Here’s the problem. For me, anyway.
I believe the Net is an open place. Same with the Web.
I also believe private walled gardens on the Web are fine things. Nothing wrong with them.
My problem is when the former starts looking and acting like the latter. And that’s why I’m already tired of Facebook. The “friend request” list (top item to the left there) is one I’ve whittled down from a much higher number. If I could gang-whittle them, I might be more interested, but the routine still involves declining to check off which of many different ways I met somebody (“both owned the same dog”, “set up by a mutual ex-boss” or whatever), and other time-sucks. Not to mention that the site takes many seconds to load, or to bring up email, or whatever. At least for me.
The big challenge for Facebook, as it has been for AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple and everybody else who ever ran a walled garden, is to make their “platform” something that sits on the Net and the Web, not something that substitutes for it. Facebook’s mail, for example, is a substitute. If there’s a way I could get Facebook mail with my IMAP or POP client, I’d rather do that. (Can you, by the way? I doubt it, but I dunno.)
Anyway, lif’e’s too short, and this list of stuff is too long. If you’re waiting for me to respond to a poke or an invitation,or a burp or any of that other stuff, don’t hold your breath. Or take offense. I’ve got, forgive me, better things to do.
-
Doc, I couldn’t agree with you more. I’m not nearly as popular as you are — and the only reason I really signed up was because my kids were there — so my “request” box isn’t as loaded as yours. Nevertheless, I’ve been “requested” by lots of people I don’t know, and who wants to be a jerk and reject an outstretched hand?
But what I loathe about Facebook most is the one-to-many aspects of the platform. Every thing I do on the site is logged, to be used as a vehicle for some smart marketer to snag me. Facebook Flyers is a great advertising mechanism, but I don’t socialize to receive unwanted messages. Moreover, I’m repelled by hype, and I think the general love affair that traditional media has had with Facebook reminds me of Second Life, another place that doesn’t need me.
-
Completely agreed. I used to have accounts on all the major social networking sites, but then I came to the same conclusion you seem to have come to. They are too much of a time sink. Not only that, but just like AOL they are “Like the real internet, only crappy.” No thanks. If my friends really want to get in touch with me, I’m not hard to find. Good Stuff.
-
I don’t find it too overwhelming. But that is coming from the perspective of a slightly more ‘normal’ facebook user. I almost never get pings from folks I don’t know.
I suppose that those of us who are lucky enough to be more anonymous/less famous, can exercise more control over how much of a time-suck it should be.
-
Yes.. I totally agree about the ‘lock in’ bit. It is frustrating.
Re: ‘fame’: Maybe I picked the wrong word, but you are still more ‘known’ than most folks. That’s all I was pointing to as the reason for the deluge of pokes etc.. The web seems to be fast becoming that ‘street’ where you (personally) are recognized for the contribution you make – for better or worse.
p.s. I also refuse to ‘bite chumps’.
🙂
-
Hi Doc. I like your example of Facebook. the problem with most social network services is that they all build their own walled gardens. To monetize it using ads they then proceed to ad value to this network, each building their own versions of exisiting services. Then they start increasing ad pressure to leverage this network (which is build by the users btw).
This won’t work. It doesn’t provide me any value as a user as I am forced to change my communication habits and get harassed by ads. Rolf Skyberg wrote a nice post about that and he predicts users will pay in the end to network.
I just made a fool out of myself predicting that the countdown for the downfall of Facebook has started, as they are revealing their advertisement strategy now (which includes using social graph information). Good move for the advertisers and towards potential investors of Facebook, bad move towards the facebook user:
http://vanelsas.wordpress.com/2007/10/24/counting-down-the-downfalll-of-facebook-as-they-set-to-introduce-major-ad-play/ -
doc –
i like facebook for birthdays and for scrabble. those are both activities that you can do 1x/day and not have it overwhelm.
I wish there was a facebook client for status update messages that seamlessly integrated those events into the same sort of client that twitterific is, the obtrusive but easily hidable sidebar.
BE MY FREND PLEEZ?
-
I feel bad for friend requesting you after seeing you speak at DIDW. Thanks for accepting though! On a lighter note your post reminded me of a funny post from fake steve yesterday “And here comes Facebook which scares the crap out of Google because they’re roping off a huge chunk of the Internet and keeping it to themselves; and word is the Borg is definitely going to get into bed with Faceberg and won’t be deterred based on ridiculously high prices.”
