Archive for: online community
Most recently a site popped up that has Foursquare users questioning whether their use of the application is putting themselves and their home in jeopardy. Those unfamiliar with Foursquare, it’s a geo-locating application that pinpoints your location and notifies the Foursquare community and your social networks where you are. For example if you’re at the local grocery store, you can Foursquare it, users earn points that translate into badges depending on how often and where you check-in, and ultimately people are able to see the types of places you like to visit. On the other hand, it’s made cyber stalking that much easier.
A recent site called PleaseRobMe.com has highlighted the risk of sharing your locations for the most paranoid of the bunch. It stands to reason that anyone can know anything about you if they really wanted to, with or without Foursquare. Though the site appears to be a joke, the seriousness in which someone’s property could truly be in jeopardy is something that is not easily overlooked.
Illegal? Does this site incite people to do harm to another? Some say that if you choose to share your location you deserve what happens, but that seems a very narrow minded point of view.
So tell me, where do you stand? Do you use geo-locating services? Do sites like PleaseRobMe.com exist as a wake up call or as a way to incite theft?
Foursquare and other geo-location based apps are becoming extremely popular. There are two sides, one for the user, and the benefits for the business, and when working hand in hand, create an extremely positive relationship. Foursquare allows users to check-in where they are at and race with other local users to become “Mayor” of their location. Based on mobile devices it makes it easy to move around town and check-in as you go.
Most recently users have been looking for a rich desktop experience, something that Foursquare does not offer on their site. They offer options to change settings and such, but not a way to claim your location. Now that has changed thanks to a small development company that’s created FoursquareX. The desktop application, for Mac only, is an OSX based application that allows you to check-in but also allows you to see where your friends are based on an interactive map. Reading deeper into the way this application works, users will be happy to know that it offers the following beneficial features:
- app runs in the background, sending you notifications when updates and check-ins are made
- appears to use a Google map app and overlays your friends icons to show their location
- if you’re looking to meet new people, you’ll be notified when people check-in whether you know them or not, giving you the chance to say “hi”.
Take a look if you’re a Foursquare fan and let us know what you think. So far I’m happy with it, and hope to see some type of port to the actual Foursquare app on the mobile because I can see this becoming a fully functional aspect of the mobile app.
The Christian community obviously decided that the Vatican Myspace account wasn’t enough, and they needed more ways of engaging with the online community. Thus Godtube, now known as Tangle (presumably because God told them to change the name) was developed. Their tagline:
We help unite the Body of Christ by allowing you to connect with other Christians, Share the Gospel & grow in your relationships – All for the glory of Jesus Christ.
The site is essentially a Christian themed media channel, with boards for Christian music, user submitted videos about Christianity and discussing religion in general (supposedly allowing comment from both Christians and Atheists, but you’ve got to ask yourself which right minded moderate atheist is going to be hanging out on a God-themed social networking website), profile pages for Christians, a Christian version of Flickr, where you can post your photos for Christians to look at… Basically, an ugly version of Facebook, with added Christ. Oh, and they’ve got a store, http://www.christiangiver.com/ where you can buy lots of nice Heaven Approved products.
They monitor and approve all content before it is allowed to go live, “tangle differentiates itself from other social networks by monitoring and approving all content before it goes live on the site, which works to provide a safe and secure online experience.” [quote from their Wikipedia entry] – this may indeed help stop arguments getting out of hand, and 4chan style trolling, but it doesn’t seem to me that it would be conducive to free and open debate, and some of the things they approve seem like the usual old right wing conservative scaremongering, or lonely crackpots spouting religious diatribes. Still, we have to give marks for effort; at least they’re trying to stay engaged in discussion.
I find it a little disturbing when people try to put the seal of divine approval on essentially commercial things; this site doesn’t flaunt it’s Holiness in your face, and seems quite laid back and open, so perhaps I should be more open minded in turn, but who regulates these things? Seemingly anyone could purport to be speaking for a religious community or market you any old product with the name of a deity in their mouth, and have nothing to substantiate the support of that religion, or to differentiate their product from the next online service/coffee maker/radio alarm clock. Ultimately, religious bodies are so diverse that no one voice speaks for them all, but there are a lot of faces and voices on Tangle, and if you like your society with a whiff of pews and incense, then this might be the place for you – personally I don’t know why the God-fearing can’t just mingle with the rest of us sinners online – it seems a little insular.
Seesmic acquires Ping.fm
One million posts a day you say? Very possible now that Seesmic has acquired Ping.fm. Personally it was a shock, I’m not privy to Silicon Valley chatter, but I think for most Seesmic Desktop users, this will offer a bevy of updating options. At last count there were over 50 sites that Ping.fm updated, and now Seesmic Desktop will harness this power. But this is just the top of iceberg. With some further API development and plug-in updates, this positions Seesmic closer to their goal of one million posts a day for 2010.
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Bitly.tv offers up a unique way of ranking videos.
