Not sure if you have read this article in the Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/22/social-networking-cyber-scepticism-twitter

It’s a new article based on and old statement that’s been floating around for a while. I imagine it’s resurfaced due to the book ‘Alone Together’ hitting the UK shelves soon. Either that or there is little new comment to report on.

In some ways for those that use Facebook only, the general thrust of the article rings true. The social web has evolved way beyond what the mainstream public use though.  The potential is only limited by our imagination. If the person stood at the bus stop is forever head down checking their Facebook wall, then maybe they are only comfortable talking to people online and are not normally that sociable.  Or perhaps they are connected to thousands and just on the way to meet a chunk of them. Just because they are not talking to the person stood next to them doesn’t mean they are not being sociable. Social interaction online is still social interaction.

@Sizemore and @GiaGia

If you are not at all empathic then I can see how using technology to communicate with another human being may seem difficult and strange. This is not the fault of technology. It is down to us to listen more, to extract meaning from the information we are given. To become better readers of others. We have mastered very well indeed how to communicate by telephone. Even though we have no access to facial expression, eye accessing cues and body language. It’s still early days for all of these new tools and once the initial explosion is over and the dust settles, we will see new and amazing ways to connect.

Location based applications using geotagging, particularly those on Mobile devices are certainly bridging the gaps between the online spaces and what the non-users of these channels are calling ‘Real Life‘.

I can say from my own experience that my uses of these tools are often a talking point with those stood around me. It’s a fascinating new world. I enjoy sharing it with those that still think this is all digital witchcraft. You only have to show a couple of relevant uses for people to suddenly ‘get it’.

You can’t just dip into these channels and understand the interactions that are going on. You need to get involved or you risk sounding like every other lazy pundit that doesn’t ‘get it’ as they state.. “I don’t want to know what you are having for breakfast!”

@Whatleydude at Tuttle

Those regurgitating this particular meme are probably not that interested in humanity anyway. It’s like walking into a public gathering and shouting “What are you all talking about and how is this relevant to me?!!”

I certainly talk to and meet more people IRL (in real life) now that I’m using these tools because I’m a person that likes to create new interactions anyway. It may be that I leave my village desk for a conference, a ‘geek meet’, to grab a quick coffee with an new online connection, or some social experiment where I am purposely connecting with people in the real and virtual sense using these tools. i.e http://Freebees.me

Some individuals are sociable and some are not. I’d hazard a bet there are more people experiencing new interactions with the social web that there are sociable types becoming ‘isolated’ like the article suggests. Huge swathes of socially impoverished disconnected people now have a voice and it is down to us to listen and connect.

The call for some kind of ‘Netequette’ sounds suspiciously like someone asking for more ‘rules and regulation’. After new forms of back channel communication and information sharing have spurned organisations like Wikileaks, I don’t have to make too large a tin foil hat to see a social technology backlash would be nurtured by some other ‘well connected’ members of society. After all, the person on the street with a mobile device is now more connected than ever before. With more information at their fingertips than you average i.p blocked government office.

@MarkSteadman

I totally agree with peoples growing inability to digest large complex amounts of information. Although can only really speak from my own experience. I seem to be buying more books but reading less larger works. On the whole I am reading more though. I use the Read Later bookmark tool to send articles I don’t feel I have time to read (mainly when I don’t feel like I want to sit at the computer) and that article gets synced to an app called Instapaper allowing me to read the article on my other more mobile devices like my phone, ipad etc. That person you see at the bus stop staring at his phone or iPad may be me reading the Guardian or some other online publication. Would I be less isolated hidden behind a broadsheet newspaper?

These new ways of communicating and sharing information are not going away. They will however become more refined as we also find new ways of managing our time. No doubt as we see greater adoption, those in the heart of this ‘backlash’ will quieten down as they begin to find these tools ‘more useful’.

@DebbieDavies at @Geeknbury

i’m @Documentally on twitter

Credit where credit is due. In the Nick of time a Vodafone micro sim arrives in the post.

I met @Martuiak for a beer a couple of days ago and he said Vodafone would be happy to sponsor the data from my trip into Africa with @DarenBBC on his #TAGid project (more on that later).

This is a bit of an experiment for both of us as we have no real idea what coverage is likely as I have no idea where my assignment will take me once I get into Nairobi.

Never the less getting this sim has forced my hand into taking my over priced O2 iPhone 4 back to the O2 shop cancel my contract and pick up an unlocked iPhone 4 to use with this sim.

Those that know me will know my normal phone (that I use for all calls and a little data) has a great contract (also Vodafone) that I have nurtured for well over 10 years.

This means I will be leaving O2 behind me and to be honest this will not just save me cash, It will also save me stress. Since embracing social media and jumping headlong in, Vodafone have always been a Tweet away. As a heavy data user (don’t start me on O2′s 500 meg limit) I need this kind of service.

I guess this blog is to thank Dave for his assistance in helping TAGid to communicate with the outside world over the next few days but also to thank Vodafone for keeping me connected for the last God knows how many years.

Now let’s see if the Vodafone sim magically cures all the faults with the iPhone 4.

