There’s a lot of misinformation, falsehood, and panic tearing around Facebook right now about Facebook Places.

Here’s the FACTS:

• Places is not an attempt by big brother to spy on you (that’s what foursquare and gowalla and yelp are for).

• You can not be identified when you don’t want to be.

• Facebook does not share your location information without your consent.

Places works like this:
In order for someone to be identified in a location, they must either actually check in with FB Places on their mobile device (ie- iPhone), or they must be tagged by someone that has checked in with FB Places on their mobile device.

For example: I go to Starbucks and check in with FB Places, while checking in I mention that I’ve seen (@)Your Name there.

I’ve tagged You at the Starbucks and your account would identify it as such, based on your Privacy Settings for Places.

If you want to check and/or change your settings for Places, do this:

1. Log in to your Facebook account.
2. Select: Account-Privacy Settings
3. Click: Customize settings
4. Choose: Everyone-Friends of Friends-Friends Only-Customize (if you choose Customize, a pop-up window helps you whittle down the choices further)
5. Click: SAVE CHANGES
6. Share this post with your manic friends and apologize for pouring gas on the fire.

If you ever wonder if something is legit in our internet-rumor-filled-world, just go to Snopes.com and check it out. Snopes is dedicated to separating fact from fiction, reality from rumor- and they do an amazing job at it.

Enjoy!

I had a blast hanging out with Brett Eddy, Michael Forney, Jesse Rice, Jake Schwein, Renee Johnson, Jim Gray, Aaron Smith, Tim Engstrom, Tyler Braun, Jenni Clayville, and Brett Aljets and am looking forward to the next MISE2010 in the early fall- stay tuned for deets on that!

This has the potential to be epic- and if not, pretty cool.

A couple points of order.

• Do have clothes on. I’m going to ask you to submit your video via Vimeo or YouTube, so please make sure that your content is PG and that you’re ok with it being public.
• This isn’t going to scare, embarrass, shame, or otherwise do anything demeaning to anyone. This is just fun. (If at the end of this you don’t want to submit you’re video- you don’t have to! Problem solved right? Cool- glad we agree.)

There are some things you’ll need in order to participate.

1. Computer (hopefully you’ve all *checked*)

2. Webcam or video camera.

2.5 Decent lighting. Please just turn the light switch on in the room your in. Your face needs to be clearly viewable, please.

3. Ability to follow instructions. (seriously, if you can’t do this, just stop now. This entire experiment hinges on your ability to follow directions precisely.)

Get ready to begin after the jump- and DO NOT scroll to the bottom! Follow the directions, please!

Step 1.

SCROLL SLOWLY. You”ll know when to stop because there will be a set of lines like this:

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Instructions….Understand? Good.

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Step 2.

Turn on your webcam or video camera. Make sure it is capturing your face. Something like this:

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Step 3.

Are you still following instructions? Good. Is the camera on and recording? Good. How’s the lighting- need more, need less? Good.

START RECORDING NOW.

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Are you ready? Ok- scroll down just a tad more.
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LOL!

OK- you can stop recording now. Please upload your video to Vimeo or YouTube and then put the link to it here in the comments. AND, please make sure that the video is set to public and that it may be downloaded.

I’m going to let the submissions roll in for the next week or so and then compile them all into one great, hilarious video!

Thanks for participating! (And for following directions!)

Peace.

Two reasons I’m so stoked.

Numero Uno: MISE is about community. Don’t get me wrong, conferences are great, but it’s what happens after them- the groundswell so to speak- that really makes them beneficial. MISE is all about fostering and creating that groundswell and community.

Two: I have the amazing honor of leading two breakout sessions at MISE2010 PDX on June 5th! I am honestly humbled to be a part of this awesome conversation.

More on my sessions after the jump….

While I’m still working on the actual titles, in one session I will be talking about how to engage church leadership, or create buy-in and support for, a social media strategy. In another session I’ll be going over the basics of Facebook and Twitter and, essentially, doing a step-by-step how-to for getting started in these areas, especially if you’re a church or non-profit.

With amazing speakers like Renee Johnson, Jesse Rice, and Jim Gray running point on the raw, backstage stuff MISE2010 PDX is going to rock! I really hope that if you’re able, you’ll come on out and join us!

How do I know? Because I just dug those suckers out from the cupboard above the fridge last night!

What’s even crazier is that only one of those are NEW. That’s right- I recycled all of the other new ones the moment they showed up on my doorstep. And the ONLY reason I kept that one new book was because of the pretty sweet coupons in it- but that one is gone now too because I realized I could just take the coupons out and save my cupboards the space. (I actually tweeted about how I’m going to use these this year here.)

