Using social networking software to build a voice for the unreached

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Using social networking software to build a voice for the unreached

Posted by Justin Long ⋅ June 22, 2008 ⋅

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One of the biggest “buzzes” on the Internet at the moment is social networking software. These are desktop programs and web applications which allow you to (1) maintain and strengthen online conversations with your friends and (2) meet new friends with whom to have conversations. Social networking software runs the gambit from blogging tools to sites like Facebook and Myspace. In this post, I’m going to describe a fairly simple process for entering at the most foundational level into social networking on behalf of the unreached.

The first piece of software is the browser. You can use any browser, of course, but the tools I describe all come as plugins for Firefox. A plugin is a small piece of code that expands the functionality of a browser in a particular way. Plugins are generally very easy to install: you just go to the website specified, click “Install Plugin” (or whatever other button they use), and Firefox handles everything. Special note: I am remaining on Firefox 2. I did upgrade, temporarily, to Firefox 3, but due to great “glitchiness” I reverted within 2 or 3 days to Firefox 2.

Next, one needs to understand how social networking software works. Most applications use what I will loosely term “feeds.” Think of a feed as your personal newswire - your personal blog - a “stream of information” personalized for you. Using social software, you either (a) consume feeds from other people or (b) publish or your own. (Or, of course, both.) Each piece of software’s “feed” is a specially formatted file, typically in XML or RSS. You don’t really need to know the particulars of the format. The tools I am going to talk about know how to use these files. Just know that you can’t really view them easily in a normal browser–what we’re talking about is software that will fetch the feeds for you, put them altogether, organize them, and show them to you in a special window.

Ok. With that very basic piece of knowledge out of the way, the first tool I’d recommend signing up for is Friendfeed. Friendfeed allows you to take feeds from different services and put them together in one single, organized feed. What’s more, links that are shared on this feed can be commented on by you, and by others who can see your feed (you can choose to make it public). So others can comment on your comments. Since a picture’s worth a thousand words, take a look at my Feed: http://friendfeed.com/justinlong. You will see that I have taken feeds from several places - my Google Reader Shared Links, my blogs, etc. - and linked them here. As soon as I update *those* feeds, Friendfeed *automatically* updates. What’s more, I’m subscribed to other people’s feeds, and they to mine, so I can see *their* updates. But since its ordered chronologically (with newly-commented-on feeds showing up at the top), it’s pretty easy for me to keep track of what’s going on. Registration is free and easy. Its also pretty easy to add any feeds you may happen to have - although if you don’t have feeds, that’s ok. It’s also easy to find others’ feeds. You’ll see them on blogs, but you can also find them through friends. So, for example, if you subscribe to follow mine, and then you see someone else’s note on my feed, then you can subscribe to follow theirs… following the friend-relationship-links.

The next thing I did was to add my blogs to friendfeed. You do this by adding services through its control panel on the right hand side of your personal Friendfeed. If you don’t have a blog, don’t worry about it. If you do, I’d add it. Also, you can add other services - I have my twitter account, for example, although I barely every use it. I also have other things too.

Next up: Google Reader. Reader is an RSS-reader. Most news websites and blogs these days come with RSS feeds. You can subscribe to these in Google Reader, which will fetch the feeds and show you what’s new. You don’t have to go to hundreds of sites each day - you can have their RSS feeds brought to you, when they change. (I have several hundred feeds in my Reader, and I can keep up with the headlines and newsblurbs fairly easy). Reader is also free, as are the newsfeeds. (Of course.) Further, when you’re viewing an entry in Google Reader, you can “share with note” - you can add it to your Shared Items feed, along with your note about why the item is important. If you’ve linked your Google Reader Shared Items feed to your Friendfeed (as I have), this will automatically post into your Friendfeed. It’s your way of commenting on what other people are saying, and on news items of the day, and republishing it: your way of highlighting items that impact the unreached. My shared items feed is here although it’s much easier to simply follow my Friendfeed!

Third: del.icio.us. This is “social bookmarking.” It allows you to bookmark a link, but tag it with categories so you can find it again more easily. But, as you explore the service, there’s quite a bit more. You can create networks of other people who are bookmarking similar things to you, and see what they’ve uncovered. My feed is here. My feed is also linked to my Friendfeed.

Final tools for the day: shareaholic.com. This is a great new tool that I just stumbled on, as it hugely simplifies how you can share items you find on the web (particularly from pesky news sites, blogs, etc. that do not have RSS feeds). When you find something on the web that you want to share, you can just click the button on the toolbar and tell it where you want to post the link.

How to use these tools on behalf of the unreached

By setting up your own accounts and then subscribing to others who have a passion for the unreached, you can begin sharing things you’ve run across. Conversations can be built around tools like Friendfeed, where comments can be shared and added to. Further, Friendfeeds can be reposted in other places - blogs or personal pages. (I have reposted mine on my personal identity page and on Facebook). If those of us who were both missions-passionate and tech-savvy were to do this, we could begin connecting with each far more easily.

Interested? leave a comment - or subscribe to my friendfeed, so I can subscribe to yours !