1 Articles for 'Social Networks'
Bernard Moon, the co-founder of GoingOn Networks, recently contributed a piece on VentureBeat with his views on the future of social networking. It's a good piece - I recommend you give it a read.
Here, I am quickily adding some thoughs on the piece.
1. Facebook will cool down, but won't go away anytime soon either
In Korea, 90%+ people were already using Cyworld even before Myspace and Facebook became widely known in the US. Therefore, looking at how Cyworld is doing now in Korea might give some clue as to how Facebook and Myspace will be doing in some years later.
The answer is, Cyworld is still doing okay. Of course the novelty is long gone, and people don't put up their content as religiously as they did before. Many people leave Cyworld complaining their "Cyworld fatigue". But, one thing to be remembered is, kids are growing - i.e. constant influx of new users.
In Cyworld's case, as I mentioned in my CNN piece, the service sees a constant stream of new users - mainly early-teenage girls. Twelve year old girls would do whatever they think 20 year old girls do, like putting on a makeup, and Cyworld is one of them. I think this will apply to Facebook as well - college is the environment where there's a constant influx of new people. I can't agree more that Facebook won't last forever (nothing does), but I also think it won't disappear overnight eiter.
2. Will social networks last?
I think a longer-lasting concept than social networking is "communication". People have always wanted to stay in touch. Communication between people have always evolved, changing its shape, from fixed line telephone calls to IM to SMS to social networks to content sharing. But at the core of those various types of interactions lie the fundamental needs to communicate.
In other words, when we boil down the human interaction to nodes (people) and lines (communication), the real value might lie in the lines, rather than in the nodes. Traditional thinking from social networking put a lot more values in the nodes, asking people to produce as much content as possible and publicly share them.
But we know people are all too busy for that. The initial interest and fun of producing/sharing content on the web wears off, hence the "fatigue". But people might get tired of producing content, but they will never get tired of communication with other people, and a more efficient means of communication will only help there. So the right question is perhaps, how can social network evolve in a way that can make communication between people more effective?
3. Profile-based recommendation: Is it the future?
Is life always about personalized recommendations? If I like Red Sox, Jazz, Apple Macbook Pro, should I get recommendations on those stuff for the rest of my life? One of my professors bought a present for on his friend's birthday, and this friend happened to be a gay (the professor is not). As a result, the professor gets recommendations on new products for gays all the time!!
I think life consists as much of stumble-upons and serendipities as it does of personalizations and recommendations. I think human life is much more complex than what machines and algorithms can infer, calculate, or let alone predict. IMHO, the only possible way of satisfying the needs for both personalized recommendation and stumble upons (even "pleasantly whacky" suggestions) would be from the friends who know a person well. I think this is where the current social networks isn't capitalizing on the potential effectively, and can therefore evolve into.
Here, I am quickily adding some thoughs on the piece.
1. Facebook will cool down, but won't go away anytime soon either
In Korea, 90%+ people were already using Cyworld even before Myspace and Facebook became widely known in the US. Therefore, looking at how Cyworld is doing now in Korea might give some clue as to how Facebook and Myspace will be doing in some years later.
The answer is, Cyworld is still doing okay. Of course the novelty is long gone, and people don't put up their content as religiously as they did before. Many people leave Cyworld complaining their "Cyworld fatigue". But, one thing to be remembered is, kids are growing - i.e. constant influx of new users.
In Cyworld's case, as I mentioned in my CNN piece, the service sees a constant stream of new users - mainly early-teenage girls. Twelve year old girls would do whatever they think 20 year old girls do, like putting on a makeup, and Cyworld is one of them. I think this will apply to Facebook as well - college is the environment where there's a constant influx of new people. I can't agree more that Facebook won't last forever (nothing does), but I also think it won't disappear overnight eiter.
2. Will social networks last?
I think a longer-lasting concept than social networking is "communication". People have always wanted to stay in touch. Communication between people have always evolved, changing its shape, from fixed line telephone calls to IM to SMS to social networks to content sharing. But at the core of those various types of interactions lie the fundamental needs to communicate.
In other words, when we boil down the human interaction to nodes (people) and lines (communication), the real value might lie in the lines, rather than in the nodes. Traditional thinking from social networking put a lot more values in the nodes, asking people to produce as much content as possible and publicly share them.
But we know people are all too busy for that. The initial interest and fun of producing/sharing content on the web wears off, hence the "fatigue". But people might get tired of producing content, but they will never get tired of communication with other people, and a more efficient means of communication will only help there. So the right question is perhaps, how can social network evolve in a way that can make communication between people more effective?
3. Profile-based recommendation: Is it the future?
Is life always about personalized recommendations? If I like Red Sox, Jazz, Apple Macbook Pro, should I get recommendations on those stuff for the rest of my life? One of my professors bought a present for on his friend's birthday, and this friend happened to be a gay (the professor is not). As a result, the professor gets recommendations on new products for gays all the time!!
I think life consists as much of stumble-upons and serendipities as it does of personalizations and recommendations. I think human life is much more complex than what machines and algorithms can infer, calculate, or let alone predict. IMHO, the only possible way of satisfying the needs for both personalized recommendation and stumble upons (even "pleasantly whacky" suggestions) would be from the friends who know a person well. I think this is where the current social networks isn't capitalizing on the potential effectively, and can therefore evolve into.
