People Are People, or: I'm Only Human

Depeche Mode, by Painkilla.

So... I'm no social scientist (just a lowly entrepreneur), no expert (just a talented amateur), but I would like to rant a little about a couple of things I have observed. One of these is that social software, social networking, web 2.0, whatever you want to call it, has not fundamentally changed what it means to be human (certainly not any more than written language, smoke signals, or the telephone). Dunbar's number, for example, holds true, whether you are going back to neolithic villages, Roman army legions, Hutterite settlements, or MMORG guilds/tribes. What social networking applications like Flickr, LinkedIn, or MySpace can do is give us tools to perform better some of the natural social grooming behaviors we've evolved over the millenia. For example, Gossip and celebrity have always been with us, and in fact perform a vital social function. Now, though, internet-based applications give us powerful new tools to discover, manage, and distribute gossip about our friends, neighbors, acquaintances, and celebrities. So what's my point? My point is that perhaps MySpace beat Friendster (as an example) not just because of the vagaries of cool-seeking among the younger set, but also because it was better optimized for the kinds of social grooming that people naturally want to do for the class of social relationships being represented there. Teenaged boys always took note of passing females, and MySpace is well-optimized for this type of superficial and fleeting relationship. What's new is that MySpace allows one to search, browse, sort, filter, and "bookmark", which happens to dovetail nicely with a primitive desire to keep track of potential mates. There's nothing new under the sun.

Why I've slowed down

Slow Down Sperm Whale,
by kalavinka.

I case you're wondering why I haven't posted recently... Just Systems, the largest ISV in Japan, is acquiring the company formerly known as Enfolding Systems, which has been keeping me quite busy. I have a bunch of half-written posts that I promise I will get up in the next few days. Thanks for your patience.

In praise of green jube jubes

Green jube jubes are lime flavoured. Sometimes they come alive and do back flips for you. You are one of those, and I'll tell you, those are the best kind.

photo: rainbow candy, by pastelhearts