Watch out walled gardens?
So, what do you think about walled gardens? These places hidden away from the public view, only accessible by the people who come to fulfill the criteria (be it membership, or living close to them or what). Walled gardens on the internet are the places that doesn't publish content publically... Vox is very much not one of these, however another site I frequent is - Facebook.
I was reading this blog post by Steve Rubel commeting on just this about Facebook, he says amongst other things:
For all of the excitement around Facebook and its application platform, it's essentially a giant walled garden. You can embed virtually anything you want inside Facebook. Just like open APIs, Facebook's developer program lets anyone create value in the ecosystem.
The problem, however, lies in this fact - Facebook gives nothing back to the broader web. A lot of stuff goes in, but nothing comes out. What happens in Facebook, stays in Facebook. As Robert Scoble noted, it's almost completely invisible to Google. You can share only a limited amount of data on your public page - as he has here. That's fine for many users, but not all.
I tend to agree - and for me as a user, one of the main drawbacks - is that I can't take my content with me to the rest of my online social communities, like Vox or Wordpress...
The problem, however, lies in this fact - Facebook gives nothing back to the broader web. A lot of stuff goes in, but nothing comes out. What happens in Facebook, stays in Facebook. As Robert Scoble noted, it's almost completely invisible to Google. You can share only a limited amount of data on your public page - as he has here. That's fine for many users, but not all.
I tend to agree - and for me as a user, one of the main drawbacks - is that I can't take my content with me to the rest of my online social communities, like Vox or Wordpress...
Comments
But I do think the idea of having communities or clubs that you only get through invites is fun. As long as the moderators don't start playing God.
Peace out
I think that in the ned we'll have lots of clubs, where membership is one thing (that's where participation comes in) but readership (where sharing comes in) is a completely different thing.
-L