Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

Every month, Robert Loch and I host an event called Top Cats. The goal of the event is to forge stronger ties and greater collaboration between the internet start up, mobile, interactive marketing, TV and advertising communities.

There are no formalities apart from my introduction to the evening and we don’t have speakers. It’s an informal gathering of likeminded people, many of whom end up collaborating on very interesting projects.

Who qualifies to be a Top Cat

• Established Agencies = Founder/CEO/Chair
• Technology Providers & Brands (big companies such as Microsoft and the BBC) = Director/Head or other senior decision maker
• Startups = Founder/CEO/Chair + secured VC funding or have a seriously good track record
• Other = Publishers, Editors, Authors, TV Personalities, Establish Journalists, you get the picture.

I’m going to have a chit chat with a few people tonight and stream it live via my mobile. Keep an eye on my Qik account and feel free to comment and ask questions in the live chat room. It might be better to subscribe to my Twitter feed so you get a text message each time I stream live.

So, another Top Cats event is upon us. Check out the names of those who have said they can make it this month.

Who’s coming tonight

• Alex Hoye, Chair, Faction/Buildersite
• Alexis d’Amecourt, 19 Entertainment
• Andrew Shorten, EMEA Platform Evangelist, Adobe
• Andy Co Founder, Agency Mobile
• Andy Finney, Founder, ATSF
• Andy MacLaren, Co-founder, Agency Mobile
• Angela Kirkham, Publishing Manager, Online Marketing, O2
• Armando Ruffi, Co-founder, Zubka
• Ben Johnson, Principal, Both Vitruvian Partners
• Brian Hoadley, Managing Director , phunQube
• Caspar Craven, Co-founder, Trovus
• Catherine Toole, MD, Sticky Content
• Cathy Grimes, Marketing Manager Personal Solutions, Equifax
• Charles Astwood, Founder, London Eating
• Chris Wood, CEO, Top Table
• Craig Hill, Founder / Chairman, Digital Outlook
• Dan Morris, Managing Partner, Splendid
• Daniel Appelquist, Senior Technology Strategist, Vodafone Group
• David Hart, Director, Codegent Ltd
• David King, Director, APCO Online
• Dennis Greene, Head of E-business, Royal Mail
• Dr Anxo Cereijo Roibás, User Experience Research manager, Vodafone
• Edward Charvet, Co-founder, Trovus
• Elizabeth Varley, Editorial Director, Online Content UK
• Farzad Jamal, Group Internet Controller, Northern Shell
• Felix Velarde, Founder, Underwired
• Hamish Gordon,
• Irfon Watkins, CEO, Coull
• James Booth, Co-founder, Rockabox Media
• James Pimentel-Pinto, Managing Director, Agency Mobile
• Jasmine Birtles Founder/MD, Moneymagpie.com
• Jemima Kiss, New media reporter, Media Guardian
• Josephine Fraser, Social/Educational Technologist
• Julia Eilon, AMF Ventures
• Justin Bradley, Head of Digital Television, Sixth Sense UK
• Justin Champney, Head of Brand Innovation EMEA, McCann Worldgroup
• Justin Cooke, Managing Director , Fortune Cookie
• Mairi Clark, Editor , Revolution Magazine
• Mark Fallons, Head of interactive, McCann
• Mark McDermott, Director, Codegent Ltd
• Martin Lowde, 19 Entertainment
• Mike Butcher, Editor, TechCrunch
• Mike Risman, Managing Partner, Both Vitruvian Partners
• Nick Halstead, Founder, Fav.or.it
• Omaid Hizwazi, Co-founder, Crayon
• Paul Canty, Founder, Preloaded
• Paul Duncanson, Managing Director, Creativebrief
• Peter Ogden, Producer, ITV
• Richard Daish, Head of Mobile Services, Chelsea FC
• Richard Titus, Acting Head of UX&D, BBC FM&T
• Rob Corradi, Founder, Preloaded
• Rob Walk, Managing partner, NovaRising
• Robert Killick, MD, cScape
• Robin Charney, Sr. Marketing Manager - Web Platform Solutions, Adobe
• Robin Howard, Client Services Director, BT
• Satish Jayakumar, Co-founder, AdJug
• Scott Gallacher, Director of Online & Partner Marketing, BskyB
• Simon Grice, Founder, ideas.org
• Stephanie Bouchet, Marketing Director, Joost
• Theodore Emiantor, Managing Director, Westminster Accountancy
• Tim O’Neill, Founder / MD, Reactive
• Tom Nixon, Founder, Nixon Mcinnes
• Tom Sacchi, Founder / Director, Unit9
• Tony Cocks, Microsoft
• Will Jeffery, Managing director, Maverick Media
• Will McInnes, MD, Nixon McInnes

