Thursday, September 7, 2006
But I contradict myself
I want a t-shirt that just says "Oxy".
LossOfFaceBook?
While I've been heads-down and off-Net in meetings, readers have been banging on my e-door with news that something-or-other has gone viral around FaceBook.
What's wierd is that what went viral wans't buzz or use around a cool new feature, but the response to one.
In my experience when users are passionate about a service, they often react negatively to new stuff. Facebook is changing the experience in a significant way by surfacing in a very efficient (but also very public) way the data that is already in the system.
Users will have to react to this. They'll have to think more about their privacy options. Or just get used to it. Because this is what the power of feeds and social networks is all about. This is the future.
Question: Must all our social networks be hosted by silos like FaceBook? These things aren't democracies, they're monarchies. They're contained habitats. Cruise ships.
The answer is still yes, as long as we don't have a real commons. We don't have one yet. And we won't until we make one for all of us, out here in the wide open spaces.