I know these posts are usually for sharing innovative ideas and the 
latest/coolest trend, but wanted to ask if you'd consider a few 
things. I'll try to keep it relevant.

1. I'm pretty old school and love the idea of a handwritten note or 
letter expressing something, communicating or thanking someone, but 
technology has taken the place of doing a lot of this. Specifically, 
we can send or share our thoughts with anyone and everyone in a tiny 
second - social media being our venue.

Despite the irony, consider this: Since we all can't hand-write a note or be be physically present today, maybe it could be a neat support system to post something 
on your facebook wall about anyone who means something 
to you. Would be interesting to see how many people posted words from 
the heart rather than what they ate for lunch. Just a thought.

2. At times, it seems we've forgotten some of the basics for everyone 
at work, one of them being to remember that a simple pat on the back 
goes a long way. Not just to your peers, but to someone who you don't 
know very well that made your project successful. Go find them. 
Interesting article debunking myths about praise at work below:

http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/dec2007/ca20071227_941417.htm

3. It's one of our own 5 words, but really LISTEN to people, in and 
out of work. We're all busy and there will never be enough time in this life. But 
the outcome of the time you take, and the relationships you create, is 
what I think leads to success, in whatever form.

Practice using your words, speak your mind, and don't let anyone interrupt. 

a few weeks back facebook announced the release of the graph API that essentially replaces the facebook connect service.  so what does this mean?

facebook says that the graph API will make it easier to access all of the features of a facebook page, while also enabling a more personalized web experience.  looking forward this could mean that facebook.com as a destination becomes obsolete since all of the features that you now access on your facebook page will travel around the web with you.  facebook wants to become the hidden platform that powers the social web.  if every site you visited had facebook features customized to the site experience why would one ever go to facebook.com.

behind the API are two new modules, open graph and social plugins.  think of open graph as a big repository of data that you have shared via facebook directly or any third party site that you accessed via your facebook ID.  it could be the hobbies listed on your profile page or it could be an artist that you 'liked' when you were logged into pandora via your facebook ID.  open graph will allow third party sites and apps to share this information with each other - so that the next time you login to amazon.com it knows that you 'liked' an artist and immediately hits you with related recommendations.  at some point soon amazon will also use the same info to further personalize and customize the email offers it sends to you.

the like button seems to be one stand out feature right now.  every article, image, just about any piece of content where it makes sense could have a simple like option that feeds back into open graph and provides rich data about you that is available to brands, companies, just about anyone who you give access to.  imagine how companies like yelp, citysearch, amazon, netflix, pandora, ebay and so on could all collect and use this data together.

this is but one small example of what facebook means when it discusses customizing and personalizing your web experience - facebook's vision is that everything online is linked and that they are the glue that holds it all together.  it is a real interesting proposition that has hugely positive implications if it is used in the right way, but lets face it even if the word 'open' is used in the name of this platform, it's not meant in the conventional 'open source' sort of way....facebook is a business, a big business and is out to own this thing and i'm not sure how i feel about that.

how about for you?  is the benefit of a personalized web experience worth the trade off of sharing all this data with facebook?  is facebook.com becoming a thing of the past with this announcement?

Are you looking for a casual experience?  Apparently 24% of the US and UK population is.  No, I’m not talking about sexting, Grindr, or Craigslist hookups- I’m referring to casual social gaming. 

Popcap Games, the world leader in casual game production, recently released the results of a survey revealing that an estimated 100 million Yanks and Brits play casual games on social networking sites regularly.  

The survey also revealed that the average social casual gamer is 43 years old and female.  I’d put even money on the fact that this user also has 3 or more cats and loves Twilight.

All joking aside, this is serious business.  Popcap estimates that casual social games will bring in an estimated 1 Billion USD in 2010.  Not too shabby for products that are essentially free to play.  

Casual social games have proven to be such a growth area that MySpace is now counting on them to save the aging social site from obscurity.  When all else fails, copy Facebook.

Compared to traditional game development where one title may take 2-4 years and millions of dollars to develop, casual social games are fast and cheap to produce. 

