Social Networks
Entries related to social networks, group psychology, anthropology, and really any of the social sciences.
#FF #EavChat @superben @organicguru @tturbo @JackiesBuzz @MetaThis @bgrier @PetLvr
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 01/20/2012 - 20:53This week's Follow Friday is of people that I've recently followed based on interactions on Empire Avenue. Several of those interaction were from the Empire Avenue TweetChat that happened Thursday evening. Starting out the list is @superben. He describes himself as a nerdy flight attendant and added a lot to the discussion.
Next is @organicguru. You can guess her interests from her Twitter handle. She was also a lively participant in the discussion. @tturbo comes next. She speaks of not being a social media person. She's married to a geek, and assists researchers with the funding of their projects.
Next on my list is @JackiesBuzz. We'd run into each other elsewhere. She describes herself as a social media director for a non-profit so it isn't surprising that we'd cross paths.
@MetaThis is next on the list. He recently tweeted about the fragility of life and I've been interacting with him in Empire Avenue for a while. The two last people on the list for this week are @bgrier and @PetLvr, people I've recently been interacting with on Empire Avenue.
So, that's this week's Follow Friday list.
Why #SOPA Might not be so bad: The Law of Unintended Consequences.
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 01/19/2012 - 18:55Yesterday, many websites, including this one, went black to protest the Stop Online Privacy Act, or SOPA. Today, I want to look at it from a different perspective, Why #SOPA Might not be so bad: The Law of Unintended Consequences.
One idea that had had been part of SOPA was DNS blocking. The idea being that if some site was violating copyright law, law enforcement officials could get the names block from DNS. Presumably, this would have been done through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the registrars it accredits.
ICANN is a $60 million business headquartered in California. There have been lots of issues about how it is governed and whether it should be turned over to U.N. control.
One of the things about the Internet is that it was built to adapt to, and route around things that damage it. The DNS provision of SOPA would have encourage more people to find ways of bypassing ICANN. One alternative to ICANN is the OpenNIC project. It is actually pretty easy to change your computer to use OpenNIC.
To the extent the SOPA or related bills would block ports or IP addresses, projects like TOR could help people get around these blocks. TOR has been used when repressive regimes try to block Internet access. If the U.S. joined the community of repressive regimes trying to block Internet access, it would encourage greater innovation in the TOR project and related projects. Such efforts might also encourage people to start adopting IPv6 as another way of getting around blocking.
Then, there are the financial aspects. Blocking people from doing financial transactions with U.S. financial institutions won't stop people from doing financial transactions, it would only cause them to find new ways of doing them. For my friends that want a return to the gold standard, it might encourage people to move towards more forms on online, virtual gold.
The problem with so many of these systems ends up being how trust worthy they are. Can we trust OpenNIC or online gold traders? If the U.S. Government implements draconian measures to protect a small set of large corporations, more people may find they can trust others more than they can trust the U.S., and that might even lead towards the development of better trust models.
Ultimately, Congress' responsibility is "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries". SOPA and related anti-privacy acts may end up doing that through the law of unintended consequences, not by making sure that authors and inventors get paid, but by encouraging inventors to find ways of bypassing draconian laws.
#ff @triberr Part 2 @BarbaraDuke @RAWarrior @Jason__Ramsey @thewebkaiser @CHRISVOSS @rictownsend @elyshemer @joshua_d
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 01/13/2012 - 19:21This week, I'm doing another Triberr based Follow Friday. I did my first one last week. This week, I looked at the Top Traffic Driving Tribemates. At the top of the list is @BarbaraDuke. Her description talks about being a Christian Coach, a breast cancer survivor, and mentions rheumatoid arthritis. It made me wonder if she knew @RAWarrior, another social media friend who is very active in the rheumatoid arthritis community.
Coming in next is @Jason__Ramsey. He describes himself as a husband and father who loves twitter and who sells wigs. Hmm. Possible business connection? Maybe Jason should be talking with Barbara about people battling cancer that need wigs.
Next on the list is @thewebkaiser. He's been posting some really good content from CES this week, so I've been tweeting links to his articles. Right after that is @chrisvoss, who also has been writing some good articles that I've been tweeting about.
Next is @rictownsend. I know him from Empire Avenue. Finishing off the list are @elyshemer @joshua_d. I don't know them as well as the rest, so perhaps you should just head out and read their bios yourself.
That wraps up this week's Follow Friday list. How about yours?
Nimble, a week later
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 01/12/2012 - 20:42I have been using Nimble regularly for the past week. The personal version is free, which makes it well worth the price. I've received messages from Nimble's Community Manager and their Director. I'm always impressed when a community director responds to my tweets, blog posts, or other content. The message from their director was via LinkedIn and I suspect may have been automated. Nonetheless, they are doing a good job of managing online relationships and since they make a social contact relationship management system, that's a good sign.
It took a little while to get going smoothly. They had various messages about upgrading their infrastructure, which may have been part of the issue. Once things started more smoothly, the email started flowing in. Even if you don't want a CRM, it is worth it simply as a great IMAP client.
One of the issues that I run into with being online, all over the place, is that the best way to contact me has frequently changed depending on improvements in one system or another, and often important messages have gone unnoticed for extended periods. With Nimble, I can tell people that Gmail, my orient-lodge address, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are all good ways of contacting me, and I can see the emails all mixed together.
All of that said, I really haven't used it in a particularly CRM sort of way, but I don't really have a lot of needs that way, personally. It will be interesting to see if as I get more data into the CRM, my experiences and usage will change.
If you've tried Nimble, let me know your thoughts? What has worked well and what hasn't for you? Are there things you've done with it that have made it more interesting or changed the way you do business?
