Yesterday I came across a slightly mysterious website — a collection of Polaroids, one per day, from March 31, 1979 through October 25, 1997. There’s no author listed, no contact info, and no other indication as to where these came from. So, naturally, I started looking through the photos. I was stunned by what I found.

I read through this story about a man who took a photo every day until the day he died. This one is from April 23, 1979.

Who was this man? And who decides to take a photo everyday for 18 years?

As a senior at Bard College in 1979, Jamie Livingston acquired a Polaroid camera. After a few weeks, he noticed that he was taking about one picture a day, and shortly thereafter he decided to continue doing so.

The project, which quickly evolved into something of an obsession, began with a snapshot of Mindy Goldstein, Mr. Livingston’s girlfriend at the time, along with another friend, both of them smiling at something outside the frame. It ended 18 years and more than 6,000 photos later with a self-portrait of the photographer on his deathbed on his 41st birthday.

The narrative that unfolds between those two images tells the story not only of the friendships Mr. Livingston forged over the years but also the evolution of a city. It charts New York’s progression from an era of urban decay and fiscal crisis to a place characterized by the economic recovery that had arrived by the time of Mr. Livingston’s death, of melanoma, in 1997. This was especially true downtown, where he lived for much of the period covered in the photographs.

Before Mr. Livingston died, his friends Hugh Crawford and Betsy Reid promised they would not let the project die with him. To commemorate the 10th anniversary of their friend’s death, they digitally photographed the Polaroids and reproduced them for an exhibition at Bard, in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.

Mr. Crawford also loaded the images onto a Web site (photooftheday.hughcrawford.com) so they could be experienced in their entirety.

As the cityscape has changed, many of the pictures have accrued meaning. “They often don’t mean anything by themselves,” Mr. Crawford said. “But when you put them all together, they take on a life of their own.”

Ms. Reid, who met Mr. Livingston in 1985, cited other benefits of the collection. “When I look at a picture that I was involved in or know about,” she said, “you’re just sent right back in time and you just remember everything about that day.”

It is a truly touching story. It got me thinking about what stories like this mean for my generation. The digital age. I myself have quite the collection of Polaroids. I collect vintage Polaroid cameras, something I started back in high school. I even decided that I wanted to remember my 21st birthday only in Polaroids. However I also have a few good digital cameras. I was a photography major and photography is certainly my first love.

There have been many daily photo projects across the web. Photojojo has one called Project 365 and many people have started to take a photo a day and put it on the web. There are flickr groups and other sites just dedicated to this.

But what if you decide to do this, take a photo a day, or any amount of photos for that matter, and put them on the web. What happens if flickr gets taken down, or changed their terms of service, where do the photos go?

I attended a panel discussion this past March at SXSW about where our content goes when we die. It was not a very good panel, mainly because they were really just trying to pitch a service they were creating, but it got me thinking. What will this generation leave behind?

Many of us know that we should always back up our content. Photos, videos, etc. But these days many people are creating content that goes straight to the web. It didn’t originate on your computer. Sites let you take a picture with your webcam straight to the site. I record videos straight onto viddler sometimes. Now of course many of these services will let you download the source files, but who really takes the time to do all of that?

It will be very interesting to see the types of digital artifacts that this group of web savvy people leave behind.

If you haven’t had a chance to take a look, here are the listed features. I have marked in bold the features that are unique to Tweetdeck:

• Tweet directly from your iPhone or iPod Touch.
• Manage multiple Twitter accounts.
• View notifications for new tweets received.
• Use columns to create your personal dashboard.
• Simply sync to set-up
• Continuously updates between your desktop and iPhone.
• Create Groups to easily follow all your friends.
• Follow topics in real-time with saved searches.
• Reply to tweets and send direct messages.
• Easily re-tweet messages.
• Share photos with Twitpic and YFrog.
• Shorten links with your favourite URL shortener.
• Follow and un-follow people.
• Shake your iPhone to refresh columns.

So of course I did what everyone else did and downloaded the app (it was free) but within the first few seconds of using it I noticed a huge missing feature. Go to User! I wanted the ability to type in someones username and see their tweets, followers, and be able to DM them. Within Tweetie this was a snap. You simply click the ‘more’ tab, and click ‘go to user’, then just type in the persons twitter handle and you are good to go.

This feature is especially helpful when you want to DM or @reply someone who you had not recently had a conversation with. In tweetdeck the only way to get to a userscreen is to click on that person’s tweet. So they would have had to have recently tweeted in order for you to find them. Well what if they haven’t tweeted in days, then what are you supposed to do?

Here is an example of what a user’s profile page will look like in Tweetdeck and then Tweetie.

