Sports Techie Milestones I

Sports Techie Milestones I by community curator and blogger, Bob Roble
Sports Techie Milestones I by community curator and blogger, Bob Roble

Welcome to the brand new Sports Techie Milestones version I written especially for our global sports community who happens to be both the 99% and 1% of the wealthy in the world because we all like sports technology. This first monthly blog will showcase what is happening to the expanding Sports Techie community, our innovative company and with me, THE Sports Techie. Whether is it the latest product, trend or social media happening, the Sports Techie virtual eye is always on so here we go.

The Big Game

Read our blog about the Intuit Big Game TV ad contest for smallbiz owners where the grand prize is a Super Bowl 48 commercial. I entered Sports Techie into this wonderful sport and tech business opportunity. Please follow this link and vote for us daily #TeamSmallBiz at: https://www.smallbusinessbiggame.com/wa/Sports-Techie/373979.

IQ by Intel

Exciting news here is that I will be blogging and writing for the IQ by Intel community which is truly an honor. To know that the Lenovo laptop computer I use in 2013 that has an Intel CORE i5 chip inside which is as fast as a super computer in 1992, is in large part thanks to Intel’s processor speeds. My first assignment yesterday was to interview the ‘Inside the Huddle’ panel that included the Intel Datacenter Vice President and General Manager, STATS Sports Solutions GM, NFL Hall-of-Famer Jerry Rice, and Kevin Meers, Harvard University senior and former NFL analytics intern, while focusing on fantasy football, big data and analytics. Watch this Bleacher Report video – Inside the Huddle: Unlocking Intelligence in fantasy football: http://youtu.be/JFaULGJF6Ic.

The Sports Techie was interviewed by the new Al Jazeera America about sports technology
The Sports Techie was interviewed by the new Al Jazeera America about sports technology

AJAM

I was happy to get the following quote from the new Al Jazeera America, @AJAM, Interview Producer, William Jones.

“I email from Al Jazeera where I work as a producer. We wanted to do an interview tomorrow, looking at the continued advancements in sports technology across the globe (goal line technology in soccer, instant replay in baseball etc.) and the impact it is having on sport as a whole. Looking at your experience and blog posts, I couldn’t think of anyone better in the U.S. than yourself to offer us perspective on this! Would this be of interest? If so, what’s a good number for me to reach you on in the morning?”

I was humbled by this message from William and truly excited to understand that he felt this way about my sports technology knowhow which has been hard-earned over several decades. Getting picked up by a limo, then driven to downtown Seattle to record the interview at the Fisher Broadcast Plaza that is home to KOMO and ABC, was a feather in my career cap. Too bad this was a rehearsal interview that was not made public so I can not share it with you, perhaps next time.

Seattle Seahawks Director of Guest Services, Tom Pitzer, spoke to the Sports Techie community blog about their new NFL No Bag Policy system.
Seattle Seahawks Director of Guest Services, Tom Pitzer, spoke to the Sports Techie community blog about their new NFL No Bag Policy system.

NFL No Bag Policy

I was able to go down to Century Link field for the first preseason NFL game by the Seattle Seahawks in order to find out how the new NFL No Bag Policy went. I consider this a historical sports technology event because of all the tech involved to help protect fans, players and the teams. I spoke to the Seahawks Director of Guest Services, Tom Pitzer, about this new sport system.

It turns out the Seahawks did more than was required by the NFL in that they had three stations located outside the gates where you could store your bags and get a free, see-through bag, that could be filled with allowable items. Other new procedures in place were the bomb sniffing dogs and metal detection wands you see at concerts and schools. Tom said, “The wands should make things go faster than our previous pat down search.”

Sports Techie Baby

Week four as a stay at home Dad is here and so far it is the most challenging, rewarding and love filled job I have ever had. Being a Father is even better than acting as the curator of the Sports Techie community. You can see a picture of Kellan at the Woodland Park Zoo (which they retweeted) with his Foursquare wiggle-head check-in prize here: https://n5y.1cd.myftpupload.com/sports-techie-baby-kellan-loves-his-woodlandparkzoo-wiggle-head-animal-foursquare-check-in-prize-from-the-zoostore/.

Social Media

I am really turned off by twitter right now and extremely impressed with Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.  As the turmoil in Egypt and other parts of the globe are fueled by social media, we here in America best watch our own backs when it comes to the depth of big data we produce which as we all know, is accessible by the NSA and preferred SM advertising partners.

Twitter

Andrew Stone (@twittelator):
8/15/13, 4:55 PM
Twitter is killing off third party apps.

via Twittelator

Twitter is “killing off third party apps,” according to Twittelator app founder, Andrew Stone. Twitter founded the company fully embracing an entire community of programmers and has now turned their back on them unless they are a preferred vendor.

