First, FriendFeed is _not_ going away. (in fact, we're working on switching it to new servers) Second, I know everyone wants to know what the team is working on, but we don't pre-announce things, so for now all I can say is that there's good stuff on the way. Re: http://friendfeed.com/jworthi...
Paul, working on friendfeed.com stuff or facebook.com?
- Kol Tregaskes
I like the first sentence. The rest is just gravy.
- Derek Coward
I'm totally happy if we just reside on decent servers, and get occasional IT help... We'll keep the rest of the ship running :)
- Christopher Galtenberg
Paul - is that why it's been slower lately vs.pre-fb ?
- Allen Stern
Paul please repeat it in re-phrased form: Friendfeed is NOT going to repeat destiny of Jaiku? Y/N
- A.T.
Can't wait... **Fingers tapping desk impatiently**
- AJ Batac
But what does "going away" mean, Paul? And what does "team" mean? And when you say "pre-announce", are you talking about the Palm Pre?
- Ken Sheppardson
Allen, the slowness is due to growth (more users and more data), but I put in a few fixes yesterday that should speed things up a bit.
- Paul Buchheit
Paul, sometimes when I open up threads I get the Opps... error. Is that related? It has been happening more and more these last few days.
- Kol Tregaskes
Still better than twitter and facebook. Thanks for the update!
- Mike Nencetti
Paul, thanks for the incredible work with FriendFeed. Please, keep it alive! and most importantly keep it FriendFeed!
- Ciro
as long as FF doesn't go dark or fall to pieces due to lack of maintenance, i think most ppl would be appeased.
- Joe Silence is not dead
Does this mean that the sky is not falling and we should stop running around screaming GODZILLA! and pointing in the direction of FB?
- Moved to Facebook
from fftogo
also, thank you for making such a great service in the first place!
- Joe Silence is not dead
Thanks for the update! Would like to know if there will be actual development done on FriendFeed in the future (other than bug fixes/minor updates) but I understand if you can't really talk about that too much.
- Brandon Titus
Paul: so still no answer from you as to if your 'good stuff' is being developed for FB or FF? The silence suggests it's FaceBook you're working on, or at least transferring FF into an 'add on' for Facebook?
- Jim Connolly
Kol, fb platform and openness, primarily.
- Paul Buchheit
i made a post here - http://www.centernetworks.com/friendf... - one interesting note - maybe FB keeps FF running nice and smooth to keep the early adopters happy as it's a great way to get new features out to them via this channel... just a thought.
- Allen Stern
Wow. I've had to eat my words before but these are the best-tasting ones yet!
- Akiva Moskovitz
from BuddyFeed
Akiva, just add salt. You know which kind :)
- Micah Wittman
These are the best words I could have expected by Paul. There is obviously a cultural difference between the two platforms and audience and I'm assuming both the former FF team and the FB team recognize that and are sensitive to the community. Thank you Paul and I hope you are feeling better....
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
Allen, you're in good company on that thought - there were musings on that concept right after the buyout.
- Micah Wittman
I feel a few "I told you so's" coming though... :-)
- Jesse Stay
Thanks Paul. Glad you're working on maintaining/improving performance. I've definitely seen issues here. Looking forward towards your influence and changes over at the blue giant.
- Mark Krynsky
Paul - thank you for letting us know, and I do hope you feel better!
- Jennifer Dittrich
The big question though is will FriendFeed continue to add new features? There's a difference between that and it going away. (and hence my argument w/ Scoble the other day)
- Jesse Stay
Paul: Seriously weird that you're there reading this, and totally ignoring each relevant, yes no question. No one's asking you to pre announce anything - just genuinely concerned (and increasingly so) that they do NOT include developing for FF.
- Jim Connolly
Jesse: Paul answers that question - BOOM - rumour mill dies and we finally get something positive to say. Ya know what - we won;t get an answer though. He's reading this, he knows the answer, but he won't.
- Jim Connolly
Jesse: For now, FF has more features than any other platform for this type of niche. There's some catching up to do before I'm worried about new features.
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
AWESOME!! Thanks for helping to quell some concerns Paul. Looking forward to what comes next, but hope that FF never dissappears also.
- Travis Koger
from iPhone
Shouldn't we be asking the facebook guys, and let Paul keep working? Or is he wearing many hats (friendfeed head honcho and facebook openess builder)?
- Mark Essel
from iPhone
Paul: I'm right, right? There's something stopping you from saying that you are no longer adding new features to what 'we' know as Friendfeed?
- Jim Connolly
Not for nothing, but I took my friendfeed embed off my tiny blog for a few weeks after the facebook buy out. There was just this empty spot on my eyesore of a website, so I put the embed back. We care because we like the connections we've made here and don't want to lose them. It's personal for us to.
- Mark Essel
from iPhone
Paul: Amazing how quickly you guys have adopted the Facebook attitude to silence. Pity.
- Jim Connolly
Paul: blink twice if you will add new features to FF. I won't tell anyone, honest.
- Edward Zwart
FWIW he did just upgrade servers. My e-mail notifications are almost real-time. Sounds to me like they're still improving the service.
- Jesse Stay
Jim: Don't blame Paul on that, it's not fair. He's only allowed to say so much at this point but I'm very satisfied on what he said.
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
Jesse: The questions not if they keep the servers running - we want to know if this is a dead platform.
