Cyberspace 2.0
Is there such a thing as gracious unfriending?
February 28, 2009
Like everyone else who’s been on Facebook for a
while, I’ve accumulated quite a few friends on
Facebook (though not anywhere 300 of them, which I’m
told is the average number of friends an average
Facebook user has). They are real-life family and
friends and colleagues, acquaintances, and that
curious phenomenon, “Facebook friends” - people with
whom you really only have a connection with within
the Facebook realm for one reason or another.
When I first joined Facebook, there were distressingly few people I knew on it (two, amidst the UCLA network of about 45,000 at the time). So during an information studies class at which I was guest speaker, I described my personal struggle to overcome knee-jerk privacy concerns in setting up my Facebook profile; and ended by asking a favor of the students: would you be my (Facebook) friend? A dozen of them graciously invited me to be their friend - something I greatly appreciate to this day. A big thank you to them.
So I get a little glimpse into the lives of these students through Facebook, people who I have only met once. And presumably vice versa, unless they’ve told Facebook not to show them stuff from me. But I always wonder if this isn’t just a nuisance to them; or worse, some form of invasion of privacy, given I am essentially otherwise a total stranger.
And yet, what can you do if you no longer want to be someone’s (Facebook) friend, for whatever reason? Is there any gracious way of “unfriending” someone, without offending them or hurting them? (This is a variant of wanting to say “no” to an invitation to be someone’s friend: inevitably, if you’ve been on Facebook for a while, all sorts of people come out of the woodwork wanting to be your friend - many genuinely a pleasant surprise, others not so much so. It’s even trickier if it’s someone work-related.) Others have explored this conundrum.
But I have a solution to propose: an annual no harm, no foul “unfriending” period, during which anyone would be free to unfriend me, for whatever reason, without explanation, and I promise not to feel offended or hurt or to ask why. (Of course, conversely don’t try doing this outside this period or I will be offended! :-) Sort of like the open enrollment month we get every year to change our selections for health care options and other benefits at work.
I started thinking about offering the month of January 2009 for this purpose, but didn’t manage to execute. Perhaps I’ll aim for every November, which coincides with UC’s open enrollment period instead.
What do you think?
When I first joined Facebook, there were distressingly few people I knew on it (two, amidst the UCLA network of about 45,000 at the time). So during an information studies class at which I was guest speaker, I described my personal struggle to overcome knee-jerk privacy concerns in setting up my Facebook profile; and ended by asking a favor of the students: would you be my (Facebook) friend? A dozen of them graciously invited me to be their friend - something I greatly appreciate to this day. A big thank you to them.
So I get a little glimpse into the lives of these students through Facebook, people who I have only met once. And presumably vice versa, unless they’ve told Facebook not to show them stuff from me. But I always wonder if this isn’t just a nuisance to them; or worse, some form of invasion of privacy, given I am essentially otherwise a total stranger.
And yet, what can you do if you no longer want to be someone’s (Facebook) friend, for whatever reason? Is there any gracious way of “unfriending” someone, without offending them or hurting them? (This is a variant of wanting to say “no” to an invitation to be someone’s friend: inevitably, if you’ve been on Facebook for a while, all sorts of people come out of the woodwork wanting to be your friend - many genuinely a pleasant surprise, others not so much so. It’s even trickier if it’s someone work-related.) Others have explored this conundrum.
But I have a solution to propose: an annual no harm, no foul “unfriending” period, during which anyone would be free to unfriend me, for whatever reason, without explanation, and I promise not to feel offended or hurt or to ask why. (Of course, conversely don’t try doing this outside this period or I will be offended! :-) Sort of like the open enrollment month we get every year to change our selections for health care options and other benefits at work.
I started thinking about offering the month of January 2009 for this purpose, but didn’t manage to execute. Perhaps I’ll aim for every November, which coincides with UC’s open enrollment period instead.
What do you think?
"The Great Obama Traffic Flood"
February 15, 2009
The title of this post is taken from a post on Arbor
Networks’ site describing what they saw in terms of
Internet backbone traffic on
inauguration day due to streaming video. The
graph shows a peak around noon on January 20 of
about 3.5 terabytes per second - approximately 2
petabytes of data over the peak two-hour period.
Interestingly, the many people who watched through cnn.com were using a P2P-based Flash plug-in that has generated some controversy, or at least some concern. On the other hand, talk about a huge, legitimate use of P2P!
