Tag Archives: facebook

Facebook – good for your health?

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I’ve been watching news reports with shock and sadness over the last week but have also been amazed by the extent to which social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have not only enabled family and friends to contact each other but have also been conduits for millions of dollars donated to a devastated Haiti.

But I’ve been wondering about the Facebook phenomenon and the particular type of online interaction it breeds. Only slightly more than a popularity contest I rather thought Facebook dilutes community and have recently come across some interesting action focused online social networking sites that create space not just for amassing friends but building community – communities of social action.

Idealist.com

“Idealist is an interactive site where people and organizations can exchange resources and ideas, locate opportunities and supporters, and take steps toward building a world where all people can lead free and dignified lives.”

Idealist has always been an excellent place to, as they describe it, exchange resources and ideas but they have also recently reinvented themselves and watching this unfold was fascinating. The essence of their reinvention is to building a global network to serve and support those who want to make the world a better place. Lofty indeed but it was the way in which they went about it that particularly struck me. Essentially they posed a question – how can we better facilitate the creation of community online and offline – and invited collaboration in making this a reality.

They do a much better job than I at describing their goals. Check them out for the full scoop.

Tyze.com

Tyze networks are personal support networks that facilitate communication and organization. A Tyze network is something that a son or daughter might set up for their parent with Alzheimer’s in order to support, share and coordinate their care with friends, family and health care providers. I have recently started some work with Tyze and it’s through this connection that I’ve become more interested in action based and supportive online communities. Tyze understands that belonging to a social network has tangible benefits, including improved health and their network model facilitates this. They have some great articles on their site.

These two examples are just the tip of the iceberg. I’m excited by the possibility that online social networking will evolve and mature and maybe, just maybe even Facebook will be good for our health.

.eco

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recently the adeptly-named ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) proposed the creation of a .eco domain name.  the concept would be to reward organizations that meet certain environmentally-aware criteria with a .eco site.   potential visitors to such sites would be guaranteed to be supporting climate-friendly organizations.   interestingly, the two front runners to administer this ‘certification’ are Big Room Inc. (out of Vancouver!) and Dot Eco LLC (associated with Al Gore).   we can guess that support from the ‘father of the internet and contemporary american environmentalism’ will have some serious weight in the decision-making process, but it would be nice to see hometown heroes get a slice of the pie.   as a former LEED-consultant, I understand some of the controversy associated with eco certification and I am sure the .eco will be subject to more of the same; let us leave the eco-labelling controversy for now and turn elsewhere.

the .eco discussion made me think about .com.   I thought: ‘how cool would it be if .com was short for .community’.   this seemed likely, given the networked nature of the internet and the clear sociological links between the communal aspects of online life and sitting in the olden days village pub/square, listening and observing your village’s social life.   not to be.   the capitalist machine wins again:  .com stands for .commercial.

Fireplace TV1 smallcommercial evokes images of flickering product advertisements on television, consumers buying their life-goods, and bland glass-enclosed steel and concrete business districts.   this site describes other domain names including: .org (formally restricted to non-profits, now open to any individual or business), .net (formally restricted to technical concerns, namely web-providers), .biz (business only, I think of used-car salesmen when I see it), and a number of others.   the most interesting is the .coop (reserved for coops, although I have never seen one in use).

these are the most popular of the .somethings and all have become available to business.   does this make the fundamental purpose of the internet economic?  to me this is concerning in light of the essentially anti-community, rapine nature of the capitalist corporate model we live in today (maximize returns to shareholders while minimizing and externalizing costs to the surrounding environment).   what if .com stood for .community?  would this affect our perception of our communities, both virtual and real?

tangentially, this means the most popular ‘community-building’ website — FACEBOOK.com — is a business concern.    somehow it produces income for the venture capitalists invested in it.   is this a problem?   consider this: how would you feel if your real-life, community-centres were run as for-profit institutions?   they could never offer the same range of money-losing services: poorly attended yoga classes, low-income mum’s groups, or 2$ drop-in soccer.   every decision made by facebook must be put through a profit filter; does this make them a good forum for community building?   think on it before signing in and posting information about you and your real community.

