned….

Foursquare hits Dublin

In: Tech

5 Nov 2009
Google Buzz

Foursquare launched in Dublin yesterday. For those of you who don’t know anything about it, it’s effectively a Twitter style notification service which allows you to ‘check in’ at various locations around the city – cafes, bars, restaurants etc. Every time you do this, a message is pushed out to your friends telling them where you are. The guys behind Foursquare – some of whom were behind Dodgeball – which was mothballed by Google not so long ago – have made it sticky by allowing you to effectively compete with people. If you hang out at one place all the time, you can become the ‘mayor’ of that bar/cafe/location by checking in frequently. You can also earn badges based how often you check in, when you check in and so on.

It’s a great idea. The Foursquare guys have gotten this up and running on a shoestring budget, and the word of mouth they’ve received to this point has been amazing. They’re prime examples of what Niall talked about the other day – you have to bust your ass in order to get something up and running. it would have been easy for people to have gotten disheartened by the Dodgeball experience, but Dennis and Naveen refined the idea, made it better and have now built something new that will undoubtedly be acquired by one of the bigger players within the next two or three years. I can already see a whole bunch of early adopters signing up for the service and mentioning it on their blogs, on Twitter and elsewhere. I’m guessing it won’t be too long before some of us are competing to see who’ll be mayor of the Stags Head.

At the moment, pubs, clubs, restauants and cafes are really feeling the pinch. I live in Temple Bar, and just by listening out the window in the evening, I can tell you that there are far fewer people on the streets than there were a year ago. Hallowe’en night was really quiet in town. Places are struggling. You can tell that simply by looking at all the special offers that are on display in pubs and restaurants. I’ve become quite the fan of decent early bird menus, and Menupages has certainly become a happy hunting ground for me.

I’m hoping that cafe owners, publicans, restaurateurs take notice of Foursquare and make use of it. Encourage early adopters to tip along to your premises by posting special offers for the mayor of that place – or discounts for people with certain badges. It might seem like small fry at the moment, but you’re going to be talking to a small audience of influencers – people who blog, people who write for papers, the kind of people that Malcolm Gladwell calls Mavens. It’s pretty simple to do. And the way things are right now, if it means a few more bums on seats, and a few more covers for dinner or pints served, it will add up. Add to that the fact that I think Foursquare could actually be more popular than Twitter for a lot of people – specifically because it has that stickiness and money saving built in, and you could be onto a winner…

Our promo – should be on RTE 2XM and RTE 2FM by now…

In: Uncategorized

14 Oct 2009
Google Buzz

HWCH Promo

Live from Filmbase

In: Music

10 Oct 2009
Google Buzz

I mentioned this a while ago, but the press release is going out soon, so I might as well plug it again.

Random Thoughts are producing a series of live broadcasts from this year’s Hard Working Class Heroes. We’ll be live on RTE 2xM from 7pm till 10pm on the 16th, 17th and 18th of October with live music, acoustic sessions, interviews and tracks from a whole bunch of the 100 bands performing at the festival this year.

Presented by Paddy McKenna and Eamonn Carey, and produced by Eamonn Carey of Random Thoughts and Damian Chennells of RTE, the shows will give some of Ireland’s best up and coming bands a chance to promote their music to 2XM listeners. Naturally, given that we’re a cross-platform company, all of this content will be filmed. We’ll stream some of it, we’ll edit lots of it, and we’ll upload it to a popular video sharing site near you soon.

If you’re heading to the festival, if you’re passing through Temple Bar, or if you just like looking at flustered people, feel free to pop down and say hello. We’ll be in the window of FilmBase for the weekend. You can still get tickets for HWCH here. I’m not one to plug things for no good reason, so believe me when I say it’s well worth your while picking up a ticket. Last year’s event was brilliant. The standard of bands playing this year is incredible. Plus, a lot of the guys you see at HWCH this year will be playing much bigger stages over the coming weeks, months and years.

This is also phase one of a larger plan to do some really cool content around Irish music. If you want to hear more, why not drop us a line…

Hard Working Class Heroes

In: Music

29 Sep 2009
Google Buzz

Last year’s Hard Working Class Heroes festival was one of the best set of gigs I had the chance to go to. Designed to give unsigned bands some exposure, it featured 100 bands in several venues around Dublin. I had the chance to do some work at it, and really enjoyed myself. This year, I’ll be back. Random Thoughts is doing a whole bunch of work around the festival, and we’ll be telling you all about it very soon. In the interim, you should go and buy tickets on the website and tip along and see some really excellent acts. To find out more about the acts involved, check out Breaking Tunes.

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  • Eamonn: Generally if someone is waiting outside your house waiting for you to leave, you don't tell them whe [...]
  • Ellen Dudley: Ya but could someone not just stand outside your house and wait for you to leave? And isn't that wha [...]
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  • admin: I'm curious to see which pubs/restaurants get it quickest. Who will have the first promo for the may [...]
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