Facebook is to face questions from the Information Commissioners Office here in the UK. There is some concern about what information about you Facebook keeps on its servers even after you close your account. It seems that simply deactivating your Facebook account does not remove your wall posts or other such items you may have posted and you have to do this manually which can be a long process if you’ve been a user for any length of time.
I got to thinking about the kerfuffle that erupted when Scoble got himself banned after breaking the Facebook terms of service. You did read them when you signed up, right? All traces of Scoble were removed after his account was suspended. His wall posts and photos were gone and he also vanished from friend lists and groups.
So, if you want a quick way to totally remove yourself from the pages of Facebook (although maybe not their servers) then the answer is simple: break the rules.
Today’s (and probably the last of the year) Edinburgh Coffee Morning was the busiest it has been for a good while. The cryptic promise of some gifts that Ewan McIntosh left in a Facebook message last night turned out to be some really nice signed Hugh MacLeod posters for Stormhoek. The season of goodwill and giving continued with some warmed Panettone and some chilled Prosecco courtesy of our hosts at Centotre. Many thanks to the aforementioned for their generosity.
A couple of stand out things from this morning before the conversations paired off as things are wont to do in group dynamics. Ewan briefly demoed Seesmic which seems to be some kind of video Twitter. I’ve never sent a “tweet” in my life and do have difficulty of seeing the point of it if I’m being honest. At least with Seesmic, there is an element of a two way thing going on.
Via Will Richardson, I found this video of Johnny Chung Lee turning the tables on the light sensing aspect of the Wiimote to produce an interaction whiteboard for around £40 much more interesting:
Facebooks new advertising features are not only annoying me I’d probably say there are huge privacy implications too. I’m far from being the only one to be peeved by this. Zuckerberg was apparently confused as to why people would be concerned about the privacy implications during the press conference. It has become apparent that Facebook isn’t the best at privacy.The introduction of the news feed feature sometime ago was met with some amount of fury. At the very least listen to the same feedback as before and extend the preference sliders and let me turn down the noise for these new ads.I’m definitely not going to use it but if, for some strange reason, you’re interested in which brands and products I’m passionate about, here’s my list (in no particular order):
- Apple
- Crumpler bags
- Herman Miller chairs
- Mont Blanc pens
- Specialized
- Sennheiser headphones
- JBL speakers
- Moleskine notebooks
- Aga
- Wusthoff knives
- Sony Bravia televisions
- Bombay Sapphire gin
If I feel something is jaw-droppingly awesome, performs brilliantly, is better than a competing product or just has some fantastic marketing behind it then I’m much more likely to tell my friends about it myself by traditional word-of-mouth.
Last night I went along to a tutored whisky tasting with Alex and Jane from the Spencerfield Spirit Company. The products we sampled were the Pig’s Nose and Sheep Dip whiskies with chocolate, Christmas cake and some hot and cold smoked salmon and mussels provided by Loch Fyne. Alex gave a talk about the history of the brands and the processes involved in the production. We also received an insight about wood finishing aspects which was something new for me.
Things have changed somewhat from the in the early 80’s when Sheep Dip was the biggest selling whisky in Harrods, through a succession of takeovers to become an orphaned brand until it was bought by the Spencerfield Spirit Company a few years ago. Unable to compete with the advertising spend of multi-national drinks companies like Diageo they are experimenting with the power of Web 2.0 and social networks.
And I still made it to the Edinburgh Coffee Morning in Centotre for the first time in months this morning.
I know a lot of things on the Internet are pretty pointless. Entertaining maybe, but ultimately pointless. Here are two things on Facebook that are pointless and utterly devoid of any entertainment value whatsoever.
Firstly is the handy information that “You are online now” when viewing your own profile. Really? Gee thanks for, like, lettting me know.
Next up is something I didn’t know before this weekend. You can actually “poke” yourself — if that’s your kind of thing. After searching on your own name, you get this option appearing in the results. It doesn’t even appear in your mini-feed so nobody will find out your secret hobby.
Take two of the biggest things around at the moment – at least in terms of column inches. Put them together and what do you get? The Facebook iPhone portal. Clean, uncluttered, funky transitions and as far as I can make out, advert free (although how long that stays remains to be seen).
Thanks to Mike Coulter’s status update, I know I’m not the only one to be playing around with it while I patiently wait for the UK/Europe launch of the Apple communication device.
As an aside, I was also interested to come across Cityware’s Bluetooth Facebook application that tries to tie-up your online and real-world networks. Something to maybe play around with and keep an eye on, if only to satisfy my curiosity as installation isn’t exactly what you’d call straightforward! Here’s another take on the experiment from the BBC.
An interesting point was raised at last Fridays weekly Edinburgh Web2.0 coffee morning. As usual of late, Facebook was raised at various points and the question was asked if people are spending more time on their social networks instead of updating their blogs.
I’ve also noticed a reduction in phone calls, SMS messages and “social” emails apropos nothing but my recent escapades as (most of) them are recounted through Facebook. However, that may have to change now that more of my work colleagues have been joining my network!
Of course, it may just be my imagination.
Someone I have never met or spoken to has just accepted my friend request on Facebook. The fact that it’s gorgeous uber-geek Amber MacArthur is neither here nor there. Currently she is approaching 2,000 other friends.
How is the explosion of online social networking changing our view and value of friendship? The fact that it is so easy to keep in touch with friends with the help of technology makes me think that maybe it’s taken for granted. In fact, another study published in 2006 claim that 25% of Americans feel that they have no-one to confide in and have fewer close friends than they did only a decade ago.
A 2003 MSN study revealed that an average Brit will make 396 friends in a lifetime of which we count six as close friends. We’ll stay in touch with just one in twelve of them – a little over 8%.
At the end of the 1990’s, the Institute of Social Research claimed that our desire to make new friends starts to wane from the age of 30 onwards. I wonder if that’s still the case?