Mood:
a-okTopic: Action networks = success
Facebook began as the tool of the outsiders at Harvard. It asked questions of the insiders. It linked the outsiders, who created it, to the insiders who ran the place. The potential to retain that profile still existed within the company when they prototyped Facebook Questions at Davos. Facebook sectioned off a community of Facebook users to interact live within Sessions held by the world's most famous insiders at Davos. This select Facebook community could participate at Davos in real time discussion. This innovation did not stick but it is one that might be worth revisiting at some point in the future.
As we know Facebook went on to become, like everything else on the web, a domain for the insiders. It is insiders who dominate social networks and this is why it is so boring, stagnant (full of groupthink), and tribal. If you don't have a pressing need to 'belong' then Facebook offers little to you. And yet, Facebook was created by two guys who did not ever feel they belonged at Harvard.
Social networks are tribal whether web-based or face-to-face. They exist to reinforce what everyone believes about the world. They support those who belong. They shun those who have no need to belong and thus pass on many opportunities to embrace diversity, difference, or innovation.
