I’d like to continue on the theme of mass connectivity from my previous post, Connectivity equals productivity, a powerful reminder. I also want to pick up on some points Tim Flannery raised about our increasingly global civilisation in his recent keynote address, Innovation in a Changing Climate.

Firstly, let me summarise and paraphrase some of Flannery’s thinking. Flannery maintains that around ten thousand years ago, the first human beings came to settle in a village. At that time, humans lived as clans or families in eternal conflict with each other. Over time we have built larger and larger political and social units. Every step of the way we have been giving away a little more of our earlier autonomy; until today, where we have given birth to a civilisation at the heart of which lies many enormous cities.

Flannery asserts that this process has produced a species in which our interdependence is so great that hardly any of us can now live outside “the great hive”. Flannery points out that if we were cast out of our civilisation today, the great majority of us would perish within weeks. We would be like domestic rabbits in the wild.

Internet map image from The Opte Project

In that sense, we have forged a “power in common”, at the expense of us as individuals. He asserts that this sense of us as a group, as a global civilisation, has become the most precious thing in the world to us. In this way, we have changed ourselves. The only possible future we have is in common, at some level.

And what about that collective future? Flannery asserts that we have run most of the marathon already and the finishing line is now just a few steps ahead of us. The finishing line will consist of the creation of a global human civilisation. We are on the brink of that now. He asks, “do we have it within us to take the few extra steps?”. On a side note, for all you conspiracy theorists out there, no, that doesn’t mean a one world government, but rather some sort of collective global consciousness.

Of course, he is talking about this global civilisation in relation to collectively acting on climate change, which he says is a major roadblock in our way. He maintains that unless we address the issue of climate change this decade, it’s likely we will lose the opportunity to forge that global civilisation. He says that incompetent political systems may well have such an impact on us that we will be unable to proceed, and there will be increasing conflict over diminishing resources.

Connectivity and an emerging global civilisation.

Flannery didn’t mention connectivity, or the internet in this particular talk, but while listening to his words I couldn’t help thinking about this concept of the great human hive in relation to the mass connectivity that has been growing around the world. As well as the big trend towards urbanisation, we also have this trend towards worldwide connectivity. Recently that trend has been increasingly towards wireless connectivity.

Sure, we most certainly have a large digital divide, a gap between people with effective access to digital and information technology, and those with very limited or no access at all. However, the fact remains that we are more able to communicate with each other on a global scale than ever before.

So, the question is: are we on the brink of achieving a truly global civilisation, a sort of global consciousness aided by mass connectivity?

It seemed only fitting that I turned to “the crowd” for an answer. I posed some questions on Twitter and Facebook. Mostly, the answer was a resounding No. Only a couple of people said yes. Interestingly, they were both young people.

“The voices on the net say no.”

“Absolutely not, that’s impossible”

“It is further away than ever”

“Don’t mistake global communications with consciousness”

“The ‘civil’ part of the q. that has a problem. I don’t see a lot of civility going on. Connectivity cuts both ways”

“Religion, greed, and egotism. Those are things what will never go away or be put into a level of control that would allow global civilisation”

“No! Any travel to a two-thirds-of-world country exposes how many billions not on grid and completely ignored by global ‘thought’.”

“no – the same people who are excluded/voiceless locally are now excluded globally. It is a conversation between the rich.”

“Global Civilisation- possibly. Global Conscience – definitly not, people/countries are unique indentities and think differently”

“Sadly, absolutely not. The more info the more divisive are positions. look at the US. but still have hope for next generations”

“Global civilization yes, because for the first time ever we are growing a Gen Y that is connected across the  World.”

“I say YES YES YES! (but maybe cause I’m 24?)”

I think there are some good points there, especially the one about mistaking mass connectivity with consciousness, and taking into account the lack of connectivity in most of the world.

I don’t like to be pessimistic, so I’m going to end with my belief that, global civilisation and global consciousness or not, we can solve some of the humanity’s major problems, including climate change.

