I am sure you have heard it all before. Get yourself a domain name and set up a web site. With the right concept, you will become rich beyond your wildest expectations. You will be jetting around the world and everyone will want face time with you. If you believe that, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I want to sell you.

You know as well as I do, that it doesn't really work that way. What I do know is that most successful web entrepreneurs built their sites based on one value proposition and before their very eyes their site morphs once, twice or three times before really gaining traction and beginning to grow virally. So where are you? Plan A, Plan B, or Plan Z? Your concept is important, but if you don't build a platform that engages your audience, you will never achieve the level of success you expect.

Take Myspace, for example. When Chris DeWolfe bought the domain name Myspace.com in 2002, he initially expected the domain to become a data storage and file sharing site. The founders of Myspace, Chris DeWolfe, Brad Greenspan, Josh Berman and Tom Anderson met at eUniverse where they worked and were all members of Friendster, one of the earliest social networks. When they left eUniverse, the guys decided to strike out on their own and create their own social network similar to Friendster.

To make their social network different, they made a couple of significant changes. They designed the site to allow users to customize their profile pages and they encouraged anonymity by letting their members use any identity they wanted to use. The early version of Myspace initially targeted an 18-35 demographic and emphasized content revolving around indy rock and alternative music. Their connection to music and musicians helped fuel the early growth of the site and is still a primary driver of their traffic today.

By giving users the ability to customize their web pages within the site and upload their own photos, videos and music, Myspace morphed into a more general social networking site. Myspace's reach began to extend to folks of all ages who wanted to set up their pages any way they wanted. As the site grew virally, their value proposition morphed into something totally different from their original concept of appealing to musicians and music lovers, and the rest as they say, is history. Bottom line, they built a platform that not only engaged their users, but kept them coming back again and again to update their profile pages and see what their friends were posting on their pages.

When Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook, it was originally called Facemash, and his idea was to allow fellow students at Harvard to rank female coeds based on their physical attractiveness. Being a geek, Mr. Zuckerberg was trying to find the hottest coeds on campus and maybe even get a date with one of them. After toying with the original site for a time, Zuckerberg and his roommates determined that they could expand their little network if they changed their site into a campus directory for Harvard.

After recruiting thousands of students at Harvard and validating their new concept, his team then opened Facebook up to other campuses and the site began experiencing exponential growth. The design of the site was such that without purposely intending to do so, it became a social network for everyone, not just college students. The site differed from Myspace in that the users used their real identities and the site was open to application developers that developed apps that the users could use to mess with their friends. It also minimized the banner ads that overwhelm Myspace's pages. And another accidental internet empire was off and running. Bottom line: build a site that your initial users embrace and they will come.

Neither of these two sites became successful based on the founders' original target market, value proposition and vision. And they are two of the most successful web sites in the history of the internet. So lesson Number One is: If your site design does not truly engage your users day after day, month after month, and year after year, then regardless of how brilliant your original vision or concept might be, you've got nothing.

It is important to understand that you can't build a successful site based on content alone. Unless you have a very large global staff of extremely talented editors, journalists, copywriters and reporters, your content will not keep your visitors engaged. The best way to keep them engaged is by ensuring that they are the ones generating the content and interacting with the content generated by the others on your site.

By the way, Facebook is overtaking Myspace in unique visitors and members world wide. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp bought Myspace in 2005 for $580M. Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson initially stayed on to manage and guide Myspace. However since April of this year they have, for all intents and purposes, given up their active participation in the day to day operations and management of Myspace. Mark Zuckerberg is still the guiding visionary at Facebook and the company remains private. He relocated the company to Silicon Valley and has hired a number of highly qualified executives to manage the day to day operations of Facebook.

When I told my wife I was writing this blog, she asked me why I haven't created a billion dollar web site...if I knew all the secrets. My response was that we are in the process of enhancing our web opinion portal, www.BoomerOpinion.com, currently and will launch the new site design before the end of the year. And within a year or less, we should be able to put a down payment on my new Ferrari and arrange financing on that Chateau on Lake Como near Milan. Okay, maybe a new corvette and a house on Lake Travis. We wouldn't want to fritter away our entire fortune the first year would we?

What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you have a different idea about the secrets to building a successful web property? We want to hear about it. Post your comments and tell us what you really think. Stay tuned and next week, I will reveal secret number two in this series.

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Last week, I began this series on the secrets to building a billion dollar web property by giving a brief analysis of the early development of Facebook and Myspace. I discussed how their visions and value propositions morphed over time. I stated that the number one secret of their success was user engagement. And yes, your vision and value proposition will determine the level and frequency of user engagement, but not always on the first implementation of your concept. You have to continue fine tuning that vision until your growth becomes viral and exponential. If you missed my analysis of how these web properties got their start and want to read the full text, just go to http://tinyurl.com/yggag3z.

Neither Facebook or Myspace became successful based on the founders' original target market, value proposition and vision. And they are two of the most successful web sites in the history of the internet. So lesson Number One is: If your site design does not truly engage your users day after day, month after month, and year after year, then regardless of how brilliant your original vision or concept might be, you've got nothing.

Neither Facebook or Myspace would have been able to accommodate the exponential growth they experienced had they not considered scalability in the overall design of their sites. There are those who still think that building a successful web property is only about offering your visitors content, media or engagement they can't get from another web site. Without scalability, your site will crash often and die an early death once exponential viral growth overwhelms your computing resources. Hopefully, if you are in the process of starting a web community, scalability will be a major consideration.

For you non technical readers, scalability covers four critical areas. These critical areas include development platform and language, development talent, hardware and hosting, and last but not least, caching. Skimp or minimize resources in any one of these areas and you will never make it to the next level. Over time visitors don't return to sites that can't deliver on the promise of their functionality and content availability. It even happens to the major players...I just logged into Twitter and got this message: Twitter is over capacity...Too many tweets...Please wait a moment and try again. Twitter can get away with this now, but for how long?

Let's start with the software platform that was or will be used to develop your site. This includes the language and operating system platform on which your web site is to be built. Bottom line: selecting the right development language and platform is critical to building a scalable startup. If you choose a platform that allows you to get the web site up quickly, but is inherently un-scalable, your gamble will come back to bite you in the butt. If your site engages the users, you will also need a scalable database backend to maintain all the information about your membership and their profiles. If you don't have the technical expertise to understand scalability, then hire a web developer or partner with someone who has that expertise.

That brings me to the second critical factor in achieving scalability. Scalable web startups are willing to make the necessary investment when it comes to securing talent. Hiring and/or seeking advice from a web developers or web architects in the early stages of your site development is absolutely essential to your success down the road. You might counter by telling me that you can't afford such high level talent. My suggestion would be to seek out a web developer or developers with the required expertise and offer them equity in your startup. If you don't have the funding to pay them as regular employees, then maybe getting in on the ground floor will entice them.  If your vision and value proposition have merit in their eyes, then they will be satisfied just to work for a piece of the company.

Since my primary target audience is non-technical, I don't intend to get bogged down in the technical details of hardware and hosting scalability, so I will give the briefest of summaries on those issues. We have already discussed the development platform and talent required, but there are some additional areas that haven't been covered. It is essential to understand bandwidth requirements with respect to your server connections to the internet.

Suffice it to say, through the use of web hosting services, you can scale your bandwidth up over time as needed to accommodate the traffic on your site. Whether you use the hosting site's servers or your own, that should not be an issue. The primary difference has to do with costs and your web developers will help you make those determinations.  If your site really takes off, then you will have to transition to your own in-house server farms.

The last critical factor I will mention has to do with caching. Your development guys will understand the importance of caching and should have it as a very high priority from the beginning. Basically, caching takes the load off the disk drives and processes the routines and requests through temporary memory (mem-caches) which will speed up those processes. Speed and performance is critical to a successful web site and poor performance will have a very negative impact on your traffic. Users tend to stay away from sites that are difficult to log into or navigate.

So there you have it. Secret Number Two is: Scalabilitiy. From concept to launch, scalability has to be a major consideration when developing your site. The best web concept in the world won't make your site successful if you can't provide your users 100% availability and functionality.

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Since the internet became the go-to place for research, finding information, entertainment and socializing every business large and small has tried to come up with the best approach to branding, product recognition and monetizing their company's presence on the web. It doesn't appear that anyone one or any business has really figured out how to do this effectively.