The High School Reunion

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There are certainly several words to describe the cultural experience that is the 10 year high school reunion: anxious, awkward, vengeance, respect, restitution, empowered, excited, nervous, superawesome, connection, justification, snobbery, aloofness, interesting, “why did I come here?”, shenanigans, friendship, ridiculous, gong-show, and bitchin’.

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Some Classy Folks from the Class of '99 with Special Guests

A few weekends ago I threw down such a gauntlet. Nearly 200 graduates from GP Vanier’s class of 1999 – some accompanied by husbands, wives, partners, girlfriends, boyfriends, and wingpeople -  descended on the Comox Valley’s Filberg Centre to catch-up, share stories and assess the “success-to-fat-to-bald” ratio of their classmates.  For the record, our classy class was, like, 540 people who’s graduating slogan was, I kid you not, “the best there was, the best there is, the best there ever will be.” Democracy, not unlike the WWF, ruled at our school. We were also a talented group of kids, it’s true. And, to this day, pro-wrestling fans are still one of the most powerful lobby groups in North America.

Moving on…

Here is some context and a pre-reunion backstory. After a heated argument with my father about my “post-modern” approach to wood stacking, I left home at the age of 18 and hooked up with a group of Chinese pirates heading for Singapore. After a few years at sea followed by a brief stint attending some of Eastern Canada’s more decorated bastions of higher education – and Bishop’s University – I basically lost touch with all but a few people from my graduating class. In high school, well, I wasn’t overly picked on, but wasn’t overly invited to parties, either. Sports, school and student journalism kept me busy and edutained, but by no means was high school a “top 10 life experience” in The Journey of John to this day [Editor's Note: if high school is in your top three life experiences, I recommend you speak to one of South America's leading Life Coaches, Martin Renauld]; or take up a non-vice-related hobby, any hobby, really].

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Two of the Evening's Best Conversationalists

Needless to say, I was eager to arrive at the reunion and re-connect with as many people as possible. Being lucky enough to have a witty, kind and gorgeous fiancee on my arm was certainly a confidence booster, as was my sporting a pretty decent “success-to-fat-to-bald” ratio. It was time for the The Reunion Experience to begin!

SFU Business Professor Ginger Grant encourages people to “find their tribe” in the world of work as in life. Well, Class of ’99 grads, many of us did just that on reunion night. The tables of people and circles of conversation maintained the cliquish structure of our high school days, which is expected, I guess – I mean, why would you want to rediscover doucheyness from decades-passed? Thing is, people change. Speaking of change, as the drinks flowed like, well, drinks, people left the safety of their tables and ventured out into a delightful fray of messiness, mustaches, mingling, and machismo. Man, even some of the cool girls talked to the people they looked right through 10 years ago! Plato would’ve been proud, as the modestly priced and modestly mixed drinks allowed us to “enjoy each others’ company and chiefly refresh [ourselves] with learned discussion.” Believe it or not, there was a heck of intellectualism, social leveling and man-on-man bum pinching at the Class of ’99 Reunion, which had a little to do with alcohol, sure, but more to do with, as co-Valedictorian Ian Cullen put it, us being a “a pretty cool and down-to-Earth group of people.” For the record, this is the eleventh time Mr. Cullen has been quoted in juxtaposition to Plato.

Food and drink. Check! Cool people. Check! Interesting and, hopefully, amazing stories. Well, read on, my friends.

Here are the five best stories and/or things about the Class of 99 Reunion:

1. Bob Atwood Invented Facebook. At least that’s the word on the street; but it will be hard for Bob to have a voice or presence within this 250 million member medium because, understanably enough, he doesn’t use Facebook. If anyone wants to start a “Bob Atwood Invented Facebook” group, well, I’m sure it would catch fire like Athens and our friend would greatly appreciate the irony. Mark Zuckerberg, beware, as you have some of the stingiest legal minds from Vancouver Island coming your way!

