LukeWalker.org

While Laura is busy posting ’serious’ things she found in the Globe & Mail (about what’s going on in Zimbabwe), I’d like to report some actually really SERIOUS stuff, namely:

Rickrolling is dead. That’s right. Stop it. Right now… Don’t even bother. It’s over. It’s been covered by the Globe & Mail. And while I take offense to the thought that “by all appearances half the participants [of the parts of the internet where these memes evolve] are livestock”, I do find it interesting when things like LOLcats, Leeroy Jenkins and Rickrolling get coverage in a big way.

I mean, I love all this stuff. Kate and I are going to a conference next weekend that exists solely to celebrate memes. But I feel like I can still talk to, oh, a good 90% of my friends about LOLcats and just get funny looks, or even better, looks of disgust. So when they get coverage outside of Spark and a few other nerdy places, it feels like… someone is blowing something fairly niche WAY out of proportion.

Oh well. All in good fun. And, watch this video. It’s not a rickroll… that came earlier (did you find it?). It’s my current favourite youtube fad.

Hey everyone!

We’re finally just about ready to launch the Youth Media Exchange (ymex.org), a new site devoted to sharing and discussing digital media for social change. The site will have a few bugs/kinks to start, but is going to be a pretty cool new forum for deeper conversations on the impacts of digital media on our lives, and how we can leverage it to affect change on global issues. The format of the site is pretty cool, too. It’s a social networking tool linked to TIG where you embed media you (or someone else) has posted elsewhere on the web to launch a discussion. Video, audio, writing, images, games, mashups… anything goes, as long as it’s linked to social issues in some way. Coming soon are group/collaboration tools, a mentoring system, and a more guided user experience, where your interests and past use of the site will help guide you to new skills, new content, and new forms of action. The site is presented in partnership by TIG, Global Kids, and the Asia Society, with funding from the MacArthur Foundation.

So check it out! Once again, that’s ymex.org, and if you like it, become a fan of it on facebook and tell all your friends!

I don’t know exactly why I find this so very mind-blowing, but just now, as I was setting up some friend lists on Facebook, I saw an add for GYNite, a new gay social network… The reason it blew my mind is that it’s just a ning someone set up, that they’re clearly making enough ad revenue off of to justify paying for adspace on Fbook to generate even more ad revenue for themselves. WHAT A CRAZY ECONOMY. Also: is this the future? People being lured away from Facebook and other social networks tied specifically to your real world connections back toward the communities-of-interest that started the whole trend?

Yesterday, I was reading Tom Hodginkinson’s ‘With Friends Like These…’ (published in The Guardian), and while I’m usually pretty pro-Facebook bashing, I don’t agree with his points. He outlines six main reasons that Facebook is evil (my word), and well… they’re just a bit off. (And yes, Yaz, I did start drafting this before you posted)

1. “We will advertise at you”
Let’s be honest. Users are NOT Facebook’s client. We’re its data. We’re one of its selling points. If Facebook didn’t take advantage of the information we willingly and knowingly give it to make money, there would be no Facebook. This is, in and of itself, is not evil: everyone does it, everyone expects it. If you honestly don’t expect that your information is being collected and used by someone, you must have been born before the first census and then frozen in time.

2. “You can’t delete anything”
Good for Facebook. What if someone posted something libellous about me and then took it down? If Facebook deleted it right away, what would I do if I needed to take action? And while “reasonable” is vague, it’s also generally less than 18 months. They’re also fairly clear in their TOS (which, yes, I did read) about what they’ll do with information you’ve deleted, and frankly, it’s not a whole heck of a lot.

3. “Anyone can glance at your intimate confessions”
IF YOU DON’T WANT SOMETHING SEEN, DON’T PUT IT ON THE INTERNET. This has nothing to do with Facebook. As evil as they may be, I really believe they’re doing everything they can to restrict my information the way I want it to be restricted. Facebook definitely gives me a lot more options in this sense than any other site I can think of.

4. “Our marketing profile of you will be unbeatable”
Good for Facebook. Frankly, I am more than happy to have the most personalised user experience possible. I’m also happy that Facebook is able to keep it’s marketers happy by having good targeting. I’ve actually been in situations on Facebook where I’ve been disappointed because an ad was actually OF INTEREST to me, but I’d already clicked on to the next page before I realised what I’d seen (because I’m so used to tuning out useless ads), and couldn’t get back to click on the ad.

5. “Opting out doesn’t mean opting out”
I’m sorry, but if someone tries to steal my identity, i WANT Facebook to notify me. Saying “I don’t want any e-mail” doesn’t mean “I don’t want ANY e-mail.”

6. “The CIA may look at the stuff when they feel like it”
This isn’t Facebook being evil. This is the US government being illegal. If you don’t want them to see your info, don’t let your info reside on servers in the United States.

So we’ve established that these are pretty bad bases for deciding that Facebook is evil. What are good reasons, you ask?

1. “Facebook is ours, not yours.” See my previous blog post on this topic, Facebook: We’re Not Myspace.The crux: Facebook is pretty good at pissing off users by making decision that focus more on the their needs or those of their advertisers than keeping their databank, i mean ‘user base’ happy.

2. “If we let you think you have sway, we can convince you that you do.” See: Facebook Makes Us All Look Like Suckers and learn how Robert Scoble’s struggle gives us the illusion of control.

3. “Your life has to fit within our boundaries.”
Here’s my biggest beef with Facebook. I know I can limit profiles, but the reality is that i have different groups of people who I want to have access to my profile, but for entirely different reasons. I want my family to see one version, my friends to see another, and my co-workers/colleagues to see something completely different. But instead, I have to deal with daily context f*cks, just so that I can be one of the cool kids on fbook.

4. “It’s our data, but yours too, only not really.”
I haven’t yet tried to quit Facebook. Thought about it, but haven’t yet taken any steps. Why? Because you have to delete each artefact, one at a time, until Facebook has nothing left. I own my data, but I can’t just tell Facebook that I want it all back, I can’t take it with me to any other site, and I can’t specify rights in regards to my content for anyone but Facebook.

What the world needs now is data portability!

I just discovered this, via Kate, and there’s not a lot here, but it’s a pretty cool concept. Being able to download all your data from one social network and plug it into another? Nifty! And not that far fetched (as a concept), given that all the underlying technologies exist… and are already in common use to make some data (like this blog post) portable.

But really, the image says it all. Imagine owning your identity. Imagine, if Facebook pissed you off (or deactivated your account, as has been known to happen), you could just take your data and head someplace else. How much more user-focused would the platforms we love be, then? Unfortunately, I doubt this is the first time someone has thought of this, and I can’t picture any of the huge networks jumping on it… But one can dream!