Comments on: Ruining the social web: How can we avoid the Bieber effect?

By: kcrichmond

kcrichmond — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 17:36:57 +0000

It’s not capitalism that’s the problem. Capitalism just is. Facebook is a 21st century version of the tragedy of the commons. Common land soon gets trashed by overuse and is no longer good for anything except perhaps billboards. Facebook and others made a big mistake early on by not convincing users that these services are worth paying for. Imagine that. A billion non-paying customers. There is no problem here that a monthly fee of $5 could not solve.

By: Anuj Agarwal

Anuj Agarwal — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 06:32:26 +0000

RSS will come back and come back strongly. It will blow away all walled gardens.

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 05:41:19 +0000

Bieber who?

Jokes aside — I think time and again we are reminded that whatever happens, it is always a good idea that we should have an individual place on the web and we need to keep it independent of whatever is in fashion.

By: Philip Recchia

Philip Recchia — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 03:43:32 +0000

Agreed, Dave–I thought the same thing about Bill Gates after reading Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs bio. Isaacson points out, vis-a-vis the Apple founder’s work with Bono, that “Jobs never was much of a philanthropist.” But by the end of the book I realized that Jobs was hugely philanthropic in that he never put profits before the consumer experience; he sacrificed short-term monetary success for the sake of creating value for his customers. That was his gift to humanity and we’re all better off for it.

By: Mathew Ingram

Mathew Ingram — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 03:22:04 +0000

Thanks, Dave — couldn’t agree more.

By: Dave Winer

Dave Winer — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 03:07:55 +0000

One more thing. I don’t give a fuck about Bieber.

By: Dave Winer

Dave Winer — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 03:07:16 +0000

Also, I don’t say Andreessen is wrong, from his point of view the web never really was that wonderful.

I accept his version of the truth, as his. But it’s not mine. For me, the web was, and continues to be, liberating.

http://threads2.scripting.com/2012/december/somePeopleLikeToEatOut

By: Dave Winer

Dave Winer — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 03:03:07 +0000

Of course you can make a billion dollars being open.

We should talk about that before brushing the idea aside.

And why would anyone in their right mind want to make a billion dollars.

Seriously. Bill Gates makes billionaires sign pledges to give away their money. Why bother making it in the first place? Bill is designing toilets now. Maybe instead he should have put more energy in doing good in the tech world where he had much more influence and could have made the world a lot better.

It’s time for us to all think bigger than what our bank balance is. We’re losing the planet, and our minds. We’re better than this.

By: alexmedawayhasleftthebuilding

alexmedawayhasleftthebuilding — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 22:54:49 +0000

that is an interesting concept, that the multibillion dollar company is celebrated as the holy grail of American culture. i guess in the end, the medium is the message and when it comes down to it almost all of those young geniuses will do anything to their users if it means they get a shot at becoming billionaires. twitter doesn’t respect its users’ content any more than the head of nbc id required to enjoy – ugh – “whitney”.