Ideas, Rule

Whenever any great invention happens, the inventor along with the pros of the product might also think about the problems his/her investion might bring upon the society. There are so many such examples. Well, great that nuclear energy got invented, but it gave us Hiroshima & Nagasaki. There are cars, but now we are fighting with the pollution and all the damages is it doing to our planet. The list is so very long. And now we realize and think about how we should put a check on all kinds of pollution from such origins to save the planet.

Similarly, and it might not be right away, we will face similar issues originating from these social networks/ information getting generated from the web. I mean look at the time we spend online — it’s increasing day by day. Sure the idiot box (Television) was considered harmful few years ago, because it made you couch potato, but Internet and it’s friends are just taking it to the next level. All work/ browsing/ socializing/ reading and NO PLAY!

Here are some trends by Online Publishers Association (OPA) 

Look at Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and hundreds of other social networks/ junk data generators. What good are they doing to us? Do we really need this much information in real time? I am not sure!

Well what triggered this blog, is the new service started by Google — Tip Jar . Is Google feeling insecured about people adopting Twitter? I don’t get it. And well, I know they want to organize world’s information, but look at the data coming up there. Here is one .. 

“Take advantage of free entertainment in your community – parks, museums, exhibits, etc. Go to free park concerts and other community activities”

Who doesn’t? Whoever posted this, didn’t he/ she come to the Central Park during free concerts and see the number of people hanging out there? Here’s another one

“Quit smoking. You will save tons of dollars and my favorite: you will save tons of years”

Ya right! You said it and now whoever reads it will quit smoking. 

My point is simple! I think there will be time when so much information will be floating around that we will find it tough to get to what we are actually looking for in the given amount of time. Noise is just spreading all over. Just noise!

And I don’t think building faster machines, better search algorithms or intitive user interfaces will do the trick. Look at the planet and think again, as to what we really need to do.

Height of the internet-age would be registering the user name of an unborn child and creating his social profile.

There are hundreds of applications, thousands of enterpreneurs and young talent and resulting in millions of users of the world wide web. Applications connecting people — yeah, the so called Social Networking phenomenon has impacted everything from selling car to sharing music to reviewing movie.

I am neither an environmental speaker nor tend to become one. These are few suggestions I would like to make to these social data crunchers, about what they can do.

1. Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, Orkut should make sure to have atleast 5% of their space/ advertisement devoted to some social message.

2. These platform should encourge and promote the vendor apps, which can make a difference for the environment or carry a message in their business model.

3. This can be a little tricky — Sublimal message — it does work, right? Now if used in the right way it can do wonders considering the number of users looking at these messages.

4. Hammer the users with some low hanging suggestions/ inputs — e.g. Switch off you laptops/ computers when not in used. Don’t just keep them running.

5. Build functionalities and promote them which are around car pooling, sharing a ride

6. Build functionalities which allow users not only share just music and pictures, but also share information about things they want to re-cycle or give away non-degradable items so some other friend can use it instead of being thrown away.

7. I really would like to see an application which comments on industries, factories and organizations which cause huge pollution and doesn’t get caught. Users should know about these culprits, so their products/ services gets boycotted. After all you believe you friend on his movie review, why can’t you believe in him if he comments about someone screwing the nature.

8. Collective intelligence - Obama has already done it. Why can’t these platforms and entrepreneurs do it — create placeholder where every user has to contribute and act.

Frankly, I am thinking about a body which can make sure that every internet social user is paying his or her dues/ taxes through these platforms, which are part of our lives now.