Gravatar Hovercards
Automattic introduces Gravatar Hovercards: Is WordPress(.com) becoming a social network? http://eicker.at/Hovercards
Updates from October, 2010 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Gerrit Eicker
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Gerrit Eicker
Facebook Groups
Facebook gets social finally: renovates Facebook Groups which are closed by default; http://eicker.at/FacebookGroups
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Gerrit Eicker
Facebook: “The biggest problem in social networking is helping you easily interact with your friends and share information in lots of different contexts. … We set out to build a solution that could help you map out all of your communities, that would be simple enough that everyone would use it and that would be deeply integrated across Facebook and applications so you can communicate with your different groups in lots of different ways. … Today we’re announcing a completely overhauled, brand new version of Groups. … The default setting is Closed, which means only members see what’s going on in a group. … We’ve built an easy way to quickly download to your computer everything you’ve ever posted on Facebook and all your correspondences with friends: your messages, Wall posts, photos, status updates and profile information. … We’re launching a new dashboard to give you visibility into how applications use your data to personalize your experience. … We’ve heard loud and clear that you want more control over what you share on Facebook – to manage exactly who sees it and to understand exactly where it goes. With this new Groups experience and the other tools we’re rolling out today, we’re taking a few important steps forward towards giving you precise controls.”
Facebook: “When a group member posts to the group, everyone in the group will receive a notification about that post. … We’ve also added a bunch of new features to Groups to make sharing and communication with small groups of people easier. … You can also use Groups as a replacement for mailing lists by setting up your group to send an email to you anytime anyone posts in it. … You can also use the settings to create groups that have their name and members unlisted (‘Secret’), or create groups that have more public settings (‘Open’).”
NYT: “The move is an effort to address a longstanding problem: Facebook friends often span a broad range of relationships that include relatives, classmates, casual professional acquaintances or jogging partners – and not everyone wants all of them to see his or her information. … With the new feature, called Groups, Facebook hopes to encourage users to upload more photos, videos and other information to the site while giving them new ways to control who sees what. … Some privacy advocates welcomed Groups, but others worried that it would give Facebook even more information about users, which it could provide to marketers and others. … ‘We think about this stuff a lot,’ Mr. Zuckerberg said, referring to privacy. ‘Often people don’t think we think about it as much as we do.’ … Mr. Zuckerberg said he thought the system would police itself because everyone in the group would be notified when a new member joins and would flag someone who does not belong. But Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, called the new service ‘double-edged.’ ‘Yes, it’s good to be able to segment posts for particular friends,’ he said. ‘But you will also be revealing information to Facebook about the basis of your online connections.’”
RWW: “The creation of groups in any set of subscriptions, and that’s what your Facebook social graph is thanks to the News Feed, is a key way to offer users an option to change the signal to noise ratio of what they are reading moment-by-moment. … Focused conversations and collaboration in Groups will differ substantially from the old Facebook experience of undifferentiated broadcast. … Pete Warden: ‘I’m still worried that they’re taking the same approach to privacy that Microsoft takes to security. Their space-shuttle control panel approach is like having lots of noisy popups, people are confused and learn to ignore them. Far better if you can have a really simple story. Even with something as simple as open/closed for groups, it’s still too much for most people.‘”
SEL: “In a bid to give users more tools and control over the sharing of information (and perhaps preempt Google) Facebook introduced a new way to create and communicate with small private groups of people. Through an API this same functionality will be extended to publishers and third party developers like Facebook Connect is today. … The absence of easy ways to share information privately with smaller groups has been one of Facebook’s perceived vulnerabilities and a potential entry point and differentiator for a hypothetical ‘Google Me.’ … The new Groups offering is live now. It should very quickly become a hugely successful product for Facebook and will create further headaches for anyone (read Google) trying to exploit holes in Facebook’s products to better compete with them.”
SB: “I was also curious about whether Groups could be used for work-related purposes, say collaboration between a team in the office. Andrew Bosworth, the company’s director of engineering, said that once again, that’s not really what the Feature was designed for, but it could be used that way. In fact, he showed me that his team was using a Group to help coordinate the wider launch of Groups. … It does sound like Facebook executives think the social design principles behind Groups are part of what sets them part, and that the ‘algorithmic approach’ might be part of why Google’s social efforts like Buzz and Wave haven’t taken off.”
TC: “Groups have an icon, and a logo.’It’s mean to resemble a human space,’ head of product Chris Cox added. – Groups aren’t replacing Friend Lists, Zuckerberg says. He doesn’t see the value in deleting what people have already worked on – but going forward, Groups is going to be the way this social element is set up. – This is a big part of creating what Zuckerberg calls ‘a pristine graph.’”
