Google » Ciaran Laval

Facebook Pages Can Be Useful

Second Life, Social Networking, Virtual Worlds No Responses »

Mar 162012

Via Hamlet Au over at New World Notes, there’s a link to a post from Strawberry Singh on using Facebook pages to promote your Second Life brand. The good thing about Facebook pages is that you aren’t breaking the Facebook Terms of Service by having a Facebook page for your Second Life avatar, or your Second Life brand.

The thing I found even better about Facebook pages is that you don’t need to have a Facebook profile to create a Facebook page, you will still need to provide an email address and you will need this for logging in but you don’t need to have a Facebook profile, so when Facebook has a burp and sets your privacy settings to something you weren’t expecting, it won’t be an issue. That is unless Facebook have changed that now, but I created pages on Facebook without needing a main Facebook profile.

Google + on the other hand requires you to have a Google + profile to create pages, so it’s a bit different but Google + largely seem more relaxed on the names you use than Facebook are.

What’s In A Name Yet Again!

Second Life, Social Networking, Virtual Worlds No Responses »

Jan 242012

“Lastly, I really do regret I that spoiled ‘Ciaran Laval’ s night away from the pub. The way this election is going he may find me there before long.” – Sir Norman Tebbit, April 19th 2010.

The above quote is relevant in the name stakes because it demonstrates I have a persistent online identity outside Second Life circles, although what I was ever doing on The Torygraph blogs whilst sober still remains a mystery, what Sir Norman was referring to is that I’d stated on another blog post of his that I was stone cold sober and agreeing with him, it was a scary evening.

Which brings us to the latest episode of the nym wars and Google +, which rears its head in the shape of form of Google’s Bradley Horowitz suggesting a new and more inclusive naming policy is being r0lled out. Now before you get too excited you need to tread carefully here, Violet Blue, who was very involved in the nym wars because her name was considered to be fake (it isn’t) has posted over at Zdnet suggesting that pseudonyms still aren’t welcome. However Violet seems to be getting a tad confused, Bradley Horowitz is talking of one name nyms, rather than normal looking nyms and this is where it all gets confusing.

Twitter Emphasise They Are Nym Friendly

Social Networking No Responses »

Sep 092011

Twitter CEO Dick Costollo has firmly planted his feet in the nym friendly camp according to a post at Wired’s Epicenter, which you can read here. Mr Costollo is quoted as saying:

“Other services may be declaring that you have to use your real name because they think they will be able to monetize that better and think they will be able to get more information about you that will help them monetize better.”

“We are more interested in serving our users first, and we think by serving that by serving our users first, we will have a better platform for marketers and advertisers.”

Hooray for that but not only is Mr Costollo absolutely right in his thinking, he shows Google + how wrong they are with their real name policy because in terms of advertisers, whom people follow and what their interests are, will likely produce better targetted marketing than what their name is and Google should know this because so much of their advertising service is based not on your real name, but what you’re looking for or at.

Real Name Policy Function Creep Needs To Be Halted

Social Networking No Responses »

Sep 022011

Cory Doctorow had an interesting piece in The Guardian this week about Google + and more to the point Eric Scmidt’s comments that nobody is forcing people to use Google +. This came on the back of Eric Schmidt’s comments to NPR’s Andy Carvin in Edinburgh. This was the same piece that led to claims that Google + is primarily an identity service, although Tateru Nino commenting on Hamlet Au’s blog post on social networks suggested it’s Google profiles that will be the identity service.

Cory’s post is largely about discussing the real name policy of Google + and why Eric Schmidt’s comment is off, I don’t entirely agree there, I’m someone who won’t use Google + because of their policy but there is an underlying function creep with these real name policies that could very well spread, I remain opposed to such policies for many reasons, one certainly being that in some ways they are anti social, you don’t need to know your friend’s real name on a social network because if that friend wants to interact with you, they will tell you their name, that’s often how friendships are forged, you meet, you say hello, you get to know each other, you get to know more about each other, this is normal human interaction. I’ve mentioned this before but in the days before Real_ID on World Of Warcraft the guys I play WoW with would share avatar and server names and then we’d all get into a guild together, that’s how friends work.

The arguments in favour of real name only social networking are flimsy to say the least, yet they come up all the time in these sort of threads. Why wouldn’t you want your name associated with a comment? What are you hiding? If you don’t want to be known don’t go on The Internet. All people who don’t use real names are just anonymous trolls, it’s tiresome reading the same flimsy reasons over and over.

Never Mind Mesh, Trim Those Prims!

Second Life, Virtual Worlds 1 Response »

Aug 232011

I’m playing around on my site with Google Affiliates, so things may look a bit wonky, Second Life has an affiliate program, I’ve signed up to the Linkshare deal on another blog of mine, I didn’t realise they’d started a Google affiliate program until I saw a post from Inara Pey that mentioned it, you need to get approved all over again so I don’t know how that will work out. Inara’s post also pointed out a very useful community resources portal too, which has plenty of information for communities. Linden Lab are posting lots of information on the forum and Wiki, I just wish more of it was being promoted via the blog.

However the blog is being used and today it annouced the Mesh rollout. I’ve played with some very basic Mesh creations and it’s not easy to get into, but for the patient it will be worth the effort. Full perm mesh objects are appearing for those who don’t have the patience but even then, you’re going to need to get your head around UV Mapping if you want to get into textures, although items that can be textured will in some cases come with a UV Map for you to texture. There are limitations on who can upload Mesh, although this is where full perm Mesh creations will get into that market, which may raise a few questions but anyway.

