If I were a blogger, I’m sure I would have other things to do than poke, stump and throw food at other bloggers on Facebook.
Admitted Linked In actually can be useful, but honestly… building profile just takes too much time away from the important things. Activities such as learning how to blog, monetize, leverage new blog launches, improve SEO knowledge (PDF) or leave insightful comments on other blogs. And obviously reading the whole echo chamber collection.

But networking? Honestly, I couldn’t care less. Quality always will come out, sometimes it takes more time than one had hoped, but I’d rather be an unknown blogger with 4 regulars than a$$ kisser.

The only thing I need now, is quality.

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1. Where Will You Blog Next Year?
2. Blogging Is All About Relationships
3. Social Networking Safety

In a vacuum, crowds probably are very wise. But all too often we see the caveat to James Surowiecki’s crowd wisdom in Malcom Gladwell’s “tipping point”, which, in this context, explains that groups are easily influenced by their vanguard – those who are the first to do something and who automatically have extra influence, even if what they are doing is not necessarily the best idea.

The highly social nature of the web therefore makes it highly susceptible to, for example, sensationalized, low-quality information with the sole merit of being popular. Libraries, in contrast, provide quality control in the form of a stopgap. Only information that is carefully vetted is allowed in. Libraries are likely to stay separate from the internet, even if they can be found online. Therefore, it is extremely important that libraries remain alive and well, as a counterpoint to the fragile populism of the web.

True, true. I’ve been a fan of social media from the start, including social bookmarkers (like del.icio.us and Stumbleupon) and social news sites (like DIGG, the new Netscape and Reddit). However, I have also been skeptical of their value per se, particularly with what people truly consider important.

For instance, is it just me or do you also notice that about half of the news items that get to frontpage on DIGG is junk? Sure, there is a “consensus” within the set of users, but then again, there’s the tipping point. To better illustrate, I usually ask the question: do items get on front page because they’re DUGG, or do items get DUGG because they’re on front page?

Sure, the fact that an item is already on front page means a lot of people have already DUGG. But because they’re on front page, there is a higher tendency for more people to DIGG–perhaps because frontpage items are more visible, and perhaps because people are influenced to believe those items are indeed of value.

Short of calling most Internet users (or at least users of these social media) lemmings, I would think the wisdom of the crowds does not exactly produce something wise.

This is why I prefer those social tools that don’t rely on popularity, but rather on the interaction between contacts (“friends” if you may).

[Image source]

Related posts:

1. What’s Wrong With The Echo Chamber?
2. Why Digg Sucks
3. Social News For The Masses?

This was nothing more than a brilliant piece of marketing by TIME Magazine. ProBlogger Darren Rowse called it linkbaiting, but there is more behind this.

The online cover story was an example article how to please an otherwise critical, savvy internet : an article drenched with many beloved buzzwords. And I am not speaking about MySpace users or (the average) YouTube freaks, no meant are the bloggers who create the New Media. Those who have beaten the Pros at their own game.
The New Web was even called a revolution.

Wait a second!

Is their such a thing as a New Web? Web2.0, is there really something like a new internet, knocking the features of the old internet away?

No there isn’t! We hype ourselves and we are good at it. What the critical and self-honest observer sees in the New Web is merely another brilliant piece of marketing. There is no such thing as Web 2.0.
I can already see some of the readers shake their head now, but let me explain you.

Buzzword 1 : Web 2.0.

Surely the internet has become more beautifull. Surely there are more features, the internet just works better today. It is smoother, goes faster and will continue to improve in the next years. But this is nothing else as the natural evolution of a new technology. How old is the internet? Can we agree on 15 years?
Lets have a look back at the Toyota Corolla 15 years ago and compare it with the actual one. Is the actual one a revolutionary car? No. It still is a car : 4 wheels, an engine and a roof above your head. But the car still doesn’t hover like they did in The Jetsons. Now that would be a revolution.
Or broadband coffee coming straight out of your laptop.

Buzzword 2 : User Generated

I know everyone likes to hear this, but let me take you your illusions away : You are not innovating. The Internet was user generated from Day 1. Anyone remember the good old Usenet?
USENET, USEr NETwork.

Users read and post e-mail-like messages (called “articles”) to a number of distributed newsgroups, categories that resemble bulletin board systems in most respects.The medium is distributed among a large number of servers, which store and forward messages to one another. Individual users download and post messages…

Many of us will remember the hours spend helping other people with their computer problems and later shared software¹ and media files.
And of course the oh so legendary flame wars.

How much is this different from the Web 2.0? The interface? I agree. The backend? Don’t we still store on servers and download to read? Even today, in the middle of the social experiment called Web2.0, we flame and rave in the comments².

Buzzword(s) 3 : Community, Collaboration and Social Network.

