A VC - Latest Comments in My Vision For Social Media

Re: My Vision For Social Media

ChangeForge | Ken Stewart — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:14:45 -0000

Fred, I love the exploration of this topic, with "social media" as the medium connecting us. In my humble opinion, this is no different than meeting at the local coffee house for a sip of joe and catching up on the latest happenings - with the small exception of leaping geographical boundaries. That is what is so amazing about the Internet - the ability to chat with someone just down the street or half way around the world.

Hopefully, everyone does not have to be an extrovert in order to participate. In fact, I would sincerely hope that the Internet itself is approachable - offering layers of interaction to ease the anxieties some may have in participating in the real world. It would allow for a normal mother of 2 in rural America to reach out and find commonality across the globe, or allow a 21 year old the ability to rapidly deploy his brilliant idea without corporate America bashing his dreams.

It is this banner of bold hope and broader definition of social media that I would flock to - not the narrow minded view so many disapointly cling to.

Re: My Vision For Social Media

gregory — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:25:15 -0000

yes, but age is not the factor, it is awareness of what is

Re: My Vision For Social Media

gregory — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:16:53 -0000

anything that serves self-interest will get a foot in the doorway .... if the return is greater than the effort, another step ... if they feel better about themselves as a result they will stay ... early adopters like it for what it is, next level for what it does, next level, if they hardly have to think about it

Re: My Vision For Social Media

fredwilson — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:58:06 -0000

None

The only one I've ever fallen for is youtube which I was obsessed with for most of late 2005 and 2006

Fred

Re: My Vision For Social Media

hardaway — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:48:30 -0000

Once people see a use case for social media, they embrace it. But most tech tools are poorly presented.

Re: My Vision For Social Media

jill — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:37:37 -0000

Thanks for your comment -glad I found it(especially because it seems that not a lot of women comment here). I am going to tell my friend whose husband recently passed away about widownet.
You are right that a lot of older people haven't yet and may never get on board with social media...but I don't think anyone is thinking about them! Fred once put up a Darwin quote that still resonates with me about survival through adapting to one's environment--which I believe in. The internet has already changed everything and is going to continue in a big, big way.

Re: My Vision For Social Media

jill — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:19:06 -0000

Videotaping is an easier form of sharing for most people (vs. sitting alone writing or blogging). Too bad you didn't get in on Youtube! Most of the time my kids spend on the internet now is on youtube -sharing videos with their friends. Which start up video companies are you investigating?

Re: My Vision For Social Media

Antman — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:15:08 -0000

Nice perspective, hadn't looked at like this. There is some merit to this perspective. Work certainly increased the adoption of personal computers, email, etc.

Ya got me thinkin'!

Re: My Vision For Social Media

David O. — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:57:56 -0000

" I'm curious to the perspectives of those NOT involved in online social networking/media, still the much larger majority of folks. "

" Why aren't they comin'? "
Because they are content with their current form of social networking/media therefore they have no need to change.

" What will bring them into online social media? "
Their work will bring them into online social media. Peoples' work has a powerful influence on their behavior, whether they are a professional, laborer, craftsman or student. Work determines how fast you adopt technology and it can force you out of your comfort zone to embrace new technology, new media.

" What will get them to stay ? "
Once online social media has been integrated into their work flow they will stay.

A good example of this evolution is when a company joins facebook and their employees follow. Software companies that create applications that allow other companies to use social media to reduce cost, save time and increase employee productivity will be the most successful.

Re: My Vision For Social Media

dsheise — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:42:48 -0000

I think the "1% are creators" is a backward looking definition (into social media) that will crash. I agree with your vision and believe that we have to admit that it takes time to new stuff to sink in culturally. How much time? Too difficult to tell, but everyone is a creator, we just haven´t found all the ways and mediums for them to participate. If we focus on Antman´s questions we´ll probably figure it out sooner than later.

Re: My Vision For Social Media

scott crawford — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:17:05 -0000

In pretty short order, I don't think we'll think about all this as social media, just as we no longer think of the computer as a big box for running calculations. At the most sublime, we'll be creative nomads, pocket communicator at the ready, roaming socially and interacting on the fly, working more as an ever changing kaleidoscope of symbiotic relationships than individuals. You'll be always on, always connected, always forming connections, organically. Look to nature. All the tedium and drudgery of managing/making connections/arranging teams will be done for you, based on the personal profile you begin at birth, when you're assigned your IP Address, right down there in the lower left box, next to your date of birth and mother's maiden name.

Re: My Vision For Social Media

maryrosecook — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 04:47:02 -0000

That is very flattering - thank you so much.

Re: My Vision For Social Media

David O. — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:02:05 -0000

I think that happens naturally, when I stumble on a blog like this I find that I meet people with interesting thinking processes. I think this is because people with interesting thinking process gravitate towards interesting topics. In otherwords birds of the same feather flock together. In this case the similarity is not thinking alike, having a similar opinion or taste. The similarities is based on having an interesting thinking process that others who contemplate can appreciate.

Re: My Vision For Social Media

David O. — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:47:29 -0000

I agree, there needs to be peer-review to validate authenticity and it's interesting to see the evolution of that on youtube. I consider the rating system and view counts on youtube as a makeshift peer-review validation system. If a person is looking for a particular content that is being shared on youtube, how could they find the best match? Well the best choice is the content with the highest rating and perhaps the most views.

Re: My Vision For Social Media

David O. — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:28:48 -0000

"every single human being posting their thoughts and experiences in any number of ways to the Internet"
I think that's happening now, in a measured way. What are people doing on myspace, twitter and facebook? majority of them are posting their thoughts and experiences on the internet. These social media sites have made it easy for people to share their thoughts and experience on the internet. I think the future of social media can be predicted by looking at google and how it's growing and also looking at areas where it is losing money.

Re: My Vision For Social Media

Venkat — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:54:26 -0000

A little more on how I am thinking, this time in the form of some veiled commentary around an infomercial blog post for some positions in our research group at Xerox. If you, Fred, or anybody else can help me recruit for these 3 positions, I'll be eternally grateful :)

Re: My Vision For Social Media

JoeDuck — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:53:46 -0000

You have a great notion for Social Media/ The New Web: Everybody plays, everybody wins! I'm not as optimistic as you seem to be that the majority likes the idea of so much exposure to the world, but I agree the participation is going to go up dramatically, often in indirect ways. For example as people tag their photos and data about *other people*, you will have image (and investment info?) portfolios of Fred Wilson that Fred Wilson does not know about or control. On balance this is cool, but it has drawbacks as well. The Privacy ship... sailed long ago and it ain't coming back.

Re: My Vision For Social Media

fredwilson — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:09:59 -0000

>Why aren't they comin'?

>What will bring them into online social media?

>What do/will they expect from social media?

>Will they want to share?

>What will get them to stay?

great questions and i am looking for those who will answer them correctly

Re: My Vision For Social Media

fredwilson — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:06:11 -0000

i agree. great blog and great music. one more blog i need to read!!

Re: My Vision For Social Media

Rory Mulvaney — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:05:36 -0000

I think we could all become venture capitalists, in a way. Except that the capital we stake will be our reputations that we stake on opinions that we understand and care about. Then if enough people of good repute in an area think something in particular should be federally funded or voted into law, it will happen. I'm thinking a person's quantified reputation in an area should increase if their recorded opinions are migrated toward by masses of other people (so your reputation increases if you can convince people about your opinions).

People will be federally funded to pursue their proposals, and then the results can be shared for free with everyone, since it was federally funded and it doesn't cost anything to copy it. Then we shouldn't have a need for copyrights or patents, since there would already be a system to fairly fund people for their proposals.

Besides funding info-product proposals, there would be enormous application for such reputation/trust systems, from helping with legislation, to solving the problem of oversight of classified programs.

Re: My Vision For Social Media

breakdanzer9 — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:32:34 -0000

Good to see some straight forward self-promotion going on. If I show up at the IAB Summit, can I have your autograph, too?

Re: My Vision For Social Media

Kate Brodock — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:26:53 -0000

I think that's the point Fred is trying to make.... each pain point he deals with is different, therefore each investing strategy he deals with is therefore different. Since you can't necessarily pinpoint the pain in some sort of consistent matter, he takes each pain separately, and when a solution is found, he invests.

The point is not necessarily what sort of patterns he may have in investing or what types of technologies he finds most interesting/successful on a regular basis, but what sort of patterns he may have in identifying pain points and then finding effective solutions.

Re: My Vision For Social Media

rfreeborn — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:20:47 -0000

But that begs the question - what's the pain that's being solved?

Re: My Vision For Social Media

Kate Brodock — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:53:32 -0000

An interesting article in Ad Age "Think Like a VC and Change the Marketing Model" (http://adage.com/digital/ar... that's applicable to this discussion.

I think Fred identifies one of the timeless qualities of entrepreneurship/investing in starts-ups: Find the pain point and fix it.

Re: My Vision For Social Media

maryrosecook — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:15:06 -0000

Wow thank you so much for saying that. And, yes, maybe it is.