Twitter and Africa

In what may prove to be the most random thing ever, I embarked on a new nerd project today. I incorporated three interests of mine, Africa, Maps and Twitter. I wanted to compare the "twitter footprint" of each country- just how many mentions might each African country get in a week? I used tweetdeck for my "research". I quickly discovered that, using the week long search history, most of the countries had reached the maximum 100 search records. To combat this I instead searched using the hashtag #. I've never understood the reason for using hashtags but it helped this exercise since it greatly reduced the number of search records.

I went ahead and multiplied the results by a million. I did this a.), because it seems to be the way to do these things and 2, because comparing .0000001 and .0000003 isn't all that interesting, or at best, less interesting than when increased to numbers we're more used to seeing.

A few things stood out:

1. People don't often refer to their friends named Chad using hashtags. That, and I'm glad Ocho Cinco hasn't done anything worth mentioning in the last week.
2. I forgot Lesotho! Oops. I checked - zero hashtag mentions, so it's safe to say it would be yellow in the map below.
3. Differentiating between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo for this exercise is not worth the effort.
4. Not a single person mis-tweeted the word Mail by typing Mali in the last week.
5. More people live in Washtenaw County in Michigan than Western Sahara. While that isn't a surprise, it was surprising to see that the county which boasts both Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan had no #mentions in the last week.

You can click on the map below for a larger image.



I hope you enjoy this little nerd project. I've done a few others you should check out including:

Africa-US Relations
Michigan Man on the Moon
Unredeemed Giftcards

Each country is listed below in its category

Tweet Champs
Seychelles
Western Sahara
Botswana
Mauritius
Liberia
Namibia
Gabon
Madagascar

Very High
Somalia
Gambia
Ghana
Zimbabwe
Cape Verde

High
Congo
Guinea-Bissau
Kenya

Moderate
Rwanda
Swaziland
Malawi
Uganda
Sudan
South Africa
Mauritania

Low
Morocco
Djibouti
Senegal
Burundi
Zambia
Egypt
Tunisia
Congo (Kinshasa)

On Twitter life support
Libya
Mali
Eritrea
Tanzania
Ethiopia
Nigeria
Guinea

Tweet Chumps
Benin
Niger
Algeria
Sierra Leone
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Togo
Chad
Angola
Mozambique
Côte d'Ivoire
Comoros
Central African Republic
Equatorial Guinea
Sao Tome and Principe

Happy map making, wander-lusting, tweeting and blogging.

For a great perspective on the topic, check out Soyapi Mumba's Blog post

My Top 10 Pet Peeves

On any given day this list could look quite a bit different but I thought creating a list of my Top 10 Pet Peeves would be fun. I'd love to add yours to the list. Go ahead, let it out!

These are in no particular order.

1. When people pronounce the "s" in Illinois. If it doesn't belong to the state, it didn't make a noise... Get it?

2. Old people who use the u-scan at the supermarket and use change to pay for all of their "no barcode" items for which they can't read the #'s.

3. People who open the door and stand there for more than six seconds, therefore forcing you to run to the door to offer your thanks.

4. People that don't pay attention to the other bidders on the price is right and therefore don't recognize the bid that would guarantee a spot on stage.

5. Waiting in line at Subway only to discover the person in front of you brought a list of customized subs for the entire office. They often start with "Sorry, but I have a lot." Don't apologize to them, apologize to me.

6. Twitter timing out!

7. Commenters on posting boards who criticize others for their poor "grammer".

8. ohio. Both the state and THE University.

9. Ugh, Nancy Grace!

10. Heirs to Nigerian fortunes who need me to hold on to their money for awhile, but who will reward me handsomely

Discussion and Map of US-African Relationships

With President Obama's recent trip to Africa I started thinking about the political relations between the US and the many African Nations. The forgotten continent is a source of great natural resources, cultural richness and strategic geographic location.

I thought it would be interesting to facilitate a conversation on US-African relations. I've created a draft map of Africa showing each country's relationship with the United States. I've broken the map into six different categories, Negative, Strained, Neutral, Improving, Positive and Good.

These ratings ARE completely subjective. This draft is based on my knowledge of African-US relations along with some quick research. It was hard to define criteria for the six different categories I used but listed below are a few general guidelines.

Negative - Beyond minor political differences, a negative rating suggests severely strained and complex relationships.

Strained - Various issues have caused either sanctions or specific actions by the US Government.

Neutral - While some positives are included in the relationship, various issues prevent a better relationship with the US

Improving - Countries who have historically had a strained relationship with the US but are improving and steps have been made to better the relationship.

Positive - Most African Countries were placed in this category which represents a cordial relationship, mutual respect and support.

Good - Often involving military agreements with the US and strong support of each other in International groups such as the United Nations. These nations also generally have respected democratic political processes with duly elected leadership willing to work with the United States.



Again, this rating system and the ratings themselves are subjective. I welcome your comments, suggestions and criticisms. I'm really interested in facilitating a discussion on the US relationships with African countries. Let me know if you agree or disagree and WHY!

I've included the categorized list below. To get a large, high quality view of the US-African relationship map, click on the image.


