Tag Archive for 'social networking sites'

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Explaining APML: what it is & why you want it

Published on October 10, 2007 in DataPortability, with 0 Comments. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Lately there has been a lot of chatter about APML. As a member of the workgroup advocating this standard, I thought I might help answer some of the questions on people's minds. Primarily - "what is an APML file", and "why do I want one". I suggest you read the excellent article by Marjolein Hoekstra on attention profiling that she recently wrote, if you haven't already done so, as an introduction to attention profiling. This article will focus on explaining what the technical side of an APML file is and what can be done with it. Hopefully by understanding what APML actually is, you'll understand how it can benefit you as a user.

APML - the specification
APML stands for Attention Profile Markup Language. It's an attention economy concept, based on the XML technical standard. I am going to assume you don't know what attention means, nor what XML is, so here is a quick explanation to get you on board.

Attention
There is this concept floating around on the web about the attention economy. It means as a consumer, you consume web services - e-mail, rss readers, social networking sites - and you generate value through your attention. For example, if I am on a Myspace band page for Sneaky Sound System, I am giving attention to that band. Newscorp (the company that owns MySpace) is capturing that implicit data about me (ie, it knows I like Electro/Pop/House music). By giving my attention, Newscorp has collected information about me. Implicit data are things you give away about yourself without saying it, like how people can determine what type of person you are purely off the clothes you wear. It's like explicit data - information you give up about yourself (like your gender when you signed up to MySpace).

Attention camera

I know what you did last Summer

XML
XML is one of the core standards on the web. The web pages you access, are probably using a form of XML to provide the content to you (xHTML). If you use an RSS reader, it pulls a version of XML to deliver that content to you. I am not going to get into a discussion about XML because there are plenty of other places that can do that. However I just want to make sure you understand, that XML is a very flexible way of structuring data. Think of it like a street directory. It's useless if you have a map with no street names if you are trying to find a house. But by having a map with the street names, it suddenly becomes a lot more useful because you can make sense of the houses (the content). It's a way of describing a piece of content.

APML - the specification
So all APML is, is a way of converting your attention into a structured format. The way APML does this, is that it stores your implicit and explicit data - and scores it. Lost? Keep reading.

Continuing with my example about Sneaky Sound System. If MySpace supported APML, they would identify that I like pop music. But just because someone gives attention to something, that doesn't mean they really like it; the thing about implicit data is that companies are guessing because you haven't actually said it. So MySpace might say I like pop music but with a score of 0.2 or 20% positive - meaning they're not too confident. Now lets say directly after that, I go onto the Britney Spears music space. Okay, there's no doubting now: I definitely do like pop music. So my score against "pop" is now 0.5 (50%). And if I visited the Christina Aguilera page: forget about it - my APML rank just blew to 1.0! (Note that the scoring system is a percentage, with a range from -1.0 to +1.0 or -100% to +100%).

APML ranks things, but the concepts are not just things: it will also rank authors. In the case of Marjolein Hoekstra, who wrote that post I mention in my intro, because I read other things from her it means I have a high regard for her writing. Therefore, my APML file gives her a high score. On the other hand, I have an allergic reaction whenever I read something from Valleywag because they have cooties. So Marjolein's rank would be 1.0 but Valleywag's -1.0.

Aside from the ranking of concepts (which is the core of what APML is), there are other things in an APML file that might confuse you when reviewing the spec. "From" means 'from the place you gave your attention'. So with the Sneaky Sound System concept, it would be 'from: MySpace'. It's simply describing the name of the application that added the implicit node. Another thing you may notice in an APML file is that you can create "profiles". For example, the concepts about me in my "work" profile is not something I want to mix with my "personal" profile. This allows you to segment the ranked concepts in your APML into different groups, allowing applications access to only a particilar profile.

Another thing to take note of is 'implicit' and 'explicit' which I touched on above - implicit being things you give attention to (ie, the clothes you wear - people guess because of what you wear, you are a certain personality type); explicit being things you gave away (the words you said - when you say "I'm a moron" it's quite obvious, you are). APML categorises concepts based on whether you explicitly said it, or it was implicitly determined by an application.