I understand the usefulness of having columns, of having it sync with your desktop app, and putting people into groups. But without the basic feature so search through users, I cannot use Tweetdeck. So until that changes, it’s Tweetie all the way.

She told me that she felt like she didn’t think she was really using it correctly. I told her that there really isn’t a “correct” way to use twitter, but I was curious as to what made her think that.

She had some really interesting insights about how she uses twitter and ways she would like to see it be improved. These were things that I had not really heard from a lot of users or really from the general tech community so I thought I would share them with you all.

The first thing that she felt was missing was a facebook type of “wall-to-wall” view, for your conversations back and forth with one person. I know that there are some apps that do this but Rosie mainly uses the main twitter web page when she is at a computer and twitterific on her iPhone. She would like these features to be built into the main twitter site.
However you can use search.twitter.com/advanced to search for conversations between specific people.

She also was really wishing that she could see her list of followers/following in alphabetical order. This was something I never felt the need for but I was really wondering if other people might find this helpful as well.

Rosie also became frustrated that she could not just DM anyone. She wants to be able to have a private conversation with anyone, no matter who is following who. She said that it was kind of strange that you might be able to have a one-way DM conversation if you were DM-ing one of your followers who then could not DM you back because you were not following them.

Her last insight was that she felt that the interface and general feel of twitter was a little childish. She couldn’t really explain why she felt that way, but I thought it was interesting none the less.

If you want to follow her she is @rosesness on twitter.

I would love to hear your thoughts on her thoughts.

Topsy listens to the conversations taking place all the time on the living, social web. This is the rapidly growing, exciting world of Twitter, Blogs, Flickr, Digg, Yelp, Identica and many other communities. People use these communities to share reviews, opinions, messages, comments and discussions about things. Topsy indexes those things. Topsy indexes what people are talking about. The first index is based exclusively on Twitter statuses and the wonderful people who write them.

This is what a typical search page on Topsy looks like. You see the website and underneath in the speech bubble are the number of times that link has been tweeted. On the right hand side you can see the twitter users who tweet about this topic the most, and on the left side you can narrow down your search down to the last hour!

Another really useful way to use Topsy is to find out more information about people on twitter. Topsy has a page for every person it listens to. Tracking all the links that person tweets.

I was surprised when I looked up my twitter name. Topsy had determined that I was “highly influential” and had already added tags to my tweets.

And if that wasn’t enough to blow your socks off, take a look at this. Topsy has “trackback” pages for everything in its index, showing what everyone is saying about that thing.

I am not sure if Topsy can see who tweets what links if they are bit.ly or tinyurl links, because if it can, then this is a much better way to track the reach of a tweet or a link on twitter, regardless of what url shortening service people are using.

So that’s Topsy. Let me know what you think about it.

Last week was Internet Week here in NYC, and in the few days since I have had a lot of time to reflect on this past year of me being a part of this amazing community. I have been spending the majority of my time lately looking for a full time job, and that has put a lot of my passion projects on hold.

I got into this “new media” space because I was passionate about online video and I stumbled upon Social Media by accident. I was perfectly happy going on facebook and reading apple rumor sites. I had almost no desire to be on twitter, to be a blogger or a podcast creator. Then I started watching video podcasts and I realized that I wanted to create content as well.

As much as it seams like I’m busy, I know that it is not an excuse for letting my passion for online video fall off. What’s it All About has hit a few bumps in the road, and I feel as if I am back to square one with the project. However, instead of being discouraged I have decided to modify what I was doing.

Very often people will ask me questions, either on twitter, or via email. For example, the other day someone asked my about #followfriday best practices. I get asked questions about social media all the time. So, I am just going to start answering them on video, here in my room. For right now I am thinking that I will just put these videos up here on Random Sarah because I am not really sure that they are part of the What’s it All About brand, and I’m not really sure what that brand is anymore.

You can ask me questions on twitter or shoot me and email

I would love your feedback since you have all been an amazing part of this journey.

p.s. I am still working on the user generated “I am a geek” video, but so far I only have 5 submissions so keep them coming!

So I know that there are more people who would love to proclaim on video that they are geeks.

I need to get a copy of the I AM A GEEK script (or someone can transcribe it and send me the text)

Then record your video and place the file (MPEG 4 please) in the drop at drop.io/iamageek (the password should be iamageek)

UPDATE:

I got a copy of the official script. It seems like we might want to add our own lines so here is what I am proposing. If you want to read the original script (or just parts of it) please do so, and if you want to come up with your own original lines to put in then that’s great. We will have to just work it all out in the editing.

I got the script from Lon Harris who co-wrote it with Shira Lazar. Also the official twitter account for I am a Geek tweeted this yesterday:

Which brought a ton of interest to what we are trying to do. They are excited to see the finished product.