-
Your problem is you don’t want a date. It’s really dumb and it looks like a dating service for losers. I joined to find out what it’s about and now I need someone to help me quit….
Diane Francis
FinancialPost.com -
Consider a framework that permits users to swirl around the internet, tied to each other by whim and interest, easily hopping over the so-called “walls” of gardens..
why be bound to WebSites when you can join a WebSwarm, which spans many sites and services (as many as can be supported with APIs coded-for, XML consumed, etc..), and spits out as much data as clients want
I’m trying to build this, but I’m only one dude
-
[…] Alex Iskold wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptAnd that’s why I’m already tired of Facebook. The “friend request” list (top item to the left there) is one I’ve whittled down from a much higher number. If I could gang-whittle them, I might be more interested, but the routine still … […]
-
Doc, I am glad you wrote this. I don’t like Facebook for three reasons: 1) as you say, it is a walled garden, and to look at a page you are forced to divulge who you are and register. 2) they have you click “I have read and understood…” for a contract which takes me thirty minutes to read and college level reading skills to understand. 3) they take ownership of all content generated. I and my lab Minciu Sodas are founding members of the new European Union thematic network for the Public Domain. We are the forum for developing the EUs policy on the Public Domain. It is likely that we will be hosting in April, 2008 a workshop in Vilnius, Lithuania on Ethical Public Domain: Debate of Questionable Practices. I hope that Facebook sends somebody to debate these practices. Perhaps we can come to a friendly agreement or understand their position. Otherwise, they may wake up to find a law, guideline or evaluation in Europe restricting or discouraging their behavior. See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningfromeachother/message/1166 for more about my proposed workshop.
-
I think Facebook has an opportunity to give users a greater degree of control over their environment. The grouping feature, which will inevitably be released, will provide a new layer of control to users with information/friend overload. The existence and popularity of applications like “top friends” is a testament to the need for people to assign tiers to their social network. Really, I don’t care if someone I met 2 years ago and no longer speak with is battling a Ninja. Facebook needs to a) allow the grouping of friends so information flow becomes more relevant and b) continue optimizing the default newsfeed settings so the average user doesn’t get driven away. I actually think the latter is more important, since a lot of users aren’t going to bother spending a lot of time tweaking newsfeed settings, grouping users, etc..
-
1. You are not a share cropper- Break the chains
2. Be a rebel
3. Change the game
4. Believe in the possibilities
5. Do good
6. At adelph.us “Open” means-
1. Whenever possible using Open Source applications
2. Whenever possible offering the hosted use of these applications free of charge to members
3. Always writing code using existing Open Source standards that are not proprietary or owned by a company ie (Face Book and the rest)
4. Empowering the community (Individuals, Groups, Non Profits, and Companies) with tools that help them to save time and resources
5. Evening the playing field
6. Giving back to the community
7. Giving back to Open Source
8. You control all access of your account
9. You control all access to your content
7. You have the right to control the conversations that you have with Companies
1. You have the right to choose the who, what, when, and where of this conversation
2. Companies must contribute to the community before they can be included in any conversation
3. Whenever possible the entire community should benefit from these conversations
8. You control your account –
1. We will never give your personal data to any third parties without your permission
2. You have control over who has access to your profile information
3. You have control over who has access to your content
4. At anytime you are free to delete your account
5. When you delete your account it is cleared from our Database -
Pingback from Doc Searls Weblog · Gain of face on October 18, 2008 at 8:15 pm
-
Ever since Facebook opened their registration to everyone, my sister and many others have encouraged me to sign up. As a result of my useless Myspace experience, I never saw value in signing up for another social service that provided little-to-no professional benefit.
To get to the point of this story, I never thought I would say this, but I finally signed up for Facebook and have to say that I have been VERY impressed.
-
It should (at least in theory) be possible to write a Facebook IMAP proxy/bridge using the API. I’ve outlined the basic ideas here:
http://www.emailserviceguide.com/2010/01/making-facebooks-messaging-system-imap-compatible/I’d love if someone took on the task and open source’d it =)
Comments are now closed.
43 comments