WEBVTT

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 Hey everybody, it's Dave Weiner

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 here and I was just reading an

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 article on GigaOm by Matthew In

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gram.

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 And he said there's a little

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 bit of confusion about what

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 this @Anywhere thing is that

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 Twitter announced yesterday.

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 I'm not sure that Ingram is

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 really confused. It was a

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 pretty boxed announcement.

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 But I can explain what it is

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 and maybe even provide a little

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 context on it.

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 It's an answer to something

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 that Facebook has been doing.

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 And it's also another one of

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 these sort of salvos in what

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 you might call the identity

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 wars.

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 It's basically you've got a lot

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 of different competing identity

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 systems on the net these days.

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 Always have had a bunch of them

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. Gmail is an identity system.

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 Or Google's login is an

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 identity system. They played a

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 bit of identity system warfare

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 with the whole Google Buzz

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 thing and connecting it up with

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 Gmail saying,

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 "Well, we've got a lot of users

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 here. Why don't we turn them

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 all into users of a new social

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 network?"

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 Community discussion thing. It

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 didn't go over very well.

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 So you can think of all of

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 these things as sort of repurp

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osing identity,

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 trying to get people to think

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 of their identity with one

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 company as being more than just

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 an identity with that one

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 company.

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 So on Facebook, I think it's

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 called Facebook Connect where

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 you can use your Facebook blog

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 to log in to blogs and stuff

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 like that so you can comment

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 there without having to create

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 another username and password.

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 Kind of pointless actually.

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 Well, maybe not pointless

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 because all the comments that

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 you leave are then part of the

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 comment stream

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 that your updates, your status

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 stream, or whatever you call it

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 over on Facebook.

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 So there's a little bit of

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 integration there that maybe

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 people like.

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 I'm not a big Facebook user, so

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 to me it doesn't mean a whole

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 lot.

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 So what Twitter noticed,

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 presumably, is that they've got

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 a lot of reporters that use

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 Twitter.

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 And it's true, they do. And so

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 if you notice that when you go

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 to read an article on The New

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 York Times

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 or The Huffington Post or any

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 number of different places,

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 that they provide a way to

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 contact the author of the

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 article.

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 And so what they're saying here

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 is, well, the email address

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 would be sort of like the

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 default way to contact the

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 author.

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 And they're saying basically,

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 well, you know, your Twitter ID

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 is pretty important too.

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 And so why don't we just make

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 it easy for these publications

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 to link from the author of the

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 article

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 to their Twitter identity. And

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 so that when you hover over

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 their name, you get the same

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 pop-up

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 that you get over on Twitter,

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 which honestly I didn't think

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 was all that innovative.

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 Frankly, I think it took

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 features out of Twitter. In

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 fact, in a piece I wrote

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 yesterday,

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 I even think in some ways that

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 it broke Twitter, because

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 clicking on a user's name in

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 Twitter

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 actually got you some important

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 stuff. You know, you might

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 argue a number of followers,

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 that isn't so important, and

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 the number of people that they

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 follow.

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 Okay, well, it is kind of

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 important actually. But I can

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 understand them wanting to de-

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emphasize that.

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 And certainly the pop-up does

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 do that. But it also makes it

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 very difficult, I've found,

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 at least using Firefox, to find

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 the tweet stream from that

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 author.

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 And with 140 character messages

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, people tend to connect their

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 messages.

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 The last message is an

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 extension, or it assumes that

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 you've read the previous one.

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 There's so much confusion when

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 you do that, it's bad enough

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 that people don't click on it.

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 Now they'll never get there. So

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 you end up having to repeat

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 yourself for the last one

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 choice,

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 or just never stringing things

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 together. So forget about ever

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 explaining anything

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 that might require a little bit

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 more than 140 characters. That

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 becomes more and more unlikely

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 over time.

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 So I guess the question is, is

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 the Twitter identity really the

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 important information about an

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 author?

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 I don't think it really is. And

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 I think that the owners of

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 these sites will not simply

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 link to the Twitter identity.

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 They'll probably include that

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 amongst the many different ways

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 of accessing the author of an

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 article.

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 So is it a big deal? Sure, if

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 you're following the vendor

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 sports,

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 and you're interested in who's

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 kicking who's ass over there in

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 Silicon Valley,

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 in that context it's important.

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 It's also more an example of

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 really how convoluted this

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 whole mess is.

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 You've got these companies,

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 technology companies out there,

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 getting more and more insidious

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.

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 It means getting inside of

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 something, getting into places

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 where they really don't belong.

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 Why does Twitter belong on Huff

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ington Post? I don't get it. Do

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 they really think that goes

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 anywhere?

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 In their boardrooms over

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 Twitter, in the boardroom of

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 Twitter when they have the

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 discussion about this,

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 they're thinking long-term

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 multi-step strategy, they want

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 to sort of extend their reach

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 out further and further and

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 further.

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 But, you know, there's another

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 school of thought that says, we

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'll look back on this as being

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 ridiculous five years from now,

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 a little bit long forgotten,

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 only mentioned in the context

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 of some other megalomaniac

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 region, some technology company

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.

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 I don't think this is one we

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 need to worry about, in other

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 words.

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 But, if you're a worrying sort

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 of person and you're in the

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 media, this is another reason

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 to think about,

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 maybe you want to get your own

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 real-time news system out there

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, or work with some of your

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 competitors to get one out

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 there,

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 because the tech industry is

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 really, some of these days you

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're going to figure this out.

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 There are ways to do this, what

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 they're trying to do, that will

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 work. And this, I don't think

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 is one of them.

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 But, anyway, those are my

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 thoughts about anywhere. I hope

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 you're all having what is today

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. Great Tuesday.

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 It's beautiful here in New York

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 today. The rainy weather seems

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 to finally be over.

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 It's a sunny day. It's a little

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 bit brisk outside. It's

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 probably the high 40s, maybe

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 low 50s right now.

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 It's going to head up toward 60

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 later today. So, I think you

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 can fairly say spring is here

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 on the East Coast.

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 And, I hope you're having a

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 great Tuesday. See you all soon

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. Bye.