I, geekrevThe closest you want to get to looking inside the mind of Shawn Coons.

This entry is in two parts.  First -what Twitter is and how it works.  Then why you might enjoy and be enriched by Twitter.

What is Twitter?

At its simplest Twitter is a website at www.twitter.com.  You can do two things with this website.

1) Create an account and periodically answer the question “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less.

2) See how other people have periodically answered the question “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less.

But before you can really start using Twitter you need to sign up for an account.  Do this from the main page by clicking the link that says, “Get Started - Join!”  After entering a screenname, password and email you will be asked if you want Twitter to search your email address book to find people you know who are already on Twitter.  This only works with certain webmail services and not all email addresses.  This is a safe and easy option for connecting with others through Twitter.  You can skip this option by clicking on the “skip” link.

Now you are ready to write your first Twitter entry (this is sometimes called “Tweeting”).  Just type whatever you are doing in the blank box and hit update.  Congratulations on your first Twitter!  The other thing you’ll want to do is find some people to “follow”.  Following someone simply means that their Twitters will automatically show up on your Twitter home page.  You can search for people by name using the search box at the top of the page.

For example, if you want to follow me type my name, Shawn Coons, in the search box and click the search button.  You should arrive at the profile for my Twitter account.  In the upper right hand corner there is a smaller box that says “Follow,” if you click it then you are now following my updates.  If you click on my account name “shawncoons” you will go to my Twitter page and see all my recent updates.  You can also see all the people I follow on the right hand side.  If you put your mouse cursor over one of the little pictures of the people I follow (don’t click yet) then a little box will pop up and tell you who they are.  It is possible they may be people you want to follow as well.  If that’s the case then you can click on them to go to their page and follow them.

So why should anyone care what you or others Twitter?

Here is why I follow the people that I do.

1) Because I know them and I am interested in what they do.  I’m interested in their tweets.  Following someone is just like seeing them face to face and asking, “So? What’d you do today?”

2) Other people I may not know personally, but they have interesting, funny or informative tweets.  I get links to great videos, new IPhone apps, breaking news, and pictures from other planets.  Some of these folks are: Darth Vader, CNN Breaking News, or the Mars Rovers.

3) It’s also a great way to interact with people quickly and briefly.  You can reply to anyone simply be including @ followed by their user name.  For example, I could tweet “Tell me your favorite color,”  and you could tweet “@shawncoons blue.”  Others also use it for recommendations or questions.  “What movie should I see tonight?”  “What is a good IPhone app for keeping track of receipts?”  “Anyone want to go to dinner tonight at General Assembly?”

If you still don’t get it then take a look at the video below, and if Twitter still doesn’t interest you then it may not be for you.  But if you are interested, then head on over and create an account.  Follow me and find some others to follow.  Breathe in Twitterspace for a little while and see if you start enjoying learning more about the people around you.

Somehow I think that Jesus would approve of this. This must be how lepers, prostitutes, and other outcasts felt around him.

My father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the end of last summer.  This form of cancer has a high mortality rate, and unfortunately my dad was no exception.  He passed away yesterday.

Of course, I have lots I could write about: his life, our relationship, the funeral planning, etc.  But what I’m intrigued about right now is Twitter and Facebook.  I tweeted a couple quick messages about traveling to see my Dad as he was dying, and then planning for the funeral.  My Twitter messages automatically update my Facebook status, and so pretty quickly all of my FB friends as well as people following me on Twitter knew about my father’s death.

I received emails, tweets, FB messages and FB wall messages offering prayers, thoughts, help, peace and love.  And it meant means a lot.  Maybe there are people who think that words offered through a screen are not as “good” or “real” as words on paper, over the phone, or in person.  But those people probably don’t know the feeling that comes from sharing your life with a community of friends across the country world, and receiving peace and love back within minutes from all sorts of people throughout your life.

