Sociosophy

Ok, we normally do reviews. But this is a What The F*ck post regarding ethics, namely business ethics, and Ning. Ning is a platform for creating niche social networks. I love the service, in fact, I’m a member of a few networks (here and here actually).

I’m not sure when it happened, but recently, you can sign in via Ning’s root site, and see the networks you’re a part of. This essentially turns the networks you’re a part of, based on the Ning network, into Groups, and thus making the Ning site the root social network – turning all that hard work to get members to join “your site”, based on their platform, sort of moot.

Here’s what’s wrong with the execution: (more…)

Sometimes going to Twitter meetups, conferences, expos and conventions wearing your Twitter @name tattooed on your forehead just isn’t enough to grow your network and increase your echo distance in the chamber. Hence, directory sites such as WeFollow are a good secondary place to spread yourself thinner amongst your like-tweeted fellows and grow with real, non-spam-bot followers.

The trick to make sure you do this right is by first categorizing yourself, then finding others in those categories that you find interesting. Yea, it’ll take a little leg work, but that’s what building a social network is all about… If you want it to be meaningful anyway.

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Want to know what I’m doing right now? At this very moment?

I’m downloading newly released music from Nine Inch Nails, Janes Addiction and Street Sweaper… For Free… Legally. Trent Reznor is going to change the face of the music industry if it’s the last thing he does, I tell ya. This morning, about 30 minutes ago, actually, Trent Reznor on Twitter announced the launch of NIN/JA 2009, a site dedicated to their 2009 tour, featuring a “tour sampler” collection of music from the bands.

Radsauce. (more…)

Here’s something I don’t understand, besides “The Google” in general. Google Voice is a telecommunications service. Remember GrandCentral? It’s a phone number, voicemail service doodad that Google acquired a long time ago.

Why the heck does a search company that makes revenue from advertisers need a telecomm branch? Hmm…

Well, after some thought (about 4 seconds, actually – which is an eternity for some people), I remembered this article (link), here, in case you don’t want to click through to CNET:

Google has elevated the profile of its attempt to make videos searchable through speech recognition technology, a move that portends a potentially more financially successful YouTube division.

The speech recognition technology was used in an online application that let people search political speeches launched in July, and now the Gaudi (Google Audio Indexing) project has an official interface at Google Labs.

So, to speculate on my own, I’m saying that looks and feels a hell of a lot like an incentive to get into telecommunications for Google. I mean, who wouldn’t want to better target ads based on speech? That’s where the true person lives, emails and search strings include alter-ego’s and false courage. But voice!? Voice is where the real us is. (more…)