Social networking around books has always been a little tricky, despite the success of some networks such as GoodReads. Even with recommendation services that incorporate books along with movies and music, books tend to come after the other two major media types. It’s because books were always a step behind in terms of digital accessibility, making it more difficult to create virtual networks around tangible products. You sit down to read the book, then go back to your computer in order to socialize around it.

The popularity of the eBook reader could change all that, however. Amazon and Sony are making big plays on the eBook reader space, with smartphones providing platforms through which more eBooks can be distributed. The result is an increasing ability for us to more efficiently socialize around written content. That’s where the Copia eBook platform comes in.

Copia is working on the launch of a social networking platform for bookworms along with two eBook readers, giving you a direct link between your content and your contacts. The platform itself, still in private beta, will give you a profile, where you can share your reading and purchasing activity. Rate and buy books directly through the Copia platform, and receive recommendations from friends. You’ll also be able to create groups.

According to Gizmodo, Copia will also be offering a platform to be hosted by hardware partners. It sounds like a white label solution that gives other book readers the option of launching an associated social network as well. In all, Copia is betting that the merging of technology and social networks can finally bring books into the new socially-oriented, media-sharing experience.

It all sounds well and fine, though there is still the growing popularity of mobile eBook readers. Already robust and heavily featured, readers such as Stanza have seen a great deal of success. The ability for these readers to become imminently social, especially if they further leverage platforms such as Facebook’s for these social features, could ultimately push Copia out of the running.

Nevertheless, we’re seeing a widening array of devices that do all the things we’ve been wanting gadgets to do in the past few years. That means a number of companies are in better positions to create, market and sell their new devices to a hungry population. In all, the supported experimentation and real life demands of consumers will give us a resulting shake-down in such products. Either way, I’m excited about the increasing support for socially-oriented reading options.

by Brian Solis, via PR 2.0

All your face are belong to us! For those who don’t remember, or know, the significance of that statement, read about it on Wikipedia.

Shot at SXSWi 2008

A few news outlets reached out to me for comment regarding the uproar sparked by the recent change to Facebook’s Terms of Service (ToS). It inspired a public response as I am not only someone who spends a significant amount of time in the online social field studying digital anthropology and new marketing, I’m also a willing participant in and contributor to the Facebook economy.

So, why is everyone upset?

When you read the new ToS, it’s actually quite alarming…

You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.

If you were to summarize this section, it basically screams that your content is theirs to use when and how they want.

Naturally, bloggers, reporters, analysts, and influential Facebook pundits collectively responded in outrage and surprise. The news continues to draw angst, frustration, and also sparking debates as it permeates real world communities outside of Techmeme. Famed celebrity gossip blogger, Perez Hilton recently called for a boycott to the globally dominating social network.

Now, confused, somewhat hostile, and critical Facebook constituents have solicited a very human response from Zuckerberg. In it, he attempts to provide a deeper explanation and meaningful rationale behind the ToS modification. It is this response that is potentially difficult for everyday people to comprehend and accept as it is a stark reminder that the social web, is well, social.

“People want full ownership and control of their information so they can turn off access to it at any time. At the same time, people also want to be able to bring the information others have shared with them—like email addresses, phone numbers, photos and so on—to other services and grant those services access to those people’s information. These two positions are at odds with each other. There is no system today that enables me to share my email address with you and then simultaneously lets me control who you share it with and also lets you control what services you share it with.”

Mark Zuckerberg basically attempts to extinguish the flames of his critics by asking us to “trust his team” that our content will not be used in any way that we would disapprove. The ToS language is explicit in its design and ambition that could serve as the flashpoint for something not yet visible or public. However, their is a potentially disastrous risk involved for any company with a multi-billion dollar valuation and how it uses personal content. For this reason, Facebook’s actions are governed by the market and its ability to dictate the future success or failure of the network.

But to be honest, we should be worried less about how Zuckerberg and co. will use our content when compared to the bigger threat and perils associated with publicly sharing content in general.

