Aronjakob.se » In English

So what’s with Facebook?

Aron — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:04:53 +0000

Betsy Devine notices that the Web 2.0 buzz of user-generated content now has a new name: crowdsourcing. An excellent example is the flora of user-built applications for the Facebook platform.

I’ve been on Facebook for a few months by now, and it is in my opinion the best community so far. Most important is of course the international scope – my previous experiences with communities (LunarStorm, Helgon and Spexforum, most notably) lack the necessary mass of members. Facebook is the best simply because “everyone” is there, from several different social gatherings in my real life. Like the Adium instant message app, Facebook offers me a collection of all my friends.*

The other pro with Facebook is the brilliant combination of crowdsourcing and community. The sheer number of members means that there is incentive for programmers to build content, in the now well-established way of uploading pictures, sharing links etc. However, Facebook makes this user-added content meaningful by using tags – in a different way than for instance Flickr or Bloggar.se. As a user, I am not interested in pictures or blog posts of/about “cars”, “sailing” or “A birth-day party”, but rather in pictures and posts with the cars, sailing and birth-day parties of my friends. The social network is a much more meaningful model of organization than the content tags otherwise so popular in Web 2.0.

And finally, the applications. Facebook has embraced the entire concept of Web 2.0, since users can not only add content but also add new ways to use the content. The applications of Facebook are, just like the basic functions of photo sharing etc, drawing strength from the combination of crowdsourcing and community. Trivia quizzes and arcade games have existed on the web since the first Java Scripts, but are pretty boring if you cannot compare the results with your friends, only with a top list of unbeatable scores. Movie ratings on IMDb have little value since they are mass votes with no sender. The Facebook apps solve this problem by restricting the scores and ratings displayed to the ones of your friends.

* Of course, there is a difference in meta-level, but the result is similar.

The complete Rufus

Aron — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 12:41:07 +0000

Since payday is rapidly approaching and there’s some money left in my account, I bought myself Rufus Wainwright’s Want One to complete my collection. It’s lovely. Now comes the hard task to appoint my favorite record of the set. Want Two has the lowest odds, but who can say how this will end?

Todo

Aron — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 20:57:18 +0000

Recent additions to my to-do list (so much to do, so little time):

Get my driving license. This will take some time.
Read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I’m waaay behind.
Finish Orientalism by Edward Said (before Harry, I think).
In a book at home, check what the drink of July might be. The drink of the month of June was: Margharita.
Make myself a hat for the upcoming Medieval Week.

What’s this?

Aron — Fri, 10 Dec 2004 08:29:23 +0000

Since I’m expecting an American visitor to this site, I thought I might as well make an introductory post in English. Who am I? A 22-year old resident of Stockholm, Sweden, currently dividing my time between ancient history/classical archaeology at the Stockholm University and a part-time job at the Nobel Museum (which is quite busy this time of year…) as Education Officer. My father is a university-level Russian teacher which has brought me abroad for two years of my youth, a year in Moscow (1992-93) and a year in Columbus, OH (1995-96). Because of this latter visit, I did English-speaking classes at the Swedish high school (“gymnasium”) Thorildsplan, from which I graduated in the year 2000. Since then, I’ve been studying computer science, physics, some education and now ancient history. This spring I’ll study music at the Stockholm university, since another of my interests is playing the trumpet. Right now I’m in two bands, both at the Royal Institute of Technology.

/Aron