As I just wrote, we live in an era where having a voice is much easier than it used to be.  Getting published is actually quite simple if you’re willing to work for it.  In fact, I’m living proof.  Just 3 years ago I was working a 9-5 job as my sole source of income as a programmer for a major health company, doing nothing but that.  I was a nobody.  No one knew me.  In very short time I was approached by my 3 publishers, amassed thousands of readers on this blog, and many more on Twitter and Facebook, and built a reputation for myself.  I truly believe this is something anyone can do.   Here’s what I did (this is still tough to write, as I still don’t believe I’m anywhere near my potential – to me, I’m still a nobody):

I Started a Blog

I actually did this a long time before I wrote my first book with HappyAbout.  I was trying to build an open source pseudo blogging/CMS platform, which actually powered this blog at one point.  In a sense, the goal was to eventually create a social network, something we tried to do at a previous job I was at and never completed.  This was before Facebook or Twitter or even Digg or anything like it.  In a sense, it was the next dimension of a GeoCities, or FreeServers.com (where I worked on the founding team doing Support in 1999).

I noticed a few friends blogging at the time to share tricks they had used to fix coding problems, or ways they got their various computer problems working.  I knew I had done a few things that I needed to write down for memory and others to benefit, so I started using the blog to share these things.  Soon that turned into me just sharing thoughts to what was mostly a non-existent audience, but I didn’t care – I was doing it for myself mostly.

Then I really started subscribing to other bloggers, especially around Utah and elsewhere.  I think Google Reader probably played a big role in this.  I subscribed to Phil Windley, and Janet Meiners (NewspaperGrl), Jason Alba, Phil Burns, Thom Allen, and others.  Utah actually had a bustling tech blogging scene back then (many of those I mention are still active bloggers and great blogs to follow).  As these guys blogged, it inspired me to join their conversation and post my own thoughts on the topics they were writing about.  I’d link to theirs, and others’ articles, and my links would appear in their trackbacks and they would notice.

I began to make a name for myself by just sharing what I knew, and writing about it.  There is no better way to share knowledge and show others you have that knowledge than through a blog.  This blog eventually grew and grew as I did this, eventually getting recognition by sites like TechMeme, featured on TechCrunch, mentions on Mashable, and many others (I keep a log of coverage for my record at http://www.delicious.com/jessestay/coverage).  I say this not to brag, but to show you that by simply posting a blog, and sharing your knowledge, while at the same time truly participating in the conversation in the blogosphere (aka “the memes”), you’ll grow your blog as well and quickly gain a voice.

Now when I write, people listen – in some ways, it doesn’t matter if I have a publisher, and that gets more and more possible the more my audience grows.

I Became a Pioneer

It wasn’t until the launch of Facebook Platform at the very first F8 that I really started making a name for myself.  I decided at that point my idea for a Social Network wasn’t needed any more because now I could just build niche ideas on top of Facebook.  Facebook grew, and grew, and grew, and I was with them from day one, building apps for their platform.  I saw this niche, and I saw the value in it, so I took it and ran.  I became an expert in that niche and made it mine.  Not just that, but I stuck to it. (Interesting note – I’ve actually been building on Facebook Platform longer than many Facebook employees have.)  That eventually branched out and I took on Social Media and APIs in general, and now I’m even embracing much of the world of Marketing as we know it (even though I’m technically just a Developer by trade).  I learned everything I could about this stuff, and actually applied it, creating application after application both on my own and for others to prove myself in this area.  It was partly from this that SocialToo was born.

In many ways I was inventing an industry.  I was with many others, but because I took it on early I was still one of the few “pioneers”.  Becoming a Pioneer is so important.  If everyone else is doing it, and you’re not the first, you’re not going to be recognized.  You’ve got to pick a skill, perhaps find a new movement of many, and jump on that one.  Even if you are one of many, if you’re one of the many firsts, you can now be taken seriously.  I suggest taking it even further and finding a niche amongst those firsts (mine was the brand of “Social Media Developer” rather than just “Social Media Expert”) and embracing that.

How do you pick the right niche to be a “pioneer”?  I think more than anything it has to feel right to you – make sure you have a clear vision of the future of that industry.  For me I saw a new, social world where social was tightly integrated into every piece of the web.  I saw a Building Block Web, where social pieces were tightly coupled together in an experience the user wasn’t even aware the social elements existed.  I saw the power of bringing power to developers.  I also followed bloggers, like Paul Allen and Robert Scoble, who really caught onto this vision (although I admit I met Scoble later in the game).  Note that this niche also solved some of my own needs, which also contributed to my desire to learn more about it, and I discovered along the way how powerful this stuff actually was.  Vision is key.

You’ve got to figure this out yourself, and perhaps that’s the hardest part.  If I were you I’d be looking in the mobile space, and at what companies like Kynetx are doing, though. (and at a minimum, more than anything, consider and understand the concepts and visions these companies have)  Read my article on the Future with no login button for my own personal vision, but you have to come up with your own.

I Promoted the Need, and Networked Like Crazy

Once I had discovered a need and tried to establish my skills surrounding that need, I began blogging about it.  I realized this was a new market, and one that had the potential to be very powerful.  It was one with very few blog posts on the topic, yet.  I began to write posts making it known that I knew Facebook, and in particular Facebook development.  I was actually at one point the number one search result on Google for “Facebook Developer” because of this.  That wasn’t on accident.

I became one of the only people on LinkedIn with “Facebook Developer” in my title, and soon I began getting calls asking for help in this emerging industry.  I made it easy for people to find me by publishing my e-mail address and even my phone number on my blog and working to make it as easy as possible for people to contact me on LinkedIn.

More than anything though, it was this blog that made a name for myself.  Well, this, and following other bloggers through Google Reader at the time.  I started to learn of local “Blogger Dinners” here in the Salt Lake City area where local bloggers were getting together to just meet and network.  I decided to attend one or two, and it was there I met who would soon become my co-author on my first book, Jason Alba.  Jason had previously written, “I’m on LinkedIn–Now What???” and I had followed him on his blog.  I can’t remember exactly how (I think it was a Seth Godin talk, ironically), but he had heard I was the local “Facebook guy”, and was looking to do a book similar to his first on Facebook.

He had already established a relationship with his publisher through his first book, and approached me, asking me to help him with his second book, giving me half of his royalties in the process.  We went forward with the book.  At that point because I had established a reputation, and was already a published author, that lead to O’Reilly contacting me (through my good friend, Joseph Scott), and now I’m writing my third book with Wiley in a Dummies series.