Thanks firstly to @Ilicco for despite being trapped in New York for a week due to a certain cloud of volcanic dust, he managed to get back to the UK in pretty good time to deliver me a 64gb iPad.

The very same iPad I’m writing on now, as I sit as a passenger in the car with my MiFi on the dashboard providing my Internet connection.

I just wanted to jot a few first thoughts down in a blog post as I have had lots of DM’s from enquiring minds asking me what I think of the iPad as a device.

So in a nut..

> I am reading more
> I am charging less
> I am listening more
> I am carrying less
> I am spending a shedload on apps
> I am waiting for more tools to be available
> I am looking forward to the next iPhone and OS

I love browsing news, comics and blogs on the iPad. I am finding the Read Later app indispensable as when on the mac and the iPhone I find myself bookmarking articles for later as the iPad is a pleasure to read from.

I can use the iPad for a whole day and still have power for the next. This is pretty liberating when you think I may have to charge my iPhone at 11am after heavy use.

I am certainly finding it easier to soak up content from friends in my networks as well. As a listening/monitoring tool it’s second to none.

The photo above shows you the bag (on the left) I have to carry when ‘fully loaded’ with MacBook pro etc and on the right, the new bag I carry when travelling light. In the small bag I have my iPad, iPhone 3GS, MiFi, Minigorilla & charge cables, mains charger and a Canon Ixus 120is incase I want to shoot HD for later editing.

If you are a media maker then the iPhone and iPad should be all you need and not having the ability to edit raw files or HD video may actually be a blessing as you may not be tempted when all you have to supply is content for the web. I often over shoot in quality and ‘dial it down’ for the web. With just an iPhone and iPad you have no choice but to shoot lo-Fi and get innovative.

As far as apps go I resisted signing up for the US iTunes account as there seem to be a few apps in the UK store to keep me going and all I have to do is sync to the mac to install. I am waiting patiently for the app explosion in a few weeks. I did buy my most expensive app yet.. ‘Things’. It has a great interface and is a really handy tool. £10,99.

I feel I really need a decent case and screen protector.. Also, just in case I do need decent photos or video or audio, the sd card interface looks like a handy purchase. As i am now, I snap a photo on the iPhone and email it to myself. I do have an app that enables me to live sync my phone camera with the iPad but it’s not all that. There will be better options soon.. At least I hope so.

When the new iPhone comes out with it’s front facing camera and higher quality photos and video, I feel there won’t be a need for me to carry a compact camera at all.

Do I pine for a camera in the iPad? In the front yes. I can see how a camera in the back could come in handy for Augmented Reality and overlaying of info on street views etc but for me as a content creator, I really miss recording video to upload straight into my iSight camera on my mac. There are work-a-rounds with the iPhone but ease of use and accessibility is key here.

The next version of the operation system OS4 is really going to shine. Having already had a play on @Computid‘s phone I can see how it will really assist ease of mobile computing.

I have yet to see just how mobile this is as I am keen to test the iPad with the Solargorilla and Powertraveller mobile power solutions. Having a MiFi has proven so far to be invaluable even if the wifi signal seems to drop out more than normal. I don’t know if having a 3G iPad is going to help with connectivity across all your devices unless some killer 3G sharing apps are released.

So, on the whole I am pretty pleased with the direction Apple-shaped mobile computing is going. This is still really early days and in a way it is fun trying to find file sharing, mobile media making work arounds so I can still move about unhindered by a massive bag of tech. I am certainly liking leaving the house with just a small satchel.

As far as writing this blog post in an email went.. I am still not sure how I make a word into a link. (I had to go in and edit later on the Mac.). I can type as fast as I do on a ‘normal’ keyboard but I am finding the spacebar getting miss hit more than normal.

Cheers for reading this far and as ever, there are more tests to come.

I am @Documentally on Twitter. http://Twitter.com/Documentally

Vodafone 360 may well change the way we look at mobile forever. (Or at least the foreseeable future). If you ever dabbled in ZYB you will have a rough idea of what’s in store.

I guess cloud mobile hints towards it too but this is way more than what you get with your dot mac account.

This is not just syncing this is a suite of internet services morphing your contacts, status updates and messaging all in ‘the cloud’. This will integrate all your social networks with your address book and provide a two way editable pipeline between you and your contacts.

The flexibility and configuration options are mind boggling and I haven’t even gone into the realtime location integration.

Of course there will be some people (normally me) screaming “What about our privacy?!” From what I could see this has been taken way more seriously than any other platform developer has bothered in the past. After a few wines were had this conversation on audioboo ended up on Kathryn Corrick’s blog and Terence Eden‘s comment on the bottom explains things better than I could.

Vodafone is a massive faceless behemoth yes, but I’m thinking with this move so much is going to decide on the community making it happen. From macro to microcosm. From the coding community building the apps to the cross platform communities meeting in their hand held device.

360 is meant to work on all devices with all carriers. Obviously Vodafone are going to make sure they have the most suitable devices on offer and having got my hands on the Samsung H1 running the LiMo Platform, It’s feels like really decent handset.

