Jack Dorsey Was Here

By Janet Dodrill

Jack Dorsey at Cleveland Clinic’s Ideas for Tomorrow Speaker Series.

Last week I was honored to hear Jack Dorsey speak in an interview with Toby Cosgrove, M.D., president and chief executive officer of Cleveland Clinic, at the Clinic’s Ideas for Tomorrow Speaker Series. Jack is creator, co-founder, and executive chairman of Twitter, Inc. social networking feed and the co-founder and CEO of Square, Inc., a device which enables mobile credit card payments via iPhone or iPad.

The one-hour informal talk gave us insight on Jack’s ideas that lead to Twitter, like an interest in mass transit and developing a means for emergency workers, taxis and couriers to communicate in real time. Jack’s early creativity included some formal training in art and design. He initially sketched ideas for Twitter’s process and Square’s user interface, and currently works at both companies, Twitter headquartered in San Francisco, and Square in New York City.

The Twitter name went through some early word-smithing, starting as Jitter and then Twitch. Did you know that Twitter is still banned in Syria, Iran and China? I believe in the usefulness of Twitter and have been tweeting nearly five years now!

According to Jack, only 8 million small businesses today can accept credit cards, and 26 million small businesses can’t. Square charges a flat 2.75% fee, which is less than most online merchant banks charge, and has created a huge opportunities for small businesses to use this product for their customers to make payments. I was at a holiday art bazaar a couple months ago and one vendor was using the Square on an iPad for customers purchasing their lama socks and hats.

Square currently holds a lot of potential for money-less and hands-free purchasing, and he gave an example, using Square Wallet app linked to a credit card and GPS, of walking into a Starbucks and our face and favorite coffee comes up on the register and is ordered before we have even reached the counter! A push feature could ask us about a tip. We could just give the cashier our name, and leave our mobile phone in our pocket or our purse.

He is active in community organizations, has about 1000 followers including his mom and her dog, as well as some authors, and tweets his breakfast most days to show his mom that he’s eating (she checks this)! I was inspired by Jack Dorsey and his brilliance. He was asked if he was more artist or entrepreneur, and he hesitantly answered, “Artist, but you can never really call yourself one, people have to look at your work!”

Jack Dorsey: Ideas for Tomorrow Speaker Series (Full Program) video

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Recent tweets by Jack Dorsey about a Cleveland Clinic video he was touched by:

@jack RT @ClevelandClinic: “Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?” – Thoreau | http://t.co/b8Sudtcqsv
Mar 4

@jack A brilliant video from @ClevelandClinic about empathy and putting the patient (or customer) first. https://t.co/T0C9jIYvs0
Mar 1

Vine App, Brings 6-Second Video to Twitter

By Janet Dodrill

Three days ago Vine was launched, a six-second video creator social media app, acquired by Twitter.

The Vine App’s Twitter Page.

This will open up creative ways for Twitter users to tell a short story visually, in addition to the brief 140-character micro-logging allotment they currently have.

Currently only available for iPhone and iPod Touch, Vine (@vineapp) hopes to have an Android version, in addition to bug fixes and enhancements shortly. It is currently available free at the App Store.

Jack Dorsey (@jack), Twitter creator and Square founder recently endorsed Vine by posting tweets utilizing Vine videos and stated on January 24, 2013 about Vine, “…This one’s going to be big.”

Jack’s tweet on January 24, 2013.

The user-generated looping videos are anticipated to only improve in time, after the initial novelty has worn off and learning curve overcome.

Below are some recent articles and links of interest, which review the app and explain how to use it, with several showing examples of the videos created with Vine.

Introducing Vine (Vine Blog)

Vine: A new way to share (Twitter Blog)

Seconds of pleasure: A few cool Vine videos (CNN Tech)

Twitter’s Vine App: How to Use It (PC Magazine)

6 ways Vine’s six seconds may change Twitter (CNN Tech)

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Recent Vine News, April 2013:

Vine Is the Top Free iPhone App (Mashable)

‘Vine Resume’ Woman Gets a Job (Mashable)

Away at College Then and Now

By Janet Dodrill

Then: call home collect only in emergencies – – Now: unlimited calling

Then: say goodbye to your old friends for the quarter or semester and try to contact them when you get home  – – Now: Skype or text them or post to their wall on Facebook or follow them on Twitter

Then: carpool with strangers to get home for the holidays and split the gas – – Now: take a Megabus home for $5-$30

Then: buy a bunch of maps and learn your way around the college town – – Now: Use a navigator or GPS system to find your location or destination

Then: run out of gas, walk to a gas station, rent a gas can, walk back to the car, return the gas can to the station – – Now: call AAA from your car on your cell phone and let them do the rest

Then: go to the library to research every subject, idea or question; interview people – – Now: Google everything from your computer, smartphone or tablet

Anything else? There’s probably an app for it!

Do you get the idea?

Social Media Identity Standards

By Janet Dodrill

Are you promoting your business product or service using social media, i.e., Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest or other sources? I sure hope so. Did you know that most these social networking sites have their own identity guidelines? Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest recently changed their logo icons and we should be using what they and others are providing to us. Here are links to some of the social media sites branding resources:

Twitter
www.twitter.com/about/logos
Twitter’s marks include, but are not limited to, the Twitter name, logo, Tweet, Twitter bird, and any word, phrase, image, or other designation that identifies the source or origin of any of Twitter’s products.

Facebook
www.facebook.com/brandpermissions/logos.php
This section explains our guidelines regarding the use of Facebook’s logos and other trademarks.

LinkedIn
press.linkedin.com/logo-images
Use the corporate logo below to promote LinkedIn when discussing the LinkedIn Professional Network, as a whole.

Google+
www.google.com/+/business/brand-guidelines.html
Logo and number one button icon.

Pinterest
www.pinterest.com/about/goodies
The below vector versions of our logo and badge are available for you to link to Pinterest.

You can look up the official pages for other social networking sites in your favorite search engine.

Instagram Free App for iPhone, and Soon Android

By Janet Dodrill

Instagram, www.instagr.am, is a free iPhone app (powered by Tumblr photo sharing service) with increasing popularity and a recent version 2.0 rollout. It allows you to turn your smartphone photos into visually appealing chromatic-like color-altered images through the use of live filters, instant tilt-shift and high resolution abilities.

According to Mashable Tech, it was announced this month that they are developing an Instagram Android (smartphone operating system) app. See Mashable’s “Meet the Top 15 Photographers on Instagram [PICS]“.

Instagram's blog archive

Their web site offers a link to the free iPhone app download. Instagram’s robust blog offers weekly featured “Instagrammers” (photographers), tips, InstaMeets links on Meetup.com (there are currently 745 Instagram communities with 3 in the Cleveland area), social media links to Instagram on Facebook where you can see hundreds of images, and Instagram on Twitter, who I follow are receive notices of news and featured image postings.

Twitter giants, Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone, are avid Instagram users, with Jack posting random travelscapes like in “Found object“, and Biz enjoying his new baby son subject like in “He has my eyes“.

I am a fan even though I am awaiting the Android release to use it myself. Once on Instagram’s blog page, click on the clock icon to see the archive and spend some time acquainting yourself with the interviews, evolving news, user tips, and featured images by its established fan base.

Inspired Follower

By Janet Dodrill

On Twitter, I follow a charming lady, Ms. Ivy Bean, age 104 (www.twitter.com/IvyBean104). She lives in a nursing home in England and has fish and chips every Friday, and shares what she is doing. Her icon shows a picture of her and someone who she admires, Peter who is a talk show host, and who interviewed her. Ivy is upbeat and has a lot of fans. When she is not feeling well, her nursing staff reports her condition to her Twitter followers. One time she reported that the nurses made angels in the snow outside. Who says that social media is for young people? I think they mean ‘young at heart’. I don’t know much about Ivy Bean except that her tweets brighten my day and make me smile, and she seems happy to have connected with others, who each have their own story too. It can make our world so much bigger.