Hosts

• Robert Loch, Founder, Internet People & Founder, That’s Useful
• Paul Walsh, Chair, BIMA & Founder, Segala

Thanks to Adobe for their sponsorship this month.

I was conducting a search on an association called the BWDMA to see how it had progressed since the weird phone call I received from the guy who found it a few years ago. I say weird because I’m unable to explain it. He put himself forward as the Founder of an established and well respected independent association and asked that I change from Segala Accreditation to Segala Certification. We did, but certainly not because he asked us to.

After a little digging on my part, I found that he seemed to own lots of Web sites which all connected to each other; either by collaboration, hosting provider, technology provider or endorser. All linking back to BWDMA to say how great it was.

Anyway, one of Google’s search results led me to a site now called About us. (http://www.aboutus.org/Bwdma.com) It’s still claiming the following

The BWDMA is a “broad church”, inclusive organisation, open to all companies and individuals that have an interest in the new media sector. BWDMA is influence-driven rather than membership-driven.

The Association seeks to improve e-business standards through sharing knowledge, understanding and proliferation of best practice. To further its aims and objectives, the association actively solicits constructive relationships with industry, government, academia and other such bodies, as may have common goals or purpose.

The Association seeks to assist all industries with the adoption and application of Internet and related technologies to encourage development in the digital economy. The BWDMA endeavours to provide a gateway for businesses to purchase with confidence from reputable suppliers through the free procurement service Web Project Guide.

When you click on the ‘Go direct to the Website’ link, you’re taken to a weird looking portal where you can buy houses and find Russian brides.

When you click on the AboutUS logo to take you back to the homepage AboutUs (http://www.aboutus.org/AboutUs.org) and then select About AboutUs in the footer, you get the following

AboutUS is a wiki whose goal is to create a free and valuable Internet resource containing information both about websites and other community created topics/information. The site was pre-populated with information about many different websites and thousands of updates are now being made by people each day.

The vision of AboutUs hinges on the power of collaboration and the unique capacity of wiki technology to capture the coming together of communities.

Confused? Yeah, so was I.

So, what is BWDMA these days? Is it a Portal to help you find your next Russian bride, a Web site collecting information and displaying it in a different format, thereby adding to the noise that’s out there already, or, is it an Independent Association representing the interests of Industry? Is it trying to be all of the above?

I notice that Nomensa still talks about BWDMA on its Web site, so perhaps they can tell me more.

For a company/association who specialises in helping you to find more information about companies and associations, it doesn’t make it easy for you to find out more information about them!

Please let me know if you know what’s going on with this association.

James Corbet made a wild assumption which I’d like to address. In summary, James blogged that I violated a friend’s privacy by streaming live to the Web using a mobile video service called Qik.

I’ve pasted James’ blog post along with the comments left by other bloggers. I’ve done this because James doesn’t have email subscription to posts which means commentators aren’t informed of other comments being left. I really wish all blogs had this feature, including TechCrunch.

James said

So you’re out with a group of friends in a pub, enjoying a few drinks, letting your hair down. As you do. And then one of them pushes a camera phone in your face and starts streaming video live to the web. And immediately announces the fact to 518 other people. Not only that but he’s oblivious to your protestations and pleas to stop.

