Stalking is not an information organization issue. It’s a human issue.

Facebook recently released a Friendship Pages feature that allows you to view the activity between you and a friend or two mutual friends.

The information has always been public to you. Now you just have a more powerful filtering tool than manually combing over someone’s Facebook history.

Most people are saying this is a stalky feature. I’m cool with it. You can’t discount proper use because of improper use.

People also freaked out when the News Feed was released. In fact, I reported on the reaction of the News Feed in 2006. There was justified outrage for the lake of basic privacy controls, but this feature essentially changed how information (mostly already available to others) was organized.

Funny how the act of organization makes something creepy. An analog example: A friend flips through your wedding album that you leave on the coffee table for guests. You’ve allowed certain people access by placing it in a traditional place of sharing.

If the friend takes out all the pictures of your spouse and lays them in rows on the coffee table… it just got creepy. The solution isn’t to hot gule the pictures to the album so the feature of sorting no longer exists. Here are some possible solutions:

• Don’t be friends with that person.
• Never make something public unless you are ok with people being able to see and filter the content: manually, mentally, or with stronger tools like the Friendship Page feature.

Better filters for public information is almost always a good thing. It only highlights the importance of knowing what happens when you publish content somewhere. If something is public to some kind of network, it can be found.

Stalking is not an information organization issue. It’s a human issue. We can’t fight stalking by rearranging information.

Takeaways:

1. People with access to information always have the power to organize and filter it for good or ill.
2. Don’t post something on Facebook if you’re not comfortable with all your friends being in a large room and seeing the content projected onto a screen. (Or the world if some of your content is public to everyone.)
3. Understand who is able to see the information you publish.

Dead Yard: Say a few words. Your website is dead.

Introducing… Dead Yard, a place to post website obituaries.

Actually, reintroducing would be a better word. As regional technology beat reporter Tom Cheredar reported, this started as a twitter application and it… it sorta died, so I’m resurrecting it to see how it does in a different format.

I’ve had plenty of projects that have needed to die, but I didn’t know how to give them a proper burial till now. Dead Yard greatly benefits two types of people: Serial Website Starters and Internet Hall Monitors.

Serial Website Starters

I have over 30 website domain names. I’m a little addicted. I love creating online concepts. When your instinct is to impulsively create, inevitably it leads to a lot of stuff online, and sometimes that stuff sucks. Enter Dead Yard, a way to find closure when things go horribly wrong.

Apparently I’m not the only chronic creative out there. In the act of buying domains, I felt a little addicted and asked the Nashville tech community how many domains people had.

Brad Blackman has 5. Megan Morris has 7ish. Nicholas Young has 10ish. Mitch Canter has 10 or 12. Julia Corrigan has 18. Jackson Miller has 18. Stephen and Samantha have over 25. (This is when I start feeling less addicted.) Chip Hayner has 45. Chris Ennis has 47—oh and 104 expired. Jason Moore has 57.

And I’m pretty sure some of these folks are being humble and not including the alternative extensions or alternate spellings for their websites. And there’s probably a few domain juggernauts out there who have yet to come forward. Comment below if you can beat Jason so we can either applaud or gasp depending on how personally addicted we are.

Internet Hall Monitors

There are certain people on the Internet, such as Morgan Levy, who were born to call people out when they’re doing it wrong. If Morgan thinks you are being spammy, it’s because everyone else thinks you’re being spammy, but we’re being polite. We respect the truth that comes from the lips of an Internet Hall Monitor.

Sometimes someone needs to make a stand and declare a website dead, like this one. I’m just saying if Morgan posted an obituary describing a tragic accident and how a website she hates died, I’d totally read it.

So if you need to lay to rest a website in your heart, if only for sanity’s sake, post an obituary on Dead Yard.

Books on technology not by Seth Godin (slides)

Godin is a marketing expert, but since he has been talking about online marketing so much lately, he often gets lumped into the technology category. If this is the only technology book in your reading diet, I need to get you excited about some other selections.

Here are five great books on technology if you need to diversify. Enjoy!

Books on technology not by Seth Godin

I presented this at Ignite Nashville.

Books on technology not by Seth Godin

Confession: I bash Seth Godin on Google Wave.

Now I’m going to tell you what I think of him in public at PodCamp’s after party, Ingnite Saturday March 6th.

In 5 minutes and 20 slides I’ll cover a few selections of fiction, non-fiction, comics, and other gems that serve as great alternatives and supplements to your reading list on technology.

In all fairness, I’m trying to finish The Complete Works Of Seth Godin in time for PodCamp. You can’t fully refute anything unless you’ve fully immersed yourself in the content.

Which reminds me, Tom Cheredar, have you finished reading the Twilight series I let you borrow? (Actually all his Twilight-bashing points are valid, but I still like the movies—er I mean… I probably just lost all my credibility.)

Back to establishing my ethos…

Godin is a marketing expert, but since he has been talking about online marketing so much lately, he often gets lumped into the technology category. If this is the only technology book in your reading diet, we need to invent a new dietary word and start using it and then of course start marketing it to our friends: Tribeans?

