Social Networks Will Be Like Air
The future of social networks is a highly debated topic. At SXSW Interactive 2009 Charlene Li, co-author of Groundswell provided her own insights about the future of social networks: social networks will be like air.
In her presentation Li said that the original purpose for the Internet was a social one, not a technical one. She contends that all online experiences will be social and that interaction won’t only happen on “social networks”. She referenced Current TV’s election coverage as a great example of TV becoming social.
She contends that for social networks to be like air you need three things: identity, contacts and activities. Regardless if you agree or disagree, Charlene made some excellent points. For the full recap and experience of her presentation I have embed her slides and included a link to the audio of her presentation.
Is Facebook The One To Rule Them All?
Last week I was in Austin, TX for SXSW Interactive, one of the year’s top interactive conferences. This post is one of several I will be writing to talk about the major developments revealed at SXSW.
One of the first big announcements of the show was from Facebook. Dave Morin from Facebook delivered the news that changes to the Facebook API would now allow iPhone developers to connect their applications directly to Facebook. This simple announcement has huge implications across the web. Facebook Connect is the platform’s killer feature.
With access to Facebook connect on the iPhone a user can now login with a Facebook ID, share info from the app on the news feed and many other social features. However, this move makes Facebook’s future goals clear. They want to become the social ID for the Internet. They want every application on every platform to use Facebook Connect to make that application “social”.
Is this possible? Only time will tell if Facebook can become the one ID to rule them all.
For those of you who could be at SXSW you can listen to audio of Dave Morin’s presentation.
