If you haven’t tried out zipline yet, you really should check it out. It’s like Twitter, only for photos. When Twitter first started to take off on the web, I couldn’t figure out why people would want to post mundane details of their life, but after playing around with Zooomr’s zipline over the last month or two, I’ve started to really appreciate the benefits to being restricted to just 250 characters.

For those of you who read my blog regularly, you’ll know that I have a tendency to be a little long winded with some of my posts. I try to write shorter blog entries, but once my mind gets preoccupied on a topic, it’s hard for me to keep things short and sweet.

For the most part, I think that people prefer unique analysis over a couple of sentences and a quick link, but the downside to this is that because of the amount of time it takes to write my posts, there tend to be a lot of topics I want to write about, but never get around to (or at least I don’t get around to it until it’s too late.)

Right now readers can use my Profilatic mashup if they are really interested in what I’m bookmarking and digging, but there is no way for me to explain why something might be of interest or my thoughts on a web page that I’m clipping.

When I first started using Zipline, it was really hard for me to get used to the 250 character limitation, but the more I use the service, the more I appreciate that it forces me to be concise.

Because the RSS feeds are so new, I suspect that it will take a few weeks before Zooomr gets the bugs worked out, but the major benefit of having access to my Zipline feed is that it allows me to integrate Zipline content into other areas of the web.

As an experiment, I’ve installed the BDP RSS Aggregator on DFDC. This allows me to mashup my zipline directly into my website. Right now, Zooomr hasn’t released an RSS feed for all of my friend’s ziplines, but by combining my own feed with the BDP RSS aggregator, it at least allows me to broadcast my zipline on the net and on other sites that I use.

I’m still having some problems with how the feed is formating, so I’ll still be experimenting with other widgets, but keep an eye on this feature because I plan on using it more regularly in order to showcase the many great blog articles that I come across each day.

As more users begin to experiment with the feed, I’m sure that we’ll see the community figure out even better ways to mashup the content, but for now this small feature allows you to do some pretty creative things with the technology that is already out there. If you’d like to subscribe to my zipline feed directly, you can find it here.

Update – I’m having trouble getting the feed to display right. The photos look good, but my posts are showing up twice. I know that there is a way for me to use html and tell wordpress to strip out the titles, but I’m still trying to find the code for it. If any one has any suggestions on a plugin that will let me publish just the content of the posts and not the headlines, feel free to make suggestions. In the meantime, I’m going to take the zipline down while I figure out a way to improve the cosmetics.

Last week, I was walking through the city, when I heard this strange drumbeat coming from one of the nearby blocks. It was a loud series of clacking noises followed by cheering and pandemonium. I wasn’t sure what it was, but was glad that I had taken my camera with me on this trip. As I arrived at the block, I saw a large group of kids watching another kid skateboard in front of the Levi’s building near Union Square. There were probably about 30 kids in total and they had only been there for a few minutes at best.

I was never very good at skateboarding, but I could tell that the kid they were watching, was really talented. He was a natural, every move made it look like the board was an extension of him. While I was watching, he was trying to jump at least 10 feet worth of stairs, without landing head first into rush hour traffic. If I was this kid’s dad, I would have been totally freaking out, but as an innocent by-stander with a camera, I was more than happy to start snapping off shots of the blood and guts successful landing on his amazing jump.

Each time the kid jumped, the crowd would give him more encouragement. After watching him eat it three times, I thought he was ready to give up, but finally he landed another one and when he did, the response was amazing. You would have thought the kids were about to start rioting. Immediately, all of the kids started banging their skateboards on the sidewalk chanting again and again. It was a very surreal experience, it was way outside my normal day to day life in the city. It was as if I stumbled onto a lost tribe in the middle of San Francisco.

Eventually, the kids attracted the attention of security and had to take off, but watching them celebrate this accomplishment, reminded me of what it was like to be young again. They really weren’t hurting anyone with their skating, but you can bet that it was a lawsuit waiting to happen for the property managers. It seemed strange to be able to see both sides for once.

When I talked with the kids, they were really excited that I got pictures, but made me promise that if I sold the photos, that the proceeds had to go to them. I don’t know why they thought I would be able to sell them, but they must have taken one look at my Canon Rebel and thought that I knew what I was doing. My images are not exactly stock photography quality, but these kids were so excited by what they had seen, it didn’t matter. You should have seen their faces when I told them about Zooomr marketplace. I asked them what I should charge and they wanted college savings money, but eventually I talked them down to $100. It’s not enough to pay for any future hospital bills, but it would at least be enough for the kid to buy a helmet. If you are interested in licensing the images of this death defying act, feel free to send me a Zmail and we can work out the details.