His explanation essentially serves as a wake up call to users of all social networks and other forms of social media that what we share online is now shared not only with those we know and trust, but those we don’t know. And, trust is moot when content can freely traverse network to network and person to person without feedback, knowledge or insight until something or someone potentially forces a new revelation wrapped in unsolicited context. Trust gives way to blind intent.

What you share online, from pictures to updates to virtual gifts to videos, paints a picture of who you are and what you represent, regardless of your intentions. Everything accumulates into one vault that ultimately represents your social capital and Facebook, and any other social network – including Twitter – is merely providing you with the ability to define the impressions you feed, the perception you shape, and the personal brand that results from your online participation and contributions across the entire social web.

As Kara Swisher so brilliantly educates us, “Here’s the key definition of interactive: ‘Mutually or reciprocally active. That means once you send something to others, it is out there in cyberspace forever, never ever to return. And that goes double on social networking sites, where–let’s be honest–people egregiously overshare and then get all righteous when it is explained to them that sharing means, um, sharing. As in: You cannot take it back, if you have shared with 476 of your closest “friends,” your bikini shots from Cabo.”

Read the full post on PR 2.0.

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by Brian Solis

Happy New Year!

Comscore released its list revealing the top Social Networks and Social Media properties for 2008 (note, these numbers to not include December traffic). Google’s Blogger.com blogging platform is clearly dominating, however Facebook continues its meteoric rise and appears on track to imminently earn the number one spot. Myspace appears to have leveled off a bit, but is still in third place. WordPress comes in at a close fourth, demonstrating the continued growth of its blogging network. Windows Lvie Spaces and Yahoo! Geocities trail in a distant fifth and sixth place, however, Flickr shows a strong position at number seven. Scribd deserves a mention as it continues to grow as a premier social network for the sharing and discovery of documents.

Total Unique Visitors (000) as of November 2008

1. Blogger – 221,503

2. Facebook – 200,189

3. MySpace – 126,168

4. WordPress – 113,661

5. Windows Live Spaces – 86,760

6. Yahoo! Geocities – 69,159

7. Flickr – 63,866

8. Hi5 – 58,069

9. Orkut – 46,446

10. Six Apart Sites – 45,606

11. Baidu Space – 40,276

12. Friendster – 31,325

13. 56.com – 29,171

14. Webs.com – 24,230

15. Bebo – 24,149

16. Scribd – 23,524

17. Lycos Tripod – 23,350

18. Tagged.com – 22,300

19. Imeem – 21,889

20. Netlog.com – 21,1777

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by Brian Solis

This March, join thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and social architects at the Social Networking Forum in London. This two-day conference is dedicated to exploring all things social in real world business and technology settings with over 120 top speakers.

Top 5 Reasons to Attend:

1. Hear from leading social networks on their strategy, revenue models and how they are approaching the future

2. Worldwide case studies from global brands and corporations on their use of social media and how they can be the ideal place to build a brand

3. Learn how advertisers are approaching social networking and how they are establishing and generating revenue streams

4. Find out how content providers are approaching social networks, their strategy and development

5. Examine the current market conditions, future forecasts and predictions from leading analysts

Sample Attendees:

Social Networking; Software and Technology; Telecom Operators; Mobile Operators; Media Agencies; Advertising Agencies; Venture and Seed Capitalists; Affiliates; Content Production; Brands; Corporates; Content Standards; TV; Broadcast; Search Engine; Interactive Agencys; Online Publishing; and anyone interested in Social Networking and how to integrate this into there business.

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by Brian Solis

Originally published at PR 2.0.

I’ve invested a significant portion of time and energy into the support, development, and refinement of an ambitious project led by Jodee Rich. I did so, because I believe that it is one of the most compelling and promising services for uniting our distributed social presence and the relationships that make us stronger – personally and professionally.

Introducing PeopleBrowsr, an attention-centered dashboard for managing your online relationships and communication in Twitter and across multiple social networks.

It made its public debut in Alpha this past Friday, which means that it is still in an early, but a highly functional, stage of development. The only way to improve it is to let real people have access to it, without restrictions.