NW: “Die geschlossenen Gruppen und das Einladungssystem leisten jener Polarisierung Vorschub, die im Internet mit den sozialen Medien ohnehin und namentlich in der bipolaren amerikanischen Politik als krassestes Beispiel zu beobachten ist. – Das ist eine 180-Grad Wende nicht des Gedankens von Facebook, aber seiner Wirkung. Denn erst durch Facebook und die Schmelztiegel-Wirkung, welche die einfache Abbildung der sozialen Verbindungen mit sich brachte, sind Einblicke in Ansichten und Lebensumstände anderer Menschen entstanden, die wir vorher nicht hatten: Durch die undifferenzierte Publikation der Nachrichten und Infos im Newsstream kriegte man auch jene Seiten aus dem Leben der andern mit, die man im Gesangsverein oder in der lokalen Partei eben nicht zu Gesicht kriegte. Die vermeintlich oberflächlichen Beziehungen auf Facebook sorgten in Tat und Wahrheit für ungewohnte Annäherungen. - Diese Einsichten und Einblicke könnten durch die neuen Gruppen weggewischt werden. Denn mit dem komplexen Gefüge der realen sozialen Beziehungen hält auf Facebook auch die Segregation der Meinungen wieder Einzug.“
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Gerrit Eicker
HTML5 Interoperability
Le Hegaret, W3C: It is too early to deploy HTML5 because we are running into interoperability issues; http://eicker.at/c
Gerrit Eicker
Over.ly
Violet Blue: URL shortener vb.ly is seized by the Libyan government; http://eicker.at/ly (via @gedankenstuecke)
Gerrit Eicker
Yourls
Start your own public or private URL shortener on your own domain/s using Yourls; http://eicker.at/Yourls (Works.)
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Gerrit Eicker
Important: Read the stats of Yourls as hits (bots included), not as unique clicks/users!
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Martin Seibert
Ich habe dazu schon ein Video erstellt: Ihr Kurzlink-Dienst mit eigener Domain – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RICWvjCxu48
Gerrit Eicker
Instapaper Subscriptions
VB: Instapaper has just rolled out a $1/mo. subscription model; http://eicker.at/InstapaperSubscriptions
Gerrit Eicker
ABC Goes StatusNet
ABC unofficially partners with Twitter-alternative StatusNet for ABCNewsRadio.FM; http://eicker.at/ABCStatusNet
Gerrit Eicker
Second Life: Educational Exodus?
Linden Lab cancels educational rebates for SL; http://j.mp/cgiFFv @Fleep: Are you trying to hasten the exodus to OpenSim?
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Gerrit Eicker
LL: “We will adjust how education and non-profit advantages are provided, effective Jan. 1, 2011. All education and non-profit private regions of any type, purchased after Dec. 31, 2010, will be invoiced at standard (i.e. non-discounted) pricing. All currently discounted renewals which occur after Dec. 31, 2010, will be adjusted to the new price at that time. To continue to provide entry-level, private spaces to educators just launching their programs, we will be providing Homestead and Open Space regions to qualifying organizations without their meeting the retail full-region criterion. Customer Support will be available to answer any questions that you may have about these changes.”
DW: “Yesterday’s announcement that the Lab was raising prices on education and non-profits has kicked in a sort of reflex instinct: maybe there is a strategy, and I’m simply too mortal to get it. – I have no idea why I’m doing this to myself again. I went through this for, hmmm, a few years I guess and it turned out that there wasn’t any sort of secret answer, there wasn’t much more than the Love Machine, and Mark Kingdon was brought in to answer the same question I had pounded my own head over: where are you trying to go, and how are you going to get there?”
MJ: “And rightly so, given the critical mass of educators that have generated significant outcomes for Second Life. In fact, it could be argued that it’s only the good news stories generated by the non-profits that have helped offset some of the negative aspects inflated by parts of the mainstream media and others. The comments section below the announcement is well worth a read: even taking out the initial emotion, the overwhelming attitude is that it’s time to downsize or move on. Of course, the migration to OpenSim grids is already well underway, for a range of reasons.”
AH: “Discounted Second Life virtual land will be phased out for non-profit organizations and the education sector as of January 1, 2011 according to this announcement by Nelson Linden. Reaction was predictably negative from those whose budget cycles do easily accommodate costs doubling with three months notice – in other words, essentially all non-profits and education. … Apparently Linden lab has written off the non-profit sector to concentrate on entertainment in Philip Linden’s walled garden of cyber delights.“
Gerrit Eicker
Facebook Places Deutschland
Facebook Places startet in Deutschland: Werden Check-in-Dienste jetzt massentauglich? http://j.mp/dwDMPq
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Gerrit Eicker
Facebook: “Orte ist eine Facebook-Funktion, mit der du sehen kannst, wo deine Freunde sind, und mit der du anderen deinen physischen Aufenthaltsort mitteilen kannst. Wenn du Orte verwendest, kannst du sehen, ob sich deine Freunde gerade in der Nähe befinden und dann einfach Kontakt mit ihnen aufnehmen. … Du kontrollierst und besitzt alle Informationen, die du auf Facebook teilst, einschließlich der Informationen in der Orte-Anwendung. Du bestimmst, wie und mit wem du diese teilst. Dein Aufenthaltsort wird niemals automatisch mitgeteilt: Und zwar weder beim Verwenden deines Handys noch beim Verwenden der Facebook-Anwendung und auch nicht, wenn du die Orte-Funktion verwendest. Dein Aufenthaltsort wird nur dann mitgeteilt, wenn du diesen in der Orte-Anwendung angibst. Ob und mit wem du teilst, wo du dich befindest, ist deine Entscheidung.”
