Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
We are seeing the pushback from people who joined Facebook without anticipating what happens when all their friends can send stuff to them all the time. The problem isn't Facebook so much as all those apps that prompt users to 'send this to ten of your friends' (one - the sticky notes - was so aggressive it pre-selected ten friends and prompted me to invite them before I had even finished installing it on my own account). This will backfire. But before it does, it's giving us all some really good object lessons on how to build the real (that is, the open and distributed) social network that will eventually replace Facebook. One think I'll make sure to install: the app that gives me the option to delete the contacts who sent me an invite. That'll cool things down in a hurry. Related: Mike Seyfang denounces (accurately) Facebook as a closed environment. And Steve O'Hear discusses Facebook's spam machine. Peter Cashmore wfrites about companies banning Facebook. And Dan Gillmor pleads to readers, "Don't write me on Facebook any more."

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2024 01:29 a.m.

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