[Chapter-delegates] facebook

[Alejandro Pisanty]

Dear Narelle,

as usual you put your finger straight into the wound, and provide a 
framework for further analysis. It adds up to Christian's well-pointed 
remark, too. A few considerations I think are worth sharing:

1. "social-network platform" (SNs) are not neutral, beneficent platforms. 
Most of them are there for profit. Some provide a valuable service; all of 
them are built on assumptions which need exploration before making 
decisions about them.

2. IMO LinkedIn has a couple features going for it - there is a chance to 
keep interactions professional and focused, useful for work; and a neat 
feature is a clean, non-graphical, lightweight interface which can work in 
situations with limited bandwidth.

3. Facebook seems to be exploding from your correct description (a 
farewell yearbook for kids leaving high school, and for college students, 
all in the US) to a space where older, work-committed people are also 
coming forward. As Christian says, many get there to watch their children, 
and get hooked up by some of the interesting or even valuable features.

4. The highest level of hype, and the best-quality information as well, on 
SNs that I've seen, comes from marketers salivating to push goods and 
services, but sales at any rate, using the clients as marketers. We are 
already doing our part by just inviting people to join. This is viral 
marketing online; it is part of a larger phenomenon of utilizing the 
clients as vehicles, which is integrally planned in publicity campaigns 
including everything from traditional TV, street, and stadium 
advertisement to cellphone tones and screens. That the phenomenon is in 
explosive phase, esp. in developed countries, can't be denied. Whether it 
will last, and how it will work, esp. in developing countries, remains to 
be explored. Big literature and debate out there.

5. I do not think that we must push aggressively for ISOC activities 
taking place primarily in SNs. You correctly mentioned many other and the 
effort just doesn't scale to cover them all.

6. But more importantly, networks like Facebook need care - they require 
massive bandwidth to be useful. The download of photographs which cannot 
be avoided, and the whole processing of the graphically loaded interface, 
will be very taxing for people on weak, narrowband links in developing 
countries, and even in rural regions of developed countries. I did the 
experiment yesterday on checking on a list of about 30 friends, plus my 
inbox, in FAcebook, systematically, and going through even a paltry 
site like that took me many hours with broadband - can't imagine doing 
it without. So, big pinch of salt just for that.

7. The privacy implications of the SNs are daunting and only starting. We 
cannot push people to relinquish theirs just for the joy of a new 
interface.

8. Your idea of an "association oriented" network is intriguing. We should 
explore whether any of the established platforms does the job or what it 
takes to start a new one (non-trivial job for sure.) And it also raises 
questions like legitimate representation, which are thorny as the Khaled 
and Veni are already illustrating.

9. For the Khaled-Veni association-cause situation, I'd call on prudence 
and measure. At this point in time I think we should concentrate on making 
it easy for ISOCers and friends on Facebook to come together (Khaled's 
ISOC group) and wait to have a better-defined "cause" to support (ISOC 
does not have any ongoing campaigns for funding, membership, etc. that are 
well-identified enough to pursue this way; remember that SN marketing is 
part of an integral effort; and Veni does not have adequate representation 
and hasn't integrated his effort with HQ.) Let's avoid unnecessary 
confusion!

Yours,

Alejandro Pisanty


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      Dr. Alejandro Pisanty
Director General de Servicios de Computo Academico
UNAM, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Mexico DF Mexico
Tel. (+52-55) 5622-8541, 5622-8542 Fax 5622-8540
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On Mon, 13 Aug 2007, Narelle Clark wrote:

> Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 10:02:53 +1000
> From: Narelle Clark <Narelle.Clark at optus.com.au>
> To: chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
> Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] facebook
> 
>
> I'm just starting to wonder how far this goes?
>
> We've got a linkedin group, now a facebook, what about myspace, bebo...
>
> Don't get  me wrong, I think ISOC should have an extremely strong online
> presence, and be cultivating the next generation of participants, I'm
> just wondering about the usefulness of these things for *our* purpose.
>
> Eg facebook was essentially an online 'yearbook' similar to that which I
> understand many USAmerican high schools publish for school leavers.
>
> Does that type of forum really suit our needs?
>
> Is there another type of forum that is needed more? Maybe an
> 'association' oriented system???
>
> Now *that's an idea*. Any takers?
>
>
>
>
> Narelle Clark |
> Vice President, ISOC-AU
>
> "When it comes to technology, most people over-estimate it in the short
> term and under-estimate it in the longer term."  Arthur C. Clarke
>
>
>
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