Sociometry of Social Networks

I met a few of my Facebook friends face-to-face recently and they each told me I was posting too much and hence the stopped the stream somehow. I was not posting to Facebook directly, my tweets were being imported. I have tried to stop them, but forgot how I set it up. (I think I may have succeeded now, if it was a feed from Tweetdeck.)

This has got me thinking about the nature of social networks online.

I can see how my intentions were merged and confused. I have several. Here is a list of intentions relating to the public streaming flows, “parties”, not work groups.

To Read News

And to participate in a news community. I want to get my morning paper in a personalised way. I will follow people who send me stuff I want to read over breakfast. Everything from the NEW YORK TIMES to friends who update their life story, that is news to me. I will Like and repost etc and contribute to that feed.

To be in the loop with friends, family and acquaintances.

Social, professional to some extent, like a BBQ, global is OK! Yet there needs to me some mutuality so it is attractive for all who participate.

Community of Practice

I am in several areas that id like to be able to dip in and out of as the mood strikes. Art, Psychotherapy & Psychodrama, Online Community & Collaboration, Politics & Changing the world.

In all of these areas I like to learn & also further certain discussions I am passionate about.

Marketing

I believe it needs to be social & informative and ethical. I am interested in marketing, not so much my psychotherapy practice but Kate Tapley Horse Treks.

Sharing Photos & Files

Part of all of the above, but one place for photos would be good, I don’t want to upload twice.

My Activity Stream

It would be interesting to have one place where whatever did that was public was posted.

How to make all that work??

The question is how do I use various services work together & individually to meet those needs?

I think the consideration of these things and learning how to tweak and garden these flows will lead to some simple effective use.

The tools may not be the primary factor here. For example Esther Dyson somehow manages a loft of this on flickr.

My current set up is

  • Twitter for news
  • Facebook (from now on) for friends and possibly various lists within it for community of practice.
  • FriendFeed for activity stream.

Or will it just drive me all mad, & I will I just stick to Twitter for the lot, which is so simple!

Withdraw all troops from Afghanistan

peacesign

This statement from Peace Action Wellington is worth supporting. Even now. They are saying they’ll be there for 5 years. Out now, IMO! Peace Action Wellington are asking for an email so you can be added to the list. I’ve just sent one.

 

STATEMENT: Hands off Afghanistan! Say no to SAS return to Afghanistan

We are encouraging organisations, grassroots community groups and individuals to sign on to our anti-war statement below. If you would like to add your name, simply email us at

peacewellington@hotmail.com

Full statement from their website follows:
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Relations of the means of community

Takeover

Facebook just bought FriendFeed. The ensuing discussions have been fascinating, they raise the question:

Who owns your words?
There has been a fear that our personal writing, intimately connected to us, will be lost, deleted, stolen. It has happened before! E-minds, is one example, and there must be many more. The cry is Backup! OK. I have just set up this blog to make a weekly digest of my Tweets and the @replys. Good idea. Thanks to Twitter Tools. However it is not enough.

Who owns your relationships?

FriendFeed is a community, there is an invasion, a takeover. We can escape with some of our goods, but we have lost our land, and the community. (I am reporting what I hear, and sense though I have only been a member for a few days.)

“A platform is not a community, it is the people.” He tangata, he tangata, he tangata.

Yes and no. People are splitting off from FriendFeed, to identica, to Facebook to streamy.com, some are staying. There is a turmoil and a community is in stress. And the people were alienated from the decision. By joining a proprietary community we know this can happen, but no one involved the community members. The real value of FriendFeed is the people, but they were simply sold as part of the property.  The relations of of the means of community are not reflected in the relations of the community.

If this jargon is not familiar, read the Communist Manifesto on the relations of production (or look here) and the relations on the means of production. Production is social, ownership is private in capitalism.

We are seeing the virtual microcosm playing out the capitalism of the macrocosm.

And of course, the FB / FF takeover has raised these questions and the responses. Dave Winer is particularly warmed up to the issue, leading two important threads.

One is Your Blog Loves You. We can trust a blog because we own it, and not only that, it can’t be sold, so I can trust your blog as well. (well mostly), I can certainly trust the blogosphere as a whole to persist.

 

Is this a retreat into individualism & denial of community? Not really. The communal space is then the larger blogosphere, with its clustering, and overlapping communities. Bazaars not a cathederal.

The other Dave Winer initiative is: we’ll build one we own!
Permalink
Align the interests of: 1. Users and 2. Investors.
How to do that?
Well, they need to be the same people.

Align the interests of: 1. Users and 2. Investors. How to do that?  Well they need to be the same people.

I like the idea, but have misgivings! I’d like to follow up research on online community and the relations of ownership. I will have a look again at Virtual Communities on my bookshelf. Or maybe the current discussion, if you move among the bazaars will do the trick. (See Doc Searls response for example.)

Tom Atlee has just written an excellent item on Town Hall Meetings, notice how important the framework is and how it determines the outcome. Even the simple idea of breaking up into Topic Tables would have a huge impact.

It might pay to start with Engles and his book on Utopias, here is the chapter on Utopian Socialism. I say this because I read it in 1974, after investing 5 years of my life creating and participating in a physical community that was owned by its members. I wish id read it before I embarked on the project!

In conclusion…

Where I am at? The container for dialogue, for community, matters. No one structure or method is best. What suits the purpose.

Wendy Whiteley story of her life with Brett Whiteley, Australian artist

Just been listening & watching an ABC video. Great story.

Talking Heads: 2009: Wendy Whiteley Podcast 26:00 10/08/2009 Wendy Whiteley: Peter Thompson talks to artist Wendy Whiteley about her extraordinary journey from swinging sixties London and New York to a tranquil garden at the edge of Sydney Harbour.

Video (mp4)

Transcript

Images and comments follow.

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