Networking is so critical – it is truly who you know that matters.  It has been through Social Media and networking that I met Jason and that lead to my first book.  It was through meeting a need of Guy Kawasaki’s and Chris Pirillo’s that lead to creating the first script on SocialToo and I feel I can now call them good friends.  It was through answering a FriendFeed post that I met Robert Scoble and I can now call him a good friend.  That meeting lead to me meeting my great friend Louis Gray.  We’re all normal people, and it’s social media that makes us normal.  It’s through this technology – Twitter, Facebook, and especially blogs, that we’re able to connect with people we were never able to meet before.  Embrace that!

I Believed in Myself!

More than anything, I think it was when I realized I could actually do this stuff, that I started to do it.  There is something to be said for the law of attraction – be it faith, God-driven, or Universal laws, it’s real.  When you truly believe you can accomplish something, it will happen.  I grew up not believing this.  I grew up thinking I’d never write a book.  I grew up thinking I’d never start my own business.  I grew up thinking I was a nobody.

It wasn’t until I caught a glimpse that this was possible that I started to think I was truly capable of anything.  And it was when that happened that I started seeing incredible success as a result, and I’m still seeing that to this day.  Anyone can accomplish what I’ve done – I’m the little guy.  I’m a nobody, but I can be anybody I want to.

I hope this blog post doesn’t come off as a “I’m better than you” story to anyone – it was intended to be the exact opposite.  You see, Social Media and the web as we know it today makes it possible for any of us to gain a voice.  The Book Publisher, the Sports Conference, the Music Label, or even the VC or major Tech Blog are all much less relevant than they used to be.  Your potential is greater than it ever has been, and while you can still use these tools as launching platforms, you get to own the process along the way.  Anyone can do this, and I think we need to break away from “the man” at least a little bit to have full flexibility in doing so.  This is why you see Seth Godin leaving his publishers.  This is why you see BYU leaving its Conference.  This is why you see many musicians leaving their labels.

The little guy is much more relevant than he used to be.  Social Media is about empowering and bringing a voice to the individual.  Embrace that.  Accept it.  You too can have a voice.

This post is syndicated from the SocialToo Blog – please check it out! I think this feature’s pretty cool:

Recently Facebook launched the ability for users to checkin to any place with their mobile phone, sharing with their Facebook friends where they are and what they’re doing, but what about their Twitter friends?  Services like FourSquare and Gowalla offer the ability for users to share their checkins to Twitter as well as Facebook (or just leave them on Gowalla or Foursquare).  Facebook, with the exception of Pages, has seemed reluctant to include Twitter syncing for Facebook status updates.  That is where SocialToo comes in.  Starting today, you can now sync your Facebook checkins automatically from Facebook to Twitter using SocialToo.

The feature is completely free for anyone on Twitter and Facebook. To enable the feature, just log in to SocialToo through your Twitter account, click “Settings”, and click “Associate a Facebook Account”. Once you have both a Twitter and Facebook account linked in SocialToo, go back to the “Inbox” tab, and check the box next to “Facebook to Twitter” in the upper-right. You can now check the boxes next to the things you want to share, including, “Autopost Places” to automatically post checkins from Facebook. Once checked, any new checkin you post on Facebook will now go to Twitter.

In addition to checkins, you can also automatically post links and status updates. Any checkin with a note attached will show the note as the text of the Tweet and a link back to the checkin on Facebook. To exclude the checkin from Twitter, just add a “-” after a space at the end of your note and it won’t go to Twitter. The same goes for status updates and links that you post to Facebook.  We are also considering the potential for an opt-in “+” in the future (let us know in the comments if this is interesting to you).

Hopefully some of you find this feature useful.  We think it’s a powerful way to let others know, now on both Twitter and Facebook, where you are and what you’re doing, and has the potential to generate some interesting conversation.  Let us know how you plan to use it!

More about SocialToo:

SocialToo provides features to complement the experience people, businesses, and brands, have on the social networks they participate on. We’re a utility providing tools to help automate the process of managing a brand image, while at the same time enabling users to clean up spammy messaging, track followers and friends, and manage those friends and followers in the process. Here are some of the features we provide:

• Auto Follow – follow back the people that follow you or your brand, providing potential discovery and networking opportunities, opening up communication channels, and giving those that follow you a sense of belonging in your community
  • Auto Follow is a one-time $10 fee.
• Automatic DM and Stream filtering – do you get spammy DMs on Twitter? We’ll delete them automatically for you. Set up simple filters with keywords in DMs you don’t want to receive, then set rules, such as “unfollow”, “delete”, or “ignore” to get rid of them. Turn off Twitter’s DM e-mails and turn on ours, and we’ll also respect your rules with the DM e-mails we send, meaning if you say “ignore”, we won’t send you the DMs that match your rules. In addition, you can filter out people that say certain things in your stream, or that Tweet from specific (and some times spammy) applications.
  • DM filtering is free up to 4 filters. Stream and Application filtering comes with the monthly SocialToo Premium plan. The monthly SocialToo Premium plan is $29.95/mo, and includes every feature we offer, including support for unlimited Twitter accounts (and all features for each). There is a 7-day free trial.
• Bulk Unfollow – need to start over on Twitter? Unfollow all the people you’ve ever followed at once. Set a whitelist under “Friends” and you can exclude specific people as you do so.
  • Bulk Unfollow on Twitter is a one-time $35 fee.
• SocialToo Stats – one of our most popular features, you get a daily e-mail with all the people that followed you and stopped following you the previous day on Twitter. We try to organize them by the Tweets we detected at the time of the unfollow or follow. We also provide additional information about each person and the ability to unfollow or follow them straight from the e-mail. In addition, for our monthly Premium users we provide an organized interface, showing a timeline of all your new follows and unfollows in a graph, your number of Tweets, and if you click through to any day it will show you the new followers and unfollowers for that day at any point we’ve tracked, along with your Tweets for that day.
  • The daily stats e-mail is a one-time $20 fee. The monthly SocialToo Premium plan is $29.95/mo, and includes every feature we offer, including support for unlimited Twitter accounts (and all features for each). There is a 7-day free trial.
• SocialToo Surveys – a “Social” way of posting quick polls to your friends on Twitter and Facebook. Create a quick poll, and share it with your friends on multiple networks. Your friends can take the poll, share it with their friends, comment on it, or create their own!

In the last few weeks Facebook has been slowly rolling out a feature that, while not exactly new in concept, I think gives businesses and brands another opportunity to think strategy surrounding their Facebook efforts.  The feature is Facebook Questions.  The feature is pretty much a re-release of Facebook Polls (see my previous article on InsideFacebook.com in 2008 where I discussed this as a business tool), with even greater viral potential.  In fact, it makes even more sense today than ever, with the increased focus on Facebook Pages, something Facebook has chosen to focus on with the new Questions feature.