2. “Maybe all the people losing their hair stayed home.” This was said as an observation of the fact that everyone at the reunion, pretty much, still had amazing hair. I’d put our grad class (with significant others included) against any other in a purely superficial, old fashioned lookin’ good contest any day of the week.

3. The unique stories and conversations made things perpetually interesting. Now, I go to a lot of networking events around Vancouver, and it’s never fun having to give the same canned answer over and over and over. The Class of ’99 Reunion had no such repetition and people generally avoided long-winded diatribes about material things, sexual conquests or their complicated route to and from work. Thanks for the freshness, y’all.

It wouldn't be a GP Vanier Formal without baseball caps

It wouldn't be a GP Vanier Formal without baseball caps

4. Confederate Flags. I know. This is a weird one. But anyone who went to my high school will tell you that, well, confederate flags – on shirts as well as immense pickup trucks – were a badge of Redneck honour at GP Vanier Secondary School. Just as there was chewing tobacco spit in the drinking fountain or and a need to be sure the emergency break was engaged so your car didn’t get pushed in the ditch surrounding the student parking lot, there were pictorial allusions to the South rising again. Fortunately enough, it seemed that only one attendee – a kindhearted and very friendly young iron worker -  still does not fully grasp the contentious power of said symbolic decoration, but, hey, neither did the Duke Boys, right?!

5. Unpretentiousness. What better place than a high school reunion to talk about how great you’ve become? During my navigation of the reunion, however, I found no such pretentions creating one-sided conversations amongst graduates. And there were some very cool people doing very cool things. But, man, we’re from Courtenay – no point taking ourselves too seriously.

So, do you have a high school or university reunion coming up in the weeks, months or years ahead? Are you, like many of the people at my reunion were, anxious or nervous about the event? Well, here are five simple tips on how to note just survive, but thrive at your reunion:

1. Be Yourself. “If you’ve gotta think about being cool, you ain’t cool.” Well said, Johnny Depp and Keith Richards – arguably a couple of very cool characters. If you are a little trepidatious about being yourself, well, maybe be a pirate…

2. If you want to be someone else, have an Amazing Story. To quote a young George Costanza, “it’s not a lie if you believe it.” Too concerned about being cool to actually be cool? Well, there’s an answer for that, too. Make stuff up! Just know that if you want to hit the reunion with tales of exotic foreign intrigue, business cards that say “Existential Detective” or a story of how you’re Charlize Theron’s body-double, make sure that you’ve got enough yarn in your pocket to spin for awhile. Ideally, your story should be able to survive three probing follow-up questions before it crumbles apart. Consider creating some online content (blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) before arriving, too – you know, just to create a bit of a buzz.

3. Bring a Well-Prepared Wingperson. A little nervous about facing former foes? Well, find an outgoing, superfun and risk-taking friend to boost your personal brand might be a good idea. Get creative, too. Maybe your friend “Tom” from “Ninja School” is also a Mathematician or a Doctor. And you can always flip it around, too. Have a friend show up completely unattached to you. And then get said friend to act like an obnoxious creep. And then be sure that you – The Reunion Hero – are the one who defuses a potentially dangerous situation. There are 1001 recipes for characters and scenarios, people. Go with what works for you.

4. Ask Good Questions. As the age-old piece of relationship-building advice goes: “be more interested than interesting.” Would you rather know what someone does for work or learn about what they do for fun, their search for inner peace and/or strategy for global domination? Interesting questions are easy to find, because, really, how many times can you ask “hey, remember that time we got so wasted?” at a reunion.

5. Unpretentiousness. “You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You’re the same decaying organic matter as everything else.” Well, Tyler Durden might use pure hyperbole, but you get the idea. I think you’re special, don’t worry; but the person you’re talking to…they’re more special.

And so the Chronicles of the GP Vanier Class of ’99 Reunion conludeth. Thanks again to the organizing team and all the supercool people who made the evening as memorable as that kick-ass party at The Lake that time. I wish anyone attending their high school reunion – or a reunion of any kind – the best of luck and hope that happiness weaves its way into your experience. If you remember one thing from what happened about, remember to have fun with it. We did!

- JCH

Facebook Community Hits 250 Million

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That’s right – 250 million. That’s according to company founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s blog post. That’s up 100 million from January. Funny the snowball effect of it all. Just recently, a German friend of many years past befriended me on facebook. Obviously its starting to cut across the Atlantic.

The online community that's common place.

I think a big part of the success of applications like Facebook is its exploitation of social networking to peer pressure everyone in net-sight to get online and start making facebook friends, else one may find themselves left out of the loop. Plus the ability to stay simultaneously updated (some might say inundated) by news, photos, updates, links, videos, preferences, and random thoughts is undeniable and interesting (usually…).
Anyway, here’s what Zuckenberg had to say about the success of it all:

From the beginning, Facebook hasn’t been about building a website. Facebook is about all of the people using it and all of the things that are important to you. The 250 million of you on Facebook today are what gives Facebook life and makes the site meaningful to everyone using it, so we thank you.

Each person who joins makes Facebook better by adding a presence to the site that friends and family can connect with and feel closer to. For us, growing to 250 million users isn’t just an impressive number; it is a mark of how many personal connections all of you have made, and how far we at Facebook have to go to extend the power of connection to the billions of people around the world.

Talk about a thriving and vibrant community. Give it another few years and it’s population may well overtake the American population.

Online Communities – Managing your Personal Brand

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Do you twit-blog the interscape? Do you or your organization distribute information through the comprehensive and amazing medium of an “online blog website”? Do you have an account on the new social networking tool Bookface? Perhaps you employ these mediums as a means of connecting with friends, or maybe you’re a “pyjama job hunter” (someone who looks for work by emailing job applications through monster.ca rather than physically connecting with people), or maybe you’ve got a blog and/or an ex-boyfriend you follow and/or stalk through Twitter.

Whatever the case. However you do it. The vast majority of people today have some kind of online presence.

Here are some amazing findings relating to our online community’s behaviour:

Twitter is arguably the hottest thing in new media. Usage is up 752% since December 2008. Last month, about 7.7 million people used the professional social networking site LinkedIn (being mindful of these tough economic times, if you haven’t already, get on there and get connected). If Facebook was a country, it would be the eighth largest in the world. Speaking of Facebook, did you know that 20% of Facebook users do not use any privacy settings? And of the users who do use some or all of their privacy setting, last year nearly one-quarter of them still shared their telephone numbers. Nearly 50% of users concerned with divulging their political views still posted them. And nearly 20% of Facebook users employing their “top” privacy setting.

So, would you like a job one day? Or maybe you fancy yourself as the next Gregor, Gordo, Merkel, or Obama. Maybe your family’s opinion of you is the most important thing in the world. Get this. About 25% of graduates from 50 countries say there is something about them online that they do not want their parents or employer to see. And, last year in North America, 83% of employers searched online to learn more about applicants. Of job-applicants who were dismissed in 2008, 43% were turned away because of what recruiters found online.

So that’s the game. But how should we play in it?

For students and young people:

  • According to the Vancouver Sun’s Mitch Joel, “the amazing thing about developing your personal brand in a world of online social networks and blogging is that you can home in and really focus on meeting and connecting with those that have shared values.”
  • You can be social and professional, people. Trust me, employers, recruiters and friends alike want to make sure you separate work and pleasure. Man, no one wants to check out a Facebook profile that looks like a resume. It’s just not fun. Now, you should still strive to build an amazing social and personal brand by using Facebook. Check this out: http://mashable.com/2009/04/02/facebook-personal-brand/.
  • I have a lot of students who are smarter than me. One of them sent me this link to Guy Kawasaki’s blog, which outlines 11 key ways to use LinkedIn to connect with professionals in your field. In these tough economic times, take full advantage of this advice!
  • Long story short. Having fun is important. Being social is important. Being classy is important, too. Maybe leave the funnel out of the picture next time, dude.

