[ajug-members] Social Media

Fri Aug 29 14:01:33 EDT 2008

That is so true, but I have heard people say that in the future
information like that will lose its stigma.  I remember when I was a
young kid any politician that ever did drugs was out of the running.
That's not true any more.  My guess is once a certain threshold maybe
50% of the population has embarrassing photos online those photos won't
matter any more.

-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Mawata [mailto:Christopher-Mawata at utc.edu] 
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2008 11:05 AM
To: ajug-members at ajug.org
Subject: Re: [ajug-members] Social Media

Problem is that the cat fight now becomes a permanent public record.
With the improvement of search engines you can bet her future employer
etc will see it. Information can be useful but it is a two edged sabre.
Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: "Trujillo, Marty" <R_Martin_Trujillo at adp.com>
To: ajug-members at ajug.org
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:12:35 -0400
Subject: Re: [ajug-members] Social Media

I've been thinking about this subject for a couple of days and while I
have never gotten into social media myself I have children that have (I
am old too).  

I've noticed an interesting phenomenon with regards to Facebook.  I call
this phenomenon "enhanced experiences".  As my kids have become socially
active an energetic minority of their friends in their social networks
(off line not online) seem to have embraced the historian role.  My
estimate is that 2-5% of any teen group snap large numbers of pictures
at every experience.  Then they eagerly post all of these pictures on
the Facebook website.  

It gets interesting at large events like HS Football games, big dances,
school trips... any event with more than 300 people.  It becomes
interesting because at the 300 person threshold there are 6-15
historians present.  The event is recorded from 6 to 15 different
perspectives and Facebook provides an easy way for all 300 people
enhance their own personal experience.  For example I remember one of my
kids mentioning that an acquaintance stumbled by appearing drunk and
angry about an hour into the prom and then that same acquaintance was in
a fight later that night (some things never change).  Over the next few
days as the photos from Facebook appeared we examined pictures of the
acquaintance (mostly in the backgrounds of other people's photos) from
before the prom all the way until after the prom.  It was easy to piece
together the whole story.  My child experienced prom, but her experience
was enhanced because she was able to understand the experience from
additional perspectives.

That weekend I remember thinking that in many video games one of the
keys to success is experience points.  I also thought that tools like
Facebook have the ability to award additional experience points in life.
That same weekend I replaced the brakes on my wife's car.  I had
replaced the brakes two times before.  The first time it took me two
hours to replace them and it was a terrible experience.  The second time
it took me a little less than an hour to replace them and it was still
pretty miserable.  That weekend it took me around twenty minutes to
replace them and it was actually kind of fun.  I had gained replacing
wife's brakes experience points so I had become more efficient.  I
remember thinking that if I had reviewed photos of fifteen people's
experiences changing brakes and someone pointed out the mistakes that
cost time and the tricks that saved time I probably could have gained
experience points a lot faster than I did just bumbling through it
myself a couple of times.  

My daughter learned that it's a bad idea to get mad at your boyfriend
before a formal and then start drinking heavily.  The pictures of the
cat fight at the end of the night were not pretty nevertheless some
useful life experience points were gained.

So I think kids these days are using Facebook to enhance their social
experiences and learn life lessons.  I also think that tools like those
will eventually be built to enhance their speed at mastering new skills
in the future.

Thank you for your time.

Marty Trujillo

________________________________

From: D Smith [mailto:devonpsmith at gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2008 9:01 PM
To: ajug-members at ajug.org
Subject: Re: [ajug-members] Social Media

A new-wave phone directory indeed.  I agree with you Jamil.  When I
dabbled in real estate these social networking sites worked well as my
directory of sorts.

Burr - You're old, but so too are most of us, myself included, who have
not quite caught on or stayed up with these sites.

On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 5:40 PM, Jamil Karim <jamkarim at gmail.com> wrote:

The discussion on this topic has been interesting so far, but I'd like
to present another way for you all to think about MySpace, Facebook and
LinkedIn.  Think of them as the modern day equivalent to the phone book.
Seriously.

Without a phone directory, you have to know the phone number to call, or
ask an operator for help.  This is similar to the problem we previously
faced with electronic communication -- you had to know a person's email
address (or their instant messaging name and service) in order to
communicate.  There was no simple "directory" to browse in order to find
someone's information.  Now, with MySpace, Facebook and the others, you
just need to know a person's name, and that person has to be "listed" in
the directory.  It's an opt-in system, as opposed to an opt-out system
like the phone directory (where you have to explicitly get an "unlisted"
number.)

Further, the functions of a "Yellow Pages", "White Pages" and "Grey
Pages" are all available (albeit in different forms):
   Yellow Pages - a directory of business listings.
      - Businesses today are attempting to create profiles on these
social networks with mixed success.  Meanwhile LinkedIn, a social
network with a business/work angle, attracts people to link up to former
co-workers.  The emphasis is on the individual and his connections as
opposed to businesses and their services.  The more traditional function
of a Yellow Pages is pretty much captured by businesses having their own
web pages and being found through search engines -- outside the realm of
social networking.

   White Pages - a directory of residential/personal listings.
      - Here is where social networks like Facebook and MySpace shine.
They allow you to connect to your everyday friends.  Unlike a telephone
conversation though, which has a definite beginning and ending,
connecting starts a dialogue that really doesn't end.  Once you've
become a friend with someone, they can see your status, wall, friends,
etc.  In some senses, it's better -- you don't have to be told that a
friend broke up with someone, or changed his job, or is a fan of
Arrested Development.  Knowing that info can help you start
conversations in the real world -- "Hey man, I didn't know you liked
Arrested Development..."  In other senses, it's worse... you have to
wade through a lot of irrelevant information (who just earned a badge in
"Parking Wars", who woke up this morning and doesn't feel like working,
etc.) that is sometimes about people you barely know.

   Grey Pages - a reverse telephone directory -- find out the name of a
person or their physical address by using their phone number -- or find
the name and phone number from an address.
      - Once connected to a person, you can see all of their other
contact info (which sometimes includes their physical address) through
their profile.

Social networks, of course, go further than telephone directories.
"Groups," "Networks" and even "Applications" allow people to connect
with others that share ideals or similar interests.  Some of these
applications actually fit the concept of "Grey Pages" better -- for
example, in Facebook there is a "Neighborhood" application, where people
state where they live (sometimes more than city and state -- down to the
community or subdivision).  You can then connect with people from your
same community.

Later,
 Jamil Karim

On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 5:29 PM, Burr Sutter <burrsutter at gmail.com>
wrote:

	I'm sure there are many people besides myself trying to figure
out why the craze behind MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

	So I setup a Twitter account: http://twitter.com/burrsutter
	And a Facebook account under Burr Sutter

	and now I'm wondering why all the excitement.  Now my sister can
"write on my wall" and in theory if I'm diligent everybody who wishes to
"follow me" can see where I'm at based on twitterrfic and the iPhone.  

	I don't even do a good job with the Linked In account and I've
completed a single blog entry in a year!  

	What does this mean?  That I'm just getting OLD! ;-)  Some of
this new technology must be for all those young whippersnappers.  

	And how does this type of technology impact our lives? Our
careers? The way we make decisions about the technologies we use? Are we
that much more swayed by opinions of our peer group?

	What do the rest of ya'll think?

	Let's have a fun discussion and you're free to tell me that I'm
just getting old!

	Burr

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