Shawn Foley MIS 373

It has become blatantly apparent that a large part of the web 2.0 experience is simulating human tendencies in real life. Thus companies like facebook, where real life connections are maintained on the web are so popular. Given this connection it seems that there are some obvious similarities between the web 2.0 information we’re studying in class and the way the class works in general. One of the main features in a web 2.0 environment is that a lot of companies fail and are rehashed later the same can be said for certain aspects of the class, ie the initial outline for the project. We saw what wasn’t working and had to adjust in real-time, during the semester, not after the fact. Which lead me to my next point, the web 2.0 environment changes rapidly, the fact that facebook changed their layout and essentially made apps useless and thus within a semester the main aspect of the course was made significantly less valuable. Taking a look at all the conversations involved in the class it seems that it is actually very twitteresque, there is the main conversation that is going on during the class from the professors which all of us are essentially following and there are also numerous side conversations that only a few students are involved in, often regarding the material or more generally the class. I’m sure there are more examples but those are the ones that come to mind. It should really come as no surprise that their are web 2.0 aspects to any given class or social situation because web 2.0 essentially comes down to an extension of our existing lives onto the internet. But I think its just interesting in a big picture kinda way that the class on web 2.0 actually provides a web 2.0 experience irl.

I find it really interesting and actually a little scary that even the people driving the web 2.0 business, the VC’s, actually have a hard time figuring out whats going to work and how money can be made. When their primary strategy is to be acquired by a larger company before you even demonstrate revenue the larger companies are just acquiring the technology and teams. This strategy actually works out fine for the end user because the applications and technologies that are acquired will have greater resources to develop from however the main question in that whole strategy is how much is any given company worth. This question in turn goes back to everything we’ve been analyzing all semester. If you look at the criteria for determining advertising dollars it is essentially the same, their both inherently concerned with how many unique visitors, impressions and active users a site has. And from our discussions of advertising as a main form of revenue and the accuracy of those metrics for determining value it seems that the VC’s really have no better idea of what makes value on the internet than the rest of us. Therefore the best way they can valuate the company is by looking at what everybody else is doing, but that seems to be inherently problematic given that nobody has the answers for the main questions surrounding web 2.0 and thus all of the VC’s are looking to one another. Albeit this analysis is vastly generalized and there are numerous companies that are being acquired with the potential to generate a specific revenue however there are a lot of companies with no clear revenue stream in sight and yet they are still being valued in the millions. The only thing that seems to be able to explain how that could possilbly be is the power of the network.

It was really interesting to take a look at social networks from the perspective of the mobile phone. This seems to be the direction that the industry would like to head however it is currently being hindered by the physical technologies in place. However as more people start using smart phones and stay continuously connected to their social networks and the internet, Moximity will probably see rapid growth. Their leveraging the fact that recommendations and ratings is really a numbers game but the game changes when you know who did the ratings. One review from someone that you actually know can mean a lot more than a hundred reviews from strangers. Given that you actually know this person and his/her likes and dislikes you can actually sort through some of the bias that is inherent in reviews. I personally believe that reviews will be heading in this direction but it will probably be a while before we see any major implementations of this. Soon enough gps will be as ubiquitous as cell phones are and the rapid exchange of information locations and preferences will make something like moximity a neccessity however currently the technology just doesn’t seem to support it at least to the masses.

I thought it was really interesting that someone with the experience that Mr. Dachis has in the web 2.0 business makes a point to stay away from the industry buzz words and views the internet as more of a ongoing, developing network rather than in stages. I think that what he was saying about the fact that we haven’t rally figured out how to monetize the power of social networks is right on. I feel that who ever can figure out how to actually use the power of the social webshpere will win the ongoing battle of the social networks. I don’t there currently is a model that could actually do this, it just seems that the businesses are sustaining themselves on a minimal ad revenue and false metrics. We really haven’t developed a true metric for judging the effectiveness and usefulness of a social network. Because even if its strength is derived from its numbers if no one is active or the right tools aren’t in place to facilitate a connection then the network is not actually as useful as it appears. I’m curious to see if (or more likely when) the social networks can transition to a single online identity. From a user aspect it would be a good idea however it seems like it conflicts with the whole decentralized aspect that the internet is built upon. But then again with the direction headed towards cloud computing and the ease by which we can now connect everything maybe the internet really is coming full cycle and headed back to what is little more than the terminals it started with. At any rate it was really interesting to hear from someone with as much industry experience as Mr. Dachis.

Honestly I had no idea what this class was going to be about when I signed up but having been to the lectures it seems that this is going to be the most interesting class I’m taking this semester. There actually seems to be a significant amount of buzz about it.

As far as expectation for the semester and the class go I’m not that concerned. I’m really looking forward to learning the development aspects and working on the project. As far as the conceptual aspects of the course I’m interested to see what direction the course heads. I mean we’ve already established some of the underlying principles behind web 2.0 and I think its pretty clear that no company has truly been able to capitalize and monetize it the way google did with search.

I’m really glad that a course on social networks is being offered, its nice to see that mccombs and the irom department are looking to the future of business.