Goodbye 2010 - or, the year of being social

Jean-Paul Sartre famously told us "Hell is other people" (in his play No Exit), and while I am sure that we all agree with this sentiment from time to time, the reverse, "Paradise is other people", is also true. Think back on any great experience in your life, and I am willing to bet that other people played a major part in it.

Well, 2010 is now over, and looking back, it was certainly more a case of Paradise than Hell. And I contribute that to all the great people I had the pleasure of spending time with this year.

When 2010 started, I decided that I wanted to expand my social circles - not because I didn't have a number of great friends (I did, and still do), but because I think it's important for your personal growth to try to find new input, and to get different perspectives. I wasn't exactly sure how I would go around doing it, but it was definitely a goal for 2010.

In retro-perspective, I can only say that I've succeeded in that beyond my wildest expectations, and beyond any expectations anyone could reasonably have.

So, how did that happen?

Simply put: other people arranged stuff, and I turned up. Surprisingly how effective that can be, isn't it? Well, what kind of stuff did I turn up to?

1) Tech events of all sorts. Copenhagen is lucky enough to have several groups and companies willing to arrange free technical sessions of high quality, and it has been great to participate in those. Among the groups and companies whose arrangements I've participated in is CNUG, Microsoft Demark, Trifork, and Socialsquare.

2) Perth Skeptics. This might seem a bit weird, given I live across the world from them, but remember that I am half Australian. I spent January month in Perth, and during my stay there were two meetups - one in a park and one in a pub. During the later, the Perth Skeptics participated in the 10²³ homeopathy overdose campaign, and afterwards, I talked a bit about skepticism in Scandinavia (sadly lacking) and skeptic/science blogging (go on, do it!). Apart from meeting Kylie Sturgess I also got to meet a number of other Perth Skeptics, and definitely was happy that I took the time to participate.

3) Likemind Cph. A monthly coffee meeting open to everyone, allowing people to network and meet new people. Great crowd, and even if it might seem a bit intimidating, everybody there are friendly, and willing to meet new people (otherwise, what's the point?). Here is a short video of the February meeting (which I didn't participate in). Here is the facebook page of Likemind Cph.

4) The Atheist Alliance International conference in Copenhagen in June arranged together with Ateistisk Selskab. It was a great event with some great speakers, but it also gave me the chance to meet some fellow pharyngulites (people who comments at Pharyngula). I even had five of them staying at my place during the conference. Among the people I managed to meet were Robert Dobbs/Ye Olde Blacksmith, who does some great metal stuff, Jadehawk, and Martin/Rorschach.

5) Last, but definitely not least, Twitter events in Copenhagen. I've in the past explained what Twitter is to me, but since then, Twitter has become so much more. A simple way of illustrating this is to state the fact that just during the last week alone, I've spent 3 evenings, including New Years Eve, with people I've met through Twitter and who I didn't know a year ago.

So, how did this come around, and what Twitter events am I talking about?

Well, as far as I can tell, we have a pretty unique Twitter culture in Copenhagen, and much of it is due to the work of the two twitters @laurajul and @morgenthaler, who decided to arrange some bi-monthly Friday bars for the Copenhagen Twitterati. These Friday bars have been a great success, and people have started to not only follow each other on Twitter, but also to actually become friends outside Twitter.

So, what does 2011 hold in store for me? I have absolutely no clue, but I am looking forward to experiencing it together with my friends, old as new, and see what it brings.

Happy New Year everybody, and may 2011 bring great friendships and much joy.

What is Twitter (to me)?

I often come across people who say that they understand the point of Twitter. Given the fact that I am an active twitter user (according to Overskrift.dk, I am among the 500 most active and 500 most followed Danish twitter users), I thought I'd try to explain how I use twitter, and why it's not just the same as facebook statuses or instant messaging.

Before continuing, I should probably make clear that I am in no way any kind of communications expert, or even particular knowledgeable on the subjects of digital communication, social media, and social networks.

Having said all that, let's go into how I view Twitter.

For me, Twitter is a great media for social dialogue. It's not just someone telling me something, but rather a continuous conversation, with multiple entrance points and nearly unlimited participants. This can be a intimidating at first, but as soon as you realize that you can do it on your own premises, it works for you.

Let's try to see how a conversation usually get going.

1) Somebody posts something
2) Multiple people either re-tweets the post (sometimes adding their own comments)
3) People react to either the original tweet or a re-tweet.
4) People respond to the responders
etc.

The great thing about this is that you don't have to have been part of the conversation from the start - you can just jump in at any point, and add your view to the conversation (or reinforce somebody else view by re-tweeting).

Given the fact that you can only see tweets addressed at other people if you also follow that person, the conversation can also be a bit fractured, but at this point, twitter users have found out how to work around this (adding a dot in front of the tweet if it might be of general interest).

I hope you can see why this is different from both facebook statuses, where only a limited group of people can see it/participate in the conversation, and instant messaging, which are even more limited.

This is what makes Twitter more interesting for me.

Still, it wasn't always like that. I have been using twitter since the end of 2008, or thereabouts, but I didn't really start actively using it until summer last year. The reason I didn't use it so much before then, was that I had a hard time figuring out how to use the media so it worked for me.

So, what changed?

1) First and foremost, I got past a critical mass of people I follow. This means that there are always some kind of conversation going on, which I can dip into, if I feel like it.
2) Closely related, I learned that I don't have to read all tweets. My usage of twitter is to log in, and read the tweets on the screen. I generally don't scroll back, though if someone post a reply to someone else, which catches my interest, I will generally try to trace the conversation back.
3) I learned to ignore the fact that people don't react to my replies to their tweets. It's important to remember that at the time they read them, they have moved on in their conversation. Also, unlike , people get to pick and choose what conversations they want to participate in, without being considered rude.

I cannot stress the last point enough. It's not rude not to engage in a conversation on Twitter - instead it's rude to insist on a conversation. If people don't feel up to communicating with you, then look for a conversation somewhere else.

Hopefully, this post has made it a little clearer what Twitter can be used for. Keep in mind, however, that Twitter is different things for different people - some people use it to talk with their friends, other people use it as a sort of RSS feed, keeping an eye for interesting links being posted, and yet other people use the media entirely differently.

On an end note, just remember that because of Twitter's nature, you can't tell where your tweets will end up and who will read them. So, as in everything on the internet, think before you post.

Twitter as a terrorist tool

Wired shares the news

Spy Fears: Twitter Terrorists, Cell Phone Jihadists

Could Twitter become terrorists' newest killer app? A draft Army intelligence report, making its way through spy circles, thinks the miniature messaging software could be used as an effective tool for coordinating militant attacks.

For years, American analysts have been concerned that militants would take advantage of commercial hardware and software to help plan and carry out their strikes. Everything from online games to remote-controlled toys to social network sites to garage door openers has been fingered as possible tools for mayhem.

This recent presentation -- put together on the Army's 304th Military Intelligence Battalion and found on the Federation of the American Scientists website -- focuses on some of the newer applications for mobile phones: digital maps, GPS locators, photo swappers, and Twitter mash-ups of it all.

I am going to share a secret with you: Any means of communication can be an effective tool for coordinating militant attacks. It's true that online tools like twitter (or even emails) makes it faster than old time tools like letters (or word-of-mouth), but so what?

Stopping terrorism is not done by cutting off communication between terrorist cells. It's done by removing the cause of recruitment for those terrorists, and by finding the terrorists before they strike.

I understand why the US military got to focus on these things, but I would find it much better if they tried to find the root cause of terrorism, and tried to handle that instead.

BTW, my own twitter account can be found here