How many online social networks do you belong to?
I joined Orkut, just to see what the hell it was...which was boring and pointless. No fundamental difference between Orkut and Usenet, except Orkut was in Portuguese.
I joined LinkedIn because it seemed more like a tool, and I'm just figuring out what it is good for.
I get the sense that most folks just join up on any network they get an invitation to, just in case. Which brought about a need to manage all those accounts because you know damn well you're only checking one or two of the six organizations you've joined. You may not even remember which ones you've joined. I think I have an account on Multiply...
I don't join them things willy-nilly because I don't know, and therefore don't trust the operators thereof . The relationship data they gather is way too valuable...hell I could think of uses for it.
When Jane installs a Facebook application, the application is given the ability to see anything that Jane can see. This means that the application can request information about Jane, her friends, and her fellow network members. The owner of the application is free to collect, look at, and potentially misuse this information. The Facebook Terms of Use agreement tells application developers not to do this, but Facebook has no way of finding out or stopping them.
Look at the spam in your in-box.
Check the comment spam on your blogs.
Read up on the bot-nets.
We (with the help of Andrew Spisak) performed a systematic review of the top 150 Facebook applications in October 2007 and examined their information needs.
We found that 8.7% didn't need any information; 82% used public data (name, network, list of friends); and only 9.3% needed private information (e.g., birthday). Since all of the applications are given full access to private data, this means that 90.7% of applications are being given more privileges than they need.
Tell me why this will not be abused.
You know I'm no luddite. I simply suggest you subscribe to services less spasmodically.
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Newsvine
Furl
Google
Yahoo
The only social network I
The only social network I belong to is LinkedIn but the only folks I am linked with are several friends who I was in regular contact with anyway. I did receive an invitation several days ago from a woman with whom that I was in graduate school 20 years ago and don't remember at all. I checked out her bio at the school's alumni/ae site and saw that she was a Billary volunteer. I decided that her invitation had something to do with Billary's campaign (I could be wrong) so I deleted her inviation without responding. As a rule, I do not join any social networks at all. The amount of spam I receive is extremely low; less than four or five a day and most of those are Nigerian money scams.
The social network that
The social network that really worries me is Google Analytics.
I am in LinkedIn, which is
I am in LinkedIn, which is very useful to me. I have a little over 300 contacts, though I do not get any spam to speak of. I have used it to establish business contacts, to do industry and market research, and in job searches. Recruiters and executive recruiters have contacted me through it.
Through one of these recruiter contacts, I got to meet an executive VP/general manager at Xerox (a brother). To meet a black man that is an exec at a high tech company is very valuable to me. His boss, the president (and CEO in waiting) is a sister.
So, if you're into networking, LinkedIn is great. Dissolves the "gates" that the O(W)BN have relied upon for years to hold us back.
I also have a page on Facebook, which is growing slowly. And I once signed up for a Myspace page. That one has largely been inactive, but I found out my mentee uses Myspace alot, so I may dress up that page just to converse with him and future mentees.
It's cool you guys are on LI. The only person (from my cyber-rounds) for sure that I knew had a LI is EC Hopkins.
I've only heard good things
I've only heard good things about LinkedIn. It's why I chose it. But I haven't tried really using the thing. I'm not but so comfortable with the whole networking concept.