PeopleBrowsr offers a vast breadth of features and functionality. If you’re a Social Media power user or a brand manager, this is a wish come true.

At its foundation, PeopleBrowsr is a first of a kind meta-network for social networks that works with Mozilla FireFox 3, Safari 3.1 or Google Chrome – no download or plug-in required. It essentially turns your Web browser into a simple, visual social media dashboard. While there are many third-party tools for Twitter, PeopleBrowsr brings the best features from all of the popular add-on services into one solution – without requiring a download or a browser plug-in.

It combines your profiles and your connections across multiple social networks into one, easy to manage place, including, Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, Upcoming, among others. You can mix views to include activity from all or selected networks simultaneously, individually, and also communicate with your contacts across networks, from one place.

Mixing your view and interaction.

As an introduction to the service, we’ll start with Twitter.

Anyone familiar with TweetDeck will enjoy an instant familiarity with the friendly interface. But that’s where the similarity stops and the unique benefits emerge.

PeopleBrowsr supercharges Twitter.

With one simple to use browser-based hub, everyone can view, group, and communicate with friends, and friends of friends, in and across all of the popular networks. You can update status, view posts, connect with contacts, make new friends, and share content within and between networks.

At first sight, PeopleBrowsr provides either a columnar view (The PostStack) or a “people” grid gallery of organizable tweets from “everyone” in the Twitter stream with additional distinct columns for “following” and replies. Additional stream options feature the ability to view direct messages and other standard views into dedicated, scrolling columns. PeopleBrowsr also provides integrated search functionality of Twitter directly within streams, displaying results in new stream columns. And, if you want to focus on key regions, you can also run hyper local searches to see who’s tweeting in a certain city. Searches can be additive for further refining of streams.

But wait, there’s more…

With PeopleBrowsr, you can monitor brands, engage with communities, and improve communications with friends through a myriad of unique features that include, the ability for power users to easily build and communicate specifically with dedicated tag-formed groups; scheduling tweet posting at a later time; and also network-wide, wiki-style tagging of people for grouping, categorization, and also searching.

Most importantly, PeopleBrowsr introduces the foundation for the very first address book for Twitter.

Take a deep breath, PeopleBrowsr is much more than a dashboard for Twitter, it’s a social network for all social networks.

Today, many people participate in multiple online social networks. From Twitter to FriendFeed, LinkedIn to Facebook, and Youtube to Flickr, the attention of today’s online enthusiasts is thinning and distributed. While the alpha version of PeopleBrowsr focuses initially on empowering the Twitter community, the service actually unites Social Media and the Social Web.

PeopleBrowsr empowers power users and “the rest of us” alike to concentrate energy in one place instead of wrestling with a distributed presence. You no longer have to open different tools and browser tabs to log in and connect with people through disparate services. As a single social media dashboard, PeopleBrowsr allows anyone to manage all of their personal network profiles. It simplifies communication and relationship building with friends and like-minded individuals – regardless of social media network.

PeopleBrowsr also introduces PeopleBrowsr IDs (PBIDs), a new genre of intelligent social media profiles for those looking to learn more about interesting people. These rich IDs offer an instant and highly detailed overview of an individual’s presence across the social Web by automatically aggregating their other network profiles and blogs as a social graph. You can also can share what you know about each individual for others to see using PeopleProfiles.

The team is reading Tweets and implementing fixes, fine-tuning the product, and integrating new features ahead of the beta release due out at the beginning of the new year. “Live” Tweets from the community are being used to build a new product in real time. They’re listening!

At the very least, I hope PeopleBrowsr offers a refreshing and helpful alternative to centralize your online presence and the relationships that define who you are today and tomorrow.

Please spread the word…

I also wanted to send a special thank you to each and everyone who took the time to meet with Jodee and me to share their initial reaction and feedback to help us get to where we are today.

Thank you.

