my sometimes-skeptical social commentary

Archive for the ‘web-2-0’ Category

I’ve announced on my facebook page that I’m leaving facebook’s privacy problems behind. Rather than re-write the arguments that persuaded me, I’ll just link to them in this post. (Each link opens in a new window.)

• first, here’s a bunch of news articles related to the problems people are having with facebook: Google News Search
• Electronic Frontier Foundation: Six Things You Need to Know About Facebook Connections
• New York Times: Facebook Glitch Brings New Privacy Worries
• C|Net News: Five hidden dangers of Facebook

Leaving facebook means that I have to figure out how to communicate with the people I’m connected to there who don’t have my phone number, email address, this web site address, and whose contact info I might not have. I’m letting my facebook “friends” know in advance, so hopefully I can make the transition without losing those connections. If you don’t think I have your contact info already, would you send me an email? thomas@woodswebdesign.com

I’ve considered that there are “real life” friends of mine who aren’t even using facebook, and I’ve managed to stay connected to them, using the old-fashioned methods like phone calls, and going to see them in person. I know that’s not possible for everyone on my facebook friends list, but facebook has been bugging me for a while, and it’s time to make the break.

I was one of the first grown-ups I know to start using FaceBook. I encouraged a lot of people to sign up, because I wanted to use it to (a) keep in touch with them, (b) play them in Scrabble, and (c) it’s just plain entertaining. Lots of my friends use their status update to say something very funny.

I’ve become re-acquainted with long-lost friends from grammar school and summer camps …where I haven’t been in a couple decades. I’ve played Scrabble against my mom, against geographically distant friends, and even against my girlfriend Valerie, because, even though we have been dating seriously for months, there are plenty of evenings when our schedules don’t allow us to play in person. So facebook has its value, right?

And yet, I have withdrawn from facebook again. I’ve withdrawn from facebook several times in the past, mainly because I find that it frustrates me more than it entertains me.

I have two close friends who still don’t use it, despite my many urgings that they just give in and “get on the facebook” like everyone else. I wonder if the frustration:entertainment ratio is something that my two hold-out friends have taken into consideration as they avoid joining the throngs of their friends and family who are on facebook.

There’s a good chance that anyone reading this post is a facebook user (there are more facebook users than there are Americans). So, you might be wondering, What are these frustrations?

To start with:

1. No filters.
2. No context.
3. False sense of community.

These problems are not exclusive to facebook, because there are other web sites that have the same problems. But facebook is so ubiquitous that these problems are exacerbated, in my opinion.

So let me explain:

1. Let’s start with No filters.

   No, I don’t mean that facebook should be censored. I mean that people don’t use their own built-in filters, and write a lot of junk that is just too much information (TMI). I suppose TMI is a terribly subjective qualification, isn’t it. Well, I think we all know TMI when we see it. The problem with facebook is that, once I am someone’s friend, I get their status updates, TMI and all (unless and until I hide their updates from my update stream, but then it’s too late, you can’t un-ring that bell).

2. No context is a problem, because what someone says in a Wall post or comment or status update can mean something completely different than what is intended.

   The nature of the internet is pictures, video, and short sentences. Non sentences. Smilies and non-word TXTs. Most people reading for entertainment won’t get this far into an article online. (But not you, because you just read this!) But, real life is complex, and what we say requires context in order for its real value to be implicit. What we “say” in facebook posts is not like “saying” at all, because 80% of the meaning we convey in conversation is communicated through body language and facial expressions.

3. The no context problem is related to the problem of facebook’s False sense of community.

   We don’t really know each other through our status updates and wall posts. How could we, when they say 80% of communication is through body language? Of course we know the facebook friends who are our real-life friends, but that’s what fraction of our social network?

   Another problem is caused by how easy it is to post something or post a comment on someone else’s post. No, I’m not arguing that we should go back to writing letters on paper and mailing them in envelopes (anyone have any stamps?), but there is an intentionality in letter-writing that is skipped–deleted–in the process that facebook and other Web 2.0 web sites employ to make it easier to use their sites. Is easier better? Is the movie better than the classic novel?

For example, to use a recent issue that’s still in the news, two different views on health insurance reform are going to come head-to-head in the short bursts of status updates and Wall posts. The perspective of an uninsured family who has a sick parent is not the perspective of the small business owner who has to decide on whether to expand the business or provide health insurance for existing employees. Because there’s no context, the false sense of community betrays us when our different points of view turn into flame-wars (personal attacks) or regress into ideological parroting.

