The pope came to New York City, The pope left New York City. And the city that never sleeps is exactly as it was 72 hours ago. However, there were several moments of magic. The pope pulled off several feats that I never thought possible.

He Reversed Traffic. Who knew that one human being could be important enough to shut down vehicular traffic on Fifth Avenue for over a mile?

He Drives a Glass Car. No one questioned how many miles per gallon the pope mobile gets. I always though that Segways were silly looking. I challenge you to find me a sillier-looking vehicle.

He Looks Like Liberace. Is it just me that sees a resemblance between His Pontiffness and a certain 70s/80s ivory tickler?

He Likes Lace. I’ve been to mass and have never seen so many men wearing intricate lace clothing. And fur. Heck, maybe he IS Liberace.

For 81 years of age, the man is a walking marvel. He’s fit, lucid and a true messenger of good will. Thankfully, he is also speaking out against the abhorrent actions of a handful of child-molesting priests.

What the media fails to realize, however, is that only 25% o the U.S. practices Roman Catholicism. In short, many people simply don’t care. The top stories have been dominated for days. All I want is the five-day forecast.

If we’re going to be honest, the pope is a mane that represents a religious contingency that won’t acknowledge homosexuals, is anti-abortion, and against divorce and the death penalty.

I have to wonder, out of that 25%, who’s left to care?

Baseball purists whined, Yankee haters hated and the talk radio hosts went ballistic. All over a 59-year-old man playing a game.

Yes folks, baseball, love it or hate it, is a game played by grown men. So when the New York Yankees decided to sign comedian/actor Billy Crystal to a one-day, one at-bat minor league contract, why were so many people outraged?

This wasn’t a game of any importance. It was the Yanks and the Pittsburg Pirates going through the motions of nine innings of spring training baseball.

If you want to be mad that Billy Crystal is fortunate enough to “fame” his way to YOUR dream, then so be it. But don’t tell me the first inning strikeout (though Crystal did make contact) tarnished the pride of the pinstripes.

Step 1: Win 26 championships
Step 2: Let actor play in practice
Step 3: Devalue your franchise

Sorry, dear Yankee haters, that is not the case.

Last time I checked, professional sports were designed to entertain. Distract. Make kids smile. If those are the goals, then yesterday, for at least a few minutes, the Yanks exceeded expectations.

Not a bad gift for Crystal’s sixtieth birthday.

Stars crossing over to the diamond is nothing new, both Garth Brooks and Tom Selleck have had their hacks.

Crystal might have whiffed, but the PR move didn’t.

Relax. It’s just a game.

Charity should be about giving, not telling the world that you have given. That’s why, from jump street, I’ve had reservations about Bono’s (RED) campaign. While he’s a human being that I have immense respect for, I couldn’t get behind an altruistic effort that’s fueled by the same hyper-consumerism that has caused more problems than solutions.

Now, a year later, it appears my skepticism might be well-founded. Several reports have participating company’s spending efforts far out pacing the amount of money raised.

My point here isn’t to debate whether or not (RED) or any philanthropic effort is good or bad, rather, this is Jack of All Blogs’ call to urge bloggers to demand greater transparency from the charities they support.

It’s a definite plus in the blogosphere, and everywhere else for that matter, to tout yourself as socially conscious (who doesn’t want to look like a champion of global causes?). However, as Ricky Roma, as played by Al Pacino in Glengarry Glen Ross wisely preaches, “Know the shot.”

For example, here’s a breakdown of several (RED) products and the amount of money that actually gets sent off to the Global Fund.

Are these numbers good or bad? That’s for you to decide. But as a consumer, wouldn’t you be more comfortable making a charitable purchase if you knew how much – and exactly where – the money was going? It’s this lack of transparency that is a major hindrance for thousands (maybe millions) of would-be donors.

Companies like the Gap get to wear a humanitarian face. Does that translate to greater overall sales, with only a thin slice of the pie making its way to Africa?

I’m the kind of blogger who doesn’t want a (RED) iPod or (RED) Dell; I’m comfortable buying the products I want and writing a check in the privacy of my own home.

Regardless of how you give, it’s the giving that’s important. In a World Wide Web that is ruled by lifehacks and productivity tips, it might be time for some charityhacks.

My blogs will never “go green” and my philanthropy will never “go red.” Colors are for the lowest common denominator; the simplest way to identify something. I like to think I’m a bit more of a chameleon.

Please bloggers, research before you give or take. And never tip the blogger.

If you’re still trying to work out that bloggers union deal, especially the ‘work from home work out’ $tarbuck$ part of the contract, and finances are rather limited and you don’t manage it to squat days long that posh franchise with the thousands varieties of coffee-imitations… fear not.
Especially not if you’re UK based.

McDonalds comes to your rescue. Starting today.

