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Why We Use Social Networking Sites: Or Why Facebook Doesn’t Supplant Your Offline Friends

  redeFS0009 
  Originally uploaded by xadoc_dna.

A NYT's article from two weeks ago discussed briefly how online social networking and the offline world have historical overlap. I had hoped the article would speak to the mainstream world that isn’t involved in the technology blogosphere but I haven't read much discussion.

I don’t mean the term mainstream in derogatory way; quite the contrary, I think it’s important that Silicon Valley and the technology blogosphere actually understand how the rest of the world views social networking if we ever expect to monetize in a way that is a win-win for the companies and for the people.

While the article addresses the possible connections between online social networking and tribal societies, I think the most intriguing and most misunderstood aspect of social networking comes at the end of Rich’s column:

The more time we spend “talking” online, the less time we spend, well, talking. And as we stretch the definition of a friend to encompass people we may never actually meet, will the strength of our real-world friendships grow diluted as we immerse ourselves in a lattice of hyperlinked “friends”?

It’s a valid question to ask whether the development and retention of online friends comes at the expense of at the benefit of our online friends.

But Rich does the non-blogosphere world, everyday people who may view the online world with skepticism, a disservice by how he asks the question: it sounds like a natural conclusion that real-world friendships will suffer at the expense of increasing our offline friends. We’re all buys and we only have so much time in day.

The problem is that the question has been researched and initial results show that online connections do not come at the expense of offline connections. I posted about Benkler’s amazing book, The Wealth of Networks, a couple of times before and he specifically addresses the question.

The types of friends that we develop online are different from more traditional offline friendships, they’re more fluid and temporary, but they don’t cause a decrease in people’s numbers of offline friendships.

What's a good way to make meaningful online social connections? Blogging

I tell everyone I know to think about blogging because you do make personal connections with people and those online connections translate into offline connections:

• Blogging is a an outlet for your passion and interests (Cory Doctorow calls it your "outboard brain")
• You meet passionate people who read, comment, and engage in conversations with you
• I landed a job interview because of my blog

Yes, it takes time to blog but in the long run, you get more out of than you put into it.

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Now playing: The Gang - The Gang VII - I

Snarky Post of the Week (Double Feature)

This week's installment is a double shot of snarky since I missed posting the one last week.

For this Week:

Valleywag is always fertile ground for snarky, sometimes sketchy or down right falsehoods, so it's no surprise that they covered Silicon Alley Insider's Top 100, the most influential digital business folks in NYC (emphasis mine).

"Here in New York's so-called Silicon Alley, we occupy ourselves by filing stories about people setting up meetings to talk about organizing events to increase awareness of necessary preconditions for entrepreneurship. This leaves us with no time to do anything as tiring and complicated as, say, actually writing software." (link)

From Two Weeks Ago:

I've learned from Kara Swisher's Boomtown section at WSJ's All Things D blog that she doesn't pull any punches. Or put another way, she doesn't drink the the kool-aid as often or as willingly as other people covering the tech world and I give her credit for that.

I do, however, find the intros to some of her videos, when she is giving us banter before waking into to interview someone for example, can be trite. Kara, the content is good so don't worry about entertaining us with the colorful commentary.

Regardless, her recent Facebook coverage has been extensive (I've kept silent on the privacy fiasco and thought I've written posts on it, I have posted them yet) and here's Kara's coverage of Facebook losing the lawsuit against Harvard magazine 02138 (emphasis mine)

"It should come as no surprise, of course, given it was essentially a legal temper tantrum on the part of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

But a judge in Massachusetts wisely denied an inane request by the Palo Alto, Calif.-based social-networking start-up to take down confidential court documents that 02138 magazine had made available for downloading on its Web site...

But how could its execs, really, given the appalling nature of their efforts to quash documents that should not have been, especially because they were already loose on the Web?"

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Now playing: Jasien Swords - Dallas Does Indie Podcast #89

Walt Mossberg Doesn't Like the Telcos Either

I don't express my distaste for many things without just cause so when I posted that I don't like telcos, I really meant it. And not for more anecdotal or superficial reasons, like having a bad customer service experience one time and holding that against them as a personal vendetta, but because they've consistently been anit-competition and anti-innovation for far too long.

So I read with pleasure, when trying to track down this great spectrum infographic (can't find it now), I saw this WIRED story on Walt Mossberg's distaste for the telecos. He likened them to "Soviet Ministries"(a more tactful or, perhaps, more accurate description than my simple "I hate Telecoms" label).

