SOMEWHAT FRANK

Plinky Through Those Personal Blogging Lulls

Plinky launched this past week to offer a microblogging platform for your personal blog. Plinky was founded by Jason Shellen, a former engineer of blog platform Blogger, to help "cure writer's block" Plinky prompts its users to answer a question a day to keep the personal blog content flowing.

12Seconds Twitters Short Videos

Do you have 12 seconds? 12seconds, a Santa Cruz, California based startup, launched recently to offer users the ability to record short format video messages (12 seconds to be exact) and distributes them directly to a Twitter account. The site functions as a community destination as it also offers users the ability to follow others users on the site itself in a video stream format similar to twitter stream.

The site offers a simple layout and appears to be built on a drupal content management system framework. It also offers users simple recording and email video uploading features to enable users to input content. Videos can be embedded in other sites though a custom 12seconds player. Currently the player does not offer snaggable code.

Ping.fm Posts To All Your Microblogs At Once

Microblogging has made it easy to share but with a number of services available one can get overloaded with options making it difficult to keep them all updating the time. Rather than have to stick to one service you can post to a number of services at one time with the help of Ping.fm. Other services like socialthing! and HelloTxt offer similar functionality but I thought it was worth mentioning yet another service as we all look for the ultimate one stop shop for managing all our microblogging needs at once.

Chyrp An Open Source Microblogging Platform

Microblogging platforms have been springing up like crazy these days as bloggers look for easier and shorter form ways to quickly express themselves online. Lifestreaming to these platforms also become more prevalent as an aggregation of online activities. I am a big fan of microblogging platforms like Tumblr, Twitter, and Soup.io. They offer a light but powerful platform for self-expression. But there is not a one size fits all solution for every blogger. Chyrp (found deceptively at chyrp.net) offers an open source blogging platform that is more of a medium weight blogging solution.

HelloTxt For Simultaneous Microblogging

Microblogging platforms are more plentiful than ever with sites like Tumblr, Twitter, Pownce and Jaiku among others. However there are so many blogging platforms it is inconvenient to post to them all. So in steps hellotxt to lend a helping hand. Hellotxt enables users to aggregate microblogging services and insert messages on all main microblogging services simultaneously.

Soup.io Launches Hot New Microblog Platform

Microblogging platforms have been coming into their own as sites like Tumblr and Twitter have emerged to enable users to provide a shorter format for blog posts. Why microblogs? Microblog platforms offer users an easy way to make shorter format posts that take less time and overhead than a full fledge blog. Soup.io has just officially launched to offer users a microblogging platform that pay attention to your content details so different content types are displayed appropriately.

Watch & Learn With Twitter

Twitter has been the talk of the blogosphere and tech community for the last few weeks. Twitter has taken a simple idea and technology to create an easy to use and somewhat addictive product thus turning it into a growing phenomenon.

I finally gave in and reviewed Twitter two weeks ago along with a number of other bloggers. Robert Scoble even convinced Mike Arrington of  TechCrunch to start using Twitter today. Upon setting up Twitter I opted to not get Twitter updates on my mobile phone. This week while in Silicon Valley, I decided to configure my profile to turn mobile updates on thinking I would stay better connected and to see just how disruptive it might be. Since turning them on, I have received hundreds of messages from all my Twitter friends.

A few things that I learned while using Twitter:

1.) Twitter can be a great connector - Twitter can be an excellent connector as I now feel I have more personal insight into all of my Twitter friend's as they offer short, usually personal, stream of conscience updates.

2.) Twitter can cause information overload - Twitter can produce lots of messages! It can be a slight distraction if you find yourself compelled to read every message that comes your way.

3.) Twitter could cost you - Twitter's SMS/text messaging update options could cost you on your mobile bill so be sure to check you mobile plan to make sure you can handle a lot more incoming text messages.

4.) Twitter is great for events - SXSW Interactive and the more recent VON conference are great examples of events that Twitter can enhance the experience as Twitter members can all Twitter the event.

5.) Twitter could be used as an alarm clock - If you have the Twitter mobile updates on you can configure some sleep hours where mobile updates are not sent. I found that doing this was a good idea. Interestingly, the time you set to resume mobile updates doubles as a wake-up call as the updates start flowing in.

6.) You can watch Twitter - Steve Rubel pointed out Twittervision which plots Twitter updates from around the globe on a map (as shown below). It could suck you in for a large chunk of time - so proceed with caution if you are short on time. Twittervision makes it easy to "people watch" and potentially meet new Twitter friends. 

What has Twitter taught you?

Photo Attribution: Ed Kohler via Flickr.

What Is In Your Tumblr?

Looking for a place to aggregate your thoughts in a scrapbook fashion online? Tumblr is a simple microblog platform and might be just what you are looking for to post your thoughts, images and videos. Tumblr offers a six different types of posts which include: a regular post, quote, photo, video, conversation and link. Unlike other conventional blog platforms, Tumblr does not offer comments, thus making Tumblr more like a one way log than a conversation. Eric Rice calls Tumblr a hybrid of twitter and WordPress, but it is more than just that as you can integrate a number of feeds and thus create your own customized personal aggregator.

Tumblr is a product of Davidville, the small New York web development firm that has also brought us Senduit, the simple file sharing product and Channel Frederator, the original cartoon podcast.

I created a Tumblr log called Totally Frank to aggregate my activities on Twitter, Stylehive, Last.fm and Flickr. You can find other Tumblr logs by tuning into the Tumblr Radar, an aggregation of recent Tumblr posts.