So here is the script:

Hey.

I’m not a nerd or a spaz…

and I don’t hang out all day in my parent’s basement…

and drink Mountain Dew and energy drinks…

and I don’t play Dungeons and Dragons or Magic the Gathering,

although I’m sure they’re really really fun.

Don’t judge me based on my lifecast

I have a Tumblr blog,

not a MySpace account.

I speak Python and CSS, not Klingon,

Java Script is not a play about coffee

I can proudly help you leverage your personal brand.

I believe in communicating, not Super-Poking…

I have followers not friends

And by the way tweet is a verb, twitter is a noun

Just owning a Nintendo Wii does not make you a “gamer”

Just because I’m constantly connected to my iphone doesn’t mean I’m not listening.

And yes, there is an app for that.

You write a blog post, not “a blog”

And it is pronounced “meem,” not “mimi”

This is already way over 140 characters

The Internet will not steal your identity

The World Wide Web connects 1 trillion web pages, 2 billion Flickr photos, 150 million blogs, 36 million Facebook profiles and 5 million Twitter accounts

And I just got all that data on Wikipedia, but you don’t have to take my word for it.

My name is _______ and I am a geek!

If you have any questions please leave them in the comments or email me

Just thought I would share this video with you all. It was put together by a group of people calling themselves THE SOCIETY FOR GEEK ADVANCEMENT

THE SOCIETY FOR GEEK ADVANCEMENT was founded upon the principles that we should all embrace our inner and outer geek and have fun while doing it. As individuals who love learning, innovating and believe in possibility as well as change, the second step of responsibility is to “be the geek that keeps on giving”. As a member of SGA, we work together as a global community to provide the tools and help others realize their true potential too!

“I AM A GEEK!” is a collaborative video project bringing together some of the biggest creators, personalities and web celebs taking on the online world.

“I AM A GEEK”, like all geeky side projects, started out as a tongue and cheek video we spent way too much time on and were going to simply throw out to the wild wild interwebs. But as more people came on board, the question of using “social media for social good” seemed to become more relevant. With Twitter and other social networking sites like Facebook blowing up by the second, it’s not only possible to get noticed and create “social capital”, but to use that for a greater good. Individuals now have the opportunity to be heard and bring awareness and attention to causes like they never had before.

After watching, “I AM A GEEK!”, we hope you are entertained, laugh a little or a lot.

We also encourage everyone to “be the geek that keeps on giving”. We’ve connected with a Room to Read, a great charity started by former Microsoft exec, John Wood, which builds libraries and schools for children in developing countries. You can give in many ways- by RT, blogging and passing on this Geek Advancement message to others, buying an “I AM A GEEK” t-shirt with proceeds going to Room to Read and/or by donating what you can now.

And if you would like to be a part of a user generated edition of this video there are instructions here

A “tweetup” is a local meeting of Twitter users, usually announced ahead of time. Tweetups can take place any time or any place, and usually everyone in the area is invited. It helps give social networking a more palpable environment and allows local Twitter users to meet each other in person.

So why would you do this? Why would you want to publicly announce on twitter that you were going to be somewhere and that you wanted complete strangers to come meet you there?

A tweetup usually starts as a desire for twitter users to meet IRL (in real life). Sometimes it’s a group of friends, sometimes it’s just a random group of people.

The tweetup I attended the other night started out simply because my friend Tim (@tspatz) wanted to see his friend @newscred, who was in NYC from out of town, and Tim wanted some of his friends to meet him.

So Tim DM’d some of his friends on twitter with the time and place. This quickly turned into a tweetup when the conversation went public on twitter.

Everyone that had been invited was tweeting about the tweetup and the result was really interesting.

Just like anything else on twitter, tweetups spread in an interesting way. I like to call it the re-tweet effect. (it’s kind of like a game of telephone)

If I tweet something it has the potential to reach the 1,800 people that are following me. However, my friend can re-tweet it and then all of his followers will see it as well.

So at this tweetup we had a few different groups of people that had formed organically based on how the tweets about the tweetup went out.

The tweet I sent out looked like this:

sarahcooley: RT @WaltRibeiro: TONIGHT Lunasa NY 1st ave b/t 7th and 8th St. @ 7pm! Let’s do it! #tweetup #nyc I’m on my way there now!

But some re-tweets looked like this:

jerrylore: RT @newscred: Entrepreneur/hacker #tweetup tonight atLunasa in the East Village #nyc , 6pm. Free beers on NewsCred if you come early!

Some of you may know that I am helping to organize barcampnyc this year. So I thought I would post the flyer here with all the info on when, where, and how to sign up!

Please post this around the web, re-blog it, tweet it, whatever!

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