Comments on: Motivating the stragglers: How to get them to sign up for Facebook? http://www.timcourtney.net/2007/07/26/motivating-the-stragglers-how-to-get-them-to-sign-up-for-facebook/ Enthusiastic technologist, relationship builder, and aspiring pilot. Mon, 1 Dec 2008 17:55:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Dan Byler http://www.timcourtney.net/2007/07/26/motivating-the-stragglers-how-to-get-them-to-sign-up-for-facebook/#comment-13 Dan Byler Wed, 08 Aug 2007 19:56:02 +0000 http://www.timcourtney.net/2007/07/26/motivating-the-stragglers-how-to-get-them-to-sign-up-for-facebook/#comment-13 Tim, Good points all around. I don't consider myself a privacy alarmist, but caution is still well advised when outsourcing one's personal life to a commercial website under someone else's control. To that end, I believe very strongly that individuals should not be *compelled* to participate in a virtual network in order to maintain real-life relationships. When participation becomes compulsory, it is authoritarian -- regardless of the benefits. On an anecdotal note, your Facebook experience reminds me of an experience in the winter of 1997, when a few friends had just gotten their first email addresses. Someone decided it would be a good idea to coordinate a snowy day get-together via email; but in the days of dial-up modems and limited email access, a process that could have easily been organized in a few minutes via telephone turned into a several-hour-long exchange between a few "early adopters"... and eventually fell apart. Email simply had not reached market saturation yet in our circle. Lesson: adopt early, by all means -- but until the networks reach true market saturation, they're going to leave people out. In the meantime: - Add value to "motivate the stragglers" - Provide some level of backwards compatibility for those who wait - Wait Dan Tim,

Good points all around. I don’t consider myself a privacy alarmist, but caution is still well advised when outsourcing one’s personal life to a commercial website under someone else’s control. To that end, I believe very strongly that individuals should not be *compelled* to participate in a virtual network in order to maintain real-life relationships. When participation becomes compulsory, it is authoritarian — regardless of the benefits.

On an anecdotal note, your Facebook experience reminds me of an experience in the winter of 1997, when a few friends had just gotten their first email addresses. Someone decided it would be a good idea to coordinate a snowy day get-together via email; but in the days of dial-up modems and limited email access, a process that could have easily been organized in a few minutes via telephone turned into a several-hour-long exchange between a few “early adopters”… and eventually fell apart. Email simply had not reached market saturation yet in our circle.

Lesson: adopt early, by all means — but until the networks reach true market saturation, they’re going to leave people out.

In the meantime:
- Add value to “motivate the stragglers”
- Provide some level of backwards compatibility for those who wait
- Wait

Dan

]]> By: Tim Courtney http://www.timcourtney.net/2007/07/26/motivating-the-stragglers-how-to-get-them-to-sign-up-for-facebook/#comment-8 Tim Courtney Sat, 28 Jul 2007 20:51:53 +0000 http://www.timcourtney.net/2007/07/26/motivating-the-stragglers-how-to-get-them-to-sign-up-for-facebook/#comment-8 I see Facebook messaging as easy, plus, some people are more accessible that way, as they put higher priority on FB messages than email. You make a good point on privacy, but I'm not super alarmed--yet. I know people who are too paranoid to use Salesforce.com; I'm not because I know the ramifications of them misusing any data they are storing would be huge. Or Gmail, same thing. Maybe I'm naive, but just because there's potential for abuse doesn't mean there will be abuse. Having a way to interact with a Facebook group via email by way of an application would be great. My only doubt to your suggestion is the implication that one person could act as a bridge. The way you phrase it makes me think 'manual work.' It's so rare you find a person willing to manually pass things through consistently, so I think any solution there needs to be software-driven. I'm looking for low-tech solutions that anyone can grasp to get more people I know IRL to connect virtually. I also want to increasingly aggregate my communications--which is why Facebook looks really really cool to me right now. I'm struggling to see how it will all play out with the fragmenting of features on duplicate applications, but I think we're going to see some really cool stuff in the next couple years. I see Facebook messaging as easy, plus, some people are more accessible that way, as they put higher priority on FB messages than email. You make a good point on privacy, but I’m not super alarmed–yet. I know people who are too paranoid to use Salesforce.com; I’m not because I know the ramifications of them misusing any data they are storing would be huge. Or Gmail, same thing. Maybe I’m naive, but just because there’s potential for abuse doesn’t mean there will be abuse.

Having a way to interact with a Facebook group via email by way of an application would be great. My only doubt to your suggestion is the implication that one person could act as a bridge. The way you phrase it makes me think ‘manual work.’ It’s so rare you find a person willing to manually pass things through consistently, so I think any solution there needs to be software-driven.

I’m looking for low-tech solutions that anyone can grasp to get more people I know IRL to connect virtually. I also want to increasingly aggregate my communications–which is why Facebook looks really really cool to me right now. I’m struggling to see how it will all play out with the fragmenting of features on duplicate applications, but I think we’re going to see some really cool stuff in the next couple years.

]]> By: Dan Byler http://www.timcourtney.net/2007/07/26/motivating-the-stragglers-how-to-get-them-to-sign-up-for-facebook/#comment-7 Dan Byler Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:59:32 +0000 http://www.timcourtney.net/2007/07/26/motivating-the-stragglers-how-to-get-them-to-sign-up-for-facebook/#comment-7 Interesting post, Tim. I like your idea of expanding group membership to non-Facebook users. The fact that you can't do this gets at the heart of my problem with Facebook and the other social networks: they are exclusive by nature. It's always "pay-before-you-play". The cost? Signing away your last vestiges of privacy in the digital age. The benefits? Well, they're obvious. The reality is that I do play; the confluence of real and online networks is making opting out seem like an increasingly luddite approach. However, I am bothered to no end that Facebook wants me to log in to *their* space to see a message from a friend. I would much rather have a local Facebook app wherein I could retain the same information (search offline, back up and manipulate data, etc). (As a side note, that's why I haven't responded to your Facebook message.) As a possible solution, I imagine it would be relatively straightforward to create a Facebook app or bot that would provide email or RSS notifications. Because of the nature of the system, you'd need an active Facebook member to have access to said group. Perhaps this could be done from a single point person who could control email distribution lists for each group. Just some thoughts. Dan Interesting post, Tim. I like your idea of expanding group membership to non-Facebook users. The fact that you can’t do this gets at the heart of my problem with Facebook and the other social networks: they are exclusive by nature. It’s always “pay-before-you-play”. The cost? Signing away your last vestiges of privacy in the digital age. The benefits? Well, they’re obvious.

The reality is that I do play; the confluence of real and online networks is making opting out seem like an increasingly luddite approach. However, I am bothered to no end that Facebook wants me to log in to *their* space to see a message from a friend. I would much rather have a local Facebook app wherein I could retain the same information (search offline, back up and manipulate data, etc). (As a side note, that’s why I haven’t responded to your Facebook message.)

As a possible solution, I imagine it would be relatively straightforward to create a Facebook app or bot that would provide email or RSS notifications. Because of the nature of the system, you’d need an active Facebook member to have access to said group. Perhaps this could be done from a single point person who could control email distribution lists for each group.

Just some thoughts.

Dan

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