After a couple revisions of the Packawhallop web site (www.packawhallop.com) Gordon and I decided to manage all the content we could using social networking tools, like Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook. The question: Why?

Two reasons:

1. Social networking is really useful for making connections. For Packawhallop, as a hosting and software products developer, that’s particularly compelling: We do want to get the word out about the great things we’re doing, and we want to share the great things our customers, friends, colleagues and even peers are doing too. But, although we’re growing soon, Packawhallop right now is a two person shop. Social networking maximizes our marketing and outreach efforts.
2. Social networking tools rely on centralized data management systems. Sure, most (the better tools) have API’s for data aggregation, but Twitter.com is serving Tweets, Tumblr.com is serving blogs, Facebook.com is serving networkings, etc. Centralizing the database means there’s a single point-of-failure. If Twitter.com goes offline so do your tweets. So, Gordon and I wanted to use Packawhallop as a guinea pig to see how robust these tools really are.

Stay tuned for the follow up blogs to this entry: Part 2 weighs enthusiasm (hey, it’s ours too!) for shiny new tools with anxiety about reliability and control; Part 3 discusses architecture and implementation. Hey, it’s one thing to say you use x tool. It’s another to actually use it - in your own web site!