Social Networking - February 6th, 2008
BLUE’S OFFICE HOUR.
Topic: SOCIAL NETWORKING IN SL
Wednesday, February 06, 2008,
[16:01] You: we'll be talking about social networking in SL
[16:01] You: and how people use social networking tools elsewhere....things like facebook, myspace, linkedin etc
[16:08] You: so, welcome everyone, thanks for stopping by today :)
[16:08] You: anyone who's been in a large group in SL....
[16:08] You: is likely aware that group communication tools are a bit limited
[16:09] You: we are looking at ways to expand the functionality of communication tools and find ways to make networking eaiser in SL
[16:10] Jezzie McCellan: are you thinking of doing that by linking with other exisiting networking sites
[16:10] You: I'm one of the Lindens in the SL Mentors group and it's limits are evident ;p
[16:10] You: things like role-specific chat channels would help a lot I think
[16:10] Jezzie McCellan: yes very much
[16:10] You: but yeah, how do we go beyond just tweaking what we have now
[16:11] You: what's a Best Case Scenario for social tools in SL
[16:11] You: And Jezzie, that could be cool
[16:11] You: sort of like Trillian perhaps...which I use to keep track of a half dozen IM clients and IRC
[16:11] You: instead of having to open up 6 different programs
[16:11] You: I'd love to get my AIM and Yahoo IMs here in SL
[16:12] Jezzie McCellan: what would be really great as far as group function is the ability to link with a outside source that provides email, calender and photo
[16:12] Marcelezza Caproni: that would be great!
[16:12] Garn Conover: that would be
[16:13] Gellan Glenelg: I wonder if part of the problem is that, with so many different communication methods available, people are confused about how each should be used. I know the mentor channel has guidelines, but a lot of people don't seem to understand/follow them :(
[16:13] You: hehe, that's always an issue Gellan ;p
[16:13] You: many mentors with strong opinions on channel use
[16:14] You: what other tools do people here use
[16:14] You: is everyone on facebook?
[16:14] DaQbet Kish: i use SLeek to acces sl during the day from my office
[16:14] Garn Conover has yet to sucum but is a myspacer hehe
[16:14] Gellan Glenelg: I have no intention of sharing rl info on facebook :)
[16:14] Jezzie McCellan: recently one of the mentors tried to set up a group with either google or yahoo. this was in order to have a committee function better. It became impossible because many of the committee could not use one or the other
[16:14] You: I've signed up for a few to see if they have any value to me
[16:14] stampshady Grimm: facebook, myspace, pawned yes and a few others
[16:14] Carl Metropolitan: I use email.
[16:14] Carl Metropolitan: That's it.
[16:15] Marcelezza Caproni: I use orkut
[16:22] Marcelezza Caproni: It is pretty much like myspace
[16:22] Marcelezza Caproni: but veeeery popular here in brasil
[16:22] Marcelezza Caproni: people use it alot here for rl networking
[16:23] Marcelezza Caproni: and for sl as well
[16:15] Garn Conover: i got myspace jsut because it was somethign to script when i was in school lol
[16:16] Taryn London: I use flickr for most my external SL communication, and Slprofiles.com
[16:16] You: so not as much facebook as I thought
[16:16] Taryn London: slprofiles is cool because it's made for SL, and the admin is very open to new suggestions
[16:16] You: seems like people are always telling me to get on facebook ;p
[16:16] Taryn London: I use facebook, but not for anything SL related.
[16:17] Jezzie McCellan: facebook is great, but it seems that everyone there is all about employement ops
[16:19] DaQbet Kish: Google calendar is another one that I use
[16:20] Taryn London nods... I use google documents a lot.
[16:20] Jezzie McCellan: i also use google calender and i wish the vteam would keep theirs upto date
[16:20] You: lol Jezzie :) I'll definitely harass them about that!
[16:17] You: do you end up choosing a social network platform more for the features or more for people you know
[16:17] Taryn London: a bit of both, for me, Blue
[16:18] Marcelezza Caproni: For the people I know, in my case
[16:18] Taryn London: features first, if the features are good, the people will generally follow.
