Comments on "Facebook - Friend or Foe?"

See blog"Facebook - Friend or Foe?"

I totally agree with you about the ‘adding friends’ topic that you and Axel brought up. I was put in the situation where someone from my high school added me as a ‘friend’ and I could describe him as anything but a friend. I think that people add you as there friend simply to feel loved and a sense of belonging (Maslow's hierarchy of needs), in hope that you will post something nice about them and make them feel better about themselves. Although, I do acknowledge that not all Facebook addicts are that bad… Another grip I have with Facebook and mySpace is that you spend hours upon hours getting your profile to look great and then another SNS comes along that is better than yours and you have to start from scratch again. Has anyone else had this problem?

I did find your opinion on the business side of these sites very interesting but not lacking in supporting research. There are other ways of making money on websites besides advertising. For example, websites can participate in affiliate marketing programs as well as selling the information on their members to companies. This is probably not the case with the larger SNS because of privacy and security issues but the smaller ones like Meetup.com and Threadless.com would actively engage these tactics. You can read more on these methods on this blog (http://platinum-success-systems.com/blog/?p=7).

Comments on "Are we Google dependant?"

See blog "Are we Google dependant?"

I could not agree with you more Elyse… I use Google for everything, to tell you the truth I feel that I have am learning more off the internet than my entire 2 years of university. Information is becoming so accessible that it is scary. I don’t know how people can be computer illiterate because Google has made it so easy; all you have to do is type in your question and Google does it all. I wonder what would happen if Google was targeted by terrorists?

Another trend I have also noticed is the uptake of ‘Googling’ in the corporate sector. I work as a marketing and sales manager for an IT company and we are dependent on Google and the Internet. I find it funny that universities and academics try to force their students to have book references rather than internet ones. There is information on the internet that you would not have access to otherwise.

“The Google Era”, has definitely begun but I feel that it is only the tip of the iceberg I have a feeling we will be relying on Google a lot more in the future. Lucky it is free otherwise we’d all be broke.

Comments on "Is the Myspace promotional system all its hyped up to be?"

See blog "Is the Myspace promotional system all its hyped up to be?"

I think what Derek said about Myspace being “the single greatest marketing tool we have as of right now” is very true, however I still believe that there is much room for improvement. I was in a band also (in the good old days) before Myspace and it definitely would have made promotion a lot easier but I still think that time and effort is needed to undertake a successful marketing campaign. Myspace has made it easier but it has made it easier for everyone so you don’t have the competitive advantage.

Perhaps you could have mentioned in your blog that, if anything, it has made it easier for consumers to find bands and music that they like rather than having to rely on your local events and promotions. You can now check out bands from across the world from your room all thanks to Myspace and the Internet.

I feel that bands need to put in the time and effort to reap the rewards, especially in relation to Myspace. A few bands might have had success from Myspace but in a global market place a few just isn’t that much…

Anonymity: The Double Edged Sword

Anonymous said:

“Sometimes its is hard to tell whether all citizen journalists are telling the truth, but I most definitely am”

Citizen journalism has enjoyed massive growth over the past decade thanks to the use of blogging and the Internet. It has been described as the act of citizens playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information. One characteristic that has been widely discussed and debated in media circles is the issue of anonymity and how the credibility of a source cannot be validated. This issue has presented a challenge for the citizen journalism community as opinions on the matter are varied and differed greatly.

One of citizen journalisms greatest hindrances is the posting of irresponsible, unprofessional, partial and inaccurate article by anonymous authors. There are no checks or balances in place to ensure that these media channels are not abused by users. These articles hinder the growth of the free voice that has been made possible by the Internet and tarnish citizen journalism on a whole. Citizens journalisms is also weakened by the credibility of the source, in order to counter act this anonymity, serious citizen journalist attempt to keep there actions as transparent as possible to build credibility within their networks.

On the other hand there is a degree of tolerance in the community for anonymity among certain groups of authors. These include people whose confidentiality is considered to be justifiable like political dissidents, corporate whistle blowers, victims and potential targets of hate crimes, and domestic violence victims. Articles of this nature tend to gain huge support due to their inside knowledge or exposure to certain events. A recent example of this is an anonymous American living in Beijing who posted articles pertaining to the riots in Tibet on his blog. This valuable news would have never been available if the author could not remain anonymous. Another example of how anonymity has been used to benefit citizen journalism is Army of Dude blog. This blog is written by an American soldier who fought in the war in Iraq. This insight into a global event could not have been achieved through traditional media channels or journalists.

I feel that although citizen journalism has it’s role to play in the freedom of information, it will never replace the authority of major media organisations. I feel that a healthy balance should be established between citizen journalists and media organisation to protect consumers of the media from deliberate acts of deception. Having said this I don’t really know if we can trust the big media organizations, sometimes even they get it horribly wrong.

