Looks like Facebook is dropping its mandatory "is" in its status updates sometime in the near future. While hardly newsworthy (yet it's the top story on Techmeme), it's definitely interesting. I have always thought that Facebook status updates were the perfect evolution of crafty IM away messages. And with the rise of Twitter and the whole micro-blogging phenomenon, I think Facebook might be realizing what a real gem they have.
I am a firm believer that the Twitter phenomenon will eventually catch on and spread like a wildfire throughout the SMS-crazed college demographic. The big question is who will capture this market? As much as I love Twitter, I would have to think Facebook will win this.
That is, of course, if Facebook can actually make status updates more like tweets. Right now, updates are just News Feed (or as they say at Duke - stalk feed) fodder. Imagine if you said "hungry" and you were instantly sent a list of your closest friends who were also hungry. Now that would be slick.
Jason Kottke, probably my all-time favorite blogger, has been trying "something new" recently:
In the interest of growing the site beyond its current boundaries (i.e. me having to be seated in front of a computer 24/7/365), I'm trying something new on kottke.org. Starting tomorrow and continuing through next Tuesday, Joel Turnipseed will be editing the site.
While Joel has done a phenomenal job thus far, especially in his recent interview with Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow, I don't know if I am a fan of his style. His posts are simply too long.
One of the reasons kottke.org has been at the top of my list stems from the fact that most of Jason's posts are short, bite-sized blurbs about links. He calls them remaindered links. I like to think of them as examples of what all bloggers should do: link to the interesting content while still adding something to the conversation yourself. Granted someone needs to create the longer content, but a blogger doesn't always have to create it.
So my advice to future kottke.org editors is to keep things smart and short, for the most part.
As NaNoWriMo kicks off today, I too will be working on a "novel" this month. It's a twenty page term paper for my political science class on U.S. economic foreign policy. The topic? The U.S. sanctions against Iran and how European countries have responded to such policies.
Now don't flood my inbox with requests to see a rough draft. I know how fascinating it sounds! But seriously, this topic will hopefully be worthwhile, especially since Iran seems to be the 2008 race's foreign policy focus at the moment.
Anyways, I will be blogging about my experience and any interesting readings I find on the web will find there way on to here or the linklog.
