Teh Internets: March 2008 Archives
When the weekly market or bazaar opened in a town, the owners of the stalls who were selling their wares anticipated that people would come into town from all over the region, so they would have a large customer base. The last thing they wanted to do was to stand around and have coffee with the other stall-owners all day. It's the same thing with an online community. A NOLA community is not about a bunch of established bloggers reading and commenting on each other's blogs; that's going to happen anyway. A community site is like the market; the goal is to attract a wide audience.
A more modern metaphor to the bazaar would be the shopping mall. Even established stores with other locations will open up in a mall, because the concentration of options for the buyer means (hopefully) a lot of customers. Again, the store owners don't want their employees standing in the entrance chatting with the folks who work down the mall, they expect the location to attract a wide range of customers. A shopping mall offers a number of options for a business owner. You can open up a very small storefront, or lease enough space for this to become your primary location.
The "stall owners" in an online community site have the same options. They can maintain a minimal presence on the site, say one blog entry every couple of weeks. Perhaps they'll go further than that and post every few days, or even post the one-per-day blog entry maximum. Unlike the mall, there are no financial limitations here; everyone can post the maximum if they choose. The site's FP bloggers may even post more frequently, depending on scheduling.
Who will occupy the stalls in the bazaar? Initially established bloggers will share their content with the community. Think of this as the restaurant that opens up a small outlet in the mall food court. They cook everything up at their main location and bring it over for sale at the mall. If "business" picks up (indicated by the number of recommendations and comments received), a blogger will no doubt put more time and effort into the writing they do for the community.
The hope here is that others will come into the community to read and comment. There's nothing that says they have to blog themselves, just come in and participate. As a reader's interest level increases, no doubt they'll be inspired to start blogging. For example, if an established blogger does a post on Da Saints, a community member might realize that they have enough knowledge to chime in and be as credible as the blogger. Eventually we may even see Front Page bloggers who have "come up through the ranks" in this manner.
It's not about bloggers, it's about people. With a platform and structure that facilitate community participation, non-blogger users of Teh Internetz will discover that the community site is more attractive than the foulness of nola.com.
A more modern metaphor to the bazaar would be the shopping mall. Even established stores with other locations will open up in a mall, because the concentration of options for the buyer means (hopefully) a lot of customers. Again, the store owners don't want their employees standing in the entrance chatting with the folks who work down the mall, they expect the location to attract a wide range of customers. A shopping mall offers a number of options for a business owner. You can open up a very small storefront, or lease enough space for this to become your primary location.
The "stall owners" in an online community site have the same options. They can maintain a minimal presence on the site, say one blog entry every couple of weeks. Perhaps they'll go further than that and post every few days, or even post the one-per-day blog entry maximum. Unlike the mall, there are no financial limitations here; everyone can post the maximum if they choose. The site's FP bloggers may even post more frequently, depending on scheduling.
Who will occupy the stalls in the bazaar? Initially established bloggers will share their content with the community. Think of this as the restaurant that opens up a small outlet in the mall food court. They cook everything up at their main location and bring it over for sale at the mall. If "business" picks up (indicated by the number of recommendations and comments received), a blogger will no doubt put more time and effort into the writing they do for the community.
The hope here is that others will come into the community to read and comment. There's nothing that says they have to blog themselves, just come in and participate. As a reader's interest level increases, no doubt they'll be inspired to start blogging. For example, if an established blogger does a post on Da Saints, a community member might realize that they have enough knowledge to chime in and be as credible as the blogger. Eventually we may even see Front Page bloggers who have "come up through the ranks" in this manner.
It's not about bloggers, it's about people. With a platform and structure that facilitate community participation, non-blogger users of Teh Internetz will discover that the community site is more attractive than the foulness of nola.com.
If you've ever worked on a group project, you know how difficult it is to produce a quality product when everyone is an equal. Even on a jury, someone is elected foreman, to facilitate communication with the judge. Successful developments in many fields are solo efforts, dual-partnerships at best. Development by committee rarely produces a quality product.
This project will be a sole proprietorship from a business standpoint. That doesn't mean this is will be a top-down dictatorship, mind you; I see two roles of the site owner. The first deals with the legal/financial aspects of any business. Because I'm using my bandwidth (seashell software's business account with Cox), and my server, initial startup costs are small. This is one of the reasons I can move forward quickly. I'm going to continue to lay out the vision I have for the site in more essays, but the short version from the business side is that I'd love to see it make lots of money from blogads/adsense/whatever, as well as contributions from the community. The ultimate goal here is to generate the revenue to be able to do what Markos does, sponsor paid fellowships for FP bloggers and have a paid tech support person.
