judith meskill - soc.media.rocks

Gosh, I could have sworn that SocialGrid (a service described as aGoogle-search-based, grid computing, P2P, file sharing, dating enhancing, Google AdSensefocused SNS, aka: Solve Dating) announced its launchback on January 1, 2004, but here it is again, today, on internetnews.com inan article by Susan Kuchinskas Love on the Grid which announced SocialGrid'slaunch as yesterday, May 3, 2004.
 
Back in January, Clay Shirky posted of SocialGrid: Much, muchcrazier than I thought. Andrew Baio also wrote, in this same timeframe: Socialgrid Kookiness. The comments on JasonKottke's remaindered January 8, 2004 link regardingSocialGrid's wild "Warning to Copycats & Clones" policy were… most insightful.

In the internews.com piece, Love on the Grid, Susan Kuchinskas writes:

Google is notoriously un-amused by anyone taking its name in vain; it has sent cease-and-desist letters to Booble, a directory of X-rated Web sites. But Vuong said that he knows Google is aware of SocialGrid, because several Google employees have signed up.

Hmm… Vuong intends to lower cost for his SocialGrid service as follows:

1. Shift cost to Google for simple searches in exchange fordisplaying Google ads.
2. Shift cost to members' computer via grid computing for complexsearches.
3. Shift bandwidth cost to members' Internet service providers viapeer-to-peer.

Kuchinskas also includes the following comments on SocialGrid from Rael Dornfest:

Dornfest said lots of people already use Google for social networking, although not so explicitly as SocialGrid allows. The API lets users see what pages are linked to the pages they've found, and find unsuspected connections.

"It provides some interesting paths forward rather than just back to what you were looking for," Dornfest said.

Well, I guess everything old is new again and Chau Vuong's current Copycats & Clones warning is somewhat revisedfrom the January, 2004 version that stated: The patent application claims coverage of basically all complexobjects, including people, in almost every country.

Out of curiousity, I performed a comparison between the old and new versions of the C&C warning and it appearsthat the most heavily criticized language has been restated. For your reading pleasure, the following marked-upparagraph highlights the differences between the January, 2004, and May 4, 2004 versions of SocialGrid's Copycats &Clones warning (the underlined text is new, the stricken text is gone, and the normal text is that which remainsunchanged):

We haveSocialGrid has retained one of the top intellectual property law firms in America. Everything on this site is copyrighted and trademarked. Thetrademarked, including our search and coding system. Our patent application claims coverage on searches for all complex objects using Internet search engines. of basically all complex objects, including people, in almost every country.Our goal is to ensure a search system that will be free to our members and keep individuals and corporations from profiting by charging for searches. We will marginalize every profit margin. There is no money to made in creating another ID coding system. The world needs only one system. If necessary, we will donategive SocialGrid and the patent to Google to insure one standardized coding system. Any copycats and clones will have to answer to Google. Do not compete with us. Join us and become a partner.Please be advised that any copyright, trademark, and patent infringement will result in legal action.

Valdis Krebs Social Networking Analyst & Management Consultant is now on the third iteration of his detailed mapping of the political book reading habits of left, right, and middleleaning readers.
 
Particulary compelling in this election year in the U.S. is the dearth of middle ground readers.
 
This is Valdis' third "book network" analysis based on the political book purchasing patterns of readers from majorbook retailers on the web. (The full 800 x 800 book network analysis appears on Valdis' Orgnet web site as Divided WeStand.)
 
Most notable for me upon viewing this third network mapping, as opposed to its two predecessors, is the increase innumber of "books in the middle". Valdis explains:

The release of two popular middle books, colored purple, expose a further network of middle books. Ghost Wars reveals one group of middle books, while The Rise of the Vulcans reveals a second group. Yet, the increase in boundary-spanning books does not indicate a shift in the political landscape. The three network maps are not that different within common statistical limits.

The image that I am including here is just a "peek" at the middle ground reading habits of politicallyinclined readers. Once again, for the full current view of Valdis' impressive research in this area go to Divided We Stand. (And for a view of Krebs' previous two maps Early 2003 & Early2004.)
 
What are you reading? One or more of these books? If so, then pleaseshare. (-:=

According to a PR Newswire today, the University of Maryland (UM) will be hosting a Business Plan Competition whichcould, according to University President C. D. Mote Jr., reveal the next Sergey Brin (an UM alumnus.)

Among the Finalists for the 2004 Competition to be heldon May 7 at UM is:

MindSay: with more than 20,000 members and three million Internet visits each month, this company is targeting the largest generation since the Baby Boomers (Generation Y, 60 million members) with an evolutionary, Web-based social networking product. MindSay combines blogging, instant messaging, and Friendster-style cross-networking to create a unique interface for staying in touch with friends, forming new relationships, and sharing content with all of one's social circles.

Blogging + IM + Social Networking = MindSay?

Then it also ='s Motime, and Splinder.it,and Biz Stone says it also ='s Blogger.
 
