An open letter to Steve Ballmer

Steve Ballmer left a note on our blog about Social Networking.

Its a fad like hot pants and Bellbottoms

So I thought I would take my comment and post it because there seems perhaps to be some misunderstanding.

Dear Steve,

Thanks for dropping by. But its not a fad for some very critical reasons. We are a We Species. Human beings have an innate need to connect and communicate. So whilst many of you get excited about the monetising of the technology, its not the technology that is driving these interactions. So in fact its not web 2.0 blah blah, its a "We Media" for a "We Species." Further, in our advanced economic age, our identities that were once formed by external forces; where we were born, the immediate geography, social customs, religion, and industries related to that area, no longer is the reality. In a post modern world people can have many selves... this is called Psychological Self Determination , the ability to exert control of the things that mean the most to me. These people Gen "C" the Community Generation, demand a high degree of influence and participation over the things that mean the most to them. And in fact people are happier communing with each other Thats is why we witness the rise of festivals. Glastonbury sold out in 90 minutes.

Its the end of the read only culture and the end to information fuedalism. It is in fact been described as an evolving historic act of liberation.

Gen "C" go on a quest for identity, otherwise they become very noisy ghosts in the machine. As a consequence through our super connected world, people are connecting to the thnigs that resonate with them, they seek out the things that mean the most to them.

If your focus is Myspace and Facebook et al, then maybe you might win a few points, however on this blog you will find deep insights into why our world today is about engagement, participation, co-creation, Prosumersim, shared knowledge production . Yochai Benkler calls it the Wealth of Networks. This the world of Linux of Open Gardens vs. Walled Gardens. This is about shared and aggregated knowledge/culture vs. proprietary knowledge and DRM.

We see the "Social networking" benefitng science (SIPHS) Leveraging the Knowledge of Our Peers: Online Communities Hold the Promise to Enhance Scientific Research

We see the " wikinomics " of the developement of the Boeing 737, we see the BBC opening its API's at BBC backstage where people are co-creating exciting mashups, we see Team buying in China.

On an otherwise quiet Friday afternoon in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, 500 shoppers gather outside a Gome electrical superstore in the downtown district. They arrive en masse at the designated time—June 16th at 4pm—that they had previously agreed online. Several hours later, they emerge clutching boxes, having secured 10-30% discounts on cameras, DVD players and flat-screen televisions. “It was great,” says Fairy Zhang. “We just bought an apartment and this way we can afford nice things for it.” The previous weekend, over 100 locals visited Meizhu Central, a well known furniture outlet, to haggle over the prices of kitchen cabinets and dining-room furniture. Tuangou, or team buying, aims to drive unprecedented bargains by combining the reach of the internet with the power of the mob. It is spreading through China like wildfire. The practice originated in online chat-rooms but has quickly inspired several specialist websites, such as 51tuangou.com and teambuy.com Zhang Wei, who helped to set up teambuy less than six months ago, says the site has 10,000 registered members. The company plans to expand into Beijing and Shanghai.

We see the migration of retail politics to networked politics.

In fact Benkler argues

The economics of networked information production and the social practices of networked conversations fundamentally change the role that individuals can play in cultural and knowledge production and dissemination. The change wrought by the networked information environment is structural. It goes to the very foundations of how liberal markets and liberal democracies have coevolved for almost two centuries.

Peer to peer flows of communication are up to 10 times greater than all other web traffic depending on the time of day.

What did Jonathan Schwartz say about his 1000 bloggers at Sun Microsystems? That his 1000 bloggers have done more his company than a $1bn Ad campaign. He talks about transparency and trust, that via his 1000 bloggers there is a window into Sun through which people can observe a culture of honesty and tenacity. Microsoft has some 2500 bloggers are they not part of this "FAD"?

Is the Huffington Post or Current TV or OhMyNews all part of the Wealth of Networks? You can download the book for free Steve.

Oh and before I forgot 95% of all Korean teenagers belong to Cyworld and 40% of the entire Korean population belong to Cyworld. 50 Million people playing World of Warcraft and we know that education could be so incredibly improved by turning teaching into a more social/networked experience. Blogs, Podcasts, RSS feeds, open Api's, shared knowledge and aggregated information. Then there are companies like Threadless, Spreadshirt, MyNuMo all buiilt on co-creation. You see people embrace what they create.

The founder of Spreadshirt said we did not build Spreadshirt the comunity built Spreadshirt.

So its not the technology its the Community Stupid

If you would like to get together to exchange views I am more than happy to do that. Or read our blog or buy our book.

But thanks for dropping by :-)

Kind regards

Alan Moore

PS. Nobody is as clever as everybody

Comments

[William Volk]

How quickly they forget. This reminds me of the initial attitude at Microsoft in regards to the web. Maybe they even used the phrase "It's a Fad" at one point, I don't recall.

What I do recall is that Microsoft was caught sleeping and realized that they had to make a major change. On Dec. 7th, 1995 Microsoft held a company-wide "Internet Day" to make it clear how important they now considered the World Wide Web.

So, when they will hold a "Online Community Day?"

Maybe Steve just needs to relax and play some iPhone games on our portal. He might enjoy a round of iWhack.

http://mynumo.com/iphone/iwhack/iwhack.htm

[Jouko Ahvenainen]

Here is my prediction: Internet communities as we know them today are a fad, but social networks and communities will be a fundamental part of all Internet and mobile services and marketing.

I just flew from London to San Francisco and had time to read some articles and really thought this question. Communities like Facebook and MySpace are now very popular, but I see they are only the first step and still quite artificial social networking between people. Advertisers have seen the value already today, and we at Xtract also offer tools for find the right people and communities for each advertising campaign. Individual community services comes and disappears but the phenomenon itself will live.

But this is only a starting point. People have many other services they use daily in the Internet. They live with their mobiles 24/7. It cannot be so that your social activities and at the same time community marketing intelligence is limited only to certain web sites. Social network perception will be a fundamental part of everything people develop for the Internet and mobile in near future. And community marketing intelligence will live inside all services and platforms in the future to offer better usability and more relevant and effective advertising.