For teachers and counsellors and parents:

  • Teach and encourage your students/kids about the concept of Link Love. Get them to collaborate in a positive way and to connect their online communities. The more things written about people and groups, the more “searchable” they become. And when the “link love” is positive, once a group or individual is found, say, by Google, their online brand will be well-received by its audience.
  • One of the reasons Generation Y is incredibly useless when it comes to comprehending the implications of putting career and socially damaging photos and information online is because they have not been taught proper online community etiquette from their parents and role models. I mean, Shaquille O’Neal is a Twitter MVP, but that doesn’t mean he should replace you/us, parents and teachers. We need to get involved, too.
  • First step, get your kids/students to explain to you how an online community works!

For employers and recruiters:

  • Is Facebook reflective of a new way of doing business? Find another tool that can put a grassroots movement or a cool new product past the tipping point on a global scale in a more collaborative way in a shorter amount of time. There probably isn’t one.
  • With our global networks expanding at lightspeed, this figure has never seemed so real. Organizations must be sure to utilize internal and external social networks to attract, engage and retain top talent. Spreading your company’s brand through the word of mouth of an elaborate global network, after all, is pretty powerful stuff.
  • Recent findings show that a cross-section of industry experts believe that the majority of employers suggest several HR professionals see the world of work transitioning from a “machine” to a “community” and from a hierarchical system of management to one that is more reflective of a social network. If the medium is the message, what do employers today need to know about Facebook and Web 2.0? Probably lots.


The Globe and Mail recently profiled the, um, online profiles of Gordon Campbell and Carole James. Like much else in British Columbia’s election, neither candidate showcases the stuff of inspiration. When managing one’s online presence, it’s of course important to be sincere, authentic and to have integrity (in the article, the closest Ms. James or Mr. Campbell got to being authentic was when Mr. Campbell chose a quote from the author of Faust, Wolfgang von Goethe, perhaps all too reflective of devilish deals politicians and their ilk have forever made). With so much noisy information clogging the series of pipes and tubes that make up the internet, those of us twitblogging are way through it must also strive to be unique, interesting and entertaining in addition to being sincere. Whether you’re a student, educator, employer, or politician, think about how you`ll be adding value to the experience of those connecting to your online community.

We here are The Gumboot add value by talking about pirates, communal nudity and cutting edge architecture way before fringe media groups like the CBC or up-and-coming politicians like this guy Stephen Harper do. Some people talk about what’s already cool. We make it cool.

And that’s how you manage an online presence. It’s a beautiful thing!

- JCH

Perils of Online Community

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Online communities are lauded these days. Applications like facebook, twitter, myspace and friendster are seen as the new way to create and maintain one’s personal social community. With these new tools people can expand their community to hundreds of friends, sharing information like never before. Can’t be anything but good, say our online gurus.

Maybe online communities aren’t so perfect after all. As our Web 2.0 communities grow and the amount of time we spend online grows with them, many people are spending less time with their close friends and family. Instead of going to a park with your close ones, doing dinner with your family, or strengthening friendships via common interest and common activities, the new online community leads us to spend endless hours viewing flickr photos, writing facebook wall posts, and yes, writing and commenting on blog articles. At first it is no big deal. But slowly, one starts to notice sometimes we’re spending more time with our friends online than offline.

And instead of focusing our quality time with a small handful of close friends, we spread our net wide, communicating with hundreds of “friends”, many of whom we’ve never even met. In effect, we’re watering down our social community, trading personal flesh on flesh relationships in exchange for hundreds of pixel images, superfluous comments/posts, and short bios of people we once knew a long time in a galaxy far far away.

Is this the future of our communities?