Jeg morede mig i bilen i formiddags med en sjovt og tænkevækkende indslag på DR om Facebook status opdateringer. Der er også en artikel på KForum med mange gode kommentarer og begge links findes nedenfor.

Nyd dem! Og tak til Nadja Pass og de andre for nogle sjove og interessante tænker.

Klik på titlen for DR indslag: Bliv en ekspert facebooker

Klik på titlen for Artiklen: Facebook Updates Retorik

-B

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I have been thinking this week about freedom of speech after hearing about a Facebook Group called “Gruppen mod Muslimer i Danmark” (Group against Muslims in Denmark). The story broke last week when it was discovered that several Danish soldiers were among the group’s members. The Defense ministry quickly responded stating that the Army doesnt agree with this viewpoint but that the soldiers’ feeedom of speech must be respected. Denmark’s soldiers have been in Iraq and are currently in Afghanistan.

The soliders were out of the group in no time - probably after a “discussion” with their superior officers. Yes, I have been in the military and know exactly how that works. The Danes dont seem to agree with their army, though. In a survey in the newspaper Politken, 63 percent of over 2700 respondents to date say that it is not okay for the soldiers to be a part of this group.

Not only have the soldiers disappeared, but the group has apparently been “taken over” by the far more politically correct “Youth against racism in Denmark” who have replaced the frightening group photo with that of a freely flying, beflowered dove. In fact, the hardline discussions are almost non-existent in the group and many of the members are now there to fight the original idea as much as support it. It is admittedly hard to find any logically coherent arguments in the few posts from the “original” group members - most resemble this- but there are stilla few hangers-on. The group has, naturally, spawned a counter movement called “People that join Group in Muslims in Denmark are idiots!” and that group seems to winning the popularity contest - 30 vs. 739 members to date.

The story shows that the old debates about freedom of speech, political correctness, racism and the hot topic of nationalism are still very much alive and well here in Europe. I love the fact that we can see them played out in a more social way on Facebook. But I am also a modern lefty in the tradtion of Camille Paglia and others who think that political correctness of this type eventually does more harm than good for our society. It is a shame that Facebook intervenes in the conversation, but they, too, are a business and they too have to think about their own reputation, I suppose.

The story also brings up the question of how other organizations should think about their own employees who blog, become members of online communities, use hate speech or otherwise express opinions publicly that do not quite square with their own. In the past, bloggers have been fired from their jobs for their online musings and there are several examples of organizations that have been forced into a crisis because of this very topic. Social Media definately blurrs the lines between private and public, and it is very much a part of people’s lives - even if businesses are having a hard time seeing how it affects them.

In fact, look at FDIMs statistics about where Danes spend their time online. Although news and address search sites get the most visits, the number of page views, or “sidevisninger”, is dominated by social networks. This tells me that people are spending a lot of time online at this sites, clicking through and looking at many pages once they are in.

So should those people also be free to say what they want, when they want and where they want?

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Lets face it, Facebook’s policies and PR blunders might even make the most enthusiastic Facebooker agree with Kristian Levring Madsen and the Politiken crowd that the service “just has to be run by the CIA” (is that healthy Orwellianism or just good old skeptical Lutheranism, Kristian?)

Whatever it is, these blunders just may kill it. And just when I am about to buy a ticket for that train, along comes a product like workbook that makes me think, “well, ok, I think I will keep my facebook profile a little longer after all.”

My British colleague Andrew Foote wrote about the workbook product in this recent blog. Basically, Workbook allows companies to set an “overlay” on top of Facebook that converts it into an internal social network - in this way users can hide a part of their profile and activities behind the firewall. The best thing is that the users can still use the external Facebook - now there is just an added layer of “privacy”.

The inability to network in one place both publicly and privately is something that, in my experience, makes people more uncomfortable with Facebook than all of the conspiracy theories, discussions about porting data or who owns what combined. “What if my boss or customers see it?” is usually the first reaction I get from people when talking about social networking services.

Programs like Workbook (and these are surely like it more on the way) will make it possible to put up curtains within the external social network and give the possibility of screening the private from the public.

But what then will become of the concept of the “social network” - which is supposed to open, free of secrets and transparent? For social networking theorists and purists, this could be a death sentence. For companies, it could be a powerful internal communications possibility.

For users it may or may not be the future of semi-social networking. ..

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