So, what am I expecting from a technology? Nothing. It’s a tool, just like any other tool we have at our disposal. Remember when they said email would kill off letter-writing? When wikipedia was considered a threat to truth? When there was fear that Google would kill off research? Well, the TV has already killed off a great hunk of community and electronic media is working over public discourse…what’s left?

I’m suggesting that we should be more intentional in the way that we use web sites like facebook. I don’t know the full answer, and that’s why I’m taking a break from facebook, but I’m sure that I know people who have an idea–people who are already engaged in real community–and might have some helpful suggestions that they could post here as comments.

Will I go back on facebook? Sure, it’s just a question of when. Before I start logging in again, I want to have a better sense of why I’m there, a plan. I need to have more in mind than just “play Scrabble and find old friends” in order for there to be more value than frustration.

I use Google’s applications with my domain name WoodsWebDesign.com quite a bit, and I use Gmail separately, so I have noticed that there are some differences in what features are available through those separate services. What I want from Google is for every feature/service that’s available in the low-end version of their free services (i.e., everything that’s offered in Gmail) to be available to users of their mid-range free services (i.e., Applications).

When Gmail came out with themes this week, I was glad to see they had done something to update the Gmail service. And other innovations, such as video chat built-in to the Inbox, are cool, too. But why can’t all of those services be made available to those of us who have made the leap and are using Google Applications?

David Monroe moved to Buffalo and found he missed rockwiki – the people’s guide to Rochester, NY – and decided the way to stop missing it was to create a similar resource for his new home town. He invited me and a few other people to help get it started, and you know how I feel about building new web sites to connect people!

In fact, I’ve been mulling over the idea of a wiki about Buffalo for a while now, but recently, when folks from out of town were going to visit me, they asked me for a list of things to do while in Buffalo, and my Google search didn’t find any one web site that was dedicated to an encyclopedic description of our fair city. So I was ready to help, and that day I set up the framework of a wiki site so that we can start filling in the blanks.

On his blog, David wrote:

To that end, I’ve started a Google Group http://groups.google.com/group/buffalo-wiki?hl=en that is made up of Buffalonians, and computer savvy folks from outside of Buffalo to create a wiki just like the one I know and love. So far, we have some excitement and interest. If you want to lend a hand, join the group and give your opinion.

What do you say, are you the wiki type? Want to start writing wiki entries about the Buffalo topics you love?

Well, what is a wiki type, anyway? To write entries for a wiki, you just need to know about your topic, you don’t have to be a computer nerd. You just log in, do your best writing, and then wait for someone else to come along and try to prove that they know even more about the topic than you do.

Just be sure to proofread your work carefully, because otherwise, you’ll be one of the writers we post about on ShamefulTypos.com.

I have a 2.5-year-old notebook computer, and the cord on the power supply recently went from what looked like perfectly good to frayed and short-circuited in about a second flat. Bzzzt! and a little puff of smoke, and the next thing I know, I’ve got not only a fire hazard, but a notebook computer that wants some power and can’t get any.

A replacement power supply from the manufacturer of my notebook computer was going to cost me $80 plus tax and shipping, so I started Googling for a better price. I found one on some weird web site that was used and refurbished for about half that price, but I had no idea how good the quality would be (although it said it had a 90-day warranty). I kept searching and searching, and eventually I found a blog entry that referred to a FREE replacement program from the manufacturer, because apparently they were quietly acknowleging that there was a design flaw.

I made a request through the manufacturer’s web site, but they don’t ship them out, their customers have to go to a retail store to pick one up. I went in yesterday after work, and the store employee told me that the replacement program was not automatically FREE, that the store employees were making case-by-case judgments to determine which power supplies were damaged due to customer misuse, and which seemed to be broken due to manufacturing defects.

When I took my damaged power supply out of my backpack and handed it to the store employee, he noted right away that the way I had correctly wrapped the cord around the cordwrap built in to the power brick. I am always careful not to put too much strain on the ends of any kind of wire, because when a wire is bent tightly like that, it can wear out the insulation, crack the conductors inside, or both. And then it’s not a good wire anymore.

Because he could tell I was taking proper care of my power supply wire, he determined that I was eligible for the free replacement power supply. So, my advice to you, if you have the same problem with your wire, is to make sure you wrap it properly before you present it to the store employee. If I had had to buy the part in the store last night, it would have cost me $61 (still a bargain compared to the $80+ online, but who wants to pay $61 when free is a possibility?).