It’s been a crazy week on the business side of the social networks space.
– Patents are being thrown into the mix.
– Emode changed its name to Tickle and bought Ringo.
– Everyone’s getting money.
– Esther Dyson and the Always On folks had a little discussion (good blog entry by the Spoke folks.
– And, of course, it all got slashdotted
The Social Software Weblog has a lot of the business news so read there if you’re interested in those bits.
Personally, i think it’s great that there is this much interest in the space, but i also find it a bit terrifying. With big players putting their products into the ring and money flowing like it’s 1999, folks are starting to get far more secretive and their plottings feel far less user-centric. Competition is becoming more of a factor that creating cool technology meant to help people. I worry what this will mean long term.
Meanwhile, i think that i will go back to where i started with all of this and focus far more on the users’ understanding of social networks, identity play and articulation.
