Quick'n'Dirty: 'The world isn't flat'

Last week's Quick'n'Dirty podcast focused on something near and dear to a lot of our listeners' hearts: thinking globally. It's a struggle for a lot of people to often act and think digitally beyond the confines of their respective metropolises, but it's something upon which we all need to improve. Our guest, IdaRose Sylvester of Silicon Valley Link, joined me and co-host Aaron Strout to talk about just that, and she discussed bringing international entrepreneurship into Silicon Valley, too.

IdaRose, a true connector and business strategist, talked about the digital trend differences between those overseas and those here in the United States, discussed the notion of country-level niche social networks rather than goliath social networks, and addressing language dynamics. Be sure to listen to the recap for more.

You may have noticed that I haven't yet mentioned a featured social application, and that's because we didn't have one. Not for lack of choices, but because our point / counterpoint was so interesting to us. We discussed the question: Does the world need more than one Twitter? Based on a GigaOm article that surfaced last week after the social network's longest downtime in recent history, we discussed how Twitter has become a critical communications vehicle. And, because of that, should there be some kind of viable competitor or back-up? What do you think? Listen to the recap and then share your thoughts in the comments.

Finally, we celebrated our featured Twitterer of the week: Alex Howard (@digiphile). Alex is the Gov2.0 DC Correspondent for O'Reilly Media and an all-around great Twitterer. He's fun to follow, smart, and publishes some great stories and interviews. Alex, we love your tweets!

This week we'll talk to Michael Dahn, founder of the very popular Security BSides unconference series. Please join us live at noon PT / 3 ET in the Blog Talk Radio chat room or feel free to listen anytime on iTunes.