By Mona Nomura of Pixel Bits (FriendFeed/Twitter)


I contemplated sharing this, since 1) it's quite embarrassing and 2) I'm a private person, but the past few days have been so bizarre, I just had to share.

Short version: I'm a hobo. Long version: I was moving out of my old place, and into a long term sublet November 6th, while I took time to search for "the perfect apartment". The subletee backed out last minute, my old place found a new roommate, a friend of mine agreed to let me crash last minute, but his new girlfriend decides to fly in to surprise him, so I had to leave, STAT. To top it off, my credit cards are in transit, so hotels were out of the question, which led to well... Hobo status.

Enter Web 2.0.

When my friend told me I needed to find another place to crash STAT, my first instinct was Craigslist. He saw me browsing and said: "Are you insane? Craigslist is full of freaks. Go to couchsurfing.com." and couldn't believe what I saw. From their site:

What is the CouchSurfing mission?
When we incorporated CouchSurfing International, Inc. as a non-profit, we filed our official mission statement as:: "CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance, and facilitate cultural understanding."
-- via couchsurfing.com's FAQ

Basically, couchsurfing.com is a network of 21st Century Gypsies.
It's a site filled with travelers and people who host - world wide. It's not about finding a place to crash, but connecting people and not as dangerous as it sounds. Participants:

1. Create extensive, detailed profiles.
   
2. Engaging in local activities, discussion groups, chats, are the norm.

There are several precautionary measures to ensure a person is not a crazy.

Call me insane, but desperate times calls for desperate measures, and I sent out a 911 message and found someone willing to put me up for a night, while I exhausted options, looking for a new sublet. The experience? Interesting to say the least. I met a nice young gentleman from Spain, new to San Francisco, and very very single. Don't get me wrong, he was far from creepy, educated, and well mannered. I chose to take this gentleman's offer, since my request was extremely short notice and I jumped on the first person that responded.

It's been a few days since signing up and posting the 911 message, but the community is still getting back to me. Couples, singles, females, males, groups... I'm really amazed at people's hospitality. Granted, this site is not for everyone, but a great networking tool for students, avid backpackers, and budget travelers.

If it weren't for this predicament, I would've never found this site, got to see a different element of Social Networking, and thought it would be neat to share.

Now please excuse me, I'm going to try and sign these folks up to Twitter and FriendFeed.

Read more by Mona Nomura at Pixel Bits

Part Nine In a Monthly Series

November brings a bit of coolness in the air as the summer heat becomes a memory and most of us in the Northern Hemisphere turn to Winter. But while it might be getting colder outside, there's still a lot of hot writing going on, both from sites you have heard of and many you likely haven't. For the last nine months, I've highlighted five blogs each month that I think warrant your checking out.

Each of the bloggers highlighted over this time period has been added to my Google Reader list, via Toluu, and has, to date, been consistently informative, interesting or entertaining. Prior months' entries can be found for March, April, May, June, July, August, September and October.

This month's entries...

1) Rob Jensen / Microblink (www.microblink.com)

Focus: Microblogging, Twitter, Pownce, Plurk
Recent Highlight: Where to Find Election Coverage
RSS Feed: Subscribe Now

2) Cass / Media Geek Girl (mediageekery.blogspot.com)

Focus: Movies, Media and Life (from Singapore)
Recent Highlight: IM Just Got Interesting
RSS Feed: Subscribe Now

3) Thought Clusters (www.thoughtclusters.com)

Focus: Technology, Software
Recent Highlight:
Hindsight Experts
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4) Jason K / TekPopuli (www.tekpopuli.com)

Focus: Technology, Apple, Google, Microsoft
Recent Highlight:
Voter Suppression 2.0 — GOP Turning to Robo-Tweets
RSS Feed: Subscribe Now

5) Editechial (www.editechial.com)

Focus: Blogging, Funding, Media
Recent Highlight:
Hype Happens
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To see even more new blogs I'm adding to my reader, or get a sneak peek for November's highlighted blogs, follow my activity on Toluu. If you don't have a login to Toluu, send me an e-mail to [email protected] and I'll get that set up right away.

With an ever-growing number of applications out there enabling you to get near-instant access to news stories, friends' status updates, and social networking activity, many people are feeling panicked. A not too uncommon refrain I've seen is that there is too much "noise", and this fear of noise is what is holding back the growth of some services, or stopping people, who may have already chosen one they liked, from signing up to more news sources and social networks.

But the authors of these services aren't in the business of telling you how you should consume your data. What the best services have done is given you the flexibility to choose how much data you have at your fingertips, how quickly you want to get it, and in what form. And just because a popular site like Twitter or FriendFeed may be turning on features that enable a more real-time, firehose effect, and can now be found on your mobile phone or your IM client in no way means you need to sign up, or turn your life over to the updates.

Mark Evans, a sharp Canadian blogger, writes today, Help, We’re Being Digitally Bombarded, saying "consumers of digital services and content are being swamped, and madly scrambling to keep up." He echoes the comments of Erick Schonfeld, who in his coverage of FriendFeed's new IM tool said, "I need less noise in my life, not more noise."

