Fleep's Deep Thoughts Explore the Metaverse

I’ll try to get to the 2008 Virtual Worlds predictions here in the next couple days, but I can’t move on to 2008 until I’ve given some thought to the grand ole year of 2007. As I mentioned earlier, in 2006 I set a goal to figure out this blogging business and I think I’m doing ok in that regard. But there were a number of tools that profoundly influenced the way I experience the web, Second Life, and even have changed how I think about people and communities and society in general. So here they are, my Top 10 Tech Tools of 2007:

10. Ning and AirSet and Google Groups – All three allow you to connect with communities of interest and provide a suite of tools to keep in touch, share resources, and network with one another. All three have some features I like, none of the three do it ALL for me, but one way or another, I’ve connected with a bunch of good people through these sites.

9. StumbleUpon – I hate the name, forget to submit stuff, and don’t have any friends there, BUT! When I’m in mega procrastination mode and want the internet to entertain me, StumbleUpon is like channel surfing with the the TV remote, but on the internet instead. Flip, hmm interesting, flip, that’s stupid, flip, neat video! Caution, stumbling videos can be addictive at 3AM.

8. HUDDLES Landmark Pal – Second Life residents, if you don’t already have a landmark HUD solution for your most visited locations, this little HUD is simple, easy, and fabulous. It minimizes (TRUE minimize, not phantom) to take up less screen real estate and I love not digging in inventory to go to frequently visited places.

7. Google Web History – I avoided this tool for a while because I thought ew how creepy, a history of everything I browse! Then as I kept losing links or forgetting to tag stuff or needing to find that one website I saw that one day.. it turned into oh how neat, a history of everything I browse! I figure, google already has the data, I might as well have it too. Also neat to see my surfing trends.

6. ScriptMe! – This Second Life scripting tool is the cat’s pajamas for newbies or those with no programming experience. Hilary Mason aka Ann Enigma coded this tool to make simple scripts for those who have no programming experience. It’s simple, intuitive, and opens up worlds of possibilities for those who have never explored scripting their own objects in SL. Thanks Hilary!

5. Scobleizer – Scobleizer isn’t a website or a web app or a tagging service but he does all those things, and no I am not calling Scoble a tool. Robert Scoble is a human processor of amazingly enormous amounts of information. I think he has a real job too, but he digests a lot of info and shares the good stuff on a number of platforms and I think has such a large following that he becomes a high-end-user test case for a lot of webapps that don’t scale well, so he can point out shortcoming and flaws that other people might not notice until it’s too late. I’ve become a big fan and thanks to @Spin/Eric Rice for introducing me to @Scobleizer.

4. WordPress – I tried a zillion blog packages and after all of the trial and error came to a simple conclusion: If you’re blogging and not using WordPress, you’re nuts. WordPress has zillions of themes, zillions of widgets, EVERY webapp with a blog tie in is WordPress compatible, if you host your own, upgrading is simple.. I <3 WordPress. Bye bye Livejournal, Blogger, Typepad and others. Oh, and if you aren’t blogging but want to, it’s free. Go do it.

3. Google Feed Reader – Google’s Feed Reader makes subscribing to blogs easy and portable. I was using Sage, then I tried Flock’s built in reader, but all of those are dependent on a local machine and I need to be mobile. It’s not perfect yet (get rid of duplicates pls!), but with the addition of sharing with your Gtalk friends just a few days ago, it beats the competition hands down. It also proves that Scoble really does read all those feeds. Impressive!

2. BlogHUD – My favorite Second Life tool of the year is without a doubt BlogHUD. I just can’t tell you how much easier it has made posting images and information from in-world to out. If you need examples, just check the BlogHUD category on this site. I think this is a terrific tool for educators in Second Life as well as anyone who keeps a travel log, reports on SL news, or just wants to share the cool stuff their doing. BlogHUD Pro has a bunch of other features, but the only one I use is the cross-post images to blogs and it is SO worth $900L. It is fabulous.

1. Twitter – Twitter is the glue that holds everything together. Twitter is a steady stream of information, help, and camaraderie. Twitter is better than Jaiku or Pownce. Twitter has changed my web surfing habits, my conception of online communities, my Second Life experience, and my blogging habits. Twitter is the ultimate “just in time” information source. Twitter. How I Love Thee. Ok enough gushing! I think Twitter works best when you find a combination of Twitter add-ons that work for you. I personally use it in conjunction with GTalk, Twittermail, TwitterTools for WordPress, and SLTweets in Second Life.

Honorable Mention: Flock – Flock is a Mozilla based web browser that integrates a number of tools to make social networking and browsing media online even easier. It’s pretty slick looking and has some great ideas, but it still seems really top heavy and a little crash prone when you get a zillion tabs going. But I’ll keep an eye on it in 2008 because it does some things really well.

Dishonorable Mention: Facebook – Facebook feels like evil to me. Maybe it’s because it sounds like the “creator” stole the idea. Maybe it’s because if you don’t pick a gender it assumes you’re a guy. Maybe it’s all the privacy breaching going on. Maybe it’s the cloudy chain of who all owns it and invests in it. Maybe it’s all the stupid spammy groups. I am there and I’ll add you, but I won’t accept any of your third party super poking super whatever invites, because I am not a Facebook fan.

And that’s it! Thanks to all who brought these great tools to my attention and thanks to the people who make them possible! So what did I miss? What tools make your top 10 list for the year?