I wrote a post last week mentioning Facebook’s open api and contrasting it to LinkedIn and today I read that LinkedIn CEO, Reid Hoffman has said that LinkedIn will be opening their api to developers in the next nine months.
This is a necessary move on LinkedIn’s part as they are seeing their users desert their platform and move en masse to Facebook.
Nine months though guys? Come on, surely you can get something together before then. What kind of lead will Facebook have achieved in that time?
Facebook seems to be new cool Social Networking toy of choice.
It is a cool app, it has to be said, with the ability to easily create networks and groups of like-minded individuals.
More than that, it has an api which allows 3rd parties to create apps which hook into it easily. Tripadvisor have developed a “Cities I have visited” app which simply allows you to add in the names of places you have visited and it plots them on a map! Sounds simple but it is curiously addictive and similarly for the iRead app (books you have read and can review), iLike for music, Twitter and there’s even a Marketplace (for items for sale, rent, Jobs, etc.).
The social networking aspect is like LinkedIn‘s but with the advantage that you get to see a photo of the person you are linking to if they have uploaded one. This is always handy if you are browsing one of your contact’s list of friends and you recognise a face but wouldn’t have remembered the name!
Also handy is the ‘river of news‘ information flow from your friends as they update their profiles, their apps, or their Friends list.
There are one or two things which could be improved in Facebook –
1. As Jon Udell pointed out this morning, it always annoys me that when adding a new Friend, there is no ‘Met Online’ option . Consequently I find myself clicking the Skip this Step button and
2. The email from Facebook is painfully slow. If I check the Requests page, I often see requests to connect from people I know who I haven’t added as friends yet. I add them and two to three days later, I receive an email telling me that that friend wants to connect and I should check the Requests page!
Facebook is rapidly becoming the Social Networking tool of choice for professionals – rapidly catching up on (if it hasn’t already overtaken) LinkedIn and Xing. It has a far richer user experience than either LinkedIn or Xing and it has the advantage of being free whereas full functionality in LinkedIn or Xing requires payment.
There is a contingent of Irish heading to Silicon Valley in December (2nd to 9th) to meet up and forge links with the movers and shakers in the mecca of the computer world.
The Paddy Valley Tour, as it is being called, has 17 Irish companies signed up so far. Many of those going are seeking to showcase products and to meet investors while there.
The organisers are looking for a little help:
There is a lot we need to cover so suggestions, reviews, tips and anything else is welcomed. We can’t do all of it on our own (and remain sane).
Things we need to do:* Create shortlist of hotels to stay in that are central but also cheap.
* Create shortlist of venues for a showcase event. (A big room with connectivity and projector).
* Create shortlist of people to meet.
* Create shortlist of companies to visit both large and small.
* Create a list of potential companies.
* Cost of showcase.
* What can EI pay for or other Govt groups
If you can help with any of this leave a comment on the Paddy Valley site
In the next few weeks I am flying to Bilbao where I have been selected to be on the prestigious jury forStartup 2.0 – an international competition judging startup companies.
Then I am off to Copenhagen for Reboot 2.0 where my suggestion for a talk about the energy efficiencies in the CIX data centre has been moved to the official program! I’m really stoked about that. It is an incredible honour because the quality of speakers and delegates at Reboot is stratospheric.
And finally I’m off to Remix 07 in Madrid (yes, Spain again – is it my imagination or are the Spanish becoming really active in the web space lately?) to give a couple of talks on social media.
I’m looking forward to the events but dreading the travel. I used to love travel the the mindless security theatre we are now put through makes flying a complete PITA.
Tom Raftery’s Social Media is the new title of this blog.
The old title, Tom Raftery’s I.T. Views, was more appropriate when I started the blog as my consultancy business was more techie then. With my consultancy business focussed almost entirely on Social Media now, I knew I had to make a change. Plus there is a much more widespread awareness of the term Social Media now.
I wanted to call it Tom Raftery’s Social Media Stuff or something similar, but the text in the title was starting to cover the seagull on the right!
Then I figured, Tom Raftery’s Social Media is short, sweet and to the point.
And so, a new blog title is born!
Update: D’oh! I forgot to update the blog title in FeedBurner – thanks a million Jonathan for alerting me, updated now. If I have forgotten anything else, please don’t hesitate to let me know!
Update2: D’oh! again. Thanks to thebigman87 for pointing out that I messed up the link to Jonathan’s blog (fixed now).
I attended BarCamp Dublin at the weekend and it was a fantastic day – kudos to the organisers (Paul, Elly, Joe, Paul, and Eoghan).
I was waylaid in the corridors several times so I didn’t get to as many talks as I would have liked.
I did get to good friend and TCD law lecturer Eoin O’Dell‘s talk on the law, and how it relates to blogging. It was very sobering (and I hadn’t even had a drink!) and very entertaining at the same time! Eoin told us the only way to ensure we weren’t likely to be sued for something we publish online is not to publish anything online!
I also got to Darren Barefoot‘s presentation on Social Media which was excellent, as you’d expect from Darren, despite the wifi letting him down.
I spent the next couple of hours catching up with people and unfortunately I missed Eoghan‘s talk on usability 🙁
After lunch I listened eagerly to John Ward‘s fascinating story of selling Web 2.0 technologies to financial institutions. Well done John, no mean feat.
Then we had a panel discussion on social media. I was on the panel with Sean, Darren and Karlin. We had a highly interactive and wide-ranging discussion which touched on everything from Cavalier King Charles Spaniel forums (no, really!) to blog comment spam.
After the panel discussion it was time for my presentation on CIX. I was pleasantly surprised by how many people stayed awake during a presentation on data centre energy efficiency strategies and a hair-brained carbon neutrality strategy!
After this, I was interviewed for a podcast by Ina (missing out on Krishna‘s talk – sorry Krishna).
Then we retired to the Lord Edward pub.
Unfortunately I couldn’t stay long as I had to catch the train back to Cork but it was shaping up to be a good night when I left.
We have, by and large, stopped believing in advertising. Why is that?
It is because we are sick of being lied to by advertisers. Shampoos which ‘nourish’ our hair? Now with added ‘citrus technology’? Hair is composed of dead cells. You can’t nourish dead cells.
We are being bombarded by lie-vertising and we have learned to tune it out.
I was in Seville over the Christmas break and one day, while walking down the Carretera Carmona, I saw the following ad on the side of a building site advertising the apartments being built, for sale:
Notice the “Calidades de Primera” screaming out in ALL CAPS! Loosely that translates as Premium Quality. Yeah, right. You see that on a sign and immediately you become suspicious.
What made it all the more obvious was that not 10m away was another sign on an adjacent building site. This time though, I would be prepared to believe that these apartments are of a reasonable quality. Why? Because they don’t feel the need to say so!
One of the big advantages of Social Media is that they are extremely transparent. You simply cannot get away with lying in a blog or podcast. You will be found out and your reputation will suffer.
Advertisers are looking enviously at the trust afforded bloggers wondering “How can I get some of that credibility?”