I want to be Famous

Kohei Sugimoto, 40749583.

Introduction
As humans in an ever increasing population, I think there are times we all feel insignificant. With the help of the Internet, and specifically the social software available on it, every is able to have their fame. In this reflective article I will investigate various social services currently available, and how they satisfy what I will call the "I want to be Famous" factor.

Technology behind social software is fascinating and constantly evolving, but here, the focus of my attention will be user experiences. In the end, social software needs to satisfy its users in order to be successful.

Background
Discussion within this article will focus on the following social tools:

• delicious - a social bookmarking service
• flickr - a photo sharing service
• last.fm - a music learning service
• twitter - social networking, see what people are doing
• Blogger - a blogging service

Focus
I have already touched on the focus of my article, which is how each of the social tools allow its users to feel famous. In an article by The New York Times, titled The Fame Motive[1], it states:
Their fame-seeking behavior appears rooted in a desire for social acceptance, a longing for the existential reassurance promising a wide renown.
The article delves into examples and research of this particular need of humans. While the use of social software is not mentioned in the article, it is only a natural progression from traditional fame seeking methods. As social software becomes more and more ubiquitous and available, everybody is able to expose themselves to a worldwide audience. So how effective are the aforementioned tools in a users quest for social acceptance and fame?

Reflection
Superstar
Over previous years, mere humans could become superstars using Myspace and Facebook. I mean, if you've got 1000 friends, surely you are a superstar. In more recent times, twitter has emerged as the new way to become a superstar. Unfortunately, the process of gaining a following is slightly harder in twitter since other users need to "follow" you instead of merely accepting a "friend" invite. However, once you create your empire of followers knowing 1000 people want to know what you do is enough to make you feel like a superstar.

If you don't think you have it takes to be a superstar, you don't need to panic. Twitter allocates its URL space on a first in best dressed basis, and so this gives potential for "fake" profiles. When I first created my twitter account I looked for interesting people to follow. One of my interests is cycling, and so when I saw Alberto Contador, a Spanish pro, I immediate started following. However, after closer inspection, I noticed his profile name was "ALBERTOCONTADOR:Dfake".

Behind this profile is a user who is most likely a a fan. By managing this profile, this user is tasting fame and living in the shoes of a celebrity. Even after I realised this profile was a fake, I still follow it because the tweets are all relevant to Alberto Contador and give me an indication of what he might be doing.

This is by no means an isolated case. On a blog by Luke Hardiman[2], he talks about the concept of "twitterjacking", which refers to fake profiles. In this particular post he goes on to list some high profile fakes that exist on twitter.

Star
Using the tools mentioned in this section can make you into a star, but probably not quite a superstar. Blogging is an easy way to publish your writings to the world. Qually as simple is using flickr to publish your photographs or videos. As long as you can stimulate the interest of others with your writing or photographs, these services can provide you with a strong following.

Blogger provides a similar concept to twitter in which blogs can be followed. However, to nature of blogs is that they are generally focussed on specific topics, are a lot longer and less personal compared to twitter. This means blogs will have smaller followings than twitter profiles, but bloggers can still feel popular with the comments that followers leave.

Unlike previously discussed tools, flickr uses a notion of contacts as social connections. There is still a following aspect to these connections, as they can be unidirectional. Like Blogger, flickr is also focussed on a specifc topic, which is photography. This does not prove to be as limiting as topics in Blogger since all users on flickr share this interest. A research article[3] by students from the University of Cologne focused on flickr and its community. It contains a section "Measuring the success of the community members", whereby they device metrics to measure success and popularity.

The top 5 users in reference to FavCount are _rebekka with a favCount of 87,543, _LaraJade (79,271), imapix (61,371), soleá (60,548) and T Glow (54,941) ...
..."_rebekka", or Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir from Iceland, who was even mentioned in the Wall Street Journal according to Shopify [Sh07], is by far the most appreciated and popular user on the network. She has 1,144 outgoing and 26,168 incoming friendship links, of which 1,029 are bidirectional.

John Doe
Unfortunately, the tools in this section are not going to satisfy your "I want to be Famous" cravings. The tools I am refering to are delicious and last.fm. Delicious allows its users to save their bookmarks on the web. Using last.fm, users upload song information as they listen to it.

I believe delicious and last.fm are suited to individuals with the ability to explore other individuals. Before COMP3505, I had used both of these applications, but not for their social implications.

Delicious allows networking of users whereby bookmarks are shared. Compared to all the software previously mentioned, this social connection is much more impersonal. Networking occurs in order to share information rather than wanting to know the user behind each account.

Last.fm implements more social features with friends, neighbours and groups. Like delicious, the person behind each account is not significant. The contributions of users are the music they listen to, which doesn't afford a fan base.

I believe both these tools put a greater emphasis on functionality rather than sociability. They both afford social interactions, but I don't see their intended purposes as socially orientated. In regard to the "I want to be Famous" factor, the attention of these services are placed on the bookmarks or music, not the user behind it.

Conclusion
Hopefully you have picked up on my sarcasm in parts of this reflection. When I see users will many followers / friends I admit it generates a certain amount of envy.

Making users feel significant is one of the greatest success factors to social software. In this reflection I have discussed this particular facet of the user experience. I have ranked the social software in the way I believe it satisfies this fame criteria.

Depending on individual users, the priorities placed on social software functions are vastly different. Personally, I use delicious and last.fm the most out of the tools I have discussed. Delicious allows me to save my bookmarks independent of browser and machine, which appeals to me greatly. Music is one of my interests, and with the use of last.fm I have been able to discover many great artists.

Hopefully you have enjoyed reading this article as much as how painful it was to write.

Which of us are going to be Internet superstars?

References
[1]Benedict Carey (2006), "The Fame Motive". http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/22/health/psychology/22fame.html

[2]Luke Hardiman (2008), "Fake Twitter Accounts (Twitterjacking...?)". http://newrelease.co.za/social-media/fake-twitter-accounts-twitterjacking/

[3]Egger, Fischbach, Gloor, Lang, Sprenger, "How to Identify Successful Actors of the Flickr Community and How to Determine Their Attributes". http://www.ickn.org/documents/Flickr_GI.pdf