Weekly High Five lists the most interesting, compelling, and/or useful links of each week. This week’s theme is “The Changing Face of Facebook,” but I’ve also included a bonus link from Chris Brogan.
#5: Federal Board Says Employees Shouldn’t Get Fired Over Facebook Posts
The National Labor Relations Board has filed suit against a Connecticut company for firing a worker who complained about her supervisor on Facebook. This will be an important case study to watch and will have implications for how wide or narrow employer social media policies can be.
Link: AllFacebook
#4: Livestream For Facebook Lets You DIY Live Stream Video On Fan Pages
More and more small businesses and sole proprietorships are using Facebook fan pages as free surrogates for a website. Depending on the business, they may or may not be able to get away with this. Either way, Facebook is continuing to chip away at the reasons why you can’t do this (see #3 below).
Link: TechCrunch
#3: Microsoft’s Docs Now Supports Facebook Groups
One of my web pet peeves is the lack of decent group collaboration tools available. Google Wave had promise, but was too complex and “weird” to catch on. With Ning euthanizing its free product, there is a rather large opening that Facebook seems to be moving toward. In addition to providing a means for communication and discussion, Facebook groups has now made it easier to share documents. Now all they need to do is add audio and/or video chat and they’ll really have something.
Link: AllFacebook
#2: Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday
This entire week has been abuzz with rumors that Facebook will be announcing its Gmail Killer on Monday. There have been lots of clues, leaks, reading between the lines, and it’s obvious some sort of email solution is on its way. But not everybody is on the same page about what they’ll be announcing (see #1 below).
Link: TechCrunch
#1: Why Facebook Probably Isn’t Launching an Email Service
This is a pretty thought-provoking article. It’s predominately a semantics argument about what exactly constitutes an “email” solution. The important aspect of this article is the discussion about the future of electronic communications. Many of us are aware of the fact that only about 11 percent of teenagers use email and many colleges have halted the practice of providing freshmen with “edu” email addresses. From my own anecdotal experience, I’ve watched my two teenage daughters shift much of their communication away from text messaging and toward Facebook instant messaging. My guess is that Facebook is grabbing onto that trend with both hands and rather than trying to kill Gmail, it’s looking to serve the users who aren’t using email at all.
Link: Fast Company
Bonus: Don’t Do This – Speaking
I think most speakers are guilty of this until they learn otherwise. But it’s still far too common, so I’m doing my part to wipe out this scourge by sharing this brilliantly simple doodle from Chris Brogan:
Link: Chris Brogan