I don’t mean to pick on Segala’s Paul Walsh because I’ve certainly enjoyed and appreciated his video coverage of events like the inaugural Irish Digital Industry Association Dinner in Dublin recently. But Paul is a guy who writes regularly about online privacy and is CEO of Segala, a company developing technology which, among other things, is designed to help you find websites which follow best practices for privacy and copyright.

However, it seems to me that during last night’s broadcast Paul crossed the line by invading the privacy of at least one friend. If someone asks you to stop, puts their hand in front of the camera and looks clearly uncomfortable when you refuse is that not a blatant violation of their privacy? I don’t presume to know Paul’s friends so perhaps I’ve misread the situation but if someone did likewise to me I’d be very tempted grab their camera phone and dunk it in my drink!

Comments left by other bloggers

In particular, the live aspect means there is no opportunity to undo the posting of something you immediately regret doing. I can imagine a similar problem with Shozu when people are out on the tear. Qik Content Labels? “Warning, this video may contain scenes of drunk people”

Posted by: Conor O’Neill | Feb 6, 2008 12:26:35 PM

Damn, that last line would have been a much better post title than mine! Yeah, I only bring the issue up for discussion because I think it’s something that we’re going to have to be increasingly concerned with. As I say I thoroughly appreciate informative videos like Paul’s other ones and your Cork OpenCoffee ones and Pat Phelan’s travel ones, etc. But I’m thinking ahead here and realizing we’ll probably have a few QIKers at the Irish Blog Awards and similar sociable events this year and wondering if we’re going to have people streaming video from inappropriate situations? What are the ground rules? What etiquette applies?

Posted by: James Corbett | Feb 6, 2008 12:47:48 PM

It’s a discussion that has to happen and I think it’ll be a major issue as services like Qik are adopted by the greater web community. Over time, though, people will become comfortable with such invasions the same way we don’t think twice now about the plethora of CCTV cameras watching our every move.

Posted by: Eoghan McCabe | Feb 6, 2008 1:09:17 PM

Having had people shove cameras into my face and say “Can I put you on my Flickr?” I’m pretty used to this, but there is a time delay between the act of recording and the act of uploading. Qik, and others like it, destroy that delay (as you point out), and without immediate web access - like in a bar - you can’t delete something that fast, and even if you could it would be already online. Once on the the Internet, always on the Internet, right? Mind you grown-up, ‘digital savvy’ people in a bar will pale beside what will happen when more nefarious people get hold of this mobile tech. Interesting post!

Posted by: Mike Butcher | Feb 6, 2008 2:20:59 PM

My response

@James - I think you’re right. We do face a potential problem and a lot of care should be taken when streaming live to the Web. I’ve since removed my videos of last night but for different reasons.

Please note that everyone around the table were aware up front, that I was going to stream live. In fact, I spent about 5 minutes trying to change the SIM from my iPhone to the N95 so I could do it. With this post in particular I think you should have asked if anyone genuinely didn’t want to be filmed.

Some people put their hand in front of the camera when in fact, they love it. No, I’m not saying that no means yes or maybe

Do you use Qik and if so, do you worry about the privacy you just happen to capture in the background?

Here’s some good coverage of our kickoff dinner to discuss the creation of a new Industry Association in Ireland. I must point out that I wasn’t actually negative towards the IIA in anyway. Maria did a great job with the article but it looks like I was constantly comparing what I have in mind for a new Association, with the IIA.

We need more of this kind of press, to help raise awareness amongst the organisations that need help with digital. Why? Well because they’re not likely to read blogs, or at least, the ones which have been covering this topic so far.

Original article starts here.

There is a need in Ireland for an organisation that can represent the entire digital industry including web, mobile and any medium that digital content can be delivered through, says Paul Walsh, chair of the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA), which plans to set up a like-minded body in Ireland. Walsh said he would like to have a body that would act not only as a way of connecting and representing all those involved in the digital industry but one that can set standards and best practice also.

