Image via CrunchBase
this story of pinterest before pinterest has many lessons in strategic thinking, that are only attainable the hard way, or by hearing them from someone who got them the hard way.
Back in 2006, Wists, a visual bookmarking site I had launched a year earlier was gaining traction with women who were into crafts. I showed the website to two whip-smart friends, Shana Fisher and her husband, Jonathan Glick. Like many people, they didn’t buy my argument that collecting thumbnail image links would be a big deal, but they were less skeptical than most. Last year, I got a cryptic Tweet from Jonathan saying, “You Were Right.”
via: gigaom.com
… and most importantly, realize that if anyone else finds the gold nugget in the same pond, and goes on to find the gold mine, he didn’t steal it from you. this author has great attitude.
Many online services are a great place for communication with people you don’t have time to meet in person often enough anymore. By simply broadcasting to Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and others, many people can be kept up to date with my life and thoughts, enabling us to meet at perfect timings without much logistical and emotional overhead. They are a serendipity support platforms.
Since serendipity used to be in gods domain, this can get tricky. “Here be dragons” I say.
All these services are based on broadcasting to your followers (friends). It turns out, there is a huge, but not perfect overlap of the crowds across platforms. And it turns out, we shape the messages to fit the crowds more than to adapt to platforms. This is all managable.
Where it gets tricky though is, when I link my Facebook status with my Twitter account. Suddenly all my FB friends, that originate from very different backgrounds and environments, see not only when I get up, but also when I’m having a cocktail. Sometimes I might not want that.
Friendfeed is even more fun, bringing all channels, intended for different audiences into single feed, making any control of the message impossible. These second level services are kind of sincerity support platforms.
I guess it’s all about the freedom; but not my personal freedom, the fate of the planetary cybernetic system depends on the freedom of information now. It makes the social world more transparent and managable, for the government, corporations, advertisers, and me as well… *sigh*
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