I like the idea of flash mobs they appeal to my sense of humour especially the randomness of them. There have been a few locally to me in Birmingham but generally speaking they are events for people with too much time on their hands.

At work we’ve toyed with the idea of using flash mobs to promote a company or product but as of yet no clients have gone for it.

However at last there is a real use for flash mobs! A youth project called Ctrl.Alt.Shift(as in “Take control of your World”, “Alter the way it works” and “Shift its future”) intends to develop a group of ‘outspoken agitators’ among 18 - 25 year olds. This is done by using various new technologies such as social media to apply pressure about injustices in the World.

So flash mobs can now have a important purpose - protests that spring from nowhere! I can imagine the effect of hundreds of protesters turning up en-mass at a specified time is very noticeable.

Technology is one area where fierce supporters of applications and services seem to be very common. Some companies employ people as evangelists to promote products or some cases people are so passionate about a product or service they will evangelise just for their love of it.

I’ve no problem with people being passionate about things but I really believe that some people are actually damaging the very things they love so much.

It’s all very well following a technology and being enthusiastic about it but there are still lines that shouldn’t be crossed. Without a solid argument about why you are so pleased with the said item just isn’t going to cut it with the people who aren’t as appreciative as yourself. Saying it’s cool just isn’t enough for most people.

Also even with the enthusiasm you have you must not be blinkered but instead be balanced with your arguments. Again saying it’s just better in every way than the competition just doesn’t sound convincing unless you have plenty to back it up. If you actually give credit where it’s due to the competition you can actually make your own argument stronger.

And finally personal attacks are just right out - they just make you look stupid.

This is not to say that all followers don’t follow these rules, on the whole they do, but there seems to be a small minded percentage of evangelists (or is that zealots?) who really give a bad impression.

There are two groups that are particularly vocal and also seem to have a hardcore of extremely vocal, and in my eyes, damaging fans. I’m of course talking about supporters of Open Source software and Apple products.

I’ve personally had a few run-ins with Apple fanboys in the past not least on a previous blog post (although I must admit I did bait them to see the reaction). You expect the odd idiot (there are enough online anyway) but the regularity that they appear when anything even slightly negative about Apple is published has clouded my judgement when it comes to anything Apple (The comments approved on the blog post show some of the better fans). I know damn well that some will comment stating I’m a fool and Apple don’t need my business anyway but I know I’m not the only one that has this reaction. Surely if you love the product so much you want to talk everyone around to your way of thinking? If the product is so good you should be able to argue the merits?

In the end this extreme reaction is actually damaging to Apple, the Apple brand and community and sometimes I wonder if these people just want to keep Apple as an exclusive club or maybe just don’t have the skills to have a discussion. I’d be interested to hear from any Apple fans on their opinion of the fanboys. Is there any split in the community or is it just ignored?

The Open Source movement also has some strong proponents and again some blinkered ones (although generally I’ve found most to be just interested in furthering the cause). If you take a look at Slashdot and wait for anything related to propeiety software (in particular Microsoft) you’ll see a load of people slagging it off without any real reason - just see the insults fly! I’m subscribed to the Slashdot feed but I never even look at the comments anymore as I don’t enjoy adolescent slagging matches.

I use Open Source software where I believe there is an advantage but I don’t believe all companies or individuals should have to tie their colours to one mast. People should respect everyone’s choice even if their views differ. Generally speaking there is an Open Source version of an application but not all are superior to their proprietary counterparts.

The only solution I can see is the communities to these loose cannons claim to be part of push them out themselves. Surely it must get on your nerves too? It makes people tar you with the same brush?

I’ve posted a few times about ISPs kicking up a fuss about the amount of bandwidth new applications are using some even suggesting if the content providers don’t help out with costs they’ll be put into the Internet bus lane!

ISPs breaking net neutrality is a really dangerous course to take, effectively allowing companies to disadvantage their competitors over the web. Where does it stop? Only allowing customer access to one website with exclusive access rights for that sector? It’s as bad as standing outside a competitor’s shop and refusing to let customers go in.

Customers pay for bandwidth and expect to have free and unrestricted access to whatever they want on the web - bandwidth throttling goes against this and I think most customers if they were aware of this practices would complain to their ISP or even jump ship.

Now there is a report that Google is working on tools to detect if ISPs are bandwidth throttling - in my opinion this can only be good. If people are aware of the situation they can take action. In the long term this could mean ISPs would have to abandon this approach altogether for fear of losing customers.

Well I’m fresh back from Jamaica (well actually not very fresh at all with the jet lag) which will explain the lack of blog posts for the last couple of weeks. My wife encouraged me to avoid the Internet like the plague while I was away which I thought was very unlikely but the £5 for 30 minutes charge at the hotel managed to dissuade me!

I spent the time relaxing, drinking and reading while I was there soaking up the Caribbean sunshine. One book I was lent by Digikev is Blog Schmog by Bly - a good read and although Bob Bly is by no means popular within the blogging community he speaks a lot of sense with regard to blogs and business. I find myself on a very similar wavelength to him however I do still feel evangelists do have their place in technology otherwise some applications would just never get off the ground (future post to follow).

Anyway I digress. The one main observation I made on holiday was the use of social networking by fellow holidayers (vacationers to our American cousins). I believe this is one area that social networking really has a very high penetration - everyone I met (and I mean everyone) had been on the Internet to research holiday locations and accommodation in particular trip adviser and holidays uncovered came up again and again.

We’re not just talking dipping a toe in the water here either, some have obviously spent a lot of time doing this and it’s amazing the type of information they brought with them from their online travels that really impressed me. For example we were recommended taxi drivers by name and telephone number, told which staff members provided the best service (and were most entertaining) and given insights into where to go to on the island; all originally were suggested by the online community. Every time spot on and really contributed to an excellent holiday by all accounts - Terrance the taxi driver certainly does know all the best jerk centres! Obviously a certain amount of this information is passed around when you talk to people on holiday anyway however coming away prepared means there are so many more heads available.

The thing I found really interesting here was that there seems to be a really small but incredibly popular niche for social networking for holiday research. A great number of the people I talked to did not know what social networking was and didn’t seem to be involved with it in anyway apart from the holiday review and forum websites that kept coming up time and time again.

Thinking about it’s obvious why this is: people spend a few weeks a year and proportionately a large amount of money on their holidaying. Therefore people are bound to spend a large amount of time researching the subject - time that they wouldn’t necessarily reserve for other subjects.

Also having a good holiday is so important to people that having a great or bad holiday will invoke an emotional response. This means they are also more likely to post about it when they get back also.

Both these factors makes social networking boom for travel information even if the activity by users is sporadic.

I do feel perhaps there is a gap here however, these sites are generally review sites in nature but I really think there is a niche here for a specific Facebook style holiday friends/reviews type site. I’ve not got the time myself to take the plunge but if anyone has give me a shout and I’ll pass on my ideas!