Hey Sam,
Just for the record, I very rarely check my FaceBook or LinkedIn accounts, except when I get an email asking for some approval. They do not require anywhere near the time (after setup) that Twitter, or the other more active social networking tools do. I highly recommend LinkedIn for networking (the more links you have the better it works, obviously), but have not found much professional value in FaceBook yet. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. ;) Seth From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Sammy Larbi Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 8:17 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [houcfug] Re: Social networks On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 5:55 AM, James Husum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Gretings, This came up last night during the meeting and I'm curious - Who on the list uses a social networking site? Which one(s) do you use? What do you use it for? Do you get anything out of it? I'm on a few but I'm probably not making the best use of them. I'm on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/) for business matters, Facebook for social matters among family and friends, and Pownce (http://pownce.com/) for following a lot of the ColdFusion world. My company has suggested I get profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn, but I've been reluctant to do so, mainly because I don't see the point. Its just another thing for me to check everyday, and I've got too many of those already. I haven't signed up yet, so at the moment I only pay attention to Twitter (I probably have accounts elsewhere, but I don't check them or even remember them). I too, never saw the point in Twitter until I started trying it. It's as if blogging, email, IRC, and IM got together and had a love child. The shortness leads to the feeling of IRC and IM, both because the messages are short and because that leads to messages that use geek-speak, or whatever they call it. The fact that you can look when you want (its asynchronicity) feels a bit like email. That you're broadcasting to many people and they feel no particular need to respond to everything you say feels like you're blogging (and the opposite is true of you reading and not feeling the need to respond). Plus, its quick: since there's no need to respond, you don't feel guilty just skipping messages. I use it to post mini-rants, questions I need answers, hypothetical questions to make people any myself think, links to interesting, sometimes futuristicish, items, and ideas I have that I don't mind sharing. I also like it because it lets me interact informally with people who I wouldn't be interacting with except on blogs and mailing lists, which seem more formal. I've even picked up a couple of new friends who found me through other links. Occassionally I post personal items, like when I got married or finished my masters. But I try hard to keep it interesting and relevant. You won't find me posting my travel schedule on there, updating you with every boring detail from when I arrive to airport to when I'm sitting on the plane, or having lunch, or any other boring detail like some people. The only time I might break that personal rule is if I'm at a conference (or something) where I know some of my "followers" are also likely to be, I might say where I'm having lunch or dinner to ask if anyone would like to join. But I'd stay away from it personally. Anyway, that's my Twitter testimonial. Obviously, I like it. =) My account's at http://twitter.com/codeodor Regards, Sam The one that seems to have been used the most is Twitter (http://twitter.com/) It is sort of a micro-blogging tool. You send short messages (140 characters?) to the service, telling the world what you are doing. Then other people can 'follow' you by subscribing to your feed. You can of course follow others. At CFUNITED people were posting to Twitter like crazy. Seth apparently was taking notes during the sessions. Ken was Twittering during last night's meeting. I know a lot of projects out in the Flex and AIR world have been based on Twitter. I must admit I'm not yet seeing the value of Twitter. Is it really worthwhile or am I just being stodgy? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the "Houston ColdFusion Users' Group" discussion list. To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit http://groups.google.com/group/houcfug?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
