Tag: social networks

The beauty of Twitter

Here’s one of those great articles I wish I had written. From @jontangerine… (HT to @stealingsand)

I like Twitter because…

It reminds me is that human beings are still tribal. As an example, if you check your own address book, or think about your family and friends, they probably number no more than two hundred people. We may have more in the book, but it’s rare for our intimates to be greater than two hundred people. Our networks are geographically dispersed these days. Even if your network is mostly in one location, people are so busy living that it can be difficult to stay in touch. Twitter is a facsimile of living and working in proximity for me, and provides something unique, too

Jon touches on a few things he’d like to see on twitter. I’d ditto those as well and add that I’d like to see easy ways to track physical locations as well. There are other social networks that will track your location. BrightKite will even alert you when other users or friends are in your area. A very cool feature indeed. But there’s not a good BrightKite app for Blackberry yet, so that’s a bit of a bummer for me and will probably keep me from switching anytime soon.

I also find this line from Jon’s article interesting, “but it’s rare for our intimates to be greater than two hundred people.”

I think that’s true in so many arenas of life. I only follow 66 people on twitter (and leave the SMS/txt message updates off for all but maybe 5 people) and while I have over 300 “friends” on facebook I really only keep up with/track half of them (if that). But of course it is nice when something catches my eye from those other 150ers and I can get updates on them as well.

I also see the 200 people limit playing out in churches/workplaces and more. It’s really hard to get to know more than 200 people or so in any regular setting. Even if there are 15,000 people in a room, do you really know more than 200 of them? Can you know more than 200 and build real relationships with them?

I think that’s what I love about online communities like Twitter. I know 10xs more about folks like @Jess_Hays and @sgalloway since they joined Twitter than I ever learned about them just seeing them for a couple hours on Sunday morning. The same goes for folks who constantly fill out surveys on Myspace. I learned tons of things about folks in my tribe thanks to them taking some time to be intentionally open.

What about you? What makes Twitter beautiful for you? Do you agree that it’s rare to have intimate relationships with more than 200 people? Do you think that number is much higher or less?

ROOV.com :: because we all need more social networks

I have enough social networks that I ignore now – do I really need another one? Well…. maybe, maybe not.

I saw something about Roov.com a week or so ago but kinda bypassed it – thinking “great another Christian MySpace and Facebook.”

But Lee shared a post about Roov and I’m definitely more intrigued. Seems that Roov is more about building off-line communities than online communities.

Here’s a couple explanation videos:


What is ROOV.com? from ROOV.com on Vimeo.


ROOV.com Stories from ROOV.com on Vimeo.

Here’s what others are saying about it:

CatalystRoadTrip:

It’s a social networking site that works locally. It connects people in the same geographical area based on interests AND it gets people off the computer and into each others’ FACE – as they hang-out and do fun stuff together. As social networking gains popularity, a few people have questioned whether this phenomenon is actually making us more isolated. I mean, we may have 300 friends now, but very, very little depth, and less human interaction. ROOV is a welcome remedy to that, using the internet to help you meet & connect in real life – facilitating conversations and experiences that have real depth and meaning.

Urbanministry.org:

ROOV.com is a new way to meet others in your church and community, and to organize gatherings around causes you care about.

Jeff Goins:

I just joined ROOV.com, a new website to connect the Body of Christ. Why? Well, it sure wasn’t because I needed to be a part of another social networking site. No, in fact, it’s because ROOV is like the antithesis of what social networking sites represent these days – narcissism. Unlike facebook or myspace (which aren’t bad – I use both), ROOV doesn’t center around an individual’s profile. In fact, profiles don’t even exist. They center around groups and issues that matter, like “orphans and refugees” or “Impact Africa,” for example. I don’t think you’ll find any “I lost my digits” groups on this site – at least, I hope not.

Their goal is to connect people online so that they can connect offline. As someone who spends over 10 hours a day on the internet (that’s probably a conservative figure), this is something I need to do – unplug, detach, and really connect with flesh and blood.

I’m excited to find out more. Apparently you need to be involved in a local church body though – and encounter isn’t on the list yet – but hopefully I’ll get confirmation in the next day or so (or 5 min would be preferred) and I can explore the site for myself.

The site is also apparently limited to the US for now, and limited to the cities participating as well.

Are there ways that you are building off-line communities with the current “social networking standards” like MySpace and Facebook? Are there ways we can better utilize those tools?

btw – just got an email from Roov – they’re “reviewing the church you submitted. We’ll be getting back to you shortly.”

(open) church social networks vs Facebook

If Robert Scoble is right and Facebook is blocking Google search bots for a reason far more reaching than just “user privacy” and Microsoft is planning a new buyout of both Yahoo and Facebook (can someone else buy Flickr and del.icio.us first?) which will lead to a more closed Internet, would it not make more sense for churches and other organizations to begin building their own online social networks based on an open social platform?

I know I’m not ever a big fan of “Christian ghettos” but does it not make more sense now for churches and organizations to offer open networks where their members, friends and family can share in an online social network without the threat of Corporation M or Corporation S mining all their personal information in an effort to sell loads of targeted advertising to each user?

And if churches do begin to offer their own social networks without the threat of advertising and they become super successful, how will the infrastructure to support these sites be paid for? Will churches have to resort to more pleads for money from the church itself or will the online networks begin fund raising drives like Wikipedia does – or maybe even “pledge-a-thons” like your favorite local Christian radio station or NPR?

And if churches do begin to offer their own social networks, will we allow members to transfer their profile, information and such to other church networks if they decide to leave the physical church body as well?

Could these same questions, ideas work for other organizations, non-profits, schools and such like UMHB or DCCCD?

Just thinking out loud. Would love to continue the conversation via this blog, twitter or wherever (preferably in a public forum). What are your thoughts, questions?