By the way, I say it’s humanity’s problem because the Earth will recover eventually from the excessive greenhouse gases we are pumping into the atmosphere, even if humans aren’t around when it does. We would take (and are already taking) a lot of other species with us too, and perhaps new ones would emerge later.

What are your thoughts on this global civilisation question? I’m interested to find out.

Technorati Tags: climate change, connectivity, digital divide, environment, globalisation, Tim Flannery, urbanizatiion

Further to my recent posts, Local businesses: to use Foursquare (yet) or not, that is the question’ and 10 examples of businesses in Australia already using Foursquare for marketing, it seems that Coca–Cola has now jumped in with its own contribution to Foursquare markeing. Enter, The Coke Machine Fairy.

I just noticed this a few minutes ago when I visited my local shopping centre, Broadway Shopping Mall. There was a “Nearby Special” banner on display as I checked-in.

It appears that Coke will be leaving “goodies” in Coke machines around Sydney on a daily basis. Instructions on how to play the game can be found here.

Technorati Tags: business, Coca-Cola, coke, Foursquare, marketing, mobile, Twitter

Google has actually had real-time search for a while now, and has been improving it periodically. You may have read my previous post from May comparing 10 different real-time search engines, which included Google’s offering.

To recap, as they say in the embedded “How to” video, Google Realtime allows you to search real-time content from across the web. Sources include news stories, blog posts and social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz and Friendfeed. The real-time stream constantly and automatically refreshes, feeding in live content as it’s posted to the web.

Google Realtime features now include:

• The ability to look back in time to view updates from the past.
• The ability to refine your search by location – by town, state or country.
• The ability to browse a conversation (on Twitter for instance), to see how it developed over time.
• The ability to set up Google Alerts for real-time updates.

Personally, I really like the addition of being able to refine search by location. As in my previous real-time search engine comparison post, I searched under a favourite topic of mine, cleantech, and then refined the search just to Australia.  It came up with some interesting and useful results for me. I’ve previously said, as it’s not a new feature, that I also like the ability to be able to search historically. This remains true.

What are your thoughts on Google Realtime Search? Have you found yourself using it yet? Is it useful enough for you, or do you use another real-time search engine? Do you use real-time search at all?

Check the embedded video for the full set of new features in more detail and how to use them.

Thanks @warlach via @andrewsayer for the heads up this morning.

Technorati Tags: Google, real-time, search, video

After coming across a recent infographic regarding the business behind Facebook, I decided to look just a little deeper into the company’s history. Following are some points you perhaps don’t already know, and a few you probably do. Look for the big questions at the end too.

