There has been a lot of discussion around the blogosphere the past few days about Twitter’s Suggested Users feature and whether or not it’s fair, valuable, and so on. Jason Calacanis offered up $250,000 to be near the top of the list for two years, and stated he thought that price was a bargain. (Jason has also been pushing the value of Twitter followers for a long time now, but that’s a whole other story. For this, let’s assume there is some value to the number of followers you have.)

I gotta admit – I agree with folks on this – there is a problem here.

Twitter is like any other social network – it’s no fun unless you have friends to follow. It does make sense to create a list of people for new users to add and it avoids having to create a “Tom” (MySpace) type person who will give you something to do when you first join.

My problem is around the way the list has been implemented. I have multiple problems with it:

• The only people being listed are those who already have thousands and thousands of followers. I was personally already following anyone on that list I cared about.
• The list is fairly static
• There is no clear way to get yourself on the list, beyond knowing someone at twitter.
• The list isn’t “fair.” One newspaper has already complained because another newspaper has had multiple feeds listed, they have done, and can’t figure out how to fix it.
• There doesn’t seem to be any actual logic to what’s in the list. You’d expect the list to cover a wide range of interests, but it’s all sorts of weird.

The list is truly akin to an advertisement, which, let me make clear, I have absolutely no problem with. When I was at MySpace, we created (and this still exists) an Editor’s Pick spot for applications that would receive the same sort of promotion as paid ads, but would be clearly designated as an editorial choice. Ads would be marked as ads, and anyone who wanted to be featured could ask to be listed (btw, if interested, head over to http://developer.myspace.com) more information about this program is here:  In fact, everywhere I’ve worked in the last, oh, 10+ years, has a rule that ads must state they’re ads.

The Suggested User “ads,” while not being a result of money being paid (as far as we know), are clearly there because of….something. Is it knowing the right person at Twitter, is it having a certain number of followers, is it ‘quality’ of what the person says, is it some sort of evaluation of the person themselves, what? “Payments” do not always involve cash.

Suggesting users is a great idea. The problem is in the execution, and, really, all issues that are fairly easily fixed. It is to Twitter’s benefit in the long run to make sure their users are not all following the same 20 people, and to possibly create a revenue model that doesn’t exist right now.

If the list is editorial, it should be rotated, and be pulling from a larger segment of users than just the ones who are already popular. Twitter should also tell people what the requirements are to end up on that list. If the list is going to be the result of paid sponsorships, that’s fine as well, it should just be marked as such.

Until the issues with that list are fixed, if you want to find new people to follow, I recommend checking out the #followfriday hashtag over at twitter search. You’ll be exposed to a much larger and more diverse segment of the Twitterverse than you will on the Suggested Users page.

I’ve been getting increasingly frustrated with the so called feminist movement in the web community. There have been a lot of these “hey, why isn’t a woman listed on this,” complaints over the last couple of months, more than I’ve seen in a long time. I really don’t like it, and think it hurts, rather than helps, our cause.

Earlier today, a question was thrown out on twitter about whether or not a woman should have been included in this article about A-Listers who have stopped blogging, Jason Calacanis, Michael Arrington, and the latest to join the list…Dan Lyons.’

My answer was no, I couldn’t think of an A-lister who belonged on the list. In fact, the only female blogger I could of who would even remotely fit the concept of the article was Kathy Sierra, but that was almost a year ago now, and the article was listing recent blogging drop outs.

Fact is, there isn’t a woman to put on the list. Period. It is one thing to not include a woman on a keynote of a conference about women (as happened a couple of weeks ago). It’s a whole other thing to ask why women aren’t included in everything.

10 years ago, I did lots and lots of interviews and panels about women and technology. The internet was male dominated, it still is, but it was certainly worse back then. There was blatant hostility towards women, we were genuinely afraid (at times) to openly be a woman online and it was important that we talked about it to change things. I took the same view then I did now. Don’t treat us any differently, don’t make concessions or lower standards because we’re women. We can totally rise to the challenge and beat you at your own game.