Facebook Questions, in many ways is like my SocialToo Surveys, with a pure Facebook focus (on SocialToo we have Twitter and Facebook integration, with more Social Networks coming soon), and the ability to completely take the poll out of the question (no pun intended).  Facebook Questions focus on one question that the user can ask to his or her friends, and those friends can answer anything they want to (something you can do in SocialToo’s comments for each SocialToo Survey).  The difference is that on Facebook you can vote up or down each answer, and the most popular answers get pitted at the top in a more prominent position.  This puts it at more of a competing stance with Yahoo Answers, or Quora, or Aardvark.

With each Facebook Question, the person asking can also add a poll, allowing other Facebook users to answer a set of pre-defined answers, allowing the person asking to see what the most popular of his or her own answers might be.  All this while allowing users to also add their own answers and vote those up or down.  I admit, it’s a pretty cool implementation, and something I’ve long wanted to do with SocialToo Surveys (and hopefully we will).

Here’s where you should get involved with your brand though.  With each Question, the person asking can assign “Topics” to the Question.  Each “Topic” is essentially just a Facebook Page somewhere.  It can be any Facebook Page, and doesn’t even have to be one the person asking has even liked or administers.  Assigning a Question to a Topic ensures that the Question has the potential of appearing in the list of Questions on the side of other users’ News Stream who have “liked” the Pages listed in the Question.  So, in essence, you have the potential for a targeted, free, Facebook Ad if the Question is pitted right (albeit with much fewer customized options for targeting).

Businesses and brands ought to be taking advantage of this.  Ask interesting questions to engage your audience, and tag Pages you think have people that might be interested in that question and your brand.  Keep in mind though that Facebook currently has no way to moderate (or delete) the answers to the Questions you ask, so be prepared if a Question happens to turn against you.  You can create Facebook Questions as an individual user, or as a Facebook Page.

In addition to asking and essentially tagging specific audiences with your Questions, there is another great strategy surrounding answers that you can utilize.  I actually saw this with Facebook’s own “Facebook Pages” Page on Facebook.  A user asked a question about Facebook Pages, and “Facebook Pages” answered the question for that user.  I’m sure this brought more attention to that Facebook Page, and the user was even more satisfied as a result.  Not only that, but future users will be able to see the “official” answer from Facebook on the issue.  In a way, this also makes Facebook Questions a competitor to GetSatisfaction, as it can be a great Support Channel for your brand.

I wanted to know how Facebook did this, so I asked my own Question on Facebook.  Damien Basille quickly answered with the following: “You must be an admin of the Facebook Page you want to answer as. Then, next to the Publish Answer blue button it will say “as [First name Last name] (change)”. Click on the (change) link and you will be able to answer as any of your FB Pages that you change to.”

So, with a simple click of the “change” link I’m now posting as my own Facebook Page, answering Questions all around Facebook about my brand.  I think that’s pretty useful!

If you’re a brand, you should be carefully looking at Facebook Questions and figuring out a good way to integrate this great tool into your current Facebook Strategy.  We can only hope that we’re given even more flexibility in the future to access these questions via an API.  Hopefully a search API is provided, and we’ll start to see tools allowing brands and others to easily search and find people asking relevant Questions on Facebook.

If you’re not yet seeing the “Ask a Question” link in your status update box at the top of your news stream, have no fear – it will be there soon, as Facebook slowly rolls out this feature.  This is something all brands should be looking at right now.

You can learn more about Facebook Questions at http://facebook.com/questions.

There is such a thing as too much Social Media.  I’m talking about the art of ignoring.  We see accounts such as @comcastcares and @richardatdell and various other accounts on Twitter that do an excellent job at handling customer support and actually gaining, as well as retaining customers as a result, all while maintaining a great PR front for the company.  Such media arms require a fine art that includes customer support, PR, a little technical support, and often a little power to make decisions at the executive level.  When you create a customer support channel on Twitter you are, in essence, exposing yourself, and your customers, to the world when it comes to support.  This is a very delicate line to cross. Some times it means you have to ignore certain irate customers to maintain that brand image.  Today, the @XboxSupport team, to me, showed me how not to manage a customer support channel on Twitter.  In fact, they’ve convinced me to leave Microsoft altogether.  Let me share why.

A few days ago on Twitter I mentioned my frustration (note that TweetBoard didn’t archive that entire conversation for some reason, so some of my responses are missing), after my 4th Xbox 360 received its red ring of death, and after taking it through the Microsoft diagnosis tool, it would soon become the 4th Xbox 360 I owned to be replaced by Microsoft under my extended warranty.  4 units!  (I should note, in full disclosure, that one of those is a separate unit that my brother now owns after I replaced it once, so it would be one unit replaced once, and another replaced 3 times)  I paid full price for the unit, and full price for the extended warranty.

I loved my Xbox 360.  I was okay going through the replacement process a couple times.  It was, as I’ve said here before, my entertainment center more than anything.  No other unit, in conjunction with the Windows 7 machine that I own, can allow me to stream and record live TV in as efficient, cheap, and as powerful and flexible a manner as my Xbox 360.  Not only that but I get great games like Halo, and my kids get great family games like Viva Pinata and others that go with it.  I was getting excited for the Kinect product which had been lauded for years as the next generation controller.

Yet at some point having to replace your console over and over again for similar problems, it starts to nag on you.  It especially nags on me as all my friends are starting to buy the PS3 and are trying to convince me to switch after years of defense of the Xbox 360 by myself.  So I complained on Twitter. Sure enough, the first tweets that come in are from friends of mine, asking me if it’s time I let the 360 go.  Some mentioning the return rates of the PS3 are extremely low.

Tempting.

But after someone pointing them to me, in swoops @XboxSupport on Twitter, suggesting, without my asking, that I try out their diagnosis tool online that I’ve tried a million times.  I told them I wasn’t interested, in fact suggesting the only thing that could make me feel better would be a refund or one of the new Xbox 360s that is supposed to have these Red Ring of Death issues fixed, and they proceeded to argue with me.  It got to the point that I was suggesting that the Wii wasn’t giving me these issues and they were in essence saying that the Xbox produced more heat (yes, that’s the problem) which is why it was breaking and the others weren’t (duh).  In all the messaging I got from them, the message that came through to me was that I was wrong, and they were right.  All this in their public stream for all their followers to see, without me originally asking for their help.  You can see part of the conversation here (again note that a lot of it is missing):

They finally stopped the conversation and we both went on our separate ways.  In fact, I was starting to calm down a bit and was actually considering just buying the new Xbox 360 after I replaced this one and perhaps sold it on Ebay or something (or maybe just destroyed it on Youtube for everyone to see).  It was at the same time MG Siegler, of TechCrunch, was mentioning problems he was having with Xbox Live making him want to kill his Xbox 360 as well.  I pointed him to the @XboxSupport conversation I had earlier, and evidently someone else at @XboxSupport caught wind of that too.

