The first two people to use this link will be able to register a claimID beta account. It’s sorta dumb but sorta useful. I’ll play with it a bit more. At first glance, it does little more than my About page.. but I realize not everyone out there has an About page.
I’ve decided to open up the yopos network (young professionals) to applicants. Originally we were an invitation-only group with big ideas. I decided we’d get more out of yopos if it became a community. More details are on the blog.
As of right now we have a forum and introductions are under-way. I can’t wait to get people actively involved. Perosonally, I have a few ideas I’d like to see in place… I just need some help.
Take a look at yopos and if it appears to be a group you can relate to then, by all means, leave a comment or shoot an email.
[tags]yopos, professionals, community, network, college, students, internet[/tags]
I came across a neat site today, 25peeps.com. People get bored and like pictures, right? Well this site puts up a 5×5 grid of 25 people’s pictures and if you like what you see you click and visit their blog. I submitted my site.. I wonder how much traffic it’ll send.
I’ve figured it out: MySpace sucks becuase so many people are on it. Yet, there’s no underlying commonality that anyone shares. Well, except the fact they’re social, they’re bored, and they like to spend time online…
Facebook is about college students, parties, pictures, and hook-ups. Linked In is about professional connections, finding jobs, and building an online presence. 43 places/things/people is perfect because you find people based on the same interests/things/places. MySpace? People make profile’s becuase…um… everyone else already has?
This sucks because social circles overlap– nay, they collide. Children collide with creepy men. Stalkers collide with pretty women. Rapists and murderers collide with… well, each other (interestingly enough, MySpace was both the problem and the solution in this latest case).
Honestly, what little good has come from MySpace? Sure, you keep in touch with people you otherwise wouldn’t have. But can’t you can do that with email, instant messaging, photo sharing, etc? I already mentioned the ‘cons’ to this crappy site. What is it that keeps teens on it? What benefit out-weighs all the nonsese?
Oh, right: freedom. This article is a great analysis of why teens are hanging out in the “alley”.
By going virtual, digital technologies allow youth to (re)create private and public youth space while physically in controlled spaces. IM serves as a private space while MySpace provide a public component. Online, youth can build the environments that support youth socialization.
The internet is one of the only places the adults aren’t monitoring. Hah… well, they weren’t. As the groups collided people become very interested. I wonder how many parent’s are oblivious to their child’s internet activities…
On top of that, I think one big factor in MySpace’s popularity is the ability for MySpace to parallel the typical teenage social “values” (read: being anything other than a nerd).
The main reason nerds are unpopular is that they have other things to think about. Their attention is drawn to books or the natural world, not fashions and parties…
It’s true. Instead of focusing on school, learning, reading, playing, biking, hiking, etc., kids have become ever-so focused comments and friend counts. For example, “comments”, as mentioned in this article, are social dollars… and, in the case of MySpace, money does buy happiness. If you have a picture of yourself drinking, you’re cool. Do you have 927 friends? You’re very cool. I find this very sad. Who’s to blame? Adults and school (read Paul Graham’s article).
I wish some hackers (similar to ‘V’ from Vendetta) would figuratively blow up MySpace. Unfortunately, the’re too busy filling out ’50 question’ quizzes on their friend’s bulletin space…
References:
Danah Boyd. “Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace.”
Paul Graham. “Why Nerds Are Unpopular.”
[tags]myspace, sucks, social networking, society, education[/tags]
Today I received my invitation to manage my email through Gmail. If you hadn’t heard about this (beta) service yet, you’re either Nick or you live in a Google-free cave.
At first glance, it’s so simple and effective. First off, I decided I should try this because I hate my current webmail alternative (for devinreams.com). I thought, “hey, if Gmail works so well with my other email why wouldn’t I want to try this?” So, I have. I switched my MX domain and during dinner everything was updated and functioning. I quickly enabled POP support and was downloading my email through Outlook. The best part is that my email is now stored on Google’s servers. Sure, you may be hesitant, but for me this is very important. I started finding myself missing email conversations becuase when I send them, they’re only saved on my PC. That sucks.
