judith meskill - soc.media.rocks

Ah, the Virtual Academy, otherwise known as the Internet.
 
A recent press release touts Academici as the "First global online social network for research and highereducation". Available in English, Deutsch, Español, and Français, Academici's intention is to help extend your personaland academic networks.
 
Some of the characteristics of this social networking service for academics are:
 
- global peer to peer network
- very precise search engine
- sophisticated yet simple to use communication platform
- professional contact management system
- content-driven fora run by experts
- academic -related services on one platform
- secure data protection, no advertising, no direct sales, no spam

How many balls can you keep in the air at once? Two? Three? 43?
 
From Amazon ==> Robot Co-op ==> 43things.com.
 
Back in December I wrote about 43 Thingshere on The Social Software Weblog, and received 36 comments. Nine Seven (and now five) more commentsand I would reach a nice symmetry on that post.
 
Today Seattle Times writer Kristi Heim does a good job of covering the genesis of 43 Things and Josh Petersen et. al. over at The RobotCo-op.

If Friendster issued thispress release in haiku form, perhaps it would have gone something like this:
 
friendster hearts typepad…
 
in a single click
fancy free friendster blogging
try it you'll like it

A Social Software Weblog reader, Ben Werdmuller, writes:
 
"..One of the things being talked about in academia at the momentis how to use social software to assist learning in higher education. This goes beyond "e-portfolios", which are moreor less online CVs with embedded examples of work, to create a network of people who share reflections and objects in alearning environment.
 
David Tosh and I wrote an academic paper last year (ed. note: I found links to two pdfs on Stephen'sWeb) discussing something we called the "learning landscape"; essentially the above, with weblog components, filerepositories, and so on, all linked together with tags. Click on the "music" tag and you see users interested in music,users who count music among their skills, users who have written weblog posts about music (and links to those specificposts), and available files relating to music. See Profiles where 'interests'includes 'music' for an idea, although it's still a bit limited.
 
So here's where I really blow my own trumpet: Elgg has been up since November as aclosed alpha, where we've been adding new features and fiddling around with it for a core usergroup of academics. OnFriday we released Apcala, which is open to the public and runs on exactly the samesoftware, which we will later make freely available. This one isn't (just) for academia; we're trying to create acommunity where anyone can come in and share whatever ideas and objects they like…"

According to David Isenberg: "The future of telecommunications is in play. Freedom to Connect will shape thedebate."
 
David hosts the best gatherings of the greatest minds (often with bodies and souls in tow) particularly in this areaof the future of connectivity. David, and his various cohorts, have put together a conference on our Freedom to Connect (F2C) that will take place on March 30-31,2005 in Washington DC.
 
Currently on the F2C schedule, with new additions still trickling in, are: Jeff Jarvis, Dan Gillmor, Scott Heiferman, AKMA, Jerry Michalski, Kevin Werbach, David Weinberger, and Vint Cerfamong many, many others. (The list of registeredparticipants for this event is equally as impressive.)

David Isenberg's driving passion to connect people on connectivity issues continues to manifest the most stunningarray of creativity inspiring gatherings! Our ability to continue our adventures in social software and socialnetworking relies on our ability to connect. Hope to see you there too.

Earlybird admission for this conference ends on February 28, 2005. If you sign up by Feb 28 you pay $250.00, after the 28th it's $350.00. And, if you want to support the EFF,you can place a bid on their eBay auction for a pass to F2C.

(Thanks to Martin Geddes and his link to Dave Droar's Matrix essay for the image inspirationabove.)

Or is that bed fellows?
 
Tonight, in a 'news to me' category is a tidbit in an AlterNetreprint of Los Angeles CityBeat's Jennifer Hahn's Love Machines, which mentions last year's pairing of Friendster and eHarmony in an online matchmakingdealpointing out however that after announcing this partnership Friendster didn't know that eHarmony excludes gays andlesbians from its matchmaking services?
 
Jim Scheinman, Friendster's head of business development, was quoted by CityBeat, when queried about the differencesbetween Friendster's and eHarmony's sexual preference policies: "I have to call and talk to eHarmony about that,because you're telling me this for the first time."
 
Duh? Wonder how this Friendster / eHarmony perfect partnership is faring?

The Tech Beat Team over at BusinessWeek Online is hailingBebo.com as a "wild fire" concept.
 
