Uba Kontrovasie

Is the future of social about real personal space?

So many websites and social networks rise and fall down the Comscore/Neilson ratings and so many social networks are popping up across the internet I ask my-self how many can you actually become a member of and what are the real benefits?

Facebook was/is a phenomenon that took people by storm, however after the honeymoon period you start hearing “Facebook is ruining my life” and “I can’t believe I got tagged in that photo”.

The web is becoming more social and this is evidently true, however with every radical movement comes a back lash. People go through cycles and return to what they’re comfortable with, its habit, we’re humans, its what were programmed to do, end of!

After months of everybody e-mailing each other only through Facebook, poking, tagging etc I find my friends are returning back to good old email. A step back? I don’t think so…people will experiment with platforms like Facebook, get fully involved and then only use features they like, going back to what they know best and what they’re comfortable with is normal. There’s that word again - habit!

Its like fashion for want of a better example, you don’t follow every trend you just buy one piece of this years collection which suits you best.

I personally like the network aspect of Facebook, having nearly everyone I’ve ever known behind one log-in is a neat idea. The other stuff I’m not so concerned about, I think I’ll go back to flickr or istockphoto for photos and I will use email or IM to carry on talking to the people that are close to me.

Do I really want everyone to know my mate had a great time having drink with me on tuesday night? not really!

As much as people love to be social they also love personal space and anything that invades it in any way is bound to progress at a slower rate over time. Facebook will always have a core audience and I think people will start to use it more as a means to purely network and not “entertainment”.

Blogs have been around for years, way before Facebook and any of the other social networks. I still believe they still are the future, why? Well it’s because they’re truly personal and they allow people to be social without having their privacy completely invaded, you can push your thoughts across to your friends via RSS and they can upload photos of you, but there’s little risk of that girl in the accounts dept seeing a photo of you, totally off your rocker last Friday night. This is because she doesn’t have access to your friend’s blogs, even if you have blog rolled them there’s nothing encouraging that person to click through unlike Facebook where people can see things happen via feeds instantly.

Blogs are also neat place to aggregate all kinds of other web apps into your own space in your own way i.e your last fm’s most played list, flickr photo quilt and how you feel on Twitter.

People love customisation, its empowering to show all theses apps in your own way on your own space, even if you can (will be able to) do it on Facebook it’s just not quite the same, people love to host house parties at their own houses and not borrowed space.

Tags: Blogging, blogs, facebook, social, social media, Social networks, web 2.0, web apps

Plurk another Microblog?

I stumbled upon Plurk the other day, a new dare I say it twitter. It is however not to be confused with twitter as it has some genuine distinguishing features.

Data visualization being one of them, yes I know “Data Visualisation” is such a buzzword at the moment with lots of websites pouring money into Java Applets which show information in lots of pretty ways.

Plurk however plots your Plurks into a progressive trend line across the times of the day. The more you participate the more “Karma” you receive.

I’m trying to get to the bottom what you’ll actually receive for really good Karma, however it is a great way to get people involved.

Other features include a ready to drop widget for WP and other popular blogging platforms. I was Mucho impressed by the ease of this, a simple copy and paste of code and re-position in CSS will have your Plurks on your blog in minutes. Although this has been done with twitter I think the ease of use is commendable.

As somebody who hasn’t yet committed to the Microblogging realm I think I’m going to give Plurk a test drive and see how it fits.

Tags: Blogging, Java, Micro Blogging, Plurk, Twitter