birding-aus

Facebook and Birding-aus

To: "Birding Aus" <>
Subject: Facebook and Birding-aus
From: "Kurtis Lindsay" <>
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:31:52 +1000
Hi all,

I think it is an interesting idea to set up a facebook 'group' for birding-aus.
I don't know where many of these ideas that Facebook is 'evil' have come from, 
what I do know is the amount of information one reveals about themselves on 
their personal facebook page is entirely up to them. Therefore if you want to 
advertise your 'age, sex and location' as some would put it, then you can, but 
on the other hand, if you would like to remain a little more anonymous (not 
displaying a picture, name etc.) you can remain so and still take advantage of 
most of what facebook has to offer. e.g joining specialist groups.

Facebook was originally established as a simple social networking website, 
particularly aimed at the teenage-young adult market so people would have 
easier ways of getting in contact with friends and acquaintances.
The majority of people who use it are therefore those who like to maintain a 
dense social network and be in constant contact with those they want, when ever 
they want. It is less formal and cheaper than most other forms of media like 
telephone calls, letters, sms texts etc. and allows people to contact one 
another in a social situation much easier than one would otherwise.

As a result of its popularity, facebook has expanded to include many extra 
features including 'groups'. Anyone who is a member of facebook can join a 
group and any member of facebook can make their own group in a matter of 
minutes, hence many groups are trivial, humourous and just plain silly, while 
others are very relevant and informative groups of interest. Since joining 
facebook, I have joined many groups which I often contribute to, some of these 
include "Wildlife Conservation Australia", "Whales, Dolphins and other 
Cetaceans", and various bird related groups (mostly overseas ones).

Peter H. Them said "..the NEOORN list, of which I am
member, had formed at Facebook group, which is a convenient
place to post photos, videos, and to network. And see pictures
of the members. I find this Facebook group is a nice supplement
for the NEOORN birding list."
Like with NEOORN, I think a facebook page would also be a nice supplement for 
Birding-aus. It would be an easier way to post links, videos and picture 
without having to go through other sites like photo bucket.com. At the same 
time, I believe it would bring the already friendly, personal Birding-aus to an 
even friendlier level, to a level were listers can get to know one another a 
little better just like members of a club.
Membership of the group would be strictly filtered by the moderator/s of the 
group, and members would be entirely in charge of what personal information 
they make available to facebook.com or other members of the group.
Finally, only members of the group would be able to view the groups page and 
the information in it.

A few examples of already established groups are available in the links below:
'Bird watching is cool' group - a public group, open for anyone to join. 
Despite the corny name it is quite like Birding-aus in operations:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2266488375&refurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fs.php%3Fn%3D-1%26k%3D200000010%26init%3Ds%253Agroup%26q%3Dbird%2Bwatching
Perth Birding - the name says it all:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14121037551&refurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fs.php%3Fq%3Dbirding%26n%3D-1%26k%3D200000010%26sf%3Dr%26init%3Dq
Perhaps we should have a vote on the topic of setting up a facebook page?
If there was a B-A facebook page to be set up, I would nominate my self to 
become one of the moderators or at least help get the ball rolling.
I would be interested to hear any thoughts.

Kurtis Lindsay
==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 
=============================
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU