I recently had the opportunity to review a copy of the Gambryo software used by several major titles, including "fallout 3" to make very compelling, immersive gaming experiences.
Its an incredible piece of software that makes turning your virtual idea into a reality much easier than other titles Ive seen in the past.
In order for it to really change the world,though, it needs to become free. Right now it costs something like $80,000 per user per title, which is kind of ridiculous to say the least. I understand their business model, but its, quite frankly, the most short sighted, lame ass thing Ive yet to have seen in the software world.
If Gambryo were free, and anyone could use it anywhere as long as they had power and a simple computer, we could experience a renaissance in art, economic opportunity, turning around 2nd and 3rd world economies by allowing an onslaught of creativity to be unleashed on the planet the likes of which the world has never seen.
Unfortunately for mankind, we have companies like Microsoft and Sony that believe that they need to heavily control all the creativity in the world, and own everything. So the only ideas that get released are ones that are directly aligned with the ideologies of children who get little or no attention from their parents, gamers who spend most of their time in dark, cavernous rooms completely devoid of social contact (and probably bitter about it as well), and nostalgic CEO's who think the coolest games ever made were in the 70's and 80s.
However, if simulations could be developed by anyone, anywhere, with the only limit being the imagination, we might find that Mozart, that Rembrant, the Gallileo of gaming has been living in Mumbai or Nairobi all this time, and we may experience world changing creativity with much more regularity.
Lets look at writing for example. Where on earth can you find more diversity than in the written word? Why is that? Because a pen and paper don't cost $80,000!
Second only to writing is music, and again, anyone can make music and in the past few years we've seen an explosion of diversity in music because the technology has become relatively cheap and available.
Next is movies. Inexpensive video cameras and editing equipment have created an opportunity for an incredible amount of content that has literally exploded and instead of making it harder to make high end movies, high end movies are instead profiting more than they ever have been.
On the web, html pages and flash games dominate the web only because the creation tools are free and relatively easy to get.
In Second life, we have a 3d platform with simple but less than optimal tools for creativity (junk compared to Gambryo) but even there, we see an absolute explosion of expressiveness that barely reveals the creative explosion waiting to happen but is being limited by backwards thinking corporations.
Now, even with gaming tools being so difficult and expensive, we see a massive industry of gaming. Given the potential though, if game publishing were as easy as making a movie on your desktop computer, or writing a blog (at least the expense part), I bet we would see an incredible explosion of revenue to the extent that the gaming industry would 10 or 100x its size practically overnight, and make new, fulfilling, creative jobs for millions of people globally.
Microsoft and Sony have the power to do it, but they don't because they are short sighted, selfish, and afraid. Shame on you folks. Google? Where are you? Buy Gambryo/3d studio max, and make it free!!!
Friday, January 8, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Why flash is better than HTML for presenting information online.
There are a lot of people dissing flash, and I wanted to quickly note a few reasons why Flash is actually a better way to present information and offer user interface/functionality than the old, outdated technology of HTML and its derivatives.
1. Flash gives the author control over how the content is loaded and displayed. Would you want to watch a movie or read a book that had all the scenes or pages out of order? Had the pages come in varying sizes sometimes? let you see the ending before the movie starts?
Perhaps you would, but the director of the film generally knows how you will get the most out of what they have to say, and needs to present the information in a certain order, with a certain context. One of my favorite things about flash over HTML or even second life (www.secondlife.com) is that you can hide everything while it loads so the user doesnt end up seeing only the text with no images, or the layout all mangled like often happens with facebook.
2. Flash lets you discreetly send and receive server infomration without interrupting the user experience. Say you need to fill in a form or something. With HTML the entire page refreshes, so all your UI controls temporarily disappear then possibly reappear but in entirely different places. Session management is entirely haphazard at best.
3. Flash provides the opportunity for extreme precision in placement and timing of information for the user. With HTML, again placement using layers, alpha channels etc, is still difficult and clumsy compared to flash, and the result is either simple websites that are no significant improvement over what AOL looked like in 1995 (IE Facebook, google, ebay, CNN etc.), and cannot use timing and animation to present information on more of an intelligent, as required basis.
Of course, there are lots of poorly built flash based sites just as there are poorly built sites in all technologies, but with Flash, there is the greatest potential for UI perfection, ease of use, and intuitiveness perhaps than any other technology in existence today. HTML represents the lowest common denominator and if your website /platform is entirely based on HTML, it certainly says something about your respect for your message and your audience.