Ideally, such an organisation would not only give pricing guidelines to clients and freelancers but also act as a body of endorsement for future digital technology or digital media courses.

Through BIMA, which has been around since 1985, Walsh has been putting all of these practices in place: “I changed it from what it used to be – it was perceived by people as an IIA (Irish Internet Association)-type organisation – and I have turned that around so it is seen as more engaging and really out there in the industry.”

Walsh, who is also founder and CEO of web standards specialist firm Segala, said he would like this new association to position Ireland on the global stage in terms of the digital sector because he feels the country is too reliant on the service-based companies here for tax incentives.

“There are enough intelligent people and companies already in Ireland to change things so that we’re not reliant on the IDA bringing in big companies. We could encourage an ecosystem so that we have Irish-grown businesses.”

While the IIA has been around for quite awhile, Walsh says that the organisation looks at only one piece of the digital pie, the web, and even at that smaller players in the industry tell him they don’t feel catered for.

“I think we need a fresh approach because most IIA members are the bigger companies.

“What I’m hearing from smaller members of the IIA is that it focuses on specific areas like search marketing while they would like a voice for the smaller company or the freelance developer so their interests can be represented as much as the big players,” said Walsh.

“It would be nice to have an association that would bring other organisations together, like the IIA and the Agency for Direct Marketing, to endorse and embrace the stuff that they do well,” he added.

Key members of this new association should be diverse enough to represent the interests of each of the stakeholders, says Walsh.

This would mean including someone from academia, a representative of a big organisation like Microsoft or Google, someone who has set up a couple of small companies and who has the entrepreneurial instinct, as well as individuals with expertise from the mobile, television and broadcasting industry.

Some freelancers and small Irish firms say a number of initiatives to encourage the growth of the digital industry here in Ireland have a bias towards US companies and tax incentives.

The Digital Hub, an incubation space for such development, has 55 desk spaces reserved for US companies yet one Irish entrepreneur said that he found it difficult to secure a single desk space.

The inaugural dinner of the for-now-named Irish Digital Industry Association was held last week and attended by various members of the digital industry community, including Boards.ie founder John Breslin and Joe Drumgoole of digital storage firm PutPlace.

Original article on Silicon Republic by Marie Boran.

Twitter is where I:

1. Scrape all the news that’s relevant to me, without having to read a blog or even glance my RSS Feed. This covers news about stuff which happens offline as well as online. I heard about the Microsoft bid for Yahoo! before most, whilst the bad news included the death of actors.
2. Solicit opinion from an audience of people I trust thereby reducing my dependence on search engines. This has included asking for information on open WiFi hot spots in Dublin, to asking for the phone number of someone with whom I had a meeting with in London.
3. Learn about new initiatives and events
4. Learn who’s going to be where and when
5. Highlight where I’m going to be in case people want to meet up with me
6. Inform people of events I’m attending or hosting
7. Promote specific blog posts that I’ve written
8. Answer questions to help others in the community
9. Meet new people
10. Strengthen relationships with people I already know, and with those I’ve met through Twitter

However, as Rob Loch pointed out on one of my previous posts, it’s difficult to see how Twitter will gain mass adoption. I’d like to add that it’s difficult to see how Twitter could gain mass adoption in its current form.

I can’t ever see my parents using Twitter for example. Yet they send picture and video messages. If however, Twitter was bought and used as an engine it could be a different matter.

So, when you open your address book on a mobile, you’d find out where your contacts are and what they’re doing. This would enable us to create communities around our address books seamlessly.

If you don’t use Twitter, why not give it a try. You need to sign up and communicate with friends before you can make an informed decision though.

How do you eat your Twitter? 

One of Damien’s posts about Google’s response to the Microsoft bid for Yahoo! was the first post to grab my attention in my RSS reader this morning, as it’s a story I commented on last week.

What started as a simple post about Google’s response, turned into an epic message about how Apple, Google and Mozilla are not all good and Microsoft is not all evil. They are all pretty much after the same thing; market dominance. They just use different tactics. All of which are good and evil.

