Brick by Brick

In 2006, a popular study by experts at Duke University and the University of Arizona concluded new technologies have been making loners of us since 1985. Earlier this month, this theory was challenged and perhaps debunked. New technologies actually increase our social interactions, not our isolation, the Pew Internet and American Life Project found.

Pew’s deep research came up with a variety of causes and conclusions to support their hypothesis, but in my opinion, here are their most interesting finds:

10. There’s been no significant jump in the number of truly isolated Americans. While the study did support the idea the number of many Americans’ social connections may have gotten smaller and less diverse in the last 30 years, there are two important caveats: First, new technologies actually combat, rather than cause, this trend. Second, roughly the same number – six percent – of the American public is completely isolated from others in 1985 and now.

9. Web users are more likely to seek counsel outside their own family. “Whereas only 45% of Americans discuss important matters with someone who is not a family member, internet users are 55% more likely to have a non-kin discussion partners,” the study reports.

8. Many 18-22-year-olds use social networking to keep in contact with nearly all of their key contacts. Pew found 30 percent of those 18-22 — the age group most likely to use social networks — use those networks to keep in touch with 90 percent or more of their “key influentials.”

7. Internet users like clubs. If you own a cell phone, use the internet at work or blog, you’re more likely to join a voluntary group, on or offline. These can include neighborhood associations, sports leagues, youth groups and social clubs.

6. Technology users have more “core” friends in their discussion networks. “On average, the size of core discussion networks is 12 percent larger amongst cell phone users, 9 percent larger for those who share photos online, and 9 percent bigger for those who use instant messaging,” Pew reported.

5. Web users leave their rooms. Contrary to the iconic image of a lone blogger on a couch sans sunlight in a basement apartment, it turns out internet users are 42 percent more likely to visit a public park or plaza and 45 percent more likely to frequent coffee shops than non-users.

4. Cell phone and web users make better neighbors. Whether or not you own a cell phone or use the internet makes no difference in the amount of time you spend face-to-face with your neighbors, however, 10 percent of internet users supplement their face time with personal emails. When online neighborhood discussion groups are considered, 60 percent of users “know ‘all or most’ of their neighbors,” compared to the average 40 percent.

3. Technology users seek conversation outside their marriage. If you use the internet at all, you’re 38 percent less likely to rely exclusively on a spouse as a discussion confidant, the study found. Use instant messaging? You’re 36 percent less likely than other internet users and 59 percent less likely than non-internet users.

2. Sharing those family vacation photos online might make you more politically open minded. “Those who share photos online are more likely to report that they discuss important matters with someone who is a member of another political party,” the study showed. 

1. Bloggers have more racially diverse friends. Pew found those who use the internet frequently and especially those who maintain a blog are “much more likely to confide in someone who is of another race.”

I’m at the CIO Perspectives Forum here in DC today, and I participated in an interesting lunch discussion.  This discussion focused on how organizations can better manage the content that they generate.  There were several interesting issues brought up – of which a few I’ll mention below.

First, what constitutes information that an organization needs to archive and classify?  While it is clear to save memos, proposals, spreadsheets, database, etc., what about instant message conversations or company-related tweets?  If these are worth managing, how does a company capture such data and place this data into place with more traditional items?

Second, related to capturing and indexing tweets and other social media communications, should companies restrict their employees from using social networks and social media sites?  Further, if an employee is a friend of a client on Facebook, should they defriend the client when they leave the company?  In the past, when you left a company there were policies about what departing employees could do with their Rolodexes, but what about now?  In fact, if employees are friends with clients on Facebook, the Rolodex is now public.  How can an organization use their employees’ connections with clients?  Should the organization take the cue from a client’s profile and take them skiing if the client lists skiing as an interest? 

Third, what is the value of an organization data mining its own data?  Several of our clients use our product ImpactWatch to monitor the media through data mining, but what if a company looked at its own data?  For instance, would data mining archived e-mails help reveal new ideas and solutions that are scattered through different conversations and people?  Could this capture ideas that people who are not connected with product development so that the company can exploit these ideas?  While there is clearly some privacy concerns, it is worth noting that individuals should expect that their company likely has the right to monitor their company-provided e-mail accounts.

