Ryan A Graves.com

I’ve been working in and with web 2.0 applications for about 5 years and in the paste 2 I’ve really focused how people use web 2.0 apps in their business and their lives. As part of the process to establish myself as an expert on social software and the craze that is web 2.0 I decided to create my social software graph.  These are the applications that I think are best in each category and how I use some of these tools.

Blogs

I’ve included my personal blog Ryan A Graves.com and also my start-up ActionsTalk. I included ActionsTalk in this category because it uses a vlog (video blog) template and because it is a site where I am the sole (with my co-founder) contributor. My blog is used not as a one way tool but as a platform to start conversations. I encourage readers to leave comments (and video comments) in order to leave feedback and thoughts. And I always reply to them!

Micro-Media

Twitter is the obviously dominant tool here. Users basically answer the question, “What are you doing?” For myself, Twitter has proven to be the most effective networking application of all of them. They have had some serious problems however with keeping their site up. The surge in users over the last few months has taken servers down an uncountable amount of times. Plurk is basically a Twitter copy-cat formatted in a horizontal time line fashion. Where Plurk struggles most is that the size of the user base, Twitters large advantage, is significantly smaller.

Livecasts

In this space I only use Ustream.tv. Ustream.tv is accepted as the best livestream tool and is used by “livestreamers” like Chris Pirillo who many times has thousands of people watching live. Another user of Ustream.tv that I follow is Jake Marsh.

Rich Media

Rich Media consist of things like video and photos. I’ve held a pro account on Flickr for a year and I will definitely continue to use this service. The quality of photos shared on Flickr is phenomenal. For video I use Viddler for uploading and sharing Ryan G TV episodes. I think that the video quality is highest, the player is clean and simple and it is very customizable. Then there is the obvious Youtube. I don’t upload many vids to Youtube but I do watch a ton! You tube has recently given blogger and founder of Seesmic, Loic Lemeur tons of trouble.

Aggregators,Activity Feeds

Aggregators or Activity Feed sites pull in the changes or activity from all of your other social software. Pulling in things like Flickr, Twitter, Last.fm and many many others. The dominant service here is FriendFeed. It is so dominant in fact that many think that FriendFeed will take over as the dominant mircro-blogging service in place of Twitter.

Audience, Communities

MyBlogLog is probably the most popular service for keeping track of who reads your blog. MyBlogLog allows you to embed a widget on your site that shows an avatar (small image) of everyone who has viewed your site. I use my blog as a platform for conversation and MyBlogLog helps me connect and converse with readers.

Social Graph

The social graph or social network is the most common type of application in the web 2.0 suite. Facebook and LinkedIn are networks that allow you to stay connected and share mediia between friends and contacts. Facebook started at Harvard and works its way around the countries colleges, while LinkedIn helps to promote business networking.

Content

In the content category its all about sharing. The internet is obviously huge and some of the most efficient ways to find good content is to see what others are reading. Sites like Digg and Del.ici.ous help people share and find the best the internet has to offer. Digg is set up in a voting format so people submit content and other users vote the content down or up the popularity scale. The cream of the crop rises to the top.

Music

I love listening to music but I’m not good at finding or sharing so the web 2.0 music apps are the ones I use the least. Last.fm allows you to share music and find friends with similar music preferences. The coolest thing about last.fm is that it suggests music that you will like based on what you ‘favorite’. Pandora does the same thing, you create a channel based on a song or artist and the following songs will be similar to that song; another great way of finding new music and bands.

Travel

Dopplr is the only tool that I use for tracking and sharing my travel.  I have a widget embedded on my blog that lets people know where I am currently and what trips I have planned in the future. Dopplr is very simple and very useful. They also ask what your mode of transportation is for each trip and calculate your use of carbon in all of your trips.

Events

I don’t create many events. But tons of events come to me, so its helpful to know what is going on and when. Because of the wide use of Facebook that seems to be the tool of choice for sharing a party or conference but recently Upcoming.com has create a stir in this space. Upcoming is great way to keep event goers informed and is also a great way to publicize an event. When ActionsTalk was first starting up we used Upcoming to promote the first ActionsTalk meeting and it worked wonders.

Niche Networks

Ning allows users to create very simple social networks. People can sign-up and share very easily. I don’t have a Ning network that I created myself but I belong to a few. The networking group in Milwaukee called Spreenkler uses Ning to organize events and the group and the simplicity of the site is what makes it so appealing.