That’s right- I don’t use phonebooks for anything other than fire starter fuel and coupons. I can get the info on my desktop or on my phone. Easy.

Some may argue that I’ll be up the creek without a paddle if the interenet is down, and won’t be able to get a number then. Ok- I’ll just look it up on my phone. And if my phone is down and the internet is down I guess I’ll just have to wait til it’s fixed. And if it’s down forever- I’ve got bigger things to worry about than finding a phone number or address.

The glaring issue for me is the ginormous waste of resources these booster seats create. I’d be interested to know the actual numbers of their decline and to see if anyone is pulling out all-together.

So yeah.

Do you still use phonebooks?

While I’m still withholding the jury on this one while I let it sink in and really take some time to check it out, a lot of people have already written it off. Calling Buzz “noise“, “more noise“, and “the coolest new technology that I won’t be using.“.

The most ironic part of the buzz is these types of thoughts. We love our connectedness. I love my connectedness. (Did you notice the icons on the right AND at the top? I’m totally over-killing it because I want to connect!) But here we are, an über-connected-group-of-humania and NOW we’re putting on the brakes!?

I don’t think this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black, but more of a not wanting to get swimmer’s ear. That is to say, we’re in the pool of social media and we like it, but too much of a good thing can be not just a bad thing, but a painful and annoying thing.

Just my thoughts right now. What about you?
[Image: zipckr]

More features after the jump!

One feature that I didn’t know about until I watched this video was the new Photos feature. It’s the highlight of the update, which is expected to be rolled out to Facebook’s more than 400 million users over the next week or so. And it’s packed with features to enable you to instantly see the latest photos, videos or mobile uploads among you and your friends. It’s queued by the latest uploads/updates, unlike the “Friends Online” feature that I highlighted here.

Kudos to Facebook for the design. It works.

1. New requests, messages, and notifications are grouped together by the logo (clicking on the logo will take you to the home page as well). If you’re wondering what I’m talking about- they’re the shadowed icons to the right of the logo.

2. News Feed: The News Feed now includes the ability to update your status, as well as Top News (the most popular happenings among your friends, be it comments, becoming a fan, or joining a group) and Most Recent (what’s happening now- the live update). Formerly these were were labeled View News Feed and View Live Feed respectively.

3. Account drop-down. This is where all the buttons that used to be on the top bar went to. Edit Friends, Account Settings, Privacy Settings, Application Settings, Credits Balance, Help Center, and Logout now live here.

4. Bookmarks. If you didn’t even know these existed before, don’t worry too much about it (they used to be on the bottom left, opposite the chat box).

5. Friends Online. This is a new feature. The friends that will show up here are the ones you interact with the most on Facebook- be it messages, chat or wall posts- the rest of your online friends are viewable in chat.

6. Chat. Almost the same as before- the drag and drop feature has been removed, so you’ll just have to add friends to lists by typing.

Like it, love it, hate it?

Yes.

Then why this new one?

I have my own business now- and I thought it was time to get my own real website- not just a decent blog.

And with that, NickShoe.org begins.

~NickShoe

Ok- so I’ve been busy!

On with the shininess!

Ode to WordPress
By NickShoe

WordPress, oh WordPress…
You push me to success.
I do not fear your code,
I embrace what others may loathe.

Easy as a button,
It’s almost like doin’ nothin’.
~Fin~

THAT’S RIGHT! WORDPRESS is being featured this week- why? BECAUSE IT’S MY FREAKIN’ BLOG, THAT’S WHY!

And because it’s so great! For example, check out my portfolio site that I put up BEFORE 10AM this morning! While it’s not even near finished, the basics are there- and that’s the important part.

WordPress truly is plug and play. And when teamed with Dreamhost things really get cooking.

There are TWO options when it comes to WordPress. WordPress.com is free, but there are limits to free. WordPress.org breaks the glass ceiling of blogging- something I really like!

Here’s the run-down:
What ➲ WordPress
Cost ➲ FREE! (for WordPress.com hosting; to sign up a site on WordPress.org’s platform, you need to get some hosting and domain registration. I recommend Dreamhost because I use it!)
Where to get it ➲ WordPress.com or WordPress.org
Shininess ➲ 4.75 out of 5
My Recommendation ➲ Absofreakinlutely!
Got a Shiny Object for SHiNY FRiDAY!? Let me know about it!!
~NickShoe