Twitter, Flickr, Doppr, Delicious, Boxee ... it goes on....

Continuing on from a recent post I’d like to tell the world why it is that I’ve migrated from one service (Facebook) to nearly ten (MobileMe, Twitter, Dopplr, WordPress, Flickr, Upcoming, Last.fm, Vimeo, Delicious) which seems entirely rediculous and somewhat overwhelmingly inefficient:

1. Firstly Facebook is a corporate walled garden in a trendy tee-shirt, this makes me very angry.
2. Secondly all the services I use can be updated or used via the web, or even better, by text message via Twitter.
3. The services I use are hot-swappable, that is they are easily replaced, upgraded or removed (thus the TCP/IP reference).
4. The services I use let me and, more importantly, me friends choose how to ‘consume me’ (a’ la JP Rangaswami).
5. The services I use can be aggregated using devices such as FriendFeed or, for media, Boxee.

So I think five are enough reasons for now, oh wait, you can update Facebook for free too. Anyway the only quandary I’m left with is:

How can I present all this information in a way which is both pleasing to the casual observer and useful for those that are interested in the same things as I?

With this I give you the remit for my soon to be released website. The premise follows from a post about tags that I wrote a few weeks back. I was interested in what tags said about me as a person as nearly all the services I subscribe to have tag APIs (or at least a third party generator). These tags contain information about me, my events, my interests, my travel, my photos and most importantly my friends.

Taking these desparate sources and presenting a weighted tag-mash (weighted by the amount I use a service) I intend to produce a superset tag-mash which, when clicked, follows though to a list of referenced content carrying that tag for each of the services I use. This will obvsiouly be accompanied with a per service linkage on the left (a’ la Phil Hawksworth).

I think this could either be a complete mess or an interesting experiment in digital self-discovery.

You decide.

Loyal... to coffee!

I’m an avid coffee drinker, I also broke my espresso machine at home and must now tramp the streets of London looking for a decent hit of caffeine. I know many of my friends and colleagues are also big coffee drinkers, not least Jon Lister who’s loyalty to coffee can only be regarded as brave or stupid (see above photo).

Anyways appreciation aside I am in the need of a log of where people’s favourite coffee houses lie. There are, of course, a few stipulations:

• Indie only (that means you Starbuck, Costa, Nero, Coffee Republic, Druckers etc.)
• They must serve real coffee, no instant (not even optional)
• They must have some speciality (roasts, decor, people, artwork etc.)

With this I hope that you can find the time to pop a pin in my open collaborative map, visible here or on a click through up on that photo above. To upload click the larger map, click edit in the left hand pane and place away.

Good luck and godspeed!