« Joi hits Orkut's wall |
Main
| Good Piece on Folksonomies »
December 28, 2004
SmartCommons
Posted by David Weinberger
Dan Hughes has launched SmartCommons. He’s talking about it on his blog, starting here. He writes:
I believe that many of the central benefits to be derived from social software are the building second-order effects that find form in the emergent patterns in social software’s use over a significant period of time in the company of people one already has reason to trust because they inhabit the spaces of offline community that make up normal life. This is the future of social software….
And this:
Social software is at its best when it is about sharing life with the people you are already in community with.
I’ve just started playing with it. It’s clearly very young software, and I’m not 100% what it’s expecting me to share. E.g., it has categories such as Baby, Kitchen & Housewares, and Books. Am I actually offering to share these with my neighbors? Even my baby? (Apparently SocialCommons is about making lists of our stuff and enabling interactions around them.) I like the basic premise that social software is clearly useful when it’s helping us with communities we’re already in, and it’s interesting watching the concepts emerge on Dan’s blog.
Comments (5)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category:
- RELATED ENTRIES
- › Spolsky on Blog Comments: Scale matters
- › "The internet's output is data, but its product is freedom"
- › Andrew Keen: Rescuing 'Luddite' from the Luddites
- › knowledge access as a public good
- › viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace
- › Gorman, redux: The Siren Song of the Internet
- › Mis-understanding Fred Wilson's 'Age and Entrepreneurship' argument
- › The Future Belongs to Those Who Take The Present For Granted: A return to Fred Wilson's "age question"
1. Bob Jacobson on December 28, 2004 5:53 PM writes...
Gad, don't want to sound like a Grinch, but the idea that we socially network online better with those with whom we socially network offline: why is that novel?
And while I'd like for all my offline friends to be online-accessible, I don't think I'd like to tie them together quite so ruthlessly. Many (I'm sure) like me for one aspect of my self, not necessarily the whole package. This could become a Kodachrome Experience (in the Paul Simon sense).
Well, at least I shall give it a try....
Permalink to Comment2. Hal Samples on December 29, 2004 3:13 AM writes...
One of the nice things about SmartCommons is you can create different personas. This will allow all of our social circles to be benefactors of sharing our content (still unsure what to file under the Baby or Household Goods categories etc.) It is only the specific content that we are allowing those people who are connected to the persona (ie:work, organizations, spiritual, family, etc.) to view as we set up our profile. Some things are only best to be shared with those who are on the same narrow path as you. This could be useful as some people are using a number of sites and email addresses to communicate with the wide variety of people who are in our day to day lives while being able to manage it all from one space.
Permalink to Comment3. James Stewart on December 29, 2004 8:44 AM writes...
I'm with Bob on wondering why that statement should be so novel, but would observe that it's not an understanding that many 'social software' initiatives have really focussed on.
As I understand it the reason for the choice of categories is the use of amazon to provide a lot of the product data. The system will automatically synchronise your amazon purchases with its local database (if given your amazon credentials) so it makes sense to use amazon's taxonomy.
Permalink to Comment4. Joe 10 on January 1, 2005 10:48 PM writes...
This is, like so many others like it, an awesome idea. Problem is, like so many like it, trust.
None of my friends, even the early adopter types, want me inviting them to a social site, which throws a speed bump in the adoption ramp. Most of them, having been burned enough already by the 6-degrees' and Reiz's of recent history won't jump onboard. This of course, hinders the critical mass part a service like this needs...
Permalink to Comment5. David H. Deans on January 2, 2005 12:32 PM writes...
Dave, Happy New Year, and I hope to connect with you during March at SXSW in Austin.
I'm still researching commercial social networking applications behind the corporate firewall. I continue to add links to the growing body of knowledge on this very topic at my "GeoNetworker International" site at http://geonetworker.webhop.net
Granted, I'm biased, but I see SmartCommons as yet further proof that others are thinking (like me) that it's time for previously disjointed knowledge management and social networking disciplines to morph together in a very logical way.
Permalink to Comment