I Support @MailOurMilitary

I support any organization that has a heart. I support everyone's main objectives are not for himself alone. I give support not because they are like my color. I give support not because I was forced to. I give support not because I was paid to do it.

The Many Uses of Twitter: Part 2

So, I've been telling Hunee I'd write this sequel for a week or so now, but I've been struggling over what deserves to be covered. I'm gonna lay out a few more tools for enhancing your Twitter experience.

Thanks to Twitter's open API, lots of great people have made lots of great tools for it. In part one I mentioned TweetStats, and the creator of that wonderful site, also has an excellent way to clear out your DM inbox. Make sure you show some love and follow @dacort for his excellent contributions to the way we use twitter.

Twitter Karma and My Tweeple are both excellent sites for managing your followers/followees. As you gain more followers, it becoms difficult to do this on the twitter site. These sites make it much easier.

Tweetbar is a cool little plug-in for FireFox that lets you tweet right from the address bar in your browser.

Lastly, take a look at Twittervision. It's a very cool little play thing that can show you where in the world all your favorite Twits are tweeting from.

One more thing. Do you have a good idea for a Twitter App? You can learn more about working with the Twitter API here.

I hope you've learned some things about Twitter today. Please, if I have left out any of your favorite tools or apps in this series of posts, let Hunee know, and maybe I'll be back ;)

Much Love.
Jack Lhasa
I Listen.
I Travel.

Jack Lhasa is a travel writer, currently in Southern California. He maintains several blogs, a dozen or more social networks, and writes for cash too. Damn, he's everywhere. ;)

The Many Uses of Twitter

When I offered to write this blog for my sister, Hunee, I don't think I knew what I was getting into.  "The Many Uses of Twitter."  I could write a whole wiki on this.  Let's start with some basics, then I'll leave you with some teasers of the more advanced features.  

If you don't already know(you need to keep up!), Twitter is a microblogging community.  What this means is that you are given a very small space(140 characters) to say what ever you want and the community and your friends can respond to it.  This also makes twitter a great place for conversation, because no one can get too long winded in an answer.  It forces a give and take style of communication, which is very healthy.  

Now if we look a little beyond the blogging aspect and the conversation aspect, you can begin to see so much more.  Because of the large community, it's a great place to poll people for answers, or to seek help if you are in a dilemma.  I've gotten just over 600 followers, so if I'm doing some research, as I was the other night, answers start coming fast.  I sent out a short survey:  "What is your blog about?"  Within seconds answers started coming to me.  I ended up with two pages of answers from people that range from close friends, to people that I had never really spoken to.  Needless to say that was more than I expected and I got a very good idea of what the casual blogger writes about.

If we want to take Twitter a step further, we can use other websites and applications to enhance it via it's open API.  Here's a short bullet list of some of the communities favorites:

• Twitterfeed - Let's you plug any RSS feed in, and then it autoposts these entries every so often.
• Twitpic - Allows you to share photos with your Twitter friends.
• Tweeterboard - Shows you who's most active in the Twitterverse.
• Tweetstats - Allows you to see personal statics about your usage.
• Twitterfone - Still very beta, but allows you to call an 800 number and talk, it records the message and then attempts to transcribe it as a tweet.

There are literally hundreds of programs like this that can help you enhance your twitter experience and build upon the way you use this very simple site.

You can post tweets via the web interface, IM, SMS, and through many third party client programs.  Twitter is very versatile, and simplistic in use, making it easy for anyone to use.  

Twitter can be used to promote things.  Take, for example, my current writing project, Twitter Travels, funded for the last 2 months almost entirely by Twitter users(or Twits).  Many people use Twitter for blog and project promotion, but to do only that would be limiting yourself greatly. 

On another note, Twits are trying very hard to make this online community a real life community.  Check out Greg Barnett's TweetUpLA, which I was privilegedenough to be able to attend.  It was a great success and he's going to be doing another in October.  

So as I said, I could go on about this forever, but I think this is enough for one blog post.  Maybe in a few days Hunee will let me do a sequel to cover all the many things I could not here.

Cheers,

Jack Lhasa

Jack Lhasa is a traveling writer, currently traveling the state of California.  He writes for Twitter Travels, as well as Loki Listens.  Jack Lhasa does many, many guest blogs and public appearances(Like I'm a superstar, right?).  Jack is always willing to meet you for a drink or lunch if you're close by.

