#ADN dance party set to shake, rattle n roll Christmas across continents

 

The news dropped into the final half hour of tonight's #MondayNightDanceParty (MNDP) on App.net (ADN) -- the weekly bash is set to go global for the first time on Christmas Eve, said disc jockey @jdscolam, adding that his tag-team alternates for the 24-hour event will be DJs @sham, @po and @michelelewis. 

For weeks, virtual MNDP tunes have been spun by Oklahoma-based @jdscolam, making it difficult for those outside the south-central U.S. to participate. 

The DJ trio plan to play tunes using the MNDP.tv Vidcast interface hosted on ADN, conceived and developed over the past few months by @duerig, @33mhz, @q and @ryantharp.

The setup allows users to post music requests via a chat room within which they can also interact. Requests and related chatter can also be broadcast into the main update streams of ADN participants.

The Christmas Eve event will be semi-automated, @duerig said, adding: "We'll have DJs in several timezones ... interacting and mostly letting it go on autopilot so people can have it on in the background to listen to."

Users are also being urged to post Christmas greetings using the hashtag  #MNDPHolidayGreeting or to upload via a specially set up Patter room, so they can be compiled and played during the gala event. 

"It can be a song, or anything you want," @duerig said. " A 30-second video of yourself is the idea. But could be you doing anything. Just post the YouTube link. And if you want to just do audio, we've got a way to upload that, too." 

@Sham will kick off events at 1300 on Dec. 24, 2012, in Singapore. @po will broadcast later in the day from Brighton Lewes in the UK. 

"The playlists will start about 1pm in each of our local timezones, though @po and I may not be on and hanging out right then" said @jdscolam. "We'll announce the hangout times later."

In general, outside of the official MNDP event, users can post YouTube songs on ADN with the hashtag #jukebox and they will play automatically in a Vidcast environment, becoming part of a stream of songs.

Visiting http://vidcast-app.net allows users to create a stream event that others can join. If users want to try "jukebox mode", which will play the tunes as if by an automated DJ, they can visit http://vidcast-app.net/view and the feed will play YouTube links with the #jukebox hashtag.

App.net was set up by developers, for developers, as a sort of online refuge independent from advertisers -- allowing creative freedom and more entrepreneurial activity. It was launched as a subscription service in the summer.

It was also meant to strike at the heart of Twitter, which has become increasingly commercial, exclusive and more difficult for developers to use as a platform for innovation over the past six years.

ADN allows for 256 characters as opposed to Twitter’s 140, meaning there is more in-depth conversation – less broadcast, more chat. 
  
For more info from the organisers, visit #MondayNightDanceParty Christmas Special

Related posts:

My first #hackathon via #ADN

Being @po

Patter of tiny feet, lulz in App.net 3rd dimension

App.net: User utopia? 
Posting a picture from BlackBerry to Shrtmsg.com, app.net

My first #hackathon via #ADN

 

I've been to a few tech shows, including LeWeb in Paris and the London Web Summit, but I've never attended a hackathon because I've never been invited to one.

I crashed the App.net (ADN) hackathon this evening. 

There was no central project being undertaken by the developers participating in the hackathon, instead they were working either alone or in small groups on creating or improving their own ADN apps for use on the networking site.

I was amazed that watching a room full of people -- I'm 99.9 percent certain they were all men -- working on MacBook Pro (MBP) laptops at the ADN hackathon @storify headquarters in San Francisco was quite -- dare I say -- zen-like? 

Much better than most of the films available on Netflix IMHO.

A group of ADN people gathered in the "#Patter Peanut Gallery" to chat and observe proceedings at the hackathon as they were streamed live via Ustream  -- At first those of us who weren't in San Francisco tried to figure out who everyone was at the Hackathon. We were trying to put faces to ADN handles and avatars.

Fortunately @orian, who was at the hackathon, took pity on us and helped us identify people. @teawithcarl gave us a talk on a whole range of subjects, including his thoughts on the semantic web and redundancy.

