Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

I’m sitting in Le Pain Quotidien cafe wondering what I can work on until my cinema date at 8pm arrives and a wonderful tweet comes in from my good friend Jackie Danicki, inspiring this wee blog post. It’s obviously in response to someone complaining about how some people protect their twitter updates. Below is what Jackie said (because they’re protected, I asked if it was ok to quote her).

Astonished at how entitled some people feel to see others’ Twitter updates. I use Twitter for my uses; you use it for yours.

Protected updates mean I can converse with a small, intimate, trustworthy group. Would you crash a private conversation in a pub or home?

Just very puzzled as to why some people are so concerned with how others use Twitter. It’s none of your business. Move on.

This reminds me when I tweeted back in the early days that twitter was turning into a conversational tool. To which some replied ‘I think that’s stupid’. Why? Probably because they used it as one-way communication messages at the time (i.e different to how I used it).

I can understand why Jackie protects her updates, she’s a private person and only wants to communicate with people she knows and trusts. What’s wrong with that?

Not everyone will know this, but in December 2006, I broke news of Sam Sethi being fired from TechCrunch - I was on a skype call with Sam as the emails came in from Arrington. You could say that I’ve been closer to this entire debacle than anyone else over the past few years.

The pair have been battling it out publically since 2006. Actually, that’s not entirely true as Sam doesn’t blog. Mike has been taking shots at Sam with numerous character assassinations - he even published Sam’s legal proceedings against him on TechCrunch.

After all this time, Sam has finally brought his argument to a close by proving his side of the story via his lawyers. I’ve been sitting on this news as my buddy Dennis from ZDNet was given the exclusive. Arrington’s response was to do nothing, assuming he wasn’t affected by non-US legislation. Naive at best. Even Arrington’s latest post title says it all “Update On Sam Sethi Litigation: We Decline To Participate” - “participate” is an interesting word to use when talking about a legal proceeding against you. Arrington will be unable to visit the UK without the fear of being arrested - that’s a shame as I actually like him and looked forward to seeing him at FOWA later in the year.

I’d like to add a few points that you won’t read elsewhere on the Web however;

1. Contrary to what Rob Scoble told everyone at the time, he did meet with the Blognation legal team to discuss joining the blog network.
2. Blognation did secure a deal for funding (which would have paid all its estranged bloggers). The publication of Sam’s term sheet on TechCrunch was directly responsible for the Chair of said VC instructing his team to pull out of the deal. So, if it wasn’t for the TechCrunch post, all of Blognation’s staff would have been paid and the network might still be in existence today - competing with TechCrunch. Personally I thought Blognation was a fantastic brand with brilliant potential. I’d love to see it return and give TechCrunch Europe a run for its money. I’d subscribe!

There’s more to come, but again, I’m not allowed to share it with you at this time.

I sent a tweet this morning to say I was going to do a ‘#followfriday’ for the very first time. A number of people asked me what that meant, so I’ve decided to write a short post to explain.

#followfriday is a way of recommending people you follow, to other users on Twitter. The idea is that those being recommended will gain new followers.

I feel so strongly about my recommendations that I’ve decided to write why I’m recommending them as potential people for you to follow.

People I recommend and why

@Sheetalmmehta (London)

Helping companies to go global, Innovation, Social entrepreneurship, Technology, Investment…

Sheetal is one of the most inspiring people I have ever met. Sheetal is the UK Dealmaker for the UK Trade & Investment. She sits on several advisory panels including Shelter, UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women), Digital Diaspora Network for Africa, and the LSE Alumni Mentoring Committee. Her volunteer work is extensive and she is currently writing a book on Social Venture Capital. One of her most notable accomplishments is her new foundation that enables developing communities to access cutting-edge technology based on a social enterprise model.

@Mikeyfletch (London)

Technology journalist, Events, Networking

Mike is an established business & lifestyle journalist. He’s launched three magazines on behalf of UK publishing house Haymarket Media Group & specialises in marketing, media & live events. He is Contributing Editor for Visit London and also owns a part-share in digital networking company Net.works. Mike is also one of the best connected, if not the best connected person in the entire UK events industry.

@PatPhelan (Cork)

Technology with a bias towards mobile, Connector, Innovation

Pat is the founder and President of Cubic Telecom, a well known disruptor in telephony circles and one of the leading voices of Voice 2.0. Pat has developed a number of unique products for the USA, UK and Irish markets including MAXroam, and is a board member of Global Roaming, a NASDAQ listed company (OTCBB:GRDB). Pat has a genuine passion for connecting people and has been responsible for connecting me with some truely amazing people.

@JackieDanicki (San Francisco)

Marketing (true expert in the use of new tools, techniques and trends such as social and Web 2.0), Connector, Writer

Jackie is an extremely direct person who always speaks her mind. She’s an incredibly insightful marketer which is difficult to come by. Almost every marketer and PR expert think they know how to make best use of Web 2.0 tools and techniques. Jackie does - which is why she’s the Director of Marketing at Qik; one of the most innovative mobile products companies in the world. Like Pat, Jackie has a genuine passion for connecting people and has been responsible for connecting me with some truely amazing people.

@Jobsworth (London)

Technology, Social Enterprise, Innovation, Writer, OpenSource,

JP has  spent most of his life working in the space where finance meets technology, for a number of very large firms. Since 2006 he has worked for BT, as part of BT Design, where he is Head of Innovation and Strategy. He has a passion for how work is changing: the paradigms created by globalisation, disintermediation and the web; the implications of virtualisation, service orientation and commoditisation.  JP is an inspiring speaker and writer, who I admire most for his passion for how technology can be put to good use for the benefit of society.

If you decide to follow any of these great people, or you do already, please feel free to retweet my message - they all deserve to be heard by as many people as possible.

You can also leave a comment with the people you recommend on Twitter.

I announced the registration page for OpenSoho June this morning and as a result of all the retweets from Computer Weekly, The Telegraph and others, my announcement had a potential reach of approximately 15,000 people. This can only help to demonstrate the power of twitter for marketing events, products and services. With this in mind, I decided to tweet this fun statistic in the hope someone would also retweet that, and they did, Milo from the Telegraph retweeted it. Oh the joy of it all.

In April 2008 I wrote some twitter tips to help new users better understand how to use the social network - my post includes how to make your messages more prone to being retweeted by others as I did above. Why not check them out.

When Google first announced that it had acquired Jaiku, my first question was, ‘why?’. Why buy the second best in the market?! I’m a firm believer in going after the best and only the best. Some would argue that Jaiku is more feature-rich and easier to use than Twitter. However, I was never attracted to it because none of my followers/friends were on there. ‘Better’ doesn’t necessarily equal ‘better features’. In Twitter’s case, it’s main benefit was ‘people’ (i.e. users).

When Google launched Latitude I thanked my contacts at the company for educating the marketing as clearly, their product doesn’t actual solve a problem. I’ll write more about that later. By launching latitude without any Jaiku integration, it proves they were unable to make use of the software. Perhaps they knew they were flogging a dead horse. Anyway, it’s a little late to go after Twitter - they should have put in an offer when (all) of my friends were mocking me for using the service - when it was still very early and mainly used as a one-way broadcast medium.

Unsurprisingly, Twitter turned down Googles offer and according to TechCrunch, it looks like Apple is now making a move.

So, who’s going to buy Twitter? Apple, Google, Microsoft or one of the main operators (carriers)?

I’m hoping Twitter remains independent but there’s only so long they can hold back from a gazillon dollars.

Follow me on Twitter.