I thought things were getting better, and have said as much over the last few years. Sure, the industry is still male dominated – hell, my own company is comprised of 11 men and me, but so what. This generation of teenagers are growing up with computers, and I fully believe they will be heading into technology in mass numbers. Things are, without a doubt, going to change.

I never, ever expected to hear “women must be included everywhere just because they’re women.” That’s just not true, and it really upsets me to hear that. I think it’s destructive to our fight for equality, and only perpetuates the belief that men need to pander to women.

I don’t know where this came from. I’m a little concerned that it’s related in some part to the mommy blogger movement, which, for better or worse, is convincing some (with emphasis on SOME, I’m not trashing the entire movement) women that they should be rich and famous just because they blog about pampers. Male or female, you’re not going to get rich off of a blog. Period.

Do I sound bitter? Good, because I am. We’re taking steps backwards, not forwards.

Women are looking at gender first, then content. Please stop it. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the problem now really is with the women, not the men. And that’s pathetic.

Equality needs to start with us. If women can’t even act like they’re equal to men, then we can’t expect men to treat us that way. Stop using gender as a sword, and acting like you’re entitled to something special because you’re female.  Act like you’re equal, and you’ll be treated equally.

To get back to the original point here, stop pointing out every single thing that doesn’t include a woman! It doesn’t matter, and it sure as hell doesn’t help.

I have issues with a lot of conferences. The panels are rehashing the same stuff over and over and over, and the “real” work gets done at the parties or talks in the hall between sessions.

She’s Geeky is an “unconference,” meaning that there are no panels, long keynotes, or presentations. All we talk about is what we talk about. It’s awesome.

The first session I went to this morning was about gaming…and it wasn’t even my session, someone else ran it! It was fantastic, an hour or so just talking with a whole bunch of women as interested in games as I was. We also focused on areas of games that you wouldn’t hear at a typical conference – educational, children’s, casual games, that sort of stuff.

My big takeaway (in addition to meeting all these great women) was the discovery of a program called Alice. Not only does it have the same name as my fantabulous niece, but it is – get this – a 3d GAME that teaches kids programming. REAL programming. I am blown away, and am totally going to use it.

Liz Henry also has a good writeup on the session, and I will add links to others as they come online.

I’m currently in a session about twitter, talking on twitter. I think that says enough right there about how much Twitter effects our lives these days. As someone just said… “it is the ultimate elevator pitch.”

I’m always being asked for links to people to follow on Twitter. This is often phrased as “gimme some things to follow, because I don’t understand why I should bother.” So, here you have it – my list of fun Twitter stuff.

First, learn all about twitter here:  A Newbies Guide to Twitter (http://twitter.zappos.com/start ) – this was written by the CEO of Zappos, (who you should also follow http://twitter.com/zappos ) and is still to date the best explanation I’ve seen.

Now that Tony’s taught you all about twitter, add these “people” who I find really entertaining:

Sockamillion http://twitter.com/sockington – Yes, this is a cat. But I think this is easily the funniest “person” on twitter – I adore seeing him update. I think my cats are jealous.

CobraCommander: http://twitter.com/CobraCommander – remember GI Joe?

SARAH http://twitter.com/_S_A_R_A_H_ – Sarah is the house in Eureka (tv show). Gotta love a twittering house.

Whole Foods http://twitter.com/wholefoods – Yummy.

Captain Hammer http://twitter.com/captainhammer – from the singalong blog, of course.

Darth Vader http://twitter.com/darthvader – needs no explanation

I Can Has Cheezburger http://twitter.com/ICHCheezburger – Cat pics, what else!

Donna Noble http://twitter.com/DonnaNoble – not so active these days, damn that amnesia

Martha Jones http://twitter.com/MarthaJones

Southwest Airlines http://twitter.com/SouthwestAir

Stop the Spam http://twitter.com/stopthespam Twitter spammer updates. Always fun to get a new follower update, then see that person reported by Stop the Spam within the same minute.

FreebieAlert http://twitter.com/FreebieAlert

TechInsider http://twitter.com/techinsider rumors, gossip. Not always correct.