Even the giants like Facebook and Twitter haven't cracked the code on how to monetize their traffic. While their valuations are in the billions their profits are non-existent. Facebook is valued at $9.5 billion while Twitter's value is estimated at $1 billion. Facebook has over 300 million regular users, but doesn't expect to go cash positive before 2010 and that doesn't necessarily mean it will be profitable. Twitter is not close to being cash positive, let alone profitable.

What does this say about the effectiveness of web advertising? What does this say about advertising your company, your brand or your products on a social media site? What it says to me is that no one, not even the most brilliant advertising executives on Madison Avenue, has figured out how to use this medium to bring brand recognition or brand awareness to their company or products.

The one exception is Google. Of course, they are not a social media site. Google determined this early on with their Adsense and Adwords programs. Being a search engine certainly gives Google a unique advantage and a head start on the other popular web sites. They have certainly done a tremendous job branding themselves over the years. Just "Google it". Their name has become a verb. Google is typically the first place anyone on the web will go to when they are looking for anything. Ads corresponding to that search make perfect sense.

The most popular social media sites will have to crack the code on effective web advertising soon. In order to survive they will need a better business model. Who will figure out how to help them do this - the web sites themselves, the advertisers or the advertising community? Some smart person, entity, or agency will generate some serious income whenever they do come up with a solution to this problem.

Currently banner ads just annoy most people and instead of reading the ad, they hurriedly try to figure out the quickest method of getting it off their screen. And why put the same ad online that you would put in a newspaper or magazine. Does the term multimedia ring a bell? Then there are the pop up motion ads that try to take over your screen while you are trying to read an article or get some needed information. Again, such ads tend to aggravate their audience instead of drawing them in.

On television or radio, the audience is captive and they don't have a choice other than changing the channel or the radio station. Of course, if you have Tivo or a DVR, then you can avoid even those advertisements. If you are watching a program using the internet as your medium, you will still be subjected to commercials, but in most cases there are fewer of them during the program particularly on sites like Hulu or a broadcast network site. Still the network ads are usually more compelling and more entertaining. Then again, how many ways can they sell us E.D. drugs? No more twin tubs please!

When it comes to social media, Steven Hodson in a recent column on Mashable.com, suggested that social media sites should ask for donations using Paypal to generate income. If you like Twitter or Facebook and use it regularly, then why wouldn't you want to contribute $1 or $5 a month. He calculated that if 50% of the Twitter users donated $1 per month, that would result in $500 million of revenue per month for Twitter. Personally, I don't believe users would fall for that concept, particularly given the fact that the users are the ones generating the content on that site. Without the tweets there would be no Twitter

Personally, I think the best approach would be a compelling well produced viral type video highlighting the advertisers' product or message. Videos that people would want to watch and not be forced to watch. You can view samples of this type of video at http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=140819. Check out the bottom of that page. These are agency produced videos that appear on YouTube. 30 and 60 second segments of these videos can also be seen in standard television commercials. On YouTube, the videos last 1-3 minutes. My favorites are the roller skating babies and the bulldog playing Tony Hawk's video game.

The most successful video ads would need a theme and be serialized. It is a proven fact that people recall and respond to ads that draw their attention. Recall is a logical process while recognition is an emotional process. Motion, such as video, evokes emotion, but the printed word normally doesn't do that. Of course these videos would need a recurring theme or character. There are plenty of well done TV ads that come to mind. The e-Trade baby is one. Remember Joe Izuzu? Okay I might have just dated myself.

These web videos could be original content or they come from a clip of a current box office hit movie that includes a clever use of your company's product. They could be elaborate productions or well thought out amateur videos. If you think that you can't produce an inexpensive video that draws millions of viewers, you need to watch the Pink Glove Dance on YouTube. This video was made to promote breast cancer awareness in a hospital using hospital staff as its cast and was done for very little money.

Come on people. It's time to think outside the box and get creative. A well-made, creatively done video ad should draw you in, not push you away. One option for Social Media sites would be to insert 15-20 second ads every 10-15 minutes. That might not be too intrusive for most people. If the user wanted to avoid these interruptions they could pay a monthly use fee to use that site, say $1 or $2. The web isn't going away and we need to come up with ways to make it a viable commercial enterprise. Wouldn't it be cool if the web ads were so good that your friends recommended you view some of these video ads?

With the advent of broadband and streaming video, web ads shouldn't be rehashed versions of print ads. That is sooo nineties. Video and/or clever animation is where it's at. Being able to quickly opt out of any web video should be mandatory. If a product ad isn't compelling enough to make its potential customers want to watch, then the viewer should be able to click it away. On the other hand, if it is good enough to bring you back several times, then the production will be well worth the investment.

What's you opinion about web advertising? Got a better idea? I would love to hear it. Comment on this blog and tell us what you really think.

If you are a Baby Boomer and haven't joined www.boomeropinion.com, then please consider joining our community. We are looking for Boomers who have opinions and don't mind ruffling a few feathers by telling America what they really think about the issues facing America.

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Just as I was about to write this blog, I remembered that I needed to check my Facebook news feed for new posts from friends and family. I also needed to send a text message to one of my colleagues about an upcoming project and get his feedback. I absolutely had to check my Outlook calendar for any appointments I might have scheduled for today. Oh, and I was going to finish reading that book about Mark Zuckerberg and Social Networking on my iPad. My life has been taken over by technology it seems.

It doesn't seem that long ago when I was bored to death and I would have to find things to do to fill my time. Back in those days, I had 3 network television channels on my TV and the only way I could keep up with my friends and family was by calling them or visiting them. If there was a project, personal or business related, I was able to devote my full attention to it until it was completed. Distractions were few and far between. Today it seems we are all overburdened with technology and communications devices that seem like technology leashes. They pull on us this way or that way constantly.  

Will we ever be able to take control of our lives again, or is it futile to even try? Younger generations seem perfectly happy to stay connected to that leash 24/7. Am I just too old to smell the cappuccino? Am I looking backward and thinking that it would be better to return to the past? Maybe, I should just fully embrace these technologies and take advantage of what they have to offer. After all, I have never had this kind of instant access to my family, my business associates or my world. It's a good thing, right? I think it is a good thing as long as you don't let it completely dominate your life.

If we let technology rule our daily lives, then we aren't really taking enough time out of each day for ourselves or for the ones we really care about. I guess I just need to find the right balance. That is easy to say, but hard to do, right? It is a lifestyle decision. Instead of letting technology run our lives, we need to step back and set some priorities. If you are trying to build the next Fortune 500 company, your time is not your own. You business life and personal life are the same. For you, there is no choice. But, for the rest of us...

Recently I wrote a blog about Mark Zuckerberg's view of social media and why he thought everyone on Facebook should be willing to share the most intimate details of their personal and business lives daily on his social network. One commenter to my blog responded that since Mark could really distinguish between his personal and professional lives, that was easy for him to say and to do. For the rest of us, we probably want to maintain some separation between those two areas of our lives.

So how can we find that balance? When and how can we free ourselves of our technology leashes? First step is to set priorities. Some people would feel completely lost if they had to put away their iPhones, Blackberries or notebook computers. I am sure age impacts those decisions. If you are old enough to have lived without all these gadgets and appliances, it is probably easier to find the proper settings and times to put them away.   

One suggestion for simplifying one's life is to start by stopping. Each day you set your agenda and try to optimize every minute of the day. What if you chose not to set any agenda? What if you just let go and didn't try to be totally productive every minute of the day. You could do whatever you felt like that morning or escape for the entire day. You could go for a walk or take a hike. You could pull out that novel that you have been meaning to read, but just couldn't find the time for.

You could take your kids or your significant other on a bike ride. You could go to the beach or the lake and just take in the natural beauty of the area. If your time is really limited, you could just go outside and watch the clouds roll by. Just remember to unplug. Leave your iPhone or Blackberry in the house or the glove box. If you have to take it with you, at least turn it off.

If you are a list person, then put aside an hour or more each day to do nothing. Write it down on your list. Stephen Covey, the author of The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, suggests taking time for yourself on a regular basis to sharpen the saw. Translation: do something to improve your mind or your spiritual being. The metaphor is all about being able to perform at your best. Take time to sharpen the saw because with a dull saw you won't cut much wood or be very productive.

If every day of your life is so busy that you can't get everything done on your list, then re-examine your list. Typically, there are a number of things on your to-do list that might seem urgent, but aren't really that important to your job or personal life. Re-evaluate your activities in order to optimize the ones that really are important to your mission. Remove the ones that aren't really fundamentally necessary in achieving your daily goals and objectives. Your list just might become manageable.  

When it comes to your cell and your computer, you can simplify and declutter those devices. I used to receive 50-100 emails per day. A lot of them I thought I needed for work. You know the ones...Briefings on technology, leadership, management, etc. I have unsubscribed to most of them. If I need to learn the latest on any topic, I just Google it and generally learn more than I ever wanted to know in a short time.

If you have joined too many groups on linkedin and receive daily or weekly email updates, then unjoin them. Getting rid of email clutter will make your life easier to manage. Do you have too many friends on Facebook? You can hide them from view and then the only news feeds you see will be about those people that you actually care about. Don't get me started on Twitter. Unless you have a business connection that requires you posting tweets or reading other's tweets...just say no. How important can information that consists of 170 characters or less really be? Check your news feeds no more than twice a day.

And consider turning off your television set occasionally. I realize that is a lot to ask. A great many people turn on their TVs when they get up in the morning and turn them off when they go to bed. Even if they aren't actually watching, it is like an extra voice in the house to keep them company. Bottom line: Living your life vicariously through your favorite television actors or personalities is okay as long as you don't spend the bulk of your free time doing it. I realize that some of you schedule your lives around our favorite TV shows. If you are that addicted, get a DVR and do something meaningful with at least a portion of your spare time.

One final note. Recent studies have indicated that technology appliances are having an adverse effects on the attention spans of humans across the world. Our attention spans are getting shorter and we are having a more difficult time focusing on anything for extended periods of time. It is no wonder that this is happening given the amount of information we are exposed to each day and the methods we are using to communicate with each other over cell phones, instant messaging platforms, email and Twitter.

The only way to extend your ability to focus and extend your attention span is by practicing. Stop scanning the news or trade sites and start reading full articles. Read entire books. Find projects that require your full attention for extended periods of time and engage. If you want your mind back, you will have to exercise it the same as you would exercise your body to gain muscle tone.

If you want to take your life back, you can do this. It isn't really that tough. I encourage you to tell us about your ideas on unleashing yourself from technology. Inquiring minds want to know.

My web community, www.boomeropinion.com  is all about capturing and broadcasting opinions and viewpoints. We provide daily polls, discussion forums, and news about critical issues facing America and Baby Boomers. If you are a Baby Boomer and haven't joined us, please consider it. It is free and only takes a minute to join. Coming soon you will be able to create your own polls, initiate discussions on topics you choose and ask questions of the membership. We also have a Twitter page, http://twitter.com@boomeropinion.

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I certainly hope not. My partners and I recently launched a web opinion portal (read social network with a conscience). I will talk more about the purpose and value of our site later in the column.

One of my closest friends has a cell phone and a laptop. He can use the cell phone, but the laptop is currently serving as a paper weight. Ask him about Facebook or if he has been micro-blogging on Twitter lately and the expression on his face resembles that of a person who has just had a frontal lobotomy. Technology is not his thing.

According to a recent New York Times article, dated February 20, 2009, 60 % of Baby Boomers are avid consumers of social media like blogs, forums, podcasts, and online videos. That's up from 40% just one year ago. They also point out that Boomers like to take polls, rate and vote on items, rank favorites, and add critiques on services or news stories. These stats came via a study done by Forrester Research

A Nielsen Co. report shows that Baby Boomers and older Americans make up the bulk of the country's online population. Accenture's 2009 Consumer Products and Services Usage Report points out that while Gen X'ers usage of social networking sites rose 2% last year, Baby Boomers usage of social networking sites rose 59%.

While the growth and usage percentages in these reports don't always correspond exactly, one thing is clear. Baby Boomers are embracing the internet and all it has to offer in very significant numbers and those numbers are increasing daily. And don't forget that there are 10,000 Boomers turning 50 every  day.

One of my favorite viewpoints on the social networking comes from Lev Grossman in a Time Magazine article, titled Why Facebook is for Old Fogies. His logic is both humorous and almost logical. Here are his 10 reasons older Americans should use Facebook:

1. Facebook is about finding people you've lost track of. 

2. We're no loger bitter about high school.

3. We never get drunk at parties and get photographed holding beer bottles in suggestive positions.

4. Facebook isn't just a social network; it's a business network.

5. We're lazy. We have jobs and children and houses and substance-abuse problems to deal with. At our age,  we don't want to have do anything. What we want is to hear about other people doing things and then judge them for it.

 6. We're old enough that pictures from grade school or summer camp look nothing like us.

 7. We have children. There is nothing that old people enjoy more than forcing others to pay attention to pictures of their children.

 8. We are too old to remember e-mail addresses.

 9. We don't understand Twitter.

 10. We're not cool, and we don't care.

This definitely an insightful look at the uses of social media for sure, but we can all identify with one or more of those reasons. Lev shows that social networking has something for every Baby Boomer.

Bottom line is that Baby Boomers are not technophobes. And that is good for a social networking entrepreneur like me and good for America.

My web community, www.boomer-insight.com is all about challenging Baby Boomers to re-engage in the process of helping change America for the better. There are 77 million Baby Boomers out there. One out of every three adults in this country is a Boomer. Baby Boomers control over 70% of the wealth in America and outspend the next closest generation by 400 billion dollars each year. 

I firmly believe that when the Boomers speak, Washington and the rest of America will listen and act on our advice. Every day Boomer Insight provides polls and discussions on the most pressing issues facing America. We also provide compelling content on Boomer specific issues. Come join us.  It takes less than one minute to join.

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An article in the technology section in today's Washington Post, May 14, 2009, by Michelle Singletary, titled "Be Careful Online: Not Everyone Is a True Friend", brings up some very good points. Can you trust the internet and social networking sites with your personal information?

We are not talking about your bank account number or your social security number, but just random personal information. She points out that even providing information about your age, your friends and your family can expose you to a number of cyber crimes. She believes that cyber criminals are lurking in the shadows of some of the more popular web sites like Twitter, Facebook and Myspace waiting to collect enough personal data about you so they draw you unknowingly into one of their scams.

Ms. Singletary cites a lot of eye opening statistics in her column. Online crime hit a new high in 2008 according to the Internet Crime Complaint Center which is a partnership of the FBI, The National White Collar Crime Center and the Department of Justice Assistance.  According to Ms. Singletary, the center received 275,000 complaints last year which was a 33% increase over 2007. These crimes netted the cyber criminals some $265M. That is a substantial amount of loot.

One example she cited came from a warning made by the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies. They warn that you shouldn't divulge too much information about plans you might be making.  For example, if you twitter about leaving for a two week vacation, one of your followers might just come rob your house while you are gone.

A couple of other caveats brought to light by Ms. Singletary have to do with information you might willingly give out on your favorite social network. Don't provide both your full name and complete birth date, since that is data that can be used to steal your identity or access an account. Since a lot of folks use pet names for their passwords, it is not wise to divulge the names of your pets online. If you don't use your pet's names as passwords, then feel free to blog or tweet about them as much as you like. Derogatory comments about an employer, past or present, can come back to you in spades. It can significantly reduce your ability to be promoted or get that new job. But you know better, right?

She even points out that inflammatory comments about neighbors on social networks have resulted in defamation law suits. Now I realize most of you who are reading this know better and wouldn't make any of these mistakes. I also suspect a number of you have children or older parents, that could get taken in by cyber con artists. So teach your children (and your parents) well.

When I first started writing this blog, I wondered how many of us could be tricked into giving out personal information that a cyber criminal could use against us. I must say that even for an experienced tech guy like myself, my eyes have been opened by Ms. Singletary's article. Good on you Ms. Singletary.

My web community, www.boomer-insight.com is a social network with a conscience. Is it safe? Well, to become a member, the only information we ask for is your nick name, your gender, your birth date (which is of no use to the bad guys if you haven't entered your full name), your zip code, and your email address. I don't think that is too invasive. Our site is all about your opinion on important issues. We provide polls, forums and discussion threads to get your take on these issues.  You can read the latest news on national events and Boomer specific articles. Like a social network, you can blog, or fill in your profile page with photos and videos or not. You can remain anonymous if you like. All we really want is your opinion. Won't you come join us?

