Here is an interesting tool that makes the transparent web, even more transparent. Me.dium is tool attached to your browser. Following is a description based on information on their site and my exploration. It works on Firefox so I could try it. It is also available on Internet Explorer.
Me.dium is a window that reveals the people and activity behind your browser. Through Me.dium, you can see who else is occupying your online world. You can also see other web sites to related what you are doing on the web at that moment. Me.dium makes these recommendations based on the activity of other Me.dium users around the page you are looking at now, or the pages you have visited. Me.dium bases these recommendations on how your browsing activity relates to the activity of other people using Me.dium. It does not look into the content of your site or other sites, like Google, it looks at the activity of Me.dium
users around the site.
All the people you see through Me.dium on the other webpages are other Me.dium users. You may not know all of them, but you can see them because their online activity is in some way related to yours. To set expectations, medium is initially targeted to the consumer market and to the 15 to 24 age group within this market so you are likely to mostly find people in this demographic and sites that appeal to their interests.
Me.dium provides two ways to talk to the other people you see. If you don't know them, you can post a message on the "Talk" tab. Anyone who is currently represented on your online world through Me.dium can see the message and reply. If they are in your Friend list, then you can click on their name and a private chat window opens up. You can also add other people to a private chat by selecting their name form the list of other friends online with the "add to chat" feature. The advantage over regular IM seems to be the ability to provide more web context to you online conversations so you can more easily talk with someone else about what you both are viewing.
Every time you change webpages to a non-related page, you will see a new group of people based on your new activity. If you have started a chat with someone already, or have joined a chat in the "Shoutout" tab, those chats will be maintained and can be continued wherever you are on the web or you can close them.
You have control over when the Me.dium window is open. It can be opened or closed with one or two clicks. Others will see that you are on a web page only if you select to have your user name visible. Otherwise they just know someone is present. You can also “shoutout” to the group to attract more attention. There is a Me.dium blog. Like Facebook you can make friend and there is a social networking aspect to the tool but it is like Facebook on steroids because of the extreme openness. It is the X games of social networking. They have a Me.dium blog to provide extra insights and context.
While Me.dium’s initial effort is consumer oriented and it first target audience is the 15-24 age group, there could be some very useful enterprise applications. Its strength comes from the making the shared focus of community members more transparent. If it was implemented with a group of people of similar interests within the enterprise it could dramatically open up communication and collaboration. There are interesting possibilities here.
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