I’ve just returned from a high school debate with my daughter in which the topic was “That MySpace is a waste of space”.
Pros from the Teenage Users
1. An effective way of learning first hand from people from around the world.
2. A means of self expression
3. A way for people to become famous - self promotion for bands, designers, artists
4. A cheap way to set up online conversation
Cons from the Teenage Users
1. What should be private quickly and easily becoming public (e.g. parties)
2. Bullying finding a new insidious channel
3. Identity fraud - misrepresenatation or identity theft
4. Addiction leading to distortion of priorities, distracting from education, exercise and face-to-face communication
And More
The students didn’t cover the banality of MySpace conversation, bad design, the domination of the media by self promotion and commercial interest, and the trivialisation of friendship. There was no comparisons of MySpace with Facebook, Bebo or other social networking sites.
I found it ironic that 13 year olds are debating an internet phenomenon that, in theory, they have had no experience of. The minimum age for starting a MySpace page is 14. And yet it would seem, from talking to the students there, that many teenagers have had their own site well before their 14th birthday, just by lying about their age. By the time they reach the age of 14 they’re bored and have moved on. Or their parents have discovered their site…
Straightfrommybrain.com, the brainchild of Stephen Wildish, has produced a hilarious take on Facebook for archetypal seniors. I wonder if this is what is in store for the present generation of Facebook addicts…
Applications
Photos from the War
Knitting Groups
Events and Funerals
Stanna Stairlift
Colostomy Bag
News Feed
George Summner is attending Edgar Jones’ funeral.
Gordon Norris joined the group I like to stop suddenly in the street.
3 of your friends just got poked with a walking stick. Poke back?
Edgar Jones has died… would you like to attend the funeral?
Victor Grantham has added the pipe and slippers application.
Constance Edwards joined the group I still pay my bills with cheques and old money.
Edgar Jones is not feeling too perky today. Faith Ogden wrote a note on that nice young man from the shop’s wall:
“Ooh thankyou dearie for popping over my tripe and porridge oats. I don’t know what I’d do without you, you see my children never call anymore and I’m practically a hermit.”
Charles Sunnington added the meals on wheel application.
Al Bridges and Cliff Richards are now friends.
Status Updates
Vera is complaining about modern music. Where’s the melody?
Stanley Goodwin is trying to keep warm this winter.
Edna Williams is annoyed about immigration.
Ted Stapleton is excited about his new cardigan.
Upcoming Events
Sitting at home watching Corrie with a cup of Earl Grey Tea.
I’ve been enjoying the revival of an interest in the game of Scrabble on Facebook, through the Scrabulous application. We have Scrabble at home here and enjoy the occasional boardless alternatives of ‘Take Two’, and 15 Speed Scrabble. (See Wikipedia for these and more). But it’s fun having a few games on the go at once, with family members and friends around the world.
[eminimall products="Scrabble"]
Scrabulous was launched in July 2006 by Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, two entrepreneurs from Kolkata, India. The application took off when it was integrated into Facebook. Only problem is that Hasbro and Mattel, who own the rights to Scrabble in the US and elsewhere respectively, are now suing Facebook and the Agarwallas, claiming, quite rightly, that they have no legal right to use the board game settings and name in an online setting. Apparently there’s an online version of the game in the wings. In the meantime 600,000 Scrabulous Facebook users are enjoying what could be a temporary pleasure. Many, myself included, have joined Facebook groups campaigning to find a win win deal in which Hasbro, Mattel and the Scrabulous brothers can work together.
Here’s my best game so far, played with Julie Furner, a youth worker in New South Wales. Six of the first eight moves between us were words using all our tiles - scoring an extra 50 points per word. Solving anagrams in cryptic crosswords, something I do most nights before I go to sleep, has come in handy in this game.
Here’s a list of tips for scoring well in Scrabulous (and Scrabble)
1. Always check to see if you are able to use all your letters. If need be, use an online anagram solver to train up in the skill.
2. Make the best use of triple and double word scores, if possible putting high scoring letters on the pink and red squares. Triple and double letter scores aren’t too bad either.
