Feel like this sums up the day pretty well, but hearing Yusuf, Ozzy and the O’Jays pretty much blew my mind.
Politics, schmolitics. This served as a friendly reminder that we have a lot more in common with strangers than we think.
Author: J T. Ramsay
Calling All Word Nerds
Yesterday I started my new job as Comcast’s chief blogger. Now I’ve had some fun with social media so far in my career and have had a really great time getting people excited about bringing the A’s back to Philadelphia, but I have very little in the way of what you may call deep background on social media practices.
My take: I feel like I have the trickiest part–writing–down cold. I have a solid understanding of what stories are best told through text and which are better explained by video, thanks to my tenure at comcast.net. I know that people want regular content and they have expectations around how it’s delivered. That’s understood.
What I have questions about are best practices in the social web. If you can recommend reading either on- or offline, I’d appreciate it. Leave a note in the comments or @ me on Twitter. If you have favorite blogs that deal specifically in this, feel free to share those as well. My Google reader feels a little empty after I 86’d oh so many music blogs.
Don’t think I’m not doing some heavy lifting myself. I’m finding Kristina Halvorson’s work and the Brain Traffic blog a very useful font of info and links. I’ve also subscribed to several recommended company blogs, ranging from Southwest Airlines to Google’s Official blog. Love how they read!
Current iPhone Home Screen
First & 20 started out as one of my favorite iPhone blogs. It had a clever premise: ask tech all stars to share their iPhone home screens.
They haven’t been publishing much of late, but I’ve checked back from time to time anyway. Thought I’d share mine again, too!
I just radically reset what’s on the home screen and where. I floated text, email and phone from the dock into the top row, replacing them with apps I use much more often, like Twitter, Reeder, Things and the calendar app. It’s taking some getting used to, but makes much more sense based on frequency.
The second row remains more or less unchanged. It’s home to my social web apps, with Instapaper thrown in for those times when I might not be able to access the web. Learned that while riding the NYC subway a few weekends back.
The third row is where I’ve bundled apps into convenient categories. News and Entertainment are pretty self-explanatory. Contacts is just an easy way to toss the contacts app, LinkedIn, and Bump together on the home screen for convenience’s sake. Utilities is a broom closet for the apps you need but aren’t all that special, like settings, Safari and the calculator.
The bottom row is for entertainment, too. The iPod app is self-explanatory. I keep the Comcast app at the ready. It lets me know when someone’s calling my house so I don’t miss any calls. Handles my r‑DVR, too, which is really great. Tunerfish is an app I’m really excited about. It’s like Foursquare for television, complete with fun badges and a suite of social features which lets you share what you’re watching with friends.
Why have I left a space open? You’ll find out soon enough!
My First Day as Chief Blogger
Check out the view from my new office!
Today was hectic, but really cool. Had some neat meetings. Was a lot like my first day at Comcast: a little confusion and a ton of excitement. Met more people today than I have in three years at the company and that’s great!
Very excited to see where my new role takes me. This office is just the first step.
In Praise of Kylesa
Bought their new one, Spiral Shadow, at the show last night. Love this band so much. If you haven’t heard them, you have some catching up to do.
Also, have Torche completely disavowed their Meanderthal sound? Love the sludgy stuff, but that was a pretty nice turn for them, too.