Would you guys be into this? ...

xsistor

xsistor

xsistor

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Joined
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London
Hello chaps. Wanted to run something by you guys and would like some thoughts.

You know how on FB you get recommended friends-of-friends and friends-of-friends-of-friends (FoFoFo...)? Ever felt that this is limiting? Ever felt that it's about time, with all this technology, we could have computers telling us whom we should meet and supercharge our social interactions so that our realworld social interactions became filtered and enhanced through tech?

I mean come on, that FoF and FoFoF thing is really incidental anyway. What actually decides who we are connected to are the attributes that define us. I mean, our history. Where we studied. What we like, liked, did,... how we played. What we listened to. The movies we watch. The food we eat. How we live... More and more of this information is online on profiles like FB and LinkedIn. Isn't it about time, computer technology was applied to using this to reveal our hidden connections (of course only to the extent we wish to permit it), such that we see the hidden webs connecting us to other people, rather than having to accidentally, through a random convo, find such a connection as a matter of happenstance.

I'm talking about things like this:

  • Tim who joins a new university, opens this app and suddenly starts seeing how this other guy, Fred, whom he sees at the cafe before lectures every Monday is as passionate about starting a mobile game design company as Tim is. Better yet, he's a hardcore programmer while our guy Tim is a more of an artist... The perfect founding team!
  • Charlie who works at Pizza Hut opens his app and sees this girl called Sophia who loves kayaking and collecting stamps. Sophia also loves Morris dancing and posts something about a party and how she can't find a date who can Morris dance! Who would've thought? Charlie happens to love all three and never thought he'd find someone who did, and certainly not so close-by(!) because Sophia also happens to work at the McDonalds across from his workplace. Charlie asks her out on the app and they hit it off.
  • Sally is crazy about dinosaur art and takes a second-year course on Theropod dinosaurs. On her app she sees this other guy posting about how he badly needs a collaborator for an assignment on theropod dinosaurs. The two of them work together and get an A.

What I'm talking about, folks, is technology that is aware of all the hidden connections that people in your everyday life share, and reveals it to us, so that meetings, socializing and collaboration isn't a matter of pure accident or serendipity. To give us control over some of our destiny. At least to the extent that we can be aware of our own hidden connections and go seek them out to find even more.

What I'm talking about is technology making the world a little bit smaller. As they say, there are no strangers. Just friends that haven't yet met.
 
d_brennen said:
This

I die a little when a website/service/program recommends a person/product/service from data mined elsewhere about me. For that reason I'm taking the implants out once and for all

/dons tinfoil head dress
Click to expand...

To clarify, I didn't mean datamined elsewhere. But say you import your fb profile, twitter, linkedin and then edited/expanded on that. Ignoring the details for now, let's assume the relevance factor was extremely high, always...
 
No again. Because it's just one more sodding place that wants my personal information on it's servers.

At this point, nobody will ever be able to remove any information about themselves from the internet ever. It's like PGP key servers that sync with each other with no way of ever completely removing keys, only revoking certs.

I was discussing this with my brother earlier and we were talking about when we first started using AOL internet in the 90s and my brother reminded me that the AOL IM client actually had "do not share your personal information online with strangers" at the top of the chat window when it was launched. And how we've gone from that to "TELL US ALL THINGS! AND WHILE YOU'RE AT IT, TELL THEM AND THEM AS WELL! LINK THEM TOGETHER SO EVERYBODY KNOWS ALL THE THINGS! SHARE ALL THE THINGS WITH OTHERS ABOUT ALL THE THINGS!".

No. No no no no no no no no no no no.
 
I would really not be interested. I can understand it would be a good way to find people who share the same hobbies/taste as yourself but I prefer to old fashioned way of doing it. It'd be like meeting someone but already knowing everything about them. I like people to be different to me, I've got enough of me already!
 
It's an interesting concept, but it requires opening up personal information to a much wider audience (even if it is only handled by a "blind" computer). Obviously this brings with it privacy concerns. The "friends" system, while far from perfect, explicitly allows people to restrict who sees their data.