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 Will the internet profoundly change our society for the better? I hope it will, but I see examples that would indicate otherwise. Don't get me wrong, the world wide web powers my business. Last fall, my partners and I launched a web opinion portal that is quite social. But I am worried about the state of social networking today and what it might evolve into in the not too distant future?

I am not an old curmudgeon railing against technology. Okay, maybe I am old, but I am no technophobe. I became involved in technology early on selling computers at a Computerland store in Austin, Texas before IBM introduced its first PC. I graduated from personal computer sales to product management, then onto marketing and general management working for mainstream hardware and software companies. So I have witnessed the evolution of the personal computer and the internet in the last three decades.

I believe technology will drive our economy into the future and play a major role in both America's economic recovery and societal evolution. Those things are certain. My biggest concern has to do with the declining quality of social interaction on the internet. I realize that the written word in cyberspace is going to take all forms from the eloquent to absurd just based on the numbers of citizens online at any given moment.  

It wasn't so long ago that there were some limits on what a person could say in public and in their communications to or through the media. Hate, as well as gender and racially biased rhetoric was held to a minimum. That was before the advent of the world wide web. Consequently the dialogue that took place in newspapers, and on the radio or television broadcasts was more civilized for the most part. With the advent of the internet, social networks and public forums have become the Wild West all over again.

Each morning I scan numerous media sites, blogs, and social networking discussions looking for topics to write about and content to add to my own web site. I am amazed at the amount of profanity, racial and gender slurs, and outrageous comments contained in these discussion forums and comment sections of the social networks. I am not talking about the content of web sites like the New York Times, Washington Post, or Wired.com. I am talking about some of the more popular blogs, along with Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace.  Free speech is what makes America great, but a lot of what is posted on these sites is crap, pure and simple.

Of course, the crap factor is a function of the anonymity of the web. Most right thinking, or left thinking people would never talk like this in public. But since you can use a pseudonym on a lot of these sites, your anonymity is pretty much guaranteed. I am also confident that most of these offenders wouldn't use this type of language in front of their family. Of course when you are sitting alone at home, or in your office, staring at your computer screen, you tend to feel both invincible and invisible. So let her rip and tell it like it is.

I am pretty sure the majority of these offenders are under thirty. Sorry, that is my own biased assessment. And I am guessing that most of these offenders have been brought up to be courteous, congenial and to respect others. So what happens when they sit down at their computers? Maybe it's a perfect outlet for venting their aggressions and hostilities towards others. I am quite sure that they also know that this platform is about the only form of social interaction where they could get away with such behavior.

So what are the ramifications of this type of behavior on the web? Will it lead to lowering the bar in all social interactions? Will discourteousness, profanity and bad behavior become the behavioral norm in social situations in the future? I certainly hope not. Can we police the web and set fines and punishment for these miscreants? I don't think so Tim. We take our free speech very seriously.

So how do we raise the bar? It's your turn to tell me. And please try to do it without being profane, culturally biased, politically incorrect or disrespectful. And if you are a Baby Boomer, please take a minute to click over to our homepage and check it out. You should already be on www.boomeropinion.com if you are reading this. You might even want to join our community. We recently changed our web site name from Boomer Insight to Boomer Opinion. If you are a Boomer and have an opinion, we need you. And hopefully, you won't find very much profanity or disrespectful comments on our site.  Thanks for your support.

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First, let me qualify this blog by saying that I manage an opinion portal, www.boomeropinion.com, which is in reality a social media site. We provide polls, discussions and articles on issues facing America and Baby Boomers. We encourage Boomers to visit our site daily so they can weigh in and discuss the critical issues of the day.

I should also mention that I use twitter, but only for business purposes. I post the latest polls and discussion topics on my company's Twitter page. I use Facebook to keep up with my friends, relatives and children. After much persuasion, I got my wife to join Facebook and I haven't seen her since. And I use Linkedin to network with people around the world and to promote my businesses.

That said, I find that a good chunk of my time is taken up by these sites. Could I be more productive if I didn't fall prey to these sites? Absolutely. Is social media just a new form of crack? Quite possibly. Are large numbers of Americans wasting work hours perusing these sites? I am sure that is true.

It should be obvious to every American the loss of attention caused by twitterers across the country. Remember when the President made his first State of the Union speech last year? As the network cameras panned the audience, you could see numerous Congressmen and Senators sending out tweets on their smart phones. How intently can you listen to a speech if you are otherwise occupied tweeting?

A 2008 Study in Britain concluded that workers in that country typically lose 12 hours of work a week logging onto social media sites. That's over 25% of their time at work. If your typical American office workers are sitting at their computers tweeting about what they had for lunch or checking out the latest posts on their Facebook wall, how productive can they be during those periods. How much work are they not getting done each week?

Social media has a number of very positive benefits. Documenting protests and clashes between protestors and police or soldiers in parts of the world where network coverage is not available or not allowed. Documenting major weather events and other catastrophes in remote areas around the world is another benefit social media has brought to the table.

Instantaneous movie, restaurant and concert reviews are becoming the norm. Keeping close touch with relatives or friends in far away places, as well as keeping in touch with relatives or friends who live across town. Synching schedules or inviting people to special events is yet another benefit.

Some companies have initiated firewalls and/or filters to keep employees off social media sites and focused on the job at hand. Other companies have written policies against social networking during business hours. Without technical blocks, policing the usage of social media particularly given the new smart phone technologies will be hard to do for most companies.

There is no doubt that social networking and social media is here to stay, so what can be done to ensure that it doesn't distract the American worker to such an extent that it significantly impacts our national productivity? What do you think? We want to hear your thoughts on this topic. And if you respond from your office computer, just make sure you have completed your work for the day.

If you are a Baby Boomer and haven't joined our community, www.boomeropinion.com, please consider it. It is free and only takes a couple of minutes to sign up. You can share your viewpoint and voice your opinion on the critical issues facing America. And if we recruit enough of you, we can positively impact business and political policies around the country.

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At the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas last week, Ford Motor Company unveiled dashboard innovations that included being able to use Twitter and Facebook from behind the wheel. Streaming internet audio from behind the wheel is one thing, but social media? Presented as Ford's connectivity strategy, it appears that other auto makers will soon follow suit. Can you say distracted driving?

I have had a love affair with cars since the nineteen fifties. I secretly aspired to be a race car driver. Although, over the past thirty plus years, my racing has been confined to some motocross racing, a couple of years of road racing really fast go karts, and about five years of autocross. The pinnacle of my driving experience occurred when I attended to Jim Russell's race driving school at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma California. We were fitted, literally, into open wheel formula fords and got three days of intensive training on the finer points of open wheel road racing. Too much fun for sure.

I have owned numerous sports cars including an Alfa Romeo Sprint Veloce, an MG-A, a Sunbeam Alpine, an Austin Healy 3000, a Porsche 911, two RX 7's and several turbo charged Mazdas. My first car was a 56 Chevy with a small block V8. I love to drive and I love road trips.

My first road trip with a cell phone took place back in the early nineties. The phone was huge and didn't work all that well. The one thing I remember about using that phone was a conference call I was able to take part in while sitting in the parking lot at Buffalo Bill's Grave just outside of Denver. Talk about an office with a view!

Our cars are our second home. According to the National Highway Safety  Administration, on any day of the week, 800,000 people drive and use their cell phones. In a recently released Pew report, one in three teenagers admitted to texting while driving.  In 2008, 6,000 highway deaths were the result of distracted driving - a great many of which involved cell phone usage.

In the near future we will be able to access social media from inside our cars. I'm sorry, but how smart is this strategy? Given the statistics and the growing use of cell phones in automobiles, do we really want to continue down this road? I understand that some people can't seem to function without talking incessantly, but texting and twittering? Even if you could accomplish interacting with Facebook or Twitter hands free, you still have to look at the screen.

Did you know that sales of in-vehicle gadgets is expected to surpass $9.3 billion for the last year? There are some gadgets that are aimed at reducing cell phone use or at least making it safer. One such product will shut off your cell phone once your exceed 15 mph. There are gadgets that provide traffic alerts and accident reports using cell phone ring tones.

One FCC member, Meredith Attwell Baker, puts her two smart phones in her purse and locks them in the trunk before driving. Transportation Secretary, Raymond Lahood, puts his Blackberry in the glove compartment to ensure he is not distracted. Mr. Lahood has publicly stated that texting while driving has become an epidemic in America.