I realize the irony of using an HTML based blog to post these remarks, but I do feel that if Blogger offered a flash based system, they would have the potential for being far more elegant and intuitive for their audiences and would ultimately increase their readership due to the improvements over the potential losses of those who refuse to evolve and install flash players or other "new fangled technology"
1. Flash gives the author control over how the content is loaded and displayed. Would you want to watch a movie or read a book that had all the scenes or pages out of order? Had the pages come in varying sizes sometimes? let you see the ending before the movie starts?
Perhaps you would, but the director of the film generally knows how you will get the most out of what they have to say, and needs to present the information in a certain order, with a certain context. One of my favorite things about flash over HTML or even second life (www.secondlife.com) is that you can hide everything while it loads so the user doesnt end up seeing only the text with no images, or the layout all mangled like often happens with facebook.
2. Flash lets you discreetly send and receive server infomration without interrupting the user experience. Say you need to fill in a form or something. With HTML the entire page refreshes, so all your UI controls temporarily disappear then possibly reappear but in entirely different places. Session management is entirely haphazard at best.
3. Flash provides the opportunity for extreme precision in placement and timing of information for the user. With HTML, again placement using layers, alpha channels etc, is still difficult and clumsy compared to flash, and the result is either simple websites that are no significant improvement over what AOL looked like in 1995 (IE Facebook, google, ebay, CNN etc.), and cannot use timing and animation to present information on more of an intelligent, as required basis.
Of course, there are lots of poorly built flash based sites just as there are poorly built sites in all technologies, but with Flash, there is the greatest potential for UI perfection, ease of use, and intuitiveness perhaps than any other technology in existence today. HTML represents the lowest common denominator and if your website /platform is entirely based on HTML, it certainly says something about your respect for your message and your audience.
I realize the irony of using an HTML based blog to post these remarks, but I do feel that if Blogger offered a flash based system, they would have the potential for being far more elegant and intuitive for their audiences and would ultimately increase their readership due to the improvements over the potential losses of those who refuse to evolve and install flash players or other "new fangled technology"
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
New device desireable, old device undesireable
Ahh the Onion...couldnt have said it better myself.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/new_device_desirable_old_device
Thats it for today.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/new_device_desirable_old_device
Thats it for today.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Google Wave is Google's "vista"
Here I am alone in Google wave. There are some buttons I can press, lots of familiar interface elements, but no contacts, no one to "wave to".
So, I'm alone. Perhaps I can create something and store it for later, just in case at some point someone joins my "wave" ? What exactly is a "wave" ? Dont really know so far, but it seems to be what I would call a conversation. You can apparently attach files, applications, pictures, sounds (usually measured in waves), and the like, so it basically looks like chat, message boards, comments, and blog posts all mooshed together in a kind of baby blue / mostly white interface.
What I had hoped was I could at least communicate with twitter, facebook, or people I know on youtube (all 5 of them), but it seems to have no interop, so their aim is to effectively redo social networking from scratch?
There are some interesting elements.
Scrollbars - Instead of having the up and down scroll buttons on the top and bottom of the scroll pane, they attach them to the bar itself. This seems practical in a way because then you can move your mouse slightly less far to get to the up and down buttons, which is probably what the mac tried to do . However, the bar doesnt resize to indicate the relative scroll amount, and covers the apparent indicator which is behind it (you can see it occasionally) so interesting try, but really its kind of pointless to change something that wasnt really broken unless you can offer a true improvement.
From what I can tell by reading the greyed out, currently unavailable menu choices, it appears that the "waves" could be somewhat of an improvement on conversations - if they were embeddable inside familiar contexts. If you could have a "wave" or a "chat" or a "thread" as a choice when you were on facebook, or someone's blog, or in a chat room on ning.com, then I think this would potentially be groundbreaking. If its supposed to happen in a vaccuum, then its entirely useless.
They are offering an api, so for their sake, a flash SDK, a ning/opensocial widget, a facebook widget, and stuff will hopefully come along soon to let people see the potential of this, but so far, just going to the wave preview was about as interesting as hanging out in an empty chatroom.
