Fernanda Viegas and i wrote an amazing paper for the HICSS conference called Digital Artifacts for Remembering and Storytelling: PostHistory and Social Network Fragments. It’s the first publication that i’m really proud of, as it starts to tease out some of the theoretical issues that our work was grappling with. And, in writing it, i learned sooo much. Sadly, it seems as though i won’t get to present the paper.

When we wrote it, we were under the impression that we would be funded to attend the conference. I had one conference coming to me and Fernanda did too. Well, it seems as though promises are easily broken… things change, or so i’m (not even directly) told. Of course, i kept my end of the bargain, which i now feel foolish for doing. It’s amazing how easy it is to remain bitter about a situation that should’ve been so good and so blatantly wasn’t.

By and large, i’m not that interested in the business side of Friendster, except for the speculation, gossip, and critique that emerges as a result. I’ve never had the opportunity to be so closely tied to the business endeavors of a technology, to see the scramblings and hype that emerge. I do admit that it’s utterly fascinating to watch it from a psychological and sociological standpoint. And i’m also continuing to be super appreciative of those who are motivated to track the business side of it all.

Out of the business news today, i’d like to make a pointer to: sippey’s comparison of Friendster to eBay

Ani DiFranco page to include the track list for Ani’s new album, “Educated Guess.” Some folks were wondering how i heard about it already. I don’t actually have some special in, but folks are often kind enough to keep me abreast of updates since i make that material available to so many. A kind fan sent me the track list came from Rolling Stone.

To all the fans who are so kind to keep me updated, *thank you* (especially Vaughn).

OK… i’m staring at my INBOX and once again being genuinely overwhelmed by how many messages i have yet to respond to. Many of them are because of this blog and because of folks related to the social networks space. I feel icky having not responded to people because i mean to, but i’m barely breathing myself.

So…. if i were to say that we all gather for a dinner, who would be game? I’m not proposing something formal here. I mean, hell, all of those social networks “forums” and “panels” were just overpriced social networking events anyhow, right? How about just making a large reservation and talking/eating/drinking?

I’m thinking maybe November 11th or 12th? Would this interest anyone?

Well, the Halloween party was last night and dear me oh my. We got wind of another party being cancelled while we were setting up and we kinda held our breath. But sure enough, we got *slammed*. The place was completely full by around 10:30/11. By midnight, we had to take time off from letting people inside. That meant that there were people on the street clamoring to get in. This was not good considering the cops see crowds and break up parties. The folks at the door tried to get the crowd to disperse, but it couldn’t be kept up and the crowd kept growing. It took a bunch of strong folks physical effort to keep people at bay. Folks were on top of cars, screaming, raging drunk. Inside was another level of drunken chaos. I was trying to keep the entrance way at bay. Needless to say, we got broken up. By like 1:30ish. But honestly, i have to say phew. It was just absolute madness all night; over 900 people went in and out of that door (obviously not at once). The decorations were great, the music was great, the haunted house was awesome. But that was just a bit too much. And i forgot how much i can’t stand overly drunk frat boys; too many of them yelled at me because we wouldn’t let them in without a costume.

After it was all over, we cleaned up (way too many beer bottles) and actually got to chill out. It was so nice though because the whole community was there and so it was such a good way to spend time with friends – chaos over, friends left, yum…

Oh, and a couple of meta thoughts on the night…

1. No one takes your meanness seriously when you’re dressed like a half-naked fuzzy bunny.

2. How many times must i learn the hard way that easy access to scissors and hair dye is dangerous, especially when i decide to get creative with only a few hours left before the party? They say that the average person can learn any bit of knowledge after 8 times of repetition. Apparently, i’m very deficient at this type of knowledge acquisition.

John Perry Barlow has a few words on Burning Man and The State of the Counterculture 2004. If you identify with either BM or subcultures, you *must* read this. As with most of Barlow’s writings, this is hands-down brilliant and can be summed up with:

“If someone like Karl Rove had wanted to neutralize the most creative, intelligent, and passionate members of his opposition, he’d have a hard time coming up with a better tool than Burning Man.”

From the CACM Newstrack:

A recent study of 300 firms in the U.S. and Britain- the world’s two largest instant messaging markets- found that foul language, gossiping, and office gripes are commonplace in IM missives; in fact, rarely are they used for actual business-related functions. Over 65% the office workers surveyed used IM for personal reasons during work hours; nearly 80% admitted to gossiping about coworkers; and 64% slammed or schemed against management. Almost one-third of the respondents admitted to making “sexual advances” over IM in the workplace. “While (IM) has proven itself as a productive business tool, our research validates that its free-flowing and unmonitored nature is creating enormous legal liabilities, and compliance and productivity issues for organizations worldwide,” said Steve Mullaney, of Blue Coat Systems, a California-based secure proxy appliance vendor who conducted the survey. The findings also showed U.K. respondents are more blatant in their IM usage than their tamer U.S. counterparts, primarily because 71% of the U.S. workers believed (correctly) that their IMs could be traced.

Aren’t all communication channels far and away more frequently used for gossip (i.e. network structure maintenance)? I mean, this seems to represent F2F too, thus should it be surprising that it’s occurring on IM too? Of course, i doubt that they’ll kill F2F in the workplace, while they may kill IM.

The Media Lab just put together a new consortium called Viral Communications. When i first heard the title, i became super psyched – someone is finally studying digital virality heads on! But alas, it seems that the focus is to create technology that permits virality rather than actually trying to figure out what makes things viral online. Is anyone other than Jonah Peretti studying meme spread and virality?