Some food for thought
- Why should all networks looks the same boring fuddyduddy facebook pages or groups?
- Why should network control (of content and users) be centralized and non-transparent?
- Why should only 1 network operator monetize the network utility when the heavy lifting is done by the content creator?
- The current concentration of power in FAANG etc is to the detriment of humanity, journalism, democracy and sustainability
Distributed (social) networks
- Perhaps the solution is distributed, interoperable networks using a common core
- Each network is built, owned & monetized by its own operator with its own rules and ethos, and of course visual look and feel
- While being served by the underlying system and software PaaS - MainCross
MainCross as a network of networks
As 100s and 1000s of network sites spring up using MC, what we have actually achieved is a network of networks aka the meta network. The benefits are enormous:
Shared infrastructure, protocol & processes
The network layer infrastructure, protocols & processes once build are reusable and shared across the network of networks, and everyone benefits from the best in class technology, user-experience and most importantly, the learning. Creating (and then sustaining) thriving networks is hard, its not for the faint of heart - so the meta network itself can help the network owners with tools, tips, training, strategies, funding etc to launch, grow and sustain their network.
The technology and server infrastructure itself being shared across many networks (tenants as they are called in the SaaS world) also bring special benefits by reducing costs for everyone, reducing latency for all*, reducing the disparity between peaks and troughs, etc
* It may be counter intuitive, but a busier infrastructure has lower latency for many use cases due to caching benefits at the edge.
Reuse paradigms of interaction across the network of networks
One of the reasons why popular sites are well... popular is because of the uniformity of interaction across the site and its elements. One knows that certain aspects will behave the same way, or buttons will do the same thing, or controls will work the same way.
Now contrast that with the zillions of websites out there, each creating and recreating various interaction patterns to suit their needs, but causing endless confusion in the user's mind and forcing yet another learning experience.
Sidenote: Have you ever wondered why there is such a howl from users whenever a popular site design changes - this has happened to Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and so on. One reason could be familiarity - users gets used to doing things in a certain way, there's muscle memory, there's recognition of a screen layout and elements and after a while no thought needs to be put to perform certain actions repeatedly.
So one of the guiding principles for the networks of networks approach is to tap into this concept of uniformity of interaction and familiarity that it brings. Imagine hopping from one MainCross network to another - each of which may do very different things - but at the same time have similar patterns of interaction that make members and users feel at ease, and reduce the learning curve immensely.
Powerful content feed
Imagine a user’s content feed coming not just from one network but from 100s of disparate networks that are powered by MainCross.
So one can say – hey I like local politics in this territory and gardening information and clothes that are created by this artisan and updates from my family network.
By just subscribing to channels across networks (not people but channels), one can get an endless variety of content, seamlessly delivered in the feed.
AFAIK there is nothing like this anywhere in the world. This is a game changer.
Network discoverability and traffic
Once we start talking at the level of the meta network, it has an inbuilt powerful mechanism to aid network discoverability and drive traffic.
A prime reason why people flock to social media sites (or professional sites like Linkedin) is due to the network effect, and the crux of being human in today's world is after all participating in the attention economy. Who does not get a thrill out of getting some attention - likes, comments, shares, follows, views - these are the cheap thrills and micro-rewards that make up our life today. So the fact that there is an endless supply of viewers and micro-rewards, leads to traction, which leads to engagement, which leads to stickiness - the holy grail of networks.
Why is this not doable outside the giant techbro networks? Of course it is, and the network of networks approach may help solve this:
- by allowing networks to be discovered using various ways - geography based, gamified ways (what we call NetworkPulse), or curated, or promoted.
- by allowing users and members to seamlessly move between networks
- and finally driving traffic to the networks via a holistic and integrated approach
