Social Networking, Like a Red, Red Rose
May 17, 2010
In the 9th grade, an English teacher jumped all over me for pointing out that Robert Burns’s poem with the memorable line “my love is like a red, red rose” was about a sailor in port. Anyone who has spent a weekend in San Diego when the fleet is in knows that a sailor’s love last about as long as a red, red rose. Not Ms. Sperling. She did not agree. I am not sure if I buy into the argument in “Social Networking Is Losing Direction, Pioneer Bill Liao Says.” Unlike my English teacher, I am going to take a “wait and see” approach. The premise is that social networking is no longer focused on “core values”. I am not sure what this phrase means, but I know that Facebook’s big wheels are trying to figure out “privacy.” We know that the Google Buzz service wandered into a swamp. Lots of people are waving flags and shouting that social networks have some lightning bolts within their cloud touched surfaces. For me the key passage was:
Liao [social networking pioneer at Xing] believes that today’s leading social networking giants are obsessed with subscriber numbers and care less about values. This, he warns, could be their Achilles heel. He also believes social networking sites are still too complicated for users to feel entirely comfortable and safe with. “I think the idea that there are special users that you somehow own is going to be obsolete very quickly. If you look at the number of mobile phones on the planet and the sophistication of the mobile phones people have, the need to go to a specific website to get some of the stuff done, that whole interface is likely to become obsolete quickly.
I see some meat in this assertion. I also noted this passage:
In order to achieve re-forestation people need to be empowered, in order to be empowered people need to be able to make declarations about what they’re doing. Go to Neo.org and you’ll see its about personal empowerment. We really have to give up nationalism as the petty little game that it is. It’s stupid and is no longer serving people.”
Hmm.
Stephen E Arnold, May 17, 2010
Freebie.
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