The Coop http://twitter.com/andersonscooper FAKE Anderson Cooper.

Anderson Cooper http://twitter.com/andersoncooper REAL Anderson Cooper

Pirate Bay http://twitter.com/tpb News about IP and the internet

El Gato http://twitter.com/el_gato And another cat.

Twitter http://twitter.com/twitter Twitter news, status updates

CNN Breaking News http://twitter.com/cnnbrk

Mars Phoenix Lander http://twitter.com/MarsPhoenix – if you were watching this guy a few weeks back, you would have seen the “wee, we found ice!” update. Cutest thing ever.

NASA News Feed http://twitter.com/NASA

For real people…search Twitter for your friends, for celebs, for websites you like – you never know who or what you’re going to find there. Another way to find people to follow is to look at who your friends are following.

You can also reading Twitter easier by hooking up sms or getting a client ( http://twitter.com/downloads or check google to find some, there are TONS).

There ya have it – the basics of twitter. If you do decide to join in on the obsession, leave your twitter name here, or shout out to me so I can follow you – @stephaniebambam. Just remember – 140 characters or less!

Enjoy!

I don’t know how this happened, but some random dude’s avatar is currently the logo on twitter. Harmless, but too funny not to share..

And yeah, my twitter obsession continues…

Earlier today, someone – I can’t remember who, I follow too many people – commented on Twitter (tweeted, I guess) that “Twitter is the gateway drug to blogging.” I wholeheartedly disagree.

Of the many, many messages I sent out on Twitter over the past week, five of them could have easily been blog entries. In fact, at least two of the messages probably would have turned into blog entries, had I not already released the emotions and thoughts around each over Twitter. That’s kind of a shame, the entries would have been interesting. But I truly don’t feel like writing them now. I already did, in very short form.

A blog entry requires actual writing. A somewhat decently written “article” focused around a thought. There is time involved, no matter how short the entry is, which means there is always a time delay from the moment I come up with the thought to the satisfaction of posting the entry. A computer is also required, since I don’t like typing a lot on my blackberry. I used to come up with ideas for blog entries and save them for later. I’d email them to myself at home, scribble them down on a post-it, whatever. These days, instead of saving an idea for a later blog entry, I immediately post it on Twitter.

All you need for Twitter is a phone. There isn’t any real writing or time involved, since the largest a “tweet” can be is 140 characters. I’m able to immediately release the thought, and forget about it. Or watch and see what other people think, which, let’s face it, is what a lot of us do when we’re writing anything we share with the public. I’ve asked questions in this blog – I’m doing it right now. I’ve also done the same over Twitter. We all crave interaction and responses. Why wait until a blog entry can be written when we can instantly get the thought out over Twitter?

I know I’ve been blogging less since I first started using Pownce, then moved to Twitter. For me, Pownce was the gateway drug to Twitter. Twitter’s character limit is truly what did it for me. I can’t think a lot about a tweet, it’s too short. I could blab a bit on Pownce.

We all once said that “push” technology would change the Internet. Pointcast, right? Well, it took a while, but look…it happened. I always have Twitter on, and I’m always checking it. It’s right there, pushed to my screen. From the major to the mundane, the 154 people I’m following on Twitter right now are always talking about something I’m interested in. And believe me, following 154 people is a somewhat small number for Twitter. I get my news from Twitter, even, my coworkers laugh at me for how often I end up saying “I just read on Twitter that….” Who needs a newspaper, when I have CNN Breaking News on Twitter?

To those of you who haven’t discovered Twitter yet, beware. Remember your life before email? One day you’ll remember your life before Twitter. I truly believe the impact will be just as significant. We may not always be using this one service, but the lifestreaming Twitter has created won’t be going away anytime soon. We are genuinely interested in the tiny details of other people’s lives, just like they’re interested in the details of ours. They say everyone’s a voyeur. Do I really need to know that someone is ‘going to get a glass of coke?’ Or someone else is ‘putting the baby to bed?’ Not at all. But I keep following….

Find me on Twitter as @stephaniebambam.