Comments on: Some Friday evening ruminations around Facebook et al

By: twopointouch : YASNS?*

twopointouch : YASNS?* — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:10:28 +0000

[...] I read JP Rangaswami’s posts Some Friday Night Ruminations about Facebook et al. and More Musings about what makes Facebook Different. The short answer to what makes it [...]

By: Cathleen Rittereiser

Cathleen Rittereiser — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 01:10:51 +0000

JP,
Jeff Pulver has an interesting take on this. Believe it or not, posted today in a note on Facebook. I am still thinking about it too but I agree that it’s different than the others. I think the clue is on the login page where Facebook describes itself as a social “utility” not as a network. Defining it that way makes it more about something that is flexible and useful to me. I also think Facebook’s simple design and ability to customize programs rather than backgrounds makes it a better tool for more people. Will be interested to read your thoughts.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 22:10:57 +0000

Why is Facebook different? Why is social networking important? What does it do for you, and why do you do it?

Important questions, and also asked by Chris Brogan (http://chrisbrogan.com/step-back-and-look-around/).

Facebook is flavour of the month; it;s used by a lot of corporates, and a lot of youngsters, who aren’t MySpace user.

I told him:
“What do social networks do for me? Donâ€™t know all theyâ€™ll do for me yet, but letâ€™s start with:
Lets me interact with my CEO in a way I didnâ€™t expect;
turned me onto VRM and Doc Searls;
let me learn a whole heap about things like jaiku â€˜n twitter â€˜n tumblr;
started me blogging again;
got me back into learning about the changes in this space;
and hey, lets me keep in touch with what my family are doing too!

Thatâ€™s not too bad, is it.
Lifelong learning is pretty cool.”

Your employer may have views about YouTube, and I’m trying to persuade them to engage with Facebook more actively.