The first few weeks were quiet and I was still working out exactly how to use it…my first Twitter app on my iPhone was actually for another service and only partially accessed Twitter itself, then became forgotten along the way as I discovered the other third-party apps.

Then the Victorian bush fires happened and I was suddenly part of voluntweeting emergency information.

The local Twitter users were a very chatty bunch back then, most of us, if not all, connected by the common goal of helping our communities however we could. Even for months after the situation was over, quite a few of that bunch would be chatting away merrily on the service. Sometimes that was how we were first to notice local, minor earth tremors quicker than the news services.

Then came spammers, spambots and marketers.

I think I can remember Robert Scoble (@scobleizer) even pointing out how many of his followers, at the time, were just bots and him doing a purge.

Then came hashtag spam…

The news services finally caught on and now they keep a better eye on Tweets themselves for leads.

So this year, instead of doing my annual watch of local bushfire hashtags and related news (the last two years have been thankfully quiet), I found myself stepping into the emergency information relay and collate role for eleven different local and overseas natural disasters. In four months.

By April, nobody wanted to see a natural disaster too quickly.

Of course, on the political side of things, it’s been interesting to see how Twitter’s been used during revolts in the Middle East. It’s too early to tell if those revolts have removed dictators or just made it easier for new ones to step into place. Sometimes it’s hard to tell from a tweet what’s the real situation…especially in that region.

Anyway, when one’s tired of emergencies and politics, at least there’s tech aplenty to read about on Twitter.

Then came iPad 2…

Mention of the iPad on the Net got drowned out by talk of Google Buzz.

• Google’s Gmail Social Updates
• Blogging The Buzz
• Hear That Buzzing…
• Buzz Buzzes Ahead of iPad News

More locally in Australia, Victorians marked the first Anniversary of the Black Saturday bushfires.

• Up On The Mountain

And Facebook users discovered their home section was different.

• The New Facebook Home Layout

Over on www.geehall1.com the topics were slightly different:

Again, the first anniversary of Black Saturday.

• One Year On

• A Year On Part 2

There were thoughts on the nature of telecommunications in the areas most affected by Black Saturday a year after.

• Thoughts On Country Telecommunications

Then a discussion on American FTC rules and their impact on disclosure in at least one case.

• Disclosure and Junior Bloggers

Finally (you guessed it)…BUZZ.

• Buzz…Wave Lite?

• The Reaction To Buzz

As I stated last week, this blog becomes a weekly review of things at my two domains.  Let me know what you think of it in this format.

Initially it recorded my thoughts on the bushfire period.  It’s interesting to go over those early posts and see the things that cropped up during those imensely tough six weeks, when all the State of Victoria was focused on our worst natural disaster.

More recently this blog has collated from my posterous, keeping it chugging along.  However, while cross-posting is good for posting links to my various social media accounts, it dents the uniqueness of any blog it posts to.

This particular blog hasn’t had much original content for a while.  It’s time to change that.

It’s been a big week, anyway.  Just over a week ago, I launched two domain names, www.geehall1.com and georgehallonline.com.  Both these have individual, original content.  Currently they’re linked to Posterous accounts, though there are plans to have one of them fully hosted by year-end or earlier.

The two new domains post daily, except for Saturdays.  I’m proud of the fact the dot.com experience has led to a self-disciplined six regular posts each in the first week.  For these sites, one a day is a good, sensible average, not too many, not too little.

My Blogger/Blogspot site has contained more original content than here, but needed a bit more regularity.  So today I made it a weekly blog, filling in Saturdays.

That leaves geehall1.wordpress.com.

The first thing I did here this week was disconnect the cross-post link between Posterous and here.

Today marks the first original post in months.

The good part about this blog is that it’s not a specifically defined blog.  It’s not exclusively social media, it’s not exclusively gadget or tech-oriented.

Its original purpose has been superceded by geehall1.blogspot.com and www.geehall1.com in regards to bushfire issues and personal projects.

So what’s the niche purpose for this blog now?

I guess it’s always good to do an end-of-week review and overview of things, so starting next Saturday, geehall1.wordpress.com will begin reviewing what’s been happening on all my other blogs.  Not a direct copy, not a cross-post. An end-of-week review in original-content form.  It also allows for a brief discussion of each week’s topics and trends.

Last year was an apprenticeship in social media for me.  This year marks a step up from that and more advanced usage of the medium.

So it’s good to restructure.

See ya next week.

And Moses proceeded to come down from the mountain with the tablet in hand…

Or in this case, Steve Jobs did.

I watched the video of the announcement and contrasted it to Steve Balmer's announcement of a slate computer a few weeks back.  I have to save I'm more impressed with Steve Jobs.

Of course, the expectations for the iPad are various.  Some are happy with it, some have been expecting something different. There are also some jokes starting, like calling the iPhone an iPad Nano…

Let's remember this is the first iteration.  The next one will obviously add more features once Steve Jobs and Apple see the reaction to it.  Let's also remember it competes more directly against the Kindle.

When it comes to that, it's already a winner.

Of course, what sets it apart in my mind is that it will have a new iWork suite of apps ready for it.  Imagine REAL word-processing, spreadsheets and presentation software, as opposed to limited rtf variants.  Add that to the iPad and you've got a great portable tool.

The medical field will see an immediate benefit to it, since references will be more easily-readable on the iPad than on the iPhone.

I'm looking at it from an artistic perspective.  I've tried drawing apps on the iPhone and that's not the iPhone's strong suit.  You can't move your finger off a line on the iPhone, else you lose exact placing.

