FriendFeed allows us to see the whole elephant
lifestreaming May 23rd. 2008, 7:26amSteve Rubel (yes, that Steve Rubel) posted a question in FriendFeed asking whether or not FriendFeed was the next big thing or whether people were just getting bored (with what, I’m not sure.)
I posted this reply and wanted to share it with those of you who don’t use FriendFeed:
It’s easy to forget amongst the chatter and noise that FriendFeed is quite a powerful aggregation platform. Think of the seven blind mice (or men, depending on which version you’ve read) who are all trying to describe an elephant. They can only sense one part of the elephant and so they guess differently because one feels the trunk, another the tusk, one the leg, the tail, and so on. Finally, one smart person figures out that all of these parts are connected together into an elephant and recognizes it for what it is. In a similar light, FriendFeed makes visible virtually all social media presences for a specific person and you get to see how interesting or talented they are. This sets the stage for more interesting and enjoyable conversations and learnings.
Does this make sense to you?
Edit: Steve Rubel brought the discussion over to his blog as well.
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On FriendFeed, this post was liked by 6 people and commented on 1 time show
May 23rd, 2008 at 7:33 am
Very interesting idea, and I like the analogy. To me, I think the main benefit is the conversations. It is a little different than your analogy because FriendFeed continues the fragmentation a bit. However, popular stories will always bubble up to the top of your page, so the conversations can continue.
Check out Are We Asking Too Much? from Rob Diana
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:09 am
@Rob - I guess my point, which I had also suggested in my “Comments Nexus” post, is that FriendFeed at least allows you to pull together an online portfolio of sorts, constantly updated by RSS feeds.
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:17 am
I guess you could say that FriendFeed is a way to pull back the virtual curtains and letting people see what’s going on in our living rooms. Btw Mark, I’m now peeking in yours. lol
[iamsbm]
My FriendFeed
http://friendfeed.com/sharonbraymcpherson
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:37 am
I like the context you put your thoughts in - able to judge how interesting or talented users are based on their social media package to determine who contributes to your own enjoyment and learning. If I had to convince a friend to join FriendFeed this would be part of my argument, well done.
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May 23rd, 2008 at 8:43 am
Great analogy. Just as I’ve always said, FF is an integrated commenting/discussion solution that also happens to let you collect all of your (and other people’s) data in to one place.
For all the talk about comment fragmentation we can turn that on its head and say that FF is degframenting the conversation as it is bringing all the strands in to one place.
Check out Evolution of the social web. from Colin Walker
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:34 am
@Sharon - by peeking in my living room you now know how messy it is!
@Julian - cool. Send those friends here, too, would you?
@Colin - yes, got to look at the benefits of aggregation.
May 24th, 2008 at 6:21 am
Makes perfect sense now, Mark. Maybe I was a little hasty in dismissing Friendfeed as just another fad. I’ll be taing another look at it over the long weekend methinks
May 24th, 2008 at 6:52 am
@Nick - doesn’t hurt to give it a try!
Check out FriendFeed allows us to see the whole elephant from markdykeman