Google’s response

Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC?

Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft — despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses — to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet?

We believe that the interests of Internet users come first — and should come first — as the merits of this proposed acquisition are examined and alternatives explored.

I’m playing devil’s advocate here and certain to attract a retort from standards enthusiasts. If you’re one of them, please take a look at the contribution Segala (and I) make to open standards.

In my opinion, Google’s response has been childish to say the least. In fact, I’d like to call bullshit, which is a little stronger than Dennis Howlett’s ‘Pot, kettle, black’ post.

The truth about Google

I’ve had enough of Google’s so-called ‘no evil’ policy. Google may have started off with a best endeavours approach to add value to the Web, but it now seeks to increase its revenue share at the expense of relevant and trustworthy search results.

Did it ever start out to do no evil? A little company called Overture invented a means for combining search and advertising, with auction-based keyword targeted text ads. Yahoo bought Overture, then proceeded to sue Google, whice made sense: Google had completely ripped off Overture’s concept, and was liable for every dollar it earned using that form of advertising.

Rather than aggressively fight the small search company, which was clearly infringing on Yahoo-owned patents with every dollar it earned, Yahoo settled, agreeing to take 2.7 million shares of Google, just over 1% of the company (at the time). Yahoo sold those shares as soon as Google went public, for $82.62 a share, or $223 million. Thanks to InsideMicrosoft for the stats and Steve Clayton for pointing me to them via Twitter.

How can Google say it ‘does no evil’ when it filters search on behalf of an oppressive Chinese Government? (Ok, I’ve now given reason for the Chinese Government to ban this blog, like it did with the Segala blog when I posted about a Chinese blogger who was killed by government officials.) If it had people’s best interests at heart it wouldn’t place advertising above freedom of speech.

How can Google say that it is a company with the Internet’s interests at heart? If it did, it wouldn’t make the highest bidders more prominent in search results. Instead, it would present to users, the most relevant and trustworthy Web sites. Paid search is not obvious to the vast majority of end users.

While I’m at it…

The Yahoo! takeover would enable Microsoft to compete with Google’s monopolistic search engine. Google has approximately 80% of the global search market and doesn’t permit anyone to see what’s inside the box. Why? Well, because it gives them a competitive advantage, which it’s entitled to. It only provides open access to APIs because it benefits them in the long run. They even provide products for free to help compete directly with Microsoft. I don’t believe Google want to move to the desktop. I believe they just want to hurt Microsoft.

Android is another example. It’ll be fantastic for the Mobile Industry but, the open source framework comes with Google applications preinstall. That’s no different to Windows coming with Real Player embedded.

So what do I mean by monopolistic? Well, take a look at Mozilla Firefox (a non-profit do-gooder). Firefox is Microsoft’s main competitor in the browser market. Google and Firefox couldn’t be snuggled up any closer in bed with Firefox acting as Google’s hot water bottle. I say this because Firefox has approximately 12% of the global market and its default search engine in the toolbar is Google, from whom it generates the majority of its revenue. Mozilla is now a $300m business.

Search engines such as Excite (my all time favourite) Altavista and Lycos all provided honest search results. That is, prominence was given to the Web sites which provided the most relevant content to search terms. Ok, so they had flaws, but at least they didn’t sell out to the highest bidders like Google. Google in my opinion, hasn’t added any value whatsoever to search. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

What I’d like to see happen

1. I’d like to see Yahoo! owned del.icio.us (what a dumb ass domain) given a face lift so it’s easier for the longtail of users to adopt, thereby encouraging scale. Give users the option to integrate browser based bookmarks with del.icio.us bookmarks so we end up with a more extensive database of relevant search results.
2. Keep the Yahoo! brand but turn it into a search engine. Use the bookmarks as described above, as an engine to help provide more meaningful search results.
3. Use Yahoo! as the default search engine for Internet Explorer
4. Improve IE8 so it’s more standards compliant, without introducing yet another tag to make the assertion about compliance
5. Embed all the cool Yahoo! stuff such as Flickr into IE
6. Employ or appoint better products people to take over Yahoo! properties
7. Adopt Content Labels in IE to enable more trust on the Web
8. There’s plenty more to talk about regarding their email and IM properties, but I’ll leave the commentating about those to others. Feel free to leave your opinion.