3. Look for common ways to form words. Using S, ED, ING and ER can give you useful leads.
4. Get to know your two letter words. There’s a useful list provided in Scrabulous. There is some controversy in this field however. The official Scrabble dictionary, for example, lists ZO (Himalayan cross between a yak and a cow) while the Scrabulous dictionary has ZA (slang for pizza).
5. Place words in ways that form several other words, ideally using double and triple word and letter squares twice. (This is where the two letter words are so important).
If you’re like me you would have only recently heard about Twitter. Twitter is a global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing? Answer on your phone, instant messaging service or on the internet.
Twitter first came into my inbox in early August via a press release about filming of the Sony Bravia Play-Doh TV ad in New York. By the time I worked out what it was the shoot was finished along with twittering about it. I finally decided to join up to take part in a Twitter experiment associated with the Australian Blogging Conference on Friday last week.
So here’s how it works. You sign up at www.twitter.com. You have the option of using instant messaging services (like GTalk) and your mobile phone to receive and send messages. Then you add people to your ‘follow’ list using email addresses.
Little did I know that Twitter had been online since July 2006, the creation of co-founder Evan Williams of Obvious. Evan of course is known for his development of Blogger along with Meg Hourihan.
Politics and Press
Twitter is likely to become a standard tool for politicians and journalists. Senator John Edwards has used Twitter to update people on his presidential campaign trail. Someone thought it would be a good idea for Kevin Rudd and John Howard.
1. Get quick human answers
2. Share briefings on conferences and news
3. Friendsourcing - accessing a network of friends and acquaintances
4. Micro Attention Sharing - small mini blog entries
5. Direct people to good causes
6. Stay in touch with what friends are doing without being intrusive
1. Use Twitter as a To-Do list
2. Personal or professional messaging service
3. Provide a newsletter
Postkiwi Twitter
I’ve managed to connect Twitter up with my Facebook profile and as a special feature in the Pacific Highlander sidebar. The Facebook application doesn’t appear to be updating instantly but I’m sure that problem will be ironed out. If you’re interested in following my evolving stream of consciousness visit my Postkiwi Twitter profile. I imagine it could be useful to have a number of Twitter profiles to be used with different networks or for different purposes. But I’m not in a hurry to head down that track quite yet.
New Zealand television review site Throng has today launched a world-first web 2.0 television listings format. In development for more than two years, the new format replaces the traditional TV guide grid and makes it easier to find what is on at a glance. Shows are displayed based on what is on now, what starts in the next hour and what is on in prime time tonight. Shows are weighted according to popularity on throng.co.nz. Members of the website throng.co.nz personalise their listings to highlight their favourite shows and hide ones they’re not interested in.
“We’ve thought long and hard about TV listings and what we’d like them to be. We found traditional listings hard to scan because they’re organised by channel and you can easily miss things. We’ve removed the clutter and made your choice simpler,” says co-founder Regan Cunliffe, also at Cre8d design.
See the new look listings from today at throng.co.nz.
I’ve just created a new group for Kiwi Bloggers in New Zealand and abroad. The goal is to increase the capacity for networking between people blogging with New Zealand culture in their blood. To join, visit the Kiwi Bloggers site at Facebook and click on ‘Join Group’. If you’re not signed up with Facebook it’s not a difficult process.
Also of interest might be the following New Zealand related groups:
The Beard of Hayman - a group for all of those who find themselves watching the All Blacks waving big “Bring back the Beard” signs.
The All Blacks will win the 2007 Rugby World Cup!!
I Live In New Zealand, NOT Australia…And Yes, They Are Different
I was a Kiwi Kid!
I call New Zealand home
Bring Back Georgie Pie
Facebook is currently undergoing a huge surge in growth, an indicator that online social networking is alive and well. Facebook is providing a level of sophistication not experienced in MySpace, through the number of optional applications such as causes, groups, networks, and connectivity with blogs and Stumbleupon. The site is about to open up to search engines, providing limited access to the profiles of those who choose to be found.