1. Facebook was launched by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg and his roommates in February 2004, more than six and half years ago. As you may know, there’s now a (fictional) feature feature film called ‘The Social Network’ based on events surrounding the founding of Facebook.
2. Within a month of launching, over half of Harvard undergraduate students were using ‘The Facebook’, as it was initially called. Within 4 months, Facebook added 30 more college networks.
3. As of July 2010, over 500 million people are using Facebook.
4. Later in 2004, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel injectd $500,000 into Facebook, becoming its first investor.
5. Also in 2004, Friendster attempted to acquire Facebook for $10 million. Zuckerberg turned down the offer.
6. In 2005, Facebook took another $12.7 million from venture capital group Accel Partners, at about a $100 million valuation.
7. In 2006, Facebook took another $25 million  in funding from VC firms Greylock Parters and Meritech Capital, as well as more from Thiel and Accel Partners. The pre-money valuation at this stage was around $525 million.
8. In September 2006, Facebook opened up to anyone with an email address.
9. In 2006, both Viacom and Yahoo attempted to buy Facebook, Yahoo reportedly first offered $1 billion dollars.
10. In 2007, Microsoft invested over $240 million and become Facebook’s sole provider of banner ads. Facebook has now started dropping Microsoft’s ads in favour of more socially interactive ads, where advertisers are encouraged to use the “Like” button to increase the ad’s influence. Facebook ads can be targeted by location, age and interests.
11. In total, Facebook has taken a staggering $836 million in funding. Among Facebook’s other investors are, a German internet company called European Founders Fund ($15 million), a Hong Hong billionaire called Li Ka-hing ($60 million), TriplePoint Capital ($100 million), a Russian investment firm called Digital Sky Technologies ($200 million) and a private equity firm called Elevation Partners ($120 million).
12. In March 2010, for the first time Facebook became the most visited website in the US, surpassing Google.
13. Facebook’s increasing revenue stems from ads, Facebook applications and Facebook Credits. Facebook Credits are an online currency unique to Facebook. Members purchase ten credits per dollar to buy online goods and play games. Facebook gets a 30% cut of the credit transactions.
14. Facebook games are popular to say the least. Zynga is the company behind two of the most popular games, Farmville and Mafia Wars. Farmville claimed over 83 million active users in February 2010. Marfia wars has claimed over 25 million users.
15. In July 2010, Facebook teamed up with Amazon to use Facebook profile data to make product recommendations on Amazon’s US and Canadian site.
16. Although still a private comapny, industry sources claim Facebook reveunes were up to $700 million in 2009.
17. It is projected that Facebook will generate revenues between $1 billion and $1.1 billion in 2010.
18. Current valuations of Facebook are upwards of $20 billion.
19. Speculation over an IPO has been mounting. Mark Zuckerberg has been reported as saying the initial public offering will happen “when it makes sense”.
20. 2012: Facebook goes public?
21. Facebook follows in Google’s footsteps and becomes the next $100 billion web company?

Okay, sure, those last two points haven’t happened, yet. What are your thoughts on these two possible future developments? The IPO is sure to happen. What about the last point? Will Facebook be as big and profitable as Google is now?

Sources: CrunchBase, StartupMeme

Technorati Tags: business, Facebook, Google, investment, Mark Zuckerberg, VC

Google CEO Eric Schmidt was recently reported as saying that because of the increasing amount of information we are sharing online, he predicts that one day people will have to change their names and reinvent themselves if they want to escape their digital pasts, should they want to. Is this an extreme point of view or already an online reality?

I’m sure most of us have Googled our names at some point to see what results are thrown up. You’d be silly not to in this day and age. Even if you don’t spend very much time online, it’s increasingly likely that your name will be referenced in relation to something yo’ve been involved with.

The degree to which your name can easily be found online can of course depend on how popular your name is, what name you actually use online, and how much online activity you have engaged in thus far.

Take my name for instance: John Johnston. Believe it or not, that’s not a very unique name in the world. However, partly for this reason, I mostly use my online identifier (okay, personal brand if you like), jjprojects. I don’t attempt to hide my real name, it’s just more beneficial in most cases for me to use jjprojects. However, because I engage in a lot of activity online, and because I do also use my “real” name in relation to jjprojects, my name still appears on the first page of Google results when searched for. I have no problem with what is found there.

I know quite a few people who engage in a lot of social media activity but have several different names, usually to attempt to separate their work life from their personal and political views, when they feel they want or need to do that. Needless to say, I’m not going to ask you to comment and say if you are one of those people :)

Many of these people are probably a little more online savvy than your average web user, so there are many people who use Facebook and Twitter (for instance) who mix personal and professional without a second thought to the consequences. It’s getting increasingly difficult to not mix personal with professional when it comes to the likes of Facebook and Twitter. Do you ignore that friend request from that work colleague on Facebook you’d really rather not let have access to those personal pictures and comments you’ve already posted? Are many people even aware of what their privacy settings are set to on Facebook?

Even if you are aware of who could search for and read your online comments, and see the photos you’ve uploaded, it’s easy to forget. Then there’s the emerging location-based digital culture, in which more people will be leaving searchable traces of where they’ve been and at what time, without a second thought. Foursquare is verging on going mainstream and Facebook Places has just launched.

