Comments on: Social media frenzy may kill high quality content. Somebody fix this!

By: Information Sharecroppers of the World, Unite ! ? « Joe Duck

Information Sharecroppers of the World, Unite ! ? « Joe Duck — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:11:27 +0000

[...] can lead to some information “sharecropper” dissent. As I pointed out yesterday social media is a great thing, but it seems to be dramatically failing to fund the very forces that make it a [...]

By: FoolsGold

FoolsGold — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 11:02:34 +0000

Yes, Venture Capitalists often have more losers than winners but they tend to cut off funding fairly promptly to the losers and they score big whenever they have a winner. The point with a Venture Capitalist is that they tend to have these MBA types who focus on ratios and markets and don’t really focus to much on luck and whimsy. Yet it seems that the sliderule approach for some reason would have favored Friendster but someone else prospered.

I recently had occasion to use MySpace briefly. It was obscenely grotesque in its colored graphics, barely legible, annoying spaced on the screen and contained rather large graphics either as personal logos or as spam-ads for ringtones posted as if they were personal comments from friends. What does the marketplace see in it?

Perhaps an apt analogy would be the ever-present corkboard at a local market or coffee shop: all the locals post their businesscards there and its a jumbled mess with insufficient thumbtacks and excessive notices by a few but its the only corkboard in the area because there is only one coffee shop or greasy spoon in the neighborhood.
Does this jumbled conglomeration of cards and flyers really have such value?

By: JoeDuck

JoeDuck — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 03:03:25 +0000

FG I think several of the VC folks I’ve met down there would agree that luck plays a very big role, though I think you are exactly right that they can’t make that case too strongly and pretty much have to say that “hard work and brilliance” are far more important than luck and can be determined through careful VC analysis. I would not agree but I’m not managing any $100,000,000 venture funds, either.

The most interesting thing I’ve heard from VCs is that on average a VC *loses* money. If true this is really strong support for my idea that you can’t predict which companies will win and which will be losers.

By: FoolsGold

FoolsGold — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 00:10:15 +0000

timing, luck, whimsy…
Sounds like alot of things: movie starlets, “in”-nightclubs, ladies fashions, etc.

Alot goes to the first one to have an idea, but except for a trademarked name, anyone can create a MySpace site. Its populating with users. VanessaFox recommends the enlisting of the dedicated “locals” to provide a core content. Well, I mentioned nightclubs. A good many places are “in” due to herd behavior and club promoters. So maybe Search Optimization will be best done by Touts for the Trendy, Inc.
Why did Friendster fail and a competitor or so prosper? Timing, luck and whimsy? Its probably true, but can you imagine the heads that will roll in Silicon Valley’s Venture Capitalist circles if return on investment is due mainly to Timing, Luck and Whimsy?

By: JoeDuck

JoeDuck — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:37:35 +0000

… insignificant chatter seems of little real value but the platform is what has value and it has value mainly due to the existing database of contributors

Yes, right FG. I would argue that the value of the platform is far less than the value of the collective contributor base because most of the current online platforms are – from a technical standpoint – reproducible at a modest amount. Google has a great search product but without the traffic they’d be worth a fraction of current valuation. Interesting to look at in all this is the rise and fall of social pioneer Friendster.com – once considered the next big thing and now considered a big failure. A lot hinges on timing, luck, and whimsy.

By: FoolsGold

FoolsGold — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 19:45:42 +0000

Social Media such as MySpace seems to a conglomeration of people chatting with each other about thier nightclub adventures and career endeavors. Such insignificant chatter seems of little real value but the platform is what has value and it has value mainly due to the existing database of contributors.

By: google » Social media frenzy may kill high quality content. Somebody fix this!

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 19:43:33 +0000

[...] legend393 wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSocial media frenzy may kill high quality content. Somebody fix this! The news last month that Microsoft may wind up offering Facebook $500,000,000 for a 5% stake is great news … for the tiny number of Facebook insiders who stand to gain from this move which would effectively value the social media giant at about $10,000,000,000 [...]

By: microsoft » Social media frenzy may kill high quality content. Somebody fix this!

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 19:33:07 +0000

[...] Office Enterprise wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe news last month that Microsoft may wind up offering Facebook $500,000,000 for a 5% stake is great news for the tiny number of Facebook insiders who stand to gain from this move which would effectively value the social media giant at about $10,000,000,000. For the millions of Facebook folks like me who provide the content and faces that drive Facebook it means um more advertising. Gee, thanks Facebook. When people wake up they may start to realize that we ve got [...]