Open-Source- Friend or Foe?

Imagine in twenty years time when a young child asks their parents (if parents still exist) what the world was like when they were a kid. With the exponential growth of technology it would be safe to say that a lot would have changed. The increase in access to information due to the Internet has cultivated communities of produser who are constantly consuming, manipulating and interacting with different medium to create evolving breeds of content. Open-source is one of the birth children that these online communities have created and as the name suggests it gives users access to the source code of applications which in turn grants the freedom to manipulate, improve and contribute to the application. This advance in software creation has come up against great opposition by many of the high profile software corporations whose market position has been threaten by the open-source culture. The question must then come down to the user; should we embrace this new model of software creation and the community that supports it or should we oppose it and remain subjective to large software entities?

So why should users support and use open-source software? Put simply the answer is customisation and contribution. Each individual user requires software that they use to satisfy a specific purpose in relation to their needs. Commercially produced software, although efforts have been made, does not give the user complete control over the functionality of the software. An example of this is Sugar CRM versus Microsoft’s Outlook CRM. Sugar CRM is an open-source Customer Relations Management application that allows the user to customise every aspect their operations regarding sales, marketing and communication. Unlike the Microsoft CRM that is restricted to functioning with Microsoft Outlook, Sugar CRM allows the user to customise the entire interface and functionality to suit the user’s specific needs. The great thing about the produser community is that once a user has modified the source code they make this information available to other users.

Naturally the open-source community has come up against great opposition by large corporate software entities like Microsoft. This is understandable considering Microsoft’s multi billion dollar enterprise would be put at risk if open-source became readily available and utilised for personal, corporate and government use. Microsoft has been actively lobbing against laws that will encourage the use of open-source software in the public sector in Europe. There have also been recent cases of open source developers coming under fire with software patient law suits being files against them. One individual that action was taken against was Bob Jacobsen, who was the developer of JMRI model-railroad control software. Michael A. Katzer and his company KAM claim that Bob, without permission, distributed their software and have demanded he pay for each copy that he issued for free.

I personally feel that the open-source community is not only providing valuable software but is challenging the basis of software creation and use. This produser model is vital in transferring the power from the supplier of software to the users which is only made possible by open-source’s high-performance collaboration and community building model.

Social Networking: A Fluid Community

Before I begin this blog I have to admit- I am not a social networking addict. It is not that I do not have a Facebook, mySpace or one of the hundreds of other social networking sites (SNS) pages or that I am against the idea of these communities, I simply cannot bring my self to waste my precious time creating a beautiful profile for one account, only to find out that no body uses that particular SNS anymore. This dilemma has brought my attention to the elasticity of social networking communities and the constant migration to SNS’s that better accommodate there members needs.

The reason for this migration can be put to two main factors. Firstly the growth of the Internet and technology in the past 8 years has made creating new profiles on SNS easy. Between 2000-2008 the worlds Internet usage has increase by almost 300% this massive growth combined with faster more reliable Internet connections has made it possible for SNS to flourish. To date, there are well over 300 major SNS in which users can become a member of with as little information as user name, email and password. This ease of access has led to the users switching from SNS that do not provide them with what they want to SNS that have the features and services that meet their needs. The second reason for this migration is the teething problems associated with SNS as a industry. SNS have only really taken off in the past five years and issues such as privacy and security have kept the evolution of SNS in a constant state of change. Due to user feedback and public forums new competition in the SNS industry are designing their products to their users specifications enticing online communities to switch to their SNS.

An example of this mass migration is the uprising of Facebook and the demise of mySpace. Only a couple of years ago mySpace was regarded as ‘the’ social networking site for online
communities around the globe, however, only a few years down the track Facebook looks to be gaining popularity with online communities.
The question may then arise, how a site as big as mySpace can be threaten by extinction in such a short period of time. The answer is simple, online communities are moving to new SNS because of easy access to join to a better SNS that offers better facilities, functionality and services to its users.

If you thought that the story ended at the next SNS heavily weight Facebook, then think again. The migratory pattern continues with new comer Moli experiencing massive growth over the past few months. It has heard the cries online communities regarding privacy and the access structure of information and has introduced a SNS that separates social, business and family profiles allowing the user to choose who has access to what personal information.

Personally, I regard this migration as a necessary step in the evolution of SNS as it creates a shift toward sites that satisfy the needs of online communities and the interaction between its members. Perhaps one day there will be a universal SNS in which I can safely put my time and effort into that won’t become, as Clay Shirky describes, Yet Another Social Networking Site (YASNS).

Introduction

hi my name is tomtily

i am a motivated individual with the vigour and zeal for coping with life and its many challenges and brilliance