[16:18] Jezzie McCellan: i think it's about what you are interested in
[16:18] Jezzie McCellan: myspace is very much about music
[16:18] Jezzie McCellan: flickr is of course photos
[16:19] Jezzie McCellan: facebook is education/ employement
[16:18] DaQbet Kish: yes more for the people i know and the groups im in
[16:21] Garn Conover: googles got sokme nice stuff
[16:22] DaQbet Kish: problem is its one more account and one more password to keep track of
[16:22] You: what aspects of these sites is most valuable to you?
[16:23] Jezzie McCellan: i like finding out what ppl think is great about sl
[16:24] Jezzie McCellan: a group of my friend keep a blog about cultural places in sl
[16:24] You: oh that's cool Jezzie
[16:24] DaQbet Kish: mostly just sharing similar interests ….. oh we should add Forums too
[16:24] DaQbet Kish: lots of social networking in the Forums
[16:25] You: so maybe SL needs a better way for people to share picks
[16:25] You: I think picks are a pretty well used part of profiles
[16:25] Taryn London: I hear you on that one, BLue. I changed my status to say I didn't want to be bothered with stupid application invites, and then I unfriended anyone who sent them anyway :P THey can be such a pain!
[16:25] You: and used for many reasons
[16:25] Taryn London: *More* Picks. I have more than 10 things I love in SL :P
[16:26] Taryn London: We need MORE picks.
[16:26] You: yeah, good point
[16:26] Dimitrio Lewis: horizontal tabs too?
[16:26] Jezzie McCellan: see that is one thing i like about FLickr, you can add someone to your list without being added to theirs
[16:26] Garn Conover: yea help areas take up a lot of space
[16:26] You: or maybe Picks Categories Dimitrio?
[16:26] Dimitrio Lewis: yeah
[16:26] You: friends, places, things, etc etc
[16:27] Taryn London: Picks categories would be great
[16:27] Garn Conover: catagories would be nice
[16:27] You: perhaps a HTML category to link out to web stuff that's cool or helpful
[16:27] You: like the web tab, only more specific
[16:27] Doctor Gascoigne: yes web space lots and lots of webspace
[16:28] Dimitrio Lewis: places, friends, enemies, slaves, song lyrics, instructions on why the person is too important to IM
[16:28] Dimitrio Lewis: :D
[16:28] You: that would be helpful to folks who have trouble opening SL and browser at the same time
[16:28] DaQbet Kish: so maybe the social networking tool could be the Profile
[16:28] DaQbet Kish: or a part of the profile feature
[16:29] You: well, social networking seems to include the Communication window in some respects
[16:30] Taryn London: Expanded web tab as well. Even without the html.. at least a spot for say, 5 favorite websites.
[16:30] You: so expanding picks is on the "must-have" list then
[16:30] You: what about plugins....
[16:30] You: would anyone here bother to try to program their own SL plugins if we had an API for that?
[16:31] Dimitrio Lewis: I'm sure lots would be made and sold
[16:31] Taryn London: I know people that would do that, Blue. Not myself personally, but lots of people I know would.
[16:31] You: perhaps they'd be like sculpties....rare at first then becoming common
[16:31] You: as people provide easier ways to make them
[16:32] Taryn London: and someone could make an external application to help people to make their own plug-ins
[16:32] Taryn London: kind of like sculptypaint
[16:35] You: so if compatibility was mentioned earlier....
[16:35] You: which 3rd party tools does SL need to be compatible with
[16:35] You: major IM clients perhaps?
[16:36] Carl Metropolitan: Skype is very popular.
[16:36] Taryn London: yes, and flickr, slprofiles
[16:36] Taryn London: What about SL internal email.. notecards can be a pain in the a** and IM's getting capped all the time...
[16:37] You: oh dear yes lol
[16:37] Carl Metropolitan: That would be extremely useful!
[16:37] You: my kingdom under the sea for FONTS and formatting
[16:37] DaQbet Kish: ooooh fonts :)
[16:37] Taryn London: *or* just a higher IM cap, or make it so group notices are seperate from IM in the capping system.
[16:37] Taryn London: Mmmm fonts :)
[16:37] Taryn London: underlines..
