http://www.newsome.org/2007/05/class-notes-facebook/ Kent Newsome on technology, music and life Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:43:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.newsome.org/2007/05/class-notes-facebook/comment-page-1/#comment-3919 Jay Sun, 27 May 2007 02:18:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/newsome/?p=3378#comment-3919 Kent, thanks for the link and the follow-up. I'm happy to answer your second question, "to what extent, if any, do you think this evolution is really being driven by developers who want to make money off of the content created by users on the social networking sites?"You say "really being driven" when asking, so you mean that there are alternative possibilities, which I would identify as:a) social networking sites that want to be more interesting, andb) users that want more ways to interact.Out of the three(social sites, 3rd-party developers, and users), I'd honestly say it's an even split. Everyone has to gain something in an ecology of an industry, and for the people providing a service rather than receiving it, that gain most often has to be a profit. Users will absolutely drive what will be Facebook's success(caveat: they have to deploy and explain it well) in offering access to 3rd party services. Users like features, and they've already demonstrated a willingness to use several of the features being offered. <a HREF="http://www.quizyourfriends.com/" rel="nofollow">Quiz Your Friends</A> swept across the Internet through IM a couple of years ago, it will do so again on Facebook.Facebook will continue to drive this by adding more ways for developers to access, use, and display data, because they want to keep making their site more useful to more users.And 3rd party services will drive this because they need users, lots of them. They can keep doing it one blog at a time, or they can take it to where the users are all together.Being cynical about widget-makers making money from social networking sites servicing users is like being cynical about publishing companies making money from bookstores selling to readers. Bookstores could just find authors and get book titles individually. But it's better for the bookstore and reader both if there's a third party that provides extra useful services. Like the book industry, Facebook Platform will succeed because it benefits everyone.I'm working on what might become a post in response to some of the things you and Richard wrote. If it makes it to a final draft, I'll let you know.Until then, <a HREF="http://socialstrategist.com" rel="nofollow">Jay Neely, Social Strategist</A> Kent, thanks for the link and the follow-up. I’m happy to answer your second question, “to what extent, if any, do you think this evolution is really being driven by developers who want to make money off of the content created by users on the social networking sites?”You say “really being driven” when asking, so you mean that there are alternative possibilities, which I would identify as:a) social networking sites that want to be more interesting, andb) users that want more ways to interact.Out of the three(social sites, 3rd-party developers, and users), I’d honestly say it’s an even split. Everyone has to gain something in an ecology of an industry, and for the people providing a service rather than receiving it, that gain most often has to be a profit. Users will absolutely drive what will be Facebook’s success(caveat: they have to deploy and explain it well) in offering access to 3rd party services. Users like features, and they’ve already demonstrated a willingness to use several of the features being offered. Quiz Your Friends swept across the Internet through IM a couple of years ago, it will do so again on Facebook.Facebook will continue to drive this by adding more ways for developers to access, use, and display data, because they want to keep making their site more useful to more users.And 3rd party services will drive this because they need users, lots of them. They can keep doing it one blog at a time, or they can take it to where the users are all together.Being cynical about widget-makers making money from social networking sites servicing users is like being cynical about publishing companies making money from bookstores selling to readers. Bookstores could just find authors and get book titles individually. But it’s better for the bookstore and reader both if there’s a third party that provides extra useful services. Like the book industry, Facebook Platform will succeed because it benefits everyone.I’m working on what might become a post in response to some of the things you and Richard wrote. If it makes it to a final draft, I’ll let you know.Until then, Jay Neely, Social Strategist

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