You might remember the near-novel I wrote a couple months ago on LinkedIn InMaps titled, “Hubs and Connectors: Understanding Networks Through Data Visualization.” Now New Work City member Alex Shapiro, founder of CEO of TouchGraph, has created a powerful network visualization based on contact exchanges made via Hashable at SXSW. The Java applet allows you [Keep Reading…]
Hubs and Connectors: Understanding Networks Through Data Visualization
Yesterday a bunch of friends were tweeting about the new LinkedIn InMaps web app (part of LinkedIn Labs), so I had to check it out for myself. Wow, wow, wow! InMaps are data visualizations of your professional network, based on LinkedIn connections, with you as the center node. I’ve been waiting years for LinkedIn to [Keep Reading…]
Onboarding: A Sidebar in “Designing Social Interfaces”
Last May I was given the great privilege to write a sidebar in Christian Crumlish and Erin Malone‘s fabulous new book, Designing Social Interfaces. The topic I was asked to write about is “onboarding” — designing welcoming experiences for new users by easing them in. You might have seen a couple blog posts that I’ve [Keep Reading…]
Twitter’s Most Moronic Change: Removing @ Reply Settings
I’m furious. Absolutely astounded and ready to scream. Why? Because Twitter just announced a drastic change to their service that will forever affect how people interact with the stream. They have effectively removed all discoverability of new people to follow and connect with, thereby destroying the very element that made Twitter the powerful networking tool [Keep Reading…]
Please help me feed hungry New Yorkers #tenbuckthursday
As you might already know, I’m involved with a great organization called Social Media for Social Change that takes advantage of the connections we make online in order to produce face-to-face fundraising events around the country. The first Social Media for Social Change fundraising event in New York City will be held on the evening [Keep Reading…]
Why the new Skittles website is ridiculous but I don’t actually care
Skittles is one of my favorite candies. I love opening up a fresh pack, finding one of each color and squishing them together to make a rainbow. It just makes me happy. I’ve been eating Skittles my whole life and I’ve been on a computer my whole life, and yet never in a million years [Keep Reading…]
The Stranger Aversion
Social media has created a world in which everyone is interconnected. Forget six degrees of separation; we’re probably down to three. So have we completely lost the notion of a stranger? Charlie O’Donnell, CEO of Path 101, recently wrote a post on his personal blog about the shift towards using social systems to connect with [Keep Reading…]
Social Feed Aggregators
There are hundreds, probably thousands, of powerful social networking platforms out there, with new ones launching every week. Send 140-character messages with Twitter. Save links with del.icio.us. Promote content with Digg. Share music with Last.fm. It’s endless. Lifestreaming — recording your daily activities through text, links, photos, music and video — is quickly becoming the [Keep Reading…]
Places you can find me
In the spirit of unreciprocated online friendship, feel free to add me to your networks on the following sites. Chances are good that I’ll add you back. Twitter FriendFeed Del.icio.us Flickr Digg StumbleUpon Upcoming Readr BrightKite Dopplr Should I be connected somewhere that I’m not? Let me know in [Keep Reading…]
The Meaning of Friend
Russ Unger’s latest post “We Are All Friends Here. Right?” got me thinking about the nature of friendship on and off the web. I have made a lot of new friends in the three months since I started this blog and began using Twitter. At first I told myself that I would be using both [Keep Reading…]