As Twitter leaves the realms of ‘joiner geek’ social network, and (partly due to it’s integration with platforms like Facebook), becomes a more popular and diverse service, its utility is being more rigorously critiqued. What is Twitter for? Its a cogent question. In a world of blogs, microblogs, and social networks, what’s the use of twitter? Is it merely a loose knit social network, or a (nano) blogging platform? Is it just the latest fad? Lets look at some real world uses of Twitter, how its utility differs from more …

Social Network ‘Facebook’, has made an enormous splash this week with the release of the ‘Facebook Platform‘, an opening up of the mature Facebook API to internal widgets with access to Facebook’s ‘core functions’. Whilst this move has been criticised by some influential members of the syndication community, it places Facebook at the forefront of mashup’s and the read-write web. In one fell swoop, Facebook has become a socially enabled aggregation platform.

‘Zuckerberg describes the Facebook core function that the new third-party applications can tap into as a “social graph,” the …

Just back from Barcamp Ireland 3. What a day, so packed I couldn’t possibly get to half the talks (which ran concurrently), but I managed three lectures and the panel discussion. The event was held in the beautiful Digital Hub, off Thomas St in Dublin. The building is fantastic, with bare brick walls and natural lighting throughout, and would make a fantastic billionaires studio apartment.
I’ve posted some wikified notes. I grabbed several mini interviews, on TFM’s sweet but pricey Roland wav recorder (check out the uber cheesy website), not enough …

Wow..Looks like Jason Calacanis has inspired a trend. Came across the following whilst browsing jobs.ie.
Are you a social networker and serial photo up loader? If yes read on….
Looking for some extra cash? www.talkbeans.com is Ireland’s fastest growing social networking site – for grown up’s.
We are looking for people to build social networks…. for cash. Its a sinch and its a part-time job you can do anytime, night or day.
We are seeking well connected, fun, outgoing people who have left school – and no longer want to be profiled …

Subsequent to posting a link to the (UCD?) ‘Killer Coke’ Bebo page a couple of days ago, it seems the popular page has disappeared. Although never one to underestimate my own importance, I sincerely hope this is not a chilling effect of questioning Bebo’s censorship policy at last weeks Social Network Webcamp. The TCD campaign, which recently succeeded in renewing the Trinity campus Coke produce ban, still has an active Bebo page.
I’m not involved in either campaign, and not sufficiently informed to judge either sides merits, but more information is …

Many thanks to John Breslin for organising Irelands first Webcamp, last Wednesday 7th March. The afternoon was an enlightening look into the development, search, analysis and productive uses of social networks.
I’ve wiki’d some notes on event. Ina O’ Murchu of DERI should be posting videos of the talks in due course.
Particularly interesting was the response of designated Bebo’s spokesperson, Mark Tarbatt of webvertising firm Generator, to my questions about potential Bebo censorship. The impression Mark (whose firm seem solely responsible for selling branding on Bebo, at least in Ireland) gave …

Digg is hip, digg is fun, every geek likes to compare their list of dugg stories, and gets a thrill from a submitted story hitting the digg.com homepage. But Digg has a problem. As it’s user base has risen, and the site’s design become more refined (latest iteration released today), the perceived quality of the stories reaching the Digg front page, and of the comments individual diggers leave regarding stories, has declined. The most common explanation given for this decline is the dilution of quality attendant to increased popularity; as …

Discussing online communities today with one of Trinity FM’s up and coming editors, the problem of data migration came up. Web 2.0 services are fantastic, but what happens when we want to leave their walled gardens? As it stands right now there exists no feasible way of say, carrying an identity from Bebo to Myspace, complete with user information, photographs and more importantly ‘friends’ (correct me if I’m wrong, but such a service would undoubtedly violate the TOS of one or both sites).
So far, so minor, a problem easily soluble, …

The Bebo abuse department have once again failed to respond usefully to clear abuse of their service, and violation of their Terms of Use.
Gareth
You recently reported abuse for member Leyla H on October 29, 2006. The best thing for you to do is block this person from your profile. If you ignore this person chances are they will get bored and leave you alone. I have provided instructions below on how you can do this.
To block/unblock a member follow these steps:
1) Visit www.Bebo.com and sign-in using your email address …

Just a short note for Bebo users hitting this site from Google searches. My previous post, regardin the nefarious ‘homepagecam.us/cutie223′ seems to have hit a nerve.
The spam you received was an advertisement for a (now removed) porn site. This was, to the best of my knowledge, the first commercial Bebo spam – if you come across any others let me know.
Just like email, the Bebo message system provides unscrupulous advertisers with an opportunity to send hundreds or thousands of unsolicited messages, almost certainly automatically, and very cheaply. If even a …