Interestingly, the many people who watched through cnn.com were using a P2P-based Flash plug-in that has generated some controversy, or at least some concern. On the other hand, talk about a huge, legitimate use of P2P!
"That's 17 million images a day that get viewed by a human pair of eyes."
May 26, 2008
"We literally review every single image that gets
uploaded to the site on a daily basis. That's 17
million images a day that get viewed by a human pair
of eyes." -- Chris DeWolf, MySpace in
BusinessWeek's Facetime with Chris DeWolf,
May 21, 2008
That's amazing. I wonder what kind of technology they use to hyper-streamline the process so that this is even remotely possible? At least on the surface, this affirmative review is at odds with legal frameworks and how MySpace's peers are handling this.
Some other amazing facts about MySpace: Forty percent of all mothers in the U.S. are on it (see the article for why: it's not what you would think) and twelve percent of all Internet minutes are spent there.
That's amazing. I wonder what kind of technology they use to hyper-streamline the process so that this is even remotely possible? At least on the surface, this affirmative review is at odds with legal frameworks and how MySpace's peers are handling this.
Some other amazing facts about MySpace: Forty percent of all mothers in the U.S. are on it (see the article for why: it's not what you would think) and twelve percent of all Internet minutes are spent there.
A Blueprint for Big Broadband
February 24, 2008
A few weeks ago, EDUCAUSE released A Blueprint for Big
Broadband. This paper goes beyond describing
the need for ubiquitous broadband in this
country (and not just the 3-6Mbps most of us
have) and offers some concrete steps towards
achieving this goal. I think the paper makes for
some interesting reading.
Coincidentally, Governor Schwarzenegger’s California Broadband Initiative also recently released The State of Connectivity: Building Innovation Through Broadband, whose thrust is quite consistent with the EDUCAUSE blueprint (though not as aggressive in timeline). The CPUC also recently announced a $100 million broadband fund for unserved areas of California to help bridge the digital divide.
Full disclosure: I’m a member of EDUCAUSE’s Network Policy Council which developed the Blueprint, though I personally had no hand in it.
Coincidentally, Governor Schwarzenegger’s California Broadband Initiative also recently released The State of Connectivity: Building Innovation Through Broadband, whose thrust is quite consistent with the EDUCAUSE blueprint (though not as aggressive in timeline). The CPUC also recently announced a $100 million broadband fund for unserved areas of California to help bridge the digital divide.
Full disclosure: I’m a member of EDUCAUSE’s Network Policy Council which developed the Blueprint, though I personally had no hand in it.
UCLA taser incident video
April 12, 2007
The video of the UCLA tasering incident made
available on YouTube (not for the squeamish -
you’ve been warned) raises a number of
interesting questions. Lauren Weinstein paints this
incident in a bigger picture, and, in a short, wonderful note
on the subject, reminds us that our critical
thinking skills are more important than
ever. And a nice little article in The
Atlantic on the unexpected consequences of
everyone having a camera with them all of the
time by James Fallows. Finally, take a look
at some state-of-the-art digital photo
manipulation looks like from research on content-aware image sizing
presented at SIGGRAPH 2007.
This seems to be a good place to add mention of this unusual piece on fantasy football and information literacy ("National Librarian Sport Declared").
This seems to be a good place to add mention of this unusual piece on fantasy football and information literacy ("National Librarian Sport Declared").
Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us
April 08, 2007
"Web 2.0 in just five
minutes." Fabulous.
Reference: Tim O'Reilly's founding document on "What is Web 2.0". Also, a timely article about Web 2.0 in Science from Cyberinfrastructure Technology Watch.
Reference: Tim O'Reilly's founding document on "What is Web 2.0". Also, a timely article about Web 2.0 in Science from Cyberinfrastructure Technology Watch.
EPIC 2014
April 08, 2007
“In the year 2014, The New York Times has gone
offline. The Fourth Estate’s fortunes have waned.
What happened to the news? And what is EPIC?”
Eight minutes well worth your
time. This isn’t very new, but it’s pretty
staggering how things have evolved. A sideways
commentary begins Michael Hirchorn’s article in
the December 2006 Atlantic Monthly entitled
“Get Me Rewrite!”
Digital natives, digital immigrants
March 25, 2007
An absolute classic must-read: Digital Natives, Digital
Immigrants by Marc Prensky. “It is amazing
to me how in all the hoopla and debate these
days about the decline of education in the US we
ignore the most fundamental of its causes. Our
students have changed radically. Today’s
students are no longer the people our
educational system was designed to teach.”