1. (via Stephen Wolfram Blog : Data Science of the Facebook World)All of this post is very interesting, but this visualization of the author’s 15-year-old daughter’s Facebook network and the ones that follow caught my attention the most. It illustrates, to some extent, where the source of her connections on the medium come from. The analysis that follows is worth a look.It’s of course logical that we have different clusters of friends on social networks, probably particularly so in the case of Facebook. It’s neat here, however, that data may suggest there’s a most typical number of clusters that make up the majority of an individual’s network: three.Years ago, I also went to one-time events like summer camps, and I am still friends with most of those folks on Facebook. I’ve probably neglected the size of those resulting clusters in my own network. But odds are that years later — after a handful of schools, jobs and one-time events like conferences — the show choir camp I attended in high school doesn’t make up one of my major three clusters. But I’m willing to bet a cluster I don’t think about or engage with in real life all the time definitely does.(And who knows, maybe it actually is that show choir group. For someone who is involved pretty heavily in journalism, I do see a lot of news in my stream that deals not with great free tools for online storytelling, but instead, something like who won grand champions at a random competition in Iowa.) It’s interesting, in general, to think about what those three(ish) clusters may be for every individual user on the platform. There is some level of filter bubble and we do see content from people similar to us in a place like Facebook. But perhaps it’s worth opening up and examining which “people like us” we see most. Or, at the very least, determining the ones that have a shot, sticking around and gaining influence in our network because of their sheer size.

    (via Stephen Wolfram Blog : Data Science of the Facebook World)

    All of this post is very interesting, but this visualization of the author’s 15-year-old daughter’s Facebook network and the ones that follow caught my attention the most. It illustrates, to some extent, where the source of her connections on the medium come from. The analysis that follows is worth a look.

    It’s of course logical that we have different clusters of friends on social networks, probably particularly so in the case of Facebook. It’s neat here, however, that data may suggest there’s a most typical number of clusters that make up the majority of an individual’s network: three.

    Years ago, I also went to one-time events like summer camps, and I am still friends with most of those folks on Facebook. I’ve probably neglected the size of those resulting clusters in my own network. But odds are that years later — after a handful of schools, jobs and one-time events like conferences — the show choir camp I attended in high school doesn’t make up one of my major three clusters. But I’m willing to bet a cluster I don’t think about or engage with in real life all the time definitely does.

    (And who knows, maybe it actually is that show choir group. For someone who is involved pretty heavily in journalism, I do see a lot of news in my stream that deals not with great free tools for online storytelling, but instead, something like who won grand champions at a random competition in Iowa.)

    It’s interesting, in general, to think about what those three(ish) clusters may be for every individual user on the platform. There is some level of filter bubble and we do see content from people similar to us in a place like Facebook. But perhaps it’s worth opening up and examining which “people like us” we see most. Or, at the very least, determining the ones that have a shot, sticking around and gaining influence in our network because of their sheer size.

    2. 2 weeks ago  Notes (1)
  2. The new ads for Facebook Home are propaganda clips. Transforming vice into virtue, they’re social engineering spectacles that use aesthetic tricks to disguise the profound ethical issues at stake.
    Facebook Home Propaganda Makes Selfishness Contagious | Wired Opinion | Wired.com

    Another good line: “My argument is that some convictions deserve to be innovation proof. “
    3. 1 month ago  Notes (1)

  3. Us IRL: A status update on the status update (by Kevin Loker)

    A former professor asked me to talk about my research and why I thought it was important. I was in San Francisco for ONA12, but I happily obliged. Here is what I had to say.

    4. 7 months ago  Notes (0)
  4. The conclusion I’ve come to is what makes Path so special isn’t its limited friend count. It’s not its beautiful design (which I dug into a few months ago). What I’ve realized is so special about Path for me is the consistency of tone.

    Path’s Consistency Of Tone | TechCrunch

    I may write about this later, but I love this idea of tone in a social media platform. 

    One quick thought: The writer explicitly says he likes Path not because of the limited friend count— he says he likes it instead because of the tone, one of sharing life experiences. That’s his main point. But I wonder if it’s the limited friend count that actually makes that tone possible. He doesn’t come out and say this, but perhaps that small group is what makes the social media experience, for him and maybe others like him, more enjoyable. Perhaps it’s the intimacy?

    Love the lists of what’s in the stream. Very illustrative. 

    5. 10 months ago  Notes (0)
  5. I think one of the key things is that people have begun to behave as though technology is in control of them, instead of the other way round. We can switch the gadgets off but a lot of us have forgotten how to”.

    Facebook and Twitter feed anxiety, study finds - Telegraph

    Small study, but interesting data. And it’s good to see people talking about the above quote— that said, it’s still just primarily talking. 

    6. 10 months ago  Notes (0)