The FriendFeed vs Twitter debate has got me thinking about the nervous system of the mesh.  The activity streams that show all the events, tasks, pings that originate from your friends.  I pitched this feature to Mark Pincus and Tribe.net but he wouldn’t do it.

Now that Facebook, Twitter and Friendfeed have each taken the idea and ran with it - in slightly different directions - I thought it would be fun to see how people are using these features.

1.  Yes - it’s just a feature, not a product unto itself so I sure as hell hope FriendFeed is planning on providing something more than just voyeuristically gaping at what your friends are doing.  Commenting is nice, but that does not make up a product or service.  CoCommnet found out about that.  Twitter is a micro-blogging platform and we know Facebook has all SORTS of activities and things to do. But what do you DO with FrendFeed?

2.   Presence and IM communication is key - and I think that’s how a lot of people use Twitter as some sort of multi-user chat room kind of way.  I certainly do.  Its really like a IRC channel to me.  I remember the early days of teh #Joiito IRC channel.  It was quite a scene.

3.   So if just looking at activities is only a feature and communication is key - where does that leave subcribing to people?  Isn’t the action of ‘following someone’ the same as ’subscribing to their feed’?  And how is this different from ‘friending’ someone?  I’m sure danah boyd will do an entire dissertation on these subtle differences but to us simple practioners, I submit that in fact there is NO difference between these features/terms.  Not that it really matters.

4.  One things for sure - we know humans sure as hell want access privileges and control over whether they’re automitically included into anything.  I wonder if Facebook has learned this lesson by now - or not?  THAT’s what Sarah Lacy SHOULD have asked Zuckerberg at SXSW. So this whole subscribing to - process - needs to have access and control filters added into the mix:

AT THE POINT OF SUBSCRIBING/FOLLOWING SOMEBODY - we need a way of deciding just WHAT I’m subscribing to.  Maybe I like your photos and blog posts, but I’m not interested in what your friends are doing or even who they are - or what Groups you’ve joined.  Just photos and blog posts - please.  That would clarify the process and make it clear what you’re interested in.

AND WHEN YOU MAKE YOURSELF AVAILABLE FOR SUBSCRIBING TO - I really think this is when the access controls and filters have to be set up.  Anyone can subscribe to my blog, photos and profile changes, but ONLY my friends can subscribe to my friend status changes and Group anythings, and ONLY my family can see my videos.

If open is the new black, then Opt In and Access controls are the new Orange accessory.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 3:21 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.