If Facebook is the internet - then count me out

What dreadful, stale silos most mass social networks have become. A fad of the early 21st century?

(Inter)nationalise facebook...

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For a while facebook has been the de facto platform on which we have been building the social world. Recent announcements suggest it might become the platform where we build the semantic world of the future - a world of data.

Given this and the fact that these services are so fundemental to society, so key to the way in which we now (and will) function as human beings, it can't possibly stay in private hands.

It must be (inter)nationalised.

It is simply too dangerous to leave that much data - that much insight - in the hands of a private company. We in the UK should know - we have Experian - a business which by a quirk of fate, has access to private data in the UK which authorities in Europe and elsewhere would never begin to countenance (that access I would argue was one of the primary (and as yet undiscussed and undisclosed) reasons for such a severe financial meltdown in this country. Leverage was built on top of Experien data - and their faulty analysis of it).

If the general population was as aware of the power and sensitivy of the data they were sharing on facebook (as they are of their tax or health records) - there would be a mass migration away from the platform. In fact I would go further and suggest it is in facebook's interests to be at least part privatised, to legitimise the key aspects of its business model, and insulate it from more vocal calls for (inter)nationalisation.

borrowed relevance...

Josh Bernoff published a report recently here talking about "boring" brands.

It resonated with me - a lot of the brands I work with at Dig for fire are what he'd define as "boring" - healthcare providers, banks, government departments, building supply merchants and educational institutions - brands that certainly aren't going to be adopted by users just because they're "cool" (I'm aware just using the term "cool" - means I'm likely to be anything but...)

As someone at the coal face of always on marketing, tasked with getting these sorts of brands to exist online, I can attest to the fact that a lot of the issues on a day to day level, come down to brands not being comfortable with "borrowing relevance".

Its not about "cool". Its about convincing brands to get involved with what people are actually talking about, as opposed to what the brand would like them to be talking about.

In other words - there is possibly too much getting stuck up on the relevance of the marketing tactic and not enough understanding, that so long as whatever the application or technology employed (the application, viral, widget, newsfeed, weird bit of technology) resonates with the brand essence - in most cases, that's enough to start.....

So long as they're contributing in a positive way, a brand in unfamiliar territory is something users probably take more notice of, at least initially. Removing friends from your facebook account has got precious little to do with eating burgers but it reinforced Burger King's playful, cheeky brand values. On the other end of the scale, Keep Britain Tidy publishing data in RDF format has nothing directly to do with picking up litter, but being seen at the cutting edge of web 3.0 means the brand can have conversations it could never have had, had it stuck rigidly to its push messaging plan and segmentation model.

understanding creates participation

5 years ago I didn't write a blog - it was too much hassle - I couldn't see the point

Now, living and breathing the online and psychological worlds for so long - I find myself almost enjoying it (I have to admit - I love the thinking - I'm not so good at the structure / detail of committing my thoughts to virtual paper)

so I began to wonder what had changed - and it struck me that understanding had created participation.

obvious - but something I think we forget - I saw a stat today - 75% of 18-34 year old Amercians' are on facebook and Myspace

the cynic will tell you that 99% of them are just trying to get laid - but imagine what they'll all be doing in 5 years time....