I can cite a couple of reasons off the top of my head.

• Paper waste. Ten pounds of newspaper only for the weekend edition
• It does only one thing. 
• Brings you yesterday’s news.
• Ads, ads and more ads.  Not targeted to my needs.
• Single POV
• Expensive

Because of the nature of the medium it is very easy to get in the middle of something you don’t fully understand and given the quickness of it all you might get dragged into it. As it happened to me. @techcrunch has blocked me.  But that’s fine because a good drama is good for traffic. Especially when it involves @techcrunch and even if he does not respond back. To be honest I am kind of proud of it in a very twitter kind of way that Mike Arrington took the time to block me.  After all what happens in twitter stays in twitter, right?. I also have the feeling that if I run into Arrington in the street he wouldn’t be rude or anything.

The show must go on and we all play a role on it.

Twitter is a volatile medium just as humans are but with the added bonus that (up to a point) we all know that we are putting up a show for the rest of twitter to see. In Mike’s case, he’s playing the role of the god of all things start-up. And he does a damn good job at it.

Anyways, as a final recommendation, you should totally follow @techcrunch and learn from his style. Plus the feed is very informational and if you get blocked by TC don’t sweat it. It’s all part of the show.

ps. My twitter ID is @antoniocapo if any one wants to connect.

Fast forward to the digital world of today and we find that conversation is now the “new” base for forward thinking bleeding edge marketing techniques.  The miming of the physical world in the internet. Talking to each other turns out to be the key to a closer engagement with your customers in a bidirectional route. And where there is hype there is money to be made reflected by the amount of experts that surface. Browse twitter for a couple of minutes and you will find so many social media experts, visionaries and consultants that becomes overwhelming.

Blogs most certainly are in the spotlight when it comes to new marketing and conversation as a thought leadership piece in many B2C [and some B2B] marketing campaigns. But blogs are so last year. The new shiny toy for conversation is twitter. 

However, two things seem to be missing most of the time in this live conversations. Context and purpose.

You can safely start a conversation and follow it through in Twitter with one person or up to ten if you are an accomplished multi-tasker (my wife can probably hold about 30 conversations at the same time).  Context is kept and purpose is known to you and those that follow you and have the patience to follow your conclusions and thoughts all the way through.

But more often than not, you will find you have half conversations. Not necessarily valuable conversations because very few people will  tell you their truly most precious thoughts in a public forum before they are fully baked.  Our thoughts (the good ones) are worth a lot. 

In real life you can be powerful and convincing through a story. Through the tone and body language you use. You can be true and be public with a selected group of people. In twitter you work a lot by connecting to people at a superficial level. The question is why do we rather tweet with the person sitting next to you at a conference and share it with the rest of the world (aka your followers). 

Twitter has broken into 140 char pieces the human quality of story telling. Piece meal story telling. Disjointed, without a solid context and a certain (yet not monetized) value for getting the message out. 

I use Twitter and I enjoy it more some days than others. I just hope Twitter is just one more tool to the social media box and not the definition of it.

I would hate an internet world where we have half conversations  140 char a time and when you look back there is no legacy through which you can be remembered or a story that can be told about you.

The choice between sustainability and progress gets tangled in a mess of local politics that tend to over blow and shadow the actual issue at hand. For example, the latest debacle between Ecuador and Colombia is a parody of senseless demagogy from both sides. The issue escalated for a short time to the international stage thus enabling the leaders of both countries to take advantage of the situation to garner attention to their respective governments. Mind one thing. There was not a single attempt by either side to fix the situation. The parody goes on but the international stage has pulled the curtain over the puppets, but they have not realized this yet. The parody of insults and accusations continues.

In the meantime, Ecuador is flooding. Roads across the country are closed and food is not easily accesible for many of the indigenous tribes across the country. However, this is not a concern for President Correa that has not once used the international stage to ask for help for his people.

Sustainability vs. Progress in South American countries is a contradiction. The anti-American feeling that has been forming over the years under a troubled US foreign policy is now reflected in the inadequacy of some of the Latin American leaders.

Bolivia’s Evo Morales wants to stop the exploitation that multinationals have brought to his country. The water issue as the most troubling example, where an American company had full control of the water resources for a large portion of the population. That is a fair yet lonesome goal if the Bolivia is not willing to open up to accept support from industrialized nations. Industrialized nations can bring progress as they bring destruction.

Ecuador’s Correa continues to contradict himself in the plans that he has for the country (if any). His main goal seems to be to bring shame upon Colombia for dealing with a problem that he could not deal with when presented with it. The FARC are entering Ecuador and Correa is not doing anything and to complement hs lack of strong action against a terrorist threat, he has ordered some of his Ministers to collaborate with the FARC.