May I refer once more to the USENET? The savvy, geeky³ community has always helped the online friend. We are that altruistic.
And we have always known that helping for free could result in some financial bonuses. The odd person who is willing to pay you for your help, based on your shown knowledge.
You might even become a paid blogger, blogging in any blog network, blog for your local newspaper’s online presence or who knows… become a blogger for ZDNET or Reuters.
But then again, also that is nothing new. Microsoft MVP, anyone?

So what did really happen yesterday?

One more Old Media Publisher [sic] hugged the internet. And bought many souls.
But we still have our knowledge portals where we spend many hours daily reading the news, we still participate to communities and we share our knowledge, helping others for free.

Our homepage is a blog now, no collection of static pages anymore. Many even tried the odd CMS and now realize the CMS actually has more accurate options to categorize than the blog platform does. Luckily we have tags and uncluttered tag clouds today.

The USENET, newsletters have become bulletin boards (although my inbox still suffers under the load of many mailing lists) and the ones who use MySpace as their homepage surely didn’t embellish our cyber world.

The only thing that really happened in Cyber 2006 is that the internet hit main stream. Is this due to us or is it a normal evolution of technology?

And TIME Magazine embraced enough of otherwise critical bloggers to start a new platform online : TIME Magazine, the FastLane… news brought to you by [professional] bloggers, even before we read the news.
Who wouldn’t want to write for TIME Magazine?

¹ Without USENET, there probably wouldn’t have been *NIX [History of Linux]
² Why don’t you doflame and rave in the comments. I’ll do my best to continue to provoke.
³ What happened to the term nerd? Is dotcom nerd a geek in today’s Internet?

[tags]Jack Of All Blogs, News, Internet, TIME, Social Network, Collaboration, user generated, MVP, technology, Web 2.0, web20, buzzwords[/tags]

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What differentiates those two sites from other image hosting platforms, like photobucket, is not only their community, but also that both applications managed it to stay primarily photo sites.
Other platforms very often serve as image hoster and free bandwidth provider, but Zooomr and flickr both have almost exclusively photo focused communities. Surely you see the occasional screen shot, but it is all about our photos we want to show. And not host the background of our newest blog design or our MySpace profile.

Does this make both communities untouchable in their niche or could there be such a thing as a flickr killer application? I think the killer app already lurks in the background. And above all, the possible killer application even isn’t a photo site.

When squirl.info launched some months ago, I think one of the most powerful new social web services saw the daylight. Not only stuffed with many Web2.0 buzzwords elements such as groups, commenting, tags, AJAX and RoR, squirl also brought many different web services together in one. Finally you can share all your collections with only one user account, at only one site even.
But that is not all. Combined with a great community creativity squirl could grow into THE sharing community online.
With a little imagination people could soon start submitting their photos and tag them as a collection. Because tags are the evil of the Web 2.0.

Tags are great not only for SEO, but also for categorizing. And they are the evil of the Web 2.0.
Why are tags evil? Because too many people do not use tags correctly. Seen Live is NO correct tag for music, nor is awesome. But still it are 2 of the more popular tags at last.fm.
So what will keep squirl members from submitting their dog pictures and make a collection of [pictures of] their dog? The upload quota of only 1.5MB a picture?
Or does squirl really have the potential to be a killer?

I think squirl is a real killer application. Add 2 portions of guts, one attractive pricing plan¹ and a healthy dose of API.
There you go : lots of new domain names ending in rl over the next two years.

Did I tell you I sometimes have weird nerd geek thoughts? I think I did.
I will regularly feature my thoughts on new or popular web applications. Share your opinions in the comments.

¹ I consider the actual free plan too restricted to make the service really attractive for new members. 200 free items is not enough IMHO, especially not spread over 3 collections. I’d rather see the possibility to add more items every month.

[tags]Jack Of All Blogs, flickr, Zooomr, squirl, tags, buzzwords, social network, photo sharing, web applications, image hosting, Web 2.0, Web20[/tags]

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Jack Frost, of course, is the “creature who personifies crisp, cold, winter weather; a variant of Father Winter also known as Old Man Winter. He is a figure some believe to have originated in Viking folklore.” (Wikipedia). The cold weather is coming about and I can’t help but feel the rush both in terms of climate change and in terms of consumerism.

During holiday seasons, consumer spending jacks up (wow, another “jack”). People get their Christmas or year-end bonuses. Shops hold sales. Restaurants and holiday spots are jampacked. Everyone is busy. Everyone is buying–whether it’s electronic gadgets, cars, clothes, furniture, jewelry, or whatnot.

Sometimes it gets stressful.

But it’s the perfect time to try forgetting about reality, even just for a while. Everyone’s in a festive mood, after all, so what’s the point in missing out?

When January comes, that’s when you have to settle back in, tend to real life, and freak out about that huge credit card bill.

[tags]christmas,jack frost,credit card bills,festive,christmas season[/tags]

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