You can't get everything right, and the ability to be innovative seems inversely proportionate to the amount of money and resources one has. Microsoft has proven this for many years by only being able to copy Google's search with Bing, 10 years after Google got it working and started on a shoestring. Since search though, Google hasnt really broken any new ground, and they've instead tried to copy word processing programs, bought other peoples ideas and then squished them (youtube), and is basically starting to look a lot like Microsoft.
We'll see what happens. But from what I read on the blogs here and here, its looking more and more like Google wave is Microsoft Vista, only no one has to buy it.
So, I'm alone. Perhaps I can create something and store it for later, just in case at some point someone joins my "wave" ? What exactly is a "wave" ? Dont really know so far, but it seems to be what I would call a conversation. You can apparently attach files, applications, pictures, sounds (usually measured in waves), and the like, so it basically looks like chat, message boards, comments, and blog posts all mooshed together in a kind of baby blue / mostly white interface.
What I had hoped was I could at least communicate with twitter, facebook, or people I know on youtube (all 5 of them), but it seems to have no interop, so their aim is to effectively redo social networking from scratch?
There are some interesting elements.
Scrollbars - Instead of having the up and down scroll buttons on the top and bottom of the scroll pane, they attach them to the bar itself. This seems practical in a way because then you can move your mouse slightly less far to get to the up and down buttons, which is probably what the mac tried to do . However, the bar doesnt resize to indicate the relative scroll amount, and covers the apparent indicator which is behind it (you can see it occasionally) so interesting try, but really its kind of pointless to change something that wasnt really broken unless you can offer a true improvement.
From what I can tell by reading the greyed out, currently unavailable menu choices, it appears that the "waves" could be somewhat of an improvement on conversations - if they were embeddable inside familiar contexts. If you could have a "wave" or a "chat" or a "thread" as a choice when you were on facebook, or someone's blog, or in a chat room on ning.com, then I think this would potentially be groundbreaking. If its supposed to happen in a vaccuum, then its entirely useless.
They are offering an api, so for their sake, a flash SDK, a ning/opensocial widget, a facebook widget, and stuff will hopefully come along soon to let people see the potential of this, but so far, just going to the wave preview was about as interesting as hanging out in an empty chatroom.
You can't get everything right, and the ability to be innovative seems inversely proportionate to the amount of money and resources one has. Microsoft has proven this for many years by only being able to copy Google's search with Bing, 10 years after Google got it working and started on a shoestring. Since search though, Google hasnt really broken any new ground, and they've instead tried to copy word processing programs, bought other peoples ideas and then squished them (youtube), and is basically starting to look a lot like Microsoft.
We'll see what happens. But from what I read on the blogs here and here, its looking more and more like Google wave is Microsoft Vista, only no one has to buy it.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Installing Windows 7 on vista.
Vista was getting to be more and more of a pain. Crashing more often, windows defender zombies trying to come back from the grave after I have repeatedly tried to disable it, and after 7 years of virus free operation in the last few weeks inundated with viruses so I was forced to run zone alarm, which was incredibly annoying in new ways I could only have dreamed of before.
I went to costco and bought windows 7 "family pack" 3 licences for 179.99. Apparently the local store "Computer Angels" can also get it for that price (I imagine by ordering), but Futureshop and Office Depot didn't have the family pack and could only offer the upgrade for $129 each computer. Walmart was around 132 or something. Did some online research and found that Amazon is offering a student version upgrade for $39.99 US so thats the cheapest Ive seen yet.
First off, it seemed to take about 2 hours. What a computer needs to do for 2 hours when its processing and RAM runs at the speed of light is mind numbing. How far could you send some data at 2 hours travelling at the speed of light? Around 2,160,000,000 KM.
So after my data had managed to travel 2 billion kilometers or to the Sun and back around 7 times, the OS was finally installed.
In general, first impressions are its clean, fast, and impressively remembered almost all of my settings. It got all my bookmarks right and most of my cookies/filled in forms correct, kept all my installed programs in tact, and has all my desktop mess preserved exactly as I had it in Vista. Very impressed with this, its the best OS install I have ever experienced, and Ive been installing or attempting to install dozens of them for years on Mac, Linux and all the Windows versions.
Curiously it did get a few things wrong, the dual monitor positions were switched even though it preserved the background picture, and all my program shortcut icons were gone from the "taskbar" which seems to work differently - more like OSX does.
