Some Social IT trends towards 2018?

It has been a while since I have posted anything here. I have several unfinished drafts lined up. Finally I just put a "Finished" on this one, since I have removed several of the blogs and need to "clean my Blogspot sphere" even more. After the deletes- here comes this one at the least. Maybe a bit to "development directed" for some of you. But I think it is as easy to read as I can make it in the short span of time I can put into it.

As always I am open for all suggestions on content, spelling errors or formulating the message better. So I hope the early readers will help me produce a better result:)

Below is one video which I found interesting while "working" on my next post.

The posts before I have mostly been looking at some of the things happening today and doing some superficial analyzing of it.




Welcome to my home- behave or I will throw you out
I wrote a little about in this post thoughts around the trend that the presenters and sellers need to "visit me" in the future. The users will not "visit them".


The "My home" application, or social network site(Facebook, My Space, etc) which is the most flexible and connect me to all my contacts, sources and resources will win.

You might say, well this is "Internet Explorer" or "Firefox"- yes and no- both of them are way to static and the real content which will decide "where to go" is in the middle.

This choice will be based upon the level of functionality I want and see (security, include possibility, etc). This spins around Personalization, the user will decide. This should be in the mind of presenters and content providers. The first radio-channels which let me listen to them while browsing from my environment(FaceBook, My Space, etc) will be the leader in that. Take YouTube as an example. Instead of turning of the ability to share videos embedded completely. They try to present their way of earning money in the small window I might share. The more you limit our personal use of the data you put out, the less interesting and available the data will be. The "smaller the spread"(today visits) will be.


To create "Environments" like this
When it comes to creating the applications the trend is that the "agile" approach to creating will be the best suited to approach this. The more resources put into it with an agile approach towards user feedback the better you will succeed.

The Agile approach can be adoptable to every industry- the Internet can(will) become the glue that makes it possible and holds this together.

If Ford wants me to buy their car- I can tell them what I want or need. This way we can have much more user- or buyer- created production. To meet this trend, Ford needs to give me the tools, in an entertaining and informative way, to give them the feedback. This is how they should try to sell me their capacity to produce something I will enjoy and that fits my needs.


Collecting these the parts
Let the user decide where from and what to collect of information, entertainment, in a environment (device, application or site) which fits the users preferences. If there is something I have to pay for. Let me pay for it based upon the environment I am using not on how you wish me to do it.


Presenting products, messages and information
So the challenges for the once who want to present something (and then sell) is that they need to adapt that presentation in a way that fits my preferences. The need for flexibility will be huge. I should be able to pick what part I want to use in my environment of choice. Then maybe share in any way I want. This will then be used both in a "good way" and "bad way" for the presenter. But the positive thing with "bad presentation" will be that you might be able to adapt to the criticism and then do a better job next time. You can do that much faster and with less resources spent on something that simply will not be consumed.

Simple Social Security II - Legal / Non legal

Coming up: Flaws in the system that can be misused in a non intended / illegal way. Please subscribe (button on the right).


This post will not touch the "beneficial" sides of data mining in Social Networks. How this part work you can read about here. The sites we like to use needs to generate income and we should accept that.

We can choose to subscribe to, or use sites that we have payed for and which is not based upon ads and commercials. If we want something "for free" we have to accept commercial interests will find as effective ways as possible to reach their target audience. Thereby accepting that they use the information we put in to find products we might be interested in. This is done everywhere now.


To balance this post a little I have chosen one video the shows this in a negative context, but remember to balance this out yourself:




What should not be accepted in that kind of data mining is that it is use non - beneficial for us as users. It should be illegal to use it in a way to gain a particular political interest or political view. The problems here is in the borders between national security and "police work". We have seen historical misuse of other tools under cover of legal work, and this should also be dealt with in the same way regarding social networks. So in basic: Don't do anything illegal, and do not accept anyone (governmental) doing anything illegal with the information you leave behind.

So yes there is easy ways to collect information from you and the point is that you should not be afraid of that until you do something illegal online or off line. Remember to think of what is illegal in your homeland and the land where the server of your social network is situated (this could be viewed upon as political differences but in basic you should just accept this rule).

Simple Social Security I - "beneficial" use of user info

The sites we are using for free needs to generate income. They will use all the information we give to generate this income. The information will be stored and used to find products and advertisements that might generate income. This is called Data Mining. When you are on a social network you should be aware that the site you are on will in most cases share this information with partners (applications, advertisers and others) in any way to generate income.