I believe certain dating sites use this kind of optimisation based on interests and requirements to auto-match people to potential partners. Extending that to "general friendship" might not be popular with some people. Still, I can see enough people being interested that it might be worth a shot.

There's certainly a lot of interesting maths behind such optimisation algorithms, particularly when a very large number of variables are involved. Since the number of potential variables is near-infinite, the tuning and parameterisation stage would be quite complex. You would certainly need some user input (ranking the activities and other traits etc that are most important to them). Also you will need some system to create "hard links" between identical topics are that described differently ("TV shows = Television = TV = Telly" etc, to mention a very simple example).
 
Sharing hobbies, interests and tastes doesn't stop the person you share such things with being unbearable. I'm sure we all share things in common with other people on this forum, but would rather peel our skin off and roll around in a pool of vinegar than have to associate with them in person.
 
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xsistor said:
To clarify, I didn't mean datamined elsewhere. But say you import your fb profile, twitter, linkedin and then edited/expanded on that. Ignoring the details for now, let's assume the relevance factor was extremely high, always...
Click to expand...

Ahh then it would be.. no wait it would still definitely be a no from me.

I know there are lots of people who cannot appreciate the sanctity of their own privacy in this world, and also those who must fill every moment with noise. Why can't they be happy in themselves? Must be lacking something. I have mates IRL and interweb "friends" whom I've never met, we came to know each other by common interests and being socially compatible... without what your proposing. Who is it for? The socially inept? Those types will be paired with other basement dwellers. The cool kids with hundreds of "true bestest" Facebook friends will just have a wider pool of stat whores

/rant

I can see what you're saying and it would probably be hugely popular, don't get me wrong ;)
 
OhEsEcks said:
I'm sure we all share things with other people on this forum, but would rather peel our skin off and roll around in a pool of vinegar than have to associate with them in person.
Click to expand...

Yeah I get that when I think about [TW]Fox too.






Only joking Fox. I love your face.
 
I'll admit I that wall of text exceeded my attention threshold so I only skimmed it, but I heard on the radio about something like this today. It's a dating app that shows you when people are near by, there is a bunch of these apps. They were complaining that only gays use it though, because women find it too creepy.
 
Utterly terrible idea in every single way.

What I'm talking about, folks, is technology that is aware of all the hidden connections that people in your everyday life share, and reveals it to us, so that meetings, socializing and collaboration isn't a matter of pure accident or serendipity. To give us control over some of our destiny. At least to the extent that we can be aware of our own hidden connections and go seek them out to find even more.

What I'm talking about is technology making the world a little bit smaller. As they say, there are no strangers. Just friends that haven't yet met.
Click to expand...

Are you on the wind-up because if this is meant unironically then I don't know what to tell you. My goodness.
 
How about developing an app where heterosexual men can find other heterosexual men to hang out with in a non-homosexual way. You know play football, go fishing and things, go camping and get really drunk and pass out. Maybe some light mutual touching and physique admiration, but not in a gay way. Just straight heterosexual guys who happen to prefer the company of men, hanging out.
 
What myspace originally was i think, you could choose your likes from the drop down box and search for people. Some might like it but most won't, too much revealing all your secrets. Kind of the same as joining a club though, joining something your interested in, like swimming. And just if you get a match doesn't mean you will get along well with your match.

As said before it's also like online dating. It's half an idea and i wouldn't be surprised if fb does something similar too.
 
Amazon consistently recommends things that i want to buy. Google's advertising is a bit more hit & miss but still effective.

Most really good friends i met while very drunk. If i buy things online while drunk, in the morning i regret it.

As such, it's possible that google could do a better job of pairing me up with like minded people than i do myself. I'm not going to fill out any forms for this though, so would want the service to run off whatever google already knows about me.

I would probably ignore any suggested friends in much the same way that i ignore suggested products. Still, i'm not opposed to the idea.
 
Someone I worked with has just left to create an application which does something along these lines for dating:

http://trueview.me/

Not tried it as I don't think my girlfriend would be best pleased with me. Looks like an interesting concept though.
 
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