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When Facebook Forces Users To Use Timeline, Facebook Activities Might Be Shrunk

Jan 31, 12 11:48 AM
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PCWorld’s Facebook Timeline Privacy Tips: Lockdown Your Profile article points out the concerns for how easy it’s for Facebook users to be able to devour past Facebook comments, events, daily wall posts and more of any Facebook user through Facebook newest feature known as Timeline.  Indeed, it’s quite unnerving for how easy it’s for someone to look up your Facebook history by using Facebook Timeline feature, but then again a wise person should not have posted something so private on a very public medium such as Facebook!

In fact, Facebook Timeline feature might have a backlash effect against Facebook.  Facebook users might become ever more conscious about what they will do and post on Facebook, therefore the level of Facebook activities might be shrunk in time.  Then again, it’s only a speculation of mine, because I don’t have a crystal ball of how the future will look like!

For having said a wise person should not post something so private on a very public medium such as Facebook, I fear even myself sometimes might forget to practice what I had preached.  Nonetheless, it’s good to know Facebook does in fact allowing you to tightening up the privacy to certain extend so Timeline feature won’t expose the things that you’ve posted and wanted to be hidden away from the prying eyes of the public.  I guess one can always follow the tips in the article above and lessen the effect of Timeline, but to be wise one should always post something one care not for the world to see on Facebook and keep the rest to oneself.

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How Much Klout Do You Have In The Digital World?

Dec 18, 11 2:26 PM
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PCWorld‘s article “What You Need to Know About Your Klout” introduces me to Klout, and I’ve to say I like Klout already.  Klout is unique!  Instead of copying Quantcast and Alexa, Klout isn’t aiming to gauge how popular a website has been, but it’s aiming to collect, analyze, and project how influential a person has been in the digital world.  Klout claims that it might even help an influential person in the digital world to be acknowledged by the real world, consequently such a person might be able to create a certain credibility in the real world such as in a new job.  Klout helps connect people who have high Klout scores with brands, and by doing this brands can give out perks to Klout participants such as trying out free products or getting invitations to events.

Like it or not, if you are participating the social network trend such as using Facebook, you probably have shared more things about you than you really would have loved to.  Yes, it’s a dangerous thing to share so much about yourself with strangers and friends you barely know on the web, but some people love it.  Some people might have more than one social network account, but others who only have one.  Some people use all sorts of nicknames for different social networks, but others who would just use one Internet identity for all of their social network accounts.  In my opinion, Klout might light a torch so it can shine on certain people who are being neglected by the majority of the social networks, and these people have to have the love and the will to share more of themselves to the digital world.

How might Klout help light a torch for some people?  Well, Klout is trying to analyze the social network data, connect the dots, and measure the social actions of the Klout participants; Klout tells the worlds (i.e., digital or not) who these people are.  By analyzing lot of social network data and connecting the social network graphs of Klout participants, Klout can get clearer pictures of certain people in regarding to their social network influences.  Perhaps, Klout will eventually become a standard measure of someone’s social network influences, and we know nowadays this often means something in the real world too.  People can get fire from their jobs for what they represent themselves on social networks.

Did you know that a person’s Klout score can shrink if he or she fails to influence their social networks in some ways over a period of time?  I don’t know what sorts of algorithms Klout uses to measure one’s true influence among the social networks, but it seems Klout is seriously going about doing it.  If Klout is sophisticated enough, I think Klout does have a chance to influence how people come to trust one another through Klout measurements.  Will this be a good thing if people begin to trust one another through Klout measurements?  I don’t know, but as long Klout isn’t easy to be gamed, then Klout should be a reference point for someone to make a rough assumption on the person he or she wants to share or follow or connect with.  Still, Klout itself has to carry out high standard for privacy and do no evil behavior in order for itself to be taken seriously by everyone.  So, Klout, you should do no evil, OK?

