Every now and again I show up somewhere and wind out talking about techy things that aren’t necessarily appropriate for public consumption.  Most recently it was a Sunday BBQ at the home of @alum and his lovely wife.  He and I somehow (probably my fault) started prattling on about Twitter when another guest chimed in with, "what’s that?  Is that another Facebook or Myspace?"  Neither of us had a really great way to explain the service to her.  (I didn’t use my sex analogy, but I should have.)  Ultimately, I told her it was only for early adopters, to which she replied, "you mean people like you guys."  Ha!  Yes, precisely.  Although, maybe more like myself than @alum — I don’t want to implicate him in its use.

This got me to wondering who really is using these almost daily new web 2.0 apps and the like.  Part of my explanation to the listening guests involved my admitting that, from a branding standpoint, whenever I find a new service or app, I want to sign up with my desired username before anyone else can.  So it’s more of a fanboy frame of mind from that perspective.  However, there still is the geek set in me that wants to turn and tweak every setting, and scan through the code if it’s available.  So, I don’t know.  It’s fairly middle of the road as I see it, but I’d have to lean toward mostly fanboy since I sign on to any and every service with the same name and photo.  I’m a branding maniac in that sense.

I checked the people I follow on Twitter and they are mostly tech bloggers or local Sacramento dwellers.  I define most of them as fanfolk — the tech bloggers, at least — the type of people who use Apple products simply because they’re not Microsoft products and are much easier to manipulate than Linux-ware.   These people are always ALWAYS using or at least talking about the latest and greatest web 2.0 apps.  Unlike the Geeks, the Slashdot folks, who you’ll find repeatedly complaining about shoddy algorithms and miss named quanta.  Definitely not the same people.  So it goes.  And it’s not just my Twitter stream, you’ll find the fanfolk in my feedreader, too.

The truth of the matter is, the fanfolk are the early adopters.  They’re willing to sign up and beta test whatever app you toss them and they want to be the first to blog and microblog to you whether it’s cool or not.  They are the cool kids of the scene, regardless of whether or not they know what they’re talking about, and they are probably going to determine whether or not an app makes it to mainstream.  Before we get carried away, let’s be honest: would you rather roll out on Friday night with iJustine or CmdrTaco ?  Umm…no contest.  iJustine, drinks and tech talk?  My treat.  Ring me when you’re in town.

Early Adopting, For Geeks Or FanFolks? was first posted to justinll.com on August 25, 2008.