Alphablogs

Today you can find us over at Ron Schenone’s blog, investigating the question of how truly global the internet is. Ron Schenone blogs on one of Chris Pirillo’s Lockergnome blogs.

(Image by Stirwise)

As you can see, these days I’m intrigued by the whole multilingual theme. So I thought I’d finally do something I’ve been wanting to do for quite a while – write a bilingual blog post.

This was inspired by the German blog Blogschrott who asks bloggers who twitter to explain why they use Twitter. As you can tell from my last post, I’ve been reading more and more German Twitters – I get the impression that it Twitter is just now becoming quite the interesting tool over in Germany.

So this is what I’ll do. First I’ll answer the questions in English, and then in German. (They won’t be exactly the same – I’m not applying for a translator’s job here Here we go

Why do you use twitter, where do you find meaning in it?

One of my prime motivators is fun, or a sense of pleasure and excitement. Every time I open my twitter page (I only use it in a browser), I’m happy. I like the visual appeal of both my site and of seeing all these neat avatars. I like the wittiness, intelligence and social consciousness of my Twitter friends. So the meaning is mostly pleasure – intellectual pleasure, sense-pleasure, and the pleasure of making and nurturing connections.

What do you tweet? Personal stuff, internet news, or a mix?

Anything and everything. It’s pretty impulsive (one of the other reasons I like it) I’d say 60% of the time I ask myself, is that of any interest to my friends? I do more and more retweeting, that is, passing on info that one of my Twitter contacts tweeted about – for example, a reminder to schedule cancer check-ups. There’s also little Twitter conversations. Lately, I’ve been posting a “global earth” motto every day, and a reflection on it, inspired by a list of things to do to become more globally and earth conscious that a friend had sent me a propos Earth Day. Once or twice a week I might mention one of my posts. Oh, and I also enjoy writing Twitter haiku, which I call twaiku – like this one here.

How do you use Twitter? Do you use a plugin, etc.?

As I said, I only use it via browser. I don’t even have the little Twitter widget on my blog anymore. I already spend way too much time on the computer, if I start using more than one medium to access something as addictive as Twitter, I’d never sleep!

Now for the German version:

Warum nutzt Du Twitter, wo liegt für Dich der Sinn?

Was mich motiviert is Spass, oder sagen wir mal Freude, oder ein gewisser Sinnesgenuss, eine gewisse Reizung. Jedesmal wenn ich meine Twitterseite oeffne (ich benutze es nur in einem Browser), freue ich mich. Ich freue mich darueber, wie meine Seite aussieht, und ueber all diese coolen Avatars. Ich freue mich ueber den Humor, die Intelligenz und das Sozialbewusstsein meiner Twitter-Freunde. Der Sinn liegt also in Freude – in intellektueller und sinnlicher Freude, und der Freude daran, neue Verbindungen zu machen and zu unterhalten.

Was twitterst Du? Eher private Sachen, News aus dem Web, oder ein Mix aus beidem?

So ziemlich alles. Es ist recht impulsiv (ein weiterer Grund, weshalb mir Twitter gefaellt). Ich wuerde sagen, 60% der Zeit frage ich mich, ob mein Tweet meine Kontakte interessieren wuerde. Ich “retweete” mehr und mehr, das heisst, ich gebe Information von meinen Kontakten weiter, z.B. hier, eine Erinnerung fuer Krebsvorsorgeuntersuchungen. Dann sind da auch kleine Twitter-Unterhaltungen. Neuerdings twittere ich auch taeglich ein Global Earth-Motto, und einen kurzen Gedanken darueber, inspiriert durch eine Liste, die uns hilft, mehr global und umweltfreundlich zu denken, die mir von einer Freundin fuer Earth Day geschickt hatte. Ein oder zweimal die Woche erwaehne ich einen meiner Blog-Artikel. Oh, und ich habe auch Spass daran, Haiku zu schrieben, die ich Twaiku nenne, hier zum Beispiel.

Wie nutzt Du Twitter? Über Twitter.com direkt, oder über ein Plugin? Wenn ja, wo liegen die Vorteile des jeweiligen Tools?

Wie gesagt, ich benutze nur die Webseite. Ich habe noch nicht mal mehr das kleine Twitter-Widget auf meinem Blog. Ich verbrauche schon viel zu viel Zeit mit dem Computer. Wenn ich mit einem weiteren Tool anfinge oder auch meinen Handy benutzen wuerde fuer sowas verfuehrerisches wie Twitter, wuerde ich nie wieder schlafen!

Image by smitty

Returning to the English is not the only language” theme, through my Twitter friend @Lotree I just came across a new Twitter meme (or tweme – you can see them all here; on Twitter you will see them identified with a # hashtag, like this one). They are German “Twitterweisheiten” or “Twitter wisdoms”. I quite like them so I’ll translate them here:

Sprachspielerin (“language player”, of the female sort, with her blog here) says

He who sows tweets shall reap a thunderstorm.
As you shout into the twittersphere, so shall it echo back.
There is no tweet unless you tweet it.
I tweet that I tweet nothing [leaning on Socrates]
You cannot step twice into the same tweet. Or: Everything twitters.
The tweet is the goal.

Lotree, a “reader and information broker” with his blog here)

More truculent than a tweet are often a tweet’s followers.

