Why Evan Made a Smart Move

Om and I seem to be of the same mind. Biggest gamble on this deal: What the currency of Facebook stock is worth. That, and I take Evan at his word that he wants to keep building Twitter. After all, it's not all about money, particularly for people who've already made money. Twitter is a one of the biggest ideas in Web 2.0 and the team knows that doesn't just come around because you decide, "Ok we sold that one, what next?"

I think they made the right call. More in my Dirt segment on TechTicker today below:

Quick Hide Your Women and Children! TWITTER IS COMING!

OK, let's just say a lot of things have gone well for me since this whole author gig began:

• I got to quit my grueling staff reporter job
• I make a jillion percent more working for myself (factor in here how little many journalists make and that "jillion" isn't really a number and that sounds way less braggy.)
• I got to live my lifelong dream of walking in a bookstore and seeing my book on the front table
• I've gotten thousands of letters from people the book inspired
• I got under the skin of a New York Times Book Reviewer
• I pissed off a whole army of geeks at SXSW, torches and pitchforks ensued
• I got to travel to 15 different cities and meet thousands of entrepreneurs on an off-the-wall book tour

Pretty exciting year, right? Well there was one thing that didn't go as well as I'd hoped: I hoped that enough parents would read my book that they'd realize how absurd all the fear mongering about Web 2.0 is. You know, the idea-- nay, belief in some quarters-- that their kids would be stalked by pedophiles on MySpace and one drunken Facebook photo or YouTube video would mean the end of their professional lives.

See, the year I was writing my book, I'd take gym breaks during The View, where I'd hear frightened mothers talking about the grave dangers of MySpace and YouTube and Facebook and how they were killing our society and endangering our children. (Nevermind few of them had actually used these sites.) Worse: I actually met lots of high school kids whose parents and schools banned them from using sites like these.

I've long had a problem with our fear based culture in this country. But this was just stupid. Keeping your children from using some of the most socially transformative tools modern technology has ever seen was at best wildly overprotective and at worst setting them up for a lifetime of disadvantages. It's like homeschooling, cutting off all access to pop culture and self expression, and not allowing them to participate in anything that might advance future career-networking all rolled into one. Ok, maybe that's extreme. But, in some households and cultures, maybe not.

If nothing else, these tools provide more fun and connectivity and benefits than they do dangers. And just like sex or drugs, if your kids want to use them, they'll find a way. I met plenty of kids who'd worked out inventive hacks-- even your cheerleader types.

So, I guess in the culture we live in, it's a feather in Twitter's cap that it's gotten mainstream enough that it's being deemed a tool for terrorism. (You know, terrorists!! Those guys who are always fist-bumping!!)
So the argument goes terrorists just love Twitter because they can communicate in real time. 'Cause you know, they couldn't do that with SMS or chats or any other technology before. I'm sure they also used email and cellphones, and say cars to get around in planning their attacks. BAN ALL THE TERRORIST TOOLS!!! Are you kidding me? No wonder Silicon Valley is hungry for regime change.

More Fun with Paul Kedrosky

You too can be like Buffett!

...and a bad time for peer-to-peer lending

As a side note, I really like my pirate-y shirt/vest ensemble today! It was actually the result of Twitter. Diane Von Furstenberg Twittered a link to the site with a big sale on shoes and - duh- I clicked. I didn't buy shoes but did buy this shirt and vest and a few other things. Later tonight, when Mr. Lacy looks at me exasperated and says, "Where did THAT shirt come from??" I plan on blaming Twitter. Hot outfit AND an alibi? Don't tell me there's not a business model in there somewhere...

Impromptu Coworking in Des Moines

This is practically from the vault! Mr. Lacy and I shot this video with Des Moines' first co-working space Impromptu Studios during the Mid-West swing of our User Generated Book Tour, but never got around to editing it until now. It's still timely though, since Impromptu Studios just had its open house last week.

I'm fascinated by the coworking trend, because I'm firmly convinced the social web has given anyone hardworking and talented in the services sector of the economy a new opportunity to work for themselves.

If you don't know about coworking, watch this video. If you are trying to start a coworking spot, hopefully it will inspire you. A group in Des Moines had been talking about co-working via an email group, but it wasn't until the conversation moved to Twitter that things started to actually happen. Eventually software developer Daniel Shipton-- encouraged by his wife Abbie-- had to "man up" and put their names on a lease and hope others followed. They charge people about $350/month for a permanent desk, with a small discount for a several month commitment. It's just enough to break even.

If you already have a rad coworking space and we're coming to your city on the tour, please let us know!! We'd love to come check it out!

CO-WORKING IN DES MOINES from sarah lacy on Vimeo.

