On the subway ride to the airport today in NY there was an ad for a new construction project at Fulton St. It had a Twitter account for status updates, but no Facebook account. Not sure why, but if you had asked me to bet whether Twitter would be mainstream, just a couple of years ago, I would have bet against it. And would have lost.

Another angle -- LinkedIn is for business contacts. Facebook is for connecting with classmates and friends from days gone by. Twitter is for news. What is Foursquare for? And then what is Facebook's checkin service for? I mean, when it all shakes out. It can be hard to forsee.

But I got a glimpse of the utility today when I checked in at the Seattle airport. I could see 20 people I knew who had checked in earlier today. Presumably most of them are still here tonight. It gets me thinking. I wonder why this person is here. I have a theory why this other person is. And there were some surprises, and I could see some meetings that were probably happening just based on the connections between people who are here and those who live here.

Back in the old days when I'd arrive at an Esther or Stewart conference, first thing I'd do after checking in is review the list of people who were also there, and plot out a route through the network of people who were there. I felt that way today when reviewing the check-ins at Seatac. And realized that social networks of today make good models for the face-to-face conference networks we used to depend on for connecting.

Does Foursquare have the critical mass to pull off what Facebook just did for me today? Do they have that focus? Are they trying to position as the business-based social place-aware net? And LinkedIn should get this feature soon if they want to fend off an intrusion by Facebook. Hey it may already be too late. Or I may totally not understand what's going on.

This is the page that you get to from the Support button in the Buddies window of the Instant Outliner built into the OPML Editor.

If you have a question about using the tool, please post a comment here. But first, read the docs linked to here. It's bad form to ask a question that's answered in the docs.

A few notes...

1. Current status. I'm running a server for a very small number of people while I work on the software and protocols behind it. If I sent you a username and password then you have access, otherwise, please be patient.

2. The server software is included in the release. If you know how to work with Frontier as a programming environment it certainly is possible to set up your own server, so you don't have to wait for me. In fact, I would appreciate it very much if you didn't. I'm not particularly interested in operating your server. I am interested in a having a tool I can use with others to collaborate on interesting project.s

3. If you want to see what's going on on my server, there is a log.

4. Be sure to update your OPML Editor frequently. To do so choose Update opml.root from the File menu and click on OK to the prompts.

5. There is a universal binary of the Mac app, but it has display glitches. If you want to use an app without glitches then stick with the PowerPC app, but it requires Rosetta to run. Or use the binary app if you don't mind fumbling around a bit. I hope we have the display glitches solved soon.

11.13 mi, 56 minutes.

Took a ride early today, beat the traffic, and the wind. Gorgeous clear day.

I am reminded that I have been spacing out posting to dailymile.com. I will try not to forget in the future. It would be really cool if they could bridge cyclemeter.com and dailymile.com. I would be more than happy to help work out the tech, which would be very simple. Come on guys, perfect opportunity for integration. It'd take at most a day on each end to get it working. And dailymile wouldn't even need any help from cyclemeter.

I managed to sneak in a ride at the end of the day yesterday.

The highlight of the ride, if you can call it that, was my first collision with another bike. It wasn't my first collision, when I was in junior high school I was hit by a car riding to school. No serious injuries, just some scrapes. Yesterday's accident was even less bruising.

Here's what happened.

First, the lanes were hugely crowded. Lots of walkers and people crossing the path. Some not realizing that it's a road, and stopping to have conversations in the middle of it, with little kids running into the path of oncoming traffic. One has to ride extremely cautiously in these circumstances.

Near the end of the ride, I'm pulling up to an intersection where a stopped bike is just starting up, shakily. I give him wide berth and hope for the best. As I'm approaching, he lurks to the left, into my path. I say On Your Left, but he shifts further to the left. I hit the brakes and come to a stop next to him. He tips over onto me and we both go down. I ask "Are you hurt?" he says no and asks if I am. I say no. I get up and put the chain back on, getting my hands real greasy. That was the extent of the discomfort. It took five minutes to get back on the road, and as you can see from the map, only slowed me down to an average of 7 MPH during that mile.

I ended the trip at dusk feeling really good and ready for a nice Italian dinner with a friend visiting from California.

Map. 9.95 miles. 54 minutes.

See yesterday's Instant Outlining update.

Here's how you get on the Instant Outliner.

1. If you haven't already done so, install the OPML Editor.

2. When it asks if you want to update to get the latest parts, say you do.

3. From the Outliner menu, Instant Outliner sub-menu, choose Open My Outline. Your browser should come to the front asking for your username and password. Enter them and click Submit.

4. Repeat step 3, this time the outline will open.

5. To create a new entry, click the New Entry button in the window. Type the text. Then hit the Save button.

6. You will see in my outline a section with people you can follow. It's still very quiet, and probably will stay that way for a while. The best thing to do is to use the outliner to narrate your work, and eventually we'll add some discovery tools.

From there, if you have questions, post them here.