I would suggest looking at the original subject from a wider perspective: that of social networks (with their capability of incorporating professional ones). Google for 'social networks' associated with terms like facebook, twitter, friendfeed, linkedin, mashable, socialmedian (I am writing from my phone, so sorry for not providibg some relevant links, myself) - and maybe it'd become more obvious how the 'facebook' is only a component of a broader cooperative capability, bringing the mailing lists and usenet groups (oh, tempora!) type of communication to new levels.
Stefan On 2/7/09, Etaoin Shrdlu <[email protected]> wrote: > Yves Dorfsman wrote: > >> I've seen of couple of messages on the lopsa mailing lists saying >> "check my facebook page" or something similar. I follow the link, and >> it page asks me to "join" in order to be able to see the page... > > Personally, it reminds me a bit of the gmail craze, when people were > advertising that they had gmail invitations on all sorts of mailing > lists. I really consider sending facebook invitations to be personal, > and not the thing to send to a list, no matter how well meaning. That > said... > >> What is the point of faceboot over say a personal web page ? What is >> the whole "friend" thing on facebook, is it a connection like >> linkedin ? > > Facebook started out as just a high school/college kind of thing, where > you could, as a student, join, and see other people in your university, > or others. It branched out some time ago to be more "inclusive" and has > now dropped some of the older format (such as showing all sorts of > things about your network). > > Like anything in the social networking world, it's different things to > different people. Facebook (and other social networks) have little to do > with a personal web page (we used to call those vanity sites), and more > to do with the need to feel connected, and a part of the world. It > occupies a different niche than Myspace, currently attempting to attract > a broad range of ages, cultures, and lifestyles. > >> To me the point of a webpage is for visibility, why would you put >> your webpage on a restricted system, where only the members can see >> it ? > > Not everyone is restricted. I don't have any of my information shared, > but there are plenty here that do. Facebook tends to be more for > connecting to people you already know, not for finding and meeting > people that you *don't* know. That's no different than the original > LinkedIn (although that one has lost much of its usefulness as it gets > taken over more and more by the MLM types). > >> Sometimes I'm wondering if this is a generation gap, but when I look >> at the other "new" "social" websites, say reddit, they let you read >> both stories and comment, even people profiles without registering. >> As someone who has found no value in linkedin, what is the point of >> facebook ? > > Reddit isn't really the same thing, though. Besides, almost everyone I > know is on Twitter. I don't know too many folk that are on reddit, or > care much about it. Rather like Tribe, and Orkut, and so many others > that have fallen by the wayside, it's seen its day. > > On the other hand, as others have pointed out, what you put on a social > web site ends up available to the world, no matter what your intent is. > That's not too different from posts to this list, or the one over in > Usenix/Sage world. > > What the heck; frequent contributors to places like slashdot have a thin > social connection. Same thing with digg (although it's been ages since I > visited). Now that I think about it, the forums over on Woot fall into > that category. There are little tendrils of all of us, all over the > interwebs. > > -- > Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, > your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck. > George Carlin > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > http://lopsa.org/ > -- Sent from my mobile device _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
