techPresident - Seriously, how do I know you? - Comments

Portable Social Networking

Luigi Montanez — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:26:27 -0500

This is just one example of why social networks as closed systems just doesn't work. Our social graphs should be completely open, relying on open standards to get us there. I recommend checking out technologies like the XML Friends Network (XFN) and concepts like Data Portability and Distributed Social Networking to get a feel for what's been popping up around the Tubes. This is going to be big in 2008.

List dreams

Ari Melber — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:20:25 -0500

Interesting points, Greg. A more segmented friends list feature could enable people to run the equivalent of several facebook profiles -- distinguishing parts of their life that they want seperate. Most people would not bother to use the features, just like 80% of Facebook users leave their privacy settings on default, but it would address a lot of the power, intimacy and privacy issues raised by Facebook's growth towards the "Google of People" (Jarvis).

ps I cover more of the privacy and surveillance issues for Facebook this week at TPMCafe:
http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/tableforone/2007/dec/26/facebook_the_nationa...

Relevance-adding addendum

Greg Bloom — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:36:47 -0500

For political organizing purposes, this is an important matter. As an 'advocacy professional,' I'd like to reach out to people who I meet through my work - but I don't want to communicate with that network in the same way I would with my personal networks, so incorporating these circles together would restrict the information that I feel comfortable putting out in any direction.

So instead, I have two Facebook profiles: one for my advocacy self and one for personal use. It's really problematic. People find two me's and are confused or even (oddly) indignant. I really don’t want to have two wholly separate selves, and it's against Facebook's rules anyway. (Shhh! Don't tell?)

The same problem occurs in the other direction: when an organizer tries to activate social network users to advocate for political issues in the social network. People are going to be more willing to incorporate this advocacy into their identity (i.e. their profiles and newsfeed activity) if they can direct that advocacy to the specific contexts where it’s appropriate.

With these narrow problems in mind, the Friends List feature is a step in the right direction. But a more dynamic process of contextualizing each contact would be far more useful.

Seriously, how do I know you?

Greg Bloom — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:47:38 -0500

Facebook grapples with Boyd’s Law of Social Networking, but it might be missing the point.