"It's going to be one 'Star Trek' database," @teawithcarl said, referring to a utopian future where online services aren't duplicated.

Unfortunately, at around the time @teawithcarl was sharing his ideas, the stream, which was periodically interrupted by advertisements, lack of audio or a frozen image, completely died.

We switched over to a Google Plus (G+) Hangout, which was started by @po -- at first only @po and I were in it, so we left and went back to the #Patter Peanut Gallery.

Then @po started another G+ hangout and more people joined.

It was fantastic to meet @trine @jdscolam @tonymillion @berg @ajmckee @adrianus.

Unfortunately, @sham, who was central to organising the #patter chat, couldn't really join the G+ hangout as he was without a microphone or webcam -- neither could @Indigo because she doesn't have a G+ account.

@duerig and @q, who had helped set up the original live stream, were in their own #patter room, working on something -- not sure what. I lurked in their room a bit, but couldn't figure it out. [Please see below for an update about what they were doing.]

Meanwhile @kosso tried to set up a video stream via G+, which seems to have worked for a while.

Although the event was held @Storify HQ, apparently no one has yet Storified it.

NB***After I published this blog, @duerig told me that he, @ryantharp and @q were working on a system whereby people can post a YouTube song on ADN with the hashtag #jukebox and it will play automatically, becoming part of a stream of songs.

Visiting http://vidcast-app.net allows users to create a stream event that others can join. If users want to try "jukebox mode", which will play the tunes as if by an automated DJ, they can visit http://vidcast-app.net/view and the feed will play YouTube links with the #jukebox hashtag.

Other related posts:

Being @po

Patter of tiny feet, lulz in App.net 3rd dimension

App.net: User utopia? 
Posting a picture from BlackBerry to Shrtmsg.com, app.net

#Patter of tiny feet, lulz in App.net 3rd dimension

Maybe, just maybe, I don't get out enough.

After putting out a testimonial about developers' haven App.net (ADN) in which I questioned its viability due to being trapped in a spammy conversation thread about bacon from which there seemed no escape -- I was amazed at how the community swung into action to fix the problem.

It restored my faith in humanity -- at least for a day :)

App.net was set up by developers, for developers, as a refuge to create an environment independent from the influence of advertisers -- allowing creative freedom and more ownership -- and was successfully launched as a subscription service in the summer. 

It was also meant to strike at the heart of Twitter, which has become increasingly commercial, exclusive and more difficult for developers to use as a platform for innovation over the past six years.

The ADN atmosphere is different also because it allows for 256 characters as opposed to Twitter’s 140, meaning there is more in-depth conversation with intelligent people – less broadcast, more chat.

In its nascent, or alpha, state, there are absolutely no protections for users. There's no way to block or report people, mute conversations, direct message (DM) – all those basic protective aspects of Twitter, or even Google Plus (G+) where you can create circles and decide who to share what with -- even your own stream is compulsorily public and there’s no way to selectively hide it.

After my critical "App.net: User utopia?" blog post about ADN, where I outlined some of its pitfalls for users, hit its global stream I was sincerely touched by how many empathetic messages I received from users beckoning me back to the site. 

A significant amount of conversation focused on how to remedy the problem of being reluctantly caught up in a stream or being unable to leave one. People also discussed how to rectify the problem of having nowhere to go for a private chat.

When murmurs started about "Patter", created by @duerig loosely based on some code by @q -- it was as if a bomb had dropped, decimating the main global stream.

We all pattered from ADN into a wonderful chatroom which literally felt like a parallel universe. I've never seen any space online generate such joy and camaraderie  -- I've never seen anything close to it.

Before long, people were getting concerned about the fact that the updates were dying in the global stream as users revelled in the Patter chatroom.

"Now we can tell people to 'get a room'," said @po, referring to Patter's ability to provide private separate space for people to have conversations outside of the main stream. 