Given Google's formal announcement that they will be bidding on the FCC's wireless 700MHz spectrum auction in January, the telecom/mobile world could be (and hopefully will) be turned upside down.

E.U. Households with Only Mobile Phones, No Fixed Telephones

[11/29/07, 12:15am Update: I posted this via email but it stripped my links so added them back in.]

I recently posted about openness being the new post-black: openess is beyond being the new black, it should be the de facto standard practice.

Or as Fred puts it, openness is the new closed. We should be past it being the new anything but we're not there yet. We are moving in that direction.

Openness in the mobile world is important for a lot of reasons (see my post above or read about the recent Verizon announcement) and this Economist graphic only underscores the fundamental shift and the reasons for pushing openess.

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Now playing: WAMU - American University Radio

Dick Celeste Talk Tonight

[I posted this from my mobile last Thu. night but it didn't go through correctly so i'm re-posting it now but with the original date and time.]

For my CC alumni readers, Dick Celeste is in D.C. tonight for a special talk on India & Pakistan relations. Should be quite good given Dick was the former ambassador to India and given the recent constitutional meelee in Pakistan.

The talk is happening at the O St. Mansion in Dupont Circle so it will be a great for intellectual stimulation and chance to catch up with people

Why I Don't Like Telcos

It doesn't take more than these two headlines below, both on the front page of my news reader today, to show the perfect contradiction that is the telcos.

Verizon Redefines 'Fast' With Groundbreaking FiOS Internet Service Featuring 20 Mbps Download and Upload Speeds

vs

Verizon Fined For Pretending That Limited Service Was Unlimited

The hyperbole about "fast" is almost laughable if not for the reality of most people's "high-speed" connections in the United States being truly laughable. Remember how far behind the United States is to the rest of the world in overall broadband penetration (yes we have larger geographic areas to cover but it's more than that) and even the paltry broadband connections that do we have are pitiful compared to the bandwidth of Europe's or Asia's internet connections.

I'm not saying that all of the blame rests on the shoulders of the U.S. telco companies but as monopolistic players with no real incentives to innovate or compete on prices, they carry a large amount of the burden. Don't get me started on Net Neutrality or ask me about those 'Cable Brings Choice' TV and print ads that I see here in D.C.

Best of all, don't even think about criticizing them either because AT&T recently updated its terms of Service (TOS) to indicate it could cut off your internet connection if your opinion or commentary "tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries." This language has since been changed, due to the public outrage first generated on the blogosphere, but it's another reason I have no love lost for the telcos.

Louis Armstrong Missing New Orleans

  New Orleans Flooded 
  Originally uploaded by Ross Mayfield.

Taking the metro back Wed. night from a late happy hour with friends at the Quarry House in Silver Springs (great little bar downstairs in the basement that serves burgers with tots- no fires- and an extensive beer menu), Louis Armstrong’s "Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?" popped  up on my Sansa. 

With Wednesday being the two-year anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy, it seemed the perfect song for that day and I listened to it on repeat for the rest of the ride home.

Here’s the song, hope you enjoy it:
Louis Armstrong- Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?

East Hall at Eastern Market Opens Today

  outside_EastHall2 
  Originally uploaded by cherbert.

Mayor Fenty was at Eastern Market right after the tragic Eastern Market fire in April, pledging that it would be re-built as quickly as possible, and today it happened.

I woke up early this morning to clean my house and through half-awake grogginess heard the WAMU DJ mention that Eastern Market’s new East Hall was opening today. It was around 8am but people who live in Capital Hill know that Eastern Market gets crowded by around 10am so if you’re going for groceries rather than for the attraction that is Eastern Market, you need to get there early. I rolled out of bed and rushed down.

There was lots of activity on 7th St. this morning with the community coming out to support the grand opening of the new East Hall, which I’ve been watching over the last few months whenever I walk to the metro. By 9:30, with the crowd getting slightly restless, Mayor Fenty gave a short speech thanking everyone for coming out to support the new East Hall at Eastern Market.

  MayorFenty_MariaCalomiris2 
  Originally uploaded by cherbert.

