-
Website
http://www.scobleizer.com/ -
Original page
http://scobleizer.com/2007/07/16/james-robertson-asks-wheres-the-social-networking-value/ -
Subscribe
All Comments -
Community
-
-
Top Commenters
-
Popular Threads
What a shame you didn't do that. Particularly this:
Now, about Facebook, well, it has almost instantly replaced my business card collection AND my contacts over on Outlook. Now if I want to talk with someone I go to Facebook and look them up.
Let's get REAL. As in, uh, reality. Should the key word in that second quote be "almost" or "instantly"?
Or both?
I don't see how anyone lives like you Robert. You really are manic-depressive. (Meant as a compliment.) If you aren't hyping this, you're hyping that.
Two weeks ago it was all about iPhone. Now it's Facebook.
Get a life.
Second, the iPhone is the shiznit. It was last week. It still is. Just because I can't keep going 'iPhone, iPhone, iPhone' doesn't mean I'm not thinking it's worthy of everyone's attention.
But that didn't stop me from using Outlook before. It won't stop me from using Facebook now. It has utility that I find very useful. The fact that you're reading blogs might be derided by some as "not useful." (and it was). One of my friends told me that blogs were a fad and that I wouldn't do it for long. Heh!
To do something bigger than Facebook at this point, though, would require a whole number of steps. We'd see warnings coming for years. Heck, I knew about Facebook two years ago back when I still worked at Microsoft and ignored it then cause it was "only for college kids."
The world changes. I just am going to be early on that change curve.
While Facebook is great for looking up old friends, the more I spend time on it, the less I really care about trying to find that old girlfriend I once dated in high school. Those that I care to stay in contact with, I do. THose I don't I don't. And you know what has replaced my Outlook contact list? Nothing
And my wife still uses a Franklin Planner to write her to-do lists and track her contacts and schedule.
Get out of the bubble more often
Personally, I'd like to have my network in one spot...and I think Facebook has the best chance to make that happen.
But, luckily for me I have a really killer list of friends.
And I don't want to get out of the bubble more often. Everytime I do it seems like I'm going back to the past.
Maybe you'll ask me to start using the US Post Office to send mail, or you'll want me to give up my Saturn for a horse.
Nah. I'd rather live in your future.
I'm serious when you get out of the bubble and see how others view technology you would be suprised.
Does that mean I'm living in the "dark ages".... obviously not. I would deem my wife and my family technologically savy and power users of their computers (Windows XP, Linux and Mac OS X are the different Operating Systems in use)... most of my friends we would rather spend time togehter doing things like going for a run, enjoy a beer and watching a sporting event, then "talking" over jaiku/pownce/facebook. I think we need to redifne what "friendship" really is
Then again, I'm sure Facebook would make a lot of traders happy.
With that said, I've yet to sign up.
Anyway, you must have missed yesterday. I got together with a bunch of my Twitter/Facebook friends and drank beer, walked on the beach, and had lots of fun too. Just cause you're on Facebook doesn't mean you can't do stuff like that.
Jeff Pulver, for instance, who runs some of the biggest conferences in the industry, says Facebook is it for him now and that he's dumping LinkedIn. http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/007226.html
A Twitter friend @BlondeByDesign asked me to find her a soldier she could "take care of" on trip i recently made to Afghanistan. I met Sgt. Danny Allman in Kandahar and asked him to write down his email. Simple... done. I passed on the info. to @BlondeByDesign and she's whipped up a huge campaign to send Sgt. Allman and his comrades "care packages" The outpouring has been tremendous.
THAT, to me, is a real, measurable demonstration of the value of social networking. And Jonathan, Kandahar, I assure you is about as real world as it gets my friend!
I have been less than impressed by essentially all the other social networking applications, starting long ago (anyone remember Orkut, for example, or Tribe ?), but I think Facebook is very well done. It offers users much more choice and control, and yet is open with respect to all sorts of other applications .. which will find a home if they are useful, and wither and die if they are not.
I'm also not really big on naming everything that has hyperlinks and tags as "social", but in the case of Facebook calling it a Social Operating system for peoples' activities on (and sometimes off) line seems appropriate.
I do wish they'd get the "how do you know this person" part sorted .. but it's a minor quirk.