Why do people continue to take a shot at Microsoft when companies such as Apple, Google and Mozilla are out for themselves just like anyone else? Microsoft has, and continues to be in trouble regarding their market dominance, but none of it is based on their new products. It’s old news so move on.

Transaction valued at approximately $44.6 billion in cash and stock;

Provides 62 percent premium to current trading price for Yahoo! shareholders;

Combined entity to create a more competitive company while providing superior value to shareholders and better choice and innovation for customers and partners.

REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - News) today announced that it has made a proposal to the Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO - News) Board of Directors to acquire all the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 representing a total equity value of approximately $44.6 billion. Microsoft’s proposal would allow the Yahoo! shareholders to elect to receive cash or a fixed number of shares of Microsoft common stock, with the total consideration payable to Yahoo! shareholders consisting of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock. The offer represents a 62 percent premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock on Jan. 31, 2008.

We have great respect for Yahoo!, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft. “We believe our combination will deliver superior value to our respective shareholders and better choice and innovation to our customers and industry partners.

Our lives, our businesses, and even our society have been progressively transformed by the Web, and Yahoo! has played a pioneering role by building compelling, high-scale services and infrastructure,” said Ray Ozzie, chief software architect at Microsoft. “The combination of these two great teams would enable us to jointly deliver a broad range of new experiences to our customers that neither of us would have achieved on our own.

My opinion

This could make Microsoft a serious contender in the Internet arena against Google. I’d welcome the purchase with open arms because I can’t help feel that Google is going in the same direction as Microsoft did years ago. That is, monopolising its position. I mean, Microsoft was sued by the EU courts for forcing Real Player upon users of Windows based PCs. Will it force Google into sharing its search algorithms given that it has more than an 80% monopolistic share of online search? Will Google ever be taken to court for Android? Ah, there’s a blog post yet to be written.

Personally I think Microsoft is given a hard time mostly by those who like to take a shot across the bow as they think it’s the right thing to do. I’ve only ever met cool, creative and entrepreneurial people at Microsoft. I mean it, I have never met a Microsoft employee that was anything short of helpful.

As for Google… my last encounter (and I’ve had a lot of them) was with a guy who attended one of my tech dinners recently. I asked him, ’so, what do you do at Google?’. His response was surprisingly not surprising, ‘I can’t tell you as it’s a secret’. I understand that internal projects are somtimes confidential, but it’s the tone of the response I have become accustomed to from Google employees. It’s as if they’re above everyone else. He was a very nice chap and he’ll always be welcome at my dinner table.

Source Ana Nelson via Twitter. Full story can be found on Yahoo! news.

[Update here's an interesting take from Denis Howlett]

My new Head of Communications has advised (eh, no, he has told me) to create a new blog under my name and move my non-Segala related posts with me. I must admit, this is something I’ve been pondering for ages as the Segala blog has attracted a great audience, but one that is perhaps, a little diverse for it to gain real benefit.

I think Dennis Howlett will agree that this has been a good move as I’ve asked him for advice on this matter in the past. I should have plenty of real estate to include my buddy’s gapingvoid widget too.

By splitting my posts between the Segala blog and here (oh, and BIMA), I hope to make my writing a little more relevant for you. Mind you, my writing skills aren’t likely to improve, I’ll continue to use poor grammar and spell things as if I’m looking in a mirror. I’m likely to cross-post where I feel my thoughts where relevant also.

I’ll continue to post on the Segala blog about the Semantic Web, Accessibility, Mobile Web, Standards, W3C, Content Labels, Trust, Search and anything else that’s relevant to Segala. This should make what we’re launching in 2008 much more prominent.