- Jim Connolly
Jim: in Paul's defense Facebook's PR is more controlling than FriendFeed's was. I'm sure he's having to consider the effects his words will have on other people inside Facebook. But, I'm VERY HAPPY that Paul is here giving us hints as to what's coming. I wish it had happened six weeks ago so we wouldn't have lost so many people, but maybe that would happen anyway.
- Robert Scoble
Jim, there may be a few new things, but as I said, the team is mainly working on fb platform and openness, so it's unlikely that there will be any big new features of ff (except maybe one that I've been thinking about for a while...).
- Paul Buchheit
Did the Walrus think about Feed Splicing? :-)
- Robert Scoble
Paul: Finally - THAT'S what we were wondering.
- Jim Connolly
Cool Dude: Need it to have a classier forum than the parent; Parent is still good but the options here make it just a bit nicer.
- ThatDBD
Paul: Pity. At least we now know not to expect any developments or improvements. Thanks for answering the question. Whilst it confirmed my fears, it's good to know what's happening.
- Jim Connolly
I have no problem with FB integration (notice my drool above). Hoping for good friend conversion tools to bring subscribers over as friends or fans on Facebook from FriendFeed. (Connect.registerUsers FTW!)
- Jesse Stay
As a result - Jim has left the platform.
- Jim Connolly
Jim: this is a change from last week, by the way. My sources were telling me that we weren't going to get any new features and now Paul is refuting that and saying we might get one new feature here.
- Robert Scoble
I'm still drooling - anyone have a towel?
- Jesse Stay
Jesse: I'll buy you a virtual one over on Ning.
- Robert Scoble
personally, i would be happy just to have FF not fall apart and die. given the post-acquisition situation, anything beyond that is gravy!
- Joe Silence is not dead
Robert, I heard Ning is dead - care to send me one on Facebook? ;-)
- Jesse Stay
Robert, think of it as 20% time. If there's a feature I want, I'll just add it :)
- Paul Buchheit
Thank you for the clarification, Paul, and hope you are feeling better.
- WorldofHiglet
a communication channel that will be around and getting improved no matter what happens, our blogs :D I'll be commenting on yours Jim. 20%, that's a helluva light better than 0%, that's actually much more than I expected. Could we crowd source funding to buy you more %?
- Mark Essel
Even if there no new features in Friendfeed, I am happy with Friendfeed just staying on.
- ashish
how many users are there on friendfeed is there any chance we could buy it out (and get a full time dev staff back)? This platform rules, the dev team is incredible (albeit on facebook stuff now).
- Mark Essel
Paul, if you wanted me to bake you some cookies, all you had to do was ask, GEEZ.
- Derrick
Question: how many facebook bucks do we have to buy in total to get Paul and team working on friendfeed more of the time (100% ;)
- Mark Essel
Twitter doesn't accept cupcakes any more (just check Foursquare when at their offices). How about FriendFeed? :-)
- Jesse Stay
Mark, I'm okay with better Facebook integration. There's a lot of power in that (hence my drooling).
- Jesse Stay
I've got mixed feelings Jesse. I have friends on facebook. Then I have people that get excited by the same stuff that I do on friendfeed
- Mark Essel
Mark, I'm really hoping it ends up the best of both worlds - that would be really cool
- Jesse Stay
im going back to efnet - i got a bus for 7pm - anyone want on? :-P
- Allen Stern
I don't think you can mix the two sites at all. This has been repeated over and over. FriendFeed's technology might be portable, the concept, no.
- Jorge Escobar
Is it too late to do something about it. If it's a question of funds, can't we raise some? I mean this is the best communication platform I've come across yet. Facebook could be, if they just handed over the reigns to Paul, but its unlikely that sort of shift could happen.
- Mark Essel
Is the user perceived need of a full time devoted dev staff a fallacy?
- Mark Essel
I think you could make the case that some sites and services can in fact be "done" at some point, and simply require resources to keep them up and running.
- Ken Sheppardson
Ken: That's a potential advantage of turnkey application-level hosting such as App Engine: the resources to keep them up and running are almost entirely outsourced. ~All costs are variable costs, monetization improves over time, variable costs decline over time, so services that are "done" can literally just coast.
- Daniel Dulitz
They could open up something like friendfeed. Distributed social networks, with many servers would make search more challenging (search like status could help). The Internet keeps on chugging, it's a distributed information network that's been alive for many years. Our social networks should live, as does the underlying Internet.
- Mark Essel
Nice Daniel, I've been having fun playing around there (frankensearch.appspot.com). I'm using it to get to learn a little more about scala and lift now.
- Mark Essel
might be a full-time job times 2 or 3 for any fresh devs - safe to say Paul's got a bit of a head-start which changes that equation significantly! .... Also maybe almost as important is simply keeping spammers in check - that makes the difference between a ghost town vs the happy place here we want to keep coming back to enjoy ...
- Dan Freeman
Istanbuldan buyuk bir eferimi hakketti bu cocuklar, bizim icin calisiyorlar
- MobilAdam
from fftogo
Yes, this helps a lot. Thank you, Paul. We were beginning to fight amongst ourselves over these things.
- Kamilah Gill
I bet a good contextual advertising box off to the side could generate 35-50million dollars in 6 months with a user base of 1 million people. The assumption is that the average user spends 100-200 bucks on the site making purchases they'd normally make anyway and the affiliate percentage goes to the social host.
