My Widget Wad

Today’s landscape of online social networks is vast and fragmented. How many profiles can a social human really endure before networking fatigue takes over? The great value of online communities lies in connections between people, yet many social networks today function solely to gather as many members as possible, pulling those people away from other competing communities.

So, I have begun a dangerous experiment. Today I embark on a journey to sign up for every social network that ever there was. So far I have accounts on almost 30 of them. I have my Facebook account, a MySpace page, a LinkedIn account, and the list goes on. I am collecting cut-and-paste widgets from every network I join, like they were postcards or treasured little travel mementos. I am documenting my journeys by sticking a widget or button from each community onto one single page on my website. One long JavaScript nightmare of a page. By the time I am done, I will be in possession of The Largest Widget Wad on the Internet.

I have so far learned this: I want to own my profile. My data is mine. But, I really want to share it with people across the world thru online communities. Each service basically asks for the same data. Sure, each service has a unique twist…so just ask me the questions that are different. I want a social pass key that will allow me into all of these sites easily. I want to be able to walk up to the Flickr community door, step in (with extremely minor verification/signup requirements) and start socializing. My data follows me, but when I am in different virtual locations, I want access to different functionality. My experience with my SecondLife 3D avatar will be different than my Jobster account, but each will be fed by my latest data.


Facebook understands this and has opened their API to outside developers. Will their dominance translate into what some are dubbing the operating system for social networks? Will this create a vast playground of socializing on a Facebook platform, with a few rouge, anti-Facebook communities going “off-the-grid”?

There are already a number of companies providing aggregation software which will gather all your data and even update all your social network profiles at the same time. Do you have a new favorite band and an unstoppable desire to share it with 9,000 of your closest friends? Just click on over to ProfileLinker, OtherEgo or Profilactic and use their services to socially network with your social networks.

Open source efforts are also attempting to create a viable standard. For example, the volunteers at Open ID are attempting to create a URL-like ID for individuals. This group describes itself as, "an open, decentralized, free framework for user-centric digital identity."

Other sites like Ning, MyLifeBrand, GoingOn and CrowdVine allow users to create their own social networks, fragmenting the community even further.

So I stand here before you with a pledge. Until I get my social pass key, my Widget Wad will continue to grow long and tall. I will continue to add silly widgets from every community I join until the spaghetti code of the page grows so unruly that it takes over the whole dang web!

This is a call for an extensible social networking language with personal data-sharing protocols. I demand it. Don’t make me use my wad!

On Digital Steroids

Since when did we say it was alright to feed performance-enhancing drugs to our sweet, little computers? Everywhere I look, each application boasts that it is like another application, yet much better (and apparently muscled and covered in veins). My new product is like your product...on steroids.

I think I require a more creative way to describe new technology. Let's develop an amazing new way of talking about computer topics. Some hyper-detailed way of telling others about digital news. Like exposition...on steroids.

A simple Google search for the term "on steroids" with qualifying words such as "digital" or "computer industry" reveals over two million mentions.

This month, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted that WiMax has been called a "WiFi on Steroids".

Forbes magazine has described LinkedIn as "networking on steroids." I've been to plenty of business networking events and, believe me, the last thing I want to see is this crowd in some amped-up state. They are bad enough on martinis.

This all gets more surreal when talking about Web 2.0 companies with funny names. "Pownce is kinda like Twitter but on Steroids." See what I mean?

Complicating the comparison further is the tendency to compare a product to another product that has already claimed to be like a third product on steroids. For example, if "Google Video is like Flickr on steroids", and "Flickr is like iPhoto on steroids", then is Google Video like iPhoto on a double dose of steroids? And if Zooomr is "a Flickr on steroids", does that mean that Zoomr is taking steroid with Google?

We all know what happens after years of steroid use. People become cranky, violent and begin to degenerate. Is that what will happen to our hardware and software? Don't do digital drugs!

LinkedIn Competition

Some of the more successful social networks to emerge are focused on a specific audience. For example, business networking sites have taken common tools found on community sites and created value by connecting professionals in new and useful ways.

LinkedIn is the big kid on the block and has become extremely popular. It gains value as more users join.

I have also found biznik to be useful. They bill themselves as "Business networking that doesn't suck." Their software allows professionals to arrange in-person events and promote them.

For those in the media industry, there is MediaBistro.com. They are "career and community for media professionals." They've done a good job of raising awareness of their services in Seattle by throwing networking parties in local bars.

Some organizations are taking the next logical step by creating their own social networks using enterprise social networking tools from companies like Connectbeam who talk of harnessing the collective mind of your company.

We'll have to wait and see if anyone can catch the front runner, LinkedIn. They have a huge community, but will some upstart with better tools swoop in to steal the show?