About two weeks after getting rid of most of my online community accounts I just read a great summary of another person feeling the same. The article really sums up things nicely in words I never would have been able to put so well together.

From a webdeveloper’s point of view I am truly amazed by the great facebook framework. Seeing the great success of the platform does not make me feel anything than admiration. But from a social point of view I am really concerned about the ongoing abstraction of internet communities from the real world. It just makes me sad that I did not wake up earlier. At the moment I am just happy to have stopped this social nightmare.

The dilemma I am in right now is that my profession is webdeveloper. I am earning money by producing online systems. To not follow the mainstream is quite risky for a one-man-show company and might create a bad reputation at business partners who do believe in all buzzes. I hope those people too will one day find out that not everyone is happy with information overflow and real social isoliation created by online worlds.

My current quest is to find a way back to reality for online services. I want to use online technology to enhance my social experience in real-life… not to replace it. Today I was attending a NFC (near field communication) conference and was amazed by the possibilities this technology has to offer. That could really be a way to connect both worlds in a manner that will make me benefit from the online connectivity in a more satisfying way. Of course the internet still is holding a lot of useful ressources and services for me too. At the moment there is just the feeling that I want to spend more time with real people around than in online channels.

No matter if it will be NFC or any other kind of new technology… I am just curious about the future of the technological part of our lives.

In the past months I spent quite a lot time on building up my web profiles, always keeping them up-to-date, opening groups, searching for new people. Today something happened. Something big. Just like with hanging out in online chatrooms in the late 90s I decided to get my real life back and to quit most of the platforms. It turned out that sometimes to make the decision is easier than the final execution of it.

My experience so far:

• MySpace: Perfect. They have a fully automated process of deleting the account permanently. After verifying the wish for deletion via email myspace says it will take up to 48 hours until my account is gone.
• Facebook: Seem pretty straight forward too. The automated process says that my account is in deactivated state for another 14 days. If I do not login in the meantime it will be removed permanently automatically.
• Xing: I guess the deletion process would be quite easy for non-premium-members. In my case I had to contact the support team. My premium account still lasts until the end of april. But I want my life back now. Let’s see when I get feedback.
• LinkedIn: I always hated the clumsy interface and I even hate the process of account deletion even more. The only way to delete the account is to send an email to the support team. Funny thing is that I got an error when sending the support form. I tried a second time and the system said there was already a message from my email address within the process queue. So I guess my first request got delivered although there was an error message. We’ll see.

To find the “delete account” option on the platforms I mostly used google to get hints faster on how to do it. For every platform there are good pages online giving the right directions.

Before deleting your account be sure to remove all your personal information. On some platforms it seems as if not all your information gets automatically purged. Especially LinkedIn seems to be kind of funny. I don’t know if it is true but it is rumoured that they remove your login but keep your data publicly. So please remove everything personal and change what is not removable to something different.

Especially on LinkedIn again there were several things I was not able to remove. Maybe you can remove everything somehow but with my constant struggle with the interface I decided to overwrite some entries. Luckily removing the connections to other people is pretty easy. On Xing for e.g. you have to remove all your connections manually. Removing about 150 links eventually takes up to 3 minutes.

I am still keeping my twitter account. I really like the concept of the global shoutbox and I am using it’s content on some mashups. Also all my instant messaging accounts are still valid. I expect to gain an additional one to two hours per day which I will redistribute to my own online projects and my real life.

After emptying the new year bottle of champagne I celebrated the first hours of the year 2009 by opening a new website for public access. Feel free to stop by. Feedback very much appreciated.

After a long period of sleepless nights and long hours of working on the launch I am now officially allowed to serve customers.

What year would it have been if there have not at least a handful mayor events been taking place. The top event of 2008 was – without a question – the birth of our first son. The second mayor change in my life this year took it’s time until the very end. Since last Friday I am no CEO of Pulpmedia anymore. I will continue to be share holder of the company and continue to contribute my manpower to existing and hopefully new web projects. There is not any conflict or combat going on but it just was time for change again. As my contribution to Pulpmedia projects will be of a somehow limited nature there hopefully is enough time to realize my own projects. All about the near future plans on 1/1/2009. Same blog. Same place.