Negative
Somalia
Sudan

Strained
Eritrea
Zimbabwe

Neutral
Mauritania
Gambia
DRC
Libya
Central African Republic

Improving
Liberia
Angola
Congo
Uganda
Algeria

Positive
South Africa
Burkina Faso
Ghana
Côte d'Ivoire
Guinea
Sierra Leone
Guinea-Bissau
Cape Verde
Seychelles
Mauritius
Comoros
Malawi
Madagascar
Mozambique
Rwanda
Burundi
Swaziland
Lesotho
Namibia
Gabon
Ethiopia
Kenya
Egypt
Chad
Niger
Cameroon
Equatorial Guinea
Nigeria
Benin
Togo

Good
Morocco
Mali
Senegal
Tanzania
Zambia
Botswana
Djibouti
Tunisia
Sao Tome and Principe

Playman Track & Field App for iPhone...and some other goodies

When the App Store was launched last year it completely changed the way I used my phone. For several months I was very successful in my "don't pay for apps" policy. It was all new, and there were so many free apps to choose from that it was a pretty easy rule to live by.

Early this year the success of my policy began to waver. The first app I bought was Koi Pond from the Blimp Pilots. At only 99 cents, the graphics, sound effects and the sense of equilibrium achieved through playing with the little Japanese fish, the app was well worth the cost. In fact, I was so thrilled with the app that I searched for other Blimp Pilots apps and ended up purchasing the Distant Shore app. At first I really liked this app. I thought it opened up a yet to be explored social networking niche. Whereas most social networking sites focus on your friends, Distant Shore focuses on connections based on chance and anonymity. I don't think I've launched the app in a month or two.

Back to the apps.

After those first two, I still attempted to follow my no-pay policy. I still felt pretty good about scrolling through my screens for friends and saying I'd only paid for two. It helped that some fantastic apps were released for free, the best possibly being the google earth app. The useful apps from the big guys were almost always free, AIM, google voice search, facebook, seadragon etc.

Over the last month or so my policy has more or less evaporated. So much so that I usually check the paid apps before the free ones. I've realized that, big boys excepted, you get what you pay for.

I wanted to share with you one in particular today (and I have the feeling more will follow), the Track & Field App from Playman. Unbelievably intuitive, you can participate in five different events, 100m dash, 110m hurdles, long jump, pole vault and javelin. The game's "fun factor" reminds me of the original Nintendo games. The graphics aren't breathtaking but they get the job done. There are only two buttons to press and some timing. It's one of those easy to play, impossible to master apps that seem to be a rarity in the app store.



The other thing worth mentioning about this app is it is great for quick play. It loads quickly and you can pick up right where you left off as there is a top notch auto-save feature. So, you can whip out your phone on the can, pass a level or two and feel like you accomplished something...you know, multitasking.

If you happen to have an iPhone or iPod touch and end up getting the Track & Field app I offer perhaps THE tip to help you do well: The alternative green dots you have to press are a seemingly randomly generated sequence, switching from left to right and back again. However, the green light will never appear on one side more than twice in a row. As such, if you get two green lights on the right side, you can immediately click the left side and gain some valuable time. You WILL need to use this strategy to get past the second round!

I'm looking for some more app buys, let me know of any you recommend!

The Ubiquitous Billy Mays

Given my previously stated mainstream-ism, it should come as no surprise that I was a big Billy Mays fan. I never gave any serious thought to buying any of the products he's endorsed, with the exception of that amazing impact gel, but I found Billy to be a great entertainer and a hell of a marketer.

Recently I was intrigued by the not-so-made-up rivalry between Billy Mays and Vince the Shamwow guy. The competition between them was great to read about.

Upon hearing the news of his death, I was reminded of a facebook status and resulting thread talking about Billy. I thought I'd share that thread with you.


Ryan Buck is wondering who would command the room were both Billy Mays and Vince the Shamwow guy around...what do you think?

Darrell Harden at 7:17pm February 7
I'm giving the nod to Billy Mays. He's louder. Then again, Vince the Shamwow guy would clearly insist that Billy can't do that all day.

Ryan Buck at 8:21pm February 7
yes...only for the next thirty minutes could he keep that going!

Jessica Jones at 11:57pm February 7
I think you'd just set it and forget it.

Ryan Buck at 11:38am February 8
A Ron Popiel reference. Good one JET! Now we need a good Chef Tony one!

Steve Stepek at 9:08am February 9
Totally Billy Mays! He'd seal up Vince with some space age polymer Smart Lidz borrowed from Chef Tony!

Ryan Buck at 9:09am February 9
are ya gettin' this camera guy?

Camille Stark at 3:23pm February 9
i have to go with the shamwow guy....i bet he could work a room

Darrell Harden at 8:04pm February 9
While I'm still giving the nod to Billy Mays, I'm thinking Vince the Shamwow guy would inflict some damage, as he's also Vince the Slap Chop guy.

Ryan Buck at 10:36pm February 9
I noticed he can't do it all day with that either.

Darrell Harden at 11:05pm February 9
I noticed that, too. Then again, that little thing chops up stuff in a hurry, so maybe he doesn't feel the need is there. Even still, Billy Mays has a much greater array of weaponry at his disposal.

Darrell Harden at 11:06pm February 9
Sidebar: I'm rather intrigued by the amount of interest this status has created. Good status, Ryan.

We'll miss ya, Billy.