Tagged: online community RSS

  • thePuck 4:17 pm on May 11, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: online community, , , , ,   

    Opening Up The Social Media Philosophy Project 

    Hello everyone! The membership drive has been pretty successful, and the ranks have been culled. So now it is time for more of the promised changes.

    1. As with my other sites, I am moving the Project to a new host. This will require some downtime, and hopefully there won’t be any problems, but there is always the chance of disaster.
    2. I am going to be re-building the site on the new host with a focus on fast, easy responses using the P2 Theme from Automattic. After this, every day or two I will post a short “prompt” or question, which everyone will be encouraged to answer.
    3. Under this new structure, there will no longer be a discrete line between Project members and the rest of the social media community. Anyone will be able to register and post their questions and ideas. However, the Project will still be moderated and, if anyone causes problems they will be removed by one of us admin types, so don’t think I am turning this into 4chan. The goal here is to have an open community that everyone can participate in that attempts to address the philosophical implications of social technologies, and anyone not interested in doing that should go elsewhere.

    If anyone has any concerns or suggestions, comment or get in touch with me. Expect these changes to be implemented over the coming weeks.

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  • thePuck 3:11 am on April 30, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: #amazonfail, Chris Brogan, , Gillmor Gang, Jason Calacanis, Leo Laporte, online community, , Oprah, , Robert Scoble, , , , swine flu,   

    Social Media Misinformation, Disinformation, and Just Plain Stupidity 

    Twitter 6x6 1/1/08
    Image by apenny via Flickr

    OMG we’re all gonna die of swine flu!

    No, actually, we’re not. In fact, very little will happen at all. So why is it being so blown out of proportion? Think about this…more people die every day from…well, everything, than swine flu. Name it. Even the common cold has a higher body count. More people have died of being blown up in space shuttles than Americans have died of swine flu. Just think about that. Space shuttles. How rare is that? Swine flu is even rarer. So why is everyone freaked out?

    I’ll tell you why…because humans are a panicky bunch. Oh, sure, we like to make myths and stories about ourselves being fearless warriors and unstoppable killing machines, but really we are primates who evolved to live in cooperative groups. We did not gain dominance through martial prowess but through our tendency to work in concert and run when outmatched. Those that didn’t run are no longer with us, genetically or actually. When we try to make humans into these mythic creatures, these warriors, it very often breaks them. Post-traumatic stress disorder, emotional disassociation, and periodic depression are common symptoms of broken humans, but of course there are matters of degree; some are not broken but merely bent, and these often make very good soldiers but very poor humans. While this is regrettable, until humans learn a different way to resolve disputes, it is also necessary. Some must give up their humanity so that others may keep their lives.

    But the rest of us are a fearful lot. We repeat unlikely things because they scare us rather than because we know them to be true. We spread fear and inspire chaos. And, even worse, we give license to ourselves and each other to act in idiotic and horrendous ways, all because we were afraid.

    So enough. Quit it. You are spreading panic and making everyone anxious for no reason. Quit tweeting and retweeting the latest stupid update on swine flu. Stop making Google Maps mashups. Stop posting the latest WHO and CDC figures. Stop. Even if there were a real danger, this chicken-little crap would not be helpful. Save it for the zombie holocaust…I am sure Tom from accounting will get a big giggle out of your last tweets of “OMG ZOMBIES WDFFBKW” as he chomps your brains.

    And on that note…celebrities aren’t celebrities here, so quit letting the media lead you by the nose.

    That’s right, I’m talking about Oprah and Ashton and whoever else wants to ply their dirty little trade here. They don’t get it, and most likely never will. Narcissists don’t do well in social media because they give nothing back. Look at the so-called celebrities’ profiles…look at the ratio. Look at how much they interact. Ashton at least seems to make an attempt…most of the “celebrities” seem to think that Twitter is just another place for them to play “look at me!”.

    The real celebrities of our ranks are those who interact, who have ideas, and who actually do things. Robert Scoble, Howard Rheingold, Tara Hunt, Leo Laporte, Chris Brogan, Brian Solis…we all know the names. The people (and many more, some of them I am lucky enough to know personally) are the real celebrities of social media. And I know some of you are groaning about me listing all these A-listers and crowing about “internet fame” like it’s “real” fame, but hear me out: I don’t know what “real” or “unreal” fame is. All fame seems to be an abstraction; we made up the concept and apply it as a social construct. And on the basis of this construct I say that “internet famous” (I am talking about the Jason Calacanis kind of web famous, not the Numa Numa guy kind, in case you are confused) is more “real”, or at least handed out for better reasons and according to values I am more in agreement with, than the fame dished out by Hollywood, TV, and the music industries. I like our kind of fame…it comes because a person is smart, cool, funny…not because an executive someone decided to promote them and turn them into a cash cow. I will take the Gillmor Gang over The View any day.

    And for my final trick, I will also rant about #amazonfail.

    What the hell is wrong with us? Do we so enjoy schadenfreude that we will leap to offense just on suspicion? I was just as guilty in this one…I jumped up on the issue when it first surfaced in the stream and posted, tweeted, and argued as I usually do about anything remotely related to gay rights. And we were wrong. While Amazon dealt with it horribly and I am still unsure as to whether it was a hack (as was claimed on livejournal) or an honest error on their side, we allowed our collective righteous indignation to flow out and attack with no real information.

