Now exactly 2 years and 4,757 updates later I have decided it’s time for my experiment to come to an end.

Like I said the only reason I decided to start using Twitter was to network. I made a goal that year to ramp up my networking efforts since I’m not much of an outgoing person. I was freelancing full time at that point and I wanted to see if I could use Twitter professionally. After two years I can say that although I have gleaned some professional value from Twitter it hasn’t been a good ROI in terms of how much time I’ve had to put into it.

Having said that I have met some really awesome people on/through Twitter and it functioned great as a public chatroom/office watercooler (as my friend Ben Lew, @n0s0ap pointed out). But, I feel it’s taking up too much of my time at this point and I feel there are better, more lasting ways to interact with friends as well as network.

I hope that my departure from Twitter doesn’t mean a departure from the friends I’ve made on Twitter. I hope to continue to stay in touch as best I can and I hope to do it in a more lasting and meaningful way. If you would like to connect outside of Twitter please feel free to contact me, or direct message me via Twitter and I’ll reply with contact information.

I’m going to be trying to keep up with my blog more often as well, so feel free to grab the feed.

A big thanks to all my friends on Twitter for their friendship.

While I think there is a place for activism and for helping raise awareness of important issues. I feel we often fall into being too gimmicky with our activism and see self denial as the end, not as a means to an end.

C.S. Lewis starts his essay The Weight of Glory by asking what the ‘highest of virtues’ is and he writes that most would probably answer unselfishness, but that we should really be focused on love instead of unselfishness.

The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself.

While I know he wasn’t talking about activism directly I think the principle still applies. I’ve noticed a tendency for activism to slide into unselfishness and self-denial without actually doing any good. In activism we need to make sure that we don’t see self-denial as the end, but rather the means to an end.

I took issue with the fact that in the statement made by Richard Branson I didn’t see a call to action other than to join him in fasting which in and of itself doesn’t do any good for anyone in Darfur. The organization spearheading this movement FastDarfur.org does have calls to action which have the potential of helping others, but it doesn’t appear to be the primary focus. They seem to be more intent on getting people start fasting rather than taking more direct action.

In discussing this with Amber she pointed out that perhaps this was just the first step to other action. That experiencing the hunger that people in Darfur are experiencing would be the catalyst for people to finally take additional action. If that’s the case then I think it’s a good place to start, but I don’t think it stops there and when there isn’t any mention of further actions until you dig into the website I fear the core message might get lost.

Here is my first draft, I’m sure this will evolve over time as things change, but hopefully the core purpose will remain intact. I’m sharing this publicly for additional accountability. If you catch me not adhering to this, please feel free to call me out.

Increasing My Attention Span

Recently I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in my interactions online. If I came across a bit of content that seemed interesting I would immediately scroll down to see how long it was, if it seemed too long, I often wouldn’t read it. It scares me that I don’t have the attention span to read through good content just because of it’s length. I seem to have grown accustomed to receiving my content in bite size portions or through video, that I no longer have the patience for lengthy content. I resolve to read content based on the value regardless of its length. I also resolve to stop watching frivolous videos (some exceptions being keynotes, lectures or sermons).

Digesting Content, Not Just Consuming

I spend too much time reading really interesting content online. Most of which is worthwhile. But just as I don’t eat just to eat, but rather to stay alive and nourish my body through the digesting of that food. I believe I should be digesting that content not just consuming it. I resolve to respond to each piece of content I consume. To digest it and make it meaningful to me. This means responding to it as if I were to post a comment or write my own blog post on the subject. I will not be posting all my responses, but at least I’ve spent the time to understand and digest the content.

Creating Lasting Content

Although a Tweet can be valuable, it can’t last. Just by the nature of Twitter things you post are very transient. I believe that is only adding to the noise, by not creating lasting value. I am going to shift my focus to more lasting mediums, such as blog posts or discussions in comments, etc.

Purposeful Sharing

There is something to be said for spreading good information I’ve found online. But too often I just spew the new found content, unfocused, into the void. I believe sharing that information should be targeted and purposeful. I should have someone in mind when I share a link and not just put it out there and hope someone finds value in it.

