Daily Archives: August 13, 2003

my participation at tribe.net

In my Master’s, i was obsessed with understanding how people structured their social networks. I chose to analyze one slice of it: email social networks. When Friendster emerged, i became very curious about what it’s impact would be. How on earth would be take on articulated networks? What would they do? What would the social implications be? I started surveying people (and love the folks who respond to me).

Of course, fundamentally, i believe in social networks. I believe in their power to provide far more than sexual hookups. I also believe that one size does not fit all when it comes to social networks. People have different needs, different levels of privacy. They manage their social network very intelligently, providing proper structural holes as appropriate (connecting people in ways that will benefit them for being a connector). To model this is complicated. To provide people with the tools necessary to empower all of the diverse ways in which people want to access their network is a fascinating challenge.

When the creators of Tribe.net (currently in early beta) asked me to help them conceptualize people’s diverse issues around their social network, i became curious and gladly took that consulting gig. Since then, i’ve been nothing but tickled with the approach that Tribe. net is taking.

1) Diverse users require diverse sets of tools; one size does not fit all.

2) Groups/Collectives/Tribes are also a key part of people’s social network and must be taken into consideration when modeling networks.

3) People invest time in building their social network. Paying to use it for non-commercial uses is horrifying to most.

4) User feedback loops are essential for understanding how to make things better. Theory is useful for providing essential models. Research is a useful tool for iterating these systems.

I state all of this publicly because folks keep wondering what my role is in all of this. The social network software community is small and awefully incestuous and i’m certainly embroiled in that. Fundamentally, i want to see that people are empowered to control and utilize their social networks in a meaningful and protected way. I believe that this will require many iterations from what is currently out there. And i’m certainly going to enjoy helping that process along.

a difficult decision

My love for V-Day runs very deep. For the last five years, i’ve watched as digital community expanded and allowed for more people to participate to end violence against women and girls. I’ve met so many amazing people and done so many amazing things due to my relationship with V-Day.

Thus, it breaks my heart to realize that it’s time to move on. I’m becoming more and more entrenched in my research and too spread thin to give anything the attention it deserves – my family, my research, V-Day, my friends… Basically, i’ve just been struggling to keep going and dropping the balls i’m juggling left and right. Yet, it’s so hard to give up something i love so very much.

I still don’t know if i’m being foolish, but i need to be honest with myself and with V-Day, because i love us both dearly.

Attack of the Smartasses

Attack of the Smartasses is the front page article of the SF Weekly, chronicling the fight between the Fakesters and Jonathan.

The article is not kind to Jonathan, portraying him as pretty skeevy. The language of the article also indicates that there is a war on. [Of course, the idea of Jonathan vs. the Fakesters in the Thunderdome makes me intensely.] The war is one of fake character generation – kamikaze clones.. mocking Jonathan on his own site.

Somehow, i don’t think it’s a good idea to piss off the mavens or the journalists.

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