The Official Website of Zach Ferres

This afternoon I happened to take a glance at my dual-monitor display and noticed something rather interesting. Covering up the two half-naked Maxim supermodels that stretch across my screens lies a plethora of communication tools. I am sure that I'm not the first to write a blog post about this, but I figured this would be a great first post on my personal blogging site.

So, what do I have open?

• Facebook - What started as a way to share my weekend party photos with my college friends has now turned into a multi-billion dollar online application. Its simplistic design and wide range of functionality makes it a great tool for staying in touch with school friends. Facebook has recently implemented lots of new AJAX driven tools that allow you to instant message and see status updates and wall posts almost immediately after they are posted.
• Tweetdeck - After swearing that I would never dive into the world of Twitter, sure enough, I tweeted my way into Twittertown. I'm still not much for the Twitter lingo, much of it actually comes across as dirty to me. It all started with a simple account on Twitter.com and a Vista sidebar widget called Twadget. After realizing that it was way to difficult to use Twadget for replying and direct messaging, I decided to download the Tweetdeck program. This program is powered by Adobe Air (yes, thats the first time I have seen Air used for something functional) and makes life a little easier for Twitter users. Tweetdeck allows for direct messaging, notifications, replies, and URL shortening on the fly.
• RSS Reader - After recently starting to read the Timory Ferriss book titled The Four Hour Workweek I was hooked. Not only was our last name very similar, but the content was great. So, I decided to hop onto his website and subscribe to his RSS feed. I downloaded the Vista sidebar widget called Hermes to read me the RSS feed.
• AIM - After signing up for my first AIM account freshman year of high school sitting in my CISCO CCNA class, I still use it. What started as a workaround to the ICQ port-blockings on our schools firewall soon exploded into the popular peer communication tool through high school. Some reverted back to ICQ and some even used Yahoo! Messenger, but I stuck with AIM. Of my 300 friends from highshool only about 4 still get online and there are tons who are on mobile status. Apparently a few people still use it? Can't delete it yet, but if AOL continues to make the interface more difficult and throws in more advertisements I will be soon. Until then, take a look at the Aim Ad Hack website and download a cleaner copy of AIM through there.
• Skype - Now this is one cool tool. Invest in a bluetooth dongle for your desktop PC and tether your bluetooth headset. I did this all for under $75 and it has been great. Make phone calls to any phone in the world (with a small fee) or call anyone with Skype for free. The quality of the phone/video calls amazed me and conference calls are a breeze. If you have Wi-Fi on your mobile device (like on my Samsung Omnia) you can get the Skype mobile client and make free calls during peak hours using your Skype account. I wish I had this when I was in Cancun, I could've saved some cash. The only thing to look out for is the extremely difficult interface. It is confusing and if someone drops out of the conference good luck getting them back in.
• Outlook - Outlook is truly the driving force behind my communication for work. Although the new social networking tools are gaining ground for external communication, internal communication is still done on Outlook for me. The Exchange server at Bouncehost keeps tabs on all of my appointments, tasks, contacts, and emails. The Exchange server instantly syncs with my Samsung Omnia and keeps my life organized every day.

So, whats the problem with all this?

When I am talking to one person using each tool it gets really annoying. It is time to consolidate. I'm getting the feeling that we are getting a bit overboard with the social networking and communication tools. Karri Hill (our marketing specialist at Bouncehost) said it best the other day when talking about a client that recently called asking for a social networking website quote. She explains, "just use the social networking tools that we already have, you don't need to make a new one because chances are good Facebook of LinkedIn already do what you are proposing."

A possible solution would be to have one program that really does handle all of this? At least a good tool that handles all of the social networking sites would be a good start. I have been exploring some of these tools but haven't found one that is spot on yet.

Okay, well it is getting late here and I think it is time for me to get back to my Maxim girls. Have a great day!