Monthly Archives: October 2003

friendster in the metro

I’ve gotten used to reading my quotes out of context (or otherwise made-up), but i was a bit dismayed at reading my blog quotes taken out of context and then theoretically responded to in a way that appears utterly ficticious.

In the Metro, parts of my blog are quoted concerning the longevity of Friendster. In those quotes, i was addressing my suspicion that Friendster draws people in because of their curiousity, but that it cannot sustain participation that way. Because the majority of users are not looking for a date, dating cannot be the long term model for Friendster. If they don’t switch that perspective, they won’t survive. Of course, that also implies that if they do switch focus, they will answer my concerns. Jonathan’s supposed counter does not contradict anything that i say or believe, even though it’s constructed that way. In fact, i’m glad to hear that he’s publicly considering other uses of the network than dating (as had been his public mantra for so long). And i *know* that users come and stay on for many months, but not infinitely; they do lose interest unless there’s another spark of curiousity, excitement, energy.

What i find the most disturbing is this quote by Jonathan: “Whoever this [danah boyd] person is, she has no access to our data. But everyone has their theories about stuff, I guess.”

There is no doubt that i have no access to Friendster’s data; i’ve never claimed otherwise. I simply have access to hundreds of surveys and other interactions with users. And i simply have access to the profiles of about 1M subscribers. But regardless, there’s no way that i believe that Jonathan feigned ignorance of my existence. Thus, i have to call into question the whole interview and specifically that segment of the article. I certainly wasn’t interviewed, only quotes from my blog. What was Jonathan really asked?

Very weird.

cell phone explosion

My primary cell phone is having a conniption fit and may not be playing during my tour-de-conferences. If you are planning on catching up with me at FooCamp / Ubicomp / AoIR, please drop me an email so that i can give you my temporary number.

Also, if you’re going to be at those places and i didn’t know it, please let me know! I’d love to meet up with folks since i’ve been so bogged down with school lately!

contextualizing a social network website

[posted to Many-to-Many]

Recently, i’ve heard people moan about having to maintain multiple profiles and social networks on the myriad of YASNS. I totally understand the hassle. In real life, i seem to do fine with one faceted social network and i only have on identity, right?

Unfortunately, the problem is that the sites actually play a significant role in shaping what we present. The clearest separation is between Friendster and LinkedIn. When people have accounts on both, they tend to put forward their goofy side on Friendster and their professional side on LinkedIn. Plus, while you may be able to recommend your party buddy as a date, could you properly recommend her in a work context? The sites provide the context so as to encourage a fracturing of the social network and identity presentation.

This is not identical to our offline behavior. In RL, we own our identity; we live it; it is who we are, not some articulated presentation of self maintained by a third party. Thus, the context shifts as our interaction shifts. But online we turn Goffman on his head. The context is stable; each site has a clear look, feel and purpose. Thus, we articulate and give up ownership of a constructed snapshot of our identity to each given site. We choose the contexts based on where our identity fits.

By restructuring the context-driven identity presentation model, we create new dilemmas. Do we really want to collapse the different networks? To do so would mean a collapse of contexts. Isn’t this fundamentally the concern? Each site is trying to make its niche by targeting a specific population with specific contextualized needs.

Of course, in my ideal world, we want to restructure these social networks to more closely resemble the offline behavior. Personal ownership of one’s social network with properly faceted social networks and presentations of self. (Note to FOAF folks: build in faceting, please.)

separating SF from NY

A note on a friend of mine’s blog got me thinking. She wrote, “i am in new york now, where people are about Doing, rather than Being, as seems to be the case in san francisco.”

I know that she’s right. This is a constant battle for me because i came to SF to do and yet most of my friends are practicing being. Of course, perhaps that’s precisely why i like SF. I feel a constant state to rebel against whatever is the norm in a given location. If people are being in SF, no wonder i’m hyper-doing. Hell, my vegetarianism has gone completely out of the door in SF; i’ve stopped doing yoga; i have little tolerance for the new agey shit (even though i kinda adored it in Boston). I wonder how conservative i’ll get here…

At least i know that i’ll never get conservative enough to appreciate the circus that just abrupted here yesterday. And if one more person makes an Ahhhnold joke, i’ll kill them. (Hmm… i shouldn’t really not develop violent instincts in SF… that would be bad.)

turning a new leaf

We hired my replacement at V-Day. It’s official. I’m officially leaving. Wow.

My replacement is a wonderful woman full of spunk (a.k.a. young and optimistic like me) and i’m excited that she’ll be taking the baton. In our group discussion over who to hire, my colleagues told me that they loved this woman because she has that same youthful (a.k.a. insane, intense, spastic) energy that i have. It was a little weird to think that someone valued my craziness and wanted to see it replicated in the organization. Hmmm…

dead cell phone

Btw: if you’ve been trying to get in touch with me via cell phone, you should know that my cell died. 🙁 I’m trying to solve this problem in the next couple of days, but if you need to get in touch with me, email me and i’ll tell you what phone number i’m at at a given point. Oh, and if you have a Sprint phone that i can borrow for a bit, please let me know!

an ode to a dear friend

At Brown, we were required to submit a proposal of what we would do as part of our concentration. My roommate and dear friend wanted to submit his proposal in Postscript, a coded representation of what he planned to study… explanation through example.

This comic is for him:

voting day

Tomorrow is voting day in California. It will be a circus; it already has been a circus. And i’m so sensitive to election issues. I’m an adament believer that you can’t bitch unless you vote. And i’m a strong believer that you have to be a responsible voter. This means that, more often than note, you have to cast an anti-vote instead of a pro-vote. I’ve never found an electable candidate that represents me, but i’m not going to vote the closest approximation when an election is so tight and when my poor choice could help elect a clown. While i will never be a religious missionary, i’m certainly an evangelist when it comes to my political views.

Thus, to proselytize for a moment:
– No on the recall
– No on 54
– Anti-Schwarzenegger vote = Bustamante