Chasing Down Entropy In Web 2.0

Image by luc legay via FlickrI'm hopelessly lost.

This internet, its just too darn big.

I try to keep track of my friends but to do so I have to log on to facebook and now friendfeed. I have to wade through reams of historical data on their breakfast cereal if I want to find out what the result of their job interview was a few days before. And twitter--don't get me started on twitter! There's too much information on the web; that body of information is continuously growing, and we, as users of the web and particularly social media, are being told we have to participate in that growth. ENTROPY.

You know who is really at the leading edge of reigning in this entropy? It's that dinosaur of social media, Facebook.

Yup, Facebook. You see, when I comment on someone's status update, the comment joins that persons "wall". Everything is kept in nice chronological order, from standard wall posts to event creation. Sounds kinda like friendfeed, doesn't it? Yes, but facebook is a truer digitization of human social networks - truer because it allows you to create your identity both in a profile filled with composed material, and in the actions that you take. Friendfeed on the other hand, is only about your dynamic content. Its not nearly as centralized around profiles, of course, and that means more entropy. I'm not saying I think Facebook is better than Friendfeed...one allows interaction with old friends, the other with new. But I do think that the model of decentralization, of entropy...its going to merge with the very profile-centric model of facebook. Next year's social media app is going to be Friendbook. And I'm going to enjoy getting all my dirt in one place.

The World Is So Much Bigger Now

Image via WikipediaI should have known better. I have a degree in modern European history. I read the economist and BBC news. I even spent a summer with a group of Americans in Greece and Turkey. But I thought the world was small. After living my entire life in the United States, having only a few foreign friends that weren't completely americanized, and having traveled little elsewhere, I saw the world through a distinctly American perspective. I don't mean to say that I am a gun-toting, McCain voting, heartland American. I'm from the San Francisco bay area. A political placement test I took in high school had me somewhere between Ghandi and Nelson Mandela. But here in London, studying at the LSE with brilliant people from all over the world and not being flooded with an America's-Eye view at every corner, I have found the World to be a much bigger place. Let's start with England - they don't have separation of Church and State here. Odd? I thought they were advanced. Perhaps there are more ways to go about things in an advanced world than I had previously imagined (though I still stick strongly to separation of Church and State!). I have met people here from Ghana, Nepal, India, Finland, the Czech Republic, and many many more places. And they all have experienced life in a different way than I have. And so have their millions of countrymen. The world is so much bigger now.