DISQUS

Great post! This is something I ponder over endlessly, both in relation to my professional work with learning communities, and in Chilbo. I tend to believe quality over quantity is preferable, but there also seems to be a magic number or "tipping point" at which there are _enough_ people in a community, with enough diversity and/or common interest, to develop network effects that strengthen the community overall. The magic number may be different for different groups, but I feel Chilbo reached a tipping point sometime last year where more people joined, more people got to know each other.. it seems like the character of the community itself changed (for the better) as a result.

Though that's just my perception, someone else might feel it hasn't yet reached that tipping point, or that the interactions among residents is too sporadic for people to feel as connected as I do. But in any case, great questions and I look forward to seeing what others think.

Nice post Gwyn, and you're the only one I've seen so far to mention that the OnRez experience/design was actually _better_ than SLX. I'm as disturbed as everyone else about the possible repercussions of this move, but my immediate whine is that I really hate the SLX interface. OnRez is a pretty, easier shopping experience than SLXs tiny text heavy pages and I liked having a choice.

I'm also not too convinced that in world stores will disappear. If a web listing provides a slurl, I almost always go to the in world store to look at it before I buy, and I imagine I'm not alone in that. Pictures are one thing, but to see an item rezzed is another. I wonder if most people do that?

Thanks Grace! Perfect listening while wrapping presents! =)

Great video! And great idea for coping with less planning time too - very impressive!

Typed words never express sorrow well, but oh Chel.. :( :( :(

I had a similar experience at the last large family reunion - in the end I had to boil it down to "I teach professors at the university how to use computers" because some of the great aunts and uncles really looked bewildered.

In the ensuing years, I've gotten most of them to read my blog by offering to do all of the maintenance and set up if they bought computers, and only posting family gathering pictures online. Many now use Google for looking up product info and my grandpa has switched to tracking all of his stocks online, so it feels like a major victory.

But you're right, it's as if we live in different worlds, and that's without bringing my work in Second Life into the equation. Facebook and MySpace popped onto their radar screen, but answering questions about that is tricky since I'm pretty sure they really DON'T want to see what the great-grandkids are posting about themselves.

Still, I think all of this social media technology holds a lot of promise for engaging the "silver surfer" generation who might have mobility issues or dwindling social networks as friends and loved ones pass on. If I had more time, I'd love to teach classes at assisted living facilities and the like. There's something even more thrilling about seeing that lightbulb moment for an octogenarian than all the faculty and student classes I teach.

And as for explaining Twitter, Twittervision is the best for that.

Er, someone dm'd me. Yes, I have multiple Twitter and Second Life accounts. No, I'm not trying to deceive anyone or hide anything!

To take Second Life as an example, the interface does not give me the tools to tell everyone "Hey, I'm giving a presentation to 100 people right now, please don't IM me!" I had to create an account with no friends so I could be sure nothing inappropriate would pop up on the screen during work. Then I discovered it was awfully nice to do content creation on that account because I could get my work done without being bombarded by IMs and group notices and etc, I got the work done faster. More accounts = less time

I expect this method will have diminishing returns at a certain point, particularly if there aren't centralizing applications to tie multiple "personalities" together for easier management, but organizing all the social media I am using is helping me cope with both the time and concentration issues that arise from too much info overload.

I hate the term bacn with a red hot passion, but I have to admit that the phrase caused me to think about that category of email and prompted me to do the same - I created some filters and now I just check all my Facebook notices or what-have-you when I get the chance rather than throughout the day. I don't know if it is saving me _time_ per se, but it certainly seems to be helping me concentrate on work when I'm working and on being social/networking when that's my focus.

I've also begun to experiment with multiple profiles for multiple purposes and audiences. While at first that might seem contrary to good time management (more = less??), again, categorizing contacts and profiles by area of interest or social network is helping me stay focused on each specific area at a time. I found that beyond the time-suck problem, the other problem that emerged from the social media overload was a sense of feeling _constantly scattered_. Work email, note from friend, project update, Facebook zombie bite, work phone call, twitter, jump to website, back to work email. Brain can't cope!

Segmenting out "this is my work email address, this is my personal email address, this is my project email address" has helped me tremendously. They can all feed into a central email client, and with filters, I can focus on each area with greater mental concentration than when everyone was emailing the same account. This applies not just for email, but also for Twitter, Second Life, etc.

Look forward to reading others' suggestions!

You know what's funny? Twitter is just like a really poorly designed BBS with a catchy web/IM/sms interface for the "new" digital age.

It's no surprise to me that Twitter has caught on so heavily with the SL crowd since SL provides absolutely NO reliable asynchronous message system for a group audience/conversation. If I had any doubt, reading the comments convinced me since the single feature that seems to be distinguishing Pownce is the ability to group your mates and have more specific conversations with a more specific set of people. Rooms anyone?

Maybe I'm just showing my age, but tweets are like x messages over time, over IM, and over the phone and now Pownce is trying to get back to grouping your conversations around a common topic.

So do I need another? Like a hole in the head, but my BBS community is stagnant so I keep searching for good conversation with smart people and Twitter is partly filling the niche but doesn't do it all, so I'll keep looking for the right interface and the right group of people that suits me best. And every time I try a new app, I find at least one or two new people who make an impression or become a new source of information and you can't beat that with a stick.

Even if it did overrun my email with all those notices. Yikes.