It seems my short-lived social experiment with Facebook is winding down.  My last post mentioned a service called chi.mp which was in private beta at the time.  Well, they went public a couple days ago, and I signed up as soon as I got the notice.  I’ve been playing with it little by little ever since, and think I’ve managed to get the hang of it.  My account is EricHeimerman.mp.

There is definitely a little bit of a learning curve, but it’s not terribly more difficult to get up to speed than Facebook was.  With Facebook, there were SO many options and settings and things you could do, that it was a bit overwhelming at first, until you settled down and realized that most of it was just junk that you don’t need to worry about.  With chi.mp, the tools are fewer, if somewhat more difficult to understand.   But once you figure out and embrace the concept, it all makes sense.

So what’s the concept?

Ownership.  Chi.mp is no Facebook, and it’s no Twitter.  It’s not going to help you connect with people.  It’s about how you present yourself while (and after) you make those connections.  So the first thing I had to get out of my head was the expectation that my chi.mp account was going to replace my Facebook account.  I’ve come to the reluctant conclusion that both accounts have their purpose and will need to work together.

A symbiotic relationship?

Here’s how I envision these two services working together for me.  The chi.mp account holds all of my content and personal information.  I have already removed most of this stuff from my Facebook account.  My Facebook account will simply be a pointer to my chi.mp account.  In this way, I can still use Facebook for the networking, and when connections come looking for information about me, they get referred to chi.mp.  And with chi.mp, I have much more control over how I present myself to different groups of contacts.  I can set up as many different groups as I want, and each and every content item can be published to any of those groups.  Sounds easy enough, but there’s a big hurdle at this point to be overcome.

The OpenID hurdle

Unlike Facebook, you don’t need a chi.mp account in order to see my content on chi.mp.  But you do need an OpenID.  An OpenID is like a passport — It certifies that you are whom you say you are, and you use your OpenID to log into supporting websites rather than a username and password.  You can get an OpenID from ClaimID and this page has a good explanation of how the login and authentication process works.  As you can see, the OpenID concept is pretty different from what most people are used to for logging into a website.  This is going to be the challenge for chi.mp (and for me as a content owner) – convincing my contacts to get an OpenID so that they can see my content.

I’ve got a couple web services I’d like to share.  One I’ve been using for a little while now and feel comfortable talking about, the other I just came across today but am anxious to try it out.

Last.fm is a music streaming service.  It is most interesting (to me) as a music discovery service.  And it’s completely free.  To discover music, type an artist that interstests you into the “Listen to Last.fm Radio” search box.  The service will play random songs from that artist and any other artist with similar tags, many of which you’ve probably never heard.  You can also search by tag (alternative, rock, Celtic, 80s, classical, etc.)  Just type in a tag and sit back and listen.

Last.fm also keeps track of the types of music you listen to, and there is a social aspect to the service as well, but I don’t use that.  It just makes a very convenient radio when I find myself without my own music collection, or when I’m in the mood for something new.

Finally, in my search for ever-increasing control over my online persona (yeah, I’m still not over that facebook thing), I came across chi.mp today.  In light of facebook’s recent content ownership and terms of service controversy, this site interests me.  It is currently in closed beta, and available by invitation only, so if anyone’s got an invitation code, please share the love!

Some select quotes from their website…

“Chi.mp lets you own and define ‘digital you’ and to share different versions of ‘digital you’ with your selected contacts. More than a life-stream or an aggregator, chimp allows you to take control of how you share your self with the world.”

“With chi.mp, you own everything you put on your chi.mp site – your domain, your content, your contacts – everything. With chi.mp, you own your identity.”

“Your chi.mp site includes a granular privacy feature – Multiple Personas, allows you to create multiple versions of you for different visitors when they are on your site. You assign content and contacts to each Persona that you create – this allows you to control ‘who sees what’. For example, people you don’t know see ‘public you’, your boss sees ‘work you’, your close friends might see ‘crazy you’ and your family members see ‘family you’.”

That sounds great to me.