Facebook sensation Farmville was developed in 5 weeks, and eschewed the traditional development process in favor of an agile system that brought developers and designers together on equal footing.   The results speak for themselves.

It’s not only casual game developers and interactive design houses that are pushing the medium forward.  Some of Gaming’s biggest names are hopping on the bandwagon. 

The father of the PC Role Playing Game and Massively Multiplayer Online genres, Richard Garriott (aka Lord British) has honed in on social games as the “next big thing” and is currently partnering with Facebook to launch his next innovation- a high-end social gaming platform called Portalarium. 

But you don’t have to be an official “game god” with a fancy royal title to get in on the Facebook fun as a developer.  Austrian developer Platogo has recently released a Wrapper that will make any game or app Facebook-friendly with no muss or fuss.  Wunderbar!

Can somebody please offer advice about how you decline Facebook "friend" invitations from people who really aren't your friends -- especially when they are people who find you through your relatives...who also found you on Facebook.

It's one thing when your mom joins facebook...then your aunt, then your aunt's friend, etc.

What am i supposed to do?

Let's talk about it here. Facebook has opened a can of worms. Remember when they tried to slip us a Mickey and use all of our content however they want even if we close our accounts? Yea, they took it back. I forgot that for a bit so that I wouldn't stay angry at them.

But then, Trevor sent this out. He explained "In summary brand pages will no longer be treated as static destinations as they are now.  Instead a brand page will be very similar to standard Facebook profile- giving brands the ability to become ‘publishers’ of information and messages in the same way that other users do today." So, Facebook will be giving brands more power, but how will they wield it? We're in the business of advertising and Facebook has given us an opportunity. But I also can't help but think, is this a sign of the apocalypse? My opinion is that most brands will not use this new power smartly, but will alienate the users and cause mass hysteria. And then a new social network will take its place. On the other hand, we could start collecting free things by annoying our friends. Get a free Stuffed Crust Pizza by tagging 50 of your friends in an Ad Note. 

I mean, we already have "facebook gifts" where you purchase an IMAGE for a dollar and give the IMAGE to a friend as if it is the real thing. I thought that was plenty. 

But for reals, it's time to really look at how to use this new "power" in a smart, non-annoying way that can really open new doors. Will brands be further personified? I mean, if you can carry on a conversation with Wendy from the actual Wendy's, could you learn that the most popular dishes are fries dipped in chocolate frosty? 

So, what do you think? 

I can see it now in my news feed.

“Reid’s mom just blew a kiss at Reid using Super Poke.” 

I imagine my witty sarcastic status updates sprinkled with comments.

“Don’t get down, Reid.  You are very special.”

Thanks mom. My boss will enjoy that one.

There will be comments on photos my friends post, such as those from the work holiday party.

“Reid! Wow! You’re dancing!  You should ask that cute girl that’s next to you out on a date!  Remember, you are very special!” 

Mom, she’s married. 

I’ll be tagged in old family photos I’ve tried to forget.  Like the classic from third grade of me meeting a guy dressed up as Alf.

“Reid was so shy! He wasn’t a real alien, honey!”

I know that, mom. What was real, however, was the smell of vodka permeating from Alf’s eye holes.

Oh, and I’m sure there’ll be the awkward explanation of how wall posts can be seen by everyone.

“Well, your uncle is in jail again. If he calls asking for money, don’t give it to him!”

But even with all that, I’ll be-friend her.  Not because she’s my mom.  No, because I need more Facebook friends.  I just gotta make it to 300 friends!  Just gotta!

According to 20,000 users, about 23 cents.

Burger King is putting an end to "gratuitous-friending" on Facebook with Whopper Sacrifice.

The challenge: call 10 people from your friend list and get a coupon for a free Whopper.

Genius.

It's simple.

it's based on truth. (Do you really know all 700 of your Facebook friends?)

It's sparked conversation.

And users get something out of it.

So far 200,000 friends have been sacrificed resulting in 20,000 free Whoppers.

Who knew that ten people you reluctantly accepted as Facebook friends would end up buying you dinner.