And, I am certain that it also equals other weblogging + services that integrate both IM and Social Networkingcomponents. A separate category on the YASNSMeta List where contenders for this category currently appear in the 'social networking plus and/or edge cases'category?
 
Do any of you currently utilize IM to update your weblogs? Tried it once? Use it regularly?

On April 13, 2004, Microsoft released a Critical Update for a vulnerability in their Windows 2000 and XP operatingsystems. An Internet worm, referred to as W32/Sasser, has recently begun to exploit this vulnerability in PC'sthat have not been updated. Computers infected with the W32/Sasser virus exhibit unexpected, repeated reboots andslow system performance.

For the full details on the Sasser worm, please read the comprehensive post by Greg Scher on our Unofficial MicrosoftWeblog.

MyFriendsite.com…
 
Latest and greatest friendship based YASNS The Web's Newest "Social Network" at least that is what the bannerstates.

It is difficult these days to be the "newest" YASNS a position that cannot last for more than a few days, if notminutes!

"Social Networking" is certainly receiving a huge amount of press as it seems to be mentioned in just about everyone of the hundreds of news stories about Google's IPO.
 
The MyFriendsite press release states that they are "100% dedicated to helping people create rekindle and cultivaterelationships with family and friends." How does a new SNS differentiate themselves? By stating that they are differentthan all of the other YASNS? How many flavors of YASNS can we try before we wind up with virtual tummy aches?

If you were wondering what all of the 'mys' were about in the title of this post, I was inspired by the screen grabbelow… (-:=
 

METAGroup analyst, Mike Gotta, writes Social Computing:Getting Ahead of the Blog.
 
There are at least twoparagraphs in this META analysis piece on Weblogs and their potential integration into the fabric of an enterprise'scontent and collaboration layer that read like potential anti-pitch, and/or benefits-pitch entries in the SocialSoftware Weblog's Past 'Perfect Pitch' contest. [Perhaps, in addition to following up the 'Perfect Pitch' contest witha series of pitches submitted by the judging panelists, I should also follow up with an 'Anti Pitch'competition?]
 
First the 'anti-pitch':

Buoyed by media hype, popularity of Internet startups, and some interesting success stories, Weblogs (more commonly referred to as "blogs") are burgeoning across the Internet as a means to improve social conversation and networking. Strategists should assess business, organizational, and technological implications of "blogging" (and social computing in general) before chasing another tool under the allure of improved information/expertise sharing, collaboration, and community building.

Alright, it's not really that 'anti,' but it is cautionary.

Then the 'positive-pitch':

Blogs are a good example of how organizations can express themselves from the bottom up, making connections with peers that might not occur through other communication and information channels. Adopting and deploying blog technology require forethought of what employees might publish and what actions might be expected to ensue. Although this problem exists in other mediums (e.g., e-mail), conventions around blogs are inherently different depending on how they are used (e.g., personal observations vs. more formalized journals that are reviewed and edited prior to publication). This represents more opportunity (e.g., enabling peer expertise networks for knowledge transfer) than risk if expectations are properly set.

I also blogged this analysis piece on my ' knowledge notes'weblog, as it speaks to the incorporation of social computing components like weblogs into an effective knowledgemanagement strategy.

I believe that weblogs are an excellent vehicle for 'personal' knowledge networking and mapping especially in thearea of technical support communications between multi-tiered engineers and agents. Thank goodness that the notion ofscraping knowledge out of the brain cases of employees has become somewhat passe in the field of "knowledgemanagement." This leaves room for more mindful sharing of personal knowledge, expertise, and techniques amongenterprise employees perhaps ala social computing tools?

During the 'Perfect Pitch' competition the judging panelists and I spoke of many things that I neglected to craftinto the set-up for entrants in the creation of their pitches.

There is an enormous plethora of questions and concerns at the enterprise level regarding weblogs. Mike Gotta alsocovers many of these questions in this article.It's a great read for anyone contemplating the benefits, drawbacks, and questions that need to be asked when ponderingenterprise weblogging, check it out.

While Feedstering"Mike Gotta," I also found a Ross Mayfield post on Industry Analyst Weblogs with a link to MikeGotta's personal weblog, Perceptions, wherein Mike ponders presence, weblogs,social networking, and "continuous partial attention," among other things. Great to discover yet another pedestrian atthe intersection of "knowledge management" and "social computing." (-:=

Caught me off-guard and I laughed out loud… (-:=
 
David Weinberger's Geomap of his Orkut Connections:

This morning, while browsing through a "social" search of the AP News Wire, I found this story Rubythe Elephant Monitored for Happiness.
 
Long-story-short, Ruby the African elephant who now lives in the Knoxville, Tennessee Zoo, once lived in the LosAngeles, California Zoo with her elephant friend Gita. LA is suing to bring Ruby back, Knoxville is watching to see ifRuby socially networks with the elephants in her new digs.
 
