Destination, or workflow component?
In a recent post, Facebook Or Twitter - Or Facebook And Twitter , Brian Kelly says:
…in some circle such use of Facebook is being derided with comments such as “It’s a closed garden“, “Its popularity is on the wane” or “Twitter is a better development environment” being made. I have to say that I foind that such comments tend to miss the point.“.
Brian tackles the “popularity on the wane” comment with some web statistics, but leaves the “closed garden” and “better development environment” arguments. I’m not at all sure what the argument is about development environments, but I am very interested in the walled garden aspect - I wrote about this in July last year, and I have seen nothing since to change my mind. I’m not sure I’m deriding Facebook, but I do maintain that it is a walled garden. I still keep an account in Facebook out of interest but I rarely access it.
I attended a session on digital libraries earlier this week at the JISC conference, at which Lorcan Dempsey spoke about how where once the user built their workflow around the library, now the library must build services which fit into the user’s workflow. Facebook, it seems to me, is a destination. I go there sometimes, almost always because someone has uploaded some photos of an event I have attended. I go there for occasional amusement. According to the figures, Facebook is very successful at being a destination. But is it embedded in anyone’s workflow I wonder? Twitter is very much part of my workflow - it is the single most used application on my iPhone.
Twitter is an eminently ‘composable‘ service by design, while Facebook is an attractive (for many) destination. Twitter participates in any number of mashups, and has, given rise to an extraordinary range of user-interfaces. It fits into people’s workflows because they can choose how to access it. I use a combination of the mobile web interface and SMS: others use these and a variety of rich desktop interfaces.
So I think my response is still: use Twitter and Facebook, or both, or neither. But I believe that Twitter is more interesting, really because it’s composable nature will allow it to fit all kinds of workflows.
Your mileage may vary 
April 19th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Hi Paul - yes, I’d agree, regard Facebook as a destination, rather than a service which can play a significant role in a workflow. I use Facebook as a way of aggregating information status updates, messages, photos, from my contacts - which, incidentally, I now sometimes view using the Chirp screensaver. This provides a serendipitous view of what my contacts are doing - more fun than a display of my photos, which I’ll be familiar with.
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I think the usefulness of Facebook depends on how you are engaging with it. I happened to join Facebook around the time I left my e-learning job, so although I have former work colleagues as Facebook friends, I don’t use Facebook as part of my workflow, but instead for social reasons.
As a social tool, it’s very useful, not just for keeping up with old friends, but also for contacting people very easily, keeping up with forthcoming music events, and setting up small groups of friends to organize things for events. Most of all, I’ve found that a lot of people I knew very vaguely around my local community have become better friends since we have had access to each other’s Facebook updates and accounts, allowing for informed conversations about people’s activities and lives when you see them in real life.
I haven’t yet used Twitter, but I do get the impression it’s been very useful for people in the world of e-learning and conferences, whereas though I know Facebook isn’t for everyone, it can be a really enjoyable social tool with effects that reach out beyond the internet…
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Hi Vashti,
I noticed that you were a Fb power-user! Love the photos
My issue with Fb is how it doesn’t engage with the rest of the virtual world - so I think it’s an interesting point you make about the effect of Fb reaching out into the real world.
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:15 am
Yep, I think that’s exactly it, I agree with you that Facebook is a walled garden (although it is a walled garden with a lot of different smaller gardens within it), when you look at it from a workflow point of view. And not just because, as in your case, Twitter is easier to embedd in other virtual tools you are using, but also because, as in my case, I am not able to access Facebook whilst in my workplace, so it is quite literally walled off.
From a social point of view, Facebook, for me and possibly other people, is actually embedded in my social world (by this I mean both communication with friends and also arranging nights out and events), in a virtual-real network which includes My Space, Facebook, event websites, events and actual human contact, all of which feed into each other…