Did you know 4.0: The new age of media is here

If anybody still discredits social media, they might want to watch this:

Via Justin Spratt

Time for a shift

Well, I did not win – but to be honest I did not expect to win my category in the SA Blog Awards, there were some very stiff competition, of which I can honestly say, some are very good.

The general theme on all these blogs were perhaps that most of the sites have a very personal theme to them – which is the idea behind a blog I guess. But seriously, some of the blogs are overly personal – in the sense that you feel you know the person without ever meeting them. They are good, dont get me wrong, but I feel the time I spent on this blog was perhaps wasted on a more objective viewpoint on tech related issues, something that academia does to you.

Maybe mpieters.com should start to shift to a more personal viewpoint of my life. I will still focus on tech related issues (after all, it is still my passion) but I will start looking at other things that I take note of. Still, if I ever meet you, the reader, in a pub somewhere, I want to have the feeling that you dont completely know me – and that is the part I am having trouble with. While I would not say I am introverted, but I am quite personal. I look forward to that beer.

Here goes nothing

(What is your opinion of some overly personal SA Bloggers?)

Mpieters.com is a finalist in the SA Blog Awards! Best new blog!

About a month ago, I put up a nomination badge on my blog for the SA Blog Awards for the hell of it – does not hurt right? Well yesterday the finalists for the awards were announced, and low and behold, there is my blog in the “Best New Blog” category!

Well I am thrilled, because blogging is simply a pleasure. It is a way to enable your passion for sharing information, get opinions and just feel you leave your small little mark somewhere. Using tools like directories, twitter etc very quickly becomes a passion which can take up quite a bit of time. Well, it seems all those methods I used payed off, and I am now a finalist in the SA Blog Awards 2009!

Please give your support by clicking the golden badge on the right or below. Thanks!

Blogging tools I use, Updated

Updated on 16 March

These days its pretty easy to get a blog started – you can open one on wordpress or blogspot and and keep a log of anything you feel someone would like to read. Or you can even consider twitter a method of (micro)blogging. However, it can become quite a hassle to open up the platform’s website and type out a post. Sometimes inspiration can come at any moment, and you need to be prepared. So here goes my list of best blogging tools.

PC/Mac:

Scribefire: This is a tool that acts as a plugin to firefox which quickly opens up a editing window, and all your past posts in a easy to use pane on the bottom of the screen. Seeing as it comminucates with your blog’s API – be it blogspot or wordpress, it gives a user quite a lot of flexibility to quickly and easily upgrade a blog’s effectiveness. For example, cross linking to a different post on your post is as easy as selecting it on the right on pasting the URL as hyperlink in you current post. Much more effective than using a web platform editor. The Windows client version is not as stable as on the Mac, but works nonetheless.

Also handy is the promotion and monetizing tools that can help any would be blogger enhance their site. Must have.

Tweetdeck: After using Twitteriffic and Twirhl, Tweetdeck is a breath of fresh air. The interface is well designed, and intuitive. Dont even look at other clients. Tweetdeck divides its window into feed, reply messages and direct messages (but you can obviously customize this). This makes it easy to filter out all the junk. A built in URL shortener functionality works well, giving you a variety of services to use. Disadvantages – its a Adobe AIR app, so you need to obviously download AIR.

Mobile:

None: I am currently using a iPhone and I am actually alarmed at the lack of a proper blogging client for the device. While there does exist a wordpress client that is free and is decently made, I cant seem to find a decent blogger/blogspot app. Users can still of course use the Mail to Blogger which seems to work well enough. Shozu (link witheld to save you trouble) is supposedly capable, and is certainly pretty, but is so buggy, it deserves no spot on the appstore. It is available for Symbian as well, but equally buggy.

Have any ideas? Have you used a good blogspot capable client for the iPhone?

Twitterific / Twitterfon: (both available form AppStore) Both of these clients work well, but twitterfon seems to be more fully featured. Twitteriffic lacks the basic ability of following a new person – how can it be possible. Maybe I am missing a feature somewhere. Twitteriffic does however have a better looking dark UI which is nicer on the iPhone screen.

Tweetie: Tweetie might actually be the first application on the app that is worth paying for. The interface is smooth, reacts quickly and easy to use. If you are a active twitter user, you need to take a look at tweetie. True, it is $3, but is worth it. It is just in a completely different league.

Well there you have the blogging tools I use (or lack!)… Any ideas?