- Mark Essel
Friendfeed's health needn't be measured by the team's willingness to add new features. Shovels haven't changed in hundreds of years, but nobody is running around saying shovels are dying. A shovel is a great tool --a simple one, at that. If anything, I'd take away features on FF, but that's just me. Thanks for jumping in, Paul.
- Chris Baskind
Chris: the problem is that a shovel doesn't get more utility the more people that use it. FriendFeed does.
- Robert Scoble
I think the problem is that some people feel extra messianic some days (which is perfectly okay), and then refuse to see/believe/accept when others don't feel the same way AND point it out. The refusing part is not really okay, I guess.
- Michael Bravo
Thanks for these reassuring words Paul. Have been working hard to get more Flickr users over here after the recent rash of censorship there. Friendfeed's TOS and lack of censorship is a breath of fresh air compared to Flickr.
- Thomas Hawk
I wouldn't say lack of censorship, but community moderated filters. ;)
- CW™
I think you're unnecessarily complicating the discussion by adding new vocabulary, Robert. Now you're talking scale, not features. A product needn't expand its feature set to remain useful. Feature creep is the devil, anyway. ;-)
- Chris Baskind
You can’t predict what the future of technology will bring; so trying is a fool’s game. You can only adapt to the new realities as best you can. Paul's word is that it is still worth the time to invest in FF the tool. The tool may stay in this form but that's still a better design for me than Twitter. If FF is a shovel, Twitter is a spoon feature-wise. Audience volume-wise, it is the reverse.
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
Ok here's an example of what the social media + contextual ads could like like (sorry can't embed iframe twitter they go full screen so I showed it with friendfeed). But the idea is clear: http://victusmedia.com/social-... This works by sending your tweet stream to zemanta, and then does some backend stuff (which we're working on improving) to get relevant ads from amazon
- Mark Essel
I've been rough on you guys in some comments around, but I'm VERY encouraged to see that you guys see a future for FF. Thanks for shining some light, Paul.
- Scott of Two Countries
A respectable amount of information. Thank you.
- Matthew DeVries
Chris: Pownce had more "features" than Twitter did, yet it died. So did other aggregators like Jaiku. It's not "features" that matter in social software. Well, at least not completely. It's a combination of features with crowds that matter. If the crowds leave FriendFeed has a lot less utility to everyone than if they flow in. Look at this item here. Why is it interesting? Because there's people here talking about it.
- Robert Scoble
take your time PB Bear take your time
- Thomas Power
This is definitely more of the answer we were looking for. Thanks, Paul.
- Alex Scoble
All I can say is "thank you" for letting us know what's going on. I'm glad to hear FF will be around for the foreseeable future. :-) LONG LIVE FRIENDFEED!
- Jason Huebel
I can't find any wave that is even remotely comparable with friendfeed's conversation, if you found one will you invite me? (muzzle at googlewave)
- Emme Ci
Great news, I await the new functions eagerly
- Mo Kargas
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is the best thing I've seen ALL day!! woo hoo!! Thanks Paul :) {{{ HUG }}}
- Susan Beebe
Just a few words of assurance go a long way, Paul. Thank you for finally giving us something more solid to stand on. It's been frustrating for a lot of us waiting for the other shoe to drop and this news makes it much easier to keep investing time in FriendFeed. Please don't be shy about reaffirming that it's not going away on a regular basis because it's always good to hear.
- Her Lindsay-ness
I will say it for the least time! Friendfeed kicks ass :). The rest who is saying friendfeed is dying. please SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!
- alfred westerveld
"As a result - Jim has left the platform. - Jim Connolly" - Was this guy ever on the platform?! A quick glance at his most recent posts [first page] show pretty much 100% of posts made from other platforms. Cut him and his blood runs blue. Twitter blue :)
- 1x29
IF you glance over the Right Wing guys publications-there is some serious Terrorism encouragement from those sociopaths. This looked like a real strong example of what they are encouraging their followers to do??? Been saying we need to pay attention they are respectable foes to intelligence and their agenda is to win at all costs. Dudes they are great foes, need to,got to, have to pay attention to what they are doing. Peace love your neighbors dudes.
- ThatDBD
@ThatDBD I think you're responding to the wrong thread...
- Her Lindsay-ness
It's fascinating that so many people seem worried about new features. Until recently Twitter added almost no features at all and yet it continued to grow in popularity. FriendFeed's recent slump is all about perception, not tech.
- Eoghann Irving
these conversations take too much time for narcisists with tight schedules (stars). Publicity skyrocketed Twitter to the limelight. Friendfeeds champions are tech geeks, and folks that love chatting and sharing. There aren't many of us though. Give us time, or let us own the platform with a public ipo /buyin from facebook. Free friendfeed!
- Mark Essel
from iPhone
Looks like it's official then: FriendFeed lives! On new servers, even! (At least for now...)
- Dennis Jernberg
This is great news! Thanks, Paul, for the update, and if you get a hankering for a feature, great! I'm fine with the tech being your personal sandbox in exchange for keeping the service alive. Robert, I hope this means we'll see more of you and your family - and hear from the ones who have mastered the art of rolling over. Johnny, thanks for having the courage to ask the hard questions (and Louis for helping you frame the issues.) wow - life feels good again!