On this blog, I intend to cover everything else that I used to cover on Segala’s blog, such as Social Media, Web 2.0, Web and Mobile Trends, Twitter, Facebook, Networking, Events, Connecting People and anything else that I have an opinion on. I might even write about some personal stuff.

Kamrul, our Wordpress and PHP guru, is currently working on an Semantic Web application for Aido, but I’m hoping to squeeze a couple of hours out of him today to get some minimum functionality added to this blog, not to mention a little branding.

I don’t expect many comments left on this post because my mother doesn’t even know about it yet. However, if for some reason you stumble across this post before it falls off the edge of the blog with the introduction of new posts, please provide some feedback on what functionality you’d like to see?

Would you like to see any of the following on the sidebar

1. Most recent comments and who made them?
2. A summary of posts with the highest number of comments?
3. Digg?
4. Photographs of the people who left comments?
5. Recent Readers (MyBlogLog)?
6. Tag cloud or Recent Posts?
7. My last Twitter message?
8. My followers twitter messages?

Please ignore any design or layout changes (breakages) as Kamrul and I make changes on the fly to get this blog off the ground. We’ll transfer all my social media and entrepreneurial type posts from Segala to here, along with the comments next week. That should be fun.

I look forward to building a wee community here and hope you can be part of it

To subscribe to this blog, click here

I wrote a blog post recently entitled ‘Facebook doesn’t spam you, your friends do’. In the comments, I thought I’d argued the point well, by demonstrating with examples, how to disable email notifications. This wasn’t to be the case as Michele and Joe continued to disagree with my view.

Today, via Twitter, Christine Lu complained about receiving silly email notifications even though she no longer had a ‘Fun Wall’. So, I gave her a couple of tips to resolve the privacy issue. I seem to do this quite alot, so rather than continue to type them each time, I’ve decided to write a short tutorial in the hope it will help more users manage the noise to a level that suits them.

Email Notifications

Let’s start with email notifications as that seems to be a bone of contention for a lot of people. Facebook notifies you by email whenever actions are taken on Facebook that involve you.

Each application has its own email notification settings. From your home page, select edit to view the settings for each application.

Selecting edit will take you to the screen below. Click edit settings on the right of each application to change the settings for that application.

Selecting Edit Settings will present you with the screen below.

As you can see from the screen shot above, it’s possible to switch off email notifications. It’s also possible to switch off other forms of notifications such as news feeds.

You can reach the preferences page via unwanted email notifications. The screen shot below shows what a typical email looks like. Most people probably ignore or delete their emails, which is why they don’t know it’s possible to put a stop to them.

Scared of people seeing you in a compromising position?

Facebook’s privacy settings are the best I’ve every seen on any type of platform or application. They’re so granular you can display pictures to certain friends, whilst hiding them from others. You can choose who can see your wall or status updates and who can’t.

Below is a screen shot of your home page. Choose privacy at the top of the page so you can set these preferences.

When you’ve selected privacy, the privacy page will display as you can see from the screen shot below.

Without going through the entire page, I’ve highlighted what I deem the most important; pictures, videos and personal contact information.

Facebook notifies you each time a friend tags you in a picture or video. But if you’re still worried about being caught running down the high street dressed as a chicken, there are precautions that you can take (apart from the obvious; don’t get caught).

1. You can remove the tags as soon as you’ve been notified by Facebook.
2. If this still makes you feel uncomfortable you can always change your preferences so that only your friends see pictures and videos that you have been tagged in.
3. You can even make sure that nobody sees any pictures or videos that you have been tagged in.

Note people who are not your friend, are unable to tag you.

Everything within a private group remains private to members of that group. However, as soon as you tag a picture or video, they become public. I’ve had a friend caught out by this feature.

Do you want people to find you?

Your profile is set to open by default. This means anyone can search for and find you. Your profile may even appear in Google search results. You can either leave your profile completely open, or, you can decide exactly what information you’d like displayed. You can even make your entire profile private, so that only your close friends can see it.