Some of the programs I run prompt the "are you sure you want to do what you just told me to do with 6 different actions" crap, and that did happen ONCE, but thankfully you can shut that up immediately by selecting "change when you see these notices" pushing an easy to use slider down to the bottom. Presto, no more "cancel or allow" garbage which has been the bane of my existence with Vista.
Windows IE 8 so far is snappy and intuitive. Enjoying it so far.
Another curiosity is Windows 7 seems to have eaten Windows Movie Maker. Its completely gone and there appears to be no Windows 7 version of it available in any of the Microsoft packs. I actually preferred it to "iMovie" because its much easier to edit the soundtrack independently of the video clips, plus the transitions and overlays had more options. Thats a disappointment, but I'll keep vista running on another box so I can still access it if I need it.
It seemed to find the other computers on the network faster than before, which is nice.
Another pleasant suprise was I was able to share my DVD drive on my network on the recently installed Windows 7 desktop over to my Sony VGN-P530CH, which doesnt have a DVD drive. In fact, I'm typing this part of the blog on that computer with Windows 7 on it. Very impressed, I've never heard of installing an OS across a network. It took a bit longer to install on the netbook but again, all my settings including the misc positions of my various icons are retained, almost as if the OS hadnt really changed. Even Firefox's previous session survived the OS change.
Hooking up to windows live I managed to quickly retrieve windows movie maker and mail, albeit somewhat less functional than the vista versions. Probably a temporary situation but so many web based apps are coming along that do much more like aviary.com so its not a huge deal.
Next up for me will likely be looking at a bamboo tablet to take advantage of the multitouch features.
So far, very happy with Windows 7, seems like Microsoft has finally gotten it right. If they were able to make 17 billion dollars in profit after launching a "failed" operating system, I shudder to think how much money they will post as profit end of 2010.
Thanks for reading, hope this was useful.
I went to costco and bought windows 7 "family pack" 3 licences for 179.99. Apparently the local store "Computer Angels" can also get it for that price (I imagine by ordering), but Futureshop and Office Depot didn't have the family pack and could only offer the upgrade for $129 each computer. Walmart was around 132 or something. Did some online research and found that Amazon is offering a student version upgrade for $39.99 US so thats the cheapest Ive seen yet.
First off, it seemed to take about 2 hours. What a computer needs to do for 2 hours when its processing and RAM runs at the speed of light is mind numbing. How far could you send some data at 2 hours travelling at the speed of light? Around 2,160,000,000 KM.
So after my data had managed to travel 2 billion kilometers or to the Sun and back around 7 times, the OS was finally installed.
In general, first impressions are its clean, fast, and impressively remembered almost all of my settings. It got all my bookmarks right and most of my cookies/filled in forms correct, kept all my installed programs in tact, and has all my desktop mess preserved exactly as I had it in Vista. Very impressed with this, its the best OS install I have ever experienced, and Ive been installing or attempting to install dozens of them for years on Mac, Linux and all the Windows versions.
Curiously it did get a few things wrong, the dual monitor positions were switched even though it preserved the background picture, and all my program shortcut icons were gone from the "taskbar" which seems to work differently - more like OSX does.
Some of the programs I run prompt the "are you sure you want to do what you just told me to do with 6 different actions" crap, and that did happen ONCE, but thankfully you can shut that up immediately by selecting "change when you see these notices" pushing an easy to use slider down to the bottom. Presto, no more "cancel or allow" garbage which has been the bane of my existence with Vista.
Windows IE 8 so far is snappy and intuitive. Enjoying it so far.
Another curiosity is Windows 7 seems to have eaten Windows Movie Maker. Its completely gone and there appears to be no Windows 7 version of it available in any of the Microsoft packs. I actually preferred it to "iMovie" because its much easier to edit the soundtrack independently of the video clips, plus the transitions and overlays had more options. Thats a disappointment, but I'll keep vista running on another box so I can still access it if I need it.
It seemed to find the other computers on the network faster than before, which is nice.
Another pleasant suprise was I was able to share my DVD drive on my network on the recently installed Windows 7 desktop over to my Sony VGN-P530CH, which doesnt have a DVD drive. In fact, I'm typing this part of the blog on that computer with Windows 7 on it. Very impressed, I've never heard of installing an OS across a network. It took a bit longer to install on the netbook but again, all my settings including the misc positions of my various icons are retained, almost as if the OS hadnt really changed. Even Firefox's previous session survived the OS change.