Werkstatt (“workshop” – a social science guy from my hometown Munich whose blog is called knowledge workshop)

And why Twitter and not, rather, Nothing? That is the question. [leaning on German philosopher Heidegger]
Whereof you cannot tweet you must keep silent.
Everything you can say you can say as a tweet. [leaning on German philosopher Wittgenstein]
Nothing is twittered as hot as it is cooked.
Where there is a tweet there is a way.
The next tweet is always the hardest.

rrho who lives in Berlin and has a blog here

Where there is one tweet there is more.

textundblog (”text and blog”) from Hamburg, a Spanish translator, among other things. His blog is here.

Speech is silver. Tweet is gold.

PickiHH Tina Pickhardt from Hamburg, who’s into CRM, with her Blog Themenriff

A hashtag does not a tweet make.

bosch who waxes intelligently at Boschblog:

Before the tweet is after the tweet.
And of course after the tweet is also before the tweet and vice versa.

jati - Jan Tissler, a journalist from Berlin who blogs here

The really interesting things happen bewteen the tweets.

Iranerin, an Iranian feminist in Hamburg, who has been blogging since 2004. Read it if your Farsi is good!

A life without twitting is a life without pleasure!

(Amusing little sidenote: I was just about to publish this when I realized that I had gotten my languages mixed up and capitalized the word “blog” throughout - for a momen I was confused … how do you write that in English again?)

Welcome to Canada 9-5 – still the best place to find out about Canadian blogs that talk about work and business. For our May 2008 edition, we go right across the board again, from finance to ethical manufacturing and healing, and we even throw in a bit of IT, although that’s not our main focus here. Tech blogs are easy to find; what we here at Alphablogs are doing is to dig up business owners, professionals and non-profits who are smart enough to realize that blogging isn’t just for techies – it’s a great way to connect with your clients.

Finance
The Four Pillars blog is one I found through my blogging friend Nancy. It has great down-to-earth financial advice, and even has a category called 9-5! (And I just found out that it made it into the Globe & Mail’s best Canadian financial blogs. Good on you, Mike!) A good analysis of where to concentrate one’s financial effort is here, in Labour vs. Investment Income.

Some PF bloggers spend tons of time analyzing stocks and devising sophisticated strategies that incorporate geopolitical issues and long term forecasts of economics trends. Then you read that their portfolio is worth $24,000. Any benefit from their work is going to be minimal, simply because they have so little to work with. If they were to go out and earn minimum wage from their time, they’d be far further ahead than trying to “juice” the returns on a small investment.

Ethical Manufacturing
You got to think of our children is the title of the latest post on Mountain Equipment Co-Op’s blog. I think this is a fabulous example of using blogs to stay in touch with customer community. To those of you outside of Canada, MEC is Canada’s leading retailer of outdoor clothing and equipment, providing quality products and services for self-propelled activities like hiking, climbing and skiing. MEC has more than 2.5 million members; they are part owners, with a real voice in how MEC is run. MEC is a force for positive social and environmental change. They are committed to sustainability, from reducing the ecological footprint of their business to providing support to Canadian conservation and outdoor recreation groups. True to its mission, MEC’s blog focuses on ethical sourcing of its material.

“You got to think of our children” is how Mr. Anbukani, the proprietor of our organic wovens factory in India, rationalized his dedication to his community and environment. Mr. Abukani is one of three brothers who own and operate a handful of factories in Southern India. Together, they manufacture apparel for MEC, premium European brands and the French military.

What sets the Anbukani clan apart from other factories I’ve visited is its commitment to the community and environment.

Books
Monique Trottier’s So Misguided is mostly about books – but about all kinds of other things, too: product reviews, “tap dancing, technology, and the other amusements of Monique Trottier.” That’s one of the things I like about blogging. You want to be somewhat focused but then – well, we’re human and we’re interested in all kinds of things, no?

I like this little post because it’s short and sweet – and yet it needs little more than a quick question – “what are you reading right now?” - to interest Monique’s readership.

Healing
Reiki In The News is a post by Astrid Lee, North Vancouver Reiki Master, who says

Reiki is a modality of energy healing that is nearly effortless and mindful. Reiki helps the recipient relax and balance, emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually. My blog says it all, but now also the Vancouver press is getting tuned in: Mind Body Soul, Georgia Straight has featured my work. Hurray!

IT
In a highly competitive market, Jimson Lee, a Vancouver-based CRM Analyst blog reviews another BC based CRM on-demand software company, here at Simple Sales Tracking - Simplicity at its Core: Sales!

Management
Lastly, we have something by Phil For Humanity who I think is Canadian. He talks about different types of managers.

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That’s it for the May 2008 edition! Please submit your Canadian business blog here for the next edition on June 28. If you have or know of any interesting Canadian blogs that talk about work or business, send them in – you can use this form.

Sunshine in Vancouver brings out the best in us all, and no one wants to stay indoors unless forced. So yesterday I played up on the roofdeck with the Photo Booth application that comes with the mac.

I love the automatic way it forces out an iconic image. Plus there’s video too. It’s dead easy to work and there is some serendipitous stuff that just happens with this software.

And don’t forget the Warhol homage:

It’s been a busy month, with all the activity of spring - new projects brewing and more to do than time to do it!

I recently interviewed Social Media Evangelist/Consultant and woman-about-town Monica Hamburg about one of her areas of expertise: Crowdsourcing. Check it out here in the YouTube version:

One thing this video doesn’t convey is Monica’s terrific sense of humour. You can find out more about that side of her through her blogsite(s). Contact Monica here.