In a poll last week, Internet Evolution readers weighed in with their thoughts on data portability and the idea of merging all social networking identities on singular platforms. While 30 percent seem interested in data portability, our scattered results show that many are still uneasy about decentralizing their social identities.
As yet, the idea of decentralized social networking is fairly new, with Web users still tending to identify themselves as Facebook users, MySpace users, Bengay users, and so on (and so forth). But things are starting to change, and new sites, applications, and tools for bridging the identity gap are cropping up like pixillated weeds.
Below are a handful of sites and applications -- some popular, some lesser-known -- which aim to port your social identities to one location.
FriendFeed: Here's an obvious one. FriendFeed was first introduced last year as somewhat supplemental to Twitter. Here you can post microblogs but also import your social activity from 57 other sites. From FriendFeed you can track other FriendFeeders and find out what they're doing all over the Web (Mindy just added Boniva to her Wish List on Amazon.com!). While I happen to fear FriendFeed, others, like Andrew Keen, believe it to be the future of online communications.
Plaxo Pulse: Just saying Plaxo can leave a bad taste in one's mouth (a taste fairly reminiscent of spam), but here's another company looking to leverage the data portability craze with Pulse. Pulse is a dashboard where users can keep an eye on what their contacts are doing across 30 social sites, including YouTube, Digg, MySpace, Flickr, and Google Reader.
Seesmic Desktop: An Adobe Air client, Seesmic Desktop allows users to update and monitor their activity streams on Twitter and Facebook from one location. This was made possible by Facebook's opening of its stream API, allowing developers to create third-party applications that tap into Facebook user updates. Similarly, there's TweetDeck, another Adobe Air client that lets users view their Twitter updates and friends' Facebook status updates, while also having the opportunity to cross-post a Tweet as a status on Facebook.
Chi.mp: This is a newer identity management platform in which users are given their own .mp domain name and from there can update various social accounts. Those checking out someone's Chi.mp page can then see that person's activity on a handful of those sites, including Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook. Users can create various "personas" -- making different data available to friends, coworkers, and family.
Data portability is beginning to catch on as the next "necessary" phase of the Web, at least from the developers' point of view. But, as our poll results indicate, users haven't yet fully warmed to the idea. Further, with sites like Facebook starting to direct their traffic and eyeballs away from the main page where ads are, that nagging monetization question may only get louder.
MShellC, I understand better now why your pic is <evidently> a shower of sparks. And here I just thought you were a welder :-)
Your post made me wonder whether I was too cavalier in putting up my own photo here on IE, without an instant's hesitation. I guess I hoped doing so would lend a little more weight to whatever gibberish I spout off. A squishy reason, but that's what ran through my mind as I uploaded it.
When I joined Twitter, I also posted a pic, per the advice of a Twitter-phile friend, who assured me I'd appear more "authentic" or get more hits or what have you. Jury's out on that one.
I have had an interesting work-related scenario cause me a modicum of discomfort on FB in recent days. A couple of status reports I posted were the written equivalent of mild eye-rolling about a particular assignment I was working on; these I wrote to amuse my friends and myself. Yet who commented on them? Friends, as expected--and editors-cum-friends, folks who are in a position to hire me to write articles. Hmm. Did I just sacrifice a bit of professionalism on the altar of getting-a-laugh?
Now, Tnieusma waits to Friend folks until he's left the company through which he met them. Let me say that I also applied that principle when I accepted one of these folks' FB invitation and made an overture to the other. I find myself wondering if this little cross-pollination might not have jeopardized future assignments in subtle or not-so-subtle ways.
I just feel that we're drifting into a TMI world but this information isn't about things that will make your mother blush, it's about things that really don't belong in the workforce.
I remember when I first found out that one of my coworkers was an alcoholic and the other one was bi-polar. I felt in both situations that this was information that I shouldn't know especially since I tried so hard to ignore the office gossip circles.
These days, what's the purpose of trying to be businesslike if all your coworkers have to do is search for your name to find out that you and your friends like to dress up like Super heroes on the weekend? (I found that out while looking on a colleague's FB page)
I guess the way to do it is to make up a name. Never put up a picture. Also, never ever use a program that links all of your identities together so folks could see everything about you.