Ariel Waldman
Cal Hendrickson
Cathy Brooks
Chris Saad
Christopher Golda
Dave Mathews
Frank Gruber
Guy Kawasaki
Jason Kincaid
Jeremiah Owyang
Jodee Rich
Justin Kan
Laura Fitton (Pistachio)
Loic Le Meur
Louis Gray
Marissa Louie
Mike McGrath
Robert Scoble
Sarah Lacy
Tara Hunt
Tim Ferriss
Tim O’Reilly

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words and pictures by Brian Solis

I attended the Facebook f8 developer conference yesterday in San Francisco and I’m still recovering from the overwhelming experience.

Thousands of developers flocked to the San Francisco Design Center to see their Social Sherpa in person and calibrate with his vision for the next year of propagating the social graph. It’s indeed a movement and his influence can not be underestimated. Comparisons to Steve Jobs were broadcast as freely as the ideas that were exchanged in almost every conversation.

I was lucky enough to get a front row view for Zuckerberg’s state of the social network and his plans for making Facebook more pervasive in the socialization of online content.

Facebook is aiming to become our dashboard for relationships and everything we do online, creating a cohesive and simplified connection between us to change and improve how we communicate.

Their mission is no small task, “Give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.”

One of the many announcements that was made at the company’s second annual developer conference was Facebook Connect, and it just may well be the epicenter of our social activity.

With just a bit of code, Facebook Connect enables seamless integration between Web sites, pages, communities, and networks and the Facebook identity system. For example, if you’re commenting on a blog hosted on the Moveable Type platform, you can now login with your Facebook details and not only will your comment and link to your Facebook profile appear on the blog, the activity of commenting is also linked back into your activity feed for your friends and colleagues to see. Digg, another example that was shared on stage, also supports FB Connect, making it possible for Diggers to log on using their centralized Facebook ID and for each story they digg, the activity is documented back on their profile.

Not only is it an aggregated system for personal identity across social networks, it is also laying the foundation for Beacon 2.0, which will more accurately assess who you are and what you like. As Om Malik points out at GigaOM, “Each service adds a few more data points about you inside the Facebook brain, which is quite aware of your activities inside the Facebook ecosystem. The brain can then crunch all that information and build a fairly accurate image of who you are, what you like and what might interest you. With all that information at its disposal, Facebook can build a fairly large cash register.”

Moveable Type

DIGG

Facebook Connect partners include Amiando, CBS.com, CitySearch, CNET, CollegeHumor, Disney-ABC, Evite, Flock, Hulu, Kongregate, Loopt, Plaxo, Radar, Red Bull, Seesmic, Socialthing!, StumbleUpon, The Insider, Twitter, Uber, Vimeo and Xobni.

Yes, it’s practically a direct competitor to the important OpenID system that has invested over the years in the education and development of unifying the social web and personal identities – with one login. FB Connect however, assumes that you want a profile in its proprietary social network, which may or may not be a bad thing. It’s ambitious to say the least. And, unlike OpenID, Facebook is not only the keeper of your online identity, but as I’ve written about for two years, it is also the hub for your online brand. If Facebook is listening, I’m not alone in suggesting that the company should also integrate OpenID. It would be the right, and most promising, thing to do.

FB Connect transforms the social network into a portable profile that travels with you across the Web, placing you and your brand at the center of the experience.

This announcement is significant in my opinion, not just for the opportunity it represents today, but for the implementations and opportunities next month, next quarter, next year, and beyond.

The ongoing integration of support for social services in the Facebook NewsFeed is aggregating and expediting personal lifestreams and quickly becoming representative of our true online activity, painting a vivid picture of who we are and what we represent online and in the real world. With FB Connect the previously isolated silo distributes your identity and creates a direct link back to your profile, which ultimately, is a bright, powerful, and distributed beacon for your personal brand.

Facebook Connect also further socializes and unites the Web.

Now, for example, static Websites can socialize, creating a dynamic link between content and people. Businesses and communities can now directly connect corporate brands with personal brands, and more notable, the people behind them. Social networks can build and leverage expertise and reputation and carry thought leadership, preferences, causes, and relationships from community to community. Facebook Connect is a powerful catalyst for investing in and increasing Social Capital.

Remember, Facebook “public” profiles are indexed in online search engines and can be among the top results when your name is searched.