I could list reason by reason why these relationships are as “real” as any others.  But I don’t need to, because  I know they are.  And millions of other people know they are.  It’s a reality that is here, and if you don’t get it, well, it’s not going away.

I typo.  A lot.  And the kind of mistakes I make when typo are ones the make me look really stupid.  I often use “are” instead of “our,” or the other way around.  I throw apostrophe’s where they shouldn’t be (yes, I did that on purpose).  Sometimes I substitute entire words for a completely different word.  So when I mean to say “Did you see that movie about the womanfrom Paris?” I will instead type, “Did you see that money about the wombat from Paris?”

Here’s the thing (case in point - I just typed “Here’s they thing”), if I read over what I just typed I immediately realize the exact mistake I made.  It isn’t that I don’t know when to use “our” vs. “are” or even “affect” vs. “effect.”  I know that apostrophes have no business being in plural nouns.  These truly are typos, not intentional uses of the wrong word or punctuation*.  I think what I realize is that I type phonetically.  I type what I hear in my head and sometimes my fingers mishear my thoughts.

The problem is that it makes me look stupid, and people can be pretty merciless when it comes to grammar. Recently,  I was caught in a fairly ugly typo on a website that I run.  Someone asked me in a somewhat condescending tone “Who put that up there?”  When I told them that it was me they looked at me in disbelief that I would do such a thing.  I guess I should take that as a compliment that they think such a mistake was beneath me.

hey, @ least i dont typ lik ths.

*I will confess to having a tendency to abuse commas.

Calling all Prebyterian bloggers, Tweeters, and other Web 2.0 junkies or wannabes!  It’s time to do General Assembly - Web 2.0 style.  Here are a couple of ways I envision:

1) Let’s have a Presbyterian bloggers event.  I don’t know when, I don’t know where, but I would be pumped to meet other bloggers face to face.  Does anyone local know a good place that we could hang out or does anyone have access to space that we could inhabit for a moment?

2) Twitter.  I’ll propose that we use the tag #GA218 for GA tweets.  That way we can follow what’s going on with Tweetscan.

3) Live blogging.  I’m new to this and the only service I’ve used is shiftedit.  I’ve started a liveblog here.  It’s possible (probable) we will want multiple liveblogs for various meetings.  It’s also possible (probable) that one of you knows a better way to do this.  If so, speak up!

Ok, bloggers!  It’s time to start the Midnight Bark!  This will only work if word gets around.  If you think this is a worthy endeavor then share the linklove and drop a post on your blog spreading the word.  I’m happy to start compiling a list of all the bloggers that are going to be at GA, so that we can get connected and follow each other’s experiences.

I just finished giving a talk on “Communicating Faith in a Web 2.0 World”at the Presbyterian Communicators Conference. One of the participants has set up a live blog for the conference.  And as I just wrote on their, “I’ve never been live blogged.  It tingles.”

Luckily, no Twitter mobs.

Bruce’s blog tipped me off to culturegraph.com, which is a fun mashup of pop culture, nostalgia, and the wonderful world of pie charts, graphs, and calendar. I’ve made two graphs for and have plans for more.

I came to a realization this morning.  I don’t really buy software for my computer anymore.  I have several CD portfolios that hold software and video games that I’ve bought over the year, but I haven’t added a new CD to those portfolios in quite a number of months.  Best Buy is still a frequent hangout of mine, but I can’t remember the last time I bought an actual software package from there.

There are probably several reasons for this.

1) I’m content with the productivity software I have.  My copy of Microsoft Office is from 5 or 6 years ago, but it works just fine.    I’m guessing the newer versions have stuff that I might find helpful, but MS Office does everything I want it to, so I haven’t felt the need to buy the newer version.

2) Online Applications.  I used to use MS Outlook constantly.  It was how I checked my email and where I had my calendar.  But I got tired of having it only at work, or trying to keep it synced between home and work, so I switched to Gmail and Google Calendar.  Switching to Gmail was the best thing I ever did for a number of reasons.  Gmail is now my official file cabinet.  If I went to have something accessible I just email it to myself and archive it.  Now, I’ve got thousands of emails that are simply a Google search away.

