Tim Berners-Lee says Facebook is a trap
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Tim Berners-Lee says Facebook is a trap
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Re: Tim Berners-Lee says Facebook is a trap
#2I voted with my feet - I have long since stopped using Facebook for anything other than an occasional game playing platform. Unfortunately I haven't yet found a suitable replacement to use as a social network, but I live in hope...
Re: Tim Berners-Lee says Facebook is a trap
#3Aren't closed silos a big part of the web already, Facebook or no? The W3C is mostly a closed silo, isn't it?
Re: Tim Berners-Lee says Facebook is a trap
#4Here's what I use instead of Facebook:
Google calendar for events - Anyone with any email address can be invited to an event. Google calendar also emails out standard format .ics files with it's invites so participants are free to use whatever calendar app they choose and just import the ics files. (This also hooks up nicely with my android calendar). I'm looking forward to when everyone on Facebook gets an @facebook email address and then I'm going to start sending them all Google calendar invites ;-) Seriously, I think Google calendar is a seriously under recognised service.
Twitter for a news feed equivalent - You don't need an account to read so it is open enough. (There is also status.net or identi.ca if you want even more openness). I embed a feed of the most recent posts in my webpage. If you want to subscribe, you can use RSS so you don't have to use twitter to follow me.
Photos - I use a combination of FlickR and my own custom image gallery on my website. On FlickR you can set the photos to be public so viewers don't need to have an account.
Messages - Obviously I just use email.
When I meet people I want to connect with, I ask for their email address rather than ask if they are on Facebook. I occasionally use Facebook to find people and then ask for their email address via Fb message.
I can't think of anything else I really miss out on from Fb.
Re: Tim Berners-Lee says Facebook is a trap
#5So if Facebook is so bad, someone please come up with a compelling high level vision of what could replace it and why the replacement would be better?
Preferably something as compelling as Sir Tim's original vision for the Web...
Re: Tim Berners-Lee says Facebook is a trap
#6Here's what I use instead of Facebook: Google calendar for events - Anyone with any email address can be invited to an event. Google calendar also emails out standard format .ics files with it's invites so participants are free to use whatever calendar app they choose and just import the ics files. (This also hooks up nicely with my android calendar). I'm looking forward to when everyone on Facebook gets an @facebook…
You're not missing out on the quality of the tools. You're missing out on connectivity. Some people can't be accessed without Facebook. The quantity of those people is growing.
Re: Tim Berners-Lee says Facebook is a trap
#7Here's what I use instead of Facebook: Google calendar for events - Anyone with any email address can be invited to an event. Google calendar also emails out standard format .ics files with it's invites so participants are free to use whatever calendar app they choose and just import the ics files. (This also hooks up nicely with my android calendar). I'm looking forward to when everyone on Facebook gets an @facebook…
> I can't think of anything else I really miss out on from Fb.
I can't tell if you've left Facebook and feel these solutions replace it, or if you've just read the list of features, and decided you're covered. What you're missing: The aggregated, passive flow of opportunities to stay in touch.
I occasionally have short conversations with people I haven't seen for a decade, prompted by something either I or they posted. It's nothing deep and profound, but it feels good to stay in touch.
If I just put pictures and news on my blog or flickr, I would be relying on hundreds of acquaintances from the past 15 year to regularly visit these places - and why would they do that?
Re: Tim Berners-Lee says Facebook is a trap
#8w3c should create open standards for social networks.
i don't think these companies are going to do it, and this seems exactly what w3c is meant to do. so why not? seems more productive.
Re: Tim Berners-Lee says Facebook is a trap
#9Here's what I use instead of Facebook: Google calendar for events - Anyone with any email address can be invited to an event. Google calendar also emails out standard format .ics files with it's invites so participants are free to use whatever calendar app they choose and just import the ics files. (This also hooks up nicely with my android calendar). I'm looking forward to when everyone on Facebook gets an @facebook…
You're not missing out on the quality of the tools. You're missing out on connectivity. Some people can't be accessed without Facebook. The quantity of those people is growing.
Everyone has an e-mail address (it's a requirement to be able to create a Facebook account) and pretty much everyone is on one of the IM networks.
Re: Tim Berners-Lee says Facebook is a trap
#10The other day we went to an arts event/party. Most of the pictures are trapped inside Facebook. The artists couldn't comprehend why I didn't have "face" at all. This same crowd would've uploaded the pictures to Flickr only a couple of years ago.
Staying out of Facebook isn't enough.