Colombia’s society is a complex and fascinating issue onto itself. The sheer disconnect between the population suffering the effects of a civil war that has been going on for decades and the “other” [the affluent/the shielded] population is astonishing. Colombia’s society has decided to deal with the thread by being blind to it. By exposing a section of its population to the war while shielding others. By not dealing with the issue as a society.

The choice between sustainability and progress in Latin America translates to choosing between generations of terratenientes to lead us into a less-than-fair economic progress or a new generation of power hungry politicians that need a stage to grow their personal “brands” and economic goals. Often, after a failed attempt to fix a Latin American country’s economy, an ex-president is received with open arms at top International schools thus making the trouble worth their while.

This history of failed leaders and caudillos have made Spanish speaking Latin American countries distrust Government just as much as they distrust the Catholic Church.

Because micro-influence goes a long way.

Micro-influencing is the word-of-mouth effect that you can guide without manipulating. We value recommendations and suggestions from friends, neighbors and family - our trusted sources and through social channels you can strengthen you brand.

Our trusted sources are increasingly turning to “alternative” media like blogs, podcasts or wikis to get information. I prefer to call it real world media. Blogs, Twitter, podcasts, community supported pages and wikis. 

Blogging, for instance, can help us understand what is happening with a product or service and when you understand what is going on with a product or service, you are more likely to recommend it an/or buy it. Also, keep in mind that your blog is collaborating with a network of micro-influencers that together can make or break a brand online.

Micro-influence via blogs and syndication also helps you deliver your message to your customers in a fresh and fun new way. It is interactive, engaging, powerful, portable and most of all, useful. Readers are likely to consider you a trusted adviser if they can get to your content at any time on any device and if your content is worthwhile and targeted.

Bottom line: Make your content free flowing, relevant, fresh and always up-to-date and take advantage of the micro-influence environment and community. Do it wisely and take it one step at the time if you are just getting started. 

That stay up all night build the new big thing - night after friggin night.

dreaming up concepts and [random] thoughts on how to split an atom

that manage the ultimate startup - your family.

…and let me in some secrets

For staying true to your self

Thank you -

For putting up with 1938media

For tweeting your kids birth - that was a little much

For showing me how to cook fish

For being and talking non-sense with an attitude

Thank you - I am almost done

For thinking the we do not need a day to celebrate others

For sharing your killer ideas - I wrote them all down

For giving me a snagit key when suffering through screenshots

Thank you - for putting us up for this silly good people day

–

I know you do, tell me for real

The internet cafes would only let you use hotmail. I did not know what hotmail was but I was happy with the coffee. Is hotmail a secret tool used by the US to communicate? I asked my Australian friend Xman, in my newly acquired Australian accent. He looked puzzled. Luckily Australians go with the flow. He laughed and moved on. But I still did not know what hotmail was. There was no reason for me to know. My life was in the rivers.

A few coffees (and beers) later, Xman asked me for my email address. What’s that I asked. That’s hotmail he responded. I was intrigued, I truly wanted a hotmail. The next day he went with me to the internet cafe to help me setup my email address. He said, forget the borg, go with Yahoo. Yahoo sounded fun plus I did not want to be part of the borg (whatever that meant).

I needed a nick name I could use. We tried antonio but the internet was so old by then that some idiot had taken that already. After trying for several minutes we gave up. Even then I was picky about this internet stuff without even knowing it. No nickname was good enough. I did not want to be antonio123 or altamirano2098.

The next day we met. He looked happy. He had been able to get me a cool nick. antoniocapo. I was like, wtf mate. But then he explained. Capo means boss in Italian and at the time I was pretty good at helping people stay out of trouble in the river. He’d nicknamed me capo. So the nick was born and I went on without using it for years. Today, if you look for me on Google you will see that all of the results are mine. I’ve become quite the internet citizen since twelve years ago. The end.

I have meetings all day. Many projects to manage. I collaborate with New York, Saint Louis, Boston, Chicago, China, Japan, Italy, UK, Germany, Australia and others. My life is fast. I twitter.

I went into facebook and it worked for a while. Now it is too slow.

My friends and co-workers have @ symbols either before or after their names. I take breaks. I clear my thoughts. I get ideas. I meet my co-workers in corporate offices and my @friends at unconferences.

I am not attached to a location. I am attached to a business objective. I need tools. Fast tools. Mobile tools. Reliable tools. Good ideas. Better processes. I twitter.