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Facebook killed most of the old social communities. The big ones where very lucrative basically swimming in cash, they where only replaced by a bigger fish. The

by z3t4 9y ago

Facebook killed most of the old social communities. The big ones where very lucrative basically swimming in cash, they where only replaced by a bigger fish. The non profit forums and IRC channels are still alive. What worries me though is that so many people use smartphones instead of work-station computers. With a smartphone you are mostly a consumer/by-stander. While on a work-station you are actively taking part by both producing and consuming. There are a lot of really high quality content produced by professionals for profit. But the best content and Internet culture is still made by "ordinary" people for the love of sharing. I hope the good content is not buried by monetized content. There should be more "Hacker News" and less Google and Facebook ads.

r3bl 9y ago
And you've just described how Instagram and Snapchat took off. You don't need a work-station to post the content. All you need is a camera and a couple of seconds of your life and you're contributing something. Sure, that content might be crappy photo of your breakfast or a short video of you puking rainbow, but it's a content that regular people submitted with little or no effort simply because they had a phone with a camera that they spend most of their time on the Internet on, not a laptop or a desktop.
- z3t4 9y ago
  Uploading photos is not that impressive. You've been able to do that on a PC from the 90's. While it has been interesting to see the 90's repeat itself on the phones, the smartphone's hardware have already surpassed, and there's really no excuse to have such a limited io-interface. The problem is the big players are just fine with their users being just consumers. One step in the right direction is the note (pen/stylus input) devices that give much better precision then using your thumbs, which makes it possible to take advantage of all that screen resolution. What we'll see next is an extra fold-able screen that will give more screen real estate. And general purpose hardware buttons on the sides and back, that apps can use for special functionality. And better voice processing using camera plus mic, so you can talk to the phone.
- ilammy 9y ago
  I believe the point is that with workstations you get more of a verbal culture, not visual. You have to put more effort into a quality textual post than into a crappy photo of your breakfast. Accessing Internet via phones contributes to the vicious cycle: it's not very convenient to write and read text, you'd better post a photo or watch a video.

by z3t4 9y ago

r3bl 9y ago

And you've just described how Instagram and Snapchat took off. You don't need a work-station to post the content. All you need is a camera and a couple of seconds of your life and you're contributing something. Sure, that content might be crappy photo of your breakfast or a short video of you puking rainbow, but it's a content that regular people submitted with little or no effort simply because they had a phone with a camera that they spend most of their time on the Internet on, not a laptop or a desktop.

z3t4 9y ago
Uploading photos is not that impressive. You've been able to do that on a PC from the 90's. While it has been interesting to see the 90's repeat itself on the phones, the smartphone's hardware have already surpassed, and there's really no excuse to have such a limited io-interface. The problem is the big players are just fine with their users being just consumers. One step in the right direction is the note (pen/stylus input) devices that give much better precision then using your thumbs, which makes it possible to take advantage of all that screen resolution. What we'll see next is an extra fold-able screen that will give more screen real estate. And general purpose hardware buttons on the sides and back, that apps can use for special functionality. And better voice processing using camera plus mic, so you can talk to the phone.
ilammy 9y ago
I believe the point is that with workstations you get more of a verbal culture, not visual. You have to put more effort into a quality textual post than into a crappy photo of your breakfast. Accessing Internet via phones contributes to the vicious cycle: it's not very convenient to write and read text, you'd better post a photo or watch a video.