In Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky explains one of the biggest reasons people continue to misunderstand online sharing:

"Most user-generated content is created as communication in small groups, but since we're so unused to communications media and broadcast media being mixed together, we think that everyone is now broadcasting. This is a mistake. If we listened in on other people's phone calls, we'd know to expect small talk, inside jokes, and the like, but people's phone calls aren't out in the open. One of the driving forces behind much user-generated content is that conversation is no longer limited to social cul-de-sacs like the phone."

I've been trying to tell people this for years. Clay does a great job all through this book, by the way, of explaining how our online tools are changing group-forming, which is changing society. Another choice quote:

"I have a terrible singing voice, but my children would be offended if I played a well-sung version of 'Happy Birthday' on the stereo, as opposed to signing it myself, badly."

Originally uploaded by sem

This week on Twitter, we're rolling a feature we've been working on for a while out to a lot more users. (If you don't have it yet, you will soon.) That feature is our native version of Retweet, which Biz posted about on the Twitter blog a couple months ago.

I'm looking for a system that will work with Gmail and do the following:

• Make it easy to maintain a white list
• Auto-respond to and forward every email from someone not on the white list
• Bonus: the forward goes to to different address, depending on contents of email

I was recently asked about the "death of blogging" for this article in The Economist. I didn't get back to the reporter in time, though, so my comments ended up, ironically, on his blog.

While being interviewed on stage last night at the Churchill Club, mentioning how I hardly ever blog anymore because of Twitter, my wife texted me, saying: "You should blog more, it is what gathers your big ideas!"

She's right.

She then texted: "You really shouldn't check your phone while on stage."

Which is also true.

This is not a big-idea post. Just a story.

You have a certain amount of provisions, which you have to make last until you find a way to make the island sustain life—or convince someone to send you more.

You don't know how big the island is at first or what predators lie in wait.

There's always a chance someone else will raid your island if it looks fruitful, so you need to shore up your defenses.

Eventually, if you're successful, you'll be king of your own prosperous world. If not, you'll die—or, at least, have to go home.

Either way, it's a fun adventure (until you get eaten by a tiger).