Comments on: The heart of a community http://www.sightshigh.com/2008/08/the-heart-of-a-community/ startups, social media, business Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:56:36 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Brad Wrage http://www.sightshigh.com/2008/08/the-heart-of-a-community/comment-page-1/#comment-12 Brad Wrage Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:03:20 +0000 http://www.sightshigh.com/?p=60#comment-12 Excellent thoughts Ronald although a social network such as Facebook had to start from nothing just like everything else. Excellent thoughts Ronald although a social network such as Facebook had to start from nothing just like everything else.

]]> By: Ronald http://www.sightshigh.com/2008/08/the-heart-of-a-community/comment-page-1/#comment-11 Ronald Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:15:59 +0000 http://www.sightshigh.com/?p=60#comment-11 I think that the lack of a pre-existing community is why there is such a huge entry barrier to new social networks. It's a "chicken or the egg" issue: What comes first? Content or community? Without a community you won't have content, without content you won't have a community. I think this is why Facebook applications has the potential to be a huge market, they already have the community AND the content. However, Facebook apps so far have been mostly junk (pirates and zombies? Come on!) and until they start becoming useful, people won't take Facebook apps seriously. Maybe it's already too late for useful Facebook apps because people already perceive them as frivolous and childish. I think that the lack of a pre-existing community is why there is such a huge entry barrier to new social networks. It’s a “chicken or the egg” issue: What comes first? Content or community? Without a community you won’t have content, without content you won’t have a community.

I think this is why Facebook applications has the potential to be a huge market, they already have the community AND the content. However, Facebook apps so far have been mostly junk (pirates and zombies? Come on!) and until they start becoming useful, people won’t take Facebook apps seriously. Maybe it’s already too late for useful Facebook apps because people already perceive them as frivolous and childish.

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