Saturday July 18, 2009 at 13:28

Photo

Sandbox Envy Let me in. Let me in! Let me out. let me out! The waves of change in social networking are fast and furious. The early castle builders (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.) were first on the shores. They created lively, robust and interactive communities. These communities exploded beyond any and all expectations. Then all of a sudden along came new waves crashing on the shores and a new castle in town. The waves- Google and Sandbox Envy. The castle- Twitter, and it comes with more windows and offers more freedoms. Its like pulling the shades up and letting the sun shine in. With critical change underway, pretty soon the members of these communities started peeking out the windows of their castles and sandbox envoy was reborn. Peeking became staring and this change was instinctively understood. The reason is simple- there is no bigger sandbox than the World Wide Web. How are the established castles to respond to this change? How can these castles adapt to these waves? While these old castles are fun and exciting their communities have grown to feel confined. This confinement has led to the castle owners staring across their moats at each other with thoughts of wanting to hold onto their control while having to somehow let their communities engage in the bigger sandbox. Not so easy. Being confined is unnatural. And control by definition is confining. Beeing free is awesome. Expect more changes to come because the big sandbox will, in the end, be the one that we all want to play in.

Sandbox Envy


Let me in. Let me in! Let me out. let me out! The waves of change in social networking are fast and furious.

The early castle builders (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.) were first on the shores. They created lively, robust and interactive communities. These communities exploded beyond any and all expectations. Then all of a sudden along came new waves crashing on the shores and a new castle in town.

The waves- Google and Sandbox Envy.

The castle- Twitter, and it comes with more windows and offers more freedoms. Its like pulling the shades up and letting the sun shine in.

With critical change underway, pretty soon the members of these communities started peeking out the windows of their castles and sandbox envoy was reborn. Peeking became staring and this change was instinctively understood. The reason is simple- there is no bigger sandbox than the World Wide Web.

How are the established castles to respond to this change? How can these castles adapt to these waves?

While these old castles are fun and exciting their communities have grown to feel confined. This confinement has led to the castle owners staring across their moats at each other with thoughts of wanting to hold onto their control while having to somehow let their communities engage in the bigger sandbox.

Not so easy. Being confined is unnatural. And control by definition is confining. Beeing free is awesome.

Expect more changes to come because the big sandbox will, in the end, be the one that we all want to play in.