Video: Facebook trashtalk

Those conditions aren't set in stone. Craig did a good job looking through that stuff at his place so I won't add. He reckons he's pretty much in the clear.

Facebook and any possible evolution for business applications. Hmmm. Would be nice but will 'real' businesses use it before the terms and conditions catch up with the wider market place noe being targeted since it was opened up last year?

"...the Service and the Site are available for your personal, non-commercial use only."

"When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content."

At the moment it's an experiment. It's easier to get an idea over on video. If interviewing then you get more nuance. In my case, it's another form of communication I can deploy so people who don't 'know' me but read my stuff can get a better sense of who I am and what I'm about. With Skype, you can get some pretty cool things done when interviewing or having a conversation. It can be put into iTunes format so can form a video podcast. Lots of potential over time.

One other thing, actually. Why this video thing all of a sudden? I watched yours, Dennis, but couldn't be bothered with Robert's. Why not just write it? If there's something in the content better served by video - a visual demonstration or a funny skit, maybe - then go for it. But these kinds of communication? Reading is faster, easier and less off-putting (and that's not a comment on your whiskers...)

Businesses will fight Facebook - like it fought web access at work for quite a while - because most managers are pretty limited. Abuse of any freedom at work (like fag breaks, gossiping, the coffee machine or kipping at your desk) is a sign of poor motivation of staff. And that, in theory, hurts output and profit. But that's hard stuff to manage. Controlling inputs is so much easier.

So managers focus on when you arrive, how long you're at your desk and other things they *can* control. For some workers, that's probably appropriate. But for many, it's missing the point. Motivate them well to produce the outputs, then measure those outputs. When they're bad, manage that motivation problem, don't just attack the symptom, which is whatever they've chosen to do instead of work.

Final point: I think the networks workers create using tools like Facebook are valuable to the companies that employ them. Simple as. And for those of us working for ourselves - well, they're not only a great way of replicating and sustaining the kind of networks we would be able to run if we worked in offices - they also replicate the social networks those offices would provide.

PS - having read Donna's post, how depressed am I that my own survey of Linkedin users - which showed hardly any maintain their network there - is not the incisive piece of reporting I thought it was? I guess the copy I filed for Director magazine on my Facebook v Linkedin "revelation" is pretty redundant now!