Honor, Courage, Internet

I'd like to use my blog to make a shout out to all Americans to support eMailOurMilitary.com. Click on the title post and it will lead you to another blog that explains why you should be part of this support group.

I know I would look like a fool because I'm a Filipino and yet I'm supporting this group. My idea here is to support through this blog and may the message get to you who don't know anything bout eMailOurMilitary.com. Through my computer and my blog and the internet, I'm gonna support in anyway I could.

The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.
Norman Schwarzkopf: Famous Military Quotes

Twitter Travels To Your City

There are a hundred ways to know America. You can read a book about it. You can look at it through the globe or go fly with the astronauts. Any way you want it, you can do it. I bet those books are printed 5 years or even 10 years ago. So who are the Americans now?

There are two people, Jack and Scarab, traveling in the US to rediscover who the real Americans are. And they need your help. They drive from town to town and write about their travel. You can call it documentary, I call it guerrilla journalism.

Why am I into this? I live thousand miles away and yet I am so concern of learning and discovering the little ways Americans are living their lives. What does this got to do with me being an Asian? This has nothing to do with races, this has nothing to do with what is your sexuality. This has nothing to do of where you are in the world. This is all about quality journalism from one town to another and then another. Then from the US to another country to another part of the world. Telling us stories, telling us heartaches and these are supposed to be the things that we should know. We may be part of the US or not but we all live in one globe. How are they supposed to start knowing what's outside US if they don't know what's inside their country?

How much is $10 to you? Is it too much? Is it too little? Drop your donations now. See Twitter Travels ChipIn Widget so you can donate securely. To know more of Twitter Travels click HERE.

Twitter Family

According to @jacklhasa, I started the twitter family. I guess it started with @Devyl telling me not to do this and that. One time, @jesatiu mentioned he and @Devyl talked about me one time. So I assumed they were talking about my sleepless days. That's the main thing why @Devyl is so concerned about, that I might end up in the hospital. I drink too much coffee too. @Devyl don't like that.

That's how it all started. @jacklhasa joined the family during the time @Devyl is giving me "Don't" statements. I said, "At least @jesatiu is not here to give me sermons again." And so @jacklhasa became my older brother.

Recently, some family members just popped out of nowhere. @Sorenj as the step dad, we call him 'Stepper'. @SpencerC is the adopted brother, @jacklhasa called him Adoptee. @scarab is step-brother, @sorenj's son with another woman (no name yet). @yonderboy is the son of @jesatiu with another woman (no name again). @Despil as the uncle, and @ColleenCoplick as the Auntie. Last one, the sister-in-law @bethanie (@yonderboy's girl)

I am Popular Today

Anybody can be popular at Tweeterboard. Yay! That's me! :D I don't know why but I like the recognition. Follow me at Twitter. My updates are protected because I don't like spam.
I got one question though, am I the only Filipino featured as popular on the tweeterboard? Just a question. :D

What I've Learned From Twitter Today

April 15, 2008

I know I started the day with a little taxi accident. I don't really have to write about it here because it's not that important. My morning with twitter was great. I think because I am beginning to made a connection with the people I follow and the people who followed me back. I guess they know who I am now.

Twitter can be for one's personal agenda, can be for business, can be for fun, can be anything I guess. You can define your own twitter page. For me, twitter is more of discovering the world through social networking. Sometimes I don't agree with tweets but I do respect those tweets as long as they give a valid reason. Although sometimes, I can't react to a tweet without reading the archive pages of the person concern for I might react in a wrong way or might send tweets that are not correlated with what is the topic. I am also aware that you can ask the person, but because I came from Asia, 80% of the time, they don't give me back answers. Since day one, I am so good with saying good morning and giving hugs. I am good at it, may it be online or offline. There are times I love to just be the constant twitter voyeur for I know when I stop sending tweets, I can learn from someone.

I was a voyeur today. I learned something from @amandachapel and @Despil conversation. Honestly, 60% of me wants to react and take the side of @Despil but that would be bias. I follow @Despil and not @amandachapel. Since twitter does not take away my choices, I choose not to follow @amandachapel. I respect her but I think my world of views against her world of views is entirely different. I respect her because that's what makes her @amandachapel.

I also want to follow the conversations of @markdavidson and @cameronreilly but the latter says he has to work. I admire @markdavidson. He asked for some proofs. I also respect @cameronreilly for saying what's on his mind. I can't take sides again for I was not able to dig deeper how and why @cameronreilly post that tweet.

It was definitely an unusual Tuesday. Hope it will be like this tomorrow.