A taste of what can be in your mouth right now:

A Logic Named Joe

One neat way to dissect how the Internet is affecting our society is to read books that foreshadow the Internet before it was invented. It makes it easy to pick up on universal trends when authors envision technology as utopia or dystopia. When things come to pass, we can see how far off they were.

An example in science fiction is a short story written in 1946: A Logic Named Joe. Basically “logics” are computers and the story explores society after the “logics” start talking to each other and making information widely available.

There are early radio adaptations too!

1950 NBC radio adaptation of A Logic Name Joe

29:23 | mp3

You may defend Seth Godin or Twilight by commenting below:

Visual Artists and Social Media

I first doodled Robo Bird in church.

After posting a sketch on twitter, my friend Nicole wanted to commission more.

Here are all the paintings, including Robo Dog, and Robo Caterpillar.

It took four hours. I sketched in pencil, painted, then added marker.

I would totally do it again. I can see how painting would be a sweet profession or side gig. There’s nothing like raw creation.

I suspect there’s an untapped market for commissioned artwork for the technology crowd (at least in Nashville). For instance, an artist could incorporate tweets from a region or person into a work.

Visual Art complements Social Media

Musicians are all up on twitter, but I can see how visual art complements twitter to even a greater magnitude.

You can twitpic for a critique as a visual artist, whereas, exporting an mp3 takes more effort. Yes, Imogen Heap is a great example of how a musician can use twitter well.

My argument is this: if Imogen was a visual artist, her twitter account would be even more engaging because her medium would translate more powerfully.

How this could be taken further

If I wanted to make it as a full-time visual artist, here would be my game plan:

1. Look for untapped markets.
2. Start having work commissioned to build recurring revenue.
3. Always paint something extra when painting on commission using the 20 percent time concept.
4. Find a niche during my 20 percent time and create a group of themed paintings to exhibit in a venue, such as a coffee shop.
5. Build relationships on twitter around my work. Rather than post everything I do, I’d become a thought leader in my craft and blog about social media and visual art.

The community likely won’t be interested in simply looking at an artist’s art on twitter, especially if they are up and coming. This is why I’ve unfollowed many folks on twitter who simply post what they are selling on etsy.

In order to engage others, artists can place their work within a story or within a larger theme.

Which visual artists are using social media well?

Nashville Technology Networking Guide

Here’s an overview of the networking opportunities I’ve stumbled upon in my less than two years as a full-time IT professional in Nashville.

Some friends have asked where to get started. It’s a small town, but it still can be overwhelming. Here’s where I’ll now send them.

If you’re just getting started in a technology, interactive, web, or internet marketing field; are just now focusing on networking; or are wanting to simply meet some folks with like interests, here’s an immersion strategy and links for the following in Nashville:

• Tech-Infused Events
• Mixers
• Groups and Clubs
• Nashville Technology Beat Blogs
• Twitter Recommendations
• Creative Ways to Network in Nashville

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Localizing Google Wave to Nashville

We’re having Nashville’s first Wave-Up this Saturday. Come on out if you want to go ice skating or meet some Nashville Google Wave users!

I’ve had fun exploring uses for Google Wave. For instance, you’ll be able to play the next city crossword in Wave. Follow City Crossword on twitter to get updates.

Part of the fun is meeting early adopters and their innovation. Waves tagged with Nashville are starting to pop up, including a wave from the Nashville Scooter Enthusiasts—trendsetters in more. than. one. way.

Read on for strategies on getting an invite, search techniques, and why Wave is different.

Epic Artwork made in a Google Wave wavelet by Christy Frink

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Tech Fasting: Don’t Let Technolgoy Use You

I shared the concept of tech fasting at Ignite, which was during the after-party for BarCamp Nashville 2009. The idea is if we take breaks from technologies that are hurting us, we’ll learn how to best use them, and not allow them to use us. Here are the slides. What do you think? Do I have a career in telling jokes in bars?

Setup a Community Photo Email Address with Twitter & Flickr

Here are 4 steps on how to set up an email address a group can use to email and text photos to a community pool.

Photos can automagicly be sent to a Twitter account, Flickr, and your website.

This is free as long as you don’t need a custom email address like pic@yoursite.com or you won’t be collecting more than around 500 photos a month.

Here are some good uses for this crowdsourcing method:

• Weddings: Put an email address at tables and capture moments not caught by the photographer.
• Twitter Groups: Enhance groups using retweetbots such as the PredsFans and give your photos a central location.
• Promote Events: Plan an epic Halloween party and ask users to submit how their costume is coming, or award a Twitter follower a prize for a specific photo during a social media campaign.
• Tech Events and Mixers: Make it easy for people to upload to your photo pool by giving them an email address at events like BarCamp, CS Mixer, and Geek Breakfast. Configure Flickr to add your hashtag to uploads.
• Concert: Engage concert goers by allowing them to upload photos of the show and give them a reason to visit your website.

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Hear Nate speak Saturday at BarCamp and Ignite

Come stalk me Saturday at BarCamp Nashville, a free “un”-conference for the digital and technical community.

It’ll feel like I’m stalking you with my new, creepy presentation beard—I like to ease tensions.

You can catch me speaking at two times…

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