- MaryB, BrandingBroadOfFF
from iPhone
This is brilliant news from Paul! Now can we put this FriendFeed is dying business to rest please? It's a self fullfilling prophecy because by saying FF is dying, folks begin leaving, causing a downward spiral which would then cause it to come true!
- technogran
Wan't it to stay? Then begin spreading the word! Get others to use it! At the moment its not mainstream so encourage ordinary users to use FF! The more popular it becomes the less likely it is to fold.
- technogran
technogran: sorry, today you see what's going on. Bing? Displays your Facebook and Twitter tweets. Google? Twitter. Where's FriendFeed in this equation? Now do you get why FriendFeed is destined to be a tiny niche player and why the real action is on Facebook?
- Robert Scoble
Robert, if FF gives me what I'm looking for, why do I care where "the real action" is? If FF serves its niche well, what's the downside?
- Scott of Two Countries
Robert, do you mean that Google doesn't index Friendfeed posts? Friendfeed is the first site that comes up if you search for my name.
- Victor Ganata
Excellent point Victor - but FF only imports a small % of twitter's posts. Ergo Google is still not getting Twitter.
- Roberto Bonini
@Scobleizer - this item is not interesting because of the conversation. it's interesting because of who it's from, and what he said. The fact that there's a conversation around it and that conversation is easy to find and read is a bonus (a feature) that sets this service head and shoulders above others (IMHO). There's really not much interesting in the comments here, if you ask me. You could get rid of all the comments that aren't Paul's and the value of the entry doesn't diminish that much.
- Chris Heath
That isn't to say that conversations around items aren't ever useful or valuable (or interesting as robert says)... but in this case i would say it's who it's from and what he said.
- Chris Heath
Chris: you nailed, in a single paragraph, why Twitter is winning. You now can choose who shows up on your screen and under what context. Well, I can because I have list support. Everyone else will get that next month. Victor: Roberto is right. I barely see ANY of the good stuff I see on Twitter come over here. Well, it comes here because of my favorites feed, but that isn't in nearly as useful a form as it is over at http://www.twitter.com/scoblei...
- Robert Scoble
Robert, you keep saying that's the reason Twitter's winning - I can do that in Facebook and FriendFeed as well.
- Jesse Stay
Well, the problem is that Google doesn't seem to index tweets as well as it indexes Friendfeed posts. And Google has never been able go inside Facebook's walled garden. Hopefully that will change.
- Victor Ganata
(and I have been able to for the last year or so)
- Jesse Stay
Victor, that changed today - see ReadWriteWeb's post. Facebook is opening up public status messages to search engines now.
- Jesse Stay
Why is Twitter/Facebook/FriendFeed a zero sum game? I use both Twitter and FriendFeed a lot - they have different strengths - and they feed into each other. Facebook I use less, but that's a personal issue because I simply like it less. Why does there have to be a winner? And +1 Scott, if I'm in the niche market that FF is serving and I'm happy with it, why should I care if "the real action" is on Facebook? If that's the case, I'll take FF's "fake action," thank you very much.
- Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF
Paul: Thank you for letting us know status as much as you are able. The fact that you took time to write anything says a lot. So thank you for that. And thank you for FriendFeed in general. It truly does rock. Have a great day.
- Morgan Haley
Why don't you just give us all Facebook accounts for the one's that don't have them and be done with it. But the Turbocharged FF/FB accounts!!
- Gene Williams
@Gene, sorry, you'll have to wait for a FB invite like everyone else!
- Andrew C
@Andrew Oh that sucks, I'm still waiting for my Facebook invite. Do you have one to spare?
- Patrik Johansson
The Facebook Facelift is a self initiated project to challenge the form and functionality of Facebook. It's streamlined, structured and linear interface is more comprehendible, enhancing the user experience and absorbability of content.
- Eren CAN*
from Bookmarklet
Kol: That's pretty neat. Wish it was shorter like wave.com or gwave.com (Google owns gwave.com anyway) or something.
- Nick Humphries
i think this @googlewave.com email address is a temporary thing during testing. after it goes live you should be able to just use it with your google account. at least that's what i think:)
- Taylan Aydınlı
if only you could bold an announcement in FF like you can in Wave :D [oh, and my username on Wave is the splendiforously original "adamlasnik"]
- Adam Lasnik
Guys, please read the title and the first comment. This is not a request for invites. This is for users who already have an account and want to share their account name. For invites see this thread: http://ff.im/91M9R
- Kol Tregaskes
My Wave ID is erier2003@googlewave.com. Feel free to add me and we can Wave!
- Eric Geller
Still don't really know what this is (Or Google Voice for that matter). This is like high school all over again. The cool kids are ignoring me!
- James Ferguson
i'm with the google wave woudl be really cool, if i had people to wave at crowd. jviddy@googlewave.com
- Jamie Vidamour
Everyone, read the title and first comment. This is NOT an invite thread!
- Kol Tregaskes
my plan didn't work. still trolling for an invite at dzinrgeek@gmail.com
- amarquart
Blimey. I must be going mad, is it not clear that this is NOT an invite thread. For invites see here: http://ff.im/91M9R
- Kol Tregaskes
Not sure if anyone else woudl find it useful, i'm going to add a load of you as friends and create a wave just to try stuff out in. Feel free to remove yourself from the wave or use it as you feel. Also feel free to add anyone else you think might want to be in on it
- Jamie Vidamour
Shockingly, I am robdiana@googlewave.com
- Rob Diana
Kamilah, you are kamilah.gill. You can find this if you click on yourself in the Contacts sidebar. You address (like everyone) is shown there.