Elephants naturally live in a complex social system a fluid fission-fusion society augmented by a sophisticated long distance calllingsystem.
 
Which inspired me to pen the following Haiku:
 
" Ruby Call Home or ElephantYAZNS?"
 
Knoxville or LA,
Yet Another Zoo Network?
Allomothers call!

In the Pakistan Daily Times Onlinegroup is largest Muslim network Khalid Hasan reports on a Silicon Valley YASNS that claims to be the largestvirtual Muslim community on the Internet Naseeb (which means "destiny," wentonline last fall, and as of February, 2004 had more that 45,000 members.)
 
Back in February, 2004 Deborah Kong of the Associated Press also reported on Naseeb Searching for a soul mate. According to Kong, about84 percent of Naseeb's user base is in North America and the UK.
 
Naseeb is a YASNS with context and focus. In the Muslim culture it is important to share personal information within acommunity of trusted friends and not among countless strangers. Similar to Tickle, Naseeb also has quizzes but on themore serious question of religious compatibility.
 
Traditional Muslim customs + nascent online social networking service = happy marriage?

Or the " Top 100 Sites You Didn't Know You Couldn't LiveWithout."
 
In PC Magazine's April 20th edition, 2004's Best Undiscovered Web Sites issue, LinkedIn places in the Jobs& Money category, and Meetup in the Entertainmentand Lifestyle category.
 
Congratulations LinkedIn & Meetup!
 
I am fairly certain that there are other services from my YASNS Meta List that made this PC MagazineTop 100 Sites list it is just too tedious to navigate this list! If someone finds a one page list of all 100 links Iwould appreciate it if you would point me to the url in the comments field below. Thanks. (-:=
 
Since I am on a Mac, PC Magazine's convenientdowload of all 100 links in a setup.exe file just does not do the trick. )-:=

Forget Orkut, and all of the other YASNS if you want to find out how to contact someone, or need information onsomeone, or are just curious about someone, where do you go first? Google?
 
This evening as I was reviewing items to include in this Social Software Weblog I was browsing through various newsitems and found about 100 references to Rachel Konrad's AP Newswire Google Flirting With Offering IPO simply because one of the people quoted in the article mentions that"There's been a lot of people talking about search and social networking software…"
 
Search and Social Networking… Peas in a pod? And not necessarily searching my social network, or your social network,of our friends of friends of friends social networks… But the Internet at large's social network.
 
Search Engines, Life Engines, News Engines lots of engines, where's the fuel from renewable or depletableresources?

So Stuart Henshall tipped me to Yahoo!'s Life Engine ad campaign today.Check it out… (-:=

Or… let me see if I can cook upa limerick of sorts:

There once was a service called 'Pussokram'
in Sweden it's where one could kiss and scram
the scientist's were looking
the love-sick were cooking
hot plans to create a huge traffic jam…

Helen Pearson writes for Nature Internet dating analysed referencing reseach published inSocial Networks, May, 2004, Volume 26, Issue 2, Pages 155-174 Structure and time evolution of an Internet dating community by PetterHolme, et al, from the Department of Physics, Umea University in Sweden.

Pussokram is swedish for "kiss'n'hug" and for seventeen months the 30,000 members of this service were observed unbeknownst to them by a group led by Petter Holme from Stockholm University in Sweden.

Well it appears that Pussokram has indeed scrammed from the Internet at least as I have not been able to get thesite to build for the last few days now. One of the observations that the scientists had however of the 'virtual'Pussokram romances was that they were "less selective" that real-life romance. Hmmm… Any comments?

Have your virtual 'connections' been more or less 'selective'?

In a conversation between BusinessWeek Correspondent Ben Elgin and Google CEO Eric Schmidt
Elgin asks Schmidt:
 
"Are you working hard to find a way to create more lock-in with your users?"
 
To which Schmidt replies:
 
"You're asking a perfectly reasonable question of a normal company. That's not how Google works. The way Google worksis about innovation. We are awaiting the discovery of what will achieve your objective. Do you see thedistinction?
 
Innovation comes from invention, which you cannot schedule. That's the secret. When I look at GoogleNews or [Google's social networking site] Orkut, I never could have anticipated their success."
______________

Which of this current brood of YASNS will innovate well enough to 'stick'? Orkut? Some folks continue to regularyre-invent themselves in these social fora, in ways that evaporate quickly like rain on hot blacktop. Another form of"Massively Multiplayer Online Games"?

Have you ever imagined living in a library? And then writing about your experience real-time? That is exactly whatSteve Stanzak, a 'homeless' NYU College of Arts and Science sophomore did according to Nils I. Palsson writing for theWashington.Square.News.
 
Stanzak also published the details of his library life on Friendster and The Facebook. Steve is now in temporary freehousing for the rest of the semester, provided by NYU. Steve developed friendships, supporters, and a fan base ofincoming freshmen from his chronicles of his life in the library. Fascinating…