Facebook: One Social Graph To Rule Them All?

By Tom Foremski - October 26, 2007 Currently, Facebook seems to be emerging as the top dog social network, also called a "social graph." Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, said at the Graphing Social Patterns conference,"It is likely that there will be many social graphs, family, religeon, business. I'm not a big believer in just one social graph. It is very unlikely."

However, Mr Hoffman's scenario doesn't preclude one host of many social graphs, which Facebook is currently well positioned to provide.

Mr Hoffman said the challenges of social apps is to find something that is sustainable and can stay ahead of "me too" type applications.

He added that the economics of the Facebook platform are not yet clear but could become clearer as the platform evolves. He points out that there will be massive competition:

-Someone will try to give away anything you charge for.

-At least 3 people will copy anything that works.

-Competition will come from companies and individuals.

-Newness is extremely important and a challenge for developers.



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By Tom Foremski - October 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comment | Category: TechOne
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Comments (2)

Matt:

Some human interaction 'graphs' are not (purely) social. Anyone who has ever worked in a poorly-run large corporation knows how anti-social they can be.

The incentives for communicating/sharing/collaborating/interacting are fundamentally different in different environments.

Different design patterns will emerge for the different social graphs.

To say one size will fit all is foolish.

If you disagree try using SuperPoke to throw a sheep at your boss when you are unhappy with him. See if that gets you the raise you are looking for.

ps - As an ISV, why would I invest time develop apps for a platform where users expect everything for free? The nature of the platform (and their business model) diminishes the potential value of the apps that could extend it.



Thank you so much for posting this video.


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