Touched in next post: Simple Social Security II - Legal / Non legal

In most western countries there are laws that try to prevent the information from spreading, but people might break laws and spread (store & copy) it anyway. That is just something you should be aware of but not accept if it happens.

Most western countries have also personal security laws that prevent use which you as a user didn't understand it could be used for- and again that you should not accept. If you are unsure on where somebody have gotten the information from, most western countries have laws that state you have a right to know. This is more touched in this post.

So then back to the "beneficial" use, it's called "data mining", using the information to find ways that commercial interest can generate an income. This is in broad terms explained in this video:

Global outreach from the Norwegian Prime minister :)

Not true. But it could have been.

The Norwegian Prime minister, as leader of his party and with elections coming up created his own Facebook page / public profile. I am actually working on a small post around Social Ads and other ads on large sites, how easy it is and the effect, reach and so on. Coming later.

The "Global outreach from the Norwegian Prime minister" is an ad- probably directed towards Norwegians and also probably set up to "hit" the profiles of people from Norway.

So what is the message? - "Become Jens Stoltenberg Supporter" :)

This is in fact The Norwegian Prime minister paying an US based company for an add on a social network, to reach Norwegians with the coming election in mind.

No matter the result - it is an better understanding than I have seen from many regarding how this works today. Better understanding on the global, real internet revolution (the use of it) and on how social networks works at this time. Nobody can claim that they exactly know how this work, and what the results will be. But not all can afford to wait and see.

There is alternative channels and people are spending much more time on them today, and not only that, they are interacting in a much broader (masses) and larger scale.

Update McCain vs Obama - Obama sluggish & McCain polarizes

At the movement a small manual check on different social network spots around the net:

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Looking at growth in posts and joiners in social networks. Quick count.

Obama gains around 1% supporters, a sluggish movement, where maybe many already have showed their support. The against side of Obama also appears sluggish

McCain gains 5%+ supporters but also the against side is growing with around 6%+.

So McCain is the one in the spotlight at the moment (and we see that in media). I think I can see more "against McCain sentences" than "for Obama sentences".

3D social

There are many social arenas or if you wish, social networks, connecting people on Internet. Besides the well known, "social network labeled", like Facebook and MY Space - You have all the different games, special interest sites and you have virtual worlds.

This post is about Second Life - is it a Virtual world, garbage dump or maybe a beginning 3D Social Network?

Here is one Image from creating and testing.



Area closed down now.


When I tested Second Life, a while back, I did the test mostly as a developer. Testing out creation & object design, scripting, and integration with other sites. Those parts worked well.

As I experienced, Linden Labs(creators of Second Life) had simply made it to easy to create elements in the environment("The world"), or user interface if you wish. The lack of Quality Control made it, in many ways, a large garbage dump. Some people, some places connecting, but not the large masses. This garbage feeling is a bit like the feeling you get with many of the Facebook applications.

The only parts that could remind of social arenas or network where the different clubs. If you looked at the stats it was the porn- clubs which got the most visits. I see now that Linden Labs have started to work on the controls rather than the content of the arena("The world" or user interface). Looks a bit Wii:



There are galleries, music, photos, videos and areas that might interest people see & visit, but it is simply to far between the quality items which people can relate to in a broad scale.

To make this work as a real social arena or network it will have to be less garbage. Maybe mostly contain things that is closer to the things people like to share with friends. Things people share on other sites.

All of these online social arenas is historically connected to the, text-based, IRC and MUDs. Tools to let people meet, interact and chat. In the MUDs Quality Control was essential. No point in making an environment huge, if it contains and lot of uninteresting garbage which few would see the point of. Lets say, "stuff" that 95% of the people, 95% of the time, wouldn't be interested in. Unless you are going for a niece among people or in peoples time spent on this.

But, I guess we soon will see some use of 3D engines to generate small scaled social networks.



Another thing is the technical difficulties that a 3D world have, today the Second Life still feels a bit like this:



Maybe that will change.

PS! By the way rumors say that there is Barack Obama and John McCain areas on SL:)

Update McCain vs Obama

Well now the polls are showing clearly the trends we have seen online for a couple of weeks. McCain is gaining at the moment. McCain have "recruited" around 3% and Obama only 1% more people since "FaceBook and Google "prediction"- Barack Obama wins?" post here.

Both candidate's "Against"-groups have a more sluggish growth at the moment. Will check in a week or two to see how this will appear at that time.