Okay, big whoop - why can an APML do for me?
In my eyes, there are five main benefits of APML: filtering, accountability, privacy, shared data, and you being boss.

1) Filtering
If a company supports APML, they are using a smart standard that other companies use to profile you. By ranking concepts and authors for example, they can use your APML file in the future to filter things that might interest you. As I have such a high ranking for Marjolein, when Bloglines implements APML, they will be able to use this information to start prioritising content in my RSS reader. Meaning, of the 1000 items in my bloglines reader, all the blog postings from her will have more emphasis for me to read whilst all the ones about Valleywag will sit at the bottom (with last nights trash).

2) Accountability
If a company is collecting implicit data about me and trying to profile me, I would like to see that infomation thank you very much. It's a bit like me wearing a pink shirt at a party. You meet me at a party, and think "Pink - the dude must be gay". Now I am actually as straight as a doornail, and wearing that pink shirt is me trying to be trendy. However what you have done is that by observation, you have profiled me. Now imagine if that was a web application, where this happens all the time. By letting them access your data - your APML file - you can change that. I've actually done this with Particls before, which supports APML. It had ranked a concept as high based on things I had read, which was wrong. So what I did, was changed the score to -1.0 for one of them, because that way, Particls would never show me content on things it thought I would like.

3) Privacy
I joined the APML workgroup for this reason: it was to me a smart away to deal with the growing privacy issue on the web. It fits my requirements about being privacy compliant:

  • who can see information about you
  • when can people see information about you:
  • what information they can see about you

The way APML does that is by allowing me to create 'profiles' within my APML file; allowing me to export my APML file from a company; and by allowing me to access my APML file so I can see what profile I have.

drivers

Here is my APML, now let me in. Biatch.

4) Shared data
An APML file can, with your permission, share information between your web-services. My concepts ranking books on Amazon.com, can sit alongside my RSS feed rankings. What's powerful about that, is the unintended consequences of sharing that data. For example, if Amazon ranked what my favourite genres were about books - this could be useful information to help me filter my RSS feeds about blog topics. The data generated in Amazon's ecosystem, can benefit me and enjoy a product in another ecosystem, in a mutually beneficial way.

5) You're the boss!
By being able to generate APML for the things you give attention to, you are recognising the value your attention has - something companies already place a lot of value on. Your browsing habits can reveal useful information about your personality, and the ability to control your profile is a very powerful concept. It's like controlling the image people have of you: you don't want the wrong things being said about you. :-)

Want to know more?
Check the APML FAQ. Othersise, post a comment if you still have no idea what APML is. Myself or one of the other APML workgroup members would be more than happy to answer your queries.

5 observations of how social networking (online) has changed social networking (offline)

Published on September 16, 2007 in social computing, with 0 Comments. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Just then, I had an image get shattered. A well respected blogger, whose online persona had me think they were a very cool person offline, is infact, a fat geek with an annoying voice. I can pretty much cross off the list that he can relate to experiences of how Facebook is mentioned in trendy nightclubs on the dancefloor.

Another thing I have noticed: all the major commentators & players of the Internet economy, are usually married, in their 30s or 40s, and almost all come from an IT background.

Don't get me wrong - the industry has a lot of people that are a goldmine with what they say. They challenge my thinking, and they are genuinely intelligent. But although they are users of web services like Facebook or MySpace - just like the rest of society - they are people experiencing these technologies in the bubble of the technology community. Their view of the world, is not aligned with what's actually happening in the mainstream. No surprises there - they are the early adopters, the innovators and the pioneers. It's funny however, that comparable to other services (like Twitter) the adoption amongst the tech community for Facebook has been slow: it was only when the developer network launched that it started getting the attention.