- Kol Tregaskes
Karoli: is that your google wave nick or are you sniffling? :)
- Ahsan Ali aka. Slick
I'm sniffling because I don't have a google wave nick. Despite two invites, there is still nothing in my inbox. I am not in with the in crowd. :(
- Karoli
Karoli -- It appears as if there's a batch of emails going out now. Keep checking.
- Christopher A Carr
<- Waves hello! :) I'm at holger.eilhard@googlewave.com
- Holger Eilhard
hello holger, can you pls send me invite? fatihkurtoglu@gmail.com
- M Fatih Kurtoglu
Invite came today! I'm jalada@googlewave.com. As part of the second/third 'Wave' of people getting invites looks like I don't get any to share out.
- Jalada
M Fatih Kurtoglu: Sorry, I don't yet have any nominations to give out...
- Holger Eilhard
Hey, I'm in too ! :)) tagyboy@googlewave.com
- fwed
Just got my invite this morning as well. FF embed seems to be working fine. I've tried the Wolfram Alpha robot but didn't get it to work yet.
- François Dongier
librarysupporter@googlewave.com in my wave. :)
- MLx
Glad to see more and more people getting in. What we're waiting for is proper group support (a few weeks hopefully) then let the games begin! :-D
- Kol Tregaskes
Anyone have a spare google wave invite to send to me? email me at zaldor at gmail ! TY!
- Les Zaldor
I will as soon as I get one WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
- Martha
banane@googlewave.com <-- writing this from wave. neat!
- anna sauce
marco.nunez@googlewave - FINALLY! like i said on twitter - i feel like the kid who got a nintendo 1 christmas too late when everyone had already beaten super mario bros!
- Marco(aureliusmaximus)
denise.straessler@googlewave - stupid me had no idea i wouldn't be able to select a different name .....
- denise
Wow. Thanks Kol!!! Here's mine for all ya'll to add - walt.ruppar@googlewave.com - although I just added like 150 of the above. While also deleting my pity pleads for an invite... ;-)
- Walt Ruppar
Is there a list anywhere of the sites that automatically post images to FF when you put their RSS/MRSS feeds into here? I want to get images from Google Reader to show up here. If not from GReader, then I need a few other options. Looking for something that's not blocked at work (so not Twitpic, Posterous, similar sites).
- Kamilah Gill
"In recent months we’ve worked quite hard to bring you some fantastic free stuff and we think that our growing collection of freebies is pretty awesome. So… Since icons are such a huge element in modern day web design, we decided to partner with one of the best icon designers we’ve come across to bring you a fantastic new web icon set."
- AJ Batac
from Bookmarklet
Slayerboy: good marketers won't get blocked. I really appreciated getting cuts in line at Six Flags because of their Twitter contest.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
Good marketers aren't most marketers :)
- Brett Kelly
Robert: I don't mind good marketers, as long as they're genuine. Too many of them (particular the "social media marketing gurus") are just unforgivably obnoxious and fake in their attempts to pimp their own garbage services/blog. So, I really hope you're right :)
- Brett Kelly
Bad marketers on FriendFeed will survive in search results. Do a search for a couple of terms like 'canon 135mm' and you'll see plenty of entries that are just links to people selling the lens. You're not going to block them all. I don't see that as a big problem, but I suspect they'll be successful enough there to keep them coming.
- Edward Coffey
"Now on to Google Wave! - sean andersen" Exactly. Unless the FF core team is over there on the sandbox right now, doing all they can to start the scrambling scrum RIGHT NOW, the big GWave will assimilate all. At least until the assimilation wave after that. FF has maybe a one year window -- if that -- to make it's move, whatever that might be, starting right now.
- michael silverton
Citronella - I like that the spammers are vaporized almost instantly here. Decent built in tools for group reporting.
- BairdWilliamson
If I got here before Guy and I'm geekless does that give me any special designation?
- Kimber Scott
michael silverton: Wave sandbox already looks like Gmail. I bet when they release it, it will be Gmail 2.0. I hope Bret & co. are studying it close...
- sean andersen
Kimber: you are geeky because you were here before...whether you like that designation or not :)
- WorldofHiglet
Louis has more than *one* soul? Or is this a left-foot, right-foot thing. Colour me confus`ed :D
- Micah Wittman
LOL! Well, I guess I could be called an amateur geek...
- Kimber Scott
from email
@silverton, agreed that FriendFeed has a limited time window to figure out what it wants to be when it's all grown up.. in other news, can't believe it took Guy this long to show up here to play. Nothing wrong with a little marketing, especially if it's of the "Moving the Freeline" variety.. +1 Gilbert, LOL.
- Alex Schleber
If I were Guy, or the head of any company, be it a camera shop or whatever, whenever I had a little free time, I'd tweet out, "Hey, I'm going to be on FriendFeed for an hour or so, answering any questions about Alltop, telling you about its features, advantages, and benefits, come join in!" or something like that. That's a vertical that feeds off Twitter and really enriches both platforms, utilizing them both for their strengths.
- Stephen Pickering
With Leo, Steve Rubel, and Guy K now all here .. this landscape is about to change ... agreed.