In the real world, your online reputation proceeds you.

More pictures from f8:

Mark Zuckberg Press Conference

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch

Nik Cubrilovic of TechCrunchIT

Justin Smith of InsideFacebook

Robert Scoble

Kristen Nicole of Mashable and Dave Morin of Facebook

Rafe Needleman

Randi Zuckberg

Eddie Codel

Sarah Lacy

iLike founders

Brian Solis

For more pictures from Facebook, please visit the following albums on flickr:

Mark Zuckerberg Keynote

f8

Mark Zuckerberg Press Conference

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by Brian Solis, sourced from PR 2.0

Sprout is a new, very cool service that lets everyday people create portable widgets for embedding on Web sites, blogs, and in social networks.

I was originally introduced to the service at DEMO08 in January and was immediately blown away.

We live in the widget economy and people today are empowered and compelled to lift and place encapsulated content and experiences from one place to another, however and whenever they’d like. With SproutBuilder, you can now build your own custom, portable and embeddable widgets featuring the Web content, links, gadgets, and capabilities you desire as simply as designing a flyer in Word. The widget canvas in dynamic and also scalable. Each widget can contain multiple media assets as well as pages for a self-contained Web experience.

Whether you’re a media property, a business or consumer brand, or an individual, Sprout enables you or your Web marketing team to create campaign-driven or brand-focused, well or even just for fun, widgets to share with your community and in turn, have them share across their social graph.

Sprouts can be embedded in any Website or popular social network, including MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, and Friendster, as well all blogging platforms. Most importantly, Sprouts can evolve and as they change, your armada of distributed widgets are automatically updated in real time.

I’ve included a simple Sprout for bub.blicio.us below, feel free to take it or go to Sprout and build your own!

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.

Signal Patterns released a new Facebook application that accurately surveys and assesses personalities to improve online and real world relationships, and is now available to all Facebook users. You can get the Facebook app here.

In addition to the newly launched Facebook app, private beta invitations to Signal Patterns’ site (www.signalpatterns.com) are available on a limited basis to the first 200 people who sign up here. SignalPatterns.com offers an extended and more detailed personality assessment, as well as a music preferences survey and other features.

The company develops scientific-based social web applications that characterize and connect people in meaningful ways, enhancing your social graph in Facebook and hopefully also in the real world.

The new Personality Patterns Facebook app is a fun and insightful application offering Signal Patterns’ in-depth 45-score personality assessment algorithm, which is based on the trait-based “Big Five” theory. It assesses and connects people based on unique personality traits rather than rough “buckets” of personality types. The helpful and introspective social app enables people to learn more about themselves and how they can enhance their online and offline friendships, business associations and other relationships.

The Signal Patterns personality survey assesses 45 distinct personality traits, each representing not only a label, but also a degree, or a score, resulting in an extremely unique and extensive personality profile. The method is inherently different from more traditional type-based personality assessment methods like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) that divide the entire population of people into a small number of uniform types. For example, when searching for similar people based on the MBTI, about 1/16 of all people would be considered “like you” (all people of the same type), whereas a detailed trait-based profile like Signal Patterns’ allows reaching into the long tail of personalities and finding others who are more similar to you than over 99% of the population.

In addition, Signal Patterns provides an audio-based “music personality” survey, where a person’s music preferences are ranked across 14 underlying music attributes (based on Signal Patterns’ proprietary FUSESSM model). Users can see their results at that detailed level, or at a less granular level, in the form of what Signal Pattern calls a badge, which can be deployed on a person’s Facebook profile, blog or web site. The badge is available at Signal Patterns’ hub site and offered with the Facebook app, too.

The new Personality Patterns Facebook app enables users to:
- Take the Signal Patterns personality survey
- View results (top 3 traits) via badge
- View personalized results (top 10 traits)
- View all your Facebook friends and see their results
- Compare your results to your friends’ results and other Signal Patterns members
- Discover “people like you” who have similar results as you
- Display your badge on your Facebook profile allowing others to compare to you

The Big Five of Personality with David Rosen: