Pleased to make your acquaintance
My friend and former FTI staffer Paula Lane recently joined the Facebook phenomenon and I teased her about only having two friends, she retorted that it's not about collecting friends, but isn't that what all social networking is exactly about?
This morning over a breakfast meeting AIDC Director Joost Den Hartog said he thought that 160 was the tipping point, anyone who moves over that point may just be clamouring for attention - so I was alarmed to come back to my offiuce and discover my Facebook friend count had tipped over to 163.
Anyhow a report at MEDIA LIFE highlights that the friends we accumulate through MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and the rest are not really friends but just aquaintances.
Malcolm Galdwell's book 'The Tipping Point' is a great examples of how social networks can spread something, he uses two great examples - Paul Revere's ride that started the American revolution and the spread of a STI in Boston in the early 1990's. He also outlines where the phrase 'Six Degrees of Separation' originated. It's a great book, if you haven't read it get it out your local library.
I've been amazed though using Facebook how many of my 'acquaintances' actually new each other, Sure you expect everyone making short films in Perth to know each other but I was amazed to find that some of my perripheral friends knew some of my filmmaker friends. For example, Fimmaker Sunny Brown went to school with actress and singer Zoe Ventoura, Paula Lane went to University with Lee Battersby, Khrob Edmonds is friends with Ricci-Jane Adams, becasue she was his agent. I know Lee from Sci Fi Conventions and Zoe from Contempory Dance Centre and Ricci as my brothers girlfriend in the mid 90's. So it's a small world after all.
So what does all this mean to filmmakers and digital artists? Well if the trend is to see more content distributed online, and more promotion through workld of mouth, harnessing these networks could be a valuable skill. Yet, it's not simple, it's easy to tell all your friends about you new film but how do you get them to come and see it in the real world, how to you encourage them to vote for it in the competions? How to you get your friends or acquaintances to act?
This morning over a breakfast meeting AIDC Director Joost Den Hartog said he thought that 160 was the tipping point, anyone who moves over that point may just be clamouring for attention - so I was alarmed to come back to my offiuce and discover my Facebook friend count had tipped over to 163.
Anyhow a report at MEDIA LIFE highlights that the friends we accumulate through MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and the rest are not really friends but just aquaintances.
Malcolm Galdwell's book 'The Tipping Point' is a great examples of how social networks can spread something, he uses two great examples - Paul Revere's ride that started the American revolution and the spread of a STI in Boston in the early 1990's. He also outlines where the phrase 'Six Degrees of Separation' originated. It's a great book, if you haven't read it get it out your local library.
I've been amazed though using Facebook how many of my 'acquaintances' actually new each other, Sure you expect everyone making short films in Perth to know each other but I was amazed to find that some of my perripheral friends knew some of my filmmaker friends. For example, Fimmaker Sunny Brown went to school with actress and singer Zoe Ventoura, Paula Lane went to University with Lee Battersby, Khrob Edmonds is friends with Ricci-Jane Adams, becasue she was his agent. I know Lee from Sci Fi Conventions and Zoe from Contempory Dance Centre and Ricci as my brothers girlfriend in the mid 90's. So it's a small world after all.
So what does all this mean to filmmakers and digital artists? Well if the trend is to see more content distributed online, and more promotion through workld of mouth, harnessing these networks could be a valuable skill. Yet, it's not simple, it's easy to tell all your friends about you new film but how do you get them to come and see it in the real world, how to you encourage them to vote for it in the competions? How to you get your friends or acquaintances to act?
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