Australia’s Minister for Communications, Senator Stephen Conroy, also known as the Global Village Idiot, has launched a scathing attack on Facebook.

Conroy, the man who with his boss Kevin Rudd, decided to censor and slow Australia’s internet access, and spend $42 billion dollars building an NBN, asks the question:

What would you prefer, a corporate giant who is answerable to no one and motivated solely by profit making the rules on the internet, or a democratically elected government with all the checks and balances in place?

Well, Minister, let’s put the Australian Government vs Facebook to the test:

Rudd / Conroy: Other people (voters – regretful voters I might suggest) decided to have them control me vs Facebook: I alone chose to be on Facebook

= Facebook win

Rudd / Conroy = Motivated by power vs Facebook: Motivated by profit

= Facebook win

Rudd / Conroy: The only Federal Government in Australia (Monopoly) vs Facebook: One of many providers in the highly competitive social networking space

= Facebook win

Rudd / Conroy: Average of 32% of everything every Australian earns + 10% GST on everything we spend + assortment of hundreds of taxes, fees and charges vs Facebook: Free

= Facebook win

Rudd / Conroy: Answerable to the public once every three years vs Facebook: Answerable to customers every single day

= Facebook win

Rudd / Conroy: Owns every single piece of information about every single Australian, including all banking, tax, employment, marriage records, family history, etc. vs Facebook: Only what you choose to put into it

= Facebook win

Rudd / Conroy: Makes rules enforceable by the police and legal system covering almost every single element of life, death and everything in between vs Facebook: Makes rules covering Facebook

= Facebook win

OVERALL WINNER = FACEBOOK.  Your thoughts?

I read this post from my former colleague and all round good guy Steve Rubel: How to Bring Back the Old Facebook Feed РThe Steve Rubel Lifestream .

I’ve added my two bob’s worth in a comment below (for those who would like to go back to the “old” Facebook news updates, it provides a how to)…

I quite like the “new” Facebook, because it allows three options.

1. News Feed
The “new” curated feed.

2. Live Feed
This option needs to be modified somewhat to get the “old functionality back. Simply click “Live Feed” and then go down to “Edit Options” down the bottom. Then change the number in the field from 50 to 5000. It will then provide a full live feed of everything your friends are doing on Facebook – from links to apps to status updates.

As a matter of interest – this is a key product offering in the battle of Facebook vs Twitter. ¬†The new trend for search is “live discovery”, where people want to have instant results, updates and feeds. ¬†We see it in Twitter, we’ve seen it with the new changes to Google’s realtime search results, where Google can provide searches that provide live updates to the second.

3. Status Updates
As you said in the post above, Steve…

The thing I don’t like is that Facebook hasn’t made it completely obvious how to do this, so people are confused.

If rumours are true, George Clooney’s assertion that he would rather have a prostate exam than a Facebook Page, must mean that he REALLY, REALLY wants a Facebook Fan Page.

The lucky bastard is hanging out with Christian Vieri’s former squeeze (and former Striscia La Notizia Veline) Elisabetta Canalis, pictured below…

So – why does George want a Facebook Fan Page so much – and why are they so good for celebs, brands and movements? ¬†Here are my reasons why…

• It’s the end of the “destination web”, where purpose built URLs can be expected to have a large and loyal readership. At last count (today), there are exactly 6,838,880 Australians on Facebook. If George were to build his own site, then he’d have to create it and promote it – and competing with sites such as Facebook and YouTube. Why not build a presence on a site where people already are?
• Insights – because people put so much info into Facebook, you can find out incredible amounts about visitors to the Fan Page – age, sex, location, type of visit, quality of interactions – Facebook insights is excellent.
• Top software – Facebook allows for events to be created, photos and videos to be uploaded, conversations and discussions to be had – a perfect, purpose built site for Fans.
• It’s free!

Thanks to John Kerr, this video rocks! ¬†Applicable to all agencies that don’t get digital – and even more so to agencies that talk digital, but don’t do digital.

Come on guys, when are people going to wake up and realise Twitter is mainly popular with older people? ¬†That young people are using social media that is more customisable, longer, more “rich”.

Nielsen have released another piece of research that confirms what’s I’ve said on many occasions (like here and here) – Twitter is limited and for old people. ¬†Don’t get me wrong – the immediacy and ease of use are great – but beyond that?

Posterous, Friend Feed and Facebook Status Updates do exactly the same thing, but from within a more innovative framework.

There’s a phenomenon I’ll term¬†The Coldplay Paradox for Twitter. ¬†Comedian/Philosopher Daniel Kitson expressed annoyance at how bezerk people go about Coldplay. ¬†He says, that in isolation, Coldplay are quite a decent band with pleasant songs. ¬†However, due to the overwhelming praise heaped on them by all and sundry, the incredible frenzy of excitement and calls of “greatest band of all time” or “the next U2″, despite inherently enjoying the band, he was forced take a step back and remark – “no they’re not that good”. ¬†Not only are they not the greatest band of all time, they’re simply good to very good at best.

Therefore one must, paradoxically, scorn Coldplay to simply retain an element of relative balance, eg: “They’re not that good, after all, their best song (Talk) was just a cover of Kraftwerk’s Computer Love“.

That’s the way I feel about Twitter. ¬†It’s pretty decent. ¬†But it’s far from “the next Facebook”, and it’s best feature is just a version of Facebook’s Status Updates.

I really like this piece from the SMH on real life social networking. ¬†I’ve always argued that the best social media programs have strong links to real life activities. ¬†Charles Purcell tested that assertion quite literally.

…the status-updating feature of Twitter [is] like “standing in George Street and shouting out what you had for lunch”. So I stand in Pitt Street Mall during lunch hour.

“I’m going to have Hungry Jack’s for lunch today smiley face,” I bellow. A few people look on in contempt. The lunchtime crowd walks around me as if there is an invisible bubble of shame around me. I wait an awful 30 seconds, then scream: “I polished my corns last night.” (I have no corns.)

It’s not dissimilar to this video:

A few weeks ago I mentioned how much I wanted a Facebook Vanity URL.

Well, in a couple of days, everyone will be able to register their own Facebook vanity URL / username, for example www.facebook.com/barackobama.

It’s very exciting – and as I mentioned in my previous post, a big blow to MySpace.