When I woke up this morning, in swooped @XboxSupport again, thinking they could save the day, but this time the 3 tweets I received from them were accusing me of not cooperating, again, in front of all their 35,000 followers.  The latest message being, “We do understand your frustration, but for us to provide the best support possible we do need some customer cooperation”.  This after I had done all they asked in my previous conversation with them.  After that they started saying they had done all they could do “if my console was out of standard warranty”.  Again, i was wrong, they were right.  Even though I had the extended warranty they were assuming I didn’t have.  All in their public stream, to their 35,000 followers.  I then suggested they stop arguing and leave it alone, and then they proceeded to defend why they engaged customers on Twitter. 12 Tweets to their 35,000 followers later, they stopped.  At this point my entire Replies column was filled with arguments from @XboxSupport (and one person telling me the PS3 was superior):

My Replies column full of Tweets, in my perception, telling me I’m wrong

When is enough, enough?  I think when the customer tells you they don’t want to hear from you any more that should definitely tell you to just let it go.  Especially when you’re representing one of the biggest brands on the planet, and potentially damaging or hurting that customer’s reputation in front of all the other people following your brand.  When approaching customer support in a public environment, the rules change.  You absolutely cannot give any hint that your customers are ever wrong. Take it to DM.  Take it to e-mail if you want to do that.  Encourage immediately for those customers to e-mail you or call you when it comes to that.  Assumptions can never be made, because you can be held liable.

Instead, I got to tell my 26,000 followers, and now a blog post that will go out to more, how frustrated I was with Microsoft, over and over again with them only fueling my fire each and every time.  The Twitter XboxSupport account has told me, to their 35,000 followers, that I’m wrong, over and over again.  It’s lose-lose, and nobody wins.

Again, I’m wrong, even though that’s not what they were informing me considering they know I already knew.

Now I’m forced to stick to my decision.  I’ll be selling my replaced Xbox 360 on Ebay, and using the money to purchase a PS3.  Or maybe I’ll save the money and just stick with the Wii I currently own.  Microsoft has convinced me with their continual pressing that I’ll always be wrong in their opinion and because of that I can’t stick with them.  Therefore I won’t buy an Xbox 360 again.  Not only that but their other followers also see that.  Also, as a result, that Xbox 360 was the only reason I was still on Windows 7 – my Windows 7 machine was my media center, and Windows Media Center powered my entire Xbox 360-controlled media experience.  Now I don’t need that any more either.  Unfortunately in a world of interconnected devices, killing one device causes a ripple effect to the others.  All this very possibly could have been stopped by a single support person keeping their mouth shut and letting bygones be bygones.

There is a time when Social Media can be too much.  It’s important you train those representing your company on Twitter and elsewhere to realize this.  Customer Support is no longer just a support role any more.  It’s a PR role as well.  There are legal repercussions.  There are reputation repercussions.  There is much more to this position.

It’s important, as you’re approaching your customer support approach to social media that you have a way to get to the bottom of the situation as quick as possible, and preferably in private.  You should recognize the problem, contact the person individually, and determine if in the end they can ever be right.  If that’s not the case, it’s a moot point to try and convince them otherwise.  The customer is always right.  They should especially be right in public.  To this customer, unfortunately in Microsoft’s public perception, I’ll always be wrong, and that will never be deleted.  That’s just bad support, and the exact opposite of what a social media campaign should produce.  There’s an art of ignoring, and at least Microsoft’s XboxSupport team has proved to me they don’t get that art.  Goodbye Microsoft.  I hope you can sway me back.

So, who’s got a good deal on a PS3?

It’s pretty much confirmed at the moment.  Twitter, according to just about every employee at SEO.com and the people running lines to the building, is building their Salt Lake City-based hosting facility in the old Linux Networks offices right next to SEO.com in Bluffdale.

Shortly after my last post about the new job opening in Salt Lake listed by one of Twitter’s employees over the project, a flood of tweets and comments from employees at SEO.com, a well-reputed search marketing company in Utah all reported they were seeing activity in the old Linux Networx building next to them.  After some questioning, Ash Buckles, SEO.com’s Director of SEO confirmed via direct message on Twitter that 3 different workers laying line from the street to the building had confirmed that the building was indeed Twitter’s.  While still hearsay, I’d say that, in addition to other confirmations by the Salt Lake Tribune (thanks Joseph Scott), pretty much gives us a solid witness by multiple sources that is where it will be.  The kicker is it’s right next to “Camp Williams” (Twitter’s CEO is Ev Williams).  Of course it’s right next to a major Prison as well.

Linux Networx was acquired by SGI in 2008 as it closed its doors and laid off all its staff.  Linux Networx was a company that built HPC Clustering solutions, and based on some of the employees I know that have worked there, had some of the smartest employees I’ve ever worked with.  The building has remained mostly vacant since then.  It appears that Twitter very well could be changing that, with “large cranes”, “lost power”, and all sorts of construction happening at the complex as it prepares its expansion.

As I mentioned earlier today this is great news for Utah as it refills what was once a vacant building from laid-off workers and again re-employs many more for a well-recognized brand around the world.  Twitter will join the NSA, Ebay, FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com, and Oracle in adding major hosting facilities to Utah’s already rich line of talent and economic solutions.  In the end this is great news for Twitter too, as it can hopefully finally accomodate its ever expanding user base as it grows globally at an immense scale.  One can only wonder what other companies will follow suite?

I have contacted Twitter for comment and am awaiting their response. (Update: Twitter’s response was, “we’re not commenting on the location of the data center or any other details outside of the info included in our post last week.”)

Image Courtesy Google Maps

Just a few days ago, Twitter announced it was opening a new data center in Salt Lake City, Utah in order to expand its ability to accomodate its ever growing user base.  The announcement was still somewhat vague, not specifying much about how many local jobs would be available and where in the Valley the new location would be.  Just a few days after the announcement Twitter quietly revealed a few more details about that announcement by announcing a “Site Operations Technician” position in the Salt Lake City area through one of its employees.