Is there something I am missing here? How is Bebo.com different than Plaxo.com? The service that so very many have grown to love to hate? Why would weall fall in love with Bebo whilst loathing Plaxo? (Although many who formerly' hated' Plaxo.com have now reconsidered and in fact recommend it, but that's another story.)
 
Bebo.com is a 'contact details' social networking play that also offers us the opportunity to see our friends' latestphotos and journal entries. But, Bebo is emailing all of their members once every three months to check up on theirdetails and to request updates. And, this is different than Plaxo how?
 
Hm, perhaps it is the friendly disney-like mouse ears on their logo?

I wrote a haiku about SocialPhysics.orgback in November, 2004. Clay Shirky hat tips SocialPhysics.orgtoday.
 
Something new up with these folks? I'll have to read up to catch up, or maybe they will write soon to give me the4-1-1?
 
Read on for the SocialPhysics Manifesto Boston, 2004. American Revolution2.

I've written about CrowdSurfer before here on the SS Weblog but Hunter Heaney from SmallPlanet tells me that they have a newversion 2.0 out now that is free and can be downloaded directly to your J2ME Midp 2.0 and JSR-82 compliant cellphones.
 
CrowdSurfer has been tested on the Nokia 6600 and 6230 but should work on a raft of other phones as well. You can jointhe CrowdSurfer Yahoo Group too if you want to test out thesoftware and lend Small Planet your feedback.
 
According to Hunter, this MoSoSo entrantCrowdSurferoffers: "...profile matching, passing pix back and forth, and upto four degrees of friend-of-friend cabablities, all through Bluetooth. It works on a fairly limited number of phones,but the software does now what everyone's been talking about being able to do sometime off in the future…"

Need a roommate, houseboy, job, and/or travel buddy?
 
Gay social network and listing service ManJamwould like to be a one stop shop inthe world of gay personals and networking.
 
According to a press release today: "... Afteronly 4 months in beta, ManJam has today achieved 20,000 subscribers. In January 2005, the site generated 6.5 millionpage views and 194,000 unique visitors…"
 
Guess I'll be adding them to the Social NetworkingServices Meta List, under common interest networking sites, sometime soon. Let's just cut to the cuts thoughidon't think the six-pack pictured above comes with membership…

A search of this SocialSoftware Weblog returns 25 results for posts mentioning MySpace.com. Alexalists MySpace's traffic rank at 62 today, and a recentpress release announces that MySpace.com is now owned and operated by a newly formed Delaware corporationMySpace,Inc.
 
The details of this, along with a net of $5M in financing to MySpace, Inc., from Redpoint Ventures, are outlined in this press release.
 
MySpace is in the news a lot lately, with 117 hitsthis evening on Google News. Is it the Music? The Games? Think I'll ring up MySpace CEO, Chris Dewolfe sometime soon and ask himwhat he thinks.
 
I have a year old post here on the SocialSoftware Weblog that is the number seven hit upon googling MySpace this evening. This posthas a 60+ comment thread of readers bemoaning the fact that their schools block and filter their access to MySpace. Itreally has had twice that number of comments but with our spam blocking comment acknowledgement system here at WIN,about half of those 100+ comments were never activated.
 
If you use MySpace.com, what's the attraction for you?

It was my intention to create a post yesterday citing quirky, touching, and interestingthings in the name of Valentine's Day.
 
Imagine my surprise when I found:

• Eleven dead, at least 53 injured in Philippines Valentine's Day bombings,

• Valentine's Day Internet suicide plot, and

• Shiv Sena renames Valentine's Day as "Prostitution Day"

topping the charts on "Valentine's Day" stories. Gives" My Bloody Valentine" new 'search return' meaning. Sheesh.

So instead, I blogged about DEMO@15. Go figure.