I get that Mark and Erick aren't going to turn on those features right away, and most won't. Mark specifically hasn't been enamored by FriendFeed thus far, saying "I don't know why FriendFeed hasn't resonated with me," in a previous post. (Has Friendfeed Stalled?) But in my opinion, services whose product is essentially information and updates from users should be able to turn up the speed as fast as possible, or let you slow it down if you aren't interested. And that's what has happened here.

There will always be a core element of users on the edge who love the newest, fastest features. I find FriendFeed's real-time updates interesting during peak times, but prefer to walk through lists one by one most days. I also don't run any Twitter client, so I don't look at friends' updates as they flow by. I read my Google Reader feeds in quick bursts, rather than leaving the applications open all day. And on top of each of these workflow issues, you always have control.

1. You control how many feeds you sign up to.
2. You control how many friends you add.
3. You can filter how many services you see.
4. You can choose where you access the result.

I've written about the issue of noise a few times before, of course.

In April, I said, How You Handle the Information Overload Is Up to You. In August, I wrote, There is No Social Media Overload, and also in April, I outlined My Social Media Consumption Workflow. In the last six-plus months, my social media consumption workflow hasn't changed much. I added socialmedian and Strands.com to the mix, but I am in no way overwhelmed with noise and its velocity because I know I am in control, and I use filters to show the best data from the best people.

I am all for the information providers giving us the keys to the equivalent of a Ferrari, but if we choose to motor along in a Toyota instead, that's absolutely our call. Just be on the road, and don't give up your license.

Not every single contact you make online is somebody you would want to spend time with in real life. While you might be following thousands of people and making new "friends" on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, FriendFeed and all the other networks, you would likely hesitate before sending them an open invitation to your home. But I've personally seen many examples of people I've known online crossing the chasm and operating in the world once reserved for classmates, colleagues, fellow church members and family. What might have started out as a casual acquaintance, or connection through similar interests can easily transform to one where you can connect in a more personal way.

The debate of labeling such a contact a "friend" is not new. Mark Dykeman, in a post on Mashable, asked in September, Is a Social Media Friend Really a Friend?, asking, "Would you trust a social media friend with your money? Your home? Your significant other? Your children? Your life?"

The answer of course is not uniform. Each example listed above has a certain weight of importance, and implied risk. But even if you don't want to casually hand your keys and credit cards over to somebody you have been throwing sheep at on Facebook for two weeks doesn't mean you can't find real connections with people who will help you out.

A few examples:

1. Would you invite a friend you met online to "crash" at your place for a few nights instead of finding a hotel?
2. Would you refer a friend you met online to a job position you found, and introduce them as a trusted candidate?
3. Would you purchase a product and ship it to an online friend in another state without getting paid up front?
4. Would you pay the phone/Internet/electrical bill for an online friend who you knew was short on cash?
5. Would you split a hotel room with an online friend at a conference even if you'd never met?

I use these examples because they are all things I've either done or had done by friends of mine online.

For example, although I had looked high and low for a Nintendo Wii Fit throughout the Bay Area, and on Amazon.com, I had no success in finding one. (See my complaining on FriendFeed) But Jesse Stay, who has been a blogger here over the last two months, and someone I got to know on multiple social networks, let me know his mother has a knack for tracking down the evasive products. Sure enough, on Halloween day, a box came to my office, containing the Wii Fit, and displaying the address of Mrs. Stay, from Massachusetts. My wife and I are now amusing ourselves in acting like we're going to use the Fit to pursue something resembling an exercise program.

In the age of PayPal, pushing money around also has become easier, assuming you have it. If you watch people's comments on Twitter and other networks closely enough, you can sense stress, or, when there are gaps, know if something has impacted their usual schedule. Sometimes, it's a money issue, and reaching out via PayPal, or making a call to the utility that's getting in their way can give them the breathing room to keep going as they were before. I'm not suggesting you start playing charity and laying out thousands of dollars, but in the time where you can lend a helping hand, we've reached the point where online acquaintances are just as deserving as those offline. And if you ask them to pay you back is of course up to you.

Similarly, way back in 2001 a friend I knew from an Apple online stock board said he wanted to fly out to see the MacWorld Expo, but he didn't have a place to stay. Having never met him, I offered my apartment for three nights, and he and I took off to see Steve Jobs in person. I also shared a room at the recent BlogWorld Expo with someone I'd never met.

Why so trusting? A few things. First, I believe people are inherently good, and I've chosen to interact with good people online, who share ideas, are trustworthy and positive to be around. Robert Scoble says "you are defined by who you follow" and if I were following people online that I wouldn't be friends with in the real world, then that is my mistake. You also, thanks to the ease of publishing and dissemination of opinion, have the option of publicly embarrassing or outing an individual who has wronged you, so the incentive to do well and act within accepted guidelines is strong.

Of course, not every friend is equal. Just because almost 2,600 people have chosen to follow my account on Twitter doesn't mean that I am going to give them cash and a place to stay. But for those who I have had many interactions with over time in multiple networks, and traded e-mail or phone calls with, I know I am building relationships that have a potential to transition to real world. That's why I know at some point, I am going to take my wife out and let Drew Olanoff babysit my twins, why I bet my kids will be having playdates with Milan Scoble and Thomas Buchheit, and why I've tried to help find new careers for many people whose blogs I read and whose work I follow. These investments I'm making now are going to be paying off, and I encourage you to take a look at your own online "friends" and see if you too can be a real-world friend to them.