As you can see from the screen shot above, you’re in control of what people see, not Facebook. They leave it open because to close everything by default, we’d end up with a very boring static Web site. It certainly wouldn’t be ’social’.

Show your friends, hide from your colleagues

Some people may not want to be completely open with everyone. If, like me, you like to keep certain things private, such as your wall, status update, pictures, groups, friends, posted items or personal information, then these preferences will be of interest.

Below is a screen shot of the page where you can completely block individuals whilst displaying specific information on an individual basis. You may want to block your boss, show a limited profile to your line manager and allow your work colleagues to see everything.

As you can see from the screen shot below, it’s possible to display as much or as little as you like to specific people.

I haven’t gone through all of the preferences available, but you should be well versed by now and be able to protect yourself from SPAM coming from your friends.

Conclusion

1. You own your data.
2. You are responsible for controlling how much of your data is seen and used by other people.
3. Facebook does not SPAM you.
4. Your friends SPAM you.
5. If you don’t want your friends to SPAM you, ask them to stop or change your preferences.
6. If your friends don’t stop or you are too lazy to change your preferences, remove them from your friends list.
7. Facebook is responsible for protecting your data so other organisations can’t harvest and SPAM you.
8. If you don’t like any of the above, leave Facebook and read a book

Now I can see why Plaxo were busy harvesting personal contact details belonging to users on Facebook, without anyone’s permission. They were looking to bump their numbers to increase their valuation. Robert, I’d love your take on this now.

For those of you still saying that it was ok for Robert and Plaxo to do this.

1. I gave my personal contact details to Facebook.
2. I did not give them to any individual.
3. I did not give any company or any friend permission to disclose my personal contact details to anyone.

My friendship was violated whether some of you think it was right or not.

Some people hide their personal details from the world because they only want their friends to see them. Did Robert respect their decision by not harvesting their details with the view to giving them to another company?

According to the New York Times

AN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Plaxo, a site that helps users keep their friends’ contact information up to date, is considering a sale of the company for as much as $200 million, media reports said on Thursday.

Plaxo is seeking as much as $100 million and has hired Revolution Partners to advise it on a deal, the New York Times reported, citing people briefed on the offering.

Private Equity Hub, a blog edited by Thomson Financial editor-at-large Daniel Primack, said Plaxo was considering an unsolicited offer of about $200 million, but had not retained any bank to advise it.

Officials from Plaxo and Revolution could not be reached for comment.

Fast-growing social networks like privately held Facebook and LinkedIn might be interested in acquiring Plaxo despite its “flat growth” in 2006 to 2007, said Michael Osterman, head of messaging research and consulting firm Osterman Research.

“It might make sense for a consumer-oriented social network (like Facebook) to acquire a business-oriented social network” like Plaxo, he said.

Osterman said he expects more social networking sites to acquire each other over the next 18 months as these Web sites seek to expand ways in which users can stay connected to friends, family and business contacts.

Microsoft Corp took a small stake in Facebook for $240 million last year, and could also be a potential suitor for Plaxo, according to Osterman. LinkedIn has been the subject of buyout speculation, including reports it was at one point a target for News Corp..

Emily Riley, an analyst at Jupiter Research, said a sale would make sense for a “mid-tier” social network like Plaxo because it is difficult to survive independently unless without unique features or loyal customers.

Plaxo has raised over $20 million in venture capital funding to date from backers including Sequoia Capital, Globespan Capital Partners, Cisco Systems and DAG Ventures.

The company helps users synchronize address books and calendar data. When a friend changes their phone number or other contact details, the site automatically updates that information in a user’s address book.

Plaxo programs also work in conjunction with popular e-mail and messaging systems, such as Microsoft Outlook e-mail and AOL’s instant messaging.

Plaxo said in mid-2007 that it had signed up more than 15 million users, although the number of currently active users is unknown.

(Reporting by Anupreeta Das and Ritsuko Ando, editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Source: New York Times

If this is true, can anyone defend Plaxo now?