I feel like I'm the paranoid one in this community, but I'm okay with that. lol
They may respond with something like, “I don’t know who you are, get lost.”
Does setting your profile view privileges to 'friends' only nullify that issue?
I love facebook as much as its EXPONENTIALLY growing userbase, HOWEVER, their ads are still so darn spammy and bunch of crap. Why do they allow those gimmicky ads? I guess a trade off for "free for all" for the interim.
I'm with you! In a world in which we are increasingly blurring the lines between work and home, it seems dangerous to intermingle the two through social networking.
Obviously, the concerns related to security and privacy are important, but there is also the need for work/life balance. Though, I do have colleagues that have become friends, I waited until after I left a particular company to do so.
Most of us work too much already and I know from experience that if a colleague can find you during an evening or weekend on FB etc - they will! It is bad enough that the Blackberry etc. encourages the blurring of lines, but connecting all social networking would make it impossible to escape and we all need at least some balance.
Nicole - this is a brutal point in the world of Social Media - you can do all the protection in the world (some of the tips I mention here in Social Protection: The Best Ways to Safeguard Personal Data) but if you trust somebody and share your data with them and they don't safeguard your data it is all your protection work is gone.
This is a brutal lesson in how little control you really have on your social media data.
Also consider this little social engineering trick that I found on Makeuseof.com
"Whenever you click on someone’s picture or name, whether it’s someone on your friends’ list of friends or search results from the Facebook database of users, you’ll find that you have three options to the right side of the person’s bio photo. You can either send them a request to add you as a friend, send them a message, or view their friends. Obviously the first option won’t help you much right now. However, you can use the second option, “send a message,” to work your way into the person’s private Facebook account. How does it work? Well, Facebook’s help section states that anyone who you add as a friend or send a message to “…will have temporary access to view a small portion of your profile. They will see Basic Info, Personal Info, Work Info, Education Info and Friends.”
1. Send them a message like, “Hey! We went to school together, do you remember me? I think we sat together in Geometry.”
2. They may respond with something like, “I don’t know who you are, get lost.”
3. You now have temporary access to view their profile."
Nicole QUITE ACCURATELY sez (in part, responding to MShellC):
While you may have done an A+ job keeping your profiles separate, making certain pictures and info available to family, others to friends, others to coworkers, etc., you may have one contact whose social network is left wide open for the viewing public, who has those pictures of you that you would have otherwise kept private -- and as a result your efforts in protecting your identity can only go so far.
And this is the "Welcome to the Social Networking World" cry of victory. Many of us have mentioned in prior posts about finding ways/making diecisions to keep our personal and professional worlds independent of each other when it comes to these environments. And as mentioned, it's not necessarily what WE post, but what others post about us (or themselves!) or decide to share that appears on our page that's sometimes troubling.
This is why some people elect to interact with others on social networking sites with a pseudonym, which spawned another thread I found a bit comical about Twitter and Kanye West.. I know many people who use Facebook accounts with their true first name and another last name- and the people they invite/accept know who they are. They DON'T post pictures of themselves or their families, and for the most part, their FB friends try to honor their desire not to post any either.
Is this the answer? Well, it's one. The other? Don't set up an account if you don't want to risk exposing a side of yourself you don't want made public... and that's not saying it's a vile or wicked side of yourself, it's just one you'd rather keep private and to choose who you share it with.
You don't have to feel like a Luddite simply because you don't have a Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter, etc, etc account because there are plenty of intelligent, aware and 'connected' people that don't and also don't feel the need to have one.
Thanks Nicole! That search was an "in your face" lol.
Definitely giving Seesmic desktop a try!
I am also inspired now to gilette fusion my hair off(as it's finally getting to the pont of no return[15 year stand off]), I think my web2.0 presence can sport the Mr. Clean in white t-shirt and jeans look (for video presentations).
MShellC you bring up one point which I think is critical to these discussions about identity: "On Facebook I can control the pictures that I place but I can't control the pictures that people place with me in them." Ultimately there's only so much control we can have over our identities because we're not the only ones controlling them. While you may have done an A+ job keeping your profiles separate, making certain pictures and info available to family, others to friends, others to coworkers, etc., you may have one contact whose social network is left wide open for the viewing public, who has those pictures of you that you would have otherwise kept private -- and as a result your efforts in protecting your identity can only go so far.
lol, thanks, jwallace. I was hoping that awkward video would eventually resurface for everyone's viewing pleasure.
