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The internet is communication technology, and communication technology is network-effect-heavy. The value of "The Web" and "The Internet" is more than proporti

The internet is communication technology, and communication technology is network-effect-heavy. The value of "The Web" and "The Internet" is more than proportional to the number of people using it. Email is useful only when the person you are messaging has email. So... If much of the web (by usage) exists on Facebook, much of its value exists on Facebook. That value is under Facebook's control, logorithmically to scale.

indigochill 9y ago
>much of its value exists on Facebook This depends on how you define value. If you're talking about advertising revenue, then yes (and bizarrely other services let you authenticate through them, which I still don't understand). But if you're talking about the exchange of practical information, then Facebook's pretty meager and sites with technical documentation or Q&A are much better (for software developers, anyway). I don't believe network effect is one-size-fits-all. Facebook is fine for keeping up with casual acquaintances. But if you want to find a local group with shared interests, then you may have better luck on Meetup. Or if you want to share Q&A with other developers, Stack Overflow is probably better. Each one has its own domain within which it's king.
- originalsimba 9y ago
  I've found a lot of technical documentation on people's personal blogs. Some bit of code they wrote or some problem they solved. We can socially encourage this kind of approach.
  - indigochill 9y ago
    Yep, that's great too. There is a challenge there, which is finding that information on personal blogs in the first place. That's been solved with search engines so far. I'm curious if a more distributed, network-oriented approach might work. Basically the Bacon number applied to information.
originalsimba 9y ago
If people have a means to extract their Facebook posts and publish their content on their own blogs, then that value isn't really under Facebook control. It's a symbiotic relationship, and it's a safe bet that if Facebook were to make the wrong moves, the users would simply leave. Indeed that's been happening in recent months over privacy concerns and other things.

indigochill 9y ago

>much of its value exists on Facebook This depends on how you define value. If you're talking about advertising revenue, then yes (and bizarrely other services let you authenticate through them, which I still don't understand). But if you're talking about the exchange of practical information, then Facebook's pretty meager and sites with technical documentation or Q&A are much better (for software developers, anyway). I don't believe network effect is one-size-fits-all. Facebook is fine for keeping up with casual acquaintances. But if you want to find a local group with shared interests, then you may have better luck on Meetup. Or if you want to share Q&A with other developers, Stack Overflow is probably better. Each one has its own domain within which it's king.

originalsimba 9y ago
I've found a lot of technical documentation on people's personal blogs. Some bit of code they wrote or some problem they solved. We can socially encourage this kind of approach.
- indigochill 9y ago
  Yep, that's great too. There is a challenge there, which is finding that information on personal blogs in the first place. That's been solved with search engines so far. I'm curious if a more distributed, network-oriented approach might work. Basically the Bacon number applied to information.

originalsimba 9y ago

If people have a means to extract their Facebook posts and publish their content on their own blogs, then that value isn't really under Facebook control. It's a symbiotic relationship, and it's a safe bet that if Facebook were to make the wrong moves, the users would simply leave. Indeed that's been happening in recent months over privacy concerns and other things.