Comments on: Social value revisited?

By: Adrian

Adrian — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:05:00 +0000

@david esrati I like the metaphor of sharecropper! I think there’s a post in there.

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:35:00 +0000

True.

People like to put their friends in new contexts as a way to test/challenge/reassert the existing group pecking order. Smart pack leaders rush to the new spaces first, else someone lower down he ranks takes the initiative and claims first-finder bragging rights, thus lowering the leader's perceived fitness. That's the sort of tribal behaviour we see with Team Scoble: A symbolic leader dragging around a bunch of hangers-on, all itching to claim the next new space as their very own and grab the affections of the group as a whole.

It's all a bit boring really. Who cares if Facebook fails, Ning fails, Twitter fails. There are as many new socialnet opportunites as there are useful idiots to join them. Google wins the game by not playing 'the game' but leading the sort people who should know better into believing they are.

By: David Esrati

David Esrati — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:22:00 +0000

Social networks- (like this one, Blogger) are nothing other than “the man” asking the sharecroppers to till his fields.
That’s right- if you don’t own the server space, you are nothing but a digital sharecropper.
We saw the collapse of the AOL walled community- and we’ll see these social networks lose velocity as people realize their content is being whored for advertising dollars and profile building without compensation.
When it comes down to it- in the end, it’s all about what’s in it for me, and as servers and web tech gets demystified, the titans of social media will lose their farm hands and then the farm.

By: Charles Frith

Charles Frith — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:48:00 +0000

Only one thought has occured to me which is that as we age we like nostalgia. I can see a retro myspace/facebook surge in the future. Like staying in and watching crappy movies on TV.

Anyway just a thought!