Digital Landfill

One of the things I find hard to explain to people who are not active on social networks is the incredible and serendipitous way information flows TO you.

This is admittedly not the most efficient of processes right now. But it is getting better and better. Let me give you an example.

Earlier this morning, I tweeted this...

A few hours later, I received this reply from Daniel Mealo, and I have to admit it's a pretty damn good answer.

Daniel noted the following in thinking about his personal and professional networking. I must say these are thoughts that I've wrestled with as I think about whether my family is REALLY interested in ECM updates on Facebook (hint: THEY'RE NOT) and whether my work contacts really want to be exposed to my fab nephew Ben's fart jokes (OK, maybe.) My own personal dichotomy -- weaker by the day -- business stuff on Twitter and LinkedIn, personal stuff on Facebook, but with lots of fuzziness.

Here are Daniel's thoughts... Here's what he posted to alert his Facebook contacts about where he's headed...

On 7/31/2011, Google+ is expected to come out of its limited beta release into open availability. When this happens, I will stop posting updates to and monitoring Facebook except on very rare occasion.

What will be found at ?
My Twitter account () will continue to be used for newsfeeds and trivial banter, mostly of a nerd-type nature.

What will be found at Google+ ()?
Google+ will replace Facebook as my preferred way to post pictures and personal updates to those in my "friends" and "family" circles. 

If you would like an invitation to the Google+ beta test before the 7/31/2011 official launch, send me your email address and I will sign you up for an invite.

Daniel then kindly gave me his list of 9 reasons why he is moving away from Facebook.  It's got me thinking...

1. Data Liberation. This means that, at any time I want, I can export my Google+ pictures and conversations into a zip file on my local computer and leave their service. Facebook tries to trap that data much like AOL did years ago, and it is a model that has never sat well with me. People should own their own data. Nobody should hold it hostage.
2. Unlimited Uploads. One of the main reasons that I started using Facebook for personal content was the ability to upload unlimited amounts of photos for sharing. Google has now caught up. With the introduction of Google+, you can upload unlimited photos in fairly high (2048x2048) resolution, along with unlimited videos. This upload service integrates tightly with Picasa photo management and editing software.
3. Instant Upload. Using the Android App for Google+, all of my photos and videos automatically upload from my phone to a private album online to protect them and make them easy to share when and if I want to. This is a killer feature. It likely will come to other mobile phone platforms soon.
4. Circles. This is what Google+ calls its "Groups" or "Lists." Facebook is built around a lack of privacy by default. While it has the ability to set up and maintain lists of contacts by type and share certain content only with certain groups, it doesn't make it easy to do so. This is especially true of Facebook's mobile application. Google+, on the other hand, makes it simple to select the circles or individuals that you want to share an item with on the fly. My friends have little to no interest in Enterprise Content Management, so those posts go to the work circle only. My colleagues at work have no place in my personal life, so personal posts go to family and friend circles only. Google+ makes this easy to manage.
5. Huddle. This is a mobile feature with Google+ that lets you send and receive text messages with up to 10 people at once, with everyone in on the conversation.
6. Hangouts. This is Google+'s video conferencing feature. Unlike Facebook's recently announced Skype integration, Google+ allows video conferencing with multiple people all at the same time. I probably won't use this a lot for personal use, but it sure is handy for business meetings.
7. Geotagging. Google+ makes it easy to share (or choose not to share) your geographic location with posts and pictures.
8. Sparks. This is Google+'s built-in news section. You set your topics, and it pulls stories that you might be interested in. I am a news junkie, and I love this concept.
9. It isn't commercial (yet). So far, there are no brands allowed on Google+. There are also no fake farms, organized crime families, sororities, cake shops, pet shops, or other Zynga-type games. Brand pages will be allowed in about six months. I am hoping that the games never make the leap.

Wow. Talk about getting intelligence out of the social grid. 

Daniel's got me thinking.

I wish Google had thought through the user interface a bit more -- I had the same feeling with Wave. I constantly find myself thinking, "where the hell am I?"

I hope the beta-ness of this -- especially the confusion during this interim period between people who have Google+ accounts and those who don't (I just got a note from a staff colleague telling me that in trying to reply to a Google+ post I did to both Google+ people and email people, she just gets an error message) doesn't alienate people prematurely.

But I can also say after fooling around with this for a about an hour that the Circles concept is WAY better than the clunky way that Facebook does it and exactly consistent with how real people think about their different social universes.

Stand by.