Twitter has become a nightmare over the past month for me at @SportsTechieNET because of imposed tweet limits that were assigned out of the blue. If you walk my walk you might feel the same way. After tweeting nearly 65,000 tweets with little problem, I am now having a consistently terrible experience on a daily basis. I understand that @AJAM plans to give a voice to the 99% and talk to the 1%. I am sharing this bad user experience in case you need to know that you are not alone in what I consider to be a monopolistic operation.  I have been blocked today, yesterday, and probably tomorrow, with no end in sight.

I contacted my third-party app provider, Twittelator, in order to find out if their app was the issue. It turns out, it is. After nearly four year, Andrew tells me:

Andrew Stone (@twittelator):
8/16/13, 6:33 PM
My contact at Twitter won’t respond to me…

via Twittelator

Every day for over a month now because I bought and paid for the Twittelator Pro third-party app, I am being blocked by twitter on a completely random basis.  These are the three constant messages I have had to work around every day.

  1. Tweets: 1,000 per day. The daily update limit is further broken down into smaller limits for semi-hourly intervals. Retweets are counted as Tweets.
  2. You are over the daily limit for sending Tweets. Please wait a few hours and try again. Learn more.
  3. Your account may not be allowed to perform this action. Please refresh the page and try again.

My next step was to then read the twitter rules which only made me more frustrated by its arbitrary wording:

https://support.twitter.com/articles/15364-about-twitter-limits-update-api-dm-and-following#

https://support.twitter.com/articles/68916-following-rules-and-best-practices#

On August 10th, I had the following exchange with twitter @support, copied below.

Hi,

If you’re still unable to tweet, we’d like to know some more specific information. If you’re having trouble tweeting via the web, please make sure you’re using the latest version of your browser. If you are unable to tweet with an official mobile client, please make sure you’re using the latest version of the app. If an upgrade hasn’t resolved the issue, please reply back and let us know what you’re using and we’ll follow up with you shortly! (Note: we are unable to provide support for third-party applications)

Twitter Support
support.twitter.com
@support

——————————

My response:

Hi,

I use the latest Windows Explorer and Twittelator. This just started happening two weeks ago and is a real pain to deal with. I have the latest versions of the browser and app. I emptied out the history, cache, etc. from Explorer already.

Thank you for resolving this so I can tweet per usual.

Bob Roble

@THESportsTechie

That was the last I have heard from either automated twitter support or Twittelator. I have sent tweets about this problem to @twitter and founder @Jack but have never been responded to by either, which is actually anti-twitter if you ask me. I explained to Andrew in a DM that I would be blogging about this horrible twitter issue but he did not respond to me this time. He has started tweeting again although sadly there is nothing about a fix update.

As you go about your twitter ways and are able to tweet under the 1,000 tweets per day cap like I always do to, be aware that if you use a third-party app you are now on your own. Twitter might try and spin this by saying that third-party apps are where hackers are wreaking havoc but I suspect that this is actually secondary to them trying to get all users to use only their own app or a preferred partners third-party app. They need to spend cash and fix all the fake followers, hacker flaws, and DM’s that can be read by any app you give permission to when using twitter before they abandon third-party apps and do an IPO.

Facebook

When Facebook decided to use hashtags, I knew it would be successful and at the same time hurt twitter’s popularity and novelty.  In fact, because I cannot tweet at will like most all of you, I have decided to focus on what works, not what is broken and beyond my control.

Another thing I like about Facebook is that my followers are made up of family, friends and celebrities. With celebrities, it all started about three months ago when I saw actress Rose McGowan pop up in the search for new friends. After she accepted my invitation, it has been a cascade of celebrity friends I have connected with.  Interesting to watch how they use fake names and try to get to the 5,000 follower cap as quickly as possible. Most have multiple Facebook accounts that are cared for by someone else most of the time. I do not want to name drop, however, it is truly amazing to know that as a blogger and Sports Techie community curator, I can now influence celebrities too.

I will share what has been posted on my wall by celebrities. Fleetwood Mac singer, Stevie Nicks, made a sweet comment on our son Kellan’s first hospital picture the day he was born. Just the other day, Matt LeBlanc, from the TV show Friends, liked my present profile picture. Thank you both. I am tickled by the fact that I am now part of the Rockefeller private group on Facebook; he is a member of one of the pioneering families in our country’s history. His post about a global order caught my attention.

Our Facebook Fan page has not grown too much because I have not paid to advertise, you need a marketing budget to do that. Please join Russell Wilson, Eminem, and one of my best friends, Steve Caniglia, by clicking here: https://www.facebook.com/SportsTechie.

LinkedIn

The LinkedIn social media platform is the most underrated of them all for business, whether that be sports, tech or any other Industry. I am approaching 3,000 personal contacts and our open Sports Techie group has nearly 1,100 members who range from executives at ESPN, Fox Sports, and the U.S. Olympic team, to a diverse mix of students, first-time job holders, as well as corporate management, IT department heads and company owners. You are welcome to join us anytime here: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Sports-Techie-2958439?trk=myg_ugrp_ovr.