The idea is that Patter, which can also be used within the Appnetizens interface designed by @adrianus, can help give users some control over the environment and help bring order to chaos.

Another bombshell was dropped on Wednesday with the news that Tapbots had released Netbot, an iPhone and iPad app for ADN.

The announcement instantaneously brought a flood of new users into the global stream. It also upset some developers slaving away to create other similar mobile products, and raised questions among some users about the integrity of the ADN mandate.

Order was more or less restored on Thursday and the atmosphere was more sedate as users adjusted to the new influx of people on ADN, recovered from the excitement of the previous day and buckled down to work on various apps.

**** Picture created on dood.li

App.net: user utopia?

Here are my personal thoughts on App.net (ADN).  

I'm not saying that these ideas are in any way conclusive, but after spending a little over a week on the site my experiences and observations made me feel wary on several fronts.

It may be fixable, or maybe not.

As I understand it, App.net was set up to be a haven for developers to create an environment independent from the influence of advertisers -- allowing them creative freedom -- and was successfully launched as a subscription service in the summer.

After I signed up last week everything seemed great: lots of friendly chit chat and the ability to talk freely about things on different levels. And because it offered room for 256 characters as opposed to Twitter’s 140, it allowed for broader conversation with intelligent people – less broadcast, more chat.

The presence of the global stream similar to the one which was removed from Twitter, where I have been a member since 2008, seemed a benefit.

I noticed I was being followed by several people who described themselves as “Christian” in their bios. It made me wonder about what it meant to advertise being Christian in a social media bio because it is a bit different than saying you are a parent, a journalist or a developer, for example.

In some ways, it's like stating an opinion on an issue which in real-life polite social arenas might typically better be avoided – as with other difficult topics such as politics, etc. It’s a bit like taking an in-your-face stand – similar to dropping a bombshell at a party that’s humming happily along by proclaiming: “I'm a conservative” or “I'm a leftist” or “I'm a civil libertarian”.

It made me wonder what would happen if I said certain things that were not acceptable to those with “Christian” in their bio and/or if I might be targeted if I said the wrong thing. I was reminded of the spambots on Twitter that appear with those odd bios of broken bits of sentence fragments and numbers.

On Twitter, I do not follow back or engage with people making potentially confrontational claims in their bios – or I would block them -- because I want to avoid conflict.

I was interacting with some of the Christians who were following me, and then suddenly got worried over a silly discussion about bacon I became involved in -- I know it probably sounds crazy, but I just got this feeling that to be part of that discussion about liking bacon, which went on and on and got bigger and bigger and had more and more people copied in, with people proclaiming their Christianity in their bios made it kind of exclusionary -- possibly an affront -- to people from religions that don't eat pork.

I kept my thoughts to myself and didn't say anything about it, but I said I wanted to leave the discussion. But it was difficult to get out -- impossible in fact. So I muted the people and deleted updates that showed my involvement in it.

On a basic level it proves the need to have a way to block people, mute conversations, direct message (DM) – all those basic aspects of Twitter, or even as with Google Plus (G+) where you can create circles and decide who to share what with, but on App.net I felt totally vulnerable -- even your own stream is compulsorily public and there’s no way to selectively hide it.

But it also shows that despite its utopian goals to outdo Twitter with its oodles of trolls and data monitors, App.net may not be altogether free of the same.

After that first big discussion about bacon, in a separate thread I noticed in the global stream some of the people involved in the bacon chat started talking about hating the Taliban and bombing villages in Afghanistan containing populations supportive of the radical Sunni Muslim movement.

On the heels of the chat about bacon, it suddenly seemed like the environment was not so beautiful as it had been over the previous few days.

I thought: "Perhaps an antagonistic U.S. Christian fundamentalism biased against other religions is the underpinning theme of the environment."

People are entitled to their political views and religious beliefs, and on a very basic level blocking or whatever other technical means necessary could solve the problem for an individual who does not want to be a part of such a circle within the network. But these mechanisms don’t exist on ADN.

