read

I just got off the phone with my dad. He told me that when my Uncle Jim came to visit last week, he brought a printout of one of the blog posts I'd written. And according to my dad, neither of them knew WTF I was talking about. Something about something, but it was in the New York Times - and thanks to the magic of CTRL+P, "in print." (Actually, I bet they don't know about that keyboard shortcut... but I digress.) So needless to say, I didn't regale my dad with the tales of suspense and intrigue from my week as a tech blogger. And what a week it was!

The Best Stories I Wrote

Facebook dominated the tech news this week. Although RWW broke the story about Diaspora last week -- the project of four NYU students who plan to build a distributed, open source anti-Facebook, an article in the New York Times gave them a huge amount of traction, and on Thursday I wrote a post, updating their funding efforts. They utilized Kickstarter to solicit donations -- most in $5 and $25 increments, and in the week between Sarah's story and mine, their funding had jumped from $8000 to $90,000. (And since Thursday, they're now at almost $150,000.) I was glad to write even a small post about Diaspora, because I think it's a great idea and a great story -- the perfect example of being in the right place at the right time with the right idea. There are other open-source alternatives to Facebook being built, and it'd be very cool to see some open standards established, as well as (geeky and non-geeky) discussions about some of the implications of FB "owning the Internet".

I'm glad that I wrote about my own concerns and departure from Facebook. (I left Facebook before it was cool to leave Facebook, dig?) But honestly, I think only two or three of my friends even noticed. That's how cool I am. I've read a lot of really great posts on the subject this week (danah boyd, as always, hits it out of the park. See Stowe Boyd and Jean Friesewinkel for other smart analyses.)

The Twitter auto-follow exploit has provided some much needed comic relief for me this week. Come to find out, Justin Bieber is still following me. And as a result, I now have about 200 new tween followers. Between that and having a boyfriend who shares the name with Microsoft's latest tween texting tool, you gotta admit, I got that market covered.

But even more satisfying than being loved by hundreds of 13-year-olds -- I finally wrote about Failbetter Games for RWW. And as a result, my little brother (among others) started playing Echo Bazaar, so now I've got someone new to "loiter suspiciously" with!

The Best Stories I Didn't Get to Write

I wrote about 20 blog posts this week. But even so, I didn't get to write about everything on my mind, so here are the some of the best stories I didn't cover.

Despite my interest in open courseware and open source and open social and the open web, I didn't write about a couple of important stories in open source gaming. Most notably, the "Humble Indie Bundle" offer, spearheaded by Wolfire Games, that allowed folks to "pay what you want" for a six-title package, that they in turn open sourced. Some of the money from the endeavor was earmarked for charity, raising over $1 million for Child's Play.

Have you checked out the digital storytelling project Inanimate Alice? I finally had a chance to this week. It is incredibly cool.

I didn't write about the Zynga vs Facebook hullabaloo, although I was damn proud of myself for recognizing several weeks ago when Zynga started asking its users for their email addresses that something was "up." I've got my eye on this story still, although since most of the major tech blogs have already written their suppositions of what's happening, I have a different tact in mind.

I also haven't written about jailbreaking my iPhone. (In retrospect, I think I facebooked it when I did the deed.) Look for a write up in the next day or so about the how and why you should do this. Wireless hotspot, anyone?

And finally, despite my former employer's call for a day of tweeting and blogging for ed tech funding, I did not write a word about my thoughts on EETT. It's not that I don't care deeply about funding education and providing the opportunities for teachers and students to teach and learn with technology. Well, it's just... a blog post that I need to write still. Clearly.

Of course, that's the best part about stories untold (and partially told) -- I have plenty of opportunities next week to tell 'em.

Audrey Watters


Published

Audrey Watters

Writer

Back to Archives