Hooking up to windows live I managed to quickly retrieve windows movie maker and mail, albeit somewhat less functional than the vista versions. Probably a temporary situation but so many web based apps are coming along that do much more like aviary.com so its not a huge deal.
Next up for me will likely be looking at a bamboo tablet to take advantage of the multitouch features.
So far, very happy with Windows 7, seems like Microsoft has finally gotten it right. If they were able to make 17 billion dollars in profit after launching a "failed" operating system, I shudder to think how much money they will post as profit end of 2010.
Thanks for reading, hope this was useful.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
I was contacted by facebook legal, and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt
I run a small online community website called "FacesForFilms.com". Until recently we were called "FilmFaceBook.com" and once we reached around 1500 members, I was contacted by a facebook lawyer to stop infringing on their brand. Apparently I was damaging their business by supposedly causing confusion.
As it happened, I had just purchased 20 shirts and several posters with "filmfacebook.com" on them out of my own pocket. The site is a volunteer effort that I maintain to help the local film community.
Not wishing to have any dispute with arguably the largest web based corporation on the planet, I quickly complied with their request. Facebook, rumored to be partially funded by the US Dept. of Defence, is not an organization to be trifled with.
So, I changed the name of our little online community as fast as I could think of a new name and register it, and all is well. The lawyer said they would send me a t-shirt, and it just arrived. It has an FB logo on the front and on the back it says "I WAS CONTACTED BY FACEBOOK LEGAL, AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT"
So I did lose about $300 in the various branded things, but at least I got a laugh out of it.
Cheers to facebook for having a sense of humor. I certainly could have done a whole lot worse.
As it happened, I had just purchased 20 shirts and several posters with "filmfacebook.com" on them out of my own pocket. The site is a volunteer effort that I maintain to help the local film community.
Not wishing to have any dispute with arguably the largest web based corporation on the planet, I quickly complied with their request. Facebook, rumored to be partially funded by the US Dept. of Defence, is not an organization to be trifled with.
So, I changed the name of our little online community as fast as I could think of a new name and register it, and all is well. The lawyer said they would send me a t-shirt, and it just arrived. It has an FB logo on the front and on the back it says "I WAS CONTACTED BY FACEBOOK LEGAL, AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT"
So I did lose about $300 in the various branded things, but at least I got a laugh out of it.
Cheers to facebook for having a sense of humor. I certainly could have done a whole lot worse.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Proprietary Content Management System Blues?
I get a lot of calls from clients concerned about a web development company they hired to provide content management software for them. People generally see software as a product like a desk, or car, and figure you buy it and it acts like a tool for you.
They couldn't be more wrong. Software is a service, and this is becoming increasingly true as our online technology evolves rapidly to meet the creativity and demands of the users.
Web companies that offer content management systems need to be seen as partners, not vendors. Get to know them well before engaging in business because you'll be linked to them for a long time. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, particularly if your success is their success, and you both work towards mutual benefit. If control is your thing, look at hiring in house talent and make sure a solid accountability and transparency structure is in place so you don't become hamstrung by an IT "silo" inside your company.
Large corporations offer software solutions in the "Cloud" but you need to have a person independent of the corporation that is on your side and in the know so again you don't become linked to a company who might diverge from or even become hostile toward your bottom line. Wow, I'm sounding all business jargon-y!
Here is some advice I wrote to a potential client today:
"Don't invest in technology, invest in people.
If you have a relationship with an existing company, invest in that relationship, and structure your contract so that everyone benefits from your mutual success. Think of software is a service, not a product.
E-learning specialty products I build are like RSS feed readers, quiz and assessment objects, simulations in video, animation and 3d virtual worlds etc. All of my stuff can be integrated into blogger, ning, typepad, youtube etc.
My immediate advice to you would be to start a blog that shares helpful stories and tips about what you do to your prospective audience. Then, create a facebook page or group and post links to your blog there, and try to get customers and friends to join it.
Then, start a twitter account and post links to your blog on twitter every time you post a new one. Once established, these tasks shouldnt take more than 20-30 minutes a week and will provide you with huge marketing.
If you are having fun with that and find it rewarding, create a youtube channel and start posting helpful videos you film yourself about what you do and how to help people. The vast majority of your training should be free, and your premium training should be specialized beyond what you offer online. Go with the intent to help people and wealth will follow. It always does.
