Community Based Tweeting
A few weeks ago, Seth Godin reminded us to be careful what you say online because Google never forgets.
Yesterday, Ron Ploof reminded us that we can “sift extraordinary insight out of ordinary” Twitter traffic if we know how to look.
So today, I thought I’d keep the ball rolling. I’d like to share with you an interesting Twitter thread concerning online communities for electronic design. It started last Friday and really heated up today. It’s amazing what you can find with a little effort 
(Note: I have reversed the usual “most-recent-first” ordering of Twitter Tweets to make this easier to read.)
jlgrayFiddling around with the Cadence online lab on Xuropa… Still don’t get the community part of Xuropa but the VNC demo is cool.9:52 PM Mar 6th from TweetDeck
loucovey@jlgray do you get the community part of DVCon? How about DAC? Same thing w/o hotel rooms and sore feet.10:27 PM Mar 7th from twitterrific
jlgray@loucovey Not sure there are enough folks on Xuropa to have a robust community. Why not just use Twitter/Facebook/Verif Guild/OVM World…about 14 hours ago from TweetDeck
jlgray@loucovey What’s on Xuropa to motivate me to build YASN (Yet Another Social Network)?about 14 hours ago from TweetDeck
pmarriott@jlgray Too many communities cause fragmentation. I only have time for a few “quality” areas. I can’t be in all places at all timesabout 14 hours ago from TweetDeck
dave_59@pmarriott @jlgray I like Plaxo and LinkedIn tie-in to social networks. I can see where people are posting from one site. Needs more tie-insabout 13 hours ago from web
dltweeting@jlgray @loucovey don’t know if it’s xuropa or YASN, but I for one would like to see an independent online chip-design community evolve.about 12 hours ago from TweetDeck
pmarriott@dltweeting It’s hard to have any chip-design community that’s truly independent. Everyone has some kind of axe …about 11 hours ago from web
dltweeting@pmarriott maybe independent is too strong. how about “balanced”? something like DAC, EDAC, or GSA could potentially pull it off.about 10 hours ago from TweetDeck
pmarriott@dltweeting “Balanced” like USA Today editorials? Yuck. I want opinion, not PC mediocre rubbish. At least opinion spurs debateabout 10 hours ago from TweetDeck
dltweeting@pmarriott haha. not interested in PC rubbish either. balanced in that we get all perspectives. don’t need one view dominating convo.about 10 hours ago from TweetDeck
tommykelly@pmarriott “PC mediocre rubbish”? SO get a Mac d00d. PC. Mac. Geddit? … OK, maybe not.about 10 hours ago from TweetDeck
pmarriott@tommykelly Hope Steve Jobs is paying you commission Mr Macintoshabout 10 hours ago from TweetDeck
tommykelly@pmarriott The Lord Steve (May He Live Forever) doesn’t need to pay his willing minions. We work for love (and shiny objects).about 9 hours ago from TweetDeck
jlgray@dltweeting One could say there is a chip-design community building here which is controlled by no one!about 9 hours ago from TweetDeck
jlgray@pmarriott If past history holds, in a couple of weeks, @tommykelly will be pushing the benefits of PCs with input from Lord Gates :-).about 9 hours ago from TweetDeck
dltweeting@jlgray yes, but discovering voices/people -> too tedious. content disaggregated -> hard to follow convos. hashtags antiquated.about 8 hours ago from TweetDeck
pmarriott@jlgray @tommykelly maybe a PC with Lord Torvalds is the best solution. No Micro$oft, no problem about 8 hours ago from TweetDeck
dltweetinganyone ever try friendfeed?about 8 hours ago from TweetDeck
tommykelly@dltweeting http://friendfeed.com/tommy… . Not completely sure yet what the point is, other than an excuse for more social notworking.about 8 hours ago from TweetDeck
dltweeting@tommykelly me neither, but they have a friendfeed “room” … can aggregate tweets, blogs, pics, linkedin updates, etc.about 8 hours ago from TweetDeck
john_m_ford@tommykelly: re: “social notworking” LOL!!about 7 hours ago from BeTwittered
dltweeting@john_m_ford @tommykelly hah! completely missed that! not working indeed!about 7 hours ago from TweetDeck
mentor_graphicsMentor Graphics Community FAQ http://tinyurl.com/atl8b3 #Mentorabout 4 hours ago from web
sfojamesSocial Networks Presage Professional Network Growth? http://bit.ly/8v8nVabout 3 hours ago from TweetDeck
jlgray@dltweeting But on the bright side, you get to channel William Shatner when writing short tweets!about 3 hours ago from TweetDeck
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Loading ...Tags: Apple, DAC, FaceBook, LinkedIn, PC, Plaxo, Seth Godin, Twitter, USA Today, Xuropa
March 10th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Thank you for capturing this Harry! I missed all of this twitter chatter.
Glad to hear JL likes the labs. This is the core of Xuropa - access to technology and the engineers who support and use it.
Of course, the community tools are there for interaction and support - chat, forum, review and feedback tools, etc. If they weren’t there, I’m sure there would be questions about why given that it’s 2009. (Already!?)
When all’s said and done, we’re talking about sophisticated development tools associated closely with complex engineering methodologies. (In the case of the Cadence MIPI Verification IP Lab it is OVM, Open Verification Methodology.) To make the tools and IP available without documentation, videos, presentations, and support and feedback channels would not help the user who’s looking to explore and learn.
While Twitter does resemble a community in some regards, I would not say that it provides a complete support infrastructure for something as sophisticated as the Incisive environment. Hence the forums, etc. in Xuropa.
The other issue with Twitter is that it is like writing in sand. It is ephemeral. I think there are two basic elements to a real community - sharing and building together. The Xuropa community tools enable both of these. Twitter enables sharing, but it does not build anything. And I certainly don’t expect it to host EDA tools. Same for Facebook and LinkedIn.
Dave Lin managed to capture other important short falls of Twitter in his comment. Twitter can be hard work, but it does have it’s benefits, as I mention in a previous post, What is Twitter, and Why Should I Care?.
An important note is that Xuropa is completely independent.
Our sole objective is to bring engineers and technology together. The rest is up to the members to build the community. We’re working hard to gather information, build tools and provide EDA tools to the community for the members to improve their skills, find new tools, and help each other.
Xuropa is not intended to be a social network, but a very professional one. It is building rapidly and from a good cross section of the entire electronic design chain. (I think I’ve found a couple of dozen EDA twitterers to date…but back to Dave’s comment, I really had to look hard.)
If someone wants to join the community and try out Cadence Verification products (and the link didn’t come out above), go here: http://www.xuropa.com. And welcome!
March 10th, 2009 at 9:34 am
[…] As twitter grows I expect more of these to come along. Anyway, I saw it this morning on Harry Gries’ blog, and it stands for “Yet Another Social […]