It has to be said that there is this emerging school of thought saying that we’ll eventually get over caring so much about people’s embarrassing moments and irrational emotional rants online, increasingly played out in real-time on the likes of Twitter and Facebook. The thinking there is that we are all human and we all make mistakes and do things we regret later. Let’s be prepared to forgive people their mistakes, let humans be human, and accept we are going to have more and more of our lives played out online. Let’s get over it and move on. Easier said than done.

It’s often said that common sense should lead when it comes to sharing online, but it may be a little more complicated than that. We are human after all. Humans are fallible. Who hasn’t done something they regret, especially when we were younger? If you are growing up in an culture that spends a lot of time online, those situations are no doubt going to be played out online. We all make makes, and sometimes it’s difficult (or impossible) to delete those mistakes.

What are your thoughts on this? By the way, if jjprojects suddenly stops all communication one day, you’ll know one of two things may have happened ;)

Technorati Tags: Eric Schmidt, Facebook, Google, jjprojects, John Johnston, online privacy, social networking, Twitter

In Silicon Valley just a few hours ago, Facebook held a event to announce the launch of the much anticipated Facebook Places. The embedded video is a full launch video replay from the live event, if you’d like to see what was said by Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook Places team and various partner companies.

For international users, it should be noted from the outset that Facebook Places will only be available in the US at first. Users outside the US will be able to see US Places posts on the web.

Amongst others, partner companies include Gowalla, Yelp and Foursquare. A representative from Gowalla detailed how Gowalla posts will be integrated into Places via the Places API. You can choose to attach an image to a post, as you can in Gowalla now. You’ll also be able to see Gowalla stamps in posts.

The Foursquare representative was less specific about how Foursquare will be integrated, to say the least. In fact you’d have to say he looked a little less than enthusiastic about the whole thing. But hey, how can you refuse to participate in having access to a location-based service that has access to a user–base of more than 500 million users, right?

It was explained at the launch that it is hoped that Facebook users will begin to discover serendipitous moments by checking in to places and finding that other friends are at the same location or nearby.

At first, Facebook Places will only be available on the Facebook application for iPhone and can also be accessed by “advanced mobile browers” (meaning those supporting HTML 5 and geolocation) at touch.facebook.com. Mark Zuckerberg said at the launch that there are not Android or Blackberry apps available yet. There are plans for these but no timeline.

In fact, Zuckerberg stated that there are quite a lot of things they aren’t doing with Places yet, including integrating Places with Facebook Events, which seems like a very obvious thing for them to do, especially as they have recently acquired Hot Potato. Zuckerberg said that they want to get things right before launching additional apps and features.

Facebook Places seems to be quite focused on including images and being able to tag friends who are with you when you check–in. You can also post a text update along with your check-in, as you can with most other location–based services.

There’s not a lot that’s new here, but it’s not really about that, is it? What’s significant is that it’s Facebook launching this location-based service. It’s going to be interesting to see just how many of the hundreds of millions of users start using this regularly. Not everyone has an iPhone or a mobile device capable of using the service, so there will be limited numbers to begin with, but still, Five. Hundred. Million. Users, and still growing.

For a full run–down of the features, check out Facebook’s blog post on the subject.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Facebook Places, Foursquare, Gowalla, location, location-based, Mark Zuckerberg

Well by now you’ve probably seen the trailer for the much anticipated, and apparently quite dark, movie about the founding of Facebook, The Social Network. Now comes a new spoof (there are others) of The Social Network trailer, complete with an excellent parody soundtrack.

The Twit Network trailer relentlessly lampoons Twitter’s flood of minutiae from people’s everyday lives. It begins with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey having a conversation with a friend which goes “I need to create a way to blog that is as random and incoherent as writing on a bathroom wall”. “Why”. “Because normal blogging is tedious and dumb and leads to fully formed ideas”.  I’m sure you get the picture. It’s funny :)

The parody trailer also begs the question, if  The Social Network turns out to be a box office success, will we one day see a feature film about Twitter too?