Once again, this is my recently updated Social Networking Services Meta List. It is broken down into nine loosely built categories that will continue to shift. These social networking categories are: business; common interest; dating; face-to-face facilitation; friends; MoSoSo (Mobile Social Software); pets; photos; and 'edge' cases or social networking 'plus' sites.
The mostly recently added services are marked with an *. Please keep submitting your comments, links, and recommendations for additions and deletions. This list now stands at 380 entries. Thanks... (:=
 

business networking sites

Affinity Engines, Appiir*, Business Parc, BusinessPartnerships.ca*, Contact Network, Doostang*, ecademy, eConozco, Eliyon, EntreMate, eXtremeNetworking.biz*, Friendly Favors, GoingProfessional, Growth Company, I'm Not From Here, InterAction, ITmob, ItsNotWhatYouKnow, Join Network PLUS, LLC, Kickstart-Connect*, Konnects, LinkedIn, Link Silicon Valley, matcheroo, Mediabistro, Monster Networking, NetMiner, Netmodular Community, Networking For Professionals, Online Business Networking Resource, Open Business Club (openBC), OrderGenerator, PeopleThatClick*, Point Relevance, Polypol, PowerMingle, RealContacts, ReferNet, Reunion, Ryze, SelectMinds, Senior Management Network*, Shortcut, Silicon Valley Pipeline, Spoke Software, Sullivan Executive Networking Community, Tacit - ActiveNet, TENG, Viaduc*, Visible Path, WisdomBuilder, Zerendipity Networks, Zerodegrees.

common interest networking sites

50 Something.com, 50Yearsplus.com, ANTfriender, ArtistNow!, AveMariaSingles, Bigcampus.net, BookCrossing, Buzznet, CampusNetwork*, Classmates, Collegester, Community Zero, Company of Friends, ConnectU*, DeanSpace, Delphi Forums, Digital Squeeze, Downelink, FilmTrust*, Foodsters, FunHi, GamersGlue, Globe Alive, gradFinder, HRTS - Hollywood Radio & Television Society, Jewster*, LDS Circle*, Mediabuddies, Meet Me at HOT or NOT?, naboe*, Netplaya Burning Man Community, Neurona, PayDemocracy, quad5, Schoolster, SongBuddy, Talk City, Thefacebook, TheSquare, threedegrees, TimeBucks*, UpMyStreet, UrScouted*, UUSwap*, Wealink*, Xfire*, Yelp!*.

dating sites

AfroRomance, ajewishdatingsite, americansingles, Amigos, AsiaFriendFinder, Berkzter, BlackPlanet, BUZZSession, Cherish, collegeluv.com, ChristiansTogether , Country Singles, Cupid, Cupids Database, Date.com, Date the UK, Dating.dk, Dating Jewish Singles, eHarmony, Equally Yoked, FriendFinder, Gay Christian Dating, Gay Jewish Dating, Gay Military M4M, GermanFriendFinder, HookUP*, hotsaints, IndianFriendFinder, InterMingle, Introducing, It'sJustCoffee*, jdate.com, JewishCafe, JewishFriendfinder, JewishLoveMatch, Jewish Matchmaker, Jewish Personals, JMatch, Lavalife, LDS Singles Mingle, LDS Singles Network, LDS Singles SingleSaints, Love, M4M Seniors, Magoori, Match.com, Mature Dating.org, meetic, MyCountryMatch, MyEMatch, Overweight Date, Passion, POP! PeopleOnPage, PlanetOut Partners, Inc., RateOrDate, RedDate, Relationship Exchange, RogueConnect*, Senior Dating Exchange, SeniorFriendFinder, SeniorsCircle, SingleJew, Single Seniors, SpeedDating Online-Jewish Dating, Spicy Senior Singles, Swappster, Totally Jewish-Dating Channel, TrueBeginnings, uDate, UrbanTraditional, Vegetarian singles, webdate, Yahoo! Personals, YID - Single Jewish Dating.

face-to-face meeting facilitation sites

8minuteDating, Evite, First Tuesday, Food and Friends*, GeekDinner, HurryDate, The Lunch Club NYC, Lunch Partners, MEETin*, MeetUp, MixerMixer, Netparty, new-in-town, Social Circles, WhizSpark.

friend networking sites

Backwash, bobojam*, Breedster, BuddyBridge, Chia Friend, ChosenNet,Christianster, Click2Friends, easeek, eFriendsnet, enCentra, everyonesconnected, FriendFan, Friendity, Friend MAP, Friendoo, friendsand, friendsbay.de, Friends of Friends, Friends Reunited, Friendset, Friends of Friends, Friendster, Friend Surfer, Friendsync, Friendzy, Gruuve, HeiYou, hi5, hipstir, Huminity, HummingBoard, The Impersonals, iSocialite, Korea Data House, LDS LinkUp, LianQu, LinkEstadao*, linkyourfriends, Living Directory, MeineFreunde*, Metails, mrNeighborhood, myfriends, Myspace, NetFriendships, Neurofriends, orkut, PalJunction, peeps nation, qpengyou, Ringo, saywhatz, Swirve*, The Bomb*, Tickle by Emode, ticqle, Tribe.net, TribungPinoy*, UUFriends, Wallop, WiW, WorldShine, YeeYoo, YOYO, zenetwork.

