Most people are now familiar with social webs like Twitter, YouTube, and so on. These social webs are a place to connect. What is interesting is that there are four different components that make up any given social web. All social web sites will always have these same components to one degree or another. These components include user-generated content, user-generated distribution, user-generated filtering, and user-generated context. User-generated context is the most interesting component of social web and is truly creating new ways for people to communicate with each other.
The Phenomenon of User-Generated Context on Social Webs
The Four Elements of a Social Web.
User-generated Content. Depending on the social web this can include videos (YouTube), web sites (StumbleUpon), short messages (Twitter), and so on.
User-generated Filtering. All social web sites give users the means to filter the information that they can access. Many times the user filters this input such as with key word searches or the user can let his or her connections filter content for them. For example with Digg, users “Digg” postings and this can determine what all users can easily view.
User-generated Distribution. Distribution can include such things as RSS feeds, YouTube postings, expanding (or not expanding) your connections, and so on. The user controls the distribution to some degree versus the media company controlling the distribution as in the case of television programming.
User-generated Context. This what is really different about the social media web. Users and third parties can now determine the context of where and how the user-generated media is presented to the end-user. The user-generated content can be displayed in a number of contexts. Previously the media company had complete control of how the content would be displayed and it what context. For example, a TV network may decide that a television program will air at 8 pm and it will be exactly 30 minutes long with commercials. With social web, the content can be displayed immediately or delayed by the user indefinitely. Additionally, user can re-tweek content, they can blog it, they can put it in widgets, and so on. They can also re-mix it and transform it into something completely different from the original content.
Microsoft has announced that home users can pre-order the Microsoft Windows 7 upgrade for only $49.99. This offer is only good until July 11th and then you do not actually get the upgrade till October 22nd. This announcement causes a lot of mixed emotions for me. These emotions include frustration, relief, and that “deer in the headlight” feeling.
Windows 7 Roll-out - Is it a new product or a needed fix for Vista?
I feel relief that Windows 7 is here. It looks like a good product. I feel frustration that we have had to put up with Windows Vista for so many years (Windows XP was launched back in early 2001 with Windows Vista supposing to replace XP in 2006). I feel like a “deer in the headlights” as we are having to purchase an “upgrade” if we have a computer with a Windows Vista installation. Yes we did purchase Windows Vista with our computer, but I would think that most people would agree that Windows Vista is at best a “transitional failed product” (see Cloud Ave’s posting for more opinions on the Microsoft Windows 7 roll-out and Windows Vista’s transition). I see the inedible that I will have to fork over money for the Microsoft Windows 7 upgrade even though in reality Microsoft is just getting Windows Vista “production-ready” with the Windows 7 upgrade. Isn’t Windows 7 really just a fix for Windows Vista? Again, my opinion probably doesn’t matter much and I just need to be the “deer in the headlight” for this roll-out. In my opinion, I really do not have much choice, but to fork out my money to help Microsoft get over the Windows Vista blunder. A question to ask is “is Microsoft just too big to fail?”
I marvel that Microsoft has been able to keep its huge market share with desktop operating systems. I started as a Mac user in the mid-80s and it seemed like it took 10 years for Microsoft Windows to even compare with the first Macs. I marvel how Microsoft was able to gain significant market share starting with Windows 3.1 in the 90s. Now Microsoft seems to have done it again. For over five years Microsoft’s flagship product, Windows Vista, failed in the marketplace, but Microsoft has maintained its market share. I would not think that many other businesses could have survived through a blunder of this magnitude.
Half of my home computers have Microsoft Vista and the other half are on Linux. I would have transitioned all of my computers to Linux, but the open-source office applications are not the most stable. Additionally, MS office document formats seem to be a standard for most colleges which about forces you to use MS Office, and thus Vista, if you have a student in the house (Note: people tell me that MS Office can run on a Linux machine, but I have not taken the effort to set MS Office up on any of my Linux computers).
All us at one time or another have wanted to file a complaint against some monolith organization that we have felt has done us wrong. The problem was that we did not know how to file a complaint or we felt there was no hope we would get any satisfaction. Now with Twitter there is hope. You can get the phone company to listen to you or any other large company where you normally will only get a recorded message or an e-mail address.
File a Complaint Using Your Twitter Mob
How To File a Complaint Using Twitter. With Twitter it is easy to file a complaint against your phone company, your gas company, your electronic company, anybody, and anyone. First, get a lot of Twitter followers, like 50,000 or more. Second, just Tweet about your complaint. You do not even need to call the company’s 800 number. If you have enough Twitter followers, the company will call you to resolve your problem. The last thing any business would want is to have your complaint about them and their company get on Twitter’s top trending topics list.
Here are a couple of examples where people are using Twitter to complain about customer service. Adam Savage from the TV show Mythbuster who has over 50,000 Twitter followers, complained on Twitter about AT&T. Adam’s complaint was that he spent “a few hours of web surfing in Canada” and he was charged over $11,000. With Adam complaining on Twitter, AT&T immediately went on Twitter’s Trending Topics list as everyone on Twitter started responding to Adam’s complaint (see TechCrunch’s posting, Twitter Revolt Against AT&T posting for more details). Additionally, many companies now have representatives on Twitter to answer customer’s issues. See ReadWriteWeb’s posting, How to Get Customer Service via Twitter for more information on how companies are using Twitter for customer service. This includes Twitter user names of many top companies.