 I started thinking about the entire project.

Lots of people have paid $50 to sign up for the service, but what do they really get for their money?

They get a social networking/broadcasting site if they are people like me, and if they are a developer they get a good opportunity to make stuff to take the site beyond its bare bones and improve its functionality so that the founders can sell more subscriptions. Developers have the chance to make money too from their endeavours.

This is what App.net say on their site:

"We are operating a sustainable, predictable business. App.net will always have a clear business model. We know that depending on services that could go away or desperately squeeze users for more and more money is a toxic cycle. We want our ecosystem to rest easy that App.net is built on a financially solid foundation."

That doesn't tell me much. Maybe they have one, but I didn't see it on their site -- what is the actual business model?

What's the ultimate objective?

For users it's total chaos. All the protections built into other sites are not there. No opportunity to DM, no way to protect a feed, no way to block people, etc. Most importantly, no way to report people for abusive behaviour.

Conversations get hijacked. People add too many people in -- it's similar to what can happen to a comment thread on G+.

It's anarchy.

Apparently, it's up to random developers to bring random order to it – if they feel like it!

When I subscribed, I paid with a corporate credit card because ADN don't offer PayPal as an option for payment, and I didn't want to give them my personal card details.

App.net says those who “join the movement” will not be subject to having their personal data, content, feed, interests, clicks or anything else sold to advertisers. ADN data will remain in the full control of the user, the site says.

At the same time, they say “we hope developers build large, robust businesses on top of our platform” which in my personal opinion does not preclude developers and others using – or even observing the site without joining it – from monitoring or retrieving user data, selling it or forming opinions based on it.

I am concerned that by default – because I cannot control my environment – that I may be perceived as being associated with some trends on App.net by having my moniker attached to certain chats or because certain people are following me.

I can mute them, but I can’t block them.  


****Lawn of the dead garden gnome picture courtesy of @kosso

***NB: Since I wrote this blog post, many kind members of ADN have beckoned me back to the site. Including one user who has told me that a developer has fixed the problem. I have not yet had time to check. 

Posting a picture from BlackBerry to Shrtmsg.com, App.net #adnBBhelp

I couldn't figure out how to get a picture uploaded into Shrtmsg.com from my BlackBerry Torch 9810 because when I tried the usual means for uploading to UberTwitter and other such social networking sites, it just didn't work.

The problem was that the choice for selecting the file for upload via a folder wasn't available.

When I clicked on the picture icon in shrtmsg, I was only given options to upload from:
- Camera
- Device
- Assets
- Pictures

Unfortunately, the pictures folder choice was the template pictures that come with the BlackBerry for use as desktop images.

First I thought I could solve the problem by creating a folder for my own pictures to upload from.

It was simple enough and I did that and it worked, but then the next few I tried just would not upload. I tried switching from the GPRS network to the wifi, but no luck.

I thought the problem might be image size so I checked the BlackBerry site to find out if it is possible to reduce the size of an image file in the handheld, but it is not.

I then checked the App Store and found a few options.

The first one I tried by Ice Cold Apps didn't work because it is only for uploading images so it set me back and I was facing the same conundrum I had been tussling with in the first place.

I then found another app, AutoResize, made by DRI App World, which allowed image size to be changed, and saved in a folder it generated called "AutoResize".

It still would not upload the picture.

I cleared the cache in the browser and it still didn't work so I also deleted the battery for a while.

After I reinstalled the battery it worked!

The picture is much smaller than the first one I was able to upload, so it will be worth continuing to experiment to see if I can actually use the original file size.

It's not ideal, but it is definitely a workaround, so to speak.

Also, this is not a recommendation for AutoResize because it keeps popping up an annoying message telling me that I haven't paid for it and it has expired, but I did pay for it.

Not sure what that is all about and wondering if the resolution was just to clear the cache in the first place and not reduce file size.

To be continued . . .