I think that as applications and services on the Web get easier to use, and more intertwined with each other, peoples' life and work activities on and offline will just keep blending together more and more ... and it will be up to each of us individually to make our own choices and draw our boundaries .. tho' I suspect even those will vary, for most of us, over time.
As Doc Searls would probably say, for most of us it's probably not "either / or" but "both / and".
And you're so right on about Google Reader's app on FB.
- You can't see anything without logging in.
- It's Anti-SEO. Google doesn't see the content
- There's no external API for updating and almost no export (RSS etc)
I really hope that when the next greatest thing comes along and we all desert FB, we'll be able to get our data out again. Or maybe it won't matter, we'll just start over.
But right now, FB is like a black hole. It's gravity is pulling everything into it, but nothing comes back out.
And hey, this is social stuff. A lot of folks act more normal and human on Facebook than they might on Twitter. Once those APIs and RSS feeds show up, guess what.... mmm audience! Time to perform, time to be a bit louder perhaps?
I do believe there is some use for these things, such as blogs,but other things take time to gestate, and only then will we see if they have any long term value, regardless of how many neat things certain people perceive that it brings into their lives.
I have friends all over the world and we keep in touch without social networks.
But lets face it, we're human, we have the Monkey see, Monkey do factor programed right into out DNA.
No, you have a "really killer list" of contacts. ("killer list?" How old are you? 12?) I rather doubt all those 3,000 are friends Rather doubt Ballmer or Gates are your friend. Not saying your list is not useful to you, but to say they ALL are friends? Hardly.
In conclusion: TWITTER IS NOT REAL LIFE... at least for me. Social networking is great but quite overplayed these days. Hype is just hype.
Those "sales records" don't touch other carriers weekends. More Tablets than Macs? You crazy? So only a little more than a million Macs out there? Someone named Steve Jobs will have a bone to pick with you. RSS, a wash-out even by geek standards. Longhorn did NOT sell 40 million, Vista did, (Longhorn was trashed years ago) and rough 65-70% of that number are OEM installs and upgrades, with a good deal yet unsold. Exactly how many "sold" is unknown, stop smoking Microsoft statistics. XBox 360 has the worst retail return rate of any consumer electronic product in history (33%), add another billion in write-off's, and Microsoft self-admitted that it was their own design flaw (Moore ruined Sega, ruined Microsoft, now off to ruin EA). And PS3's story is not yet over, price decrease and upgrade at same price, besides Wii is outselling all. SecondLife is so over, as will be Facebook, or whatever goofy-sounding start-up pops on the scene for a moment.
"Tablets? Still sold more than Apple has sold Macs."
This is an idiotic supporting statement. Since when do Tablets compete with Mac's? The better comparison is Tablet sales vs non-tablet laptops.
"Gaining in strength every day, even if most people don’t know they are using RSS."
Who is measuring this? You? I mean, could you at least support your statements with facts?
"Longhorn? Sold 40 million copies in first three months."
WTF?? Microsoft is SELLING beta software now? Or did you mean Vista? If so, er, um... not so fast..
ww.crn.com/white-box/200900857;jsessionid=WMSLSSMCWUK1OQSNDLRSKH0CJUNN2JVN
"Xbox? Outselling Sony PlayStation"
So THAT explains why MS had to allocate $1B to extend the warranty on the 360's Maybe 360 is outselling playstation3, but hell, a PS2 outsells a PS3 And the WII is also outselling the 360. So, what's your point?
Erm, Facebook offer a lot of RSS feeds.
- friends status updates
- friends notes
- friends posted items
- events can be subscribed to via the industry standard iCal format
- a specific friends posted items
Its missing a few things, such as RSS for recently tagged friends in photos/videos, the news feed (though they might not give this up, as its the most prized possession) and a feed or reply tracker for activity in groups (this is sorely missed) but overall it isnt the complete data roach that people seem to be suggesting.
According to NPD, Mac market share increased from 11.6 percent of the market in April to 13 percent of the market in May.
Tablets sold as much as Macs? Rewinder, Scoble IS crazy.
What do you think is more likely? That an application built for college kids is more useful then other applications built for professionals or that there is a pump and dump scenario brewing?