Nic’s blog
I write about building businesses, failing and building a life, not a legacy.
How quiet is too quiet? I have recentl...
How quiet is too quiet?I have recently been chastised at every turn for "falling off the radar" so to speak. By "the radar" most people are referring to that of the social media world; blogs, twitter, the book of face and many others.But here's my question, How quiet is too quiet? I don't feel I've dropped of the radar too dramatically. I completely agree that I am blogging less but I think that's because my paradigms are shifting a bit.I no longer believe that the web is the best place to throw down your thoughts and hope for some response. I no longer believe that my blogs are the best way for me to spend my time online. I have a job that pushes me to my limits almost every day and fulfills my need to constantly be innovating, creating and developing within a new and uncharted territory. So what do I need blogs for?Don't get my wrong, I love my blogs and they are a great outlet for me to do precisely what I am doing right now, a dump of mental thoughts (moughts?) running around my head that help to keep my very few readers up to date with the direction of my thinking and life. That's it.SA Rocks serves an entirely different purpose so that's not really worth discussing in the same context.Regarding Twitter, the book of face, the space of my, linked in, last fm and any (every) other social network I belong to, I am fast feeling that they are all relatively useless to me. I don't understand the value of Facebook. Linkedin is a network worth keeping alive, but just barely and the others were great for me when I wanted to keep abreast of the latest tech out there. But right now, I am in a different paradigm that has very little to do with the web and how social it can be right now.So I think I am being the correct amount of quiet up in here.
Instant Messaging becomes a mini social network
Lately my chat client has become somewhat of a business, social, friend, acquaintance network.I've been contacted by friends, business associates, potential colleagues, colleagues, family, bloggers, writers, journalists and marketing people via my Instant Message.
This is made all the simpler when I'm using my Macbook Pro as I use Adium which pulls in most of my IM accounts in to one simple to use application.
I am not stating that Facebook is dead, MySpace is a goner or that Blueworld is history. What I am stating is that I am in control of my IM and I like it.I like that I am not obligated to talk to people, and there are a lot of people, on my IM client. I can set my status to "Buggeroffleavemealoneorillthrowsomethingatyou" and people laugh. I also love the integration between my twitter client, Twhirl and my IM client.What integration? None technologically. But person to person IM and twitter work fantastically together. I post something on twitter, vague, true, false, rumour or opinion and within minutes I have 5 people on instant message asking me about it. I then choose whether or not to engage, how long the conversations last and that's that.I know that traditional social networks allow for this scope of choice; whether one is available or not. But for some reason it just seems different when it's more personal, more instant and over messaging only.I don't want to see how many friends this person has, how many pictures they've been tagged in what zombie ate them or what groups they have joined. I want to know they are either available, away or unavailable. Select the person to talk to, discuss, get in and get out.IM allows me to do this on my terms and think I like that.
QuBe - The Future Of Social Networks?
QuBe from Quintessentially is an elite social network that I stumbled across. It has close ties with the real world and offers its members various levels of membership that offer various levels of kickback at a variety of venues, parties and restaurants (I think).The reason that I say I think and that I do not know is that their registration costs look like this:
Apparently the membership is strictly limited and monitored and the network is leaning more to a "club" than a network. Members can apply and if successful, receive all the necessary paraphenalia and the "Beyond Black" credit card.
From the websites benefits section:The Benefits
Quintessentially is a club, a club created entirely to make life that much easier, that much richer and that much more fun for all its members. We believe we have an irresistible package of offers, privileges, bespoke services and access to inside track information, which will make your annual fee seem like the best deal you've ever done. These benefits are only a selection of what we are capable of and you can always ask the team at Quintessentially if there are benefits at thousands of other places currently not listed in the Guest area of the site. To find out more about them click on the links below.
The site and its features seem to operate in over 80 countries where all benefits are offered. Have a look and if you think you are worth the ride, then send in an application. Let me know how it goes when you get it in! There is definitely a "club" feel to the site and I am aware of a few South Africans who are on the site and making use of it.
A Social Network With A Cause
Change.org is a social network that I think is fantastic. It is not trying to get you to talk about how drunk you got last night, how many people you slept with and who you are in love with. Change.org wants you to talk about politics, about change and about social injustices.Yes this is a bit of a dramatic cause to be blogging about so early in the morning but one that is close to my heart and my political views. Silence is not the solution here, awareness is. Visit Change.org now, screw Facebook and their pseudo important agenda's. This is a site worth networking through.
Six degrees of social networks
The theory of six degrees of separation is a fairly well known one. For those of you who are in the dark, this is a theory that states that [almost] everyone in the world is no more than six steps away from every other person in the world. It's a pretty nifty theory I think.The reason that I am talking about this theory is that many people know the theory in relation to Kevin Bacon (the actor). I have heard that every person in the world is within six steps or less of Kevin. Firstly I always wondered how is that actually possible, prove it. Then I would wonder why the theory uses Kevin Bacon and not, for example, James Dean?Anyways, The Oracle of Bacon is one hell of a cool site that illustrates links from any Hollywood star, dead or alive, to Kevin. Go ahead, make my day, try and find an actor alive or dead without a link to Mr Bacon, I don't think you can do it.Then on to more pressing and interesting business:Six degrees of seperation and social networksFor a while now I have been wondering about the myspace/facebook/social network craze that is about. I wonder why, I wonder how, I wonder how many and what is it that these people are after. I think that the six degrees of separation is a very good explanation of what keeps people coming back.I have just over 160 friends on Facebook. If you don't think I do, go check my facebook out. Now let's put this theory to the test. There are approximately 7000 South Africans on Facebook. If I have 160 friends and counting and you multiply each person by 6, you get 960. That is an immediate network of 960 people that I know through my network of 160 (that's one step). If each of those 960 people multiply by 6 and extend their network to 5760 then within 2 steps I know 5760 people. One final example: take those 5760 people and extend their network by 6 and you get 34 560 people. There aren't even close to that many people in SA on Facebook.(Disclaimer: My mathematical understanding of six degrees of separation might be completely out of whack, but for the purposes of this post you just need to understand the principal of what I am trying to get across)I firmly believe that it is this theory that makes social network sites such as Facebook successful. If I had no desire to push my network to the extend of its network then I would have no drive to use these sites. Six degrees to keep social networking sites running.