Removing Intrusive Distractions

I typically have a Twitter client open at all times, and another one on my phone so I’m constantly connected and receiving messages from Twitter. I also have constant access to email, the alerts constantly vying for my attention. I believe this is counter-productive and that I should determine when I will engage with that content and not let it determine that for me. I resolve to remove those intrusive distractions and instead be purposeful in determining when I will respond to them.

I have only lately begun to wonder whether I’d use Twitter if I were fully at liberty to do what I liked. In other words, I’m not sure I’d use Twitter if I were rich. Swampy, boggy, inescapable connectivity: it seems my middle-class existence has stuck me here.

Do you think this is true? I know that when I first starting using twitter it was an experiment in growing my network so that I could get more freelance work or get the word out on MightyBrand or other ventures. So, if I was rich would I continue to do this? Wouldn’t I have better things to do with my time? Why would I care about how big my audience was if I didn’t need anything from them any more. Sidenote: I mean this on a professional level. I’ve met some really awesome people through these social networks and that has greatly improved my life. But in the same way we don’t spend every hour of every day with our friends offline, we certainly shouldn’t feel the need to spend our days constantly connected with our online friends.

The connections that feel like wealth to many of us — call us the impoverished, we who treasure our smartphones and tally our Facebook friends — are in fact meager, more meager even than inflated dollars. What’s worse, these connections are liabilities that we pretend are assets. We live on the Web in these hideous conditions of overcrowding only because — it suddenly seems so obvious — we can’t afford privacy.

Personally I do find myself believing in the illusion that I’m more important that I am just because of how many Twitter followers, blog subscribers or LinkedIn connections I have. I feel the need to interact with people as if people are going to miss what I have to say if I stop. The other side of that is that I fear missing out on something, I can’t stand to be away from the internet for fear of being left out of some new meme or some new app that will totally change my life.

It seems twitter and other social networks have become a way for me to act busier than I am and thereby feel more important than I am. I don’t get so much email that I can’t stay on top of it, but I do have a lot of twitter followers I feel a need to stay on top of. It’s a sad state of affairs.

I’m in the midst of drafting a new personal online code of conduct for myself to try and climb out of the “bog” and see what lies beyond.

Not only does BlueSwarm collect that information and display it in one easy to use location, we also do sentiment analysis and calculate an authority/popularity score (called a buzz score) for both the author and the item.  This way you can see what’s important to you.  You can sort by positive or negative items, by how popular the item is or by how authoritative the author.  That way you can get to the information that matters to you most, quickly and easily.

Once you have a chance to see what people are saying about your brand, you’ll want to be able to easily respond to these items to keep the conversation going.  BlueSwarm makes it easy to flag items for later follow up or to respond to them via twitter without having to leave the site (and we’re going to be adding even more ways to respond soon).

This is just the start.  We will be adding more services in the next few weeks, more ways to respond, display and interact with the data, as well as more ways to collaborate and share that data.  We hope that you find BlueSwarm useful, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly or anyone else on the BlueSwarm team if you have any questions, feature requests or bug reports.

Update: This keeps getting better and better. Now it’s what seems to be a racism and religion mix. Keep ‘em coming Colorado Springs!

The foundation of all wealth-building is this: spend less than you earn and invest the difference wisely. It is impossible to increase your net worth and provide for the future if you spend everything you make, or more.

If you remember nothing else from this entire series, remember this: consumer debt is financial cancer. Consumer debt includes credit cards, payday loans, auto loans, and basically any debt used to finance anything other than an investment. It may seem innocent enough to finance that new car for just $300 / month, but when you go into debt, you’re betting your future. The borrower is slave to the lender. If you can’t afford to pay cash, don’t buy it. This is a simple rule to grasp, but very difficult to follow, especially in our current frenzy of consumerism.

He’s here! Right on his due date at 4:08pm April 2nd, 2007. He weighs in at 8lbs 3oz, 22″ long and a big 14″ head. Thank you everyone for all your support!

More pictures here.