2004 Social Media - Best and Worst

I thought it might be interesting if people posted their thoughts on the best and worst of social media (online communities, social software, social networking, etc.) for 2004.  Kind of like the best and worst movie lists.

 

Feel free to push your own site/stuff but just be explicit when you are doing so.

 

Here’s my off-the-top-of-my-head list (but remember, my nickname is “Cynthia the Social Networking Luddite”).

 

BEST:

 

Dogster

Amazon.com’s Listmania: the best way to find what you really want even when you don’t know what it is

www.paidcontent.org by great newsletter/blog about the content industry

The Social Software Weblog by Judith Meskill

All of Robin Good’s stuff (MasterNewMedia)

Dogs that Blog and the dog blogroll there are now 6 dogs in the dog blogroll (which I maintain), 3 of which are written from the dog’s point of you.  Yes, laugh all you like, but a major newspaper will soon be publishing a story on blogging pets.  This could be the hot social networking topic of 2005

 

WORST:

 

Social Networking website business models (are there any?)

BzzAgent (NYTimes article)

Too many social networking sites

 

Dilbert develops a social networking site

http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20041223.html

 

Great concept but I think it has already been done J

Tribe.net ?

 

Cynthia “the social networking Luddite”

Dog Blogs

more on buzz marketing...

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1105.cfm

What's the Buzz About Buzz Marketing?

“There's a new marketing catchphrase that's getting rave word-of-mouth reviews. From articles in the popular press to conversations in the classroom, huge companies to boutique marketing firms, suddenly it seems you can't talk about new products without addressing 'buzz marketing.' "People are buzzing about buzzing," says Wharton marketing professor Barbara Kahn. "People think it's cool. There is something almost empowering about the idea of being able to 'buzz' your way into the products people buy." “

 

Happy Holidays from Dogster

This is still my favorite social networking site.

-----Original Message-----
From: Dogster! Woof Woof! [mailto:dogsters@dogster.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2004 10:38 PM
To: Cynthia Typaldos
Subject: Happy Holidays from Dogster


Dear Dogster members,

Woof Woof Bark!

Have you seen the Holiday Picture Party yet? Over 1,550 pets have already
posted a seasonal pix. Is your fluffy part of the fun? Join and you could
win one of fifty free dog or cat books from HCI Publishing. To join the
party or take a stroll, just go to:

http://www.dogster.com/hpp/

By the way, did you know Dogster now has over 51,000 dogs and Catster more
than 15,500 cats! When Dogster launched in January I could barely imagine
10,000 doggies. Now we have two sites; 65,000 pets; 50,000 users from 130
countries; 900,000 friend-to-friend connections; 662,000 pet votes cast;
450,000 treats shared; 352,000 corralled favorites; 40,000 messages sent;
5,000 dairy writers and one really busy web server. I may have put my heart
and soul into this, but without your beautiful photos, colorful entries and
profound love for your furry family members it would be nothing but a bunch
of lonely web code! So, I sincerely thank you and offer virtual belly rubs
and head pats for a job well done.

Also we added more new features. If you want you can control who sends you
friend invites and you can optionally receive an email when you have new
Dogster private messages. We even added a holiday Gift Giving Guide to help
find something for even the pickiest pooches. What other new features would
you like to see in the site? Tell us:
http://www.dogster.com/contact.php

Thanks for loving the sites and know as the years roll by, you'll be able to
say, "I joined Dogster in the very first year!"

Safe holidays and a barktastic new year,

Ted Rheingold
Founder and local Top Dog
http://www.dogster.com

Ben Franklin on professional recommendations

This is an amazing document. It should be the warning label on the home
page of every social networking website. Franklin's so-called
"recommendation letter" is hysterically funny and reminds me of requests I
used to get thru Spoke, where I didn't know either person.

I am posting this to my blog at
http://typaldos.blogspot.com

Thanks to Victor S. Grishchenko for the link.
http://pages.plotinka.ru/~gritzko/recommendation-cite.png

The 'Blog' Revolution Sweeps Across China

The 'Blog' Revolution Sweeps Across China

December 2, 2004
By Xiao Qiang, New Scientist

Meet the bloggers who are keeping one step ahead of the censors

By Xiao Qiang, New Scientist
The "blog revolution" has a particularly revolutionary character in China,
where weblog technology is circumventing government censors by
decentralizing and popularizing the flow of information. By inviting the
Internet behind its "Great Firewall," the Chinese government has unwittingly
opened a Pandora's Box of free discourse that threatens its totalitarian
stranglehold on the media.

The entire story may be viewed at
http://www.utne.com/webwatch/2004_176/news/11478-1.html