What I want to highlight is that most commentators have no way in the world of understanding the social impact of these technologies in the demograghic where the growth occurs. We all know for example, Facebook is exploding with users - but do we know why it's exploding? A married man in his 40s with a degree in computer science, isn't going to be able to answer that, because most of the growth comes from single 20 year olds with an history major.

So what I am about to recount is my personal experience. I am not dressing it up as a thought-piece; I am just purely sharing how I have seen the world take to social networking sites and how it has transformed the lives of my own and the people around me. I'm 23 years old, the people in my life generally fall into the computer clueless category, and I have about 500 Facebook friends that I know through school, university, work, or just life (about ten are in the tech industry).

1) Social networking sites as a pre-screening tool
Observation: I randomly was approached by a chick one night and during the course of our conversation she insisted I knew a certain person. Ten minutes, and 20 more "I swear...you know xxx" - I finally realised she was right and that I did know that person. For her to be so persistent in her claim, she had to be sure of herself. But how can someone be sure of themselves with that piece of information, when I had only met her 30 seconds earlier?

I then realised this chick had already seen me before - via facebook. I know this is the case, because I myself have wandered on a persons profile and realised we have a lot of mutual friends. In those times I would note it is bound to happen that I would meet them.

Implication: People are meeting people and know who they are before they even talk. They say most couples meet through friends. Well now you can explore your friends's friends - and then start hanging around that friend when you know they know someone you like!

2) Social networking sites getting you more dates
Observation: I met a chick and had a lengthy chat with her, and although she was nice, I left that party thinking I would probably never see her again as I didn't give out any contact details. That next day, she added me as a friend on Facebook. In another scenario, there was a girl I met from a long time ago and I hadn't seen her since. We randomly found each other on Facebook, and I've actually got to know the girl - picking up from where we left off.

Implication: Social networking sites help you further pursue someone, even though you didn't get their number. In fact, it's a lot less akward. Facebook has become a aprt of the courtship process - flirtation is a big aspect of the sites activity.

3) Social networking sites helping me decide
Observation: There was a big party, but I wasn't sure if I would go because I didn't know who would go with me. I looked at the event RSVP, and I to my surprise found out a whole stack of people I knew were going.

Implication: Facebook added valuable information that helped me decide. Not knowing what people were going, I probably wouldn't have gone. Think about this on another level: imagine you were were interested in buying a camera, and you had access to the camera makes of your friends (because the digital photos they upload contain the camera model - as seen with Flickr). Knowing what your friends buy is a great piece of advice on what you want to buy.

4) Social networking sites increasing my understanding of people I know
Observation: I found out when a friend added me on myspace, that she was bisexual - something I never would have realised. Being bi is no big deal - but it's information that people don't usually give up about themselves. Likewise, I have since found out about people I went to school with are now gay. Again - no big deal - but discreet information like that increases your depth of understanding about someone (ie, not making gay jokes around them). I know what courses my contacts have studied since I last saw them, and what they are doing with their lives. I also know of someone that will be at one of my travel destinations when I go on holiday.

Implication: You are in the loop about the lives of everyone you've met. It's nothing bad, because these people control what you can see, but it's great because there are things you know, things you know you don't know, but now you can find out things you didn't know that you didn't know.

5) Social networking sites as a shared calendar
Observation: My little sister is currently going through 21st season - back to back parties of her friends. One of the gripes of 21sts when organising them, is overlap with other peoples. Not only that - but also the physical process of contacting people and getting them to actually RSVP - it's a pain. However unlike my 21st season experience from a few years ago, my sister has none of these issues. This is because Facebook is like one big shared calender. Another example is how I send my congratulations to birthday friends a lot more than I have in the past because I actually know its their birthday- due to fact our calendars are effectively pooled as a shared calendar.

Implication: Facebook has become an indispensable tool to peoples social lives.

6) Bonus observation - explaining the viral adoption of Facebook
I have a few friends that don't have Facebook. You can almost count them on the one hand. And when you bring it up, they explode with a "I'm sick of Facebook!" and usually get defensive because so many people hassle them. In most cases, they make an admission that one day, they will join. The lesson here is that Facebook is growing because of peer pressure. The more people in someone's network, the more valuable facebook becomes to them. When they say 40 million users, it's actually 40 million sales people.