FAZ: “Facebook-Nutzer können ihren Freunden künftig nicht nur mitteilen, was sie gerade tun, sondern auch wo sie sind. Der Dienst Places, der in Deutschland Facebook-Orte heißt, ermöglicht nun auch den deutschen Nutzern das Einchecken an Orten. Der neue Dienst ortet dabei den Nutzer über Satellitennavigation (GPS). Per ‘Check In’ können die rund 12 Millionen aktiven Nutzer in Deutschland dann ihren aktuellen Aufenthaltsort aus einer Vorschlagsliste umliegender öffentlicher Plätze wie Restaurants oder Geschäfte auswählen oder einen neuen Platz anlegen. Auf diese Weise können Nutzer erfahren, welche Freunde gerade ebenfalls dort sind, oder sie können Kommentare hinterlassen, die vielleicht für spätere Besucher hilfreich sein können. … Der Ortsdienst funktioniert nur, wenn die Nutzer dies ausdrücklich in ihrem Profil einstellen. Die Ortsangaben werden dann nur den Freunden mitgeteilt. Wer von einem anderem Facebook-Nutzer mit eingecheckt werden kann, muss vorher zustimmen. Problematisch ist allerdings die Möglichkeit, auch nicht-öffentliche Plätze anzulegen. Wenn genügend Menschen sich zum Beispiel auf einer Party anmelden, erscheint der Ort als öffentlicher Platz.”
Heise: “Da Facebook aber die Möglichkeit bietet, dass Dritte auch den Aufenthaltsort eines anderen Nutzers preisgeben, sollte man auf derselben Seite ‘Freunde können angeben, dass ich mich an einem Ort befinde’ auf ‘Gesperrt’ setzen. Ein dritter Punkt findet sich auf der Seite ‘Anwendungen, Spiele und Webseiten’. Dort gilt es, unter ‘Informationen, die durch deine Freunde zugänglich sind’, das Häkchen vor ‘Orte, die ich besuche’, zu entfernen. Sonst könnten die Anwendungen von Freunden auf die Ortsinformationen zugreifen.”
NW: “Jeder Ort besitzt eine eigene Profilseite. Einzelhändler, Gastronomen und andere physische Einrichtungen können eine von Nutzern angelegte Orte-Profilseite beanspruchen. Nach einer Verifizierung erhalten sie die Möglichkeit, ihre bestehende Facebook Page mit der Orts-Profilseite zu vereinen. … Betroffen von Facebook-Orte sind unter anderem hiesige Check-In-Services wie friendticker und Qype. Im August erklärte uns friendticker-CEO Florian Resatsch, dass das Berliner Startup Facebook-Orte über die von dem Social Network angebotene API integrieren wolle, sobald es in Deutschland verfügbar sei. – Facebook-Orte ist der bisher bedeutendste Vorstoß eines Webangebots in den primär von jungen, nur bedingt einflussreichen Startups dominierten Markt der ortsabsierten Dienste.“
Gerrit Eicker
About Ads
The self-regulatory principles for online behavioral advertising now have an icon for transparency; http://j.mp/baIujh
Gerrit Eicker 15:04 on 7. October 2010 Permalink |
The (last) missing link: following and/or reciprocal friending of (Gravatar) profiles, including their posts and/or comments via “My Subscriptions”…
Paul Herwarth von Bittenfeld 17:55 on 7. October 2010 Permalink |
WP rulez! I like this new feature. For all that, it takes a lot more to become a social network. A better integration of Intense Debate would be a smart step.
Matt Thomas 08:21 on 8. October 2010 Permalink |
I like to think of us as a sociable network. :)
Gerrit Eicker 08:31 on 8. October 2010 Permalink |
Nice one. And so true. – Still, I’d really like to read a vision statement: Where’s WordPress (Automattic) heading to? Possibly something more precise than “making the web a better place”. ;) Will BuddyPress/MU become some kind of “default” for WordPress.com?
Martin Seibert 11:01 on 8. October 2010 Permalink |
After seeing Ping from Apple, it seems to be at least “en vogue” to head in this direction. And I agree, that WordPress.com has significant potential to be successful in this area.