In a post by Twitter employee, Brady Catherman, who lists on his LinkedIn profile as an Operations Engineer at Twitter (and graduated from the University of Utah), Brady told his brother who lives in Salt Lake City to send people to an unlisted page on Twitter’s job site advertising the job.  The listing doesn’t appear in the main list of Jobs however.  The job is still rather vague, but due to the fact no management positions are listed or were mentioned, it leads one to believe Twitter has either hired them, it will be through a third party, or Twitter will be moving some of their own employees over to manage the process.  Based on messaging by employees, it would seem to be the latter, as Catherman’s brother, Bryan Catherman, implied on his Twitter profile that his brother “would get to leave his Twitter office and visit often.” He also implied that it was his brother doing the hiring for people out here.

Where will the new operations center be?  In a response to Mark Nielson, Bryan Catherman also stated that it would be at the “South end of the Valley”, “easy access from I-15″.  He wasn’t willing to reveal any more info when I asked, but that would probably put the center somewhere either around Riverton (where there is still lots of real estate), or perhaps Draper or even South Jordan or Sandy.

Utah is known for its superb hosting accommodations.  With the high altitude, dry air, and cool climate, costs of hosting are very low for most hosting facilities.  It is the site for a massive NSA hosting facility in the West end of the valley, as well as home to other hosting locations for Ebay, and the billion-plus record database inside the Granite mountains on the East for FamilySearch.org.  As the home to the start of Wordperfect, Novell, Omniture, FreeServers.com, and home to 2 major Universities within an hour of each other (BYU and Utah), Twitter will also have no problem finding talent here.

Having a new hosting facility in Utah is an exciting thing for those of us that live here.  It is just one more proof that confirms the recent claim that Provo, Utah (near Salt Lake City) was recently named the 9th most innovative city in America by Forbes Magazine.  It is also one more confirmation that I have said before that the Salt Lake City area is one of the top tech and startup hotbeds in our nation right now.  I hope more tech news outlets are watching this and noting this great add to the already amazing talent we have in this area.

If you have any more details about this announcement, please e-mail me at jesse@staynalive.com or feel free to mention them in the comments.

After writing I’m on Facebook–Now What???, followed by FBML Essentials, one of the most common questions I get from readers is a situation where their account, their Page, or their content has been suspended on Facebook in some form or another.  Just today, Robert Scoble talked about another individual on Twitter whose account was recently suspended for no reason whatsoever.  I’ve written about other occasions of Twitter suspending accounts in droves with no notice (that time a glitch).  This is nothing new.  Even the famous Mari Smith, the “Pied Piper of Facebook” according to FastCompany Magazine, had her Twitter account suspended.  Robert Scoble had his Facebook account suspended.  No one is immune.

It’s your own fault if this happens.

Let me explain.  Of course I don’t blame any of the individuals whose account has had this unfortunate circumstance happen to them (assuming it was a mistake).  However, I question why more people aren’t trying to bring these services under their own brand and their own hosting facilities to store their Tweets and micro-posts to their friends.  There are services that make this easy.  I’ve written about these before, and today I’m putting action where my words are.

The best service I’ve seen for this is called Status.net, formerly Identi.ca, and it gives any brand, business, or person the ability to host every single Tweet or post surrounding their identity on their own servers.  I’m implementing a version of this so I can control who owns the Tweets I share on Twitter and other sites.  Starting right now, you can go to http://community.staynalive.com, register for your own account, and begin hosting your own Tweets right here.  Or, go to Status.net, download the source code, and host your own instance on your own servers.  Then, follow my posts at http://community.staynalive.com/jesse right from your own instance of Status.net on your own servers!

Still want to post to Twitter?  Every account on the Stay N’ Alive Community site can connect their Twitter account and set each Tweet they post from http://community.staynalive.com to also post to Twitter.  Look at this Tweet – it was sent to my own servers straight from TweetDeck.  I simply added another Twitter account in TweetDeck, and set the Twitter Base URL (under advanced) to be http://community.staynalive.com/api, adding my own credentials for the Stay N’ Alive community.  Now, any time I post from TweetDeck I have the option to post to the Stay N’ Alive Community site where I own the data (well, it’s all Creative Commons so each user owns their own data), and I can know that will also go to Twitter.  If I want to do all my following from the Stay N’ Alive Community site, I can set it to import my friends’ Twitter streams into Stay N’ Alive and I can follow them right there.

What’s the point?  Now I own, 100%, every tweet I post to Twitter, and no one can do anything about that.  If you set up your own instance, you can do the same.  ESPN can set up an ESPN-branded Twitter.  Ford can set up a Ford-branded Twitter.  Rackspace can set up its own Rackspace-branded Twitter.  Scoble can set up his own Scoble-branded Twitter.  Every post from the branded site gets hosted on the Brand’s own servers, anyone on any other OMB-supported service can follow them on their own servers, and no one can ever shut them down.

So, if you’re worried about your account being suspended, this is how you fight back.  Go create your own Status.net service, post your URL in the comments (so we can all follow!), and we can all start to take back control of our status under our own terms.  Or, feel free to join the Stay N’ Alive Community where the readers of this blog can all get to know each other!  This is your responsibility – I can’t wait to see what you do with it!

To those who aren’t hosting your own Tweets, I say “Stop It!”:

Amongst all the amazing things being launched at Twitter’s Chirp developer conference: @anywhere, User Streams, New developer Terms, Ad Platform Announcements, and more, nothing truly got me excited in a way that said, “this is the future”.  True, User Streams will save me thousands.  @anywhere is very convenient.  None of them are “change the world” breakthroughs though.  Let’s face it – Twitter, with the exception of real-time (until next week), is playing catch up with Facebook.  However, there was one thing that caught my eye as “game changing”.  That was today, when Loic Le Meur of Seesmic introduced to me his plugin platform for Seesmic desktop.  Here’s what it does:

Basically, Seesmic has enabled an entire Silverlight-based platform for developers to completely customize the entire experience of the Seesmic desktop.  From the streams, to being able to integrate your own photo service, to enabling link parsing and shortening in your own way, to even altering and integrating with the search box, developers have full control of the entire desktop environment for customizing not just your Twitter experience, but your Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, or even open environments like Status.net and any environment you choose.  Loic talked to me about a potential Youtube client targeted towards just viewing and finding Youtube videos through the browser.

The great thing is that this is all user-targeted.  Each install is packageable in developers’ or brands’ own skin, in whatever logos or colors you like.  Developers can even specify what plugins get installed as part of the package.  Once the user downloads the initial install, users can then download and modify additional plugins to customize it for their own experience.  The entire experience is win-win for both developers and users!

