The power and influence of social networks

And I’m not (only) talking about facebook, hi5, myspace, orkut etc. No in this case i really mean all kinds of social networks especially the "real" ones - they have an immense value and the influence you have on your friends and the influence they have on you is just enormous.
I decided to write this post after watching a TED Talk called "Nicholas Christakis: The hiddeninfluence of social networs" at lunch. In his talk Mr. Nicholas Christakis explains how he researched and studied social network and the various influences that they have on human behavior.

Despite being obvious that your friends have influence on you and vice-versa i was quite impressed by the "numbers" as he states that the influence not only huge but that it goes through you and it is passed on to your friends, their friends and so on. Ok that was confusing let me be more clear: A - is a "big person" he/she influences you and you will influence C who is your friend but does not even know A and more... that C will influence D who you don not know at all. In this case the influence may be direct: "Let's go eat a Super-Giga-Enormous McMenu" or indirect in a way that it affects the "acceptable body size" of a person.

The extent of the influence is i must say quite amazing as A does influence many levels of the social graph. This means that persons that don't know each other have influence on each other up to many levels of "separation".

The value of social network is immense and one should have a "good one" as persons who are at the edges of the social graphs (who have less friends) tens to be unhappier. Or maybe it could be the other way around ... maybe they have less friends because they are unhappy persons.

The point is that persons with a good social network tend to be happier and I dare to say that probably they'll be more successful socially and professionally too. My last piece of advice would be value your friends, relatives and grow a strong social network.

What about you, what is your opinion on this topic?

Google channels @ Youtube

Here are some channels you must subscribe to at YouTube:

Global Channels:

• Google Developers - http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleDevelopers
• Google Business - http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleBusiness

Local Channels:

• Google Brasil - http://www.youtube.com/googlebrasil
• Google Portugal - http://www.youtube.com/googleportugal

GWT - Google Web Toolkit

I've never used it so far but after this presentation i kind of became interested by the topic and as soon as i have some free time i might actually take a deeper look at the GWT.

Watch the Overview of Google Web Toolkit and if you wish more infor about the GWT @ Google Code.

Did you ever use it? Tell us what do you think about it.

Google and Youtube Against Vuvuzelas

I was watching some videos today on YouTube today and i noticed a very small button in the lower right corner that looke like a "football ball" and of course being a curious bastard i had to click on it. To my surprise after pushing it the (annoying) sound of vuvuzelas started - i think that the only logical explanation is that this is the way that YouTube and Google found to show their support to the complaints of the thousands of supporters and hundreds of players and staff members that are being disturbed by those useless "toys". If i got it right then i want to congratulate the team of YouTube... you made your point and thank you for taking a position on this topic.

What do you think about it? Should the Vuvuzelas be banned from the world cup stadiums?

How to creating amazing user experiences

If you are interested in this topic please watch this vodeo from "Google I/O 2010 - Creating positive user experiences" -> link. Its is quite a long video ... its about 1hour long if i'm not wrong but some simple yet useful advices and tips are given to you.

Here is a list of cool topics you will find in the video:

Rules:

1. Be Fast - pages should load fast, users should have immediate feedback when they do something. Some cool tools to test your page loading speed are: Firebug or www.webpagetest.org
2. Be Yourself - show yourself in the software you create.
3. Engage in conversations - twitter, forum, provide your own support - great way to get direct access to the feedback from your users. Install a forum, ticket support, Get Satisfaction
4. Be willing to give up control - share code, use third party to do other things per example if youre not very good at it. User iStockPhoto - example for getting graphics.
5. Be Polite! Check your software problem and find "where would this be anoying".
6. Prepare for failure - prepare for that users
7. Be reliable - a website that does not work is a real problem

Tips:

1. Provide shortcuts! Ex: Autoselect first form field; choose the order of your tabs in a form, use label in a form
2. Surprise your users! Give them more than what you promessed and they'll be happy users that come back, talk about you to their friends, etc.
3. Make it easy to get started - openid, facebook login, etc
4. Offer a way out - ex: "[save changes] or cancel and don't save"; Account cancelation / Putting account on hold. When you offer a way be extremelly clear about what is going to happen.

Portugal Brazil

Portugal 0 - Brazil 0 .... well.... we didnt win but at least we passed to the next phase and that was the most important. Yes yes i know those of you that know me might claim that im not the worlds biggest soccer fan but still, when it comes to the national team then i get a "little" more excited about this Portuguese obession that is football.

