Useful social networks – Skimbit
The BBC’s online ‘click’ magazine has a feature on the evolution of social networks, and slowdown of the Facebook / Myspace phenomenon (which saw a 5% decrease in new users over Dec / Jan).
Rather than point to the decline of social networks, this could be a sign of the medium being less about just generally ars*ing about and ‘poking’ friends and more about doing something useful:
Instead of: “Acting as a glorified friend finder, social networking could provide more practical help. The recent addition of a blood group application to Facebook that tracks down blood donors with specific blood types, ably demonstrates this.
“The idea of social networking on the socially useful sites is all around consumer to consumer content,” says Mr Burmaster. (Alex Burmaster of metrics firm Nielsen Online)
“So rather than a publisher providing information and content, it’s all about consumer to consumer. They are providing information to each other. With the socially useful site, it’s about bringing people’s opinions together.”
Skimbit
A good example of the new type of useful social network, and profiled on the Guardian’s ever excellent PDA blog yesterday, is Skimbit.
Skimbit is a kind of group advice / opinions site. You post up a project, that could be about anything at all that needs some kind of decision. You then make it public or restricted to friends that you invite, after which people vote and comment. Ideally the group then helps point you in the right direction.
For example, current public Skimbits (some of which I imagine were created by staff to get the ball rolling), concerns everything from the merits of the blogging platform wordpress, to bridesmaid shoes.
Skimbit also has an icon that you install in your browser, which by clicking on it when you see sites you like, acts like an online scrap book.
Though the site could be easier on the eye, it’s a concept that is sure to take off. It taps into the simple psychology of people wanting to be asked for their opinions.
It’s also an interesting social experiment. For example, what happens when groups of people rate or vote on a project? Does it always go to the ‘safe’ middle or lowest common denominator?
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Thanks for the post, Dirk!
I totally agree with your view, its definitely what we sought to achieve with Skimbit: a primarily useful application that has some social elements to it where necessary.
In fact, a vast majority of our projects are shared or private, and we are ok with this – I know I certainly don’t want every aspect of my life public, as do almost everyone I know. Skimbit’s strength is it supports this – so if you are just doing some general research for a new TV to buy, or a weekend away with your partner, you can use Skimbit to collect your research in a way that makes it easy to analyse and compare.
Of course – if people want to be public with their projects, we love that too!
And I agree it can be easier on the eye – we are working on it… we are still pre-funding, so everything is on a tight budget, and brilliant designers are not cheap
Thanks!
Alicia