With the launch of free Wi-Fi access in McDonald’s restaurants from Monday, we can provide the ultimate work break for UK employees to conveniently access the worldwide web. From the comfort of our restaurants, Brits will be able to come out of hiding and surf freely, for free.
[emphasis: waldorf]

I can perfectly imagine how it will feel to blog from home, sat on a hard wooden bench with a clinical table, fries and a tray in front of me. Not to mention the oh so del.icio.us iceberg salad and in ketchup drenched cucumbers falling on my keyboard. No, I don’t want my menu to be maximized, but do you have a power outlet where I can plug in? And maybe a cushion too, because those benches are so comfortable.

Soon coming near to you, 4 Dell equipped bloggers, hosted on blogspot, downloading their free music thanks to McDonalds FreeFi and Ronald ‘Beta’ McDonald 2.0.

Since I started blogging many moons ago, one thing that has never failed to amaze me is how blogging communities will fight tooth and claw when getting into arguments. Call it the blogging possé, if you must, because it seems to be that way. And I don’t mean possé in the (generally obsolete) legal sense (meaning law enforcers deputizing the citizenry for law enforcement functions), but rather in the sense of cliques and gangs.

People tend to act like angry mobs when they feel the need to defend their favorite bloggers. Or taken in a less favorable light, bloggers sometimes tend to gang up on other bloggers (oh, the poor, defenseless things). This kind of activity is polarizing and tends to tear communities apart. You’re forced to choose a side. Otherwise, it’s “if you’re not with us, then you’re against us.”

It’s sickening to think how many blog readers have turned out to be “yes” or “me too” people. Most of the time when you read through the comment threads of blogs (more particularly the personal-oriented blogs), majority, if not all, of comments basically say “I agree” or “me too” or “same here.” I don’t think people have the balls anymore to disagree or at least to give other perspectives. What a shame!

And sometimes I think it’s the fault of a blog owner why his or her readers turn out to be this way. Some bloggers I know would delete or sanitize comments that oppose ideas on their blogs. Sure, that’s fair enough. It’s their blog, after all. But what I find really silly is how other comment-posters would gang up on these people with dissenting (but valid) views. Kind of makes you want to avoid these blogs altogether, eh?

The blogosphere exists for people to have a voice and to express themselves. But where there are people—more especially groups of people—there will inevitably be mass stupidity.

Sharpen yer pitchforks and light yer torches, everyone!

Not more than two days ago a friend lost his 5 year young son in a pool accident.
Today, after I was at the funeral of a friend and colleague yesterday, my feed reader was full of supportive entries for Dawg and his family.

Within 2 hours after NYCWatchdog had blogged about the cruel event, a friend, Avitable, had set up a donation entry and pledges started to roll in. As I am writing this 114 bloggers have already donated in little more than 24 hours.
Technorati lists 64 links to that post. I have followed the evolution of the donation entry with interest and wondered if a personal blog could make it into the popular news section at Technorati.

64 Links would be a Top 10 ranking at this moment, but obviously TC doesn’t care about blogs, blogs written by non-paid bloggers. Bloggers who love to share their life.

Does Technorati really care about blogs or rather only about it’s own pagerank?
Where would Technorati have been today if no blogger was narcissistic enough to check his/her own link popularity?

Some days ago I noticed Chris Garrett link to Blogg-Buzz, a Digg for bloggers. Of course I signed up, claimed my favourite Franky nick and submitted some entries.

Only some days later I wonder

Why, oh why did I claim a new nick and one became member of one more service?

A digg for bloggers surely sounds interesting and the Blogg-Buzz platform is a perfect copy of Digg cool platform already, although still in Apha stage.
Alpha, coming with all its own problems, such as few members, total self-whoring and little traffic. Right at the moment my biggest gripe towards Blogg-Buzz is that there’s no one and submissions hardly get buzzed and bring little traffic. No, I’m lying. My biggest gripe is that everyone submits his own crap!

And that I have one more profile to maintain. I’ve never subscribed to that many services as since I started blogging! We, bloggers are sheep. And SEO nerds. But we are social media!
No new service rises or we have to belong to it, try it out and pimp it! We live the social dream!

Well, I’m sick of it. Got enough of all those new platforms. I won’t subscribe anymore to any new service. I will only continue to maintain my 24 26 profiles I have all over the intarwebs and that’s it from now on!

NO NEW SERVICES/PROFILES FOR ME ANYMORE!

How does my Sunday evening look? I am going to visit all the profiles I have and try to do something useful with every profile today! One of my browser home tabs is My last.fm profile. I actually actively use last.fm. That means I scrobble all music I hear to last.fm. It serves me great to keep my network, my bandwith active. Otherwise… no damn usage. Oh, I forgot another usage of last.fm : help me monthly to get rid of $3 as subscriber.
Afterwards I am going to watch mug shots at MyBlogLog. We all like it graphic don’t we? Then of course I need to go submit some stuff to Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon and Blogg-Buzz. After having read an overdose of nerd comments at those services, I need a break!
What would be better than go stalk my flickr stats and notice that 2 more people have found the way to my pictures. Sigh, I feel happy! After 2 hours of flickr stumbling, I’ll have a mosaic of pictures in front of my eyes and need to read something again! No better place than go stalk all my friends at twitter and facebook. STFU, I have no MySpace! At least not that I’d admit!
Of course I shouldn’t neglect my Jaiku and Wordie profiles either! They are valuable for traffic and user profiles are good for SEO! And to make myself important, everywhere I have to leave nice and insightful comments, so everyone sees I have been there and they’ll visit me my profile.

