Live election night coverage online (Canadian Election)

Another Canadian election has come and gone. Programmed mainstream media coverage was again, less than inspiring. I found that to truly enjoy this national exercise, you have to watch it in the company of friends, as you would a Saturday afternoon hockey game.

I spent election night online. Using a variety of free sources, I was able to watch the results as they came in. Using Twitter, it was possible to know results in eastern Canada before the blackout lifted here in Alberta.

Here are some of the tools I used to monitor the 40th Canadian Election:

• Twitter — dedicated default communication channel. CB Radio. Fun. By using Hashtags, you can focus your discussion to others who monitor the same Hashtag (Channel). The best election Hashtag was #CanadaVotes. Oh, and yes, please do follow me on Twitter 🙂
• TweetDeck — Twitter application that allows you to group, sort, filter, slice and dice your incoming Twitter flow. In the screenshot of my election night desktop, it took up my left-hand 22″ monitor.
• Google Chrome — having multiple browser windows open at once would prove challenging to Firefox. I have 20+ plugins so I run a Fat Firefox. Chrome is lightweight and each instance runs independently; if one window crashes, the others stay running. I had four instances of Google Chrome running in my second monitor (17″) on the right.

Ok, that’s the tools, now what was I doing with them?
I’ve already mentioned that TweetDeck was my main communications medium for the evening. The back-and-forth discussion amongst people monitoring the #CanadaVotes channel was insiteful and entertaining. It was great engaging with other Canadians in a national discussion.

On my other monitor, I had Google Chrome running (in clockwise order):

• CBC Website – live results map of my ridings of interest
• CBC Website – live national results map
• CBC Website – live streaming TV coverage (sorry, it doesn’t show)
• Globe & Mail website – Live national results chart broken down by party

At one point, I did have another two windows onscreen containing Global and CTV coverage, but frankly, there wasn not enough new or insiteful commentary, so I reduced the redundancy and dumped them.

Overall, watching the various media sources and participating in the Twitter traffic was the best way to engage in, what many believe to be, a somewhat mundane national exercise.

Your turn, what did you use to monitor the results? Traditional media? New media? Comments are open!

Technorati Tags: Canada, Election, 2008, Canadian, PC, Liberal, Twitter, Social Media, Monitoring, Results, Election Results

3 Top Tools To Tame Twitter

 

photo credit: Thomas Hawk

As Twitter moves into its more mature phase, a number of Twitter utilities have emerged, some good, some not so good. I’m an early adopter and a daily Twitter user and have experimented with many Twitter tools over time. Please feel free to follow me but without further blather, here’s my top 3, must have, twitter tools:

• TwitThis.com — Though showing its age, TwitThis is a very cool tool. In a nutshell, simply browse to a web page that you want to share. Click the TwitThis bookmarklet (that you’ve previously installed). If you’re not logged in to Twitter, you’ll be prompted to do so.  A window pops up, and you can edit your Tweet and then send it to your Twitter stream. I like it because for quick Tweets, I don’t have to jump to another application, load a Twitter tab in my browser, etc.
• Twitter Twerp Scan — If you care about managing your Twitter Followers, then you need to run the Twitter Twerp Scan from time to time. Basically, Twerp Scan checks your Twitter account for people with extremely high following to follower ratios. These are most likely ‘bots or marketing drones — who could be potentially bringing down the value of your ‘Twitter Juice’ (is there such a thing? I’m thinking of Google Juice here, that mythical elixer that adds Page Rank to your website based on the power of incoming links). You can customize your Twerp ratio but if you have a high number of Twerps, the block/removal process is a bit tedious. Id’ love to see a ‘batch un-follow’.
• TweetLater.com — Ok, you’ve used Twitter for a while, are used to updating your followers, and have a good social network online that notices when you’re not there. Or you’re the Communications specialist for an organization that uses Twitter to keep your audience informed. Regardless, you also have a need to publish Tweets on a regular basis, then TweetLater is for you.  Simply, it’s a hand site that allows you to queue-up Tweets, to be published at a specific time.  One very cool and not-so-obvious feature: you can also set TweetLater up to autofollow people who follow you. Reducing your Twitter maintenance chores, though I’d remember to run TwerpScan from time to time 🙂 Just to nuke the Twerps.

More cool sites from the Blogging Pack

photo credit: Brett L.

It’s been a busy week, but I’ve always made time to visit some sites (and Digg/Stumble posts) within the Blogging Pack, which I describe in previous post. Only two sites profiled today…but they’re chock full of bloggy-goodness. Enjoy.

