***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org *****
I'm kind of surprised to have this question from you, Jon.. my
apologies if they are a client of yours... off the top of my head here
are my complaints under two headings [both deal killers]...
Inaccuracy
========
* All of us in SNA know GIGO [garbage in garbage out]... Spock is
showing plenty of garbage... picture of Barack Obama with a women's
profile, picture of TIME magazine with another women's profile --
neither woman seems to have an obvious connection to her pic
* Incomplete data... just looking at my own profile on Spock, their
choices are strange, IMHO someone doing a Google search[or even
visiting my website] would get a more accurate picture of me... they
have chosen to focus on a small paragraph in my bio on "invited talks"
and "former employers" [>10 years ago].
* bad algorithm... a blogger writes about Mark Foley, the US
congressman who likes young male congressional pages, and then hits
number one on the Spock list for the search term "pedophile" implying
an association between the blogger and being a pedophile [not Foley
and pedophile]
* No one should have to join a site and go on line to fix someone
else's bad algorithm!
* Potential for flame wars... anyone can "vote" on anyone else's
tags... if it is so easy to associate a person with "pedophile"
imagine the flame wars between red-staters and blue-staters as the US
presidential election approaches
Deceit
=====
* Spamming of "trust requests"... most people were initially deceived,
they thought they were just connecting to others who were already
members and on the site
* People receiving the invites think they are personal actions from
their friends... some may be... of the several I checked most people
told me I thought you were already a member, others were surprised
that an email was sent
* the technology is obviously not aware of, and can't handle, normal
human graces while interacting... the technology is trying to handle
something people should be doing...
* people were asked to fill out some surveys of hypothetical fantasy
behavior and then their fantasy answers were used to tag them --
fantasy answers implied as reality based.
Sure their web site is attractive and the pages well organized [with
bad data!]. But the bottom line is I do not trust the people behind
Spock, [this whole roll-out shows me that the Spock execs do not have
a clue on real human network building behavior], many people I
respect have also expressed doubts about Spock, and as a result I
have my email filter sending all Spock trust requests to the Junk
folder.
This Spock is "highly illogical"
... or maybe too logical for effective informal behavior.
Valdis
On Dec 18, 2007, at 6:36 PM, Jon Lebkowsky wrote:
> ***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org *****
>
> Valdis, would you care to elucidate your problem with Spock? I
> haven't found
> it particularly offensive, though it has filled my inbox with trust
> requests. The requests and the site seem valid enough.
>
> On Dec 18, 2007 11:27 AM, Valdis Krebs <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> ***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org *****
>>
>> Bill, I just saw that.
>>
>> Yet, I would NOT follow his advice to join Spock just to clean up the
>> bad info they have on you.
>>
>> IMHO, it is best that all be forewarned and all stay away... by
>> joining we give them oxygen...
>>
>> Valdis
>>
>>
>> On Dec 18, 2007, at 12:12 PM, William L. Anderson wrote:
>>
>>> Valdis et al., this blog post by Jim Benson and comment stream seems
>>> instructive regarding Spock.
>>>
>>> http://ourfounder.typepad.com/leblog/2007/12/it-may-be-the-e.html
>>>
>>> -Bill
>>>
>>> Valdis Krebs wrote:
>>>> ***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org *****
>>>>
>>>> I have received quite a few email requests "for my trust" from a
>>>> new
>>>> social network search engine named Spock. Anyone else receive
>>>> these?
>>>>
>>>> Spock appears to be more "social networking" technology run amok...
>>>> when
>>>> will these nerds take some courses in social science?
>>>>
>>>> http://tinyurl.com/ytb5zm
>>>>
>>>> Technology w/o Sociology = Disaster
>>>>
>>>> ... and you can quote me on that!
>>>>
>>>> Valdis
>>>>
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>>
>> _____________________________________________________________________
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>
>
>
> --
> Jon Lebkowsky
> Polycot Associates
> http://polycot.com
>
> Blog: http://weblogsky.com
> Profile: http://profile.to/jonlebkowsky
>
> _____________________________________________________________________
> SOCNET is a service of INSNA, the professional association for social
> network researchers (http://www.insna.org). To unsubscribe, send
> an email message to [log in to unmask] containing the line
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