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Are they like, so last-version-of-web ? According to this guy they are.
I don’t agree. There are still lots of us that have stuff to say that can’t be said in 140 characters or less, don’t need to be ‘right now’, and isn’t in the form of a image or video.
I agree there is a lot of c#@p blogs out there (ahem, hopefully this one aside!), but just because some have become “too big, too impersonal” and lacking intimacy doesn’t mean there aren’t squillions out there providing fun, insight or just plain craziness for us to enjoy.
It’s revealing that the article’s author says ” text-based Web sites aren’t where the buzz is anymore”….ah-ha, maybe that’s what the problem is. It’s no longer the next big thing enough or cool enough for the hip crowd to be doing it any more. That doesn’t make it no longer valid, that just means it’s found it’s place.
If you were going to turn up for an interview in Second Life? A Missouri government agency who hired it’s first employee from Second Life obviously could not refuse a small kitty.
Does it strike anyone else as ironic that the agency involved is the Department for Natural Resources ?!
Given the individual in question did have to turn up for a follow up interview ‘in person’, I don’t see much difference between a virtual world approach and a document (aka a CV).
I liked this post about some of the different approaches to identity management – it explains it simply for those that don’t want to get mired in detailed techno-babble.
Well, I’ve found them interesting. These are sites/places I’ve been looking at but didn’t get around to posting about at the time:
- I got momentarily distracted at LiveLeak.com thanks to this video of a hell landing in the old Hong Kong airport (having just had wild ride into the new airport myself) – and the other eyebrow raising video’s of plane landings
- Big ups to Arthur for keeping me in the know with American politics. Check him out on Amerinz
- I was reminded the other day how much I luv boxes and arrows Check it out if you’re into good design
- So Google have launched their own browser. I dunno – maybe I’m a cynic or maybe I just don’t trust organisations that try to take over the (virtual) world. We’ll see. I like a bit of competition and would prefer to choose from a number of companies that do a few things well than one that does a whole lotta stuff not so well.
- Our “Culture and Heritage Minister says “The internet is now so much an essential part of life and commerce that access to it can be seen as “a human right”. Riiiiiiiggghhht.
- Cynic of the week goes to: The Economist for their story on Cybernationalism
- Thanks again to The Oracle for helping me solve the mystery of the carpet stain – and how to get rid of it. Er – The Oracle being our term for the www.
- I’m now on Facebook but in my typical identity-risk adverse way haven’t added that much to my profile, and still am a bit mystified about the value – I don’t want to link to random people I don’t know. We’ll see – I’ll ask around peep’s I know and see if I can set up a few meaningful links.
- Twitter Twitter Twitter – what’s the point?. I know – EGO
- Spore gets released on Friday. So does Stalker – Shadow of Chernobyl. Whee heee. If you’re not a gamer you won’t care.
- Have a look at newtondotgeek Cool.
- And just because my dinner is ready, a little bit of a Bit On The Side…. I don’t know how I feel about the conclusion – perhaps those that know me can tell me if it’s true:
Which OS are You?
My husband says “yeah” Yeah wot? It’s accurate ?
Crumbs, where have I been? Well, one big fat lesson I’ve learnt is that you have to get into the habit of blogging and if you don’t, you easily get out of the habit and a few days turns into a few weeks….
Where have I been? – nowhere really, just not blogging. So, to make up for it and so that it doesn’t look like I just don’t have anything interesting to say or haven’t seen anything interesting recently, this is going to be one very long post that summarises a bunch of stuff I’ve read or seen over the last 6 weeks. Here goes:
- I’ve been admiring the (yes, I have) govt web standards site. An excellent resource for those involved in public sector sites.
- I’ve been reading the posts in the SSC’s blog. Excellent example of practise what you preach, or learn from doing or something like that. Good on to them.
- I’ve been to Wellington to attend the Identity Management Conference. Which was one of the best conferences I’ve ever attended, but would only appeal to those interested in the subject, naturally. Also spent a few extra days in not-so-sunny Wellington, but it was nice to go somewhere different for a change.
- I’ve been watching this amusing-but-true video on site design. Maybe there’s a new presentation style to evolve out of it
- I’ve been hitting the publish button on this post before I had finished writing it
- I’ve been watching lots of movies that I had never gotten around to watching thanks to our online movie ordering service thingy we’ve signed up to. They just turn up in the mail. Fab. Gets us over that decision challenge you get when you’re standing in the video store faced with a gazzillion choices and end up walking out with nothing. I feel like I’m making some huge commitment to my choice, and end up not taking a punt on movies that as we are now discovering are really very good. Maybe I’ll start up a movie review page. Ha Ha yeah right like I’d actually get around to doing it.
- I’ve been helping Bob and Oscar make a music video – soon to be available on Kiwi Cats
- I’ve been playing with other video and web related projects
- I’ve been getting the hang of RSS Feeds – have signed up to a bunch of them and can now get completely distracted by interesting tidbits of news. Like this one. Bring on September.