There’s a lot of video search engines out there, there’s also a lot of sites that rank the videos that you should be watching. YouTube is probably one of the biggest ones know, and probably the most searched. Not everything on YouTube is worth viewing, but then again, everyone has their taste. That being said, Bitly.tv is one of those experiments that came out of no where for me.
Does the name sounds familiar?
If you’re used to using URL shorteners, Bit.ly is probably the most popular of them. Their addition of Bitly.tv is a nice compliment to their already existing lineup.
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A more direct method to crowdsource.
More people are turning to the internet for their answers to questions like “why does this hurt?” to “what’s for dinner?”. Web and mobile apps are becoming the go to for much of our information, but all the information on the internet had to have been put there by someone. The disconnect to relationships comes when you simply read a blog post, listen to a podcast, or watch a vidcast, rather than interact with them directly. Would things be different if we could connect with someone in real time who was thinking the same thing you were, at the same time, or feeling the same way you do? Chances are we’re looking for someone to relate to us in some way and the “Anybody Out There” web app is a great way to get that conversation started.
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In what was practically the unplug heard around the world, imeem users were rudely awakened when upon loading their favorite playlists, they
imeem playlists moving to MySpace Music
were nowhere to be found. MySpace’s acquisition is not responsible for imeem going away, as the suffering company would have surely gone the way of the dinosaur on its own, but rather, shutting off the API killed a lot of apps, desktop and mobile alike. The impact was felt the world over as no word was even given, no warning, not even an explanation was made at the time of this event.
Recently MySpace has done right with the imeem community by assuring them that their playlists are fine, and are simply being ported over to MySpace music playlists. While I’m not entirely sure of MySpace’s music porting capabilities, I’d have to assume this is not an overnight process. Nevertheless, MySpace’s imeem acknowledgement provides some comfort to avid imeem users, but little those that have already migrated to other platforms. The service’s dedicated fans were the most spurned by this transition in ownership, and perhaps MySpace’s assurance comes too little too late.
In the announcement MySpace encourages users to use the existing music service provided by said company while the transition is taking place. It states it has the largest licensed digital catalog of music, hoping to lighten the blow even more, but for some of us, MySpace is not a site we thought of when we thought of music. Will the acquisition of imeem, will this change? Should be interesting to see the response once the imeem playlists have been brought over.
There’s a lot of social search options out there, but Nsyght has launched t
Nsyght is a social search engine.
o not just offer up social search possibilities, but also offer up some great discovery methods for new content. When I first discovered Nsyght, it reminded me of an earlier company I reviewed called Worio which was a discovery search engine that had a lot of great social community aspects.
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It wasn’t that long ago that social networks were popping up like they wer
Plurk weighs legal action against Microsoft.
e going out of style. API’s had opened up and similar social networks sprang up, each offering their unique twist to the game, with names that followed the web2.0 trend of dropping vowels. Some others were truly unique, Plurk is a
good example. Now admittedly I am not a fan of Plurk, never found a use for it, never liked the way conversations were held, but it had its following and it did what it did well.
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Apple devices come with a native recording device, and even social networkslike Utterli have functioned as a way to capture audio and share it, but none have been as easy as and intuitive as Audio Boo for the iPhone and the iTouch is. The application takes voice recording to a whole new level with a press of a button. Before you know it, you just might start audio recording a whole lot more than you think.
Audio Boo is both a desktop and mobile app. The desktop app allows you to configure your account, asking you where you’d like your “Boo’s” to post. You can choose from a variety of social networks but it’s also stored in the audio stream for others to interact with and comment on.
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There has long been uncertainty on the exact process that it takes to get an application passed the Apple powers that be. Their ability to simply turn down an application from the approval process seems to be loosely defined, or undefined depending on how you see it. So it begs to question how one developer was able to get over 1,000 apps into the Apple store without raising any flags. (Molinker apps)
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Social networks as they exist depend on the number of friends you start off with and thus you expand your network based on your existing network and grow from there. For many, not having an online presence makes it heard to start a social network when there is no online network to utilize to start. For many this can be frustrating and for many becomes the reason why they do not adopt the social scene. What if there was simply a network that didn’t rely on existing friendships and paired you with new people based on your profile to participate in unique shared experiences?
6Rounds is the answer and the unique network is sure to make a splash in the world of social engagement.
The network itself is designed to be a fully interactive experience incorporating the best of micro-messaging and video networks. There’s now a space for those not interested in hosting entire video shows, or who lack friends to build on a social profile on
Facebook or
Twitter.
6Rounds functions as a completely unique and diverse network that no user will get the same experience from their engagement. The network allows users to come together in a “live” setting where they will be challenged with “using a combination of webcams, real-time games, social activities and media engagements, we present a wide range of opportunities: from watching videos, playing real-time games, listening to music, Facebooking and Youtubing, to shopping together and beyond,” says the site.This sound a little like speed dating with the entertainment provided, and none of the relationship awkwardness attached. I can see how this would be appealing to both veteran and new entry supporters of social engagement.
The network is free and looks to combine the best of social networking, instant messaging, and video content to create an ever changing user experience.
