I’ve been hired to blog for the new corporate Seesmic blog. I’m trying to get the URL to be blog.seesmic.com, but apparently nobody is listening and it is being hosted at seesmic.typepad.com. So head over there and check out the new content while I hold my tongue about the URL and using Typepad which so far has not endeared me.
Thanks for all your input over here! I’ll see you at the new home 
So many sites are saying it, I feel I’ll get left behind if I don’t say it as well. And I’m not even going to start linking them, since they are so numerous.
I’ve taken some time off and been sick for too much for my liking, but now I’m catching up on my blog reading. And site after site is discussing Seesmic, and what are they saying to keep an eye on? Well, if you read the title, I spoiled it for you. They are talking about Seemic! [look surprised]
So allow me to break it down for you. My dad once told me when I was a boy and had sensitive ears, “Predictions are like armpits, everybody has a couple, and most of the time they stink.” (Ok, he said opinions, not predictions, but that doesn’t flow very well with the point I’m making.) Oh right, the point… lots of folks are saying to keep an eye on Seesmic in 2008. While most of these folks aren’t rocket scientists, they’re no dummies either.
A brief roundup of what I’m Seeing in light of keeping an eye on Seesmic:
1. Video style Twitter is exciting
2. It enhances Twitter, letting us get to know even better those we know on Twitter and blogs.
3. Like YouTube, but with conversation and less garbage.
4. It is a very young application.. it will really improve in 2008.
5. It is where the ‘community’ is
Ok, back to the blogs and Seesmic news to find more gems.
This is old news if you follow this space closely, but Michael Krigsman posted an interview on the 2nd of January of an interview with Seesmic CEO Loic Le Meur.
This interview is more on the business of Seesmic, so if that kind of thing strikes your fancy, it is a good read/listen.
<UPDATE> It is in the comments, but apparently Joost Team is not the Joost Team. It is just a dude running a blog about Joost. So I went back to the site to find where it says that joostteam.com is not affiliated with Joost, and I can’t find it. So, I appreciate Bernard stepping up and letting me know. I thought about deleting this post, but decided to leave it up with this update as a monument to me getting pwned.</UPDATE>
I’ve been thinking of doing a celebrity Seesmicer post when I see someone that I feel warrants it. I have yet to sink to those depths, or run out of that much content but this is the next best thing. The team from Joost.com looks like they made a Seesmic account.
This is an interesting strategy. As far as I know nobody has made an organization account, they are all personal accounts.
Welcome to Seesmic, Joostteam.com Here is your first feedback… put out a version for Linux. I have a Joost accocunt, but a few months ago I moved to Ubuntu, and I’m Joostless. Yes, very sad, I know.
This is in response to a post by Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine.com. Jeff is highlighting that some are pondering the death of text, and the rise of video as the preferred way to consume content. I am posting below what I posted as a comment on that site, but it was so long and somewhat thought out, I felt it would have value here as well to highlight the conversation. Let me know what YOU think.
Commencing comment below:
Indeed, there are several points to recognize here. The speed at which you can consume the medium. The detail a given subject requires. The medium used in context.
The speed. I don’t have much time to listen to podcasts, be it audio or video. However when I do have some time, I consume my feed reader, which leads me to reading blogs. I often skip over blogs after a quick glance, or skip sections of the post that I can’t make the time to consume in full, but would rather take that same time to 1/2 consume more blogs, thus pulling in more information for my time given. If a subject presents itself that it required a more in depth review, then I do just that. Which is part of my second point.
The detail given. Details are more difficult outside of text. Clearly some things are best discussed in video and you can have visual references which can greatly enhance the spoken word behind the video. Just like graphics can greatly enhance the words written down. That is also part of the context of the medium. But many things excel as text. They can read slowly, reread, referenced, hyperlinked, skipped over if necessary, or however you need to handle that text. Much more flexible in that regards then audio or video.
The medium used in context is also an advantage of each medium. If I’m driving, I love to listen to audio podcasts. If I’m sitting at my computer, I love to consume text as well as watch video. I rarely listen to audio while at my computer unless it is in the background and I’m doing other things… which means I’m not getting the full value I could from it. Video forces my attention, just as text does. Something like Seesmic is fantastic as it is a conversation in video. But in my mind, the video format of Seesmic enhances the text. What I mean by that is I know a lot of the people on Seesmic from their blogs, from Second Life, from Twitter, from listening to their podcasts, or from Facebook or who knows where else. But when I see them in video, I get a much deeper understanding of who they are, how they talk, how they move their hands, how and who they are. It is much more personal then text. But it ends up enhancing the text. Many others have said it, and I agree, after Seesmic, I hear twitters in peoples voice. I visualize them cocking their head as they said that smarmy comment. I get jokes that I missed before.
