The magic of Facebook

TRANSLATION NOTES: Please read some comments at the end of this post

Some time ago I was so reluctant to get into the social network, convinced that it was for teens that deal their time sending pictures and telling the color of pants they’re walking with. But the differences between this initiative and others like MySpace or Hi5! demonstrates once again that we can demonize things to the stubbornness, and one day they give us a shake (*) by simple resistance to change or collective acceptance of trends.

My kids were teasing me all afternoon because they wanted to go there; knowing that if I did not help them, someone else would do, so I sat down, opened a profile, gave them clear guidelines on how to control the privacy and the promise that their password will be the one I know because I hope to keep an eye on them, –more for security than by distrust-.

After an hour my daughter came jumping, with her two teeth which have not come out, assuming that she has already had 18 friends online and four labeled. It might seem a somewhat surprising statistic data, but it is curious that most of her friends are second grade fellows, and like she they had to subtract ten years to their birth’s date so that Facebook would accept them.

I like knowing that they have much confidence with me, in a couple of days they have added all their school teachers, neighbors and cousins with whom they play ball in the afternoon. My son who is more clever, taught me how to make a farm in Farmville, because one day I remember having started, so I planted a few plants, put a fence, a white duck and when I saw it again, a month later, it was done a disaster. I concluded that a friend sent me a fox as a gift and it ate my few plantations, made love to the duck and then ate it for dessert.

For trivial uses, Facebook is a definitive a waste of time, depending on age, interests or point of view. But so is Facebook, absorbent; the girl that illuminates my eyes took her time to enter saying she doesn’t occupy on it and that was tired all her friends send her invitations. One day finally I convinced her to raise her poems that are finely constructed from her soul; and there she was more than an hour crying of nostalgia to find school fellows in that boarding school where she made middle adolescence.

That’s the magic of Facebook; its creators were ordinary people who thought basic things like:

There are a great million(**) pages on the Internet, the same page that I am now seeing is being seen by 50 colleagues who share my interests.

Right now, half of my colleagues, who played ball in the mud of that pitch and poisoned with the same candy from that mulatta that defraud us hunger, are connected.

Could it be possible to make an Internet of people?

What would happen if we release the API so everyone could take advantage as they wish?

That’s Facebook, is the network, but not of html pages, but of existing people, communicating, which is scheduled for a coffee, which is investigating similar issues, sharing information of particular or collective interest. Each day has improved safety standards at the level that you can group known persons for turning off all the chat’s windows with a click or set what we hope others will see from us. At this time it is getting to be as used as the Wikipedia, except that not only can take an altruistic advantage but also commercial and its customization is the people clustered around raw planks.

In conclusion I leave some Facebook pages with the number of fans they group, some major companies, other personal pages that have taken advantage of its potential, not of their appearance, –which is bizarre-, but more than 400 million of real people tucked inside:

Facebook	Official Wall, with more than 10 million fans.
Grey´s Anathomy	A serie to spend a good time at night has more than 5 million fans.
CNN	Cadena noticiosa, casi con el millón. News network, almost one million.
Yo jugué Mario Bross (I played with Mario Bross)	Nearly a million of fans
Mazinger	The first Chinese comic met in childhood. More than 230,000 fans confirm that took affection.
AutoCAD	More than 50,000 fans.
El amor en los tiempos del cólera (The love in the times of anger)	From Garcia Márquez’s book, almost 50,000.
As good as It get	More than 7,000 fans of this great movie.
Revit Architecture	More than 4.000.
ESRI	More than 1.800, it seems little but that is. Perhaps not the most popular page on this subject.
Blog and Web	From a Mexican friend, above 800.
Bentley Systems	AutoDesk Bentley competition, but with just 800 fans.
GeoSolutions	Colombian friends, with about 250 fans.

To not stay me back:

egeomates in Facebook.

From this blog and others associated with NetWorked blogs that are of my interest.

We will see if we get more benefit than replicate content.

And here I am, I do not accept everyone, unless it has the secret code: I read you in egeomates.

TRANSLATION NOTES:

(*) darse con la piedra en los dientes: It’s a Spanish idiom which means to be shaked one day with something that changes our actual point of view.

(**) chorromil: It’s a very big number, which can’t be easily counted, but exists.