I've been using TweetDeck, and I'm thinking of downloading Seesmic Desktop to see which one I like better. On TweetDeck, however, I never use the feature which would allow my updates to x-post to my Facebook page. That might be convenient for some, but for me it isn't because I like to save my "Tweets" for one thing and my Facebook status updates for something else.
So, can we see the facebook status update-tweet in one click demo of this IE "plug" Nicole? One 'wonder' I have about seesmic is their search. Can't seem to find it which spells trouble.
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We're live on IE Radio with Naomi Baron, author of Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World, and professor of linguistics and language at American University.
Hey, IE Radio fans! We hope you're ready for another exciting interview. Today we're welcoming Naomi Baron, author of Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World, and professor of linguistics and language at American University. Baron is joining us at 2:00 p.m. ET.
The Internet is making us stupid. No wait, the Internet is making us smart. Multi-tasking helps us consume more information... orrrr it reduces the amount of knowledge we can retain.
The Web has become the preferred spot for documenting personal flaws. With every online confession, Web users are crafting their detailed autobiographies and setting them free for the public's consuming pleasure.
Earlier this week, Facebook made a big fuss over the fact that it has allegedly registered its 500 millionth user. In an effort to celebrate, we here at Internet Evolution called for your Facebook Horror Stories. Hoo boy, was this going to be fun!
Getting to Work on Smart Work: How IT Is Transforming the Implementation of the 'Internet of Things' Organizations in all industry sectors are becoming more instrumented, interconnected, and intelligent -- and that's changing the way they approach virtually every facet of their operations. It's up to IT to help organizations adopt a "Three I's" approach that leverages the emerging Internet of Things and enables them to work smarter. READ THIS eBOOK
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More companies are trolling social networks to find and vet potential job candidates. Beware the pitfalls of blurring the line between personal and professional lives.
We do love our social networking, but, according to computer scientist Jaron Lanier, we may be diminishing ourselves when we join the hive. “May be? Ha!” says Mr. Cramer.
As enterprises leap into the Web 2.0 world of blogging, commenting, and social networking, just 'being there' won't deliver ROI. You may want a 'Web Evangelist' to systematically harvest the feedback in order to polish your product or service.
What can users today do to protect their online privacy? The simplest and most obvious option is to not use the Internet – at all. However, once all digital information is consolidated over the Internet, trying to protect digital identity by simply unplugging from the Internet becomes impossible – a fact that has manifest implications for civil liberties, Saunders says.
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The 20th Century Internet was characterized by the ability to interact with other people and information on the Internet largely without anyone knowing who you were. The Internet of this century, conversely, will be defined by identity. Saunders explains how Internet users are unwittingly contributing to the demise of the anonymous Internet.
Steve Saunders talks about the risks inherent in uncontrolled, widespread profiling of Internet users, and how one day this practice could form the basis of a new industry, the Outernet, which in economic terms will have outgrown the commercial value of the Internet itself.
Search companies and social networks are collecting incredibly detailed information about their users, says Steve Saunders, who predicts that these 'profiles' could one day become commodities to be bought and sold by companies on 'profile markets' or 'identity exchanges’ – the digital DNA equivalents of the financial and commodities exchanges on which stocks, oil, and gold are traded.
There's a public-policy war on copyright that nobody is winning, and inconsistencies in viewpoint and interpretation seem to be multiplying. We need to step back and think our policies over again, or we risk having a strategy that fails everyone.
Ultraviolet is an industry-wide attempt to standardize video content delivery across multiple platforms. Apart from the fact that it’s based in the cloud, relies on the DRM system, and isn’t backed by Apple… it sounds great!
The FCC's Sixth Broadband Report has a hidden secret. But here’s a hint: The regulatory body plans to regulate broadband as a telecommunications service.
Once defined by epic journeys, planning, and maps, the phrase "on the road" takes on new meaning in a digital age, where we can make all our decisions using our connected devices en route.
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