MoSoSo sites

ActiveMatch, AirCQ, asphaltgames, awaRE, BEDD, Beliefnet Mobile, BusyThumbs*, BuZZone, CrowdSurfer, Dodgeball, Earthcomber*, Encounter Bubbles, Flickr, Fluidtime, Hocman*, IcyPole, ImaHima, Jabberwocky, JAMDAT, Jukola*, Mamjam, MeetingPoint*, Meetup, Mobido*, MobiLuck, mobster, Mooble, modus, MTONE, nTAG*, PeepsNation, Playtxt.net*, Plink Mobile, Plazes*, Pocketster, Portabible*, proxidating, Proxpro, PurpleAce*, Saw-You, Serendipity, socialight, Socializer, SoundPryer*, Speck, TagText*, Traces of Fire, tunA, TxtMob*, Urban Plexus*, Wavemarket, weemee, WhoAt, WiFi.Bedouin, Wow Friends*.

pet networking sites

Backwash for Pets, Catster*, Dogster, HAMSTERster, KissyKat, Neopets.

photo sharing emphasis sites

Buzznet, Expressions, Findapix, Flickr, FotoAmigo*, Fotolog.net, Fotothing, FriendBlend, MyShoots*, Nokia Lifeblog, PictureM*, PixParty, smugmug, SocialCanvas, Textamerica, Webshots, Zorpia, Zoto.

social networking 'plus' and/or 'edge cases'

Blogpod, BuddyZoo, clevercactus*, del.icio.us, dodgeball, Dude Check This Out!, eTwine, Eurekster!, eventSherpa, fonetango, Funchain.com, Gush, HelloWorld, Home Exchange, HomeLink, imeem*, InsiderPages*, Intervac, JournURL, KnowMates, LiveJournal, MixedNutz.net, Mooble, Mosuki*, motime*, M-Tone, Multiply, Nioki, The Opinion Exchange, Palbook, PeopleAggregator, RepCheck, SmallPlanet, Small World Project, Social Grid, Splinder*, Squiby, StumbleUpon, TXTParty, Upcoming.org, WiredReach, Xanga, Yafro Moblog, Zdarmanet, Zopto.

WIN network bloggers Jason Calacanis and Marc Orchant are busy blogging DEMO@15.
 
I'm expecting some great coverage of the more than seventy companies presenting at DEMO.
 
So far today, Jason, et. al. have blogged the following posts:
 
Jotspotwhich i posted about here on The Social Software Weblog,this last October.
GiftWorksfrom MissionResearch for fund raising campaign management.
VKBwith their full sized projectedkeyboard.
MDAwith their ISM 3D modeling scanningcamera.
Motorolaand iRadio.
iControla home monitoringsolution.
SeriousMagicVlog It! for professional quality video blogs.
 
Some excellent coverage of this event at BloggingDEMO.com. Stay tuned!

So Scott Heiferman is quoted as sayingthat Meetup.com is "... using the Internet to get people off the Internet…" And then I'm guessing that Scott is hopingto get members back on the Internet, at least intermittently, if only to arrange future meetups…
 
Then Jambo.net (recently launched at DEMO) co-CEOs, Charles Ribaudo and Jim Young, are also endeavoring to create face to face meetingopportunities for their WiFi enabled service members.
 
Jambo's homepage says "...If you share something in common… And you're within walking distance… We'll introduce you.Wirelessly. A new way to network. Face-to-Face…" A new way to network?!? Silly me, I thought this was the oldway to network? And then the Internet came along as 'a' new way to network.
 
A timely concept Jambo. I'm sure it will grow as it goes. It's certainly not the first to this market. There have beena number of other MoSoSo plays moving in this general direction.
 
But tell me, what is the body language of this woman on their home page saying? Open to conversation? Happy to meetyou? Hm.