Social media
No Facebook? No thanks!
News.com.au reports that, according to research conducted by Australian firm Deacons, almost half of those of the 700 “workers” it surveyed who use MySpace and Facebook during work hours say they would refuse a job where they were not allowed access to social networking sites. The study found 62 per cent of respondents (that’s 434 […]
Exposing the social graph
With the launch last week of Google’s Social Graph API we can finally start to visualise the “social graph” – the connections between people on the web. It is only relatively recently that the relationships between people have been declared explicitly on the web – on social networking sites and publicly via open standards such […]
Lessons from Facebook
Like many “grown up” commentators, Martin Weller, a Professor of Educational Technology at the Open University, sees Facebook fading away for many of us as we get back to the humdrum of everyday life (Facebook was a holiday romance, not the great love of your life). However, rather than rehearsing the reasons why he has […]
On citizenship of a virtual republic
Two different takes questioning why we should want to buy into the virtual republic that is Facebook: Stephen Fry in his Dork talk column: what is this much-trumpeted social networking but an escape back into that world of the closed online service of 15 or 20 years ago? Is it part of some deep human […]
The Network in 2008
This year Web 2.0 came of age. Blogs, wikis, photo sharing, video sharing, social networking, social this, social that, SaaS: all these services have developed at phenomenal pace. In particular, the Facebook craze burst out of its collegiate limitations and has gained traction even amongst lawyers; at the SCL conference in June, half the delegates […]
Defining the semantic web
In 1999 Tim Berners-Lee had a dream for what he called the “semantic web“, in which computers become capable of analyzing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A ‘Semantic Web’, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day […]
Opening up the social graph
Francis Irving of the Open Knowledge Foundation posts about how Brad Fitzpatrick, ex Six Apart and now with Google, plans to open up the social graph (the connections between people that build social networks). Currently the now numerous social networks all operate as walled gardens; the ultimate goal of Brad’s project is, via a a […]
It ain’t what you do, it’s where you do it
Chris Andersen – he of The Long Tail fame – echoes my feelings in Social Networking is a feature, not a destination. As I think about the current Facebook craze and the notion of it as an all-encompassing platform, sucking in functionality from other sites across the board, I find myself skeptical. With my Long […]
Be social – blog smart
Steve Matthews of Stem is one of the leading thinkers when it comes to web marketing for lawyers. He has this to say about how to “be social” with blogs: For me, the social side of blogging involves a number of tactics, things like: blogroll links to your peers; not just writing your own thoughts, […]
An open or shut case
LawLink (.com) is a LinkedIn copycat exclusively for US attorneys whose mission is to help attorneys build professional relationships with other attorneys and leverage their existing professional relationships. The admittedly large number of US attorneys pales in comparison to the global audience who are interested in their activities and from whose attention the network would […]
Facebook – law firm workplace networks
Following up on Kevin O’Keefe’s post on AmLaw 200 firms using Facebook (source Doug Cornelius), I did a quick trawl on Facebook for the top UK legal firms’ workplace networks. Figures are: Linklaters (with 895 members), Allen & Overy (846), Baker & McKenzie (669) and DLA Piper (623). Only these four of the top 20 […]
Faceless
I feel no inclination to network on Facebook. Loads of business and professional people are supposedly doing so now. But what job will it get done better for me? I’m hugely in favour of using social software tools to do useful jobs. But we’re caught up in a frenzy of interest in “huge massively multi-user […]
My linked face
There’s an awful lot in the press and the blogosphere about social networking these days. In particular about who will win out between MySpace and Facebook and the differences between them. Danah Boyd, a researcher at the University of California and internet sociologist, goes a bit overboard in her reasearch findings, declaring that: The goodie […]
Social networking sites – the new gatekeepers
The FT reports talks between MySpace and Google/Microsoft who are keen to capture more of the youth market. The rapid growth of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook has threatened to tip the balance of power on the internet away from traditional portals and search engines. Their potential to become the places where […]
