The Original Sims

My newest Online name (or handle if you are deep into 70’s CB) is Qikker80388. Not as quaint as some in the online nomenclature, but now I’ve joined qik.com (pronounced “quick”) and I can’t work out how to give myself a name more human, I’ll stick with Qikker80388 in the meantime. 

So what’s it all about?  Earlier today I was standing on the shore in Holywood streaming live on the internet a panorama of Belfast Lough from my Nokia.  OK the picture quality wasn’t that good and the slight breeze sounds like a storm.  but let’s not start with the “quality” issue until we get over the technical miracle.  That’s try than sentence again “Earlier today I was standing on the shore in Holywood streaming live on the internet a panorama of Belfast Lough from my Nokia.” http://qik.com/video/105304

Only a few years ago I needed thousands of pounds of kit fast connections and expensive cameras to do much the same. Qik might be miniature quick and dirty, but if the recent history of social media technology is anything to go by, not only are we all going to be broadcasters, we’re all going to have our Outside Broadcast Units, too.

I heard about a potential Flash Mob event (in the ’60s we called them "happenings", do they still?).  So, off I waltzed to Victoria Square for 13.00 to view the event, perhaps even participate.  But I must have been late. It was a case of the Un-flash Loner.

Alan in Belfast did get there in time to photograph it from above.  He counted six people.  So more a Flash-Small-Gathering-of-Close-Friends.  Or "lunch-time shopping" as we called it in the ’60s.

Wired

Two fast growing standards in the world of identity management are paving the way for the open social web of the future

Bobbie Johnson, technology correspondent The Guardian Tuesday November 27 2007

Companies could be infringing privacy if they dig up information about job applicants from social networking websites, an internet expert has warned.

John Carr, chairman of the UK Children’s Charities’ Coalition on Internet Safety, believes that employers and education officials could be crossing the line when they look up information about applicants on the web.

"There are lots of rumours about young job applicants being screened on Google or even university tutors looking at people applying for further education," he said.

"If that really is happening, then it could be illegal - when the kids are posting a picture of a party, they are only doing it to let their mates look. They are not doing it for an application form."

More …

FT Published: November 23 2007 23:23 | Last updated: November 23 2007 23:23

A simmering unease about threats to privacy from a new feature on Facebook is threatening to come to the boil, presenting the fast-growing social network with the first test of its unusual plans for making money from its site.

By automatically alerting a user’s online network of friends to things bought on other websites, the feature can reveal highly personal information, critics say.

Facebook, however, says its users can choose to keep their purchases secret, or to limit the number of online friends to whom their purchases are disclosed.

Known as Beacon, the feature was one of several money-making ideas Facebook launched this month to try to turn its users’ actions – such as their online purchases and their stated preferences for certain brands – into recommendations that might influence the buying habits of their friends.

Though it caused unease around the internet when first announced, the Beacon system has attracted a renewed burst of unwelcome attention in recent days thanks largely to the efforts of MoveOn.org, the online political action group.

Broadcast Magazine Published: 13 November 2007 09:31

Jon Anthony on why television producers should look at what is actually working on the web rather than try to replicate their traditional business online. The broadcast industry is an industry run by suits, of which only a select few actually have any real understanding of the new technologies that arrive now on a monthly basis. The most common question around the boardroom table these days is "how can we make money out of the internet".

BBC News Online - Monday, 12 November 2007, 08:09 GMT

Users are being warned not to post personal details on their profiles. A quarter of the 11 million Britons who use social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook may be leaving themselves open to identity fraud.

Get Safe Online, a government-backed campaign group, is warning against posting personal details online.

Media Guardian Jemima Kiss Tuesday November 13 2007

Youth social networking site Bebo will offer free content from major broadcasters - including the BBC - and record labels when it launches a series of media channels today.

The Open Media platform will also feature programmes from the BBC, ITN, Channel 4, BSkyB and Endemol in the UK, and CBS, Turner, MTV and ESPN in the US. Programmes will Include Robin Hood and The Mighty Boosh.

Companies can embed their own media player on their Bebo channel, including their own advertising, and customise the page for their brand. Following the launch at noon today in London and New York, additional media companies will be able to add their content through a "self-service" system.

November 8, 2007, 5:28 pm New York Times By Saul Hansell

Mark Zuckerberg promised no less than a revolution with his idea that ads you see on Facebook will be attached to the names and photos of your friends who like the products being advertised. There is at least one problem with this idea: It may be illegal under a 100-year-old New York privacy law. The statute says that “any person whose name, portrait, picture, or voice is used within this state for advertising purposes or for the purposes of trade without the written consent first obtained” can sue for damages. Moreover, such a use is also a criminal misdemeanor.

New York Times By LOUISE STORYPublished: November 7, 2007

FACEBOOK wants to put your face on advertisements for products that you like. Facebook .com is a social networking site that lets people accumulate “friends” and share preferences and play games with them. Each member creates a home page where he or she can post photographs, likes and dislikes and updates about their activities. Yesterday, in a twist on word-of-mouth marketing, Facebook began selling ads that display people’s profile photos next to commercial messages that are shown to their friends about items they purchased or registered an opinion about.