During one panel discussion at the Consumer Electronics Show, Peter Appel, the Transportation Department's head of research and technology stated that his agency is researching ways to use technology to make driving safer. There is an application that will make the drivers seat vibrate or rumble and alert the driver to an accident ahead on the road. A couple of software firms have demonstrated technologies that block text messages and incoming calls while the car is being driven.   

So what's the answer? Should all cell and internet communication devices be banned while driving? There are states where cell phone usage is illegal. Of course, if the technology is built into the vehicle, how will the troopers and police spot offenders and enforce such laws? Can all such communications be accomplished hands free and if so, does this ensure that the driver is not distracted? Yes, I talk on my cell when I drive sometimes. And I encounter distracted drivers every day who are talking and driving.  

What's the answer? What do you think? What's your view on this subject? Should cell use and internet connectivity be outlawed altogether?

If you are a Baby Boomer and haven't joined our community, www.boomeropinion.com, please consider it. It is free and only takes a couple of minutes to sign up. You can share your viewpoint and voice your opinion on the critical issues facing America. And if we recruit enough of you, we can positively impact business and political policies around the country.

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Chatroulette is a website that pairs random strangers for the purpose of webcam based conversations. The site was launched in November, 2009 by a 17 year old Russian high school student, Andrey Ternovskiy from Moscow. The site has gone from obscurity, 300 visitors a day in December 2009, to over 500,000 visitors a day in February 2010. In fact, Ben Parr of mashable.com reported 4 days ago that the site is receiving 1.5 million visitors per day. 

Andrey created this site so that he could meet and talk to people around the world. Once the viral publicity began to build, the site really took off. The site activates your web cam automatically when you click start. You are immediately staring at another human sitting or standing at their computer. If you are not young and attractive, expect to be bounced to the next user over and over.

Even though this concept is really interesting and novel, the resulting conversations are not what most people expect.  In fact, in a great many cases there is no conversation at all. In the early days, there was one guy who would play his guitar and improvise a song on any topic that the person on the other end requested and perform it for that person. Another user would speed draw portraits of chat buddies. There were people who put on costumes to get different reactions and so on.

Over time the site has become somewhat unsavory. There are people inserting all types of things into the orifice of their choosing. A lot of masturbation goes on. One thing to keep in mind if you plan to visit this site is that Chatroulette's visitors are currently 71% male, 15% female and 14% perverts on most weekday afternoons. These results were reported by Casey Neistat in a recent article on "Mashable.com" titled, Chatroulette Explained...

John Stewart on the Daily Show did a bit on Chatroulette and basically stated that is was a great place to observe men's appendages (not exactly the terminology that he used). He improvised a session that included Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric and Brian Williams that caused me to fall off my couch.  If you have a minute, watch this bit out on the following link... http://bit.ly/anwnHQ . Disclaimer: you might fall out of your chair laughing.

Despite the perversion, there are a number of people and companies trying to invest in this web site. Many venture capitalists have expressed interest in the site. Digital Sky Technologies, the Russian venture capital firm that has invested $400 million in Facebook, has made an offer to buy a portion of the company. Most investors believe that unless the male genitalia is completely removed from the site, the company is not a terribly smart investment.

Have you gone on this site? What is your take on this concept? Is it just a passing novelty, or do you think it has promise? We would love to hear your feedback on this topic.

My web community, www.boomeropinion.com is all about capturing and broadcasting opinions and viewpoints. We provide daily polls, discussion forums, and news about critical issues facing America and Baby Boomers. If you are a Baby Boomer and haven't joined us, please consider it. It is free and only takes a minute to join. Coming soon you will be able to create your own polls, initiate discussions on topics you choose and ask questions of the membership.

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Recent surveys indicate that Baby Boomers prefer Facebook 6:1 over Twitter. 50% of Boomers have profiles on Facebook. This shouldn't come as a big surprise to most of you. Facebook is all about keeping up with your friends and relatives on one easy to use page. And with Facebook, you don't have to check your wall/page every hour to see what is happening. Twitter on the other hand is more about ego streaming and requires more frequent engagement. 

I would much prefer to find out what my son or daughter thinks worthy of commenting about than read what they had for lunch or that they had just flossed their teeth. I realize that some of our kids will put some of their more inane activities up on Facebook, but that is a chance we are willing to take if we want to keep abreast of their day to day activities. Hopefully they will provide us with interesting anecdotes on their latest activities and provide some photos to help tell the story.

Twitter has its niche for sure. It's great for companies interested in keeping track of what their customers are saying about them. It is also great for companies launching new products or services. Your followers are your fans. Live streaming will invariably benefit your company's success.

Twitter is a great tool for breaking news like earthquakes or political protests in areas where the state controls the media. It is great for quick summaries of the day's local or national news stories. Our Congressman, Congresswomen and Senators seem to think it is a good way to keep their constituents informed. I wonder if that is the best use of their time given their progress in the past few months.

Most Boomers unlike their younger generation counterparts don't want to be held hostage by technology. I will never forget the day I got my first cell phone and pager. I remember thinking that I didn't want to be found that easily. My personal time was my personal time and having those technologies meant that I could be located and communicated with regardless of how far away from work I was at any given time.

Of course, today I have a notebook computer and an iPhone. I am still debating on whether to put my email on my iPhone. My inbox sometimes has over 150 messages waiting for my perusal. Do I want to access that mail regardless of where I am at any given moment? I am not sure.

So will Twitter stand the test of time? Baby Boomers won't put it over the top. However, the younger generations have gravitated to Twitter in huge numbers, and because of that I think it will do just fine. Soon the Boomers will no longer be the dominant generation and their say in the matter will be of no consequence. Then again, given the speed of technology advancement, Twitter could be displaced by something else by the time Boomers move out of the picture.

Just as with other technologies, I am sure convergence in the social media space will take place and the various forms of social media will converge. If Google has anything to say about, it will happen sooner than later. Google created Buzz to weaken Twitter's position and put it in Google's acquisition cross hairs. We know better than to underestimate the power of Google. 

We already know that the Millennials were born with their thumbs on the buttons and began texting before they could walk. We also realize that Gen X'ers are eager to use technology in any manner that will help them succeed. So those generations will embrace whatever new social media engines arrive in the near term. What's your take on social media and its value to the various generations?

 

My web community, www.boomeropinion.com is all about capturing and broadcasting opinions and viewpoints. We provide daily polls, discussion forums, and news about critical issues facing America and Baby Boomers. If you are a Baby Boomer and haven't joined us, please consider it. It is free and only takes a minute to join. Coming soon you will be able to create your own polls, initiate discussions on topics you choose and ask questions of the membership.

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The current model for most social media sites calls for free membership. Sites like Facebook make their money from advertising and premium features. The question is: How long will Facebook be free to use? There is a similarity between an addiction to social media and an addiction to drugs. The strategy is to get you hooked and then raise the price.

Most of my family logs on to Facebook several times a day to see what the other family members and friends are doing or saying. It seems like an addiction. Don't get me wrong, I think Facebook is a great platform to keep up with those closest to you. And unlike Twitter, your text is not that restricted and you can add photos and videos easily to your wall. And for the most part, it is not ego streaming about trivial stuff, there are a number of important topics and events that are documented daily.

The Facebook addiction is pervasive throughout the country and the world. So will Facebook take advantage of our addiction? I suspect they will. According to a Piper Jaffray report, "Pay to Play: Paid Internet Services", July 13, 2009, US Paid Social Networking Services will grow more than 25% per year in the next few years.

The big question is: Will social media users be willing to pay for this content? Currently, sites like Linkedin, Classmates.com, and Mylife.com are making as much revenue from fee-based content and services as they make from site advertising. Will Facebook and Twitter follow suit?

Consider the fact that Facebook now has over 400 million active users worldwide. Let's see, if Facebook charged a $5 per per month subscription to each member, then they would make $2 billion per month. Obviously not everyone would be willing to pay for Facebook, but if 20% of their members paid, then they would still make $200 million per month.  They could charge us a dollar a month and make some serious revenue.

Of course, Facebook has to think about the long term. Myspace thought they had taken the market by storm and just as soon as they rose to the top, Facebook came along and took the wind from their sails. Facebook had better features and a better approach. If Facebook were to move to a subscription based model, who's to say that another social media site with a similar model and some additional features might come along and displace FB.

