I understand why people would want to use groups for private
communications, and I think that with so many models on the net it is
easy for all of us to see how they are used.
I sat down and started thinking about how they could be used when they
were open, based on my current behavior and interaction with
micro-blogging. I always end up with a handful of profile addresses when
I go to a meetup or social gathering, and I have the awkward position of
deciding if I liked a person enough based on one meeting to follow them.
Based on this and other weird things I do, here are a couple of creative
ways to use groups:
Event/Org-based
If I go to a OMBCamp, I think it would be cool to join that group and
get everyone's posts that they send through it for that event. It is
relevant, and I can do less tracking of keywords that I may guess
incorrectly, and everyone can post at each other in a relevant way quickly.
Subject/Filter-based
Like the example using Ubuntu, these could be useful groups where one
ends up getting results that are relevant to their interests, but in a
way that is more meaningful than simple keyword searches.
I know I am biased about the privacy issue, but I see this as an
opportunity to show how useful open groups can be. I still think it
would be useful to have admins for groups, so that orgs can deal with
annoyances, although it seems like blocking users individually makes
that almost unnecessary.
Also, when I think about privacy, I have trust issues. I would (and do)
run my own server for that. I am not proposing that as the given
alternative for the people who ask for privacy, but I do think it is
important to educate folks on how this stuff works, and to encourage and
empower them to use the tech on their own. ^_^
maiki
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