ben leefield
Recent Activity
ben leefield commented on How is technology changing the way we live? on June 6, 2008, 5:42 AM
That was the first time I've seen Jimmy Wales speak and I was really impressed by both the clarity and depth of his thinking as well as his calmness. It%u2019s great that someone who has become so influential globally also seems like a really pleasant happy person.His success with mass collaboration has inspired many new ventures, although not as many as some commentators believe it should have done by now, although it does take some time to roll these things out taking into account funding, company organisation, legals, design and development, testing and marketing. I too have been inspired though and have been part of a team that has just beta launched a new mass collaboration address book service called www.wikiworldbook.com which aims to help people connect globally with one another, freely and quickly without barriers. Hopefully if Jimmy ever sees it, he%u2019ll approve of it!Ben Leefield
ben leefield commented on Jimmy Wales on a Business Model for Social Networking on June 6, 2008, 5:36 AM
I don%u2019t think Jimmy mentions the social graph. Personally I think the magic bullet for social networking sites is in connecting people and for people being able to see the social graph %u2013 ie how people are connected to one another, either so they can connect themselves for business or pleasure or merely just to people watch. It%u2019s a concept that Mark Zuckerberg talks about a lot, but I think that Facebook%u2019s achilles heel is that the social graph for Facebook users only extends to whoever is on Facebook %u2013 because it%u2019s a walled garden. The social graph is the killer application / magic bullet, because it documents human relationships and allows people access to more of them. Apart from the obvious business need to understand the relationships that form the basic building block of society, people have an endless fascination with other people, who they either love or hate or hopefully some measure in between. They (& I) use this information not only to understand the world they occupy and to connect with other people but, just as importantly, they use the information to define themselves. In the good old days (I don%u2019t believe it), most people rarely left their villages and their access to information was limited %u2013 they therefore defined themselves (and therefore their position in society) by the people immediately around them. Now people, at least those with internet (and other media) access can define themselves globally, and they can use the internet to re-determine that definition whenever they want. Of course, the social graph killer application probably has to be allied to online advertising in order to make it sustainable! I%u2019m seriously impressed though by Jimmy%u2019s attitude to out and out commercial sites like Facebook %u2013 I suppose I thought that, given Wikipedia, he would be slightly anti-commercial in nature, but I was obviously completely wrong! Ben Leefield CEO WikiWorldBook
ben leefield commented on How is technology changing the way we live? on June 6, 2008, 1:42 AM
That was the first time I've seen Jimmy Wales speak and I was really impressed by both the clarity and depth of his thinking as well as his calmness. It%u2019s great that someone who has become so influential globally also seems like a really pleasant happy person. His success with mass collaboration has inspired many new ventures, although not as many as some commentators believe it should have done by now, although it does take some time to roll these things out taking into account funding, company organisation, legals, design and development, testing and marketing. I too have been inspired though and have been part of a team that has just beta launched a new mass collaboration address book service called www.wikiworldbook.com which aims to help people connect globally with one another, freely and quickly without barriers. Hopefully if Jimmy ever sees it, he%u2019ll approve of it! Ben Leefield
ben leefield commented on Jimmy Wales on a Business Model for Social Networking on June 6, 2008, 9:36 AM
I don%u2019t think Jimmy mentions the social graph. Personally I think the magic bullet for social networking sites is in connecting people and for people being able to see the social graph %u2013 ie how people are connected to one another, either so they can connect themselves for business or pleasure or merely just to people watch. It%u2019s a concept that Mark Zuckerberg talks about a lot, but I think that Facebook%u2019s achilles heel is that the social graph for Facebook users only extends to whoever is on Facebook %u2013 because it%u2019s a walled garden.The social graph is the killer application / magic bullet, because it documents human relationships and allows people access to more of them. Apart from the obvious business need to understand the relationships that form the basic building block of society, people have an endless fascination with other people, who they either love or hate or hopefully some measure in between. They (& I) use this information not only to understand the world they occupy and to connect with other people but, just as importantly, they use the information to define themselves. In the good old days (I don%u2019t believe it), most people rarely left their villages and their access to information was limited %u2013 they therefore defined themselves (and therefore their position in society) by the people immediately around them. Now people, at least those with internet (and other media) access can define themselves globally, and they can use the internet to re-determine that definition whenever they want. Of course, the social graph killer application probably has to be allied to online advertising in order to make it sustainable!I%u2019m seriously impressed though by Jimmy%u2019s attitude to out and out commercial sites like Facebook %u2013 I suppose I thought that, given Wikipedia, he would be slightly anti-commercial in nature, but I was obviously completely wrong!Ben LeefieldCEOWikiWorldBook