In one fell swoop, Seesmic has gone from being a desktop client for Twitter, to an entire platform that not only encompasses Twitter, but also Facebook, and potentially Myspace, LinkedIn, Youtube, Status.net, and more.  This is the “core” I was talking about last week, and Loic has embodied the spirit of it all.  I can’t wait to see what developers do with this, and probably in close tie with Kynetx, it’s the most amazing thing I’ve seen since the Facebook Platform launch.

Developers can get started at http://platform.seesmic.com.  The platform is based on Microsoft Silverlight.  Don’t like Silverlight? Write your own environment (Google Gadgets?) as a plugin for developers to write for!  This is amazing stuff – I’m so excited to see what happens, and when we’ll all be meeting for the first Seesmic Conference for developers.

Wanna see it in action?  Check out Scoble’s interview with Seesmic founder, Loic Le Meur here.

There has been a lot of news about Twitter’s new features, @anywhere, a coming social graph API, and their new developer website.  One thing that hasn’t been mentioned however is something that gives me great joy.  Every single developer that signs up for the platform is asked to agree to a very thorough, new, terms of service agreement.  This is a big step in the growth of the Twitter developer platform.

I’ve said over and over Twitter needs more transparency in its developer environment.  Helping the developers to know what they’re getting into, what the rules are, and how they are expected to behave not only gives Twitter some leverage to control their environment, but it also allows developers to build a business knowing what they’re getting into and if all the hard work they put into it is in vain.

I’m the Choir when it comes to preaching about features getting rendered useless due to Twitter changing their rules of the Twitter platform.  Only a few months ago, SocialToo was asked to remove our auto-unfollow service, and many other services, some which that was their only feature, were also asked to remove it.  The problem is I was never asked to sign an agreement, no agreements were presented to me, and very few rules were in place to designate what I could and couldn’t do.

It appears that at least for new developers, that is no longer the case.  Each and every application added to the Twitter platform via http://dev.twitter.com is required to agree to a very thorough agreement.  This means developers can now start knowing what they will be getting into.

Some elements developers are agreeing to:

• Developers must adhere to rate limits
• Developers can’t rent, sublicense or redistribute content from Twitter for development and use of other third party services without Twitter’s prior approval (this means Yahoo, for instance, had to have Twitter’s permission to redistribute the Twitter API into YQL for developers to use)
• Developers can’t remove proprietary notices from Twitter content
• Developers can’t use Twitter Marks (Trademark) in the names or logos of their products

The new agreement also asks developers to adhere to specific principles, primarily:

• “Don’t surprise users”
• “Don’t create or distribute spam”
• “Respect User Privacy”
• “Be a Good Partner to Twitter”

The terms are quite long, but have some important content in them for developers.  In my opinion this is actually a good thing for Twitter, and Twitter should really require even existing developers to agree and abide by these terms so everyone is familiar with them.  This is another great step in increased transparency for Twitter.

The full text of the new Developer agreement is below:

Developer Rules of the Road

Twitter maintains an open platform that supports the millions of people around the world who are sharing and discovering what’s happening now.  We want to empower our ecosystem partners to build valuable businesses around the information flowing through Twitter. At the same time, we aim to strike a balance between encouraging interesting development and protecting both Twitter’s and users’ rights.

So, we’ve come up with a set of Developer Rules of the Road (“Rules”) that apply to all developers and companies building products and services that interact with Twitter. If you’re a user of Twitter services, but not a developer, these rules will simply show what our partners are currently allowed to do with the content and information you share with Twitter.

The Rules will evolve along with our ecosystem as developers continue to innovate and find new, creative ways to use the Twitter API, so please check back periodically to see the most current version. If you are doing something prohibited by the Rules, talk to us about whether we should make a change or give you an exception.

I. API ACCESS

1. All use of the Twitter API and content, documentation, code, and related materials made available to you through the Twitter API (“Twitter Content”) in connection with the products or services you provide (your “Service”) is subject to and must comply with these Rules.

2.  You may use the Twitter API and Twitter Content to develop a Service to search, display, analyze, retrieve, view, and submit information to or on Twitter.  You may use the Twitter name or logos and other brand elements that Twitter makes available in order to identify the source of Twitter Content (“Twitter Marks”) subject to these Rules.

3.  Your use of the Twitter API and Twitter Content are subject to certain limitations on access, calls, and use of the Twitter API as set forth on dev.twitter.com or as otherwise provided to you by Twitter.  If Twitter reasonably believes that you have attempted to exceed or circumvent the rate limits, your ability to use the Twitter API and Twitter Content may be temporarily or permanently blocked.  Twitter may monitor your use of the Twitter API to improve the Twitter service and to ensure your compliance with these Rules.

4.  You will not attempt or encourage others to:

(a) sell, rent, lease, sublicense, redistribute, or syndicate the Twitter API or Twitter Content to any third party for such party to develop additional products or services without prior written approval from Twitter;

(b) remove or alter any proprietary notices or marks on the Twitter API or Twitter Content;

(c) use or access the Twitter API for purposes of monitoring the availability, performance, or functionality of any of Twitter’s products and services or for any other benchmarking or competitive purposes; or

(d) use Twitter Marks as part of the name of your company or Service, or in any product,  service, or logos created by you.  You may not use Twitter Marks in a manner that creates a sense of endorsement, sponsorship, or false association with Twitter.  All use of Twitter Marks, and all goodwill arising out of such use, will inure to Twitter’s benefit.

II. PRINCIPLES

We ask that you and your Service follow four principles:

Don’t surprise users

Don’t create or distribute spam

Respect user privacy

Be a good partner to Twitter

1. Don’t surprise users

(a) Maintain the integrity of Tweets. There is a lot of information packed into Tweets even though they are just 140 characters long (i.e., links to usernames, etc.).  The Display Guidelines (http://dev.twitter.com/pages/display_guidelines) provide guidance on how to best convey all the intended information in a Tweet. A few highlights:

o Don’t edit or revise user-generated content delivered through the API except as necessary due to technical limitations or requirements of any networks, devices, services, or media.

o Identify the user that authored or provided a Tweet unless you are either providing Tweets in an aggregate form, or need to make Tweets anonymous due to user privacy or security concerns.

(b) Get users’ permission before:

o sending Tweets or other messages on their behalf. A user authenticating through your application does not constitute consent to send a message.

o modifying their profile information or taking account actions (including following,  unfollowing, and blocking) on their behalf.

o adding hashtags or other content to a user’s Tweet. If your application allows users to send Tweets or other content to Twitter, show the user exactly what will be published.

