Twitter Terrorism

 

Does this look like a Tweep?

We’re all pretty aware of the power of Twitter, even if we’re not currently immersed in the microblogging network, right? There are plenty of influential people using it from politicians and celebrities, to media outlets and fictional characters. Apparently though the military is concerned about terrorists utilizing this network to aid their cause. A report was released earlier this month discussing scenarios in which Twitter, among other things, could be used for terrorism. ComputerWorld’s post about it cite’s the protests that occured during the Republican National Convention. The protestors used Twitter to keep an eye on police movements and coordinate their efforts.

 

I’m slightly annoyed that yet again we are giving ideas to the terrorists. It’s true that they may have already considered the uses the report outlines, Twitter’s applications are pretty limitless, but why risk the chance and just give it to them? Another thing, even if terror groups are using Twitter, is there any way to really control it other than shutting down Twitter? I can just see it now, banks of computers at the NSA with operators simply watching Tweet Grid all day. Seriously though, isn’t Twitter just as likely to be used by terrorists as anything else? They already use cars and guns. Surely to employ Twitter they’d be using cell phones. Can the government really do much about controlling this medium without imposing on rights? My ultimate point is, even if terrorists might use Twitter like the rest of us, is there really anything the government can do besides sit and watch?

Last thought… Are all the people throwing money at Twitter funding terrorism? Gonna have to keep them under surveilance now too. (Cheesy, I know, I had to though)

Pennies on the Dollar

I stumbled across this auction site a few days ago that has a very unique (and very ingenious) business model. PushDeals offers high dollar electronics at reduced prices, similar to everyone’s favorite, Woot!. How reduced? Yesterday they sold a new, 8 gig iPod Nano for $0.27. No I didn’t put the decimal in the wrong spot. The first day I found the site, a Wii package valued at $349 sold for $6.84. With only 2 items going on the auction block per day, opposed to Woot’s surplus of 1 item, you have to initially wonder how they’re turning a profit.

The beauty is that you actually pay for the ability to place a bid. Here’s how it works: All auctions start at $0.01 and bids go in $0.01 increments. That means the Wii package had 684 bids. Each time you bid, you’re essentially paying $1 for that bid. That means the Wii brought in $684 and netted PushDeals $335.

So why does the bidding stop at such low prices, surely people are willing to spend more on these items right? What determines the winner is actually not that no one else is willing to outbid you, it’s a timer that resets after every bid. You raise the previous person by a penny, and you restart a 2 minute clock that will determine the winner. You have to hope you were just lucky enough to place your bid in the 2 minutes when no one else is paying attention so you can sneak in under the radar. Harder than it sounds because if the other users are anything like me, I watch my bids like a hawk. There’s nothing so heart wrenching as having someone place a bid with 1 second left on your timer; your immediate impulse is to place a bid out of spite.

So congratulations to them on creating an addictive business model that is yielding great margins on some of these auctions. Also, shame on them for creating an addictive business model that’s taking my attention.