::fibreculture:: Facebook group

[Mathieu O'Neil]

Another offllist exchange about Facebook - please, no flame ups re what 
he says about moderation - don't know nothing about it.
mat


>>>
>>
>> Hi Tom,
>>
>> I attempted to answer your question on the fibreculture list, but 
>> apparently my street cred is not sufficient to get moderator approval 
>> for my posts. here's a snippet of a thread that a couple of us have 
>> carried on without the blessings of the Fibre Culture Aribiters of 
>> Taste. For my part, i think it's always going to be hard to describe 
>> what facebook /does/, since what it does it gossip in its most basic 
>> form, leaened witha  bit of more formal social co-ordination perhaps. 
>> But how do you explain what you "use" gossip to do?
>>
>> Cheers,
>> dan
>>
>>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>>> From: "Nicholas Roberts" <niccolo.roberts at gmail.com>
>>> Date: 9 August 2007 13:13:09
>>> To: "dan mackinlay" <dan at possumpalace.org>
>>> Cc: list at fibreculture.org, peter.deane at anu.edu.au
>>> Subject: Re: ::fibreculture:: Facebook group
>>>
>>> there are a couple of oss options... specific to education and 
>>> nowhere near as advanced
>>> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/elgg.php
>>> http://www.peopleaggregator.net/homepage.php
>>>
>>> On 8/9/07, dan mackinlay <dan at possumpalace.org> wrote:
>>>> Ah, I would say that facebook has at least one standout feature that
>>>> sets it aside from most social networking fads - it has an open API
>>>> http://developers.facebook.com/
>>>>
>>>> Facebook is, from one perspective, a huge database of social
>>>> relationships and a specialised query language for accessing them.
>>>> Contrast with myspace, which is, in software terms, an inwards-
>>>> looking community, supporting none of the "web 2.0" buzzwords (apart
>>>> from a limited and perfunctory support for RSS). Facebook, on the
>>>> other hand, supports a huge number of methods of accessing its data
>>>> and integrating that data into other applications. There is a
>>>> thriving community of developers showing off their skills in 
>>>> creating
>>>> dizzying numbers of new applications for facebook that excercise the
>>>> facebook API. Facebook data can be integrated into a huge number of
>>>> applications, both server- and client-side.
>>>>
>>>> As to what it is /for/... If you follow Dunbar's argument, that 
>>>> human
>>>> communication is primate social grooming continued by other means
>>>> ( http://www.bbsonline.org/documents/a/00/00/05/65/bbs00000565-00/
>>>> bbs.dunbar.html ) then i'd argue that this is another form of social
>>>> grooming. That's the best way I've found of making sense of the 
>>>> weird
>>>> allure of the small, almost content-free interactions that
>>>> characterise communication in facebookspace. But it's social 
>>>> grooming
>>>> adapted for the time-poor-studying-full-time-working-part-time
>>>> typical modern student. I'd guess that a role in creating market
>>>> share for facebook has also been played by the slow ongoing death of
>>>> student unions under VSU and the concomitant decrease in formally
>>>> organised student social events.
>>>>
>>>> Not that the market for facebook is purely student-based any longer,
>>>> or we wouldn't be having this chat. Which said, should we perhaps
>>>> continue this chat on the facebook group?
>>>>
>>>> ---dan()
>>>>
>>>> On 09/08/2007, at 11:34 , Mathieu O'Neil wrote:
>>>>
>>>> > omigod omigod omigod ya mean ya don't KNOW - its for SOCIAL 
>>>> NETWORKING
>>>> > OK! - ya need to build a clique and its like totally cool
>>>> > (poor attempt at preppy impersonation)
>>>> > alernatively:
>>>> > its just the latest net fad tom - dont worry about it - unless 
>>>> you are
>>>> > into popularity contests that is
>>>> > ("snark")
>>>> > or:
>>>> > its like LiveJournal except only those approved ("friended") by 
>>>> you
>>>> > can
>>>> > view your information
>>>> > (correct me if I'm wrong)
>>>> > cheers
>>>> > mat
>>>> >
>>>> > On 09/08/2007, at 8:57 AM, Tom Worthington wrote:
>>>> >
>>>> >> At 11:14 AM 8/08/2007, Lisa Gye wrote:
>>>> >>> Here is a direct link
>>>> >>> http://swinedu.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4143384913
>>>> >>
>>>> >> I joined Facebook, but I have to confess that I still don't
>>>> >> understand what it is for. Any suggestions?
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> ---
>>>> http://possumpalace.org/
>>>> http://del.icio.us/buttergod/
>>>> http://livingthing.org.au/
>>>> http://www.dislocated.org/nomadology
>>>> Please email me at dan at possumpalace.org; gmail occasionally loses
>>>> messages
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -- 
>>>> Nicholas Roberts
>>>> The Media Society
>>>> 0428 694 819
>>>> nicholas at themediasociety.org
>>>> http://themediasociety.org
>>>
>> ---
>> http://possumpalace.org/
>> http://del.icio.us/buttergod/
>> http://livingthing.org.au/
>> http://www.dislocated.org/nomadology
>> Please email me at dan at possumpalace.org; gmail occasionally loses 
>> messages
>>
>>
>>
>
> ---
> http://possumpalace.org/
> http://del.icio.us/buttergod/
> http://livingthing.org.au/
> http://www.dislocated.org/nomadology
> Please email me at dan at possumpalace.org; gmail occasionally loses 
> messages
>
>
>
>