Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Again and again
Under the category of "things I wish I'd thought of first:" Facebook.
I usually avoid membership in any sort of groups: Hi5, Where in the World are you Now, those sorts of things.
But I really like Facebook's simple style, its organization by group, its ability to gauge certain trends (pop music, favourite TV shows and movies, etc) and I can see how it would be an incredibly useful tool were I still taking classes. Just list the classes I'm in, and I can instantly find a few dozen people taking Financial Management or Conflict Resolution along with me.
Plus it's interesting to see the mandatory categorization (and registration) based on schools attended. People love to acknowledge that they are (or have been) part of a school community. Too bad that my e-mail address is publicly listed in a web-scrapable fashion, though - spam, here I come.
And it seems that at least two groups are taking advantage of Facebook's rising popularity among younger students, by using it to appeal to them with their Feds campaigns.
I'm sure the data they are able to collect on people is astounding.
I usually avoid membership in any sort of groups: Hi5, Where in the World are you Now, those sorts of things.
But I really like Facebook's simple style, its organization by group, its ability to gauge certain trends (pop music, favourite TV shows and movies, etc) and I can see how it would be an incredibly useful tool were I still taking classes. Just list the classes I'm in, and I can instantly find a few dozen people taking Financial Management or Conflict Resolution along with me.
Plus it's interesting to see the mandatory categorization (and registration) based on schools attended. People love to acknowledge that they are (or have been) part of a school community. Too bad that my e-mail address is publicly listed in a web-scrapable fashion, though - spam, here I come.
And it seems that at least two groups are taking advantage of Facebook's rising popularity among younger students, by using it to appeal to them with their Feds campaigns.
I'm sure the data they are able to collect on people is astounding.