- Charlie Anzman
I'm reading Crossing the Chasm, only 18 years after it was published. Can I blend in as a "marketer" now?
- DGentry
Well hopefully communities will coexist in open social media, we aren't defined by what or where we login to right? It's just information we share, the platform is merely a pipeline. The communities need to exist beyond the platforms
- Mark Essel
from iPhone
So, do you think the population will tend to shift to more casual people than the creme de la creme people. I feel so, since there are only the innovative, open-minded people on FriendFeed right now; and I think the change is pretty near.
- Yiğit Arda Türkoğlu
Marketing guys have always been here. The difference... tactics and respect. That being said change is always happening and even still I'm not sure Friendfeed will hit the critical mass Twitter has with marketers. The friendfeed brand will likely be defined differently than Twitter and attract different people. Time will tell.
- Jim Goldstein
from iPhone
why? can't marketing guys and geeks get along?
- kakuei
No. We cannot get along. This war has been waged for too long, and too much blood has been spilled. Most of us no longer even remember why we are fighting, but it doesn't matter. Victory is all that matters.
- DGentry
The marketers are already here, but most of them are totally clueless about how friendfeed works. They somehow think they can dump their stuff here and it will get "found" and when that doesn't work, they just go back to twitter. The ones that do understand how it works either feel it is too much damn work to fake being real to be worth it, or they are the real deal and it works quite well for them.
- April Russo (app103)
April: I think there's some cost-benefit analysis going on there. There's a smaller crowd at FF and it takes a lot more work. Plus, most people here are marketing jaded.
- Trent Hamm
Guy is a marketer, sure, but also a geek. Geeks phase ends when the Celebs show up.
- Garin Kilpatrick
well if they start selling, just dont click "like" or "comment" and they will drop off the page in minutes
- Mark
I think some marketers are already here..but anyway, you think Guy being here will change things much?
- Rob Sellen :o)
Robert, you might have to make a stand for geeks everywhere. Prepare yourself.
- Joe
Robert, "Wanna learn how to get 1,000's of Friendfeed friends in no time. Click here http://somespammylink.com to learn my patent pending, amazing, fantastic, game-changing, and revolutionary way to gain residual income through the magic of your Friendfeed friends." Don't click yet, I was just brushing up!
- Sean Powell
I'm so honored to have read this message from scoble. I'm grateful for our "geeks only" days that we've all shared! LOL
- Jason Pollock
No Kidding! Welcome Guy Kawasaki, who ever your are.
- Houseofmax
thats unfortunate, but who is GuyK?
- echostreamer
When the marketer wagon shows up I'll be going private.
- Geoff Schultz
Yeah, Jim Goldstein sez it: those of us from the dark side that stumbled into these sweet precincts have kept a low profile... sorta like taking your hat off when you go to church ; >
- Thom Kennon
he's actually been here awhile, just not posting, mr scoble
- chaz2b
Some ppl cannot be stopped. Like me! Not geeky enough, a girl, too wall st. Watch out, cause tenacity wins every time.
- Liza
well then lets learn from Twitter and not follow every stupid command that celebrities give us to rocket them to the top of friend feed. BOYCOTT ALL CELEBRITIES ON FRIEND FEED to save this from becoming the punchline that twitter. save the whales, then save friend feed plez :)
- echostreamer
Jason Pollock liked this, that is HILARIOUS! He posts the most redundant links on Twitter...a notorious spammer. At least Guy admits what he does, still somewhat annoying. Not sure why Leo Laporte was mentioned, I don't see him fitting that GK mold at all.
- Benjamin Taylor
In retrospect ... it seems to have been a hit and run for now ?? Hoping not. Would be great to see him actively engaging here. A LOT to offer. Marketing crowd? ... No worries - There's always 'block, tackle and hide .....' here
- Charlie Anzman
Robert, I think this is such crazy talk, you're a marketer too ;)
- Jeremiah Owyang
Umm, I'm pretty sure that Guy is also a geek. Regardless of what his cool cred is...then again his cool cred is totally geek cool cred.
- Alex Scoble
Guy Kawasaki does have magic initials, I will give him that.
- Garin Kilpatrick
Post, Kimber added you as a friend on Goodreads. We need you to confirm that you are, in fact, friends with Kimber. To confirm this friend request, follow the below link: http://www.goodreads.com/friend... &utm_medium=email&utm_source=invite - Kimber (kimberscott.art@gmail.com)
- پـرستووو
from email
http://www.google.com/reader... I'm glad you asked this right now. I just realized that several people are following me and I didn't even know it. I hope it hasn't been this way for long!
- Michael Fidler
Just noticed that Reader now allows grouping of people you follow! Wondering: is Reader going to become a competitor (instead of complement) to FriendFeed?
- Chris Rogers
@rogersdc / Chris, Google Reader is obviously been trying to become more social, but I'd really like to see FF come out with a bookmarklet that makes sub'ing RSS feeds to FF easier/faster. Right now it's a manual process involving either a new Group/Room or Imaginary Friend. Should be 2 clicks tops.. Also see: http://friendfeed.com/alexsch...
- Alex Schleber
Here is mine : http://www.google.fr/reader.... I share (mainly on French sites and blogs) about libraries, literature and arts, human and social sciences, photography :-)
- Nadine Pestourie
LOL here we go again :o) http://www.google.com/reader... I share a lot of blogs and funny stuff that I read, it's neat how I can share and it gets posted all over by friendfeed.