The second role is the whole buck-stops-here thing. Again, I don't see this role as a top-down dictatorship, but rather as an ultimate arbitrator for the community. There will be times when decisions will have to be made, and I'll be the ultimate court of appeal in those circumstances. The goal here is for me to be the ultimate appeal; hopefully the decisions will work themselves out at the community level first.
To return to the bazaar metaphor, I'm the guy who owns the property where the bazaar is set up. You own your stall, and the contents in side it. The rules of the bazaar are worked out amongst the various stall-owners. They also (for the most part) set the standards for conduct amongst themselves. When they cannot work things out, they turn to the owner of the property.
In terms of site management, I welcome input. The process will always be transparent.
Comments are once again turned off; go to the Forums to discuss, please.
This project will be a sole proprietorship from a business standpoint. That doesn't mean this is will be a top-down dictatorship, mind you; I see two roles of the site owner. The first deals with the legal/financial aspects of any business. Because I'm using my bandwidth (seashell software's business account with Cox), and my server, initial startup costs are small. This is one of the reasons I can move forward quickly. I'm going to continue to lay out the vision I have for the site in more essays, but the short version from the business side is that I'd love to see it make lots of money from blogads/adsense/whatever, as well as contributions from the community. The ultimate goal here is to generate the revenue to be able to do what Markos does, sponsor paid fellowships for FP bloggers and have a paid tech support person.
The second role is the whole buck-stops-here thing. Again, I don't see this role as a top-down dictatorship, but rather as an ultimate arbitrator for the community. There will be times when decisions will have to be made, and I'll be the ultimate court of appeal in those circumstances. The goal here is for me to be the ultimate appeal; hopefully the decisions will work themselves out at the community level first.
To return to the bazaar metaphor, I'm the guy who owns the property where the bazaar is set up. You own your stall, and the contents in side it. The rules of the bazaar are worked out amongst the various stall-owners. They also (for the most part) set the standards for conduct amongst themselves. When they cannot work things out, they turn to the owner of the property.
In terms of site management, I welcome input. The process will always be transparent.
Comments are once again turned off; go to the Forums to discuss, please.
It may come back to haunt you like it has Hizzoner of Detroit:
The mayor of Detroit has been charged with perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office, stemming from a sex scandal six years ago. Kwame Kilpatrick, 37, who says he will fight the charges, could face up to 15 years in jail if convicted. He was charged after sexually explicit text messages surfaced that appeared to contradict his sworn denials of an affair with a top aide in 2002.As soon as your stuff enters the "telco cloud," it's no longer yours. Never forget that.
...but there are exceptions to every rule:
Notorious spammer Robert Soloway faces an extended spell behind bars after pleading guilty to fraud and tax evasion charges last Friday. Soloway, 28, from Seattle, has previously been found guilty of sending spam in several civil cases, most notably when Microsoft won a $7.8m judgement against him back in 2005. But he's always avoided paying fines. Now, however, the man authorities have described as the "King of Spam" (arguably one of the most overused phrases in computer security) is in far more serious trouble. As well as facing a maximum sentence of 26 years behind bars, Soloway faces the indignity of being questioned about where he's stashed his ill-gotten gains while being monitored by a lie-detector.Now, put this clown in REAL federal prison rather than Club Fed for six months to a year. If he survives, parole him, making one of the conditions that he go around telling other wannabe spammers, phishers, and other assorted geek-criminals what it's like to be a prison bitch. Maybe that will stop some of them.
this article in El Reg amused me:
to quote the ole perfesser (who is so Web 1.0 these days), heh, indeed.
As far as I am concerned, the Google fellas - what with their creepy brain replication goals, ads on your eyelids and we know more about you than your colon goals - should have unseated Gates. The public, however, refuses to grant Sergey Brin or Larry Page most hated status. Some colored balls, jeans and donations apparently go pretty far toward engendering goodwill. Aspiring dictators please take note.
But now we have Zuckerberg who combines arrogance, robot-like anti-charisma, immense paper wealth, creepy software, youth, intelligence, casual attire, calculating behavior, a spoiled child background, charges that he stole ideas from acquaintances and a general ignorance about why any of this matters to anyone in just the right quantities.
to quote the ole perfesser (who is so Web 1.0 these days), heh, indeed.
hell, I was just getting into the old Facebook, now we've got a new one? Well, there's always going to be a cutting edge. One neat thing about hanging out on-line with the NOLA Blogging crowd is that several are further ahead of the curve than me, so I can go along for the ride.
