Haven't I Seen You on Orkut?

Wednesday, April 06, 2005 | 6 comments

Zainab Mahmood

In a world where MMS, blogging and e-magazines have redefined how we communicate and what we read, what more are the changes we as users have to get accustomed to? As the world gears up for 4-G (think Matrix and sci-fi concepts becoming a reality), we are no longer a global village that we were in the 90’s. We are for all practical purposes, e-citizens. Almost everything and everyone has an online presence. If it’s out there, chances are you can Google it, if you can’t it is either pre-historic (read Adam and Eve era) or has gone out of existence.

With mIRC, Yahoo! chat and discussion boards as the forerunners, today we are in a much bolder and more multifarious world of software and web programs. Orkut is the newest kid on the block, combining popular features from messengers and online discussion boards. Leaving offline messages and threads of posts have been incorporated Orkut style to produce an online community which no one has fully understood as yet. That hasn’t stopped millions of users from going to no ends to gain access and rumour has it e-bay is even selling ’invites’! The majority of the users are Brazilian, which makes sense as this time last year a Google software engineer Orkut Buyukkokten designed this little concoction and named it after himself. The ’beta’ version running today boasts of millions of orkuteers, with the Pakistanis occupying the third spot (one up on Indians, go figure?). Statistically, 50% of orkuteers are single and majority of them fall into the 18-25 age category, although the most senior of its citizens run all the way up to 50+. The question is why are all these people here?

Initially, the sceptics wrote off Orkut as a glorified ’chatting’ medium and a passing fad, with competition from existing online communities such as Multiply and Friendster. But if truth be told, it’s far from dying out. Scrapping has changed people’s habits; think delayed online messaging and less hassle than email or sms. Not every thought is worthy of an email or call, and how else can you share a single conversation with a countless number of friends without having to send multiple emails or texts? On the other hand, the voyeuristic nature of Orkut cannot be underestimated. People’s lengthy profiles, photo albums and scrapbooks make for entertaining perusal and before you know it, you’ve spent half an hour going from one scrapbook to another to another, following a conversation, till you ended up on a stranger’s vacation pictures wondering how you got there. There is nothing like the freedom to ’watch’ others without feeling like a trespasser or leaving a trace.

There are several glitches in Orkut at the moment and needless to say a few good features. People have taken the personal profile section far too seriously posting lengthy descriptions of their pastimes and favourite books and the other categories have pre-conceived options, which leave the users with little discretion. Don’t get me started on the idea of listing yourself as someone’s fan or rating their Karma, or secretly counting the number of ice-cubes, smileys or hearts on your own page. Whether you see these features as harmless accessories or insults to your intelligence, the question is, when did everything become rate-able? Of late though, Orkut has gone into spamming mode. These days all I seem to be getting is an enormous number of unwelcome ’add me to your friend list’ requests. Orkut definitely has to come up with a better filtering system or else soon it will start resembling a junk box, which could bring its downfall.

To be fair, something good definitely came out of orkuteering for me. I was able to reconnect with old lost friends, certain acquaintances and friend’s friends as there’s nothing simpler than leaving a scrap to break the ice. You can play detective and carefully investigate someone’s Orkut activities before adding them to your list based on similar interests. So far so good; I haven’t added any perverts or death-row inmates, but have managed to cash in on few Orkut-inspired ideas and projects.

Let’s not forget the strangest type of Orkut behaviour, which has been cases of impostors, people masquerading as someone else, replete with family pictures and personal details. I fail to understand what this achieves, but then again an idle mind does breed some pretty eccentric activities. A major plus concerns Orkut’s format of having the picture and personal profiles alongside a user’s scraps, which makes interaction a little less dubious and a little more intimate. You feel like you are interacting with an actual person rather than online presence.

So once you’ve gone through all the trouble to fill out your profile, added 30+ friends and joined 15 or so communities to show off your varied interests, (how else can I tell people I read Sufi poetry and watch Will and Grace) then what?

Moreover, Orkut doesn’t have much of a user-to-user interface. If you are online at the same time as the people on your list, there is no way for you to know, and either way, beyond scrapping there isn’t much more you can do. To maintain its loyal following Orkut might eventually have to add calendars, address books and possibly blogs, so that orkuteers can enjoy a range of activities within its boundaries.

The saving grace for Orkut may be possibly its communities, which are spearheading the newest form of limitless global social interaction. A mature form of online discussion boards, there is never a dull moment in some of the interesting communities. From intellectual banter on the current political climate, to the latest news about TV channels and new pop acts, people are vying to be heard. As always snobbery has found a way in and Orkut elitism dictates the rules and regulations on certain communities where members can only be invited to join. In all seriousness they are turning out to be melting pots where people with shared interests and similar professions or educational pursuits can share ideas, technical know-how and even find prospective ’work’ partners. Everyone is here to expand their horizons and there is nothing like learning vicariously while sitting in the comfort of your own home. This has opened the door for countless opportunities and advancements, and a few projects such as e-magazines and similar collaborations have already taken off as a result of orkuteering.

At the moment, Orkut does not allow users to exert much control except in filling out profiles, deleting their own posts or editing a few community features (if you are the moderator). It will certainly have to become more flexible so that orkuteers can customize their pages and activities beyond what they can do now. The fact that it is still in its testing stage hasn’t stopped the creators from starting a Media section. E-journalism is all the rage and Orkut certainly has hinted that it has a broader vision than one would assume at first glance. Regularly updated columns, articles and entertaining blogs from chosen writers have been posted up. Let’s see if it succeeds in capturing the market, as people interested in this sort of activity are most likely loyal visitors if not contributors to established places like Chowk and Cerebrate.

There are plenty of Fisks, Kureishi’s and Lahiri’s out there, which is evident from the painstaking rants on many communities and the countless number of blogs advertised in personal profiles on Orkut. It seems as if people have a greater need today to share, to be heard and to interact with other e-citizens, more often and with greater ease than online chats or messengers permit. What better to fill this void than Orkut, the online community of today that could serve as the biggest database for developers and market researchers in the future?

Last of all what Orkut has undoubtedly achieved is that it has broken down barriers and introduced a new form of communication. E-morality is the new principle which the orkuteering generation is struggling to define. Censorship, what is allowed and what isn’t, what should be tolerated and what shouldn’t, how far does freedom of speech extend, are all fluid concepts right now. What will come to be known as uniquely Orkut behaviour and Orkut-language is in the conceptual stage at the moment. Now what remains to be seen is where the creators are headed with Orkut. There is a great deal of potential here, we can only wait and see if it is realized. Nuisance or necessity, only time will tell, but Orkut and the likes of it are certainly going to be the next big thing.

But what is for certain is, newer, greater and more complex e-activities bring in greater possibilities and heavier responsibilities. We now not only have to rediscover what our online ethics will be but also need to ascertain what are we really getting out of all this? Online recreation is all well and good but there is more to maintaining an online presence than occasionally blogging, leaving a scrap or two or reading community threads. We are just beginning to realize what is out there for the taking. In a world where everything is being up-sized once again, bigger laptops, bigger phones, even web communities will have to adapt and expand offering a wide range of services under one roof. In the meantime, orkuteering is the newest sport in town, so gear up and scurry on, there are communities to rummage through, photo albums to snoop around in and people to scrap! After all the honeymoon period can’t be over so soon!

Wednesday, April 06, 2005 | permalink | 6 comments

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