Cord over at MarketingHipster asked an interesting question and setup a little contest for the best answer.
“With all these opportunities out there, what is presently missing? What would you change? What would your blogging community look like? If you wished to run MyBlogLog what would you want it to be? The sky is the limit folks, make a wish and let me know your thoughts.”
One comment I would make about MBL, imo, is I think it lacks the real connection. If anything it just feels like another location to pimp your blog and try to get more exposure. Where’s the facilitation of conversation? Where’s the real availability of connection and purpose? MBL is kind of like a Blog version of myspace. On the opposite end of MBL you have 9Rules which is invite only, but has much, much more connection.
So, if blogging is about conversation, why don’t we start enhancing that?
“The Sphere.”
(facebookish, I know. It was a quick mockup and that’s what was in my PS color pallete)
What of making the blogosophere more real? This isn’t so much a new idea as it is a redesign and friction reduction of a few existing things.
Joining Spheres
A sphere would be a group that you could make either public (via request to join) or private (invite only). Bloggers can then join or create a “sphere” or part of the “blogosphere” where they can then opt in to be informed of new posts under a certain tag (or in general) from people’s blogs who are in the sphere.
Now /these/ are conversations
Conversations are tracked via trackbacks and comments. At the top of the post you’ll see a list of bloggers who are currently a part of the conversation through comments, trackbacks, and comments from the trackbacks. Likewise, under the posts title would be quick links to those comments, trackbacks, trackback comments, and everyone who was in the conversation. This could even be taken a step further to where people could comment on that sectional as a whole.
That’s my most fleshed out thought, though the idea may be a bit chaotic in terms of how it would actually work. I’ll update this as they come over the next day or so.
6 responses so far ↓
Daniel // April 19, 2007 at 3:35 pm |
Hey Nathan,
You should give BlogCatalog a shot, Were exclusive to bloggers and are working hard to create new ways for bloggers to make connections with other like-minded bloggers. Its a good balance between 9rules and MyBlogLog. Your ideas for “The Sphere” are fantastic! your wish may be answered sooner than you think.
Nathan // April 19, 2007 at 4:26 pm |
Thanks for the comment, Daniel!
Thanks for the info on blog catalog! I have heard of it briefly but never extensively enough to take a look at it. However, with your bit of information, I think i’ll do that :)
Answered wishes sooner than I think? Sounds neat ;)
Antony Berkman // April 19, 2007 at 7:04 pm |
Nathan,
Really interesting observations. Did you read the postings by Tristan Louis about “5 Reasons why Social Networks Fail”, and “5 Reasons why they Succeed”?
It seems like a major reason is what you refer to as “lack of real connection”, and what Tristan says about “in most social networks a users worth is based on number of connections, not the quality of the connections. This tends to drive a lot of people to try to connect to as many people as they can.”.
How does one create mechanisms for “real” connections on a site like MBL or BlogCatalog? Is the sphere the place where real connections are made? Do you think there should be barriers to how a connection is formed. eg. you have to both agree to connect? the blog owner has to agree to let someone into her neighborhood?
The posts by Tristan are located here
http://www.tnl.net/blog/2006/06/15/5-reasons-why-social-networks-fail/
Nathan // April 20, 2007 at 2:34 am |
Hey Antony!
Thanks for stopping by! Great to have you in the discussion, love the questions and added reading! Hope to see you in the conversations a bit more :)
I read Tristan’s post, and have some thoughts on it as well as some general thoughts but not a lot of time this evening. But i will see about getting my thoughts up here by tomorrow!
Antony Berkman // April 20, 2007 at 6:07 am |
Nathan,
Thanks :) Just last week we starting to put togehter a contest on BlogCatalog for ideas.
Perhaps now we won’t have to since it looks as between you & Cord we may get a bunch of great insight into the “dream” social network for bloggers.
What do you think about formalizing the challenge by offering some prizes or some other sort of incentive?
Perhaps the top idea bloggers receive a Premium Spot on BlogCatalog, combined with a cash award? The top 3 winners would be selected by you, BlogCatalog and Cord?
We have ideas though though the “sky is the limit” challenge may uncover many more interesting ideas and push the limits.
Nathan // April 21, 2007 at 4:33 pm |
Antony,
An interesting idea. I’d definitely be up for discussing it. I contacted Cord about it but haven’t heard from him- he may be a bit busy with work at the moment since he’s responded with a bit of haste in the past.
I think either way the “sky is the limit” type of challenge will render more results so long as its focus is very clearly set.
Sorry about the delay, I am busy with a few other things, trying to put a good response together :)