Recently, I got an interesting idea in my head with regards to social software. I haven’t entirely been keeping up with the latest developments, so have been starting to bone up and go through archives for stuff I may have missed, basically using the following as starting points:
Oh, coincidentally, there’s a recent /. post on The Debate about Social Software (watch out reading the comments, there are major Matrix Reloaded spoilers hidden there. In fact, it might be a good idea to stay away from /. this week if you don’t want to be spoiled).
Doing this sort of semi-directed research has highlighted how inadequate my tools and process for online research are (bookmarking, relating, annotating, etc).
Semi-related: Justin’s getting a lot of crap for his donation request. I look at it with some bemusement, quite a few people getting riled up about it. I mean, personally, the asking for donations thing isn’t for me (and also, if you’re getting charged $75/mo for 30GB/mo transfer, Justin, you’re getting ripped the fuck off), but I mean come on, I’m not going to rip into him about it or anything. Have these people even ever met Justin, or do they just think they can say whatever because it’s online, or they’ve been reading his writing for a few years? Anyway, interesting questions raised all around about the nature of digital identity and social relationships, self-publishing (and attendent reader-writer responsibilities), and the like – exactly what makes this so fun, right?