Befriending in Facebook - The polite thing to do?

[ I had planned on posting on where I'd like to see PodCamp go - but I had a tooth pulled, and the meds from it are clouding my mind. So have this post about Facebook to kill some time. ]
So not long ago a few friends came into town and needed a place to [...]

[ I had planned on posting on where I'd like to see PodCamp go - but I had a tooth pulled, and the meds from it are clouding my mind. So have this post about Facebook to kill some time. ]

So not long ago a few friends came into town and needed a place to stay for a night. Let’s, for sake of example, call them Jane and John.

My wife knew Jane from high school. They were good friends back then, and kept in touch, though from a distance, when they parted ways for university. While my wife (or I) didn’t have a facebook profile until earlier this year, shortly after she set her’s up, Jane was added. I’m not sure if Jane found her, or if she found Jane, but that minor detail doesn’t play a large role in where I’m going with this, so just stay with me here. They were friends on facebook, and that’s what counts.

Jane and John are now looking at relocating to Kingston, and wanted to come explore the city first. We offered them our spare bedroom while they learn the city, and have offered it up if they return for some apartment shopping. And this is where Facebook tied itself to real life in a way I didn’t really expect. My wife, who already had Jane in her friends list, added John too… And commented that “It seemed like the polite thing to do”. She hadn’t yet met John (Jane met him after leaving high school) but he was on her friends list.

I feel the situation has a lot to do with the personal trust network philosophy. My wife trusts Jane, Jane’s in a relationship with John, therefore, until she can make her own conclusions, my wife trusts John. I’ll admit too that, while the adds didn’t happen from me until they were here, it was a result of not making the effort, not a result of not willing to add them. I trust my wife, who trusts Jane, who trusts John. We’re at three degrees of separation here, but I was still willing to add him to my list.

So… was it the polite thing to do? Facebook is growing daily and certainly has mass appeal… But how does it now tie into our daily lives? Should I be adding everyone I’ve met and using it in a “life history” sense? Is anyone else using it that way? Facebook seems to have a lot to teach us, not only about others, but, it appears, about ourselves. What has it taught you?

Next week’s busy schedule (Meetup details!)

So I have a really busy schedule outside of the office next week - and I want you to be a part of it! If you’re in the Kingston or toronto areas, and want to get together, I’d love to meet up!  I’m looking for other social media folk, bloggers, podcasters or TalkShoe users. Hope [...]

So I have a really busy schedule outside of the office next week - and I want you to be a part of it! If you’re in the Kingston or toronto areas, and want to get together, I’d love to meet up!  I’m looking for other social media folk, bloggers, podcasters or TalkShoe users. Hope to see you!

Monday, September 24th: Kingston’s first new media meetup is taking place at 7:00pm at the Kingston Brewing company at 34 Clarence st. We get started around 7, look for the bright tie-dye frog shirt. I’ll be noticeable. I promise. We’ve got a few confirmed to this already, so it’s shaping up to be a pretty good event. No runtime planed, but expect a couple of hours.

Tuesday, September 25th: I’ll be waiting in the Atrium on Bay’s food court around 4:30 to gather folk and find food. We can stick around the food court (lots of selection, easy to add people to the group) or will be wandering off to the decided food source around 4:50. If you work in the 9-to-5 world and still want to meet, get in touch and I’ll make sue you’re updated on where we end up. No planned runtime on this, but I’d like to wrap it around 7:30 if it runs that long.

Wednesday, September 26th: I’ll be attending Adobe’s On AIR stop in Toronto ALL day. No time to meet people on this leg, but if you’re going to be at the event, look for me and say hi!

Transition Week - Day 1

To I twittered earlier today that today was day one of a week of transition week and that I’d expand on the blog. Well here goes.
As most of my regular readers know, I got married just over a month ago. As a result of the wedding planning the whole house, and specifically my office, became [...]

To I twittered earlier today that today was day one of a week of transition week and that I’d expand on the blog. Well here goes.

As most of my regular readers know, I got married just over a month ago. As a result of the wedding planning the whole house, and specifically my office, became wedding headquarters. I slowed down on clients and work load so that I could focus my free energy on the wedding and the house was a general wreck because of the planning. We had books, magazines, phone numbers, decorations, paperwork and seating plans all over the place. We also had gifts starting to come in. The house, and my office has been a nightmare.

One thing I had planned for quite a while, was to make a transition from work + wedding, to work+house+business after the honeymoon. We got back a few weeks ago but had some family things get in the way of the transition week, but it’s finally upon me.

Today’s goal was to start on the house and tackle the office. Tomorrow will see that complete and plan my daily/weekly schedule. You’ll get more updates tomorrow.