Dear Stranger,

Thank you (I hope) for deciding to follow me on Twitter.

My mamma raised me right and, if she knew what Twitter was, she would have brought me up to at least consider whether I should follow you back. (Mamma might even have thought it would be polite to follow back everyone who chooses to follow me, but mamma liked to drink.)

Stranger, I use Tweetlater to review new followers. Have you tried it? It gives me a snapshot of you. Not the kind you gave to your boyfriend that one time at band camp: a data snapshot. I get to see your description of yourself, your most recent tweet, and your stats (how many people you follow, how many are following you, how many updates you’ve posted and when you joined).

Mamma always said “more haste less speed” but mamma didn’t have the internet. When it comes to Twitter, I’m giving myself five seconds to make my decision about you.

With Tweetlater I can choose to “accept” you. Accepting in this case means I follow you back, not that you’ve finally found someone who understand why you wear women’s clothing, sir. I can also ignore you (you follow me, I don’t follow you), or block you (it just wasn’t meant to be).

Mamma would at least want me to tell you what’s going to make my mind up so here it is.

1. Your description of yourself: Can I see from that why you might be following me? You’re in Australia, you’re interested in social media, you have a sense of humour. Or are you peddling something — God, SEO, weight loss, sex. It’s not necessarily fatal if you are selling something but it has to be something I might want to buy.
2. You have followers. It’s social proof (as the PUAs say), if you’ve got a healthy number of followers. And that number needs to be in proportion to the number of people you’re following. If you’re following 10,000 people and only 20 are following you, Stranger, you’re Norman No Mates and no friend of mine.
3. You’re following a believable number of people. If you joined Twitter a week ago and you’re already following 1,000+ people, you’re obviously undiscerning and haven’t chosen to follow me because you think we might have mutually interesting things to share (I know one of us is interesting of course, so I’ll probably still let you follow me).
4. Your most recent tweet is interesting. This is the least important. You might have heard of the woeful @Scobleizer. I know he’d to think you have. He thinks every tweet should be about business but I respect a work/life balance. Your last tweet knocks you out only if it confirms a doubt arising from the other information. I might forgive you putting your religion up front in your profile (unlikely) but you’re out if your most recent tweet is about letting Jesus into your life. I’m sorry but we’re just not going to get on.

That’s it, Stranger, simple as that. I hope this isn’t goodbye.

Jack
p.s. If I do follow you and you auto-DM me, we’re through.

Official: Facebook is a blog

The Age yesterday reported that “blog” rants on Facebook about an alleged arsonist had been pulled down. (Yes, Facebook isn’t a blog but for once heritage media’s failure to understand these things isn’t the point.) 

The posts in question had threatened an alleged #bushfires arsonist. Threatening people is illegal of course but there is also the potential contempt of court by anyone reporting on those who have been charged with a criminal offence but whose trials have not concluded. (Margaret Simons wrote on sub judice in Crikey earlier this month)

Laurel Papworth, social network strategist, vs David Galbally, TV QC

This morning Laurel Papworth tried to school the massed forces of Mike Munro, Melissa “What’s the Internet?” Doyle, and David Galbally, a QC from television. M, M and D were suggesting on Sunrise that Facebook should assume complete responsibility for everything its users write. Laurel was playing the part of Reason. After all, do we blame the telcos when mobile phones are used to set off bombs?

The wrong question

They were (not unusually) asking Laurel the wrong question. Facebook will, like any other company, hop to when presented with the right notification. And that shouldn’t trouble lawyers too much — just as they get paid to issue cease-and-desist notices in intellectual property cases, they’ll get fees to patrol Facebook and everyone will be happy.

The right question

The right question is: What can we expect of ordinary users now they are publishers? Giving away the address of an alleged criminal caught in the judicial process is one thing in the pub — although no less illegal, I’d venture — but it’s quite another screaming it to a potential audience of millions, as was being done on Facebook.

The answer: STFU

Laurel tweeted after the interview:

“When the cameras were off, Mel and Mike said to me “we (journalists) can’t do it, so you can’t”. When is news ‘News’ & when is it ”chat’?”

And Melissa and Mike are right about that.* We, the people, do not have the right to do more than journalists do. If we as a society believe reporting certain information about a crime will affect the fairness of any trial, we have to shut up about it. And that “we” can’t just be heritage media. This blog post could turn up in anyone’s Google search so why should I be held to different standards than the Sydney Morning Herald? I’m not held to different standards when it comes to defamation or other laws.

If, on the other hand, we’re in favour of unrestrained comment at any point in the judicial process, then we must change the law through our elected representatives, not call the courts and officers of the law stupid because they try to enforce the law we asked for. (But, to echo my earlier point, fair play to anyone calling them stupid for thinking Facebook can filter its millions of users without help.)

The silver lining

In the meantime, let’s see this for what it is: more mainstream recognition of social media and networks as the powerful forces for organisation and dissemination that they are. In making that recognition, the establishment is showing us the respect and — in some cases — contempt we deserve. There are plenty of “new” media mavens who bemoan the earlier lack of recognition and who talk up the fact that Twitter is now first on the scene of many major stories. Well, here are the media QCs of Queensland and the hosts of Sunrise delivering your recognition: “new” media shapes public perception and with great power comes great responsibility (or something less pompous than that but you know what I mean).

Laurel vs David on Sunrise (YouTube video)

*Although whichever of Laurel or Melissa is calling Melissa a journalist is most definitely wrong.

Well here we are a whole 20 days old and what a  few weeks it’s been. We’ve published our guiding principles – sharing practical information generously — and announced the line-up for our first event,  Entering the Mobile Ecosystem on 3 March, which includes Graham Dawson, author of Australia’s best-selling iPhone app, OzWeather.

Flame war

Oh, and on that point, we’ve already had our first mini-flame war over our post on The Rewards of Australian iPhone Development, when one of Graham’s competitors took issue with our description of OzWeather as top-selling. But, as one commenter wrote, “It’s hard to argue with No. 1.”

Now with cartoons!

Yes, it’s fun and informative on the blog; much of the fun coming from in-house cartoonist Websinthe, whose topical cartoons have also been attracting comment.

But seriously

Like everyone else we’ve taken time to reflect on the bushfire tragedy, in particular on the role Twitter has had to play. The part that social networks have to play in disaster communication is something we’ll be investigating more fully in a future Silicon Federation Report — let us know if you would like more information.

Is it time your business got mobile?

The Entering the Mobile Ecosystem seminar is coming up and tickets are still available. All email newsletter subscribers are eligible for discount tickets to this event — get your free email subscription here.

Let’s talk

We look forward to seeing you there. In the meantime, we welcome you to the conversation. You can of course find us through the site, on Twitter as @siliconfed or on Facebook.