Techerous

I have been seeing this article passed around a lot this past week, so I finally took the time to read through it.  While I certainly don’t disagree with the writer or his conclusions, I definitely have issues with it which is surprising considering how much it is being passed around.  Even though he alludes to it, I feel like Mr. Dash for the most part overlooks how necessary the techniques of the prominent social networks now were for them to garner the massive amount of users they have.  The open tools of the early 2000’s and late 90’s may have looked great to those that actively seeked them out, but before the rise of web 2.0’s popularity most users had no interest in such applications.  While these were not technically challenging tools the vast majority of users need an overtly simple, targeted product being pushed to them.  This required the investing and deals that, as he put, made a “very few very rich.”  I do agree that everything works in cycles and now that even the technologically illiterate are learning how to work these products fairly well we will see some of these services start to return.

I personally wouldn’t say anything in this is surprising, but it’s a good article to confirm how law enforcement is using social media. I don’t see anything wrong with how they have applied the policies of the bricks-and-mortar world to online but like the bricks-and-mortar one you should be aware of your rights and what you may be making available to whom.

infoneer-pulse:

A federal judge has ruled that investigators can go through your Facebook profile if one of your friends gives them permission to do so. The decision, which is part of a New York City racketeering trial, comes as courts struggle to define privacy and civil liberties in the age of social media.

In an order issued on Friday, US District Judge William Pauley III ruled that accused gangster Melvin Colon can’t rely on the Fourth Amendment to suppress Facebook evidence that led to his indictment. Colon had argued that federal investigators violated his privacy by tapping into his profile through an informant who was one of this Facebook friends.

The informant’s Facebook friendship served to open an online window onto Colon’s alleged gangster life, revealing messages he posted about violent acts and threats to rival gang members. The government used this information to obtain a search warrant for the rest of Colon’s Facebook account. The Colon information is part of a larger investigation into crack-dealing and murder in the Bronx.

» via GigaOM

“Basically, investors were driven not by their economic judgments, but by the leading role Facebook plays in communicating the dramatic, and more often mundane, happenings in their lives.”

This reads kind of like a journalism-focused version of Tim Berners-Lee’s linked data TED talk.  The internet has definitely evolved how we are capable of telling and consuming stories.  It has gotten a little annoying rereading the background story on something you have been following from the beginning in every article about it.  This seems to fit with the technological cycle of fracturing and then centralizing, the question is what approach could centralize an article written in a fractured manner?  Have aggregation sites like TechMeme already answered this?

It’s amazing just how much of a mess this is turning out to be. It’s hard to feel too much sympathy for the investors, it really wouldn’t take much research to know what they’re getting into.

I don’t believe I’ve seen anyone discuss the positive aspects of a bubble before. It kind of makes sense as a lot of these social media companies are starting to develop tools that fit in more with the definition of web 3.0.

Since I began using Facebook my freshman year of college, I have seen them try out many new ideas and changes. If I have learned anything from them it is this; no matter how much they complain it is highly unlikely they will really lose users after a change. While the ideas discussed here certainly wouldn’t add payments for already developed services it’s hard to say users will adapt the additional services. However the market that actually makes purchases in games is actually there so freemium models aren’t unheard of on the network. The way I see it they can either make additional money from the single user or from groups and corporations. What do you think, is there any chance Facebook could get you to pay for a service if it intrigues you enough, or are they better off focusing their efforts on new ways to advertise?