With the vendors behind him, the Mayor gave the podium over to the head of the foundation/organization associated with maintaining Eastern Market a gave a few historical facts:

• Public fresh-food markets had been part of L’Enfant’s original plans for the city of Washington
• President Thomas Jefferson approved the first Eastern Market at Seventh and L streets SE in 1805
• Adolf Cluss's 1873 designed the building currently located at in Capital Hill
• Eastern Market is one of the longest running public markets in D.C.

He also gave a plaque, made out of an original shingle from the building, to Mayor Fenty.

Just like the gool-old days, I could buy my sandwich fixins from Jose at Canales Quality Meats. Jose is an very friendly guy who recognizes his customers no matter how long it's been since they last visited so I was really excited to see him so happy about being back in business in the new building. Then there’s Calomiris Fruits & Vegetables (see Maria Calomiris in the ribbon-cutting photo) and the Fine Sweet Shop with the delicious scones and breads.

  crowd1 
  Originally uploaded by cherbert.

The excitement of everyone seeing the new building and realizing that the public square and community meeting place of Capital Hill is back was powerful and reaffirming that good can stem from disaster.


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Now playing: Leo Laporte and the TWiTs - TWiT 106: Googleverse
via FoxyTunes   

Save Net Radio Rally in DC

Attended the Save Net Radio rally Monday night here in Capital Hill, in the park at Constitution and Delaware. I got there late from work so I missed the opening remarks at 6:30pm, including some words by Congressman Jay Inslee and Congressman Don Manzullo, but was excited to see an albeit small group gathered for the event.

  band_20140-2055_5 
  Originally uploaded by cherbert.

I'm not sure how many people were there for the actual cause (given the concert was free and in the park near the Capital, I think the event attracted a good many onlookers but if they stayed, maybe they'll learn something about the issue of copyright royalties for online radio stations) but it was a great summer night to listen to some surprisingly good bands.

I only saw the last two bands and only caught part of the second group's name, a local band called something like From Rome... and they played good energetic, pop/rock songs that I'd definitely pay to see them play again.

All of the bands were going to speak with their representatives on Tuesday morning so I hope it went well and I thank SaveNetRadio.org for putting on a great event: good music and a even better cause. Let's hope that the copyright royalty terms for internet radio are indeed re-evaluated by Congress and set are more reasonable, non-exclusionary rates. I love KCRW, WAMU, and all of the other streaming music services available on the internet and it would be tragic to lose these services because of the large, entrenched media companies inhibiting (through absurd copyright royalty terms) the next generation of online music services from prospering (and destroying the mass media's now dwindling stranglehold on the music industry).

SaveNetRadio's also has photos from the event.

Eastern Market Was the Best Thing About Living in DC, Period.

  photo compliments of The Washington Post

I went to sleep late last night and couldn't believe all of the damn firetrucks racing around last night, sirens blaring on and off for perhaps an hour. Then it hit me as I walked down 8th St. towards the Eastern Market metro stop and there it was, the Eastern Market building suffered a tragic fire.

DCist had early coverage (including a early Monday morning photo of Mayor Fenty) and more photos are available via Flickr. Here's the WaPo coverage as well, including Mark Fisher's commentary:

Eastern Market was what people talk about when they get all misty about the possibilities of a city. It was a place where people came not merely to gather necessities or shop for frills, but rather a place where people came to see and be among each other.

Walking back late tonight from work, the smell of charred wood and smoke greeted me as up I reached the top of the escalators at the Eastern Market metro stop. Taking a slight detour away from 8th, I wanted to see the damage up close. With the cops having roped off the streets around the building Market, the firetrucks and various pickup trucks loaded with burnt debris lined 7th street and it was a somber setting. Those having a late-night bite at Tunnincliff's (Tunny's for Capital Hill locals) outdoor tables, opposite the building, were carrying on their conversations but with faces of disbelief.

  and a building, uploaded by dangerbird
  (hat tip DCist)

The title of this post comes from one of the commenters on Mark's piece. I couldn't agree more, Eastern Market is the primary reason I enjoy living in Capital Hill so much. The actual market (yes, that's where I bought the turkey for ubiquitous turkey sandwiches) and what the market represented for the community, a gathering place, will be sorely missed for the immediate future. We can only hope that reconstruction of Eastern Market ramps up fast and that the food vendors and artists that create the community of Eastern Market can return to the canopy area or to a closed-off 7th Street outside the building.

Do your part by donating to the Capital Hill Community Foundation and supporting the vendors and artists as soon as they return. And let's visit Eastern Market this weekend to show our support.