FaceBook takes a page right out of our playbook!

I could probably piece together a time line of UniversityLyfe conceptual implementation of feature-sets vs. FaceBook roll out of similar feature-sets; which would make a conspiracy theorist consider he's being stalked by Zuckerberg himself (but I doubt this).

However since we have been in a hibernated Beta state for some time I will let the previous ones slide - however according to an article from Mashable - FaceBook is rolling out a feature called "Communities":

In what amounts to a big new product push for the company, Facebook is turning previously static information in user profiles into links to 6.5 million new Community Pages. It’s also further clarifying the point of Pages, dividing out official ones for businesses, celebrities and other known entities from from the “community” ones.

This is not 100% the same thing as a UniversityLyfe Community - infact it is nothing alike, except for the conceptual base that these Communities both uLyfe and FaceBook - are driven by updates of its members. In the case of UniversityLyfe - it's members are local businesses, sports teams, greek, studetn and non-profit organizations and FaceBook's are, well you!

A good explanation of how it work's is provided by Inside FaceBook:

Status text is split into updates from friends and updates from all Facebook users. E.g., if I write in a status update to everyone, “I love this new hip hop album,” Facebook recognizes the term “hip hop” and imports my public update to the hip hop community page. Community Pages also include relevant information from Wikipedia (Wikipedia) under a Wikipedia tab.

Will this mean a bunch of strangers will see your thoughts if it relates to other strangers thoughts (hungry)? Basically FaceBook is saying your thoughts are ours. It will be interesting to see how FaceBook plans to cross another privacy-suicide-squad bridge, for instance remember when you told "us" what your interests were on FaceBook? This is now an auto opt-in as well as things you have already "liked" - the interface for this is intense, requiring drag and dropping, more pop-ups, and additional privacy settings(see Inside FaceBook's article for screen shot's)...

How this relates to UniversityLyfe?

Well without sacrificing every single bit of your privacy for the sake of generating more content for complete strangers (a Kip Drodry so-to-speak) to have something to read (note the South Park episode "You've Got Zero Friends") the fact is there are better ways to connect people on a common interest who don't know each other - then connecting people who are interested in "food" and always "hungry" in their status updates (just a hypothetical example) - the fact is we all have more important things in common:

- We go to the same school
- We are affected by the same traffic conditions and weather
- We attend the same events
- We eat at the same restaurants
- We like the same sports teams

At the end of the day a "Community" is a place where people who INTERACT with each other and are AFFECTED by each other should be networking in, not completely different strangers - that would be a "Internet/Global Community", aka a Forum Board for like-minded people.

This is exactly what we have delivered, some time ago in theory, and today in reality (University of Central Florida) and together we can build upon what affects us the most, and that is what is going on here at home. Let the Kip Drodrys of the world worry about my favorite Movies and the "special commentary's" on the new Avatar DVD -

- Join now @ http://uLyfe.com/