But, enough about that, here is some of the goodness:
Administrator’s Dashboard
The administrator’s dashboard is pretty simply. One interesting note: my account plan is ‘Free’ which means I get ‘Up to 10 users free’. I assume a value-added premium service is in the works.
Users
Creating users is very straight-forward. First name, last name, email address and set a password. The AJAX-y goodness is definitely a big part of the awesome ease-of-use this service presents.
Email Lists
You can also create email lists. This is pretty neat because I can create, for instance, a [email protected] that emails the entire management. Very neat but you can’t limit access to mailing to the list (unlike Google Groups).
Domain settings
As far as the sign-in page is concerned you can ‘personalize it’ by changing the sign-in box’s color and a logo (see this page for an example, versus mine). Apparently when I try to change anything I’m greeted by a blank page… so, a work in progress I suppose. Plus, you can dis/allow the use of user emails for Google Talk.
So, in short, it only took me two minutes to set this up. The domain information synched while I ate dinner and I had fully-Google-managed email running in less than 10 minutes. It actually took me longer to write this blog post than set up my account. I’m happy to have spam-free email though, now. If you’d like to take a look and play for yourself, feel free to leave me a comment…
If you haven’t noticed, I don’t like MySpace very much (read MySpace Ads Suck). Just like I don’t like AIM (devinhatesaim is really my screenname). To me, AIM is to MySpace as Google Talk is to Facebook. Anyway, MySpace’s big ugly website and ads still suck.
Apparently those terrible wastes of space –yes, the ads that mix and blend in with the content– are apparently one of the main reasons companies are leery of advertising on MySpace. Don’t believe me? Read this page and this quote:
“We’re being cautious because there’s a blurring between advertising and content, and the content does rub off on your brand.”
-Dawn Hudson, president and CEO of Pepsi-Cola North America
It’s hard always being right…
That was a nice little break. It was becoming pretty hard to come up with new stuff every day. I don’t know what pace I’ll resume at, so, we’ll see how it goes.On a totally related note, welcome home, Brad. My Spring Break starts, well, right now. I’ll be gone skiing tomorrow and might try to skydive at some point in the coming week. We’ll see!
If you’re reading this you’re subscribed to my feed and not reading from my website. My provider is very broken and I’m very not happy. Then again, I don’t pay anything for it. Sigh. Anyone have any ideas? I was more upset about my email, though. If anything was sent in the last 5 days and I haven’t responded please re-send.
Ben put up some maps of where he’s travelled. I’m actually surprised he hasn’t been more places (yet). In any case, he beat me to blogging about travel…
A month or so ago I created profiles on 43 things, 43 people, and 43 places (all found on my About page). I played around with the profiles and found the websites to very interesting. But, hands down, 43 places interested me the most.
Aside: Interviewing potential rushees for AKPsi was interesting becuase nearly every student said they’d “travel” if they had unlimited free time. It seems that traveling may be one of the greater human desires (right below socializing).
Many people are very visual. I wouldn’t necessairly classify myself as a ‘visual’ person but when I take a look at a map of the world denoting where I’ve been… well, that’s pretty neat looking. Have you ever been to a touristy location and seen one of those push-pin maps? It’s fun to look at because everyone who has visited puts a pin on the map to show where they came from.
This is the exact opposite. This is the home version. I’ve seen a few people who have a push-pin map for where they’ve travelled… but they’ve travelled a lot. 43 places is fun because it’s easy, informative, and I can see everyone’s map. In addition, I can list where I want to go and solicit advice from other users. If you’re just looking for some reference material you can browse the site and learn about places people have already been and see the pictures they’ve taken.
I dreamed (literally, it was in a dream) about creating a travel-related site like this a long time ago. I’m glad someone beat me to it. Post a link to your profile in the comments once you’ve created it… I’m interested to see where my readers (family, friends) have been.
[tags]personal, travel, maps, 43 places[/tags]
Is there something going on with Google’s FireFox page? It’s very on and off today. Co-workers are seeing the same behavior. The requested URL /firefox?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official was not found on this server.