Alternatives to Facebook -- what are the options?

Maybe you've just had enough. Perhaps your profile's been hacked, or you can't sort out the byzantine privacy settings options, maybe one of your "friends" mentioned a sex organ in status their update, (Once was enough to get me to "unfriend" you...) Or maybe you just long for something different.

Well dear reader, before FB Quitting Day May 31, 2010, here are some of your choices. Old and new soc nets (social networks) for your review.

Diaspora - the latest new, new thing. It's the sweetheart start-up developed by four charmingly geekalicious young lads from NYU and crowd funded by Kickstarter. It's not actually a social network yet. But they're working on writing the code to make it an open source alternative. They aren't the first ones out there per this link I found. (However to be honest, the Linux, Apache, MySql and Php talk starts to get a bit too techy for me and my brain melts just a little. Anyone care to enlighten me?)

Friendster - 'Memba them? I first heard of them in 1994 and even then it was a little late to be an early adopter.

Then there's Whspr, another recent entry into the soc-net-o-sphere which I mentioned in last week's Noo Yeek column.

Posterous - is a blog/soc-net hybrid you can see mine here. I know it's a bit light on the content, I'm just trying it out.

Ning is an option that I have used for an alumni network or maybe Orkut, a soc-net that is integrated into your Google-verse.

And another exile from soc-net Hipster-ville that might get a resurrection from the Facebook "diaspora" (oh those boys are clever name choosers!) is MySpace which seemed to loose steam and members once it was purchased by Rupert Murdoch.

I doubt people will leave LinkedIn or stop using Twitter due to privacy concerns since those are more readily controlled in terms of whom they broadcast to and yes, while Twitter isn't quite a social networking site, (really microblogging) it is a soc-net tool.

The meta narrative is privacy online. What is is, who controls it, how is it filtered and layered? Clearly the cows have long since left the barn, so it's really verbum sap sat. Everything you post on FB (or the internet) becomes part of the whole. They know a lot about you, because you give it to them, everyday. As one of my Facebook status updates read this week, "all your Face are belong to us".


Thank you Hank Grebe and Mediaspin.com for such a great image.

The Iphone - one month on

I've had it about a month now and I thought it would be worthwhile to articulate my experiences with it.

I was with AT&T to begin with so there was no real change in my service. I've found the coverage to be quite good - the only drop outs noted were in the DC subway (where evidently Verizon has an exclusive contract) and in the Sepulveda Blvd tunnel between LAX and El Segundo.

I migrated from a Treo 650 and when I exported my data as a Vcard the majority of it came over. I had segmented my contact data in the Palm Desktop software and those tags came over in the notes field on the Iphone so I will have to do a conversion eventually. I probably won't however because I just don't have the time and the patience to hack my way thru it. The main problem with the way I used the Treo vs the way I would like to use the Iphone is that I am unable to search in the Iphone.

I have thousands of contacts in my database. I can't always remember people's names but I usually remember their job function. For example, I can remember the gaffer I really liked working with - but what was his name? In my Treo I could type in "gaffer" and get a list of all the gaffers in my phone. In the Iphone, I have to try to remember the guys name and search by touching the letter of the alphabet. Was it Corey? Casey? Kacey? And suddenly I'm getting a headache (and wasting time) scrolling evig und 3 Tage looking for it. I can remember I have some great florists, but I don't always remember Mark's Garden. If I could search on Florists, they would be in the list of choices.

Yes, I use the Favourites button but I can see if I have more than 10 or 15 people in it I'm back to scrolling. Please. Apple. For the LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, add a search function on the next upgrade. No more scrolling.

Cut and paste functions would be great as well.

Sometimes the touch screen is too sensitive and I'm moved out of scrolling back to the alphabet list. It's annoying. And I've discovered that if you are wearing gloves, you can't answer the phone, because gloves (well worn, red, leather) seem to deaden the sensitivity.

I really like the way it syncs thru Itunes but I'm not sure why there's a button for the Ipod and another for Itunes. The screen is not too small to watch media on. I've been enjoying League of Gentlemen on my Iphone/Pod/device/thingy. The speakers are just loud enough for me to play music and podcasts on the kitchen counter while I chop vegetables for dinner. (Girls Gone Geek is a new fave.)

Finally, I really appreciate the multiple weather cities and time zones and the timer function. I can tell someone, I'll call you back in 20 minutes, and I really do.

Now maybe I've just not yet figured out all the neat functions of the Iphone and it really DOES search. If that's the case, please tell me and I will sing your praises from the mountaintops.

It's a great device, but not perfect. But more than ever I use it, rely on it and would never trade it back for a Blackberry or a Treo.