Molecularist

A quick thought.

I keep seeing the Web getting away from mass folksonomy type apps, or apps that are openly community driven. I see more interest in what some around here call ‘ring-fencing’ services that only include folks the user knows.

For example, the impetus for Vox was to create tools to help people share and communicate with friends, without the random exposure to the public – basically blogging for me and mine.

I see Twitter as a form of presence – for me and mine.

I see folks controlling the number of friends in MySpace and Facebook down to ‘me and mine’.

So, when I look at these large collaborative filtering sites like Delicious Popular or Digg (below), or cocomment, or, even, Amazon, I wonder what would they look like if it were for Me and Mine.

I’ve spoken about how this is the next wave of the Internet – from mass broadcasting, to micro-broadcasting and using the people, to me and mine.

I see some apps tightening down some Web activities to a me and mine level:

– Vox for blogging

– me.dium for myBlogLog (Scott, excuse me if I got this wrong)

– Dopplr for connecting travelers

But, what for Digg, or Amazon, or delicious popular? I don’t want an aggregate of what a bunch of strangers think (which is why I don’t scan delicious popular or Digg). I don’t want a recommendation of pubs in Prague from frat boys in Peoria.

I see a need for a set of tools that allows what me and mine think and do, separate from the noise of the general Web populace. I want a layer, kinda onion skinned over the Web, a layer that gives the Web a context of me and mine.

That’s the next wave of the Web, that’s the next round of the create-consume-connect cycle that Andrew Anker once mentioned (link long dead).

Link: Reality Check | InfoWorld | Beware the Mob – What happened to Digg could happen to you | May 2, 2007 11:08 AM | By Ephraim Schwartz:

I don’t see this as a victory for the people. In my previous blog post on the subject, I cited examples of the dangers of a mob mentality. Here is yet another.