Slate DoubleX Gabfest

This week's Slate DoubleX Gabfest(podcast) is terrific; topics include Julian Assange, crying in public and Christmas cards. Download audio file here.

NPR report on Facebook Issues

This short piece by Laura Sydell talks about some common Facebook complaints and describes a startup social network which hopes to manage those issues better than Facebook does. The idea is creating a network that makes users feel less intimdated by information sharing and the possibility of social gaffes. This report points toward some pretty broad questions, like "Do people like themselves on Facebook?" and "What will come after Facebook?" and it made me wonder whether Facebook has been successful because of its social structure or because of reasons that don't really have to do with the way it's organized. When I think about new or competing social networks it seems like the primary challenge is reaching Facebook's critical mass, and without that critical mass, the issues of privacy and information sharing are kind of irrelevant.
(Also, the comments section for this story on the NPR site included this invocation against Facebook usage, presumably directed toward non-octopi: "LOP OFF THE TENTACLE!!")


Link to NPR Page of the story
PHOTO: NOEL FEANS 

Jay Ipson story on PRX

This is one of those stories that will gray out any other thoughts that are in your mind at the time and demand your total attention. I recently heard on PRX this first-person account of survival through the Holocaust told by Jay Ipson and produced by Charles McGuigan.
You can listen to the story, which is about a half hour long, on the PRX website here, but you do need to create a free account first.