Blog Blog Blog – Archive 1

By Janet Dodrill

In an effort to consolidate my blog posts across multiple blog sites, I have decided to make WordPress my blog of choice. Past posts on my other blog site at janetdodrill.blog.com will remain. Here is a list of the posts you can find there:

Twitter’s ‘#followfriday’ Following
6/18/09

Have You Ever Been Asked to Write a Press Release?
5/20/09

Urban Dictionary
4/21/09

Tutorial Web Sites for Graphic Designers and Web Designers
3/3/09

Fun Obama Poster Style Icon-Maker
1/20/09

How to Create a Panoramic Image in Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended, Janet Dodrill’s Holiday Card 2008
12/10/08

Also, please check out my past blog posts for Cleveland Digital Publishing Users Group (CDPUG), and check back periodically, at blog.cdpug.org:

The Rise of Cleveland Tech Events
6/24/09

Ning and Bebo Among Fastest Growing Social Media Sites
4/30/09

Educational Online Tutorials and Podcasts
3/18/09

Choosing Passwords

By Janet Dodrill

Coming up with a formula for choosing passwords and remembering them can be a good idea. I once met someone who, when ask to register on a web site with a username and password, would use their initials, followed by the name of the site they were visiting. That way they could memorize all their passwords. The same system could apply when choosing a username.

I dislike when I am given an auto-generated password where letters and numbers are combined, and I cannot tell if an “0” is the number zero or the letter “O”. Or if an “l” is an uppercase “i” or a lowercase “L”.

In the wikiHow article “How to Choose a Secure Password“, it discusses ways to choose a strong password that you can remember, by doing things like mixing letters, numbers and symbols and by choosing long combinations of characters. Perhaps develop a sentence that you can remember and abbreviating it by first letters and word substitutes (i.e. “2” for “to”). It claims that it is important to have at least 6 characters in a password, and to change passwords every 60 to 90 days.

It is never a good idea to leave your password(s) on a Post-It® note stuck to the front of your computer monitor, for the whole world to see! Believe it or not, people do this.

In the past I have kept password info in a text file that has a not-so-obvious name (i.e. not naming the file ‘passwords’), so I could just copy and paste the login information for sites I would frequent, primarily at work, but not anymore. Now, I write all my passwords in a notebook, and do not keep them on my computer system. This may seem ‘old school’ to some, but it works for me. I am able to memorize the ones I use regularly.

Twitter Tidbits

By Janet Dodrill

I love Twitter! It lets you find out what your friends are doing, and allows you to let them know what you are doing in 140 characters. It is micro-blogging. One can follow others – up to 1000 per day. Others can follow you.

There are applications developed for Twitter, and Twitter Fans can post additional apps to a public wiki page. Other apps are available on Mashable [The Social Media Guide] site.

Twitter users ‘tweet’, like birds, to eachother, when they post to their profile page. Twitterers can send direct messages to eachother. They can also retweet other people’s posts if you find them of value or think other users will.

Wefollow.com is a user powered Twitter directory. You can find who’s on Twitter by popularity listed by category, such as celebrity, news, tv, radio, and more. You can add yourself (your Twitter username) to a category to be listed. Movie star Ashton Kutcher just topped the charts and some of the We Follow categories by reaching 1 million followers (and rising) in a competition against CNN.

Even social sites like Twitter can get infected with viruses and worms. The problem happens when you visit a site that is infected. There are ways fix the problem. For updates check the Twitter blog.

Oprah Winfrey recently joined Twitter. Evan Williams, CEO of  Twitter appeared on Oprah on 4/17/09, and Ashton Kutcher was interviewed for his new title of ‘Mr. Twitter’ via satellite. I follow all three on Twitter. Prior to the show Evan tweeted that he had forgotten to pack a clean pair of socks and would have to appear on the show wearing dirty socks, but nothing was mentioned during the show! Oprah must not have read her recent tweets! While the show was in progress, Oprah viewed a tweet to her from Ellen DeGeneres, where she asked, “Oprah Winfrey – what are you doing on here?! Shouldn’t you be working on our cover?!”

Ashton Kutcher and his wife, Demi Moore, tweet all the time, and post pictures and video of eachother and most recently of their trip to southern France, and of the set and other celebrities (including Tom Selleck), while Ashton filmed a movie.

In the Mashable article, The Fastest Growing Social Sites,  it states that Twitter is among ‘the big three’ (others being Facebook and MySpace) and has now grown by over 2,500 percent in the past year, and that number is expected to grow.

Feel free to follow me at www.twitter.com/janetdodrill.