The more likely scenario will be for Facebook to add more premium features that are fee based. What those features will be is pure speculation. They could involve mobile apps. The newest smart phones are providing geo features that will bring restaurants, transportation and shopping tips for your location. Expect a tie in to Facebook for these types of features. These could easily become fee based.

Twitter will probably never charge users a monthly fee, but the site could consider charging businesses for their tweets. After all, the two most important Twitter features are breaking news coverage and business related tweets. Twitter is already charging Google and Microsoft's Bing for using the Twitter database for their search engines. Businesses get free access to customer feedback and can set up their own accounts to tweet about products and services. Businesses would most likely be willing to pay for this exposure.

Do you believe Facebook will ever charge its membership to use the site or will the social network just begin adding more premium fee-based services? Will the site advertising model provide significant revenues for Facebook and Twitter? Do you think an upstart can take on Facebook and take their market share away in the same manner FB took Myspace's market share? We would love to hear your take on this topic.

My web community, www.boomeropinion.com  is all about capturing and broadcasting opinions and viewpoints. We provide daily polls, discussion forums, and news about critical issues facing America and Baby Boomers. If you are a Baby Boomer and haven't joined us, please consider it. It is free and only takes a minute to join. Coming soon you will be able to create your own polls, initiate discussions on topics you choose and ask questions of the membership. We also have a Twitter page, http://twitter.com@boomeropinion .

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If you didn't care for Facebook's recent site layout changes and policies in the past, you may not like the new features Facebook will be implementing in the coming weeks. Facebook wants to become your web browsing partner and be part of the functionality of every web site you visit in the future.

Facebook's new personalization features and plugins allow users to interact with their favorite web sites and share information about those sites and content with their friends. Your Facebook friends will be able to see exactly the sites you visit and what content you endorse on those sites using Facebook's new plugin features. There are a number of issues that arise when using these new Facebook features.

First of all, you are automatically opting in unless you take the time to tell Facebook that you want to opt out. So instead of asking you if you would like to take advantage of Facebook's new instant personalization features and plugins, you may be locked in and not even know it. Facebook needs to be more conscientious about alerting users to the new feature set and provide its users with a more straight forward method to opt out.

In the past, Facebook only allowed third party sites to store your personal data for 24 hours. They revised that rule saying that eliminating the 24 hour time limit resolved a technical issue for their developers. That means that your data can be stored indefinitely by these websites.

Okay, so you say well I can resolve that issue by opting out. That won't exactly fix the problem. If your friends don't opt out, then the websites that they visit using their Facebook logins will allow those sites to access not only their data, but their friends data as well. That means they will have access to your profile information since you are a friend of that person.

So how do the plugins work? First you must be logged into Facebook for most of these features to come alive. If the web site you visit has employed the new Facebook features, you will see the standard Facebook social bar across the bottom of the web site. When viewing content on that web site, you will be able to recommend that content by clicking on the ‘like' button.

One caveat about the ‘like' or recommend button. When you press the ‘like' button, that web page is now linked to your profile and all of your friends and other Facebook users can see that you like that item - ie. movie, article or other content piece. They will also know that you visited that web site.

With the browser plugin, you will also be able to see a separate box listing the top ‘likes" of all Facebook users along with the content recommendations of your friends. If you are logged into Facebook, you will also see how many of your friends have registered as members of that site.

How does the instant personalization work? When you log into Facebook and visit Pandora, Yelp or Doc.com, those sites will scan your profile data to help you find information that you might want to view or music you might enjoy. For example, Pandora could check your favorite music and offer music selections that match your tastes.

There is an activity stream plugin that will show you a mini-Facebook newsfeed on sites like CNN.com or any other news site that utilizes this plugin. It will show you all the recommendations and ‘likes' that your Facebook friends have posted on that site.

Bottom line. When you open a site using your Facebook login, that site can access the following information: your name, your profile picture, gender, current city, networks, friend list, likes and interests, and your fan pages. Once you have logged in, the site can also access any other Facebook information you've made public. It can even ask you for additional info, but you are not obliged to provide any additional information if you don't choose to provide it. In the past, these sites were only allowed to hold this information for 24 hours. Now they can keep it indefinitely.

The advantages to Facebook and their development partners are obvious. Having access to Facebook user profile information and being able to store that data indefinitely is a tremendous marketing tool. Not to mention, they can sort these people into specific groups or segments for selective advertising campaigns.

What do you think of Facebook's new functionality? Are you concerned about privacy issues? Will you opt out and hope your friends do likewise? Chime in and let us know how you feel about the new features.  

My web community, www.boomeropinion.com  is all about capturing and broadcasting opinions and viewpoints. We provide daily polls, discussion forums, and news about critical issues facing America and Baby Boomers. If you are a Baby Boomer and haven't joined us, please consider it. It is free and only takes a minute to join. Coming soon you will be able to create your own polls, initiate discussions on topics you choose and ask questions of the membership. We also have a Twitter page, http://twitter.com@boomeropinion.

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Social media is taking over the world. It should be obvious to all of us that there are lessons that we should take away from this phenomena. The question is: What are those takeaways?

Tanveer Naseer, a self described business strategy coach, writer and overall good guy put up a post on his website titled, What Twitter Can Teach Leaders About Effective Communication. The four lessons he lists that we should learn from Twitter are:

•1.    Focus on the message, not the medium

•2.    Praise in public, criticize in private

•3.    Spend more time listening to others so you can learn and engage them

•4.    Put people first and let profits come later

The first lesson applies to not just Twitter or social media, but the internet in general I think. However, sometimes it is difficult to separate the message from the medium. Marshall McLuhan wrote in his 1964 book, Understanding Media: The Extension of Man, that "The medium is the message". He believed that the medium embeds itself in the message creating an inseparable link between the medium and the content it carries.

Mr. Naseer's observes that if a message is relevant and important, the medium used should not impact its validity or discount its value. Given the amount of irrelevant content emanating from Twitter and Facebook, some people immediately discount the content because of its source. Content originating from most social media platforms is routinely discounted because it originates from social media and because most of it is of little value to anyone besides the person posting it. If you are sharing information with your team, the message should be what's important, not the platform you use to communicate it. You do have to ensure that your colleagues regularly access that platform or your message is irrelevant.

His second point relating to praising or criticizing someone in public should be recognized and understood as the proper behavior in any and all personal or business matters. His discussions on Twitter are obviously more civil than a lot of those I have personally witnessed. That said, chastising family members or subordinates should never be done in public. Making examples of your family members or coworkers in public is just wrong under any circumstances. I believe this more common sense than a lesson in leadership.

 Mr. Naseer's 3^rd lesson about spending more time listening is a lesson more managers and leaders should follow. In Stephen Covey's book, The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, he lists this concept as one of the seven habits:  "Seek first to understand, then to be understood". Too many of us spend most of our time formulating responses to what is being said rather than actually listening and trying to understand what the other person is saying. How can you truly engage in conversation with someone or get your own points across if you haven't given them your undivided attention when they were speaking? You can't.

Mr. Naseer's final point, "Put people first and let profits come later" is a great point. If BP would have adhered to this lesson, then maybe the oil spill wouldn't have happened. They cut corners to reduce costs and look where it got them. Twitter and Facebook have followed this rule and will ultimately be very profitable. Too many companies make choices and decisions strictly based on the bottom line and not on what's best for their employees, their customers or for their communities.

What lessons have I learned from using social media? I have learned that if your target audience does not regularly log on to your social platform then you posts are exercise in futility. I have also learned that if you can't produce compelling content day in and day out, then you won't develop a following of any consequence. Life streaming will only draw family and friends, unless you have an amazingly interesting life. I have learned that the anonymity provided by social platforms empowers some people to act badly and cruelly in their interchanges and messaging. This is a perverted use of social media, but no one has come up with a solution to this pervasive problem.

Finally, I have learned that following all of the social media streams that you subscribe to can consume most of your waking hours and negatively impact your ability to get your work done or live your life in a meaningful manner. What lessons have you learned from social media? How has social media changed your life? How has social media affected your job or career? Is the medium inextricably tied to the content or messages that it broadcasts?

