The Techno Dating Dance

Dating has always been a difficult task, there are certain rules that have been perfected over time and when the internet came along, the dating game changed forever. You don't need to interact with people on a personal level anymore, you could MySpace them, send them an email, a message on Facebook, join an internet dating site that can search through its database for your perfect match! It's all text, all of the time. I believe it takes the fun out of meeting someone naturally, but I can also understand the desire to avoid the awkwardness of a first meeting, the uncomfortable silences and the need to impress.

Keeping this is mind, I came across a new dating game, Flitter, a curve ball in the technological world of dating. It's inspired by none other than the world renowned Twitter. A group of web-savvy singles suit up and number themselves and enter a room filled with fellow tweeters. The tweets start fast and furiously as people size up the potential dates, writing who they would like to hook up with and eventually a face to face meeting, only if you're interested, is all set up. It's a sure fire away to dodge the bullet of rejection.

The reviews are mixed, some say it's the perfect way to sift through the crowd to find the person that tickles your fancy while others think it hampers being able to approach the person you're interested in. I think it must be extremely interesting to watch, a bunch of guests gazing closely at their iPhones and Blackberrys in a dimly lit room, their thumbs tapping away at their mobile devices on Twitter. This test run was hosted in Canada and it seems to have been a hit. I have a feeling this is only the beginning in a string of new dating ideas, as technology advances, so does the dating game.

Required: Full time Tweeter

Social networking has changed the rules. First, how we communicate and now, what we choose as a profession. That's right, companies, unable to counteract the effects that Facebook, Twitter and Myspace have on staff, have jumped on board and started using these sites as another, more focuses way of talking to their customers. The moral of the story? Where once, you could only apply for positions like book keeper, receptionist and salesperson, you can now be employed by a big corporate as a "Tweeter."

Tweeters have the task of promoting their companies products, clearing up misconceptions about the brand and just talking to customers about anything, the weather, traffic, global warming. It gives a whole new meaning to the term "small talk" that was once reserved for stuffy PR functions. Now small talk is literally small, 160 characters or less to be exact.

Tweeters, Facebookers and Myspacers have replaced the dated traditional marketing roles and in essence removed the vacuum from the marketing clean up. Silly? No, not really. They are full time jobs, some dedicated employees stay up all hours to talk to followers in different time zones.

Big names like Coca Cola and Ford Motors have declared it their responsibility to talk to the people who are talking about them. In a way, it has bogged down social networking media sites with lots of marketing bumph, but on the other hand..."first hand" information has never been so readily available.

Customer services and call centers have, in many respects, shown their inability to really develop a relationship with customers. Much less cement brand loyalty. Social media can fill in the gaps left by traditional forms of communication with customers. I think the difference is that with social media, the focus is to engage people. It's the text message from a large retail store on your birthday, only better because it isn't a computer generated message, its from Joe Blog, fellow Tweeter, Facebook friend. The guy/girl that you can truly say that Myspace is their space.

So here's to talking to the people that count, or should I say...Tweeting to the people that count. Speaking of the people that count...log on to www.hummba.com to meet up with fellow travellers, download free audio guides and share your experiences with the Footprints application. It's geo tagging at its best.

Anti-Social Behaviour

There was a time when social networking sites were a friendly space. Sure, there were a few incidents with some guy that you've never met sending you a stream of friend requests but on the whole...it was a happy cyberspace. But as the old saying goes...where there's space, there's room for trouble.

All the idle hands seem to be making light work of all the hacking that can be done. Facebook, MySpace and the myriad of other social networking sites have become something of a playground for cyber-criminals. Ah, for the days when your purse got stolen and you had to re-apply for your ID and change your locks and cancel your credit cards. These days, all your information is right there in front of your criminals, name, address, birthdays, star signs, employment details, hobbies, email and phone numbers. We've never been more accessible to evil. Good times.

Now, before you go adding privacy accounts to anything and everything...listen to the rest of the story. Early this week I wrote about the Campus Party taking place in Valencia, Spain. Its one of the world's biggest online entertainment events and has been taking place annually since 1997. Its the meeting place for internet enthusiasts and a sort of cyber church warning users against the dangers that hackers present in the social networking world.

Meet Koobface. "Koob" for those of you who don't know is "Book" backwards, so "Facebook" in reverse. While Facebook is all about spreading the love, Koobface is a vicious virus that has been infecting users of Facebook and Twitter since 2008.

As with all virus there are a number of variants or strains, in this case, more than 4000 have been detected. The virus hijacks accounts of users on the mentioned SNS and sends messages steering you to nasty sites containing malware. FYI...malware equals "malicious software often designed to infiltrate a computer system for illicit purposes.

So its counts in real life and in cyber space now too...know who your friends are. That's usually how they'll get you...Koobface will send you a friend request or another invitation, either to update software or download applications and the like. The social networking sites being affected have assured their users that incidents have been very few and that they do take precautions to ensure that their space remains your space.

One thing to remember is that most hackers aren't just hacking to make your life miserable, there are Cyber Mafias out there (not kidding) who hack for profit. Cyber Mafias have been identified in Brazil, China, Russia and the Ukraine. and they're making a killing. So do yourself a favour, know who your friends are, if it seems suspicious, it is and report people who aren't playing the game, the friendly social networking way.

Hackers or no hackers, social networking is one of the ways we can stay in touch. Visit www.hummba.com and discover a whole new way to see the world.