Hold the Phone...AMC Isn't Dumb Afterall

I'm stunned to see a big media company do such an about face. AMC is now allowing fans to Twitter their favorite Mad Men alter ego. We're quite certain this post had a lot to do with it. (Kidding, calm down, everyone.) As my new BFF Daniel Terdiman writes, AMC realized they were throwing away free grassroots marketing that didn't in any way compromise the content, the way, say, illegal YouTube videos would.  I agree with Daniel that this will lead to a whole slew of Twitter spam of every character now having an account, and agree fan-concocted ones are WAY more interesting. As a Twitter community, we need to develop a short hand for knowing the difference.

But in the mean time, congrats AMC! You've now become my textbook example for a company that GOT the social web. ;)

AMC Continues to Ruin a Good Thing

So I hate to say this because I know everyone is annoyed by the whole "I-only-liked-it-before-it-was-popular" thing, but I'm really disappointed with AMC's "support" of Mad Men this season. It was one of my favorite shows last year and at first, I was excited it was getting so much buzz. Until AMC's PR machine went into overdrive and I suddenly saw Don Draper in EVERY SINGLE MAGAZINE-- from Spin to W to the most obscure daily. It was just too much saturation. To make matters way worse, the show has been pretty boring so far this season. They over promised and under delivered.

Still, a lot of people (me included) feel that a meh episode of Mad Men is better than a lot of other TV so we watch. And some of us, take the obsession into Twitter. And then AMC having annoyed people like me by PAYING millions of dollars for forced word of mouth, stupidly threatens legal action to squash actual word of mouth, ordering Twitter to kill these unauthorized profiles. This will likely become a go-to example of a big company that does not get how to leverage the social Web in any post, column and talk I give on the subject, so thanks for the material AMC. (Nice write up on it here too.)

It reminds me of the FX show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"-- loved it the first season, then the network felt they had to add Danny DeVito to generate more viewers and respectability. It's not that he was bad, I just didn't care much about his character as it was written. (Although I loved his performance on the View...see tribute below) As Geoff said, it was wasted time that he'd rather spend watching the other characters. But at least FX leveraged MySpace to promote the show. Shame on you AMC!

Stop Whining UK; Twitter Is Building a Business

In case you don't start your day with a way-too-early alarm, way-too-strong coffee, way-too-much on-camera makeup, interspersed with a quick doses of TechMeme, let me fill you in that the talk of the tech blogosphere today is that people in the UK can no longer send receive Twitters over mobile phones using SMS. After reading Biz Stone's post, I was going to write a quick one myself about how Twitter -- the much loved company that can't always communicate things well-- really nailed its messaging this time. It was out front with the bad news, not hiding it. It was apologetic, but also practical: We've been paying for this, it would cost us at a minimum $1,000 a user to continue, no UK carrier will do a deal with us, so we're working on it. Sounds rational to me.

Yet, somehow there are torches and pitchforks. HUH?

In Case You Haven't Seen...

brilliant.

UGBT: "I (Steak) Omaha!" Also, "Des Moines HELL YEAH!"

I saw both of those slogans on T-shirts during my recent swing through the Midwest. I asked Jeff Slobotski to mail me the first one, as the store was closed, and plan to order the second one on this rad site.

Why? Well, Omaha does have good steaks. And both Omaha and Des Moines have a genuine, not obnoxious  self-promotional culture that I've seen in few places. Cities like New York, San Francisco, and LA don't really have to promote themselves. They're like the cool guy at the party who's like, "Yeah, I know you're into me..." Atlanta, Phoenix and Nashville are almost the cool guy at the party who got to ride with him and wants to MAKE SURE YOU KNOW IT! (That guy is annoying.) Meanwhile cities like Memphis and Detroit have inferiority complexes, so they're frequently self-deprecating even when they have something to brag about.

Omaha and Des Moines aren't pushy about it-- but they love their cities and want you to know why. It must be a Midwestern thing because the same thing struck me about Chicago. I flew there several years back when BusinessWeek was trying to get me to move there and everyone from the cab driver at the airport to the desk clerk at the hotel told me how  much they loved Chicago and how much I would to. There's something undeniably endearing about it.

Beyond that, there were some other (hopefully more salient) impressions about the Midwest I wanted to share.

Oprah Wishes She Had This Feel-Good Moment!

Every time I say I'll never mention SXSW on my blog again...

So last night TechnoSailor had the testicular fortitude to be the only person after Robert Scoble to actually come up and apologize for the SXSW heckling event. Apparently while I was sweating around NYC all day semi-off the grid everyone discussed and called it the apology of the century! I don't know about all that. But I thought it was an incredibly gracious and classy thing to do.

It seems T.S. didn't know if I took his apology so I wanted to do a quick post to say YES. Life is too short for grudges. Besides the whole incident sold way more books and got me way more speaking gigs. Not that I want such things to happen all the time. But just saying.

Here's are photos to mark (haha!) the occasion. First, "ehh...I'm not letting you off the hook..."

then, "Well, ok."