[iDC] Autonomous spaces online?
john sobol
john at johnsobol.com
Wed Mar 22 21:22:28 EST 2006
>
>> A few days ago YouTube was bought by MTV.
>> MySpace is now in Rupert Murdoch's hands.
>> ICQ was obtained by AOL.
>> Google acquired Writely as part of their online vision.
>> Blogger is of course in Google's pocket for a long time.
>> Del.icio.us and Flickr are now owned by Yahoo.
>
Hi
Is it necessarily the case that developing new and appealing social
networking communities, watching them flower and then selling them off,
is an inherently unsustainable or negative socio-economic pattern? Has
the quality of these services decreased substantially since being
bought? Do you foresee that it will? Does it even matter?
Might we make a valid comparison to, say, bands gaining local or cult
followings and then signing with major labels and going mainstream? The
idea that bands who do this are 'selling out' is pretty outdated by
now, right? We all know that bands can be rich and famous and still
have creative integrity and artistic merit. But we also know that
newer, fresher and more relevant bands will emerge to renew the process
again and again. And audiences will move from one band to the next, or
stay with their favourites, (as they may stay with or move on from
MySpace) but the churn is desirable and lucrative and feeds creative
and economic growth within the music industry.
If we don't look at the buyout of what were once cult-fave sites as
selling out but rather as a kind of natural maturation leading towards
eventual natural obsolescence and replacement then all this money being
injected into the gift economy may be a good thing. Sure some people
will take the bucks and run but others will invest in new cool sites
and projects, (i.e. Langlois, Skoll, Glaser et al.). We'll miss the
good sites that once were in a nostalgic kind of way perhaps (hello
Bolt.com? Hello Psyche? etc.etc.etc.) but only in the same we enjoy
hearing songs from our youth (or don't) . The companies that buy the
eyeballs that come with these sites will milk their investments as hard
and long as they can (and not always being complete idiots they will
not always rape and pillage their investment but may even support and
amplify its strengths) until people are tired of it or something better
comes along, which is likely to be sooner rather than later. And might
not the gift economy then gain greater and greater economic scope and
influence as the list of online communities that 1) thrive 2) are
successfully economically leveraged and 3) pass away, grows longer and
longer?
Getting bought by Salon didn't destroy the Well, but its importance has
greatly diminished because the networked world around it has caught up
and surpassed it in magnetic and catalytic and discursive power. Maybe
this is not regrettable but entirely normal and desirable. What is the
natural decay rate of a networked community? What comes after Flickr
with ads? Check back in 6 or 12 months and we'll see.
No doubt a more balanced analysis would highlight many reservations
about this model but I thought I'd throw it out there for
consideration...
js
--
www.johnsobol.com
bluesology • printopolis • digitopia
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