Gideon continues find brilliant articles exploring and highlighting o network dynamics. This is an amazing bit of thinking around products and the direction of new services in the years ahead.
I like the article (see below) but Gideon's quote is also provoking, "
This article is a worthwhile read for the distributed, networked view it paints of what will one day be possible. The blocking factors, it appears, are less technological are more a result of old mindsets about business models and user models. " Actually, I look at the services of del.icio.us (my del.icio.us) as accepting Gideon's challenge. The strategy of del.icio.us seems to respect mindsets of people..it is easy to set up, surf and leave.
The article talks about the strengths of these new products in ways that may be the key to the future of advocacy. " both of them let you quit: From the user's perspective, del.icio.us and Flickr support near-optimal entry and exit strategies. You can deeply and automatically mesh your own information with them. And you can undo that meshing. Participation in the services is thus an "at will" arrangement. If you maintain well-structured information, you can as easily mesh it with another comparably-equipped service."
Ask 40 nonprofit groups, advocacy or poltical campaigns what they do with "in active members" , they might sell or swap your name, hunt you down via databases, snail mail you, etc. Their are huge barriers to exit which become reputational barriers to entry.
The ideal campaigns should start considering how "You can deeply and automatically mesh your own information with them. And you can undo that meshing. Participation in the services is thus an "at will" arrangement. If you maintain well-structured information, you can as easily mesh it with another comparably-equipped service" applies to their work no matter how frightening such talk may be to fundraising and membership departments.