All of these things you can do yourself and they will not work in opposition to your website, they will only help it. Your effort should be focussed on helping people, not picking colors or deciding logos. You can pay a designer $1000 to do that and basically move on quickly.
Avoid giving advice or writing general info privately. Keep your online conversations public in the comments section of your blog and many will benefit."
Hope that helps, please leave comments below if you agree or disagree, or have something to add that might help the readers.
If you are looking for great CMS solutions, check out ning.com, joomla.com and facebook fan pages/groups are excellent tools. Blogger, typepad, and youtube are also excellent tools that all integrate with the others I mentioned and provide great cross referencing to increase your "google juice" (thats TM Jeff Jarvis).
Twitter is even a CMS in a way, it manages real time tiny bites of content that can also point to and help promote your other more "meaty" content.
If you need special functionality that these systems don't necessarily offer, try to find ways or people who can build widgets that integrate with these tools and you'll be better off than building something from scratch - unless you really can bankroll and fund the ongoing maintenance of a big system - and that is your core business...but even then, interoperability is always beneficial.
Remember, successful businesses see their people, not their software as their most precious asset and invest in their collective "brain trust" to ensure coping with change will be easy. Software then supports that relationship and is by nature light on its feet and only built to handle what is necessary, not over-encumbered with "just in case" or "because we can" code.
Good Luck!
They couldn't be more wrong. Software is a service, and this is becoming increasingly true as our online technology evolves rapidly to meet the creativity and demands of the users.
Web companies that offer content management systems need to be seen as partners, not vendors. Get to know them well before engaging in business because you'll be linked to them for a long time. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, particularly if your success is their success, and you both work towards mutual benefit. If control is your thing, look at hiring in house talent and make sure a solid accountability and transparency structure is in place so you don't become hamstrung by an IT "silo" inside your company.
Large corporations offer software solutions in the "Cloud" but you need to have a person independent of the corporation that is on your side and in the know so again you don't become linked to a company who might diverge from or even become hostile toward your bottom line. Wow, I'm sounding all business jargon-y!
Here is some advice I wrote to a potential client today:
"Don't invest in technology, invest in people.
If you have a relationship with an existing company, invest in that relationship, and structure your contract so that everyone benefits from your mutual success. Think of software is a service, not a product.
E-learning specialty products I build are like RSS feed readers, quiz and assessment objects, simulations in video, animation and 3d virtual worlds etc. All of my stuff can be integrated into blogger, ning, typepad, youtube etc.
My immediate advice to you would be to start a blog that shares helpful stories and tips about what you do to your prospective audience. Then, create a facebook page or group and post links to your blog there, and try to get customers and friends to join it.
Then, start a twitter account and post links to your blog on twitter every time you post a new one. Once established, these tasks shouldnt take more than 20-30 minutes a week and will provide you with huge marketing.
If you are having fun with that and find it rewarding, create a youtube channel and start posting helpful videos you film yourself about what you do and how to help people. The vast majority of your training should be free, and your premium training should be specialized beyond what you offer online. Go with the intent to help people and wealth will follow. It always does.
All of these things you can do yourself and they will not work in opposition to your website, they will only help it. Your effort should be focussed on helping people, not picking colors or deciding logos. You can pay a designer $1000 to do that and basically move on quickly.
Avoid giving advice or writing general info privately. Keep your online conversations public in the comments section of your blog and many will benefit."
Hope that helps, please leave comments below if you agree or disagree, or have something to add that might help the readers.
If you are looking for great CMS solutions, check out ning.com, joomla.com and facebook fan pages/groups are excellent tools. Blogger, typepad, and youtube are also excellent tools that all integrate with the others I mentioned and provide great cross referencing to increase your "google juice" (thats TM Jeff Jarvis).
Twitter is even a CMS in a way, it manages real time tiny bites of content that can also point to and help promote your other more "meaty" content.
If you need special functionality that these systems don't necessarily offer, try to find ways or people who can build widgets that integrate with these tools and you'll be better off than building something from scratch - unless you really can bankroll and fund the ongoing maintenance of a big system - and that is your core business...but even then, interoperability is always beneficial.
Remember, successful businesses see their people, not their software as their most precious asset and invest in their collective "brain trust" to ensure coping with change will be easy. Software then supports that relationship and is by nature light on its feet and only built to handle what is necessary, not over-encumbered with "just in case" or "because we can" code.
Good Luck!
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