So it all has its place. Nobody disagrees with that. But for some reason some people want to prophesy the end of text. Text isn’t going anywhere. It is only getting consumed more and more and in new formats.
[And thanks again to Mark Forman for pointing me in the direction of this post]
Even in pre-alpha, go figure.
Thanks to Mark Forman for pointing out this post on every dot connects by Sheila Scarborough where she is explaining a conversation that is going on. It is an important conversation, thus the strong opinions.
If you are interested, follow the link and follow along. It has been great to watch this unfold. However the purpose of this post is to point out how Seesmic is officially part of the conversation, thanks to Eric Rice.
As my own comentary on ‘The Conversation’ I love that it is all over the place in terms of platforms. As the linked post points out, it is on Twitter, Seesmic, blogs. I’m sure shortly it will podcasted, vloged, and then Twitterd, Seesmiced, and blogged again.
Join the conversation, platform optional.
I rediscovered, possibly the first blog entry about Seesmic. It is dated October 8th and it is a techcrunch post. I rescacnned it, there are some interesting things to note, but what I want in mention in this post, is something that doesn’t exist as of now.
The Following / Followers section.
Do you see it in the bottom right section? Two buttons. A following button, and a followers button. Earlier today (or was it late last night?) I saw that Loic Twittered that friends functionality is coming.
soapbox rant I recently had. With friends, I hope rights management is soon to follow. It is also important to note what commenter Steve Rhode said:
Being open is good but being open with user controls and permission is even better. For now on Seesmic, I’ll probably be a lurker but not a poster.
I hope Seesmic takes that to heart, and builds this as quickly as possible. Steve is being true to his word, and I have not seen a video since he posted this. He may just be posting less often, but that is significant. Viva rights management!
Titled, “A French Twist in Silicon Valley,” it is a nice piece about Seesmic and the open way that Loic is running the company. It has nothing new to those of us familiar with Seesmic and Loic, but it is a good read.
It is important to review the good with the bad. And this is about as bad as it gets.
Loren from 1938media.com has a review. Don’t watch if you have sensitive ears, but he has a scathing review of Seesmic. There are lots of comments that follow, which are equally humorous.
Some of my favorite responses:
You are right about one thing. It’s a horrible waste of time to click on a video just to watch some douchebag talk about nothing. Sorry I clicked on this one.
Thank God for intellectual, witty, and FRENCH people that bring some happiness to this world!
And a point that I wanted to make, but chris brought it up first, so I’ll let him speak.
many good points except the flash issue. i totally disagree. the flash/flex framework IS the future, especially with the new papervision3D implementation. while flash loaders might be so 90’s, ajax has proved its limits in cross-browsers compatibility. get over it : web 3.0 won’t be ajax, but AS3/flex/papervision3D.
- chris (no link given)
In addition to what chris says, I want to point out and make sure everyone realizes that the loader is a part of Flex. Go go any new Flex site, and they have loaders.
Even the blog writer himself makes a valid point in the comments which made me chuckle:
I wasn’t starting a conversation, I didn’t ask for or care what your opinion is. I was lecturing you. Understand the difference?
Seesmic’s fearless leader chimes in a couple times, including the following:
nice way to get attention Loren, congratulations, I actually had some fun watching you, thank you for that, you should come back to Seesmic we would have interesting conversations.
A short roundup of Seesmicish photos from LeWeb3.
Loic Le Meur - Le Web 3 Organizer and founder of Seesmic
photo by Adam Tinworth, check his flickr for photo rights
Cathy Brooks - Seesmicer and employee of Seesmic
photo by Adam Tinworth, check his flickr for photo rights
Loic Le Meur action figure
Photo Credit RJ Freedlander
ummmm, not sure, heh
Photo Credit Altaide
I recently blogged about Orange on my blog, so it was nice to see them at Le Web 3.
Photo Credit Altaide
Shimon Perez
Photo Credit bjoern
Nicolas Sarkozy
Photo Credit Altaide
Vinvin of Seesmic
Photo Credit Altaide
Vinvin
Photo Credit Altaide
