I went to the gym and I could hardly park my bike which made me wonder if there was a special event going on. As I entered the gym it was incredibly busy and the first thing that came to mind was “Oh no, not Groupon” which was immediately confirmed with a sign at the reception desk stating “We currently cannot process any more Groupon members.” There were more signs stating “Because classes are too full we are handing out entry tickets 15 minutes before the classes start. Full is full” and “We have placed extra lockers for your convenience in the hallway.” When I entered the dressingroom it was hard to find a spot to get changed and I started wondering how full the gym would be and if it would mean waiting in line for gym equipment.
The place was packed. I talked to my instructor who sighed and said that they accepted 600 new members through a Groupon deal. I previously had a discussion with friends about Groupon where one friend ordered a deal and then the company was so overwhelmed they didn’t even pick up the phone anymore (Groupon refunded the deal quickly, thumbs up). Another friend was skeptical about the concept because how can you keep up the quality if you offer the same deal for 1/2 price. My gym experience shed a new light on Groupon and how it affects both businesses and their existing loyal customers. The Groupon invasion created a different gym experience for me, one of waiting and not being able to relax due to the crowdedness of the place. While it is also up to the business to be able to deliver what they advertise, “The Groupon effect” should not be underestimated.
Last night the first public election debate was on live television. Fortunately RTL offered a livestream of the debate on their website for those of us who don’t own a tv. The debate itself was almost unbearable to watch with politicians constantly interrupting each other and throwing corny oneliners at each other. The #rtldebat became a trending topic on Twitter as well as two of the participating politicians: Rutte and Wilders.
As I’ve previously told, Twitter has increased my engagement with politics since I no longer own a tv. Backchannels on Twitter during live events or live debates in the Netherlands are very active and contain a nice balance between commentary, humor and cynicism. And last night it included commentary of politicians who weren’t invited to this particular debate.
The debate from last night was filled with tons of clichés and one-liners and was hard to watch without either the power of relativity, humor or cynicism. That’s why I came up with the bullshit bingo consisting of all those worn-out one-liners. I tweeted the picture during the end of the debate and it became a trending picture on Mobypicture.
My picture ended up on tv in a short segment on the election debate:1
All copyright goes to RTL but they don’t offer embed codes and since they used my picture without my consent I guess I can publish this small clip for my friends and family without their consent ;) [↩]
I’m currently in New Jersey, writing for my PhD and yesterday was an exceptionally sunny spring Sunday. We visited the Grounds for Sculpture in Trenton, NJ which was absolutely beautiful! Sun, spring, blossom, I loved it. I highly recommend a visit if you’re near Princeton or Trenton, NJ.
Inspired by Bender from Futurama. “Web site owners use the /robots.txt file to give instructions about their site to web robots; this is called The Robots Exclusion Protocol.” (robotstxt.org)
Last night I was interviewed by the great guys from WordCast about my research on WordPress, teaching social media and blogging classes and personal blogging experiences. We talked about the tight relationship between blog software and search engines that caused the implementation of the nofollow attribute on comment links in an attempt to combat spam. This deal shows one of the main differences between blog services and self-hosted blogs as the latter allow users to subvert the defaults by installing a dofollow plugin.
We also talked about my social media addiction that started in 1995 and about being offline. In contrast to the early days of the web it is very hard to be offline nowadays. We are nearing an era where being offline is a choice instead of being online. Fred Stutzman, a doctoral student on social media, actually developed the application Freedom for our era “in which our computers resist encroachments of connectivity.” I’m guess I’m not the only social media PhD student for whom being offline doesn’t come naturally.
Over a year ago, on January 17 2009, I gave up my tv. I must admit, the choice was not that hard. First my tv broke down and then I moved to a new house without an active cable connection so I did not bother to buy a new tv. So, how’s life, a year after I gave up on my tv?
The last image of my tv
Do I stare less at screens? No. Do I watch less series? No. After getting a VPN client a whole world of series opened up to me. The main difference between my life before and after tv? Twitter changed my viewing interests.
The Dutch twitterscene is very active commenting on tv programs. This brings back the old gathering function of tv: everyone watching the same program at the same time accompanied with a Twitter backchannel. It made me want to watch programs I would have never considered watching before. However, following the hashtag (#) that belongs to the program, to me, is as entertaining as actually watching the show. Snarky, witty comments filling my screen. However, not owning a tv means I cannot participate unless it is streamed live.
With the turmoil around the Comissie Davids (“This independent committee has investigated the preparation and the decision-making process regarding the political support given by the Netherlands for the invasion of Iraq in the period from the summer of 2002 to the summer of 2003.”) a series of debates was held. With Femke Halsema (the leader of the GreenLeft parliamentary party in the House of Representatives since 2002) twittering live during the debate the #irakdebat Twitter backchannel got an extra dimension. Not only did she keep us up to date during the recessions, she participated in the conversation about the debate on Twitter. Never before did I watch political debates which such interest. My Twitter timeline provided me with cynical jokes, political context and supporting links and a strong politician who brought me closer to politics by providing a sense of immediacy.
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