Klout

I have a steady score of 56 out of 100 because of @SportsTechieNET. My personal @THESportsTechie account has a score of 54. Klout has given me free perks I have earned such as a Chevrolet Volt test drive, a free subscription to Red Bull magazine titled, The Red Bulletin, and many more. Thank you very much to Klout and their marketing partners for validating my social media influence as the curator of the Sports Techie community.

Other things to note about Klout include how they weigh twitter data far too much with their algorithms and completely undervalue LinkedIn. Klout began as a startup that leased floor space from twitter in San Francisco until they were able to raise investment funds and move into their own place. So it is easy to understand why they are in the back pocket of twitter. I believe the idea that engagement is being used as their top indicator on twitter is off.

Being consistently ignored publically by twitter, the NBA, MLB, the NFL, my hometown Microsoft, and many others, is hard to take when I try and engage them as I routinely do. In fact, the more I get ignored when I send a tweet to a user, the more I believe that Klout is way off base. Do companies actually understand that their SM moderators play favorites to the determent of the business? They better because it is happening all day, every day. Stop rating twitter like it is a popularity contest and use that valuable analytics data to change your Klout calculations for the better.

Perhaps LinkedIn is asking them to pay cash for their API data which Klout seems to not want to do otherwise they would factor them in more heavily than they do. ESPN and the NFL have new sportsbiz partnerships with Klout; however, I am not sure if any actual money was exchanged. In the end, Klout will have to pay LinkedIn and others soon enough to ensure their own SM ratings credibility.

Google+

Google+ seems to get blasted by heavy users of any other social network; however, I like their SM platform because Google does outstanding work in general and they have smart employees. When you look at Google+ with a long-term vision and from a global perspective in mind, you understand how they are not going anywhere and will only get better over time. Plus, YouTube is awesome, subscribe here: http://www.youtube.com/user/sportstechie.

We do have a new Sports Techie Google+ Community for you to join here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/110834477188729219919/communities/103708211458464405078

Contest Giveaways

You can enter our free $25 iTunes Gift card giveaway prize thanks to Kia here: https://n5y.1cd.myftpupload.com/kias-hamster-trio-unleash-a-flurry-of-2014-sport-technology-soul/

Ten lucky Sports Techie members will win a free magazine subscription via Zinio, enter here: https://n5y.1cd.myftpupload.com/zinio-is-offering-ten-sports-techie-digital-readers-the-ultimate-free-magazine-subscription/

SportsBiz

I have been tweeting with the hashtag #sportsbiz (Sports Business) since I founded Sports Techie. The thing I like about it is the passion that tweeters have for this hashtag and others. Whether it is #smsports (Social Media Sports), #digisport (Digital Sport), or my faves, #SportsTechie, #SportsTechnology and #SportsTech, you can find real-time and archived content by searching them.

Finally, this Sports Techie milestone series is available for sponsorship, as is our blog and tweet streams. Contact me at [email protected] with all sponsor and blog inquiries.

It takes a Sports Techie to know a Sports Techie
It takes a Sports Techie to know a Sports Techie

Sports Techie, Thank you from the bottom of my human heart for being a Sports Techie, for reading and sharing my blogs, and for engaging with fellow community members.

It is hard to believe that over 3.5 years ago I decided to go for it and founded Sports Techie during the FIFA South African World Cup in 2010 because I knew after Moderating the official New Giants historical wiki, and the online communities of the Houston Rockets, Atlanta Thrashers in the NHL, and HBO Entourage, in addition to writing a blog for DWTS and MSN, that sports technology was about to become a massive $250 billion Industry. What began as one-person has grown into an online community of thousands that are located all over the world.

What will the next Sports Techie Milestones II blog be about? Time will tell but if this blog’s content is any indication, you can bet the Las Vegas spread that we will continue being the original Sports Technology community, resource and blog for all-time.

I will see ya when I see ya, THE Sports Techie @THESportsTechie – http://twitter.com/THESportsTechie

Newest – Sports Techie Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/SportsTechie/

Sports Techie Twitter: @SportsTechieNET – http://twitter.com/SportsTechieNET
Sports Techie Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/SportsTechie
Sports Techie YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/sportstechie
Sports Techie Google+: http://gplus.to/SportsTechie
Sports Techie Google+ Community: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/103708211458464405078

Sports Techie Linkedin Group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Sports-Techie-2958439
Sports Techie Mobypicture: http://www.mobypicture.com/user/sportstechieNET
Sports Techie MySpace (Bob Roble): http://www.myspace.com/549000677
Sports Techie Flicker: http://www.flickr.com/photos/86791607@N04/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/67964145@N05

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