A View from Abroad

Mark And Colette Do a Mutual "What You Talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

We had the pleasure of hosting Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook last October, when came to Paris to introduce himself to one of Facebook’s fastest growing communities -- that would be France. It was a bit of a media circus, as we were followed by France 2’s “Envoyé Special” all day long to get footage for their investigative piece on Facebook (aired Dec. 4th).

Mark finished the day in the studios of Canal Plus where he was a special guest on one of France's most-watched shows, "Le Grand Journal -- and where he absolutely won the host and audience over.  Never underestimate the power of a engaging spokesperson, even if they don't speak the language.

Admit It, You're A Stalker

And now for even more rantings about social networking.

Facebook hit the grown-up crowd like a tidal wave, and was a double whammy for those of us in Europe.  So I've been watching how this played out amongst both communities.  Interestingly, the rising tide of Facebook has raised the activity levels on all other fronts -- I have gotten more Linked In and A Small World link requests in the past 5 weeks that I had in the previous year.

So I've been observing how my friends -- and I -- use these networks.  It's been an odd journey: ex-BFs coming from out of nowhere to get back in touch (and the few uncomfortable "I don't even REMEMBER you" moments).  In some cases these contacts are fleeting, "I'm drunk and miserable in my current thing and am thus idealizing our 4-week relationship from 19 years ago"-type encounters.  Sometimes they are meaningful re-connections -- I know a few people who are back dating their former sweethearts from years ago as a result, and it's working.

But let's face it, this is the best thing that's happened to us whack jobs since Google:  most of us are out there lurking, stalking.  And by "us," I mean "you."

Social Networking Causing Personal Existential Crisis

I admit that I have a tendency to over think things.  But I am not alone on this one: I did a survey, people.  Very scientific.  It involved several bottles of wine and my own personal hand-picked, widely-diverse sample of close friends.  Okay, not so diverse.  Or scientific.  But we had a good time.

Here's what we came up with:  social networks are forcing us to make serious decisions about who we are and what we want to reveal about ourselves to the world.  Sure, there are privacy settings, but let's face it, most of us succumb to the desire to open the kimono a bit and we allow others to see our friends list, what groups we belong to and what events we are attending.  But do I really want to publicly join the "Mime Lovers" network on Facebook, or let you people know that I am so psychotic that I listen to Arab Strap occasionally but will also take in a bit of Britney Spears ("My Prerogative" only, I swear), too?

We are all painfully aware that out there, people are watching and judging us -- so you have to choose:  do you wear your idiosyncrasies like a badge proudly in front of friends, colleagues, potential clients, ex-lovers and the like, or do you paint a prettier, more sanitized and acceptable version of yourself?

Summer Is Over/La Rentree Begins

So I am off to Seedcamp in London tomorrow for the week and there will be no more vacation beer pression machine, although we are thinking of getting one for the office to put right next to the Nespresso.

Pierre Chappaz Leaves Netvibes

Seems that Pierre Chappaz has left Netvibes b/c of irreconcilable difference over Netvibes' distribution and monetization strategy.  More in his post, here.  Also not interesting further insight from Fred Destin.  From a PR perspective, I am wondering why Tariq has remained silent -- not even a peep about this matter in his Twitters (sorry, could not resist & it's late).  Netvibes should have had a statement ready -- or, better yet, a joint statement that shows some level of "we agree to disagree" solidarity.  This just raises eyebrows.

MySpace Identity Crisis/Social Networking Numbers Out

The Associated Press reported that MySpace is no longer dominated by the young in the United States.  It seems that people in the 35-54 group at MySpace grew to 41%, and teens under 18 make up only 12%.  ComScore Media Metrix analyzed the Internet traffic metrics.  A quick comparison (all numbers by ComScore, all numbers unique U.S. visitors):

• MySpace had 56 million
• Facebook 15 million
• Xanga 8 million
• Friendster 1 million

Clicmobile is MySpace on Your Phone

Clicmobile has a social network platform, AreYouHere, which is an OEM platform for building social networks for virtually any site (full disclosure:  Clic is a client).  It allows companies to easily integrate social networking into any Web site.

We love this idea because sure, they could have tried to build their own community, but why reinvent the wheel?  Instead, ClicMobile focuses on building the tools to make social networking possible, developing both a on-line component and a fully integrated solution for mobile phones.

To explain it simply, ClicMobile’s AreYouHere platform is a combination of MySpace-like Web presence and a mobile component that's like Dodgeball, with some cool additional features for uploading and downloading content direct to your phone on top of it all.  You can check out the live implementation of AreYouHere via the Yootribe site in France -- note:  Beta version, and in French.