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As for Twitter vs. Pownce, it's like having a Nokia N95 and an iPhone. They're both top shelf at what they do. But at the end of the day, they both do a lot of the same things. I picked one recently, and I'm staying there. No offense meant to the big green P.
My response to a few days of Pownce was this:
http://www.cafepress.com/twittervlog
(but just for fun)
I'm a big fan of Twitter, even though it encourages me to spend too much time on it. It's just simple and clean and mobile. Something about Pownce just feels a bit too clunky - not as easy to skim casually as Twitter. I spent too much time clicking things and waiting on Pownce. Twitter have actively resisted adding features - even Groups - because it Works as it is. It's a really really simple and effective form of social networking. Just like we're all texting each other on our phones. I've met cool people there. It seems to me like it'd be harder to get to know that casual side of people on Pownce.
I'm on both Pownce and Twitter. I found Twitter through Todd Mundt, NPR radio personality and all around media/tech genious. That led me to hundreds of others. You can see it all quickly and easily. I don't "get" Pownce because it's too complicated. It's like a mini-MySpace or something.
You're right that Twitter is really about reaching around the world to new friends. I tweet with folks in Russia, UK, the US, Costa Rica (Gorileo!), the Philippines, etc... I had a quick question about a tech issue and have several answers instantly - at 10:30 pm, on the 4th of July no less. That is a value proposition!
I love what you and Todd, and Andy Carvin bring to the mix: a face to our media and an understanding that we're people who want information, but love a short bit of depth beyond the news. Plus, one can easily send out a heartfelt note in 140 characters and hit a home-run! There's some more value!
Cheers, Dan Mosqueda
Anything that can connect people and give the people control over who they connect with, offers value.
It's helped me at least 2-3 times with questions I've had.
-- Mike
It goes beyond peole I already know though. One of our (Jims and my) connections on twitter, Andy Bilodeau aka Andycaster after hearing me tweet something that piqued his interest wandered over to my blog and discovered that we grew up maybe 10 miles away from each other on different sides of the Niagara river. Much discussion of canals, vineyards & poutine ensued.
This is not some abstract idea we're talking about. I "know" Jim and Andy and my other twitter friends because they are human enough to share their day to day doings, not use twitter as simply another advertising format to hawk their latest book, seminar, etc. as some do.
In fact - when Andy was looking for Jim in a crowd of reporters at a demonstration outside his office I could twitter that Jim was at the pool, not in the press corps, because I'd seen Jim's tweet. And the stories of human connection go on and on.
Of course another side benefit to tweeting: lots of people to come to the rescue when I do things like accidentally dismantle portions of my house in Second life. This isn't unusual - so I can use all the twitter friends I can get.
The added bonus was that I have now found myself part of such a friendly, fun and informative community that has influenced me in ways I never imagined:
- I am back to watching NBC news as much as I can now that I have a "friend" behind the camera. :)
- I am able to help the war effort by being part of this tremendous effort started by Sprite/BlondeByDesign.
- I am learning to knit as so many ppl on my friend's list are doing!
I'm with you on the Twitter vs. Pownce vote. I have joined many other social networking sites (Pownce, Facebook, Jaiku/Twitku) but I am getting the most satisfaction from Twitter. So I plan to stick with it for now.
It's a virtual Rolodex of resources and contacts that seems to expand daily. It's not unusual to get a direct message asking for more information and help and being given an email address and even an IM screen name to connect, or a "Hey add me on Facebook please?" Twitter ripples out to all sorts of social media networks.
Yep, I am definitely feeling a twitterization of AnnOhio happening..and I like it. I sent off a package on Tuesday with 19 thank you notes to Danny and his group and I'm working on doing more. I agree with Wicked I am once again watching the news!...we seem to have a very supportive group of friends from sharing blogs to offering encouragement during frustrating and challenging times--or maybe a high five for a job well done....
I gave Pownce a good shot....accumulated nearly 200 friends in a matter of a few days. The interface is slick. I like the option of reply to individual pownces and the ability to group people is extremely cool. I like the adult sized portions allowed for each post too.