    Why care?

    Well, I am a bit shocked at how easily we are all directed. We make a huge noise about how we have taken control of the conversation, but we are really just spinning in circles. If some of our pet theories are true and there is a collective intelligence going on in social media, then this intelligence has just woken up, is barely sentient, and reacts like an anxious teenager: eager to embrace every fad, governed and led around by emotional reactions, and unsure of its own place. If we are to take advantage of this new world, then our “smart mob” needs to get a lot smarter.

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    • Evan 11:40 am on May 1, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I don't think anyone should be surprised the the social web is no smarter than the masses it'd made up of. By the logic above, which I agree makes sense, Web 2.0 should be akin to us rushing through the trees shouting alerts calls to each other (tweets?) and picking knats out of our hair.

      Not that this is a problem. Clearly our Social mind is infantile and can be reduced to some our core emotions: fear, desire for sex, desire for communication, desire for recognition. But there is also this push to grow and mature.

      Even the borg need a queen.

  • thePuck 5:32 am on August 3, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Google, human rights record, Internet giant, Microsoft, online community, , Yahoo   

    Social Networking and Ethics: What Price Freedom? 

    Just over a year ago, I left the online community that I enjoyed most in the world. Utata is a salon-style collective of photographers, writers, and like-minded people who share a compelling interest in the arts. My time as a Utata member was probably the happiest of my internet years, and it was certainly the period of my most exciting creative growth. Unfortunately for me, though, Utata started its existence and continues to thrive as a Flickr group. And Flickr is owned by Yahoo.

    My concern about Yahoo’s human rights record grew until I reached the point where I had to make a choice: get over my principles in order to live with my favourite community; or live up to my principles and get over losing my place in that community.

    I hated to leave Utata, but I couldn’t allow my tacit support of Yahoo to continue. I had to walk away.

    Why am I telling you this today? Well, aside from the recent anniversary of my decision, I’ve just discovered that part of this site’s community is Yahoo-based. It’s the same brick wall. I want to be a fully active member of this community, but I will not provide moral support to Yahoo.

    Yahoo isn’t the only Internet giant with a poor human rights record, of course. Google and Microsoft are up to their necks in it, too, and I guess many lesser companies swim in the same murky waters.

    So how do we deal with this problem, when the Internet presents the greatest potential for unbelievable wealth and power to corporations at the same time as it offers the greatest potential for the growth of a global community of individuals?

    How will we retain and make full use of our individual and collective freedoms, when it’s in the nature of big corporations to regulate and control user activities?

    How can we be free to enjoy our communities, when powerful companies own the platforms on which we enjoy our freedom?

     

    • DewiMorgan 7:16 am on August 3, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Water is a terrible thing, and kills people. But I love swimming, and I love drinking stuff with water in. Even if I ate only pure orange juice, well, that is tainted by its relationship with water too: it’s almost all water!

      If I want to change the number of people killed by water, I should invest in, and campaign for, better lifeboats, security measures, navigation aids, regulations and weather forecasting. But all these things would mean me using water *more*.

      I should deprecate waterboarding and other water tortures. I should deprecate unsafe practices around water. I should educate water users about these as best I could.

      All these things would be more effective than going home, ensuring I never go out in the rain, and only drinking what I needed to stay alive.

      In Yahoo terms, that means letting Yahoo’s *users* know where Yahoo falls down.

      A boycott is a very very quiet objection. You cannot make change from outside. Look at Nestlé: people have been boycotting them with very large campaigns for *decades*, and nothing at all has changed. “Voting with your feet” means nothing if you are the only one voting: it just means you will be lonely.

      But if a significant portion of the market votes with their feet, then that *can* make a change. But you have to have activism and education before that.

      Personal boycotts are like signing online petitions, or voting for a party which wins or loses by more than one vote: they make no difference to anything, but make you feel good.

      DewiMorgans last blog post..Plurk timeline

    • Tricia 10:51 am on August 3, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I feel exactly like you and I am sickened. These aren’t like the “good” old days when you could boycott one product or one company and have an effect. A few companies own everything else and any losses due to a boycott will be compensated through a limb of their hundreds of other smaller corporations. Makes a person want to scream!
      I’m starting my own newspaper in my huge community. McClatchy and a few smaller corps got the hold here. But I will do it because I can. I know when I send out my first (miserly, poor excuse for an) issue I will look behind me to see if they are trailing me. Their papers promote their ads, their bottom line and have forgotten the people. My paper will bring school issues to the front; teachers who don’t receive fair compensation and other political parties who don’t get traction. I don’t want to lose my nerve. I don’t have time. I don’t have money. But I have 30 years of Journalism experience and I must try this! Wish me well!

      Tricias last blog post..Pushing Technology: Chips n Dip

    • DewiMorgan 1:34 pm on August 3, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Good luck, Tricia – you and David are doing what seems to be the right thing: spreading awareness. That’s the only way I can see to enact change, but damn, it’s a long road to travel. I admire you both.

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