[Dialogue] Facebook pros and cons

Tue May 4 20:30:09 CDT 2010

I do not know how to text, tweet or set the clock on my microwave. (This is said in light of the fact that during my teen years I designed and built all kinds of electonic devices) I do not know exactly what to do when I get on Facebook. However I have become a "Friend"of a number of old friends that I have not seen in decades. I have enjoyed clicking on their pages and seeing what they are up to these. The photo pages are particularly interesting. Now if I can only lerned what else I can do when I am on someone page. I also need to find someone with a digital camera who can put my picture on my page. 

David Walters

        From: David Dunn <dmdunn1 at gmail.com>

        Subject: [Dialogue] Facebook pros and cons - and help sorting it outTo: "OECommunity Community" <oe at wedgeblade.net>, "Dialogue' Listserv" <dialogue at wedgeblade.net>, "Springboard Listserv" <springboard at wedgeblade.net>

        Date: Friday, April 30, 2010, 3:31 PM

        Hello colleagues.

        I'm duly settled in Chicago: I know where to sleep, where to eat, where to brush my teeth and where to go to get online. Life is good. Pam and Marge are hustling to prepare for the first wave of colleagues. I put my weight to the wheel finally this afternoon. You'll see stuff start to flow tomorrow.

        I'm still wrestling with Facebook. For all of the hoopla, I think it's a mixed bag and not at all intuitive. So here is my short list of pros and cons, plus a couple of sentences about what I think it's good for. 

        Pros

        . Facebook is popular and has lots of members who can access ppeoples,' organizations' and groups' pages

        . Facebook is free

        . Facebook has some clever ways to facilitate networking and sspreading the word about something of interest

        . Facebook has a simple way to keep friends up to date on whatt you're up to.

        . Facebook has the ability to handle discussions, communicatioons and audio-video-photo media

        . Facebook is especially attractive to younger generations 

        . [what would you add?]

        Cons

        . Facebook has powerful privacy controls, but they're not thatt easy to figure out

        . Facebook has a learning curve re how to actually use it 

        . Facebook has a complex user interface that takes some gettinng used to

        . Facebook tempts us to share more of our personal informationn that it's prudent to share online

        . [what would you add?]

        On balance: what's Facebook good for?

        . Facebook is good for scanning a lot of information onn what Friends are doing and thinking: it's a "news stream or 'feed' "

        . Facebook is also good for easily sharing information with the people you want to share information with. Why wait until Christmas?

        . Facebook is especially good in making connections andd spreading the word about things you value.

        .annd not good for?

        . In my opinion, Facebook is not a replacement for 

        a "wiki" like our Repository, 

        the ICA USA website (ica-usa.org) or 

        a face-to-face virtual meeting platform (like GoTo Meeting, etc.)

        Bottom line

        I think I'll personally stick to using Facebook as a sort of public face and portal to things that I'm interested in. For the Archives Project, we'll post photos and brief updates to the Facebook page, add photos to my Gallery and Flickr, and add my own and colleagues' blog entries to Spiritjourneys.org.

        See the two attachments for help getting on top of Facebook. The first is visual-spacial, the second is rational-verbal.

        To be continued.

        David

        David Dunn

        dmdunn1 at gmail.com

        Creative direction and spiritual companioning

        My Facebook page with International Conference Center photos

        http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056389&id=1021391491&l=cfb42f03a1 

        My "MobileMe" gallery with the same photos, available to download

        http://gallery.me.com/dmansel/100078

        -----Inline Attachment Follows-----

        _______________________________________________

        Dialogue mailing list

        Dialogue at wedgeblade.net

        http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/dialogue_wedgeblade.net

      _______________________________________________
      Dialogue mailing list
      Dialogue at wedgeblade.net
      http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/dialogue_wedgeblade.net 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    _______________________________________________
    Dialogue mailing list
    Dialogue at wedgeblade.net
    http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/dialogue_wedgeblade.net

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  _______________________________________________
  Dialogue mailing list
  Dialogue at wedgeblade.net
  http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/dialogue_wedgeblade.net
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20100504/4f216ea3/attachment-0001.html>