Status as a Service

One of Web 2.0’s most crucial lessons is that extractive business models cannot be masked by marketing for very long. This is doubly true when the community itself is part of what people are paying for. Users will quickly turn on network operators if they sense hypocrisy or are given no voice in the development of the service. I am least optimistic... See more

Twitter let us tweet about the show before anyone else. Instagram lets us post a photo from the undiscovered holiday spot. But these techniques had two issues. First, they required a certain degree of obnoxious spamminess. For someone to notice your coolness, you had to broadcast it to everybody, and, well, that’s not that cool. Second, for the mos... See more

Right now, and for the foreseeable future, follower graphs on centralized social networks are a source of significant and enduring value. We see in every dimension of our society how efficiently that influence can be translated into financial, political and cultural gain. So to ask our question another way: Will there be a time when most users’ on-... See more