[Whenever](http://www.cbc.ca/searchengine/blog/2008/06/search_engine_heads_to_china.html) someone says “[netizen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netizen)”, the first thing I think of isn’t “citizen”; it’s “denizen”.
I just [looked that word up](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/denizen). I’d always assumed it was related to [den](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/den), but apparently it’s not.
I’ve found that the two most useful benefits of having this thing are (mostly) that I can start to solidify ideas in my own head, possibly for later reference, and (tangentially) that it can spur conversation with friends, either online or in real life. Both are rather rewarding.
A lot of times, I come across something that I think is worth noting, but I don’t have enough of a grasp on it to dash off 500 or so words. I just want to make note of it, to get it out of my head and somewhere where I know it might do some good.
There are times when I just want to whip off a one-liner (possibly with a link) and send it out to the world. I realized a long time ago, however, that in the context of a blog (or journal or whatever this is), that that could be very annoying. People might get notified by RSS every time I did that and would get very sick of me. Or, at the very least, on this page, one line posts take up way more screen real estate than the one line.
My solution to the nuisance problems of the one-liner was to batch a bunch of them up and post them as [bullet posts](http://flying-squirrel.livejournal.com/tag/bullets%21). It seemed like a nice compromise.
These days, however, there are whole web 2.0 businesses dedicated to getting people to posting one-liners. Notably [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/), but also [Jaiku](http://www.jaiku.com/), [Pownce](http://www.pownce.com/) and others. Kind of instant messenger status messages gone public. With friends lists and crap.
As I hinted with my [Facebook post](http://www.flyingsquirrel.ca/index.php/2007/11/05/dear-facebook-please-try-harder/), the idea of having to set up yet more social networks on yet more sites does not thrill me. I don’t have a problem getting a Twitter or Jaiku account, but I want to use the tools I want to use, not the tools the masses deem the most popular.
I’m kinda particular that way. I’ve been noticing it’s becoming a recurring theme this month.
At some point in the near future, I’m going to figure out a new way to do the Twitterish micro-blogging thing. I’m not going to do it, though, until I have a way to surface the data on my own site, and other places where I’m already spamming people. I kinda want to make it seamless, and I want to store history for it on my own server, so I have it even if the Web 2.0 bubble bursts and all (or even just some of) these ridiculous things go away.
My current plan is to do what I have been doing: bullets! posts. I’d use a micro-blogging service like Twitter, maybe, and have my blog fetch updates over the course of the day and post it as a bulleted list.
And I’d probably wrap the [linkblog](http://del.icio.us/flyingsquirrel/linkblog) into that, because it’s really the same sort of idea.
I’d also want to find a way to propagate the one-liner to any site that has a micro-blogging paradigm and where there are people who might be interested in reading. Like Facebook and its status messages.
Of course, Facebook being Facebook doesn’t make that easy, but it looks like there’s a way to do it…
That’s the plan, anyway. Not sure if I’ll get around to it this month, but I think I’m getting there–conceptually, if nothing else.
I had a bunch of highly pontificational (spell check says that isn’t a word, but I’m using it anyway) things I was thinking about writing a post about today. I was saving it all up till after work when I had time to dedicate to the writing process. They were good too. I had some really good arguments I wanted to make. It would’ve been interesting, challenging and informative.
Too bad I forgot all about all of them.
I should probably write these things down. Oh well.
I’ll leave you to dream about what the world might have been like if those posts had been posted. It would be a different place, you mark my words.
Ad Astra’s this weekend. I was only planning on going the Saturday, but for one happy reason or another, it looks like I’ll be there all weekend. Which is fine. If I get bored, I can probably find a Cory Doctorow thing to drop in on, which should be neat. I might even ninja. Seeing as I never really do anything useful during masqs, this is probably a good idea.
I was looking over the pre-schedule schedule… Along with pretty much all the Cory Doctorow stuff which is probably interesting on their own, there’s also some Julie Czerneda things which are usually fun… And there’s a NaNoWriMo panel, but it’s very early some morning. And, of course, there’s all the stuff friends are doing. So I think I should be able to find enough things to fill the weekend.
I’ll bring the laptop. I might even liveblog the con. ‘Cuz, you know, I can…
(Seriously… those would’ve been some awesome posts…)