DISQUS

I have to agree with you on this one. I'm waiting on a service that really alleviates some issue in my life, which, at this point, does not involve an inability to be more social. In truth, I'm not that social offline and I've realized that I'm the same person online as well. :-) I am, however, an information junkie and I value such services as twitter because the majority of the people I follow link to interesting articles and maybe make a quick comment that makes me want to know more. Other than that, I'm just waiting on someone to really push the envelope.

Love the article and the purpose behind it. I especially like the categorization because what most people keep asking about social media is - and then what? We connect via Twitter and then what? You express succinctly that twitter, blogging, etc are just other business tools that allow you to discover the interests of people you have contacted, however briefly. If you can then track their interests, somewhat easily, I think you can provide more value to your contacts and, eventually, they to you.

I also agree with the Excel spreadsheet sounding too much like work.

A friend of mine teaches in San Diego County's Independent Study program where students are predominantly from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. These students, typically, have left their traditional high school due to gang activity or teen pregnancy. And yes, they all have MySpace pages, but that is a long way from conquering the digital divide.

Students, throughout all US public schools, are groomed to be users (consumers) of technology, rather than creators (entrepreneurs). The divide is the same that it has always been and it falls most heavily on economically disadvantaged students, but underlies all of public education. The real test should be how many of these students are capable of building a simple web application; how many of them blog or understand html and css.

Those were incredible. I teach Procurements & Contracts online and one of the primary issues we discuss is outsourcing. I shared the link with my students because I think it provides a perspective that is often lacking in discussions about this sensitive topic.