- I’ve been discovering the cool resource that is istock.com
- I’ve been struck with Wiki-love. The project I’m working on has it’s own Wiki and after a few initial grumps, got the hang of it and now find it a wonderful alternative to putting stuff in boring old documents.
Ahhh…run out of breath……
This from Wikipedia (don’t we all love just love Wikipedia) :
Meatspace is a word referring to the real physical world as opposed to cyberspace or virtual reality…apparently, “The term appears in science fiction literature specifically the cyberpunk genre, but it has become increasingly common in general usage as a reference to transactions or interactions which occur in the presence of physical bodies (“meat”), rather than online or electronically. One might also talk about doing something “in the meat space” or “in the meat world” as a way of saying it isn’t being done online. The term may be used as a conscious rejection of the derogatory connotations inherent in the term “real life” and the implication that interactions in cyberspace are less real or meaningful than physical interactions.”
Closely related to the term wet-ware, which sits in the meatspace – for some reason these terms make me want to giggly like a schoolgirl.
Here’s a comment from Kenneth Leong, who has good things to say about Facebook (unedited):
I was asked by a convenor of another social network for businesspeople (Ecademy) to provide training on the use of Facebook, so I made some points about Facebook, which I thought would be useful to share with my friends.
The general perception is that Facebook is for kids. Until last year, this was true, as membership was limited to American college students. The founder of Facebook originally intended for this to be a social network for Harvard students. This network became so popular that he gradually opened up membership. When I joined up about 6 months or so ago, I think there were approximately 10,000 or so on the New Zealand network. At the time of writing, there are 279,249 on the same network. The amazing thing is that young(ish) professionals have taken to this in a big way. I don’t mean only the 20-something recent graduates, but I’ve also noticed that increasingly people in their 30s and 40s, with approximately 10 to 20 years work experience are on the network. I use Facebook for personal and business reasons. Through Facebook I managed to track down many old high school and uni mates. It’s a lot easier to do business with people who you used to hang out with. You do not have to work from a position of distrust. You also find out who knows who on the network. This allows you to better understand the nature of relationships and to better understand the people you work with. Many of my business associates, clients, colleagues and suppliers are on my “friends list”. Through Facebook, they get to know me as a person, not just in my work capacity, and vice-versa. In the same way that you may be googling people before or after a meeting so that you know more about the person, Facebook gives you the opportunity to access in-depth knowledge about the people you work with. (I know, on reading this again, does sound a little scary). Because we all prefer doing business with people we like, the key to successful marketing surely must involve the cultivation of relationships. This tool is very powerful because it allows you to be constantly in front of the people who matter (socially and professionally). Ecademy is a very good tool, but is principally there for business reasons. I don’t suppose many of you keep in touch with your family and friends via Ecademy. One main advantage of Facebook is that the focus is on developing depth, not breadth. As such, you can’t view the profiles of people who are not your friends. You can specify whether you wish to allow people on the same network (typically a country or a major company) to view parts of your profile. There’s a lot more privacy than Ecademy. As such, the Facebook culture is very different. You tend to be a lot more protective of your profile, and I have a policy of only adding people I know as friends. This is simply because you tend to share more personal matters on Facebook than you do on other more open networks. This, I believe, is the greatest strength of the network. It makes people value Facebook friendships more because the relationships are meaningful. I’ve also placed ads on Facebook, and used various online marketing strategies to generate business. I also know of friends who have extracted significant PR value from using Facebook effectively. There are a few people who come to mind when I think about effective use of Facebook in terms of generating PR and business: Jack Yan, Al Kwun and Kharis Idris. Overall, it’s fair to say my professional and social life is enhanced by my participation on Facebook. (I know some of you are thinking that’s just an excuse for me to spend more time online)
So there ya go, it’s good to get an alternative perspective. My comments about already being on LinkedIn still stand, but has given me a bit more insight into what people see in it. Also means I stand by the comment that to get the value out of these things, you need to have people you know (and I use the term loosely) on it to. Maybe it’s my age, but quite a lot of my friends and especially my family aren’t especially interested. Fortunately I have more faith in my collegues!
From my friend Arthur at Amerinz. What Disney Princess are you?
According to this, I am Pocahontas:
“You defy convention and sometimes do what is considered taboo. Unfortunately, others do not always appreciate your differences, so it’s good that you are so strong-willed. You are loyal and you believe in fate. Your true love will find you one day.”
I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing (I suspect bad) that a quick peak at your local news rag’s site (in this case NZ Herald) will provide the latest gossip about them-that-are-hip. A few clicks sucks you into the world of the tabloids and next thing you know, you’re watching the latest celebrity debacle. I don’t want these people to be any more famous than they already are, and one down side of the interweb is that it makes it that much easier for them to get press.
A recent TVNZ article about the infamous Tom Cruise video (!) got my response: “Oh I’ve already seen it” …THIS is news ???!!
