The recent purchase of YouTube by Google brings up an interesting point about “place.” Robert Scoble talks about it in terms of brand and community. From an engineering perspective Web applications can be duplicated. It’s entirely possible to build a Web site that does something like YouTube or Facebook. This is where the idea of “place” come in. Cyberspace, or the Network, has places — Places where people gather, places where some history has occured. Saying that you could build your own YouTube is like saying you can build your own New York City in the mid-West (because land and labor are cheaper).
One Commentechovar Posts
This morning it occured to me that identity 2.0 is the solution to this problem of aggregation and integration of Web Apps and Services. It’s like the old Clement Mok story:
Someone: “In the future there will be 5,000 cable TV channels!”Mok: “In the future, there will be 1 channel. And it will have everything you want to watch on it.”If a user can self-assert an identity and attach Web apps and services to it, that becomes the connecting fabric. The connection can’t be external to the user. Microsoft, Google or Yahoo can’t own the connection, because the connection literally is the user. Today, the user doesn’t own her own net identity, the system of record does.
Comments closed
The acquisition of YouTube by Google creates deep pockets (9.8B). Copyright lawsuits against YouTube used to be simply a matter of principle, the company had no revenue. Now we could be talkin’ real money.
That said, the Network is a new distribution method for video. The traditional distributors will try to maintain their hold through lawsuits. This will work for a while. Google will be bruised in the turbulent transition.
Comments closed