Tagged with Social Networking …

Jan 02 2012
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Technology and Web

Identity and Anonymity

You Are Not Your Name and Photo: A Call to Re-Imagine Identity | Epicenter | Wired.com

Christopher “moot” Poole, creator of the controversial bulletin board 4chan, gives one of the most insightful talks about identity on the web I’ve ever heard. He argues, and warns about the problem of only having the option of only one fixed identity. Social networks like Facebook, he explains, are convinced on the idea that you are only one person. I remember reading Mark Zuckerberg saying that presenting different identities to different people is unethical and dishonest. Poole argues, which any human being would agree, that we are more multifaceted than what Facebook and other social networks think we are, or like us to be. It’s not a question of anonymity vs real profiles. The problem is not having a choice to be who we want to be or to present ourselves the way we want to be seen.

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Nov 30 2011
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Technology and Web

Stamped

IMG 0140Stamped is a new iOS app that is quickly rising to popularity. It’s being compared to the Instagram app because it’s also an iOS only app. But that’s not the only thing they have in common. Like Instagram, Stamped is a social networking app that mostly exists on the iOS platform. And like Instagram, Stamped has a superb and slick interface.

The problem Stamped is trying to solve is creating a better user recommendation platform. There’s a lot of noise and meaningless 4 stars and likes out there. Many social networks are doing this, but Stamped is really on to something here. The way they’re trying to create this is with giving the user a limited number of Stamps. You start out with 100 stamps. There are set categories you can Stamp like restaurants, movies, books, and music, but you can Stamp practically anything. They only way you get Stamps back is by getting credits and you get credits by getting Stamped by your friends.

I’ve been using it for over a week. It’s very addicting and it really makes you more critical on what you will be stamping. “What is Stamped worthy? Should I stamp new stuff or old stuff?” Those are the kinds of healthy questions it makes you ask yourself.

I agree though with Brett Kelly’s review over at the Nerdgap. The food and restaurant category is not going to be very useful if the friends and people you follow live thousands of miles away from you.

Overall, highly recommended. Do check out the app if you have an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.

*Way better review I recommend is Shawn Blanc’s http://shawnblanc.net/2011/11/simple-social-networks/

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Feb 13 2011
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postaday2011, Technology and Web

The Secret History of Social Networking [38]

BBC – Podcasts – Secret History of Social Networking

BBC podcast series on the history of social networking. From BBS’s to Facebook and beyond. The series is divided in three 29 minute episodes.

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Feb 08 2011
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postaday2011, Technology and Web

A Rant About Facebook [30]

And Now, For No Particular Reason, a Rant About Facebook « Whatever

I agree with 70% of what the ranter says about Facebook, but I’ve been using a bit more these days. As he mentions in the post, Facebook is the place were everybody’s at. It’s the web thing that most members of your family get and use. I’m agnostic about Facebook though. You really can’t prove or disprove is impact on society… yet.

(Via The Story’s Story)

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Nov 10 2010
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Technology and Web

The Super Logoff

Danah Boyd | Apophenia » Risk Reduction Strategies on Facebook

This is a bit extreme.

Mikalah uses Facebook but when she goes to log out, she deactivates her Facebook account. She knows that this doesn’t delete the account – that’s the point. She knows that when she logs back in, she’ll be able to reactivate the account and have all of her friend connections back. But when she’s not logged in, no one can post messages on her wall or send her messages privately or browse her content. But when she’s logged in, they can do all of that. And she can delete anything that she doesn’t like. Michael Ducker calls this practice “super-logoff” when he noticed a group of gay male adults doing the exact same thing.

(Via Waxy.)

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Jun 30 2010
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Technology and Web

Why People Play Farmville

Cultivated Play: Farmville

When taken apart, Farmville fails to meet the standards of what’s considered a “good” game. So why do people play the damn thing? Just good old peer pressure.

The secret to Farmville’s popularity is neither gameplay nor aesthetics. Farmville is popular because in entangles users in a web of social obligations. When users log into Facebook, they are reminded that their neighbors have sent them gifts, posted bonuses on their walls, and helped with each others’ farms. In turn, they are obligated to return the courtesies. As the French sociologist Marcel Mauss tells us, gifts are never free: they bind the giver and receiver in a loop of reciprocity. It is rude to refuse a gift, and ruder still to not return the kindness.[11] We play Farmville, then, because we are trying to be good to one another. We play Farmville because we are polite, cultivated people.

Also, and this is just me, Farmville and other games like it on Facebook are popular because most people really don’t know what to do on Facebook.

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May 18 2010
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Technology and Web

Scan Your Facebook Privacy Settings

ReclaimPrivacy.org | Facebook Privacy Scanner

Screen shot 2010-05-17 at 10.52.07 PM.png

Not sure how your privacy setting are configured exactly? This web tool will figure it out for you. Still doubt about how private a status update really is? Check out Openbook.

(Via Travors)

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May 15 2010
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Technology and Web

The Start of the Social Network Migrations

Creating a Network Like Facebook, Only Private

The project, which is still in development, is called Diaspora* and it aims to be an open source and more private network. Diaspora means Jews living outside of Israel by the way, so there’s a intended pun in there. The kids that started the project are planning to code until they die.

There’s also Gink on the horizon.

(Via Laughing Squid)

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May 09 2010
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Technology and Web

Facebook – To Big, To Fail

While Facebook’s popularity keeps rising, its reputation has been dropping since the recent privacy changes. Betty White declared it a waste of time when she hosted SNL, even though her hosting was supposedly possible because of Facebook. She was joking of course, but I don’t think FB is a brand that people feel they should apologize to. Some people have deleted their accounts. Others are considering it.

I was reading a post over at the Tomorrow Museum called “Friend Hoarding“. That post led me to “Facebook is Worse Than AOL“. There’s a quote in that last post from Matt Haughey, founder of MetaFilter, that says that (paraphrased) “Facebook is like AOL in 1997 wanting to be everything to anyone”. But as the saying goes, when you try to be good at everything, you never get good at anything.

Facebook’s popularity is surely not going to stop growing, but they’re getting more infamous than famous. They’re trying to be the hub of the web, but the web is a huge wild animal. You just can’t put it in a white and blue container. They’re trying to be too big and they’re certainly going to fail if they keep trying.

*See what I did there with the subtitle?
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May 01 2010
1 Comment
Technology and Web

The Numbers Game

Stop Chasing Followers

Cut throat advice by Zeldman.

You don’t want a million people reading your HTML5 blog. You want members of the HTML5 working groups and key influencers from Google, Apple, and Microsoft reading your HTML5 blog. Likewise, it’s better to have twenty meaningful comments than a thousand +1s.

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