(c) Your application should not:

o use business names and/or logos in a manner that can mislead, confuse, or deceive users. For more information on use of Twitter Marks, see our trademark usage guidelines (http://help.twitter.com/entries/77641)

o confuse or mislead users about the source or purpose of your application.

o use as its Application Website URL an unrelated URL, a site intended to entice or encourage users to violate our rules, a spam or malware site, or a shortened URL to mask the true destination.

o replicate, frame, or mirror the Twitter website or its design.

o impersonate or facilitate impersonation of others in a manner that can mislead, confuse, or deceive users.

(d) Respect the privacy and sharing settings of Twitter Content.  Promptly change your treatment of Twitter Content (for example, deletions, modifications, and sharing options) as changes are reported through the Twitter API.

2. Don’t create or distribute spam

(a) Spam can take many forms. Please abide by the spam rules (http://help.twitter.com/entries/18311#spam).

(b) If your application performs automatic actions (including Tweeting or other content updates), make sure you comply with the Automation Rules found at http://help.twitter.com/entries/76915.

(c) Do not mass-register applications. This includes:

o creating tokens/applications for the purpose of preventing others from using or selling those names, or other commercial use.

o using feeds of third-party content to update and maintain accounts under the names of those third parties.

o submitting multiple applications with the same function under different names for the purpose of name squatting.

(d) Do not facilitate or encourage the publishing of:

o links to malicious content

o pornographic or obscene images to user profile images and background images

3. Respect user privacy

(a) Clearly disclose what you are doing with information you collect from users.

(b) Clearly disclose when you are adding location information to a user’s Tweets.  Be clear about whether you are adding a place or specific coordinates. If your application allows users to Tweet with their location be sure that it complies with the best practices found at http://dev.twitter.com/pages/geo_guidelines

(c) Do not solicit another developer’s consumer keys or consumer secrets if they will be stored outside of that developer’s control. For example, online services that ask for these values in order to provide a “tweet-branding” service are not allowed.

(d) Do not facilitate or encourage the publishing of private or confidential information.

4. Be a good partner to Twitter

(a) If you display Tweets in an offline context, do so according to the guidelines found at http://help.twitter.com/entries/114233.

(b) Respect the features and functionality embedded with or included in Twitter Content or the Twitter API.  Do not attempt to interfere with, disrupt, or disable any Twitter API features.

(c) If your application causes or induces user accounts to violate the Twitter Rules (http://help.twitter.com/entries/18311) (for example, by retweeting spam updates, repeatedly posting duplicate links, etc.), it may be suspended or terminated. We’ve provided some guidance in our Abuse Prevention and Security help page at http://help.twitter.com/entries/79901.

(d) Respect the intellectual property rights of others.

(e) Do not use the Twitter Verified Account badge, Verified Account status, or any other enhanced user categorization on accounts other than those reported to you by Twitter through the API.

III. CONNECT WITH TWITTER GUIDELINES

The following guidelines apply if you use Connect with Twitter to integrate Twitter functionality into your Service.

1. Connect With Twitter

End users must be presented with the option to log into Twitter via OAuth protocol.  End users without a Twitter account should be given the opportunity to create a new Twitter account as provided by Twitter. You must display the Connect with Twitter option at least as prominently as the most prominent of any other third party social networking sign-up or sign-in marks and branding appearing on you Service.

2. General

(a) If you allow end users to create social updates from your own social service or a third party social networking, micro-blogging, or status update provider integrated into the your Service (“Update”), you must also display a prominent option to publish that content (or a link if the Update is not text or longer than 140 characters) to the Twitter service.

(b) If your service displays Updates commingled with Tweets, you must ensure that Tweets reference Twitter as the source.

3. Twitter Identity

Once an end user has authenticated via Connect with Twitter, you must clearly display the end user’s Twitter identity.  Twitter identity includes visible display of the end user’s avatar, Twitter user name, and a Twitter “t” mark.  Displays of the end user’s followers on the your Service must clearly show that the relationship is associated with the Twitter service.

IV. COMMERCIAL USE

1. Twitter reserves the right to serve advertising via its APIs.

2. Your advertisements cannot be false, misleading, fraudulent, or illegal.

3.  If you use or facilitate the use of affiliate links, you must comply with our Affiliate Rules (http://help.twitter.com/entries/76915#advertising)

4. You must get permission from the user that created the Tweet if you:

o want to user their Tweet on a commercial good or product (for example, using a Tweet on a t-shirt or a poster or making a book based on someone’s Tweets).

o create an advertisement that implies the sponsorship or endorsement on behalf of the user.

V.LEGAL TERMS

1.Termination.

You may terminate any license in these Rules at any time by ceasing your access to the Twitter API and use of any Twitter Content, and deleting all copies of the Twitter API and Twitter Content as described below.  Twitter may immediately suspend your access to the Twitter API or any Twitter Content (or if necessary, terminate this agreement with you) at any time, and without notice to you if you breach any term or condition in this agreement or otherwise engage in activities that Twitter reasonably determines are likely to cause liability to Twitter.  Twitter may also terminate any licenses hereunder for any reason with thirty (30) days notice (including by email to the address associated with your account) to you.  Twitter will not be liable for any costs, expenses, or damages as a result of its termination of this agreement.  Upon termination of this agreement, you will promptly cease accessing and using the Twitter API and Twitter Content and will delete all Twitter Content and any information derived therefrom and all copies and portions thereof, in all forms and types of media from your Service.  Sections 1(4) and V of these Rules will survive the termination of this agreement.

2.Confidentiality.

You may be given access to certain non-public information, software, and specifications relating to the Twitter API (“Confidential Information”), which is confidential and proprietary to Twitter.  You may use this Confidential Information only as necessary in exercising your rights granted in these Rules.  You may not disclose any of this Confidential Information to any third party without Twitter’s prior written consent.  You agree that you will protect this Confidential Information from unauthorized use, access, or disclosure in the same manner that you would use to protect your own confidential and proprietary information of a similar nature and in any event with no less than a reasonable degree of care.

3.Ownership; Feedback.

3.1 Twitter.  You expressly acknowledge that Twitter and its end users retain all worldwide right, title and interest in and to the Twitter Content, including all intellectual property rights therein.  You also acknowledge that as between you and Twitter, Twitter owns all right, title and interest in and to the Twitter API, Twitter Marks, and the Twitter service (and any derivative works or enhancements thereof), including but not limited to all intellectual property rights therein.  You agree not to do anything inconsistent with such ownership.  Any rights not expressly granted herein are withheld.  You agree that you will not challenge Twitter’s ownership of, the validity of any license to use, or otherwise copy or exploit the Twitter Marks during or after the termination of this agreement except as specifically authorized herein.  If you acquire any rights in the Twitter Marks or any confusingly similar marks, by operation of law or otherwise, you will, at no expense to Twitter, immediately assign such rights to Twitter.