I think Pownce will be a great tool for some people. Perhaps those who don't have a formal blog ...or those who share links and files more than write.
It's not for me. I appreciate the 140 characters in Twitter. It's forced me to be more succinct and to the point...that's a good thing. My time and friends on Twitter represent too significant an investment to just cast aside for the next best thing. I've made some very special connections to people on Twitter. Like Susan commented earlier, we made a connection that probably would never have happened without Twitter. Many other very special people have befriended me and I have a real connection with them..i truly care about their well being and the fact that they had eggs and toast for breakfast. To some, that's trivial and uninteresting...maybe if that's the only tweet of the day...but you string the 10's of tweets a day from someone...over the course of a few months, you begin to have develop a friendship that is as real as any face to face relationships.
Twitter does it for me..pure and simple. Pownce and Jaiku will do it for others and that's fantastic. That to me is a good thing. I will maintain my accounts and peek in to them from time to time to see what's new and exciting, but for the foreseeable future, Twitter is my bag baby, yeah!
Thanks for giving us new media types a chance to earn some street cred with the old media types.
Andy Bilodeau
http://andy.andycast.net
For example, if my Friends following my "notes" on Pownce are music bloggers and music fans of my band's style or genre of music, then I can distribute mp3s of hot new recordings directly to them, to generate buzz for a new CD or a performance, or whatever.
Some say you go where your friends are. My core community is gathered around my flagship blog and my Twitter followers. I started on Twitter due to Robert Scoble saying, in light of the Mean Kids/Kathy Sierra blog stalking and hate trolling, "no wonder I prefer hanging out on Twitter".
That was what pushed me from disdain to avid addiction to Twitter.
I am often opposed to a new, hyped tool/community. But the good ones win me over, as I explore them for potential personal, professional, and client use.
I don't see it as Twitter vs. Pownce vs. Jaiku.
Twitter: text messaging, link archiving
Pownce: text messaging, link sharing, file sharing
Jaiku: text messaging, socnet feed aggregation
Ning: personal portal
After about 4 years of hardcore conventional blogging, I am now converted to Micro Blogging as faster, more intimate, and more satisfying. But I will maintain my regular blogs too.
Pownce takes the discussion aspect further and gives you over 140 characters--so you're not just saying what you're doing, you're initiating or responding to a more open discussion. Still, I end up copying or feeding the same "tweet" to all three sites due to lack of time and tendonitis in my wrists; but I can post long comments like this one in Pownce. You can also upload files and post longer event listings here, which is better for PR/marketing. I still go to Twitter first each morning, like an old friend or my reliable cup of coffee.:-)
Cathryn Hrudicka, Chief Imagination Officer/Creative Sage(tm)
Since joining Twitter I have found a really cool group of people with which to interact. I find that if I have a question, I can get that question answered fairly quickly through my twitter group. I have watched random videos, looked at family photos, and read blogs to the point that these people don't feel like strangers anymore.
When I first joined Twitter, I explained it to a friend in this way: "It is like you are walking up to a complete stranger and telling them whatever is on your mind at that very moment, in 140 characters or less." I was amused by that aspect of it a LOT because I, along with all these other twitterers, was actually willing to listen to the complete strangers who would do this. Today they feel less like strangers. Today we were there when people told us of the passing of their pets and we all felt it a little bit with them, having gone through it before. We have laughed at the mishaps of spouses and children.
Pownce... well pownce doesn't work for me as it is just a little "too much." Would I feel the same way if I had found pownce first? Probably not. But I didn't, and I feel more connected to the people on Twitter. So for now, I will stay with Twitter.
Brenda Schuett
If Pownce had these kinds of tools I might use it more. It looks slick but functionality and ease of use is more important. I will use Pownce to share files and such but Twitter has the ease of use. I can follow my friends easily and also watch the public feed where I find new info and friends. It's great to be communicating in real time with people from all over the world.
