Alyssa Milano called me “sweetheart.” Your argument is invalid.

I was mentioned on Mashable

Last night right before I went to bed I checked my twitter account for the last time in the day and saw that Mashable posted about the Microsoft KIN’s viral marketing stunt. They were kind enough to give me and Josh credit for pioneering the Facebook road trip and linked to the first time they posted about my Facebook Road Trip.
Thank you Jolie O’Dell of Mashable. You made a social media artist very happy.

Please go over and comment on the Mashable article. Give me a nod.

Clustering Coefficient

A clustering coefficient is how likely a friend knows another friend, or a connected node is connected to another connected node.

Social networks or sites like Facebook have a high clustering coefficient. In the case of a social network someone’s friend is more likely to know a friend than someone completely random in the world. This by itself is not enough to create small world networks, networks where there is a low amount of links needed to connect any 2 nodes. Clusters of people such as a club or a social circle need to be connected to other clusters. These connections can be made by different affiliations, for example in the above image the top right cluster connects Alan, Emil, and myself. We all know each other through work. Even though Nik a game developer seems very distant from Emil, Emil knows me who studied game design under Nik. Clustering can by high like the cluster in the bottom right, but there needs to be seemingly random links to other clusters as illustrated in the center of the image.

Websites increase their clustering coefficient with a few different methods. If I interact with Marco on Facebook, Caroline or Barb might see that in their newsfeed and there might be a chance either of them would friend Marco.
Tumblr attempts to increase clustering by adding a list of other accounts you might like in their sidebar, assuming these suggested accounts are chosen based on who you follow, follow’s.
This is not the same as affiliated connections, which is which is better represented as the radar, which I’ll explain in my Affiliated vs Clustered post next week.
If your looking for a solid number for clustering on a network you would divide the average amount of possible node links by the average amount of actual node links. If you kept track of this on a social website then you can make adjustments to your site layout and map to know if they’re helping you replicate a small world network.

A lot of what I share was learned through a few books, but for this post mostly Six Degrees by Duncan Watts.

Adding a new network to Facebook’s list of networks took me almost 45 minutes to find. Eventually I found how to add a work network, high school network, or college network on …page 766 of the help section.
Because Facebook’s layout has changed so much I can never really feel confident saying that there wasn’t a quicker way to find a setting I needed to change. I had to dig through a pile of pages explaining how to add an existing network to your profile. Eventually I was able to submit my work place, EPIX. As of yet it hasn’t shown up as a possible network. I’ll update this post when it does.

Are we ‘friends?’

update (5/24/10 4:35pm ET): I received an email from facebook with these directions -
If you would like us to create a network for your workplace, please send an email from your work email address to networkrequest@facebook.com with:
1. The name of your workplace
2. The official website of your workplace
3. Your official work email address (unfortunately if your company does not distribute official email addresses to employees, we will be unable to create a network for you)
4. A copy of this email (which should include your login email address associated with your account)

“Turning everything into a contest may grab some extra attention at first, but it can easily veer into the annoying.”

“This business tactic is here to stay, even though the “Animal House” badges might not be.”

“In due time, they’ll probably look like their pre-social-media cousins: loyalty programs, credit card points, and referral programs.”

What’re some examples of sites using game mechanics?

Social media is closer related to a science than to art.

If you’ve spoken to me about my transition from studying fine art into commercial social media, or if you’ve just shared more then a beer or 2 with me, then you’ve heard me mention how it was an easy and obvious transition. It’s not the same thing, but the common thread is that a social media architect should have a similar understanding of the unique and subjective views of their intended demographic as a successful artist should. The grand designer isn’t meant to push or dictate what’s correct but offer a hand for those who wish to hold it.

However social media is not about searching for questions as art is, but rather about discovery and finding answers like science. Best practices and understanding how ideas spread on social media are still be explored. There are notable effective consistencies like low barrier to share and being as relatable to the people in your demographic as possible, but not until we have a more firm grasp of the human mind will the absolutes that businesses require be discovered.
In the mean time experimentation is the best practice. There are not many absolutes for doing things right on Twitter or Facebook, but unless your testing and experimenting as a scientist would you’re absolutely wrong.

My beautiful g-f made me some wicked awesome social media pillows.

I made this 3D animation in 2006 when I learned Cinema 4d. The project was born from the idea that everyone’s desktop and computer is their home. It lacks any real story arch and the animations are a little too whimsical for me to be proud of, but I can still get behind the concept. Everyone’s computer is their home and we venture out into the big city of the internet. I still feel this way, and the explosion of social media in the last 4 years has only further solidified the metaphor to me.
What we post online is like the outside of our home, and our desktop and PC is the furniture and decor we rearrange for our personal comfort. we choose the music, curtains, and work on our own projects. Whenever someone sees my screen in a screen cast or over my should I feel like they’re visiting my house. Oh what a mess my desktop is. How embarrassing.

Do you feel like your computer will be your Second-Life/Matrix home?

When I first thought of what to focus on for my second year of grad school, my thesis, I knew I wanted to visually represent my curiosity and personal vision of how virtual social networks has affected my personal relationships. I wanted to “paint” my Facebook friends as a painter would paint love or pain.
I spent a lot time imagining a metaphor that adequately represented my own unique perspective on the subject. Remember that individual perspective and not data visualization was the goal. I chose the lightning bug to be my metaphor because of my fundamental emotional response I’ve always felt in their presence. The more I thought about the metaphor the more I was satisfied.
Once I started studying social media, synchronicity, and emergence I discovered that lightning bugs were a common theme. Mathematician, Steven Strogatz studied them for their oscillators. Lightning bugs were perfect for my “digital painting.” They had personal meaning, they were beautiful, they synchronized, they communicated over distance, they grew strength in numbers, there were studies that matched my own interest, and they all possessed unique features while still being able to find common traits.



So what I find interesting today, and what spurred this blog post is the chance that I stumbled upon the perfect metaphor. I feel that this is a case of art finding truth be reverse engineering the human mind.
How did I choose it? What lead me to lightening bugs without any prior knowledge of Strogatz’s studies or any knowledge of their biological makeup? Was I just lucky? Is there a reasonable mental connection for why I thought of lightning bugs? Did I hear the comparison before and forgotten it?

-Digital Painting: Social Media