Luckily today is a great day. Zooomr is still offline, so I can’t loose any time there, but the name Zooomr alone reminds me of my UStream broadcast.
Sigh, webcam. When was the last time I logged in to Stickam and whored myself out there. I’m sure they all have forgotten me.

Screw it all, I’m not participating to all this anymore! No.way!
I feel old. I’m retiring. Come find me at My 9rules and Virb from now on.

Once social, always social!

You may now continue your regular scheduled capslock program. And prepare yourself for more entries from me, unless capslock kicks me out here!

Muhammad Saleem posts over at 901am about a university in India restricting Internet access because social media apps are making students anti-social.

Indian Institute of Technology, one of India’s elite engineering schools has restricted internet access in its dormitories, citing concerns that social activities like blogging and gaming were not only affecting students’ performance but was making them reclusive and even suicidal.

More from CNN, which says stop surfing and start making friends instead.

Muhammad does have a point in saying that the point of social media is interaction among people online, and that people do tend to interact and even get to personally know people through blogs, social networks and other social applications.

While face-to-face social interactions between students within the dormitory may have decreased, it is unfair and narrow-minded to discount time spent online as not being a social activity.

For example, on 901am alone, I have met Matt, David, and Thord through blogging.

Yes, it is narrow-minded to consider online time as a non-social time. However, considering the extremes, I would say it’s also narrow-minded not to be worried about the negative effects of social media.

For one, only a handful of people do really get to personally socialize as a result of activities online. In my personal experience, most people I know whose work or business involves being online all day and using social media apps tend to stay at their homes or offices all day surfing, emailing and IM’ing. Rarely do they go out and actually meet people.

Okay, same goes with me. I’m usually stuck here talking to people through the keyboard. And I remember my gaming days of old. I would keep to myself in my room for days on end, even skipping classes, meals and sleep. Okay, that’s probably extreme, but that’s just to illustrate how gripping these things can be.

I have actually personally met people who have become my friends and even clients through social media apps. But that’s not always the case with other people. And I do tend to lose track of my old friends who aren’t into getting connected online.

Sometimes I even wonder if I’m still articulate with talking to people face to face or even on the phone.

My point is that when you have tools that are as enjoyable to use as MySpace, Friendster, DIGG, and even your own blog, and tools that make life more convenient, such as email, IM, and even text messaging, you will tend to use them and you will tend to minimize actual personal interaction and other physical activity outside of necessity.

The Indian Institute of Technology is right to be worried about this. However, totally restricting use of social media apps is, indeed, quite a drastic measure. And it doesn’t address the problem at the source, but is rather something that would likely breed contempt among the affected students. Banning social media apps from dorms/hostels won’t make people want to go out and play under the sun! Why not think of more creative solutions, such as setting up social events like parties or concerts?

The other day I gave a talk at a forum hosted by a nearby university’s Mass Communications department. It was about social news, and how it’s changing the media landscape. At the start of the talk, I was asking who had been using social news sites such as DIGG and the like. I was a bit surprised to learn that out of the dozens who attended, only a couple were familiar with DIGG. Of course, most were familiar with social networking sites such as Friendster (which was part of the discussion, actually).

So this gets me thinking. Is social news ever going to become popular here in my country? I would say there are structural and cultural reasons that keep social media from being popular here. For one, the strong presence of the mainstream media would probably be one big hindrance to that. We are a country with two dominant players in the broadcast industry, and they span various media—from television, to cable, to radio. And we are a country with a relatively low Internet penetration rate. Most of those who have Internet access usually have to do so using public terminals, at ‘net cafes and libraries.

So how could people give a damn about social news, if they don’t feel the need to be part of the new media landscape? Social news is about the users being prosumers of information, after all (that is Toffler-speak for being a producer and consumer at the same time). But without the infrastructure, how could people contribute, then? And if you cannot expect your audience to be able to access your contributions to the big picture, then what’s the point?

I would not lose hope, though. Social news, after all, is only beginning to transform how information is shared and consumed around the world. And while I will probably be unable to influence my compatriots to suddenly adopt social media rather than stick to the old media, I would say we can still consider social news very useful. Our audience, after all, transcends geography and even culture. While social news is about the society, the Web has broken down the barriers set by geographic distance. My contributions can be consumed from faraway lands. My audience is not limited to whom I am physically close.

Is social news meant for the masses? Perhaps not today. But that’s not really a problem, is it?

Being blogically correct is a tricky thing. The MS Scandal is still fresh and although I respect the opinions from many A-Listers, I don’t want to condemn any blogger/community leader who decided to keep his laptop.

From the earliest days of the (public) internet its users have been trend setters. Trend setters in new technology, but also trend setters in mentality.
The internet was a place to help people. The USENet was a huge helping domain. The interenet has grown to become THE place to ask/search for advice, help in no matter what topic.
The users have made out of the internet a helping community. eBusiness only came later.