- David Gross
http://www.google.com/reader... - I share items about productivity, gaming, movies, and misc. stuff from the Google "cool" via Recommendations feed. Thanks Kol for starting this thread because I've been trying to cut down on the number of feeds I subscribe to and instead just follow interesting people.
- Dusty Edenfield
Svartling: good point about adding people to groups. I noticed I couldn't comment on items that were shared by some users.
- Dusty Edenfield
I've (we) written a lot of more good tips on how to use Google Reader in Google Reader comments. It's too bad we don't have permalinks in Greader so we can share our notes and comments. Otherwise I could have posted a link here. Here are some on friendfeed: http://friendfeed.com/svartli...
- Svartling
The conversation is really blowing up (in a good way) on Reader. The most important reminder currently is to set up groups and allow commenting. That is NOT on by default!
- Vince DeGeorge
Thank you all. I think I have subscribed you all now (except those feed in languages I don't understand) Here is mine again: http://www.google.com/reader...
- Svartling
I've started to follow a few of the people here but there's quite a few, so will take me a while :) - My currently fairly bare feed is: http://www.google.com/reader...
- Roy Herrod
There are a few entries here you might like to read to help you. This one: http://ff.im/6CkQj explains about adding people to groups to allow them to comment and why some don't stay in groups. In this one: http://ff.im/6F9pQ I suggest a way to track a large number of shared items using PostRank. This: http://ff.im/6Ci0P and this: http://ff.im/6AM35 has a few tips on using GReader as a lifestreaming service. And this: http://ff.im/6EMT1 gives a few examples of GReader bundles.
- Kol Tregaskes
Those of you above whom I already follow on FF/Twitter/etc., I've subscribed to your feeds. As for the rest of you: if you follow me on GReader, I'll follow you back.
- Dennis Jernberg
I'm sharing some pages now, including a few of my past blog entries.
- Dennis Jernberg
Because I have issues with data duplication, I have merged this list with the google reader shares room feeds. You can view the Google spreadsheet at http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc...
- Rob Diana
There are a bunch of shared feeds that I could not resolve the Google username for because they did not have a named profile set up.
- Rob Diana
tristanhambling, your link didn't work. :-(
- Kol Tregaskes
It would be really handy to have all these shared feeds as an opml file. Has anyone added everyone? Care to export an opml of the shared feeds?
- Paul Jacobson
I'm http://www.google.com/reader... Not really comfortable with the custom URL though since it can only be your gmail username. Makes it really easy for spamspiders I think.
- TobiasVerhoog.com
Tobias, possibly but not had any problems myself though Gmail has the best spam filters around so I probably not noticed. ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
http://www.google.com/reader... mostly webdev, photography news, music, world news which i get interested. plus half of them may be article in Japanese. sorry. :-p
- browneyes
http://www.google.com/reader... - OK I'm in. Late as always. Will post my thoughts, feedback and pleading requests for help over in Google Reader so please follow me over there. Eat your own dog food and all that.
- Andy C
MF/Kol = I live in Kingston on Thames. It's OK apart from the traffic (continually gridlocked) and the shops (girls just lurve them). Handy for getting into London both airports and out to the Thames Valley for work type things. Richmond Park and the river in walking distance is great too.
- Andy C
Andy, Richmond Park and the others around there are the appeal really. Good place to go photographing and cycling while being very close to London I think.
- Kol Tregaskes
Teddington (across the river from Kingston Upon Thames, is where I think I'd like to live. Just 'cos it's cheaper than everywhere else around it. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
@Kol many years ago, we made the mistake of asking an estate agent in Surbiton whether it was any cheaper than Kingston. She replied 'No - of course not. We are on the fast line to Waterloo' and looked at us as if we were dog excrement.
- Andy C
I've checked rental prices in the area several times over the last 2 years and Teddington is definitely cheaper. I'm not buying, no way I can afford that. ;-) All a pip-dream anyway, need a steady job and I've not had that for a while. :-(
- Kol Tregaskes
anyone use google reader on windows mobile professional? I cant seem to get it to work and when I try to go to the mobile site it takes me to the regular site.
- David Gross
Nope, sorry can't help you there, David.
- Kol Tregaskes
I'm trying to catch up with what you're doing.... Are you Sonic the Hedgehog or something? (or do you know that cartoon character over there?)
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
Thank, Meryn. Jannifer, I have been particular active again this last few days. Guess the FF buy-out as woken me up. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Idea: a little tool that finds and lets me batch-follow the union of {my FriendFeed friends} and {G Reader users sharing publicly}. Now I just have to look them up one by one, no?
The best I can do is give you a list of your friends' google reader links using a script I wrote in a format that you want. The trick is getting it into Google Reader ... hmmmmm
- Ahsan Ali aka. Slick
Hmmmm... that gets us part of the way there!
- Chuck Falzone
Ok, I can generate the output in CSV, which you can import into your Google Contacts. The google.com/reader url would be in the Website field. But the question is: will Reader pick that up ?
- Ahsan Ali aka. Slick
That just might work. Reader does interact with your Google Contacts. Worth a shot to see what happens.
- Chuck Falzone
Okay, I'll give this a shot. I'm going to bed now but I'll have something for you tomorrow.
