“If our past had no influence on the present, if the present were irrelevant to the future, we would be lost, bereft not only of direction but also of any sense of self. It is through our surrounding structure that we order and make sense of the world. Yet too much structure, too much a hold of the past on the future can also be a bad thing, leading to stagnation and isolation. Variety is truly the spice of life, for only with variety can order generate something rich and interesting.”
Duncan Watts, “Six Degrees of Separation”
It seems like every other day there is a new social network launched on the Web. While there are many that are popping up all over the world with a cultural nuance, most of these businesses seem to come out as a slightly different version of some of the established players.
The segment that is typically launched is a true social community where one of two psychological needs get fulfilled. The need for self expression (Tagged, Coastr ) and the need for finding and maintaining social relationships (Myspace, Friendster) are what we see most often. Most new businesses have tried to combine both of the above needs in their social communities segments to varying degrees of success.
The second major segment is the professional social network (Linked-in, Jobster). The psychological need is typically more purpose minded ranging from the efficiency of managing your professional relationships to even fulfilling an ego need of having the most important social connections as a badge of honor to one’s profile.
Looking past these two major segments, are there any more segments capable of spawning potential standalone businesses? Or is the new social network functionality being launched now just supporting aspects of the other more established Web businesses? For the most part, I see a lot of businesses that are just more functionality.
Our networks define us in the world as people, without them we don’t exist as individuals in society. We are all born on this earth with a quest to understand who we are and what our purpose is during the life we live. Our personal networks provide us with a way to navigate life’s journey a little bit easier and also make it a little less lonely along the way. Our network is typically our best source of trusted information. Has the Web provided us with solutions that leverage our trusted network to the effect we do in real life yet? How do we make decisions when we have a task to complete? Of course we have Google, and Snap which are rich sources of information and part of that process of understanding. We know there are review sites on the Web that are useful but contain a lot of commercial bias. Most recently there is now People Search on sites like Yahoo where we can talk to people we don’t even know, but how efficient is that really and how trusted is that information that we are getting? How personal to us? Overall, how do we understand the quality of all the information we receive?
It’s obvious that the propensity to expose profiled private information skews towards the younger generations. But will the ability to get the current 30+’s to participate into an efficient online version of their offline network become a reality. What if we knew amongst our family and friends would knew what and at what level of expertise? How would this facilitate the speed of which we could operate and make decisions?
Back to Duncan Watt’s quote above, it feels like we have just scratched the surface of replicating and facilitating what social networks could be online, given how important they are in our lives. Providing efficient and relevant information, facilitating smart commerce, providing encouragement and comfort, and exposing one to that variety that makes life all that more rich and interesting are all things we could get online that we now do get offline. It feels like we are still very early on in seeing new businesses that provide us with an accelerated and efficient leverage of our offline relationships into a transparent online presence.
Thoughts?
Interesting look at some current trends. The contrast of the online behavior of people in their 30's with that of some younger generations is especially important to consider. Many 30-somethings are nervous about the amount of personal information available on the web, while some teens and those in their 20's have embraced that openness and use it to leverage their position in their offline networks. In fact, for many in the younger generations, there is no clear distinction between their online network and their offline network. They blend seamlessly. In that sense, I believe those of us in our 30's have something to learn from the younger generations - provided there is a healthy balance between open, free communication and safety and confidentiality when appropriate.
Because of this seamless blending of online/offline personas and networks, I believe the technology solutions of the future should also be seamless. One of my criticisms of sites like del.icio.us is that the user has to do too much work to network. Technology that passively, intelligently blends networking and collaborative aspecs with more traditional functionality (word processing, spreadsheets, email) will be the solutions that win out. I want to network - I just don't want to think about it.
Posted by: Pinney Colton | July 11, 2006 at 09:59 AM