God bless the network effect.

Social networks as the new e-mail

Published on May 6, 2007 in social computing, with 0 Comments. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

The other day, I received my first spam message within Facebook, which I thought was reminiscent of the Nigerian scam

Please if you are reliable and Interested in been a commissioned rep with our company we will be glad but you have to be a Trustworthy person. We have sold out to major galleries and private collectors from few parts of the world. We have been facing serious difficulties when it comes to the payment method, i.e The international money transfer tax for legal entities (companies) in Latvia is 25%, whereas for the individual it is only 7%.There is no sense for us to work this way, while tax for international money transfer made by a private individual is 7% .That's why we need you! Branches have been set up in few countries,and the head branch in UK.we are working on setting up a branch in the states, so for now i need a representative in Canada, America,Asia,New Zealand,and Europe who will be handling the payment aspect. so all you need do is cash the Payment,deduct your percentage and wire the rest back.</p> <p>JOB DESCRIPTION? 1. Receive payment from Clients 2. Cash Payments at your Bank 3. Deduct 10% which will be your percentage/pay on Payment processed. 4. Forward balance after deduction of percentage/pay to any of the offices you will be contacted to send payment to(Payment is to be forwarded either by Money Gram or Western Union Money Transfer).

But unlike spam I would get in my e-mail inbox, I could actually check the profile of the user that sent the message to me. It was empty and a dud - which is how I could assess it was spam. Spam through a closed social networking site like Facebook has very different implications to e-mail spam: it's accountable.

Unlike e-mail spam, you don't know who is sending it. Sometimes, the e-mail spammers can make it look like it comes from a certain company you trust (like your bank). This also to some extent happens on myspace, whereby spammers do up their profile and deceivingly make it look like a real profile when it isn't (ie, a pretty girl with her interests filled out - but as soon as you click somewhere, it takes you to a porn referral site). Facebook is different, because people can't modify their profiles (yet) like you can on myspace, so the person sending the message is a lot more accountable to their true identity. You can judge how real they are by the amount of friends they have, information in their profile, and postings on their profile from other people.

Profile comments are the key aspect - no comments, suggests a fake account - because you can't fake friends to post real discussions. A spammer would need to create a few dozen profiles, to replicate the thread of discussion via peoples profiles, so that it could make someones profile look "real": that's a lot of effort that a computer robot can't do on it's own.

A new way of communicating

Aside from this, there is something more interesting: I rarely use e-mail to communicate with friends anymore. Messages or comments/wallposts are now the new way of how people communicate. In the old days, people would forward a funny video - now they "post a bulletin". People post "notes" and tag their friends if they are mentioned in the note - a bit like writing a story, and alerting those who are involved to have a look. It's the equivilant to sending an e-mail to a group of people - but leaving it somewhere where all your other friends can have a read as well if they want. That is huge - this open style of communication is something e-mail never did.

I've previously written how the "post a comment" feature is one of the most powerful features of social networking sites. When I say these sites are the new e-mail, it's not just messages that are the means of communicating - it's actually mostly through these profile comments that people have these discussions. The interesting thing about this new way of communicating, is that two people can be having a discussion, however all their friends can monitor the conversation. For example, I made a tongue-in-cheek comment of a Ukrainian friend of mine on her facebook profile wall, and another mutual (Ukrainian) friend saw the comment and joined in defending Ukrainians!

Social networking sites work because they are creating a community feel, where people interact within a tribe or small village that everyone knows each other, and they communicate in what is like a open forum. If it's one thing I am sure of, these sites are no longer fads: they are a positive evolution of the Internet as a communications medium. It appear solutions to e-mail spam with clever algorithms that can filter messages arn't the way forward; the solution is to be found in new ways of communicating, and that is what social networking sites do really well.