My web community, www.boomeropinion.com  is all about capturing and broadcasting opinions and viewpoints. We provide daily polls, discussion forums, and news about critical issues facing America and Baby Boomers. If you are a Baby Boomer and haven't joined us, please consider it. It is free and only takes a minute to join. Coming soon you will be able to create your own polls, initiate discussions on topics you choose and ask questions of the membership. We also have a Twitter page, http://twitter.com@boomeropinion.

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Tech journalist David Kirkpatrick's book, the facebook EFFECT, published this year tells the inside story of the company that he says is connecting the World. In 2006 Kirkpatrick wrote an article for Fortune magazine titled Why Facebook Matters. Since his first interviews with Mark Zuckerberg, Mr. Kirkpatrick has been given complete access to the Facebook operation and its key executives.

Kirkpatrick believes that Facebook is more than just another social networking site. He agrees with Mark Zuckerberg who said in one of his early interviews, "Facebook's primary mission is to help people understand the world around them". According to Kirkpatrick, the Facebook founder is wise beyond his 26 years. Even though, when Kirkpatrick told Zuckerberg in 2006 that he thought the Facebook founder was a natural CEO, Zuckerberg acted as if that was an insult.  

Facebook is closing in on five hundred million users and is one of the fastest growing companies in the history of business. Current valuations put the company value at several billion dollars. Zuckerberg has managed to maintain a major percentage of his company stock and control of its board of directors. Given his age and experience that is an amazing feat. When the company does go public, Zuckerberg's stock will make him an instant billionaire.

So why is Facebook different than other social networking sites? Well, first of all, you have to use your real identity. Second, you can control who gets access to your page and personal information. Myspace can't make such claims. Advertising is unobtrusive on Facebook, unlike other social networks. Application development by third party developers provides users with lots of ways to engage their Facebook friends.

Every month, 20 billion pieces of content are posted on user walls. Facebook is the largest photo sharing site on the web, period. Facebook's major focus is to ensure that the information presented to you is the information that really you care about.  Zuckerberg's own wall lists his interests as "openness, breaking things, revolutions, information flow, minimalism, making things, and eliminating everything that doesn't matter".

It is not just about reading the lifestreams of your family and friends, although that is a major attraction for this site. Important news items, political provocations, holiday greetings, revolutions, viral movements, insults, jokes, wisecracks, thought provoking pronouncements, business news, first hand reports of catastrophic events, stock market results and everything else under the sun is posted daily by Facebook users on their walls and on their group pages.

Kirkpatrick says that not everything posted on Facebook is positive. Is living our lives in public a good thing? He wonders if we are becoming a nation of exhibitionists. Posting commentary on the minutiae of our lives can become tedious and a general waste of time. Will living our lives online take away our ability to experience our lives first hand?  Will we lose our ability to socialize face to face? Does Facebook contribute to information overload?   

Other questions Kirkpatrick attempts to answer in his book include: "How will Facebook alter users real-world interactions? How will repressive governments respond to this new form of citizen empowerment? Should a service this large be regulated? How do we feel about a form of communication used by hundreds of millions of people that is completely controlled by one company? Are we risking our freedom by entrusting so much information about our identity to one commercial entity?" Of course, these same questions could have been asked about America's phone company, AT&T, 50 years ago.

I suspect a lot of you reading this blog believe that Facebook is a harmless social network that has allowed us to find old friends and communicate with them as well as every member of our family. Although Kirkpatrick himself admitted that his high school daughter's circle of Facebook friends didn't include him. So the privacy feature does work. I personally believe it is a brilliantly conceived communication link that will change the world in more ways than we can understand at this point. I am not convinced it was designed with that purpose in mind, but it could conceivably evolve in that direction. One thing is for sure. It will be entertaining and enlightening to see where it goes from here.

Is Mark Zuckerberg the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs? He has brought together a team of experienced executives to give him guidance. Members of his Board of Directors include the founders of Paypal and Netscape. He has a grand vision and all the money he needs to guide his company to become the next Microsoft or Apple. He started his company in a dorm room like Michael Dell. He dropped out of Harvard to take his vision to the next level like Bill Gates. Will he be able to maintain control and take his company all the way to the top? Only time will tell.

The Facebook Effect is an interesting and enlightening insider's look at the early beginnings, current operations and inner workings of Facebook and its inner circle of executives. If social media is on your radar or impacts your business, it is a must read.

What's your take on Facebook and how it might impact on human social interaction and global communications in the wired world? Do you think Mark Zuckerberg will become the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates? Let us know what you think?

My web community, www.boomeropinion.com  is all about capturing and broadcasting opinions and viewpoints. We provide daily polls, discussion forums, and news about critical issues facing America and Baby Boomers. If you are a Baby Boomer and haven't joined us, please consider it. It is free and only takes a minute to join. Coming soon you will be able to create your own polls, initiate discussions on topics you choose and ask questions of the membership. We also have a Twitter page, http://twitter.com@boomeropinion.

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Penelope Trunk, the Brazen Careerist, wants employers to view potential hires in a non-traditional way. Penelope has built quite a following over the past decade writing career advice to generation Y. She has written a book (Brazen Careerist, The New Rules for Success), she has a syndicated column and her blog has over 40,000 subscribers. She firmly believes that traditional career path fundamentals are outdated and instructs her Generation Y followers to pursue a different path. She believes that traditional career sites are out of touch with the new web 2.0 reality and are a waste of time for young career minded individuals. Given that the older job seekers have longer resumes and deeper backgrounds, she has come up with an alternative way for Generation Y job seekers present themselves to future employers using Web 2.0 networking.

Since the younger Generation Y workers are less experienced than their older Generation X and Baby Boomer counterparts, they have fewer opportunities to secure jobs or advance their careers using the old paradigm of wisdom and expertise gained from years of past employment. Penelope believes that your value to a company should be based more on your ideas and potential than your background and experience. She also believes that the best way to present your self is through social networking. In the past, a lot of young job seekers have been burned by their own content residing on social networking sites like Myspace, Facebook and Twitter. Inappropriate content was their undoing in most cases.

Before the web came about, Baby Boomers relied on newspapers and personal networking to advance their careers. In the early days of the internet, Generation X used Monster and Linkedin to network and find the job they wanted. In every case, the preceding generations have embraced new technologies if they didn't want to be left behind. Since traditional career sites focus on experience, younger candidates don't fare that well. Generation Y feels more comfortable with conversation based networking, so social networking is more appealing to them as a way to connect with employers. Older careerists had better begin to embrace Web 2.0 if they expect to remain competitive in the job market.

In a recent press release, the Brazen Careerist articulates its vision: "Brazen Careerist is a Generation Y-targeted career site that uses social networking to showcase job seekers' ideas and potential over their background and experience. Brazen Careerist "levels the playing field" for Generation Y by reversing the disadvantage these candidates have faced on other online career sites where experienced Gen Xers and Baby Boomers appear more employable. For recruiters and hiring managers, Brazen Careerist will offer unique deep insight into the critical thinking skills, ideas, knowledge, and peer influence of high performing Generation Y candidates whose potential would not be discoverable from an online resume." You can learn more at www.brazencareerist.com.

So, will the Generation Y kids ultimately beat out the older more seasoned Baby Boomer and Generation X job seekers in securing the best jobs with the best companies? It is way too early to speculate on that, but my advice to the older career minded individuals is this: you better embrace the new technologies and Web 2.0 sites or you will be left out in the cold for sure. If you are not on www.linkedin.com, then get cracking and start networking. If you consider yourself an expert in your field or profession, then start writing a blog and build a following. Most companies are looking for thought leaders and if you can turn a phrase and have some really good ideas about your profession, share them and you will benefit in more ways than you know. You can go to www.wordpress.com  and set up a blog for free.

Another major consideration for older job seekers is compensation. More and more companies that have been hit hard by the recession are looking at ways to reduce their budgets and younger, less experienced employees are much less expensive to hire than their older counterparts. So my second piece of advice is to be more flexible when it comes to salary and benefits. Once you demonstrate your value to the company, the compensation will take care of itself. Your potential employer will appreciate your contribution to his bottom line and won't forget you when the economy turns around.

A final note about Penelope Trunk. She was born in 1966, thus making her a member of Generation X and proving that you don't have to be a member of Generation Y to leverage social networking and Web 2.0 for your own financial gain. Clever individuals can achieve significant success regardless of age. Go Penelope!