About today's game well i guess that we didn't play very well in the first half but in the second we were better than Brazil. Some might say that i am too optimistic, that im dreaming or that i must be under the effect of something .... but no, i trully thing that we played quite well in the second half. And i say more, that little boy "Simao" did a hell of a game!

Anyways... could it be that Portugal is on its way to win the title? Leave your opinions.

How does google work?

This is a great small video that explains how google works. In this vid you can see Matt Cutts explaining in simple and clear english the way google works - please notice that this is not an advanced tutorial at all this really is targeted for the crowds and/or for beginners.

MTV TV Shows - The Buried Life

Im not the biggest fan of most of the tv shows that MTV puts in the air. The reason is quite simples - their target is teenagers and, well, i must admid that im 16 anymore but thats another topic. Today i watched one that was pretty cool ... well at least the concept - it's called "The Buried Life" and the main question of this show answers is"What do you want to do before you die?". This is quite an interesting topic - it reminded me of a movie called "The Bucket List" that i saw a while ago and its quite an amazing one. Anyway i can remember quite a few things that i'd like to do before i die but i never wrote them down maybe i should do that ... the result might surprise me. What about you, do you have any special wishes? Do you have any topics on your bucket list?

How to start a movement

Inspire is hard, to change the world is an ambitious goal but yet some of us dare to dream about it and go for the fight. For those of you who are willing to make a difference in this small blue dot in the middle of the universe that we decided to call home - here are some interesting tips:

1. If you're the guy starting a movement and you're the first to do it - the so called "Lone Nut". Remember to treat your first followers as equals.
2. Leadership is over-glorified - if you are the first you will get all the credit! But the tipping point was when the first follower came along and invited all his friends.
3. Have the courage to follow a "lone nut" and to be one.
4. And last but not least - believe in what you preach!

This article was based in this video: link

A minha relacao com os TED Talks

Estava agora mesmo para postar mais um video que vi agora mesmo - mas depois pensei e tive medo de tornar o meu blog numa espécie de colecção de TED's e vídeos favoritos. Pelo que decidi não fazer embed do video mas simplesmente deixar um link - "The emotion behind invention".

O "problema", se é que pode ser considerado um problema, é que depois ver um speech fantastico como muitos dos TEDs são fico com alguma dificuldade em parar e dou por mim a ver uns 3, 4, 5 ou mais vídeos seguidos. Bem de qualquer forma aqui fica o link: TED.com

The credit crisis in 10 minutes

Encontrei este artigo num post antigo de um amigo meu "Simão Soares". Este artigo explica com bastante detalhe a crise e o funcionamento de parte do sistema financeiro mundial.

Why ... not what

The main poing of this post is to let you know that when it comes to inspire it's about the "why" and not the "what"!

All companies know "what" they do ... some know "how" they do but very few know "why" they do (purpose, cause, belief) - i'm not talking about "profit" that's a result!

Instead of explaining things in the "usual way" which is What -> How -> Why if you wish to inspire you should do things in this order: Why -> How -> What. If you wish to inspire you should epxlain whatever you are explaining (or selling) in this order and not the other way arround. This is a pattern used by many: Apple, Martin Luther King and many others. Let's take the example of Apple:

• If apple were like everyone else an advertising message would be something like this: "We make great computers. They're beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. Wanna buy one?" And thats how we work generally speaking .... but thats uninspiring.
• Here is how Apples does it: "In everything we do we belive in changing the status quo, we believe in thinking differently. They way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Wanna buy one?"

Did you notice that just by reversing the order you change everything. The conclusion to which Simon Sinek came to was that "People dont buy what u do they buy why you do it"!

And this is not an opinion. Its a biological thing - yes you read right - the brain is actually divided in layers:

1. The middle sections make our limbyc brain which corresponds to the "how" - responinnble for all our feelings (trust, loyalty) , all human behavior, all decision making and it has no language capacity
2. The neocortex corresponds to the "what level" - responsible of rational, analytical thoughts and language

This is why when you speak the "other way arround" (why, how what) first people you make them want to have it with the why -> then people will be interested -> then u justify the sale with the what.

Remember that "If you hire a person because they can do a job they work for money if they work for what you believe they will work with blood, sweat and tears" by Simon Sinek

If you want mass market success:

• To inspire use the words: "I believe", "I have a Dream"... not "I have a plan"
• "Those who lead inspire us" we follow them not because we have to but because want to.
• "We follow those who lead not for them but for ourselves" by Simon Sinek