On a side note, as you can see from the tweet below, which is a quote from the video trailer, Twitter Co-founder Biz Stone seems to think it’s funny too.

via Mashable

Technorati Tags: Biz Stone, Facebook, Jack Dorsey, movie, parody, The Social Network, trailer, Twitter, video

The long anticipated geolocation feature from Facebook will be launching very soon. Apparently, “multiple sources” have told CNET this is the case. We have heard this before, from as far back as May, but surely it must be on its way now.

Word from said sources is that it will take the form of an Application Programming Interface (API) for other location-based services to be able to plug-into.

Mathew Ingram at Gigaom has pointed out that it’s likely to be more than just a check-in API, as Facebook has said previously that it thinks of places as more than just a way to add location information to a status update, or to ‘like’ a café or bar you visit.

Indeed, I too wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook Places launches with the ability to associate photos, videos and comment-style reviews. I’ve said before that the ability to upload images and associate them with venues in Foursquare would be a welcome additional feature. I’m sure they’ll add it sooner or later. Yes, I know Gowalla fans, Gowalla already has this feature, but Foursquare has the momentum.

Facebook has partnered with Localeze to provide a business directory infrastructure  for the new location feature. This is the same company that powers Twitter’s Places directory. In addition, Facebook recently acquired Hot Potato, which is a service that focuses on user check-ins to events rather than locations. It remains to be seen how Facebook Places will be integrated with Facebook Events, but I’d have to say there must be a big opportunity there for that to happen. It could work out quite well.

Will Facebook Places be a Foursquare killer? What are your thoughts on that? Personally, I doubt it but it’s bound to attract a lot of users. Even if the percentage of Facebook users who take it up is reasonably low, with 500+ million users, it’s still bound to be a huge number!

Technorati Tags: CNET, Facebook, Facebook Places, Foursquare, Foursquare killer, Gigaom, Gowalla, Hot Potato, Localeze, Twitter

Do you operate more than one Google account? Have you ever needed to use both at once and had to inconveniently sign in and out to switch back and forth between the two? Most annoying, isn’t it?

Previously the options have been to constantly sign in and out of different accounts like that, or use a second browser (which I found didn’t seem to work well between Firefox and Safari), or use Chrome Incognito.

Google has announced on The Official Gmail Blog that we can now enable a feature that allows us access to more than one Google account at at time, well mostly. After enabling the feature, you can sign into two other accounts from the sign in menu. However, Google is calling this an advanced feature for a number of reasons:

• Not all Google services support multiple account sign-in yet. These are the Google products that do: Google Code, Google Calendar, Gmail. Google Reader, Google Sites, Google Voice. Apparently, Google Docs will be added soon.
• The mobile versions of these products do not support multiple accounts in the same web browser. They will default to the first account you sign in to.
• Google products not included above will also default to the first account that you signed in with, using your current web browser session.
• Offline Mail and Offline Calendar will be disabled. You may lose any unsent mail.

These issues aside, I think it’s still a welcome addition and long overdue, especially if you have separate personal and work accounts. To enable the new feature, visit google.com/accounts and click the “Edit” link next to “Multiple sign–in”.

Technorati Tags: email, gmail, Google

Apparently, if you are American, there’s a decent chance you are social networking right now. According to a new Neilsen survey, Americans now spend nearly a quarter of their online time social networking. This is a 43 percent increase from only a year ago.

According to the Neilsen survey, this makes social networking the most popular online activity in America. Online gaming came in second and good old email came in third.

If you’re in Australia, as I am, back in June it was revealed that we spend the most time social networking in the world. According to that previous survey, the U.S. and Italy came in second and third respectively.

Well I can say for certain that you’re definitely reading a blog right now, but do you also have Twitter or Facebook or some other form of social media at your fingertips too? There’s a good chance you do.

Technorati Tags: America, Australia, email, Neilson, online gaming, social media, social networking, stats