I read Klout Privacy, and it seems Klout won’t share your data with anyone unless you give a consent to do so.  Of course we can never be sure about an honest claim of any entity in regarding to do no harm but only good, but if you like you can take Klout at their word.  Klout claims that if a perk involves in delivering good, Klout will send such a good to your address but will not sell your address to anyone.  Klout won’t gather and analyze your private data unless you give a consent to do so.  Of course, without your consent to analyze and connect your private data, Klout won’t be able to be as accurate as it can be about your social network influences.  Still, I think Klout could be effective on measuring your social network influences without the need of accessing your private data.

I like Klout since it’s trying to do something unique as in measuring one’s social network influences.  Still, Klout might not be a good idea for people who loath social networks for obvious reasons.  Some people might depend on Klout to get somewhere in life if Klout earns real clout in both digital and real worlds.  This means Klout itself has to hold itself to a very high standard of trust.  Do you Klout?

Source:  http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/246435/
what_you_need_to_know_about_your_klout.html#tk.rss_news

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Duh, Social Networks Want Real Names Only

Nov 14, 11 8:42 PM
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I will never know if my suspicion on why Facebook and Google Plus want to mandate their users to don real names has any merit, but I think I want to point it out anyway.  I think it’s for an economic reason which explains why Facebook and Google Plus want users to use real names on their social networks and not nicknames.

It’s obvious Facebook and Google Plus want their partners to see their users as real people and real accounts and not some fake, make up usernames and nicknames.  Knowing with real active users who use real names on social networks, the sky is the limit for sparks of new partnerships, ideas, ventures, and innovations to take hold.  If this isn’t for the bottom line, then I don’t know what would.  Then again, I hate to point something out that is so obvious, because I might be the last person of them all to have do so.

Sure, it’s tempting to think using real names on social networks somehow divert the possibilities of various dangerous activities of how the use of nicknames could encourage, but the realities are things could go both way.  The use of real names on social networks doesn’t mean it’s going to be effectively eradicated the dangerous activities that would spur under the use of nicknames, and vice versa.  Therefore, economic reason does make more sense in regarding to why Facebook and Google encourage users to use real names.

It’s obvious to see Facebook and Google like to discourage users who want to create too many fake accounts.  By now you would say duh, but I would say duh too.  It’s the whole point!  The point of having or making the appearance of real users ever more transparent so social networks that do promote real names seem to be even more valid than ever, and this might help prolong the relevancy of social networks for some time to come.  Just think about this, the next time if you want to join a social network, would you want to join a social network that you think there might be more zombies than real users?  Such a social network might not have a mandate to push for using real names, and so in the end it might not be so relevant to the whole Internet scene.  Moreover, how can we even dare to try to trust a recommendation from a friend on a social network that lacks real name mandate?  It’s not economically wise for such a social network to not mandate the use of real names, right?  At the least, great social networks know that by merely declaring a mandate of real name usage can greatly boost their wonderful existences onto a higher plane.

Users want to know the people that they are communicating with in real social networks, albeit they might never be able to truly know the people that they are friending with from the start.  It’s the intention that counts, I guess.  At the least, users want to know the real names of the strangers who want to friend them, regardless of the intentions that drive the friending in the first place.  OK, by now it sounds very much like I’m sort of pointing out the same thing over and over again; I simply put that social networks want users to use real names so the economic future of social networks might be more viable.

Disclaimer of sort:  I do not favor either camp, because I favor both!  Sort of having a split personality on this matter, I think!  I like the idea of having a nickname so I won’t be so open on the Internet, but I also want to know the people I’m communicating with on the Internet are real!  Therefore, I do not have a personal view on this, but I just want to point out the obvious reason of why Facebook and Google want users to use real names.  Like I said, I’m probably be the last person who takes note of this and makes a big deal out of it!

Inspired by this article:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/technology/hiding-or-using-your-name-online-and-who-decides.html?_r=1

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