Sturdy, well styled and feature packed. The camera really impressed me as did the fact that this wasn’t another phone trying to win the megapixel stakes. It’s not the number of pixels in a camera it’s how they are used and on a WVGA AMLED display it’s easy to see the quality of your image.

The touch screen interface felt a little sluggish compared to the iPhone but I was assured this is still really early days and the interface with be honed and refined as the weeks go by.

With the €1,000,000 prize fund in place for coders to collect should they create new and innovative apps I feel we may see an app store that begins with quality over quantity and I really have to get my hands on the phone just to experiment with new apps as and when they begin appear.

The universal contact list called ‘Vodafone People’ clearly puts contacts and content at the forefront of the 360.com ethos a suite of services that apears to be dripping with social media potential.

If a beast like Vodafone has bitten the bullet and finally embraced social media this may be the confirmation all the early adopters have been waiting for. Why is it we have been hanging around this social media fad thing for so long.. Well maybe this is really it. With so much potential to expand and innovate with the mobile communication tools at our finger tips starting to do what we want them to do.. This is what we have been waiting for.

Of course in the not too distant future we will no doubt be excited about hardware breakthroughs as battery life, bandwidth and memory capacity going through the roof.. That doesn’t change what Vodafone may have done here right now for mobile communication. I would not have imagined them opening up elements of it’s network to third parties.. This is a different and hopefully leading a mindset. Once you let social networks and open source operating systems enhance your devices, you are placing an awful lot of power into the hands of the community. I am sure the control will stay with Vodafone. The lack of Google maps at this stage hints towards this and they seem to have invested a hell of a lot into this move to take too many risks.

Still, I am excited to see where this goes. And with this new level of connectivity bridging previously unconnected networks, I imagine it will be a magical mystery tour where everyone is on the bus.

For more interviews with the people in the know click on this atom feed

..Or here are some AudioBoo’s

Also you may want to listen to Nik Butler and Andy White’s thoughts on Vodafone 360 in the podcast Social Media White Noise (7 minutes into the podcast)

I have to say I am so happy that it is 12seconds.tv that has started to build this bridge across the video void.. It’s a long time coming and for a start up with little to no cash, this is like building home made space suits and heading off to the moon.

They are top guys too..

The next thing I need to do is invite them over here to the UK so they realise although we are a little island we have big gobs and could have started spreading the word way before the US woke up.. This would have eased the world into 12Seconds and been a great way of flushing out the inevitable bugs before everybody rushed in..

The US could then have woken up with a massive 12Second alarm call..  Here in England it is now the end of the day and I have had the app sitting dormant and broken on my iPhone until only a short while ago.. All day out and about i have been checking it like it was a pacemaker and my life depended on it.. I won’t go into how frustrating that is. I initially thought the app had been launched broken.

I think my frustration stems only from my anticipation and the fact I knew it was a really important release as far as iPhone apps go.

Of course.. if i had taken a proper look at the text on the app store it would have told me I would have the app before it was going to work, but you know me.. Ever so slightly impatient when it comes to the release of new tech.

Still.. it has now sprung to life and I can actually talk about it. I dropped a tweet out yesterday mentioning it by accident but managed to delete it before I caused too much trouble. (Sorry Guys)..

So what are you waiting for?! The application cost a dollar (59p) it’s a bargain.

It is so straight forward. If you don’t have a 12Seconds account get one and then get the app.. Hell, why not get the app first! You can sign up through the app on the phone.

Once you have it.. Log in.. take three photos, add 12 seconds of audio and click to share it on the 12seconds site. It really is that easy you could do it drunk.. you no doubt will..

So if you are reading this as a noob and don’t know about 12Seconds.. get on it. Be it through the app or through the site..  I’ll see you there.

If you do download the app.. please review it and help the guys get the respect they deserve.

I have made some good friends through 12Seconds and I’m looking forward to making more. As soon as you are ready to go.. come let me know.. It may come as little surprise that I am on there as Documentally.

It was a quality day, well organised in a great venue. Whenever I make the journey up to Manchester I always end up returning inspired after mixing with the masses of creative minds involved in some great projects.

Here are a few moments from the day:

If you get the chance, show your support for the first Manchester Social Media Cafe on the 11th November.

The music used in the video is entitled ‘Depeche’ by Moriarty

I have had a great idea…

I suddenly realised that over here in the UK you have no offline presence at all. No skyscraping head office, no billboards and no sponsored parks or roundabouts.

How could this be? Especially with you being such an incredible international social media tour de force.

This got me thinking. I believe I have one of the most sociable cars ever built. It also just happens to be ‘Twitter‘ colour. As the car is so rare in the UK people already stare as I drive by. Wherever I park, people approach to find out more. What is it? Where is it from? Why do you have it?

Imagine how different the questions would be if my car had Twitter emblazoned down the side…

What is this Twitter car? What’s it all about?

It would be a cinch to also have real-time, location based tweets scrolling across the rear window.

Social media folk know all about Twitter. Let’s make social media even more sociable by reaching out of our echo chamber and into the wider world.

Talk to me and lets take twitter offline and into the minds and streets of the British people.

If you are not following me already on Twitter i am @Documentally

Random donations are always welcome and deeply apreciated on my support page.