[16:37] DaQbet Kish: Comic Sans :))
[16:38] Taryn London: ITALICS!!! :D
[16:38] You: anything true type :D
[16:38] DaQbet Kish: wing dings
[16:38] You: yeah, we need the text equivalent of Windlight ;)
[16:38] Garn Conover: ahha DaQ
[16:38] Dimitrio Lewis: don't forget flashing red size 72 text for when you need to alert all your groups not to accept an object because it's a virus :P
[16:38] You: what about a mailbox Taryn, instead of IM caps
[16:39] Taryn London: mailbox for..IM's? Notecards?
[16:39] You: you log on and have 1 blue box saying....32 IMs, 3 group invites, 5 objects, 8 textures etc
[16:40] Taryn London: Can't count how many times I've declined something important, trying to quickly go through all offline notices...
[16:40] You: I'd think a tab in communication window perhaps to access stored messages, invites etc the way IMs are currently
[16:40] Doctor Gascoigne: you cna go back into notices and get them again
[16:40] Doctor Gascoigne: the notice retains attachments
[16:41] You: so you're not keen on the idea doc?
[16:41] Taryn London: Yes, but I am click happy, and I mean the ones where someone sends you something directly.
[16:41] Taryn London: Or you decline a group invite you needed to take..
[16:41] Doctor Gascoigne: you know me blue if it work I like it but willing to try something else and say nay or yea
[16:41] You: perhaps central mailbox gets lower priority from this group
[16:41] Dimitrio Lewis: maybe that could be worked around by having buttons not occupy the same position for different types of dropdown?
[16:42] Taryn London: I"d like central mailbox.
[16:42] DaQbet Kish: count me as a YES on cental Mailbox
[16:42] Doctor Gascoigne: I get so many notices in a day its amazing
[16:42] You: i get a large number of DINGs when I log in hehe
[16:42] Doctor Gascoigne: blue I ding you now and then
[16:42] Doctor Gascoigne: oh my was that bad?
[16:42] Garn Conover: *nods* and maybe a filter for future? ie stuff from friends and select groups show 1st
[16:42] You: it's not so bad ;p
[16:43] You: the sheer volume is the problem
[16:43] You: and IM caps :\
[16:43] Doctor Gascoigne: yes I know
[16:43] Doctor Gascoigne: and here is my fantasy when you got a screen full of flashing IMs they do not go all the way east but slive under the other ones in row 2
[16:43] Doctor Gascoigne: ooooohhh ahhhhh yea
[16:43] Taryn London: YES!!!
[16:43] You: oh, not bad Doc
[16:43] Taryn London: Doc, for sure.
[16:44] Doctor Gascoigne: they just tab under
[16:44] Doctor Gascoigne: and you can SEE them
[16:44] stampshady Grimm: i think the mail would be great if it had some sort of filter options junk folder for non freind list of group stuff
[16:44] Doctor Gascoigne: often I miss an Im because I have 30 going
[16:44] Garn Conover: maybe have offline msgs go to email (if checked) but not save them for log in
[16:44] You: Hmmmm that's interesting Garn
[16:44] Doctor Gascoigne: my Ims go mentor mentor mentor mentor group mentor wife mentor mentor
[16:44] Dimitrio Lewis: or maybe have new IMs slide into row 2 for a few seconds to let you know they exist
[16:44] Doctor Gascoigne: and then all the way east
[16:45] Taryn London: or two seperate windows for group IM's and personal IM's
[16:45] Garn Conover: becuase i read everythign in the email 1st, then log in and see it all again
[16:45] Taryn London: Yeah, I do that too
[16:45] Doctor Gascoigne: so this system will say you have notices and you have offline Ims is that what it would entail
[16:45] Garn Conover: that could cut some space
[16:45] Doctor Gascoigne: central mail
[16:45] Dimitrio Lewis: It's annoying when somebody IM you with "hi" "hello?" "are you there?" "hello?" "nevermind" and that alone caps your IMs for the day
[16:45] You: are there IM/group chat tools in other applications that have features we need?
[16:45] You: offhand I haven't been able to think of anything in specific
[16:45] Doctor Gascoigne: you mean frm another program
[16:46] stampshady Grimm: yes filters for incomming stuff
[16:46] You: oh filters...hmmm
[16:46] Doctor Gascoigne: I want SL instant messenger for when I am having a RL
[16:46] Taryn London: customized sound alerts for different people, groups etc.