I joined up in March this year but didn’t do much with it until May. Since then I’ve added 85 friends, mostly people I know through Uniting Church, emerging church, advertising and blogging connections. Curiously I’ve found it difficult to find people on Facebook from my 39 years living in New Zealand. My profile, available for full view from friends, shows what I say I’m up to, who I’m friends with, groups I belong to, photos I’ve taken, books I’m reading, blog posts I’ve written, along with information on my education and employment history.
On Facebook I’ve found it a simple thing to join causes such as Save Darfur, Amnesty International, Support Breast Cancer Research, Fair Trade, UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Church Marketing Sucks. Facebook culture makes it a normal thing invite people to join your cause, no matter how serious or silly. The highlight of the year was having Kevin Rudd accept the invitation to join Make Poverty History.
And then there’s the groups. I’ve joined groups for the networking they provide, like The Chaser’s War on Everything Appreciation Society, Youth Ministry in Australia, Australian Bloggers, Adbusters, Creatives for Change, Uniting Church in Australia, The Emergent Church, Greenpeace, I work in advertising and am making the world a better place. I’ve just created a new group for Kiwi Bloggers in New Zealand and abroad.
Facebook was originally started as a networking tool for university students. It continues in that role but now has networking around high school attendance, employment, conference attendance and membership of organisations.
Stephen Shields of faithmaps.org has written a downloadable paper (pdf) on “online social networking tools for the church” for Leadership Network. He writes about churches who use sites such as Facebook to enhance networking between members. He finishes with the expected warnings about the dangers of pornography, internet addiction, Christian bickering, and the fickle nature of the internet.
The strength of Facebook, and similar sites, is the capacity for people to network with friends and acquaintances in a way that leads to collaboration, better understanding, the sharing of friendship networks, and perhaps even the development and growth of genuine friendship! That can and should take people beyond their narrow sphere of influence.
The cartoon here, provided by Dave Walker at Weblog Cartoons, is a useful reminder that face-to-face friendships and family relationships need to be fostered, even when Facebook appears to be more exciting.
The news today has made much of the Prime Minister’s office computers being used to remove the words, “AKA Captain Smirk” from Peter Costello’s page on Wikipedia. Defense computers are about to be banned from editing other posts. Commentators are concerned that the government is re-writing history.
Wikipedia protocol makes it clear that any persons featured on the online encyclopedia have the right to remove derogatory remarks made about them. The etiquette also calls for a shared perspective to be developed by those editing each page. “POV” (point of view) is edited out by the Wikipedia community, allowing the content to evolve as a set of commonly held perspectives.
Behind the scenes of every Wikipedia article are layers available only to people who are registered as Wikipedia editors.
On the ‘talk page’, a forum for those who are working on the content of the Peter Costello article, writers grapple with suggestions that Costello could be described as a ‘radical Christian’, may or may not have been a member of the Young Labors at university, had ’some’ involvement in the dollar sweets prosecution, has been rumoured to have cancer, and has made dismissive comments about the calls for gay marriage. It is noted that this page is about an active politician who is running for office, is in office and campaigning for re-election, or is involved in some political conflict or controversy. Because of this, this article is at risk of biased editing, talk-page trolling, and simple vandalism.
Due to the interest the page is getting, the Peter Costello entry has been temporarily locked. After all, putting in and taking out the words “AKA Captain Smirk” does get boring after a while.
The second meeting for the Brisbane Bloggers Meetup group is coming up, Wednesday August 1. I was at the first get-together, along with about ten others, including bloggers, web developers, designers, and their friends. It was a good opportunity to meet people face to face, find out what people are doing, share tips on niche development, search engine optimization and juggling paid work, blogging and having a life.
Duncan Macleod posts on life, faith and culture in Australia, drawing from his involvement in the creative industry, the Uniting Church, the blogosphere, generational research, the emerging church and life on the Gold Coast.
Faith Ogden wrote a note on that nice young man from the shop’s wall:
1. Always check to see if you are able to use all your letters. If need be, use an online anagram solver to train up in the skill.
I’ve just created a new group for Kiwi Bloggers in New Zealand and abroad. The goal is to increase the capacity for networking between people blogging with New Zealand culture in their blood. To join, visit the 