* Arrange your contacts in sets
* Reply to individual entries and view in threaded form
* Get a list of suggested friends-of-friends to add to your circle
* Share text entries longer than 140 characters
* Share files of any kind
* Quickly designate each entry to go to: public, friends, or single individual
Twitter is designed for more brief, hit-and-run exchanges. ("I'm driving to the airport now.") Or for chit chat. ("Have a nice day.") On Pownce you already see people taking advantage of the extra features and leaving slightly longer, more content-rich entries. Two different services for two different purposes.
[I put this in SU for ya Jim... may bring you some more traffic...!]
Right now, Pownce is doing nothing to prevent people from plugging their Digg submissions. It's a natural for that, and I don't see that it's particularly objectionable as long as anybody can do this on equal terms.
But when Pownce goes live, I predict that Pownce/Digg's admins will impose the same double standards there as I believe them to be imposing on Digg. The infamous "bury brigade," the hard-left activists, the trolls - and the users who vigorously suppress any story that might get people thinking about counterterrorism - they'll start using Pownce. I'm afraid that the Pownce/Digg admins will allow them to use Pownce at will to organize their activities, but that anybody whose politics are pro-American, conservative, pro-Judaeo-Christian, or anti-jihadist, won't be allowed to use Pownce to publicize Digg stories and comments on the same terms as their opponents.
As it is now, Digg may ban one of the particularly threatening or abusive leftists on occasion, probably just for show, but the same user always seems to be allowed back on after a short period of time. Not so for more conservative (even moderately conservative) Digg users who are banned permanently, often for no valid reason that anybody can figure out. But then, Digg's TOS claims the right to ban anybody for any reason or for no reason! The actual, unstated reasons for banning will most likely include posting links to Digg stories on Pownce.
The long and the short of it is that I fear that Pownce will eventually be misused as a tool of censorship and incivility, as - I'm sorry to have to point out - Digg already seems to be. If that happens, then Pownce will be p(o)wned by its competitors.
I once proclaimed the New Super Bloggers to be multi-media (podcasts, video, photo galleries, mp3s) and channel distributed (RSS, email updates). Now I see the new thrust: tiny journaling, link archiving/sharing, and file sharing via Twitter, Jaiku, Ning, Pownce, eg.
New Media entrepreneurs should all be experimenting with such tools. They are perfect for branded messages and low-key promotions, offering unique benefits to both marketers and message recipients.
Pownce has subtle, easily ignored interstitial note ads: ads placed between Pownce notes, but only every 10 or 20 notes, not intrusive or annoying. Splendid business modeling here. The more I use Pownce, the more I like it.
For the Twitter Supremicists out there, I also like Twitter for fast text messaging, but it eats my tweets, or double posts them, or is down a lot.
New Super Bloggers have moved from long, laborious blog posts once or twice a week, to moment-by-moment presencing streams, multi-media personal portals, and link/file sharing systems.
These interactive, community building, customizable Web 2.0 tools seem more intimate than the conventional blog, whose roots remain in the stodgy old Web 1.0 passivity world.
Socnet Motto: "We have nothing to fear, but success itself" re: scaling.
I've been on Pownce almost since the beginning (before Steve Rubel, even!), and find I don't use it that much. I do see that it provides a different set of services, and can see myself using it for more of a business purpose.
The beauty of Twitter is that it lets me have presence w/ both personal and professional friends--wherever I am. For that reason alone, it will get the majority of my attention rather than Jaiku or Pownce or Whatever. Facebook is my second choice, for the same reasons as Twitter--mobile access and combination of personal & business use.
Sorry for the nickname, btw. :-)
http://joesvideoetc.blogspot.com/2007/06/why-is...
Twitter was kind of strange for me, until I used Twitteriffic. Then I 'got' it. Now it's always interesting to see what my new <strike>strangers</strike> friends are doing. I have no one that I actually knew before on Twitter, so all my 'friends' are cold call adds or they've added me.
I'm actually surprised that anyone adds me, actually... :)
wow, I used actually twice in one sentence...