3.2 You.  As between you and Twitter, you retain all worldwide right, title and interest in and to your Service, excluding the Twitter API, Twitter Marks, and the Twitter Service (and any derivative works or enhancements thereof), including but not limited to all intellectual property rights therein.  You may provide Twitter with comments concerning the Twitter Content or Twitter API or your evaluation and use thereof.  You agree that Twitter and its designees will be free to copy, modify, create derivative works, publicly display, disclose, distribute, license and sublicense, incorporate, and otherwise use the feedback, including derivative works thereto, for any and all commercial and non-commercial purposes with no obligation of any kind to you.

4.Updates.

Twitter may update or modify the Twitter API, Rules, and other terms and conditions, including the Display Guidelines, from time to time its sole discretion by posting the changes on this site or by otherwise notifying you (such notice may be via email).  You acknowledge that these updates and modifications may adversely affect how your Service accesses or communicates with the Twitter API.  You will have thirty (30) days from such notice to comply with any modifications.  If any change is unacceptable to you, your only recourse is to terminate this agreement by ceasing all use of the Twitter API and Twitter Content.  Your continued access or use of the Twitter API or any Twitter Content following the 30 day period will constitute binding acceptance of the change.

5.Representations and Warranties; Disclaimer.

5.1 Representations and Warranties.  You represent and warrant that:

(a) you have the necessary power and authority to enter into this agreement, and that the performance of your obligations will not constitute a breach or otherwise violate any other agreement or the rights of any third party arising therefrom;

(b) you will maintain throughout the term of this agreement all rights and licenses that are required with respect to your Service; and

(c) your Service and  its use, distribution, sale and license, including the use of any license hereunder, does and will continue to comply with all applicable foreign, federal, state, and local laws, rules, and regulations.

5.2 Disclaimer.   THE TWITTER CONTENT, TWITTER API, AND ANY OTHER TWITTER PRODUCTS AND SERVICES PROVIDED HEREUNDER ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND ON AN “AS-AVAILABLE” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.   TWITTER DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, NONINFRINGEMENT, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND ANY WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS ARISING OUT OF COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE.  TWITTER DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE TWITTER CONTENT AND TWITTER API AND ANY OTHER TWITTER PRODUCTS AND SERVICES PROVIDED HEREUNDER WILL MEET ALL OF YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR THAT USE OF SUCH TWITTER CONTENT AND TWITTER API BE ERROR-FREE UNINTERRUPTED, VIRUS-FREE, OR SECURE.

6. Limitation of Liability.

IN NO EVENT WITH TWITTER BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, EXEMPLARY, PUNITIVE OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING LOSS OF USE, DATA, BUSINESS OR PROFITS) ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THIS AGREEMENT OR YOUR USE OF THE TWITTER API, TWITTER CONTENT, OR OTHER TWITTER PRODUCTS AND SERVICES WHETHER SUCH LIABILITY ARISES FROM ANY CLAIM BASED UPON CONTRACT, WARRANTY, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, AND WHETHER OR NOT YOU HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH LOSS OR DAMAGE.  THE FOREGOING LIMITATIONS WILL SURVIVE AND APPLY EVEN IF ANY LIMITED REMEDY SPECIFIED IN THIS AGREEMENT IS FOUND TO HAVE FAILED ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.  IN ANY CASE, TWITTER’S AGGREGATE LIABILITY UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100) OR THE AGGREGATE FEES YOU PAID FOR ACCESS TO THE TWITTER API IN THE LAST YEAR.

7. Indemnification.

You will indemnify, defend, and hold Twitter, its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, and employees, harmless from any and all claims, damages, losses, liabilities, actions, judgments, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) brought by a third party arising out of or in connection with: (a) any act or omission by you, in connection with your use of the Twitter Content, the Twitter API, or the Twitter Marks; (b) your use of the Twitter Content, the Twitter API, or the Twitter Marks other than as expressly allowed by this agreement; (c) your breach or alleged breach of any of the terms, restrictions, obligations or representations under this agreement; or (d) your Service.  You will assume control of the defense and settlement of any claim subject to indemnification by you.  Twitter may, however, at any time elect to take over control of the defense and settlement of any such claim.  In any event, you will not settle any such claim without Twitter’s prior written consent.

8. Miscellaneous.

These Rules constitute the entire agreement among the parties with respect to the subject matter and supersedes and merges all prior proposals, understandings and contemporaneous communications.  Any modification to the Rules by you must be in a writing signed by both you and Twitter.  You may not assign any of the rights or obligations granted hereunder, voluntarily or by operation of law (including without limitation in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets) except with the express written consent of Twitter, and any attempted assignment in violation of this paragraph is void.  This agreement does not create or imply any partnership, agency or joint venture.  This agreement will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, without regard to or application of conflicts of law rules or principles.  All claims arising out of or relating to this agreement will be brought exclusively in the federal or state courts of San Francisco County, California, USA, and you consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts.  No waiver by Twitter of any covenant or right under this agreement will be effective unless memorialized in a writing duly authorized by Twitter.  If any part of this agreement is determined to be invalid or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the remaining provisions of this agreement will remain in full force and effect.

In a Keynote at Chirp by Ryan Sarver, Project Manager over the Twitter API, he announced a new, full API around live content streaming that just saved me thousands.  The new API enables a real-time layer around not just Tweets and search that they’ve enabled in the past, but now direct messages, follows, favorites, and retweets.  As users follow, direct message, or favorite, developers will now be able to pull these actions for each user in real time.

One of the biggest headaches of my own on SocialToo has been the need to constantly poll Twitter.com for new follows and unfollows.  Each request requires an entire snapshot of the user’s friends and followers, and with Twitter’s current structure, can take minutes up to even a half hour or more to pull an entire snapshot of a user’s list of friends.  This takes bandwidth, takes time, and costs money on both the developer’s servers and on Twitter’s end.

The new API will enable one request per follow, one request per DM, and the great thing about it is all of it happens as the user clicks “follow”, as the user sends the DM, and the User benefits from a real-time, live update on new follows and DMs on sites like SocialToo.com.  So, assuming developers are given access soon, you will soon be able to have real-time updates on new followers and unfollowers, as well as new, filtered DMs on sites like SocialToo.com (if you haven’t signed up go sign up today!).

I’m excited for this new announcement, and it’s something I’ve been asking the Twitter API team for awhile now.  It’s good to see Twitter finally getting the capacity to work on these requests.  I hope to continue to see work on developers’ needs like this.