[16:46] Doctor Gascoigne: yes mentor group should have the ICQ sound UH OH
[16:46] You: ahhhh...ability to lose the DING DING in favor of ringtones ;p
[16:46] Taryn London: so I dont come running back to the PC from the bathroom just to find Mental Mentors going crazy again.
[16:46] stampshady Grimm: many in SL do not want invites or random spamming from non friends or even radom group invites
[16:47] You: I think you can block people not on friends list?
[16:47] Garn Conover: not messages but that would be something to do
[16:48] Taryn London: Yup, you can mute anyone, but you'd have to mute *everyone* in advance in order to not get ANY random spam..
[16:48] You: oh, you can block voice from those not on friends list, but not object/group offers or IMs
[16:48] You: right
[16:48] You: okay that's a good point
[16:48] Garn Conover: you can limit your online visability, what about limiting incoming msgs (like happens if your away)
[16:48] You: yeah....that would be nice
[16:48] Taryn London: And I've said it before, and jira voted it, but I'll say it again - Ability to sort friends list into GROUPS! And maybe even appear offline to certain groups at any given time.
[16:49] DaQbet Kish: could we find a way to select ALL in Friends list?
[16:49] Garn Conover: good one Taryn
[16:49] You: well...you can sort calling cards into folders, but I know what you mean Taryn
[16:50] Doctor Gascoigne: oh I like that Taryn
[16:50] Taryn London: yeah, but it's not the same.
[16:50] Garn Conover: calling cards get duplicated as well
[16:50] Doctor Gascoigne: I want a pain in my back end group BAD
[16:50] Taryn London: totally.
[16:50] Doctor Gascoigne: incoming message from NO NO NO RUN
[16:50] Garn Conover: they also dont delete if you remove from friends list
[16:50] You: I have my AIM sorted into lists, for example
[16:51] Garn Conover: ned a check- "do u wish to remove calling card as well'
[16:51] Taryn London: "newbies I've adopted" group... mentors group... work, family, friends, people I've removed from friends who just keep adding me... alts... etc.
[16:51] You: one is LINDENS, one is EW NON-LINDENS and one is WOW, MY SWEETIE
[16:51] Doctor Gascoigne: mentor wives, new mentors, mentors with hot sauce
[16:51] You: that's a really good idea, I don't think I've heard that discussed here
[16:51] Dimitrio Lewis: "people I purposely want to appear offline to".. not that I have any of those :p
[16:52] You: how else could we make friends list more helpful
[16:52] You: 1) Categories
[16:52] You: 2) labels perhaps?
[16:52] You: or that's too much maybe
[16:52] Garn Conover: revert to the old view >.<
[16:53] Taryn London: show last login beside their name
[16:53] Taryn London: so we can delete peeps who don't come around anymore
[16:53] You: hmmm...no way to see last login now unless they are in same group I think
[16:53] Taryn London: exaclty
[16:53] Taryn London: which is a pain
[16:53] You: okay that's cool
[16:53] You: what other info would be good associated with friends that we don't have now
[16:54] Taryn London: if they like you enough to accept a friend request, they probably wont mind if you knew when they were last online.
[16:54] Dimitrio Lewis: labels as in tags?
[16:54] You: that's what I was thinking Dimitrio, but maybe that's redundant if you can group them
[16:54] Garn Conover: nicknames?
[16:54] You: yeah...perhaps
[16:54] Dimitrio Lewis: search friends list for all who have a certain tag, there's your business partners
[16:54] You: I can rename folks in Trillian
[16:55] Garn Conover: yea i do it all the time
[16:55] You: in case they are something like Carl98163549 and I need to know that's Lobster Linden
[16:55] Garn Conover: yea my email and name is Elvish so it be easier to rename me
[16:55] Taryn London: That would be excellent for anyone who has our pal 010100100010010010101001 (not his real code but you get the idea) on their friends list
[16:56] Taryn London: Change him to just Omlet :P
[16:56] Dimitrio Lewis: we need tab autocomplete for names :)
[16:58] You: well...that's a lot of good ideas whew....it's going to take me a while to compile notes from this meeting lol
[17:00] You: well, it's almost 5pm SLTime, so we can call it a smashing success of a meeting :D