Re: GNU/Debian Linux vs. facebook, Twitter and other proprietary social media
On Sat, 4 Feb 2012, Nick Lidakis wrote:
In a nutshell, my wife and I starting a small business in a family
oriented neighborhood. We're serving coffee, espresso and baking fresh
bread and pastry on premises. The shop will be located at the northern
tip of Manhattan in the vicinity of Inwood Hill Park (last remaining
undeveloped, old growth forest in Manhattan), Isham Park and Fort Tryon
Park.
Hi Nick. You may wish to contact David J Patrick who founded LinuxCaffe
(http://www.linuxcaffe.ca) in Toronto, Canada many years ago. LinuxCaffe
is a successful business providing coffee & light food running completely
on Linux/FOSS.
I assisted David with some of the early sysadmin/architectural work for
LinuxCaffe.
Starting on a shoe-string budget during a recession, I plan on using GNU
software for as much as I can possibly can without devoting too much
time to computing. Music Player Daemon for music, possibly sc for basic
spreadsheet needs, m0n0wall firewall for Wi-Fi, etc. Also investigating
a Linux payroll system, etc.
Wife uses a Mac. I have been using Debian since 1996 for all my daily
needs, though I still would not call my self a guru. We do not have any
social media presence and we like it that way. No facebook, twitter or
other accounts. We use basic cell phones. With that said...
Everyone has been telling us that we *absolutely* have to be on facebook and
twitter, if not more, for our coffee house. They argue that it's free
marketing and advertising. That we need facebook to advertise events and
I have to say that a small business should not pass up any legal,
ethically sound advertising option. Starting a successful small business
is hard enough as it is.
My personal opinion is to use Facebook and Twitter as tools to deliver
your message. I'd recommend using alternatives such as identi.ca *as
well*.
This does not sit well with me. I've read the tech news concerning facebook's
privacy and "intellectual property" policies. I've recently read about
twitter's country based censorship controversy.
Regarding privacy, you should only post only as much info as you are happy
to provide. It is true that data mining techniques can infer things about
you from what you 'like' and even what your friends 'like' but a company
facebook page wouldn't be used in the same way as a personal page so I
don't see there would be a lot of data to mine.
I follow the rule that I don't send something in unencrypted email (or
post it on facebook) unless I'm happy for it to appear on the front page
of a large national news paper.
Being a neighborhood shop, I was hoping to avoid social media. I want to
interact with people in person. But I agree that I need a way to let people
know about events of specials. Can I do that with GNU software without
selling my soul to Zuckerberg? Do I even need software or could I be smarter
about this?
One of the best pieces of business advice I ever received was this:
"Don't sell what you like. Sell what people will buy".
P.S. Thinking about "social media" pisses me off even more because,
currently working as a paramedic, I've had co-workers take their phones
out while treating patients. And I have yelled at people. These days,
seems most people can't go two minutes without sucking on their digital
pacifier.
Internet addiction is a problem that has been recognised to exist for
decades (it was around long before the Internet went mainstream) but is
still not generally taken seriously, IMHO.
I treasurer the ability to 'unplug' from time to time.
Cheers,
Rob
--
Email: robert@timetraveller.org Linux counter ID #16440
IRC: Solver (OFTC & Freenode)
Web: http://www.practicalsysadmin.com
Open Source: The revolution that silently changed the world
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