We live in a connected world. The number of connections we have is not just a number of phone calls. Email floods us. Most of us have a number RSS feeds delivering them various notifications. Or bookmarks within a Web browser that are clicked frequently. We participate in various forums, consuming the feeds. And then comes facebook. The phone calls are definitely a minority. The old world of synchronous call sessions is going away... Three weeks ago I posted some musings on the Telecom 2.0, mostly based on the fantastic speech by Lee S. Dryburgh.Inspired, I decided to set up a facebook account for myself. After some two weeks I think I start to realize the potential the facebook brings us, especially how it is posed to change the way we communicate. The foundation of facebook (as is the case with other community sites) is the network of people - to - people connections, coupled with various ways to publish a personal live data stream. Seems quite simple, but I must say, being new to facebook, I am blown away of its impact. Suddenly, after joining, I am communicating with so many people effortlessly...
I have just 40+ friends registered to date... not very many... but the amazing thing is I know what they are up to and what they like. Having so little time to spare I have, I could not imagine myself having 40+ private phone conversations with them. But with facebook it is somehow natural and not very time consuming. Probably the keyword here is asynchronism. As the life goes on, people organize in groups, have their activities, you are free to follow them, to join them, organize your own... Facebook is the new email and SMS / text messaging. Email and SMS have always been asynchronous. But they have always been addressed TO somebody. With facebook you just reflect your life (or just the part of it you are willing to share) and the friends have a chance to follow you. This all happens with the aid of a galaxy of applications running on top of the facebook platform, they make broadcasting your personal metadata even easier. Your whereabouts, your moods, your current status...
Although I am very excited with what I get at facebook, it is quite clear this is just a beginning... especially when you imagine coupling you personal GPS receiver and a mobile phone with that platform....
Remember about one thing - while you push your stream of information it's not guaranteed someone would pull that information.
ReplyDeletePeople are really focused on themselves not on others.
Without clear message path (as it is with email or IM message - I send a message to you and you, you, you) it is possible your message will be lost somewhere there and no one would read it. And the bigger your network is the better are chances you'll ignore messages from one of your peers.
You are right. But that is absolutely what I intend to achieve. When I listen to the new album of Chris Botti or when I go skiing, I'm not gonna email all of my friends. But they often feel good knowing my whereabouts. And it really does not matter if the message gets through. It will reach those who care, but in an unintrusive, completely asynchronous way.
ReplyDeleteStill, If I have something really important, I can email or even call you.