No, an iPad makes drawing with your finger a heck of a lot easier and more precise.

While I did favor WinMobile devices for their ease of drawing with a stylus, I hated having to draw in zoom so much on the small screen space.

So the iPad is already on my shopping list.

Will I be an early adopter?  Or will I wait till version 2?

That's already decided by my family.  One partner, also one nine-year-old have already decided the issue.

Early adoption by a mile.

And besides, you need someone to play with that first iteration and tell you how it's going.

End of story.

Posted via email from George Hall Online

Last night the sister  domain to this site went live at www.georgehallonline.com.

This afternoon (Melbourne Australia time) www.geehall1.com became a reality.

Of course, a Saturday in Melbourne or a Friday night in the U.S. is the usual time you see those wonderful little gremlins come into play, so I still have to wait a small amount of time to connect the domain with the actual posting page.

That aside, after a year of developing in social media through Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, identi.ca and a couple of others, it was time to take the dotcom plunge.  They say nobody really takes you seriously until you get the dotcom address.

Then again, 2009 on Twitter was an effective apprenticeship, as was blogging on wordpress.com and blogger.  It was important to spend some time honing craft and doing some experiential learning.

This year, 2010, it’s time to take the next step and build from that first year’s base.  Domain, greater regularity in posts, and further exploring of where things can go.

Above all else, I’m here to stay in the online world.  My method is step-at-a-time, starting with last year’s foundations in the various social media services I use.  For those who’ve been following the geehall1 stable on those services, you already know my work, either with emergency information relay during last year’s bushfires, or through my video interviews with the Tweetupmellers/Twums functions.

There’s still more to explore and do.  While it’s worn thanks to reality TV shows, the word “journey” still applies here.

It’s a journey of exploration and discovery.

Feel free to join me in that voyage.

Posted via web from At Geehall One

After my first year in social media, it was finally time to go with a dotcom.

Hence, www.georgehallonline.com was finally born.

I like building my stages.  My best success in any part of life has always been through step-by-step.  So there’s obviously a step after this one and even a few beyond that, simply because I intend to be a fixture of the online world.  I’m stubborn that way.

Anyway, a vote of thanks to friend and fellow #twums attendee Kirsty Wilson for showing the way.

Since this is now a dot.com, I guess I have committed to more regular posts and you can expect one either later today or early tomorrow, Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time.  There’s a little creature called an iPad I want to add my two cents worth on…and even own.

My second year in social media has begun.  Get used to it.

Posted via web from George Hall Online

Today is my birthday. 

I've finally reached the half-century mark, though I still consider myself 50 years YOUNG, not 50 years old.  Considering I keep up on my tech enough to show youngsters how to use an iPhone, perhaps that's a good way of describing it.

So what did I get for my birthday?

A HTC Dream, otherwise known as a Google G1.

I've been an iPhone man the past year, but I feel good also having an Android OS phone to compare it with.  There's nothing like hands-on experience.

Of course, the day before my birthday, Google announced their Nexus One phone, so you might say I have a little Nexus One envy right now.  Looking at the Nexus One specs and UI, I can imagine somewhere down the line I'll get one.  Just not right now.

Meantime, I'm paying way more attention to Android-related news now and noted an article this morning about an Android-powered phone that will have a digital TV chip in it.

Now there's a 2010 trend I'd really like.  Free-to-air digital TV on your mobile/cell phone.  Heck, as long as reception was great, I'd actually budget for an Android phone capable of that.

In the meantime, I'm still praying that Vodafone Australia bring out an update to the HTC Dream to bring it up to Android 2.0 and/or the Sense interface.

Oh well.  Back to the birthday boy playing with his new toy…

Posted via email from @Geehall1:

I’ve done more than my fair share of swearing at a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).

Heck, I’ve long since preferred Apple OS X and various forms of Linux.

However when my nine-year-old god-son/step-son is doing IT classes at school, he’s using Microsoft products. For him to come home and do a presentation on a different office suite is not condusive to him being able to do things simply and quickly.

In the end I want him to be able to move between operating systems with ease, use Office AND OpenOffice and not be stuck limited to Windows.

Still, part of that includes him playing with Windows. Therefore I must have a Windows-capable computer somewhere in the house and preferably with an up-to-date Windows version equivalent to his school computer. In our particular case, though, he is actually now one generation ahead of his school. They use Vista, he uses Windows 7.

Our most recent school report shows he needs a bit more practice using Powerpoint, so I need to be less pedantic about him using the OpenOffice presentation software and more practical about keeping him in line with his schoolwork.

So I went down to the local OfficeWorks store today and purchased the home and student version of Office 2007.

I’m sure now people are going to question my orthodoxy in doing that.

I would too.

I’ve sat in the middle of fanboy arguments all my life…city versus country, GMH versus Ford, etc., etc. In the end I find these arguments kind of dumb, because limiting oneself to one side of any of these arguments means having only one skill or skillset at the expense of the other side. It’s sometimes more practical to be equally at home on both sides. I’m competent at both country AND city driving, for eample and I still can work on each of the three main computer systems. That’s a much broader skill base.

So even though I hate things Windowsy…if I’m going to teach the nine-year-old to be a highly-skilled person, I have to let him at Windows. He’ll make his own discovery of the Blue Screen of Death and other Windows glitches in his own time. But at least he’ll still have Linux and OS X where and when it counts.

Now back to swearing at the latest glitch…

This morning I found I was in the latest round of Twitter beta testing, for the new retweet functionality within the twitter.com page.

Posted via email from @Geehall1: