Using social networks for mobilizing people

An article from wired today mentioned how volunteers on Facebook successfully have managed to gather nearly 300,000 people to support the monks protest in Burma. These supporters are planning to hit the streets all over the world to show their support this weekend. According to one organisation leader, the volunteers on facebook has managed to mobilize people in a way they never been able to. The interesting thing is how this shows the power of a mainstream social network that everyone use and how people can be mobilized to a low cost. I guess we will see the same thing for causes that earlier used TV to raise money.

Facebook Users Hook Up—With Fellow Burmese Monk Backers – Newser Annotated

“Nearly 300,000 people have joined the Facebook group “Support the Monks’ Protest” since a story on the movement broke last week”

“Over two dozen Facebook volunteers are working with activist organizations on the upcoming protests. “They’re able to do things that we can’t,” said one organization leader. “They’ve been able to mobilize people.””

Using online applications offline

Adobe Air is together with Google Gears offering solutions for offline access to online applications. Google through the browser and Adobe Air by standalone applications.  Google Reader is using Google Gear but doesn’t bring very much extra value despite that I often am offline and would like to use Google Reader. The reason is that you have to prepare going offline by going to Google Reader and then choose offline mode so it can download everything. Not very useful until it is done automatically. There is a rumour that Google is developing an offline Gmail client based on Google Gears and that will be fun to see.

A few applications exist built on Adobe Air. The one who has created the most buzz is Pownce. It has a great interface but since it all is Beta it is not 100%. But other cool applications are DiggTop that access Digg.com and especially PeekAgenda. PeekAgenda is in itself not that very exciting since I don’t use backpack and its interface needs a face-lift but the whole idea to have this kind of applications for Basecamp, Gmail and Scrybe to mention a few would be great since it enables you to work with them offline and then automatically sync when getting online, all outside the browser. More samples can be found here.

Weakness in anonymity service expose “encrypted traffic”

As in many cases, it is seldom only the technologies fault the security fails. User can be blaimed for not reading (and understanding) how it really works but which of course in this case was not that obvious. Authentication is a another common problem that tries to be solved with more advanced technical solutions but the weakest link is always the human itself…..

Rogue Nodes Turn Tor Anonymizer Into Eavesdropper’s Paradise

A security researcher intercepted thousands of private e-mail messages sent by foreign embassies and human rights groups around the world by turning portions of the Tor internet anonymity service into his own private listening post.

Swedish computer security consultant Dan Egerstad posted the user names and passwords for 100 e-mail accounts used by the victims.

Tor is a privacy tool designed to prevent tracking of where a web user surfs on the internet and with whom a user communicates. It is often used by for example human-rights workers to communicate with journalists and many who use TOR has believe it was an end-to-end encryption tool.

Tor works by using servers donated by volunteers around the world to bounce traffic around en route to its destination. Traffic is encrypted through most of that route, and routed over a random path each time a person uses it.

But Tor has a known weakness: The last node through which traffic passes in the network has to decrypt the communication before delivering it to its final destination. Someone operating that node can see the communication passing through this server.

Apple has surpassed Microsoft….

….as the “biggest bully” in the tech industry:

Apple Takes a Bite Out of the Competition – Newser

Apple has replaced Microsoft as the tech industry’s “biggest bully,” according to PC World. The iPod dynamo has shed its rebel rep and assumed Microsoft’s former mantle as a monopolist, copycat, and bully. “Bundling,” a tactic Microsoft used to tie together Windows and Internet Explorer and thwart competition, is Apple’s game plan with the iPod and iTunes.

A new alternative to Wikipedia on its way

A new project has been set up with the aim of taking Wikipedia’s place as the web’s leading reference work.

Below are some annotations made with Diigo.com, a new tool I am trying out.

Web rivals plot the answer to Wikipedia – Times Online

By engaging expert editors, eliminating anonymous contribution and launching a more mature community under a new charter, a much broader and more influential group of people and institutions will be able to improve upon Wikipedia’s extremely useful, but often uneven work. The result will be not only enormous and free, but reliable.

……..

“Gareth Leng, Professor of Experimental Physiology of the University of Edinburgh, has agreed to serve as a constable. “Public understanding of science needs scientists to help to explain, clearly and objectively, what science can do and what it can’t,” he said.”

……..

It was proposed that the new project will begin life by “mirroring” – or reproducing – Wikipedia’s content, a process allowed under the site’s copyright conditions.

……..

Citizendium’s expert editors will then “bless” versions of articles as “approved” or trustworthy.

……..

The aim is to stamp out the anonymous and sometimes malicious edits that have undermined Wikipedia’s reputation.

……..

Last month it emerged that many embarrassing Wikipedia entries had been edited by organisations mentioned in them. The Chinese Government erased information about China blocking Wikipedia inside its borders. The CIA tweaked entries on Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon.

……..

GPhone Mania and the (new?) handset industry

Google’s phone, dubbed the GPhone is creating rumours all over the web and confirmations pop up with inside sources at both Google and HTC. Well, many don’t take it serious until Google decide to go public with it but maybe it is even Google’s strategy to create some buzz by having leaks and rumors spread. Pictures below circulate all over the web about its look and HTC are supposed to manufacture it according to some rumours. Some of its features are said to be a special version of Google Maps, compatible with built-in GPS, and compatibility with Gmail and the calendar application. An integration of GTalk would be interesting with a support for voip.

Google has recently been involved in the bidding for the 700mhz spectrum. This together with their wifi networks and now a handset summarise up to something that can be very very interesting for the future.

The fact that Apple and maybe Google has joined the mobile industry with innovative devices is very interesting. Apple and Google comes from different areas and brings new fresh blood to the handset industry. Thinking about it briefly, Google might have an advantage over Apple and that what we will see in mobile internet and handsets might develop as the pc industry developed for Apple and Microsoft. Apple is a company that does very well designed and thought through products. They can though be replicated and they are usually very expensive leaving just a few buying it. They have always strived for locking in the user as well and it could be less appreciated as usage is towards integration and synchronization across borders. Google is on its way to create a very useful platform for office applications and enabling it for mobile devices would automatically give them a share of the pc usage. Microsoft entered first the PDA industry and now Smartphones, but has been followed with bad performance and quality problems of the software. They do have the muscles and established relations for pushing out something new and innovative. Their compatibility with windows is a great advantage, just as ipod is with itunes.

How about the other handsets vendors? Well the question is as always what to focus on; manufacturing, services or branding. ODMs hae helped less established handset vendors sell phones and maybe will the large vendors that has focused on manufacturing and hardware realise that branding and user experience of greater value for the users. There is a clear trend that traditional vendors focus more on multimedia, building up or acquiring knowledge and applications within different areas.

The handset industries offers many great opportunities and future visions, but right now there are many thresholds and challenges. The handset industry is so fragmented that it is nearly a chaos for developers. Java for example is supposed to be an independent platform but not the mobile version. Modification has to be done for almost each network and model, resulting in high costs for the developers. So if we are moving towards some kind of standardisation in mobile platforms; services, user experience, design and brand will most likely be the most important factors instead of own manufacturing that in this case is mainstream and most likely done by OEM or ODMs.

Online Trend Update – Aggregation

A clear trend in application design is aggregation; which means they offer a way to gather data and content from different sources and present it altogether. With more and more communities and applications opening up their API, there is a way to access and collect the content you generate at different places. My first successful experience doing this was with Facebook, and it still has a great advantage being so easy for your friends to go and check it out. Websites such as MyLifeBrand, ProfileLinker, OtherEgo and Profilatic all offers different ways to aggregate your social networking and content generated at different applications. A page with all the aggregated content is created and you can share it and link to it, like a personal profile.

Another interesting concept is tumblelogs. Explained at tumblr.com as “If blogs are journals, tumblelogs are scrapbooks. You can also look at tumblelogs as slightly more structured blogs that make it easier, faster, and more fun to post and share stuff you find or create. ” Tumblr itself is a tool for creating tumblelogs and easily and quickly post and share anything you find or create. It feels like a mix of Pownce and a blog. It offers very simple aggregation from different sources, and you can post messages, links, files and pictures to it. My tumblelog example can be found at http://andsig.tumblr.com

Pownce just recently made it possible to add different social networks and services such as IM on your profile page so your friends easily can find you there as well.

links for 2007-09-04

• LOTRO Game Database on Google Maps – arda-online.com
  (tags: lotr)
• 2hundar.wordpress.com
  (tags: blogs friends)
• Tor: anonymity online
  (tags: proxy)

Online Usage Update

Synchronization – One of the most common reason for me to leave an application is the lack of synchronization between other applications. Don’t like to use an application that could be synced with others, and keeps me locked in. When it comes to CRM systems Highrise is great for its purpose. I have though been missing a good way to synchronize it with my Address Book, but I recently heard about a new application, Greatascent, that are to solve it! Its main features are:
- Integeration with Address Book, Mail, iCal and Safari
- Offline database so you can access your data anywhere
- Syncronization with iPods and iPhones or .Mac so you don’t need your computer any more to see today’s task list.

Highrise has released their API so I am surprised there aren’t more integrations and widgets for it yet.

Authentication – Recently I have noticed an increased use of OpenId, which is great. I have now started to use my MyOpenID for signing in to basecamp, highrise, gastus, ma.gnolia and plaxo.

A new function I discovered is registration, which means that you can register at a new site easily. You use for exampel your MyOpenID and it use the information you have entered in your profile there to register at the new site, and it works fine. Don’t know if it can keep your profile updated. If it could, it would be a great step towards profile centralisation.

Monetizing on Facebook as a platform

It was recently released that TripAdvisor are to aquire the FaceBook application “Where I�ve been” for $3 million. An update at Techcrunch confirms that it has not happened and is still in discussion stage.

“Where I?ve Been” allows users to share where they have been in the world from their Facebook profiles and has approximately 2.3 million users. The suggested price tag of $3 million would put a value of $1.30 on each user, and a lot more for every day the application has been live.

In many cases it would be possible to argue that they are paying for the brand, but I believe its more about the user-base who has installed the application and use it that is of value on Facebook. I think I have it installed on my profile but it is no really brand that I would remember or recommend.

The cool thing is though that this is the first major acquisition of an application dedicated to Facebook. It certainly gives credit to Facebook as a platform when an application for a locked community can be valued that much. Guess the truth is that an application created for Facebook has a lot better possibility to spread than if it would have been released on the open web. And for new applications it might even be possible to argue that Facebook can bee seen as an incubator and bridge over the chasm to mainstream users. Since early adopters easily can share and influence their later adopter friends, they are more likely to adopt new applications and usage.

I hear rumours daily how people leave email and IM to do all their communicaiton inside Facebook and they encourage everyone they have contact with to join. An amazingly trend, but moving into a locked area that is restricting communication in many ways doesn’t sound like a good idea.