It’s still not as crazy as Toronto, but my gut feeling is that it won’t ever be. The way people use the internet here and the way people socialize just isn’t as compatible with the Facebook way of doing things. I have to think about the specifics more, but I think it has a lot to do with using mobiles (Perth) over the internet on a desktop computer and having lots and of cheap internet access in every home (Toronto). And, as Alex Leitch brilliantly pointed out, Toronto is already divided up in a networky way - with a bunch of very distinct neighbourhood nodes linked together by an excellent transit system. Torontonians are already thinking in a Facebooky way.

The billboard reminded me of sign I saw on the window of the women’s clothing store Smart Set at the Eaton Centre earlier in the week. It had a Facebook logo and was advertising some new fashion cubes application, where you can compete with your friends about who has the best fashion, or something equally ridiculous. I was taken by the “Add Smart Set Fashion Cubes to your applications!” that was under the Facebook logo. I think that was the first time I’ve seen such technical language on the outside of a women’s clothing store. It’s still super gendered (compete with your friends to see who is the hottest), but really, is anyone surprised? I looked out for more Facebook logos as I walked through the mall, and not surprisingly there where two more at the Bell World and Rogers stores.

But that’s not all! At the end of April, I saw a presentation at CaseCamp about the success of TD Canada Trust’s Facebook app. That same night, Bryan Segal, VP at Comscore did a presentation about the insane popularity of social media in Canada. According to Comscore, Canada is the “most penetrated country” and “we view the most content and spend the most time interacting with social media.” In this context, its not really a surprise that Toronto is madly in love with Facebook.

So, this all got me thinking. A clothing store advertising it’s Facebook app, and a bank has one too? And there are so many extra Facebook shirts in Toronto that random bike riding junk collectors are wearing them? What I’m witnessing here in Toronto is so obvious that it’s invisible to me. It’s the first time a social web service, or anything from the internet really (besides when the web itself became big and we started seeing URLs all over the place… but that’s more a protocol and less a commercial service), has become so tightly integrated into so many aspects of mainstream life. For Torontonians, Facebook is becoming the mediator for so many everyday interactions, between people and between people and companies, and its being done at level of penetration we’ve never seen before.

Moar!
Rogers TV ad for Facebook mobile
My growing collection of photos of Facebook appearing in real life around Toronto

It’s also up on the Spark blog for your on demand listening pleasure (skip to 17:51).

For my first ever time doing radio, I think it turned out pretty well! Nora Young was super nice and took the time to coach me through the voice stuff to make sure it sounded good. How lucky is that? She has a cult following for having such an amazing radio voice (well, that AND being brainy, obviously). Also a big thanks to Luke Walker for being my crew in Boston.

he isn’t on facebook (he told me) and when i tried to google stalk him, there were no results. except for this other guy with the same name who seems obsessed with parachutes.

i kinda love it. people adding you on facebook that you just met is like a commitment. i mean really, it turns the world into a small town. everyone is so easy to reach. they’re right there. i like the mystery and freedom of space and time.

i’m also so careful about what and who i write about on here now. not like the olden days when i was writing to the vast unknown expanse of THE INTERNET. but i know i can write this and he probably won’t read it (oh just watch him now! uhh hi;) ).

but it’s also weird because googling and facebooking is so habitual to me now. i need my backgroud info on people. and pictures. lots of pictures, like everyone gleefully puts up at facebook so we can all look at each other. i feel like that telepathic guy from heroes when he tries to listen to people’s thoughts when the haitian mind blocker dude is around. cuz yeah, my super power is without a doubt the internet, especially internet stalking >:]

(i’m tempted to start writing in all lowercase again. it’s so much prettier. and it just flooooows when i write this way)

You can also check out the guest blogging I did on the Spark blog. I posted my wrap up last night.

So without further ado: the “godmother of the internets” in me and Luke interview Rena Hall (a k4t3.org/lukewalker.org exclusive)!

PS My blog entries from day one and two of ROFLCon are up on the Spark blog, plus lots of piccies on Flickr.

I’m going to be guest blogging my adventures (check out that link… see me and Zuck are BFFs for evah, really!) on the Spark blog this weekend as well as creating a short radio doc which should air May 21 (!!!) I’m going to be interviewing the I Can Has Cheezburger? guys, David Weinberger, Tron Guy, Leslie Hall, Dinosaur Comic’s Ryan North, Leeroy Jenkins and Anil Dash to find out what they think about the whole crazy internet meme thing and why we love them so much. If you have any questions you want me to ask please post them!

(At the risk of sounding like a total cheesy fan girl, this is just about the Best Thing Ever because not only do I love me my internet memes, I’m a huge fan of the CBC, Spark and the show’s host, Nora Young, who I’ve thought was the bee’s knees since she hosted DNTO and a hero for women in technology everywhere. When I went treeplanting, I took a wind up radio so I could listen to the CBC in my tent. </fangirl>).

Holy crap I’m excited! Time to go re-cultivate my layer of apathetic cool professionalism.

I’ve been lamenting the sad state of journalistic reporting on internet culture for a while (in fact, it was part of the focus of the talk Leigh and I did at Notacon a few weeks back… where we also rickrolled the audience. heh!), so it was really nice to see an article that mostly gets it (4chan is mentioned!!), save for the slightly curmudgeonly “What is all this haberdashery!!!1 You kids get off my lawn!!!!!!1111″ kinda tone. And to be picky, LOLcats don’t speak like hacker kids, they speak kitteh! It’s totally different (GNARR). But how can you not love Tossells description of rickrolling as “a dead end made flesh and given a bouffant hairdo”?

So, I want to know who this Ivor Tossell guy is and how he convinced his editors to let him do that story. I suspect it has something to do with Facebook and LOLcats softening everyone up to the idea that hey, this internet thing may be more than just gadgets and nerds.

PS Fono says he’s a sad boy because there are no more good internet cartoons, like Magical Trevor and those fucked up GI Joe PSAs.