• Remarkablogger – Remarkable Blog Consulting and Coaching. An interesting follow on Twitter, and even better to read via RSS. Well worth your time if you’re interested in taking blogging to the next level.
• Men with Pens -Web Business Tips for Writers, Freelancers, and Online Entrepreneurs. Another good read if you’re wanting to refine and develop your writing skills. I’m not a fan of the 3 column layout (the content column is just too small), but reading through your favourite RSS reader will fix that 🙂 And they’re Canadian too, ‘eh!

How to find new things to read online…use the Human Filter!

photo credit: photopia / HiMY SYeD

I’m an information junkie. I also share a lot of what I find with coworkers, friends, etc. So when people ask me where I dig this stuff up I often respond “just found while surfing” or “in my RSS feed”. I usually only pass on what I think is good. I call this Human Filtering.

Back in May, Chris Garrett launched this thread on Authority Blogger Forum. The concept was to develop a Blogging Pack with the goal to increase the quality readership of the blogs involved:

First read Michaels post
http://michaelmartine.com/2008/05/14…subscriptions/

Second, add your feed URL and Twitter account to this thread

Third we all subscribe to each blog and follow each Twittererer (I will do an OPML file when we have enough people join in to make it easy to subscribe to each)

Fourth we should each at random stumble, favorite and/or comment on a recent post from as many articles THAT WE ACTUALLY LIKE in the pack as we can manage

Sound good?

We have around 1000 users of this forum, should give any blog a good boost if we all join in

So I joined, received a pretty good spike in RSS feed subscriptions, and was exposed to a vast array of new blogs to read.

And now we’re getting to the meat of this post, I’m going to profile a few of those blogs – just the ones that appeal to me. I’ll do this from time to time.

• Codswallop — one of Chris Garrett’s blogs. A good example of how to run a technology blog…with a side niche on productivity. I’m not sure what’s up with its URL though: http://www.cogniview.com/convert-pdf-to-excel/
• Freelance Switch — a big and bright blog dedicated to moving folks into Freelancing. Full of all sorts of advice and information.
• How Not To Write — yes, it’s a blog about writing…sort of. Or about the times between writing when you should be writing, are thinking of writing, but not. Or redefining ‘writing’ from writing…and I’m not sure which is which or even if I’m doing either, but the blog is a good read.

Over the next few weeks I’ll profile others that catch my attention.  Stay tuned…

Use Web 2.0 tools to save time and be more productive

photo credit: ASurroca

For a while I’ve been using a few Web 2.0 applications that, on their own, are great, but when when partnered with other Web 2.0 apps, become superstar efficiency optimizers.

The applications
Consider Jott, IWantSandy, and Twitter.

Jott is a voice to text application. You call a free number, say your message, and moments later it’s emailed to you (or a group), turned into a reminder, added to a list, or sent to Web 2.0 applications (called Jott links).

IWantSandy is a ‘virtual assistant’. She’s able to manage your schedule, build and manage lists, manage email groups, and share your lists with others.

Twitter is a simple ‘status update’ application that allows you to post your status (your answer to the question “What are you doing?”).

Connections are key
Standalone, they’re all good, solid, Web 2.0 applications. But where they really begin to shine is when you let them talk to each other, and other online applications. Here’s a simple example:

• Use Twitter to have Sandy remind you to backup your blog on the 13th of each month
• In the Twitter window type d s r Backup the blog on June 13, 2008 @monthly
• which means Direct message to Sandy (s is Sandy’s Twitter name), Reminder (r) Backup…(the text Sandy is to remember) on June 13, 2008 (the start date of the reminder) @monthly (a special Sandy tag to make the event repeat.

Depending how you’ve got Sandy set up, you’ll be reminded through Twitter, email or SMS message to your mobile device (or all three).

AFK? Use Jott When I’m out and about, I use Jott to work with Sandy to get things done. Here’s the same example using Jott:

• (Dial into local Jott number, Jott answers) Who do you want to Jott?
• (Me) Sandy.
• (Jott) Sandy.(repeats to confirm) Is this correct?
• (Me) Yes.
• (Jott) Got it. BEEP-TONE-TO-RECORD
• (Me) Reminder. Backup the Blog on June 13th 2008. Tag Monthly.

Extending further
Twitter, Jott and IWantSandy all embrace openness, to varying degrees. Depending how you configure each, they can update your online calendar (Google Calendar, 30Boxes, etc), your local desktop application through CSV or iCal files, really the sky is the limit.

So, what have I missed? How are you using these (or other applications) to make your life easier?