Josh Catone has written a post on RWW titled “Why facebook shouldn’t fear open social“. His arguments run as follows (roughly).
- Users are what make social networks go.
- Things like open APIs and data portability and cross network compatibility excite pundits and developers, but most users care for only two things: a good experience (apps can certainly help here) and to be where their friends are.
He develops his story based on these two premises. I do agree with him that users are important part of social networks. Without users, the term social has absolutely no meaning. However, he tries to portray as if users don’t care about open APIs and data portability and they only care about user experience. I do not agree with his argument. His post is similar to the arguments put forward by supporters of Microsoft Windows OS against open source. Users may not care about portability of apps across various social networks. But they do worry about the portability of data from one network to another. It is very important for people to realize that an open standards based approach is not a business model. It is about freedom offered to users of the software/service. If pundits are getting excited, it is not because Google has come up with a business strategy to beat up facebook but due to the fact that some company has taken the first step towards open standards and, thereby, empowering the users. If Google uses this to whip up facebook, it is not a problem of the users. The important thing for users is the portability of their data. The way to achieve portability of data is by adapting open standards. This first step towards the open standards by Google is what makes this announcement important than user experience or anything else. Any experience of the user with a software or a service becomes totally meaningless if their fruits of the labor (time spent on the software/service) are held hostage by the company offering the software/service. Letz say I go to a brewery near my house to socialize with people. Suppose if the brewery says that I can only talk to those people inside the brewery and nowhere else because the beer in that brewery gives me enough kick to socialize with them, does it make any sense? No. Same is the case with social networking sites that tells the users that they can only have their social graph inside their site and nowhere else. In the case of brewery, the beer could enhance my social experience but the brewery cannot tell me that I can only socialize with my friends drinking only that particular beer and in their bar. I have the complete freedom to take my friends wherever I like in whatever way I want. It is this freedom that gives me the ultimate experience in my social life. If a particular beer in another hangout makes me sick, I should be the one to determine where I should take my friends next time. The freedom should be in the hands of users and this freedom is the best user experience anyone can ever have. Any argument that puts any other “user experience” over this freedom is plain “Microsoft talk” and nothing else. Josh, users might stay with facebook because their friends are still with facebook. But it is not permanent. The cost of switching from one social network to another is zero. Under such a scenario, it just takes one trigger to move the users from one social networking system to another. It is in the interest of facebook that they should embrace open standards. It is not necessary that they have to embrace open social. In fact, I would be more than happy if they can open up much further than open social that it looks like a walled garden. The bottom line is they need to open up if they want to stay competitive. They need to empower the users and allow them to control their data, if they really want to be the company of the future. Any attempts to discredit the opening up of standards is pure “Microsoft talk” and it is time to wake up to a reality where users are in control of their information than the company hosting it. We have moved from dark ages into a more civil society where open standards are the way of life. If data portability is built into the platform, developing a great user experience is just a child’s play.
Tags: ReadWriteWeb, Josh Catone, Facebook, Open Social, Social Networks, Social Networking