I believe I have reached the “get over yourself” stage.  All of my apprehension about accepting friend requests seems to have vanished.  Actually, it’s been about 2 weeks since I’ve even checked my account and I may have inadvertently blown right past the “forget it even exists” stage.  So I’ve decided that there’s really no harm in just letting anyone who wants to be, be your friend.  I mean, I’m not putting anything really personal out there anyway.  And who would really care even if I did?

So I guess I’m over myself.  I apologize to all of those that I inadvertently snubbed by not accepting their friend requests.  If you really care, you’re welcome to request again, and the next time I’m on in a couple weeks or so, I will accept.  But please, please stop sending me invitations to play games or take quizzes — I’ve wasted enough time on that stuff and I’m not going to do it anymore.  Really.

By all means send me gifts and hugs and … (can you “reach out and slap” someone?  If not, why not?) … but don’t expect me to reciprocate.  I’d love to send all my friends a green beer on St. Patty’s day, but the chances of me actually being logged into facebook are, well, actually I wasn’t, so there you go.

I have a feeling my last post offended some people.  And even if it didn’t, I apologize anyway.  Re-reading it I realize I came across kind of harsh.  I didn’t mean it to be directed at any specific person or persons, but rather at “the system” under which we all choose to operate.  I don’t have a problem with people wanting to be my “friend”, and the fact that I may not initially be inclined to “accept” them as a “friend” is not meant to imply that I don’t like them or will never accept them as a “friend.”  Some people are perfectly comfortable letting anyone and everyone in, and I have a feeling that Facebook is very well suited for those people.  I’m more reserved and protective, and cautious of who I let in (that’s where the “snobbish stuck-up prick” label gets applied), and therefore do not feel immediately comfortable with the culture prevalent on Facebook.

Please do not be offended if I do not instantly accept your request for “friendship”.  It doesn’t mean I don’t want to talk to you.

I’m going to give it another go.  The inspiration this time is my new account on Facebook.  I’m convinced that Facebook is just plain silly.  I’m going to give this an honest attempt to try to prove myself wrong.  Okay, I can see the draw for some people, just not for me.  How this helps me to connect to people (or why I should even care) is beyond my grasp at this point.  I have an established online presence.  You can google me and basically find out anything you would want to know.  Anyone who wants to can find me in about 5 seconds, without the help of Facebook.

Here’s my initial impression: Facebook is crack for social junkies.  There, I said it.  The more “friends” you have, the more time you have to spend reading about all the crap they did since the last time you logged on.  Your network can grow exponentially.  Each of the “friends” (I refuse to use the word “friend” in this context without quotes) you add also has a network of “friends” that might have something in common with you.  Within a couple days you could discover a hundred people with whom at some point in your life you have had contact.  And why shouldn’t they all be your “friends”?

Those of you still resisting the urge to join Facebook, at this point I’m not going to try to convince you to do otherwise.  You have your reasons for resisting, and I can tell you that those reasons are probably well-founded.  Stay the course.
If you’re looking to make an online presence for yourself, Facebook is not the way to do it.  Myspace would probably be a better choice.  As far as I can tell (though I haven’t dug in too far yet), there is no way to really customize the “front page” in Facebook, or control what other people see when they look you up.  I think no one can see your profile unless they are your “friend,” or perhaps a “friend of a friend.”  So you have to actually be logged into Facebook and be my “friend” to access the content I try to put up there.

The other problem is that the first thing you see when you go to my facebook page is this abomination called the “Wall.”  Here you can see everything I’ve ever done and everything that anyone else has done to me.  Why should anyone care how many “friend” requests I have responded to?  Or that so-and-so “poured me a drink to ring in the new year?”  For someone that wants to control the “window” through which others view information about me, this is very frustrating.  There’s so much “stuff” there, and no way for me to draw attention to a specific area.

I’m going to give this a legitimate try, and I’m sure I’ll learn more about it as I go, so future impressions may change.  Who knows, I may even grow to like it.  I’ll try to keep an open mind.