I haven’t fully switched to online word processors or spreadsheets, but I do use them if I want to share data or need something that will be accessible to me from different places.  Mint is another website that is quickly replacing Quicken for me.
3) Open Source Software.  I use Firefox, OpenOffice, GIMP, Filezilla and a host of other open source (free) programs.  So many of the programs I would have bought before, now I can get an alternative that is free and just as good, if not better.

Switching to online applications or open source software isn’t just about saving money.  The spam control in Gmail is incredible.  I have 5-10 different email addresses that I route into my Gmail account, a couple of them very public and widespread.  I should be getting dozens of spam emails a day, but instead I get one a week.  Maybe.  Firefox is a web browser that is superior to Internet Explorer in so many ways, but especially in terms of security (viruses, trojan horses, keyloggers, etc.).

So what does all this have to do with the church?  Well, a number of people are no longer going to the big professional software establishments, and instead they are exploring small collaborative efforts, creative new ways of doing software, and sometimes creating their own without the benefit of the traditional ways of doing software.  Sound familiar?

We are moving into a time where church is not just going to come from one source in the traditional ways.  We can’t expect that people will automatically flock to the big church on the corner where helpful ministers are waiting to assist you with your life.  People are creating their own faith communities and house churches, other groups are forming larger churches that are very different from the old models.  Other people are forming networks of Christians that don’t appear to be church as we know it at all, but function as church in their lives.

I’ve noticed over the last couple years that software sections in stores seem to be shrinking.  It looks like the stores are noticing the trends and adjusting accordingly.

I wonder if the church will do the same.

I’m a geek, and I proudly identify with these geek definitions from Wikipedia:

A person who has chosen concentration rather than conformity; one who pursues skill (especially technical skill) and imagination, not mainstream social acceptance. Geeks usually have a strong case of neophilia (a love of novelty and new things). Most geeks are adept with computers and treat “hacker” as a term of respect, but not all are hackers themselves.

A person with a devotion to something in a way that places him or her outside the mainstream. This could be due to the intensity, depth, or subject of their interest.

My geekiness manifests itself in a number of ways. My fiction reading is 99% exclusive to fantasy and science-ficiton. If it doesn’t have dragons, wizards, robots, time travel, spaceships, lasers, or elves than chances are I haven’t read it. I’ve been playing video games since Pong. For the last two years I’ve been playing World of Warcraft (with forays into City of Heroes and Lord of the Rings Online). I blog, podcast, Facebook and was big into MUDs back in the day.

So I’m a geek, but guess what? My wife is too! We bought a new duvet cover this weekend, and when we tried it on our comforter it was just wide enough but a little too long. It fit well enough though, so we decided to keep it. After we washed and dried it we found out that the cover had shrunk so that it now fit lengthwise, but didn’t seem to be any smaller widthwise. It had magically shrunk only in the dimension that we needed it to.

Carrie: “It’s the Duvet of Requirement!”

Me: “No, it’s the One Duvet that changes in size to suit whoever wears it. Watch out for DuvetWraiths!”

It was a moment of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings geekiness that brightened my Monday morning. But not as much as this moment that took place as Carrie was trying to get our almost three year old son, Ben, ready for school.

Carrie: Ben, please listen to me. It’s time to stop playing with trains and come brush your teeth.

Ben: No!

Carrie: Ben, I need you to listen to me.

Ben: Don’t say something to me!

Carrie: Something.

Shawn: You didn’t just do that did you? How old are you?

DAIO is about to have it’s first spin-off! Bruce Reyes-Chow and I are planing on doing a regular podcast about internet/technology resources for the church crowd. Each episode will be a short chat between Bruce and I on one specific website, program or gadget.

Here’s the catch. We need a name for our podcast. Do you have a clever and appropriately geek chic name for us?