- Ahsan Ali aka. Slick
Awesome. Thank you. I'd set up a FF group in yr Google Contacts first, and import them there. You can then, at the very least, check one box to allow all those people to comment on yr shared items. (If it does in fact recognize who they are...)
- Chuck Falzone
Ok .. my script is downloading my google reader subs now ...
- Ahsan Ali aka. Slick
A crowdsourced company. Don't we call that the government? ;)
- Sean Powell
Dave... we have been considering this idea for a number of years, but I think that pulling it together requires more than a geek-army or an open-source collaborative ethos. 'Open' is a mind-set, not a movement... and great egalitarian strategies are possibly best not to be collectively authored, or you can find yourself in the middle of a mega-committee. Its a conundrum... But we are happy to share insights.
- Simon Edhouse
Dave/Simon: someone will do it. Why not get started now?
- Jason Cronkhite
Totally agree... the core idea that Dave is putting forward has been my 24/7 passion since 2006... and maybe Twitter & Friendfeed (RIP) are going to prove to be catalytic forces for this idea. Certainly Dave is a lot more accessible nowdays... ;)
- Simon Edhouse
Simon, maybe with Dave's help we can form a community trust and put the thing together. :-)
- Jason Cronkhite
Simon it would not be like that. I'll write a follow-up post.
- Dave Winer
I would like to understand the financial vehicles to do this. Simon, I also agree that there has to be a structure that allows for users interests to be aligned with business growth for their benefit and the founders. Too often what happens when investors step in for pure financial return is the goal becomes focused on how to turn the company, "the exit", and not on building a sustainable company to enrich lives of the user base.
- Jason Cronkhite
well... to quote Robert Burns, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray"... Firstly I totally agree with Dave's other post (i.e. "Rex, you're making it too complicated..") where he outlines the structure of the Public Company... no problem there. I have reasoned out the same model some time ago. - I see it like a series of check-boxes that have to be ticked... and probably...
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- Simon Edhouse
Understand & agree for the most part. RE: BIG IDEA, don't know if it really has to be earth moving all the time but rather something that enough users can stand to benefit from both of using the product and financially. Simon, how about publishing your checklist and trying to get a following around the movement?
- Jason Cronkhite
The BIG IDEA is crucial... once you see it, you can't stop thinking about it, and that's what is needed to get massive buy-in. - "get a following around a movement" No... I can't drum that up. I am too small a fish, and not living in a VC hotspot. Dave's the man, if he can control his notorious crankiness (we love you Dave)... However, yes, I can add-value, but who am I? Dave has started to pull together this particular cosmic dust cloud. Let's see if he can truly lead it.
- Simon Edhouse
The crowdcorp concept is the way to go, now how do we make it happen? It is tough to manage efficiently the requirements of a community
- Alberto Saavedra
from Nambu
RE: BIG IDEA, maybe so - maybe not...remains to be seen. RE: you're not the one, it takes powers of 2, lots of passion, determination and as Seth Godin would say a Tribe. Sure, Dave may be one to press the issue forward but this notion requires an ARMY. Dave, maybe you can enlist Scoble and the Building43 community to push this effort.
- Jason Cronkhite
[edit] ...There are those on the web that are captivated by their own notoriety, as if being involved in social-networks is a popularity contest. - It isn't. If this project idea falls into the hands of the 'lime-light-seekers', who seem to have short attention cycles, it will rapidly go off-course. (that's my own personal view)
- Simon Edhouse
Ah, Simon. I understand you but, this is where the Power of 2 comes in so handy (you need both - the Edhouse's & Scoble's). Keeping people on course and captivated require different talents. Maybe Scoble & Winer are perfect balances. Maybe it's others but more importantly, you need all shapes, colors and credes to do something like this and the power of collective intelligence and influence.
- Jason Cronkhite
LOL... maybe we need a Jason Cronkhite too
- Simon Edhouse
Its a jigsaw puzzle... but, like those super tricky huge jigsaw puzzle's, to complete it, someone needs to have the picture that encapsulates the final vision.
- Simon Edhouse
OK... next we need a money person... who gets it. Someone who can resource this... Its not going to go anywhere much till that person steps up.
- Simon Edhouse
They are around. I forwarded a pointer to my piece today with a guy I'm working with on another project.
- Dave Winer
Cool Dave. Let's keep the conversation going. I would love to see this happen.
- Jason Cronkhite
I have detailed Info-memorandum type docs, and have sent overviews to John Nesheim (http://www.nesheimgroup.com/) who has given the core-ideas his thumbs-up, and offered to introduce me to VCs etc... John is a great guy, very smart and accessible. We had a long Skype chat a while ago... he gets it.
- Simon Edhouse
Fantastic Simon! Are VC's really what's needed 1st?
- Jason Cronkhite
VCs are probably exactly not what's needed as they (generally) are always thinking of their exit, and being risk-averse by nature they tend to look for 'me-too' plays... (projects that have successful precedents in the marketplace) ... No, an Angel Investor is what's needed. But there still has to be a killer Business Model as money people are always in the business of making more...
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- Simon Edhouse
Not to get ahead of ourselves but, even before an Angel don't we just need a passionate following of people (users of products/services they may want to own)?
- Jason Cronkhite
It seems to me what is needed is a platform to evangelize the concept, get people behind the cause. Of course, a financial plan as to how users might contribute to show tangible interest would help in gaining validation