If Mesh seems all a bit overwhelming, there is something far more simple to get your head around, big prims!

You Are The Social Network

Social Networking, Virtual Worlds 3 Responses »

Aug 052011

This week The Guardian weighed into the Google plus online anonymity stakes with two articles, one from Jemima Kiss on nym wars , where Marx Dudek seems to have found her way into the murky world of The Guardian’s comment is free section. The other post, from Krishnan Guru Murthy is about anonymity and online social networks. Both posts have some interesting opinions.

I’m not a fan of the real names policies of Facebook or Google, there are a myriad of reasons why telling people it’s sensible to post with their real name is bad advice, there seems to be some sort of attempt to say that it’s only people living under extremist regimes who should fear using their real name, but there are day to day events that make it a bad idea. One example is in the comments of Krishnan Guru Murthy’s post where someone talks of the BBC’s decision to close the Ouch! disability forum they had there, the boards are now closed for posting. The person commenting on The Guardian pointed out how there are some sensitive subjects raised there, that people would not want to post about using their real names, and yet they had a community there that helped people share information and support each other. This is however an example of why you don’t need to be a part of Facebook, Google + or Twitter to social network, although the BBC’s decision to close the board remains a disappointment to its former users.

Do Google Get Social?

Social Networking No Responses »

Jul 222011

There have been accusations that Google don’t get social for quite a while now, with the advent of Google + it appears that maybe they do. However there’s evidence that they struggle with some aspects of social and this is exemplified via the recent TechCrunch interview with two of the guys behind Google +, which you can view on a post by Botgirl Questi.

One point where I get concerned is when one of the google guys talks about people not using video for contacting friends, it’s a pain in the arse is why people don’t do it, it’s not intuitive, it takes time to arrange, it takes more time to do and even though he touches upon these points, it’s his surprise that so many people don’t do it that’s concerning.

However Google + is about trying to find new and innovative ways for people to communicate in the real world by the sounds of it, Alexander Graham Bell isn’t going to be too concerned for quite a while I’d imagine.

Google Plus In Land Of Confusion

Second Life, Social Networking, Virtual Worlds 8 Responses »

Jul 192011

The Google + issues rumble on for those with pseudonyms, there have been some interesting blog posts (and comments) from Prok, Marx Dudek and Hamlet Au. Marx Dudek’s post is interesting regarding verifying their account to google by using a mobile phone, when Marx hadn’t supplied them with a mobile phone number. I didn’t have to provide a mobile phone number when I signed up for Gmail either.

Prok and Hamlet both have links to a google plus discussion, with Prok linking to a post by Andrew Bunner, a google engineer, calling for people to report fake profiles. Whatever the intent of Andrew’s post was, the reality is that it will have meant people reporting avatar profiles, the intent may well have been to report business profiles, but that doesn’t seem to have been how the post was received.

Hamlet’s post links to the same post by Andrew Bunner but suggests he’s saying if your name doesn’t look fake, you’re hardly likely to be flagged. Andrew Bunner is an engineer, not a policy maker, so that may explain some of the confusion but the bigger confusion really comes from Google’s odd attitude. This really goes back to February when Alma Whitten, director of privacy posted a blog post under the title: The Freedom To Be Who You Want To Be …. this is where their stance on Google Plus and real names really gets confusing.

Identity Not Labels

Social Networking, Virtual Worlds No Responses »

Jul 132011

The fuss about Google + and pseudonyms is based largely around issues of identity, rather than anonymity. There have been quite a few posts about this, Hamlet Au over at New World Notes makes the observation that Hamlet Au brings more results in Google search than James Wagner Au, I nearly always call him Hamlet, Hamlet is an identity.

Tateru Nino has a few posts on the subject, one of which discusses why it’s difficult to prove the name you go by on a daily basis. However this discussion in itself proves the folly of social networks encouraging people to social network with names that aren’t as widely known online as pseudonyms.

Google haven’t really given any convincing reasons as to why Google + is following Facebook down the anti pseudonym route and for Google, this is extremely disappointing considering how they tailor adverts to content, they absolutely do not need a database full of real names to make Google + work whereas Facebook came from a different angle and whereas I don’t see why today, they still insist on real names, it evolved from people knowing each other at University.

Google + Doesn’t Look Second Life Friendly

Second Life, Social Networking, Virtual Worlds 2 Responses »

Jul 082011

Opensource Obscure, Italian blogger, sometimes pain in the bum, sometimes extremely insightful, currently suspended from Google + for calling himself Opensource Obscure! So the question whether Google + would be pseudonym friendly and then by extension, Second Life friendly appears to have been answered on Opensource Obscure’s Flickr account. This is extremely disappointing.

I don’t have a Google + account, I don’t have a Google profile either, however Google have plenty of information on me, some of you may notice I have Google Adsense running here, to make that worthwhile I provide Google with my real information, it’s needed at that stage. This is how we normally act as humans, we part with information when we deem it necessary. One of my beefs with Facebook is that they try and push humans into acting in a manner that isn’t natural, I’ve mentioned this before but I know people down my local pub by their nickname only, I’ll buy them a pint, they’ll buy me one back, we don’t need to know each other’s full names, indeed if we did know them they wouldn’t sound right because we know each other by nicknames!

So enter Google +, with different values apparently, different groups of friends in different circles. However this still isn’t natural ordering or filtering, there’s generally crossover, but Google + has moved into the do not touch with a bargepole territory with their moves to suspend Opensource Obscure because it means that we can’t, as Second Life users, use our Second Life names, even though that’s how plenty of people know us!