These were some of the questions that we discussed.  We clearly did not come up with definite answers, but these are important issues and opportunities that organizations need to consider when dealing with their own data.

As social networking sites and technologies have flourished over the last few years, there has been much discussion about privacy today.  It is not that uncommon for people to provide updates about their personal lives on their Facebook accounts or Twitter feeds.  They talk about if they are sick, have a crush on somebody, are out partying, etc.

While this information sharing is innocuous at times while concerning at others, there are some social networks that are pushing the limits.  For instance, while at the O’Reilly Gov 2.0 Summit last week, I learned about the site PatientsLikeMe.  This is a fascinating site in which people with medical conditions come to connect with other people suffering from the same condition.  However, there is so much more than providing moral support and answering questions, people are expected to build detailed profiles about their bodies and health histories.  When they undergo treatment, they are encourage to share their experiences to it.  Does it give them gas?  Do they get headaches?  Is their sex life affected?  Of course, does the treatment actually work?

Now, it is one thing for me to announce on Facebook that I’m going to have Papa John’s Pizza for dinner tonight, but it is another to share personal side effects of a medication that I’m currently taking.  PatientsLikeMe does acknowledge privacy, but expounds upon the importance of openness on the site by stating: “You see, we believe sharing your healthcare experiences and outcomes is good…for a greater purpose: speeding up the pace of research and fixing a broken healthcare system.”  By sharing detailed health information about yourself, you help others understand how medical conditions and the procedures used to treat them work.

So, do you think that openly sharing your health information on the Internet is worth the potential it can to help others with their health?

I attended the O’Reilly Gov 2.0 Summit today and enjoyed listening to many of the insightful speakers.  One of them was Clay Shirky; who is popular on the tech conference circuit.

He talked about how organizations have tried to harness their community members to use the data and services that they provide turning them to them to the public to develop applications and new uses for their services.  Shirky cited Apps for Democracy as a success story in this area; over four dozen applications have been developed to harness government data.  On the other hand, the Los Angeles Times tried to invite its readers to help write editorials through a wiki; this was a failure since the space was used to post information that was either not useful or vulgar (ie links to porn).

Shirky argues that when organizations invite others to participate in their work, they need to have a “social contract” that is complete enough to provide a purpose for the applications and new uses but not complete enough that it stymies participants from coming up with new ideas that the organization that did not think of.  Further, by limiting creativity, this chips away from the participants’ motivation to work.  According to Shirky, the Apps for Democracy contract was sufficient, and the LA Times contract was too complete.  The newspaper already had an idea of what its users would produce, and it was embarrassed that the experiment didn’t turn out well after advertising it.

Shirky said that organizations that undertake such initiatives need to keep three things in mind:

1. Expect surprises; allow and trust people to be creative
2. Don’t take credit or advertise the initiative until the results are understood
3. Allow people to use their own motivations

I’m not sure why Twitter makes it difficult to manage followers within their own site, but fortunately there are several 3rd party options available. I’ve been playing around with these applications, and a lot are a waste of time in my opinion.

However, the ones below, are the few that I found to be useful and that actually work.

Tweepler

Highly recommended application. Once you get it working, it is a great tool. Loading time for your unprocessed followers can take awhile. After that, it’s pretty straight forward. You simply go through your list and with the big arrow buttons, choose if you want follow or ignore people.

Friend or Follow

I found this useful app to have a shorter loading time than tweepler.  It shows you a visual grid of your friends, fans, and followers. My only complaint is that I wasn’t able to find a way to manage followers internally within the tool.

Tweepular

If you can get past the neon Skittle colors, this is probably one of the best applications to use. It covers  managing followers, people not following you, and soon recent unfollowers.Navigation is simple and everything can be managed within the site. Plus it lets you bulk follow or unfollow. This app get’s my approval for the simple fact that it warns you when Twitter is experiencing database issues.

My Tweeple

I can do without all the glitter and glam, just give me something that works. My Tweeple does just that. Great tool, built by Shannon Whitely. It’s straight forward and easy to use. You are limited to 100 API per hour, so be sure to manage effectively.  You can choose to view followers, who you follow, or a list that contains both. You can also export these lists into Excel.

So what’s missing from this list? What tool would you recommend?