Got a opinion? We would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. If you are a Baby Boomer, and haven't yet joined my web community, www.boomeropinion.com, please do. It is free and only takes a minute to sign up. You can participate in our polls on major issues facing America and Baby Boomers. You can also join in our discussion forums or even set up your own blog at our site.

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 A recent article in the November 2009 issue of Fast Company magazine, "Casandra's Revenge", profiles Noreena Hertz, a British economist and author. The Fast Company article begins, "Not long ago, economist Noreena Hertz lived at the lefty margins of her field. But her ‘widely ignored' prediction of the credit crisis and her call for a more evolved form of capitalism have suddenly put her at the center of the Universe."

In her 2001 book, The Silent Takeover, Ms. Hertz warned that unregulated markets, corporate greed and the all powerful financial institutions would seriously impact the plight of ordinary citizens. In her more recent book, The Debt Threat, published in 2004, she wrote, "Is there reason to believe that we are soon going to see more defaults on commercial debt, emblematic of a widespread financial crisis?" She affirmed there would be 5 years before it happened. Obviously, Ms. Hertz is now on the ‘A' list of economists and is courted by major governments and corporations around the world.

The Cambridge economist believes that the globalization of capitalism over the past 50 years has brought about numerous changes to the economic landscape most of which are not in the best interests of the world's citizens. Ms. Hertz believes that laissez-faire capitalism and the surge of corporate power around the world has weakened governments and in some cases left them impotent in terms of regulating these corporations.  Ms. Hertz points out that in the past unregulated markets were rewarded for their successes, but not properly penalized for their failures. Does the recent financial crisis demonstrate her theories? Most definitely.

The current wave of corporate globalization is unsustainable environmentally, socially and economically. This has been demonstrated in America when a great many companies believed the best way to improve profitability was to move manufacturing offshore. The impact of this strategy on unemployment and consumer buying power in the U.S. has been quite evident in recent years. Corporations should have some social responsibility, particularly when it relates to the standard of living in their own country. Taking it a step further, the impact on the environment of these practices is felt in the countries where we outsourced that manufacturing. Not to mention, the social ramifications we have inflicted on those countries in the form of child labor and sub standard wages.

Ms. Hertz believes that Co-op Capitalism will replace Gucci (laissez faire) Capitalism. She advocates narrowing the divide between executive and worker compensation, particularly in the banking and investment sectors. Her portrait of this form of capitalism involves flatter management structures, employee participation in company profits, sustainability, social responsibility and smaller compensation differences between executives and regular employees. It should be more like a partnership between the employees, strategic partners, government and the corporation. She points to American companies like those in the billion dollar open source linux sector and biotechnology sectors, where collaboration between industry, government and academic institutions is the norm.

Of course, having worked in the tech sector for almost 30 years, I know that the tech sector companies have flatter management structures, but there is still a large gap between factory workers and executives. I don't really expect to see that change. Too many times, executive pay is based on the good ole boy network that exists between C-level executives and the board members. Social responsibility and sustainability has not been a major consideration for most of these companies in the past, but they should begin considering these factors going forward.

Ms. Hertz makes a good point about the auto industry. She talked about how the major U.S. automakers spent millions of dollars lobbying against the clean air act in the late sixties, while Honda and other Japanese automakers took sustainability and the future into account and spent millions designing and building cleaner and more energy efficient cars. And as Dr. Phil would inquire, "So GM, how's that working for you?"

Sustainability in all things is a good idea. Corporate America has been short sighted for too long. Having worked for public companies at the executive level, I was asked too many times to adhere to strategies that would make us look good in the short term in the eyes of the market analysts, but would obviously be detrimental in the long term to the employees, the environment and/or the company itself. The stock market has made shortsightedness the standard operating strategy in corporate America for too long.

Personally, I believe there needs to be some significant regulation imposed on the American banking and investment sectors. Wasn't that a campaign promise last fall? As long as the administration relies on economic advisors that come from the investment banking community and Wall St., I don't see that happening any time soon. And certainly, sustainability and social responsibility will play important roles in American corporations' overall strategy if they expect to succeed over the long run. Shouldn't the mantra be, "What's good for corporate America, should be good for mainstreet America and Americans?" I am sure a lot of you out there think that Noreena Hertz is a socialist and for that matter, so is anyone else who believes that capitalism should be left to its own devices and not co-opted by altruistic values.  

Well then, speak up. If you have an opinion, let us hear it? We would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. If you are a Baby Boomer, and haven't yet joined my web community, www.boomeropinion.com, please do. It is free and only takes a minute to sign up. You can participate in our polls on major issues facing America and Baby Boomers. You can also join in our discussion forums or even set up your own blog at our site.

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Mark Zuckerberg and his colleagues at Facebook believe that by openly acknowledging who we are and behaving consistently among all our friends and business associates we will help create a healthier society. Of course, his business depends on this philosophy. In his book, The Facebook Effect, David Kirkpatrick says that Zuckerberg believes, "that if we live in an ‘open and transparent' world, people will be held to the consequences of their actions and be more likely to behave more responsibly".

In a recently released Pew Internet and American Life Project survey of 895 "tech experts" and "highly engaged internet" users, two thirds responded that today's millennials will continue, as they grow older, to "disclose a great deal of personal information" in order to stay connected, and to "take advantage of social, economic and political opportunities." Bottom line is that the younger generation who has grown up with Myspace and Facebook have no qualms about continuing to post personal information on social media about themselves and their activities throughout their lives.

These are the same people who have posted embarrassing photos and text about their exploits and bad behavior. Some of these people have lost out on good jobs and/or acceptance into graduate programs because of these disclosures on their favorite social media platforms. Have they learned their lessons, or do they just dismiss these missteps as part of becoming an adult?

Is this transparency a good thing? Will it help you expand your professional network? Will it help you land that promotion or get that next dream job by virtue of the fact that your personal postings impress your current or future bosses as much as your resume and job experiences? Mark Zuckerberg hopes so. Or will these postings stifle your career advancement and ruin your chances at moving up the ladder?

According to Zuckerberg, "Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity". His thoughts on this topic basically point out that "the level of transparency the world has now won't support having two identities for a person". Because of the proliferation of information about individuals on the internet, the possibility of maintaining separate identities on the web are all but impossible. Eventually one's professional image will be overwritten by their personal image regardless of how hard they try to separate one from the other. Zuckerberg believes you only have one identity. Maybe he has a point, but a lot of older users seem apprehensive about combining their professional and personal identities.

One of Zuckerberg's early investors and mentors, Reid Hoffman, the founder of the professional online network Linkedin, has done his best to discourage users from posting personal information on Linkedin. Reid said, "Mark doesn't believe that social and professional lives are distinct". He went on to say, "That's a classic college student view. One of the things you learn as you get older is that you have these different contexts." Of course, Mark developed the original version of Facebook while he was in college at Harvard. And even today, he is barely older than most college students.

A former Facebook programmer Charlie Cheever thinks that Zuckerberg doesn't believe in privacy. Privacy has been, and remains to be a big issue with Facebook and its users. There have been numerous user revolts on this issue. To Facebook's credit, the company has responded to its users and provided better privacy controls on numerous occasions since its inception. Of course, the question still remains, "Should one company, Facebook, have sole control over the personal information of nearly 500 million users?"

What are the pros of combining your professional and personal personas? Exposure, networking, common interests with those you might want to do business with. The cons are exposure, documented misbehavior, negative networking through guilt by association and political stances that might be unattractive to prospective business partners.

Bottom line: if you don't want your personal information to be mixed in with your professional online presence, you should not go on any form of social media or join any online clubs, political groups, or other associations. Google will make your personal info available to anyone who searches on your name. Yes, you can limit what is seen on Facebook, but sooner or later you will be outed by association or your friends. Whenever you post something online, just remember the whole world is watching and reading.

What's your opinion on this topic? Has social media hurt your career or the career of someone you know? Have you missed out on a job because of your Myspace or Facebook postings? Are you active on social media? Do your friends on Facebook tag your wall with photos of your misbehavior or document your outrageous activities?

My web community, www.boomeropinion.com  is all about capturing and broadcasting opinions and viewpoints. We provide daily polls, discussion forums, and news about critical issues facing America and Baby Boomers. If you are a Baby Boomer and haven't joined us, please consider it. It is free and only takes a minute to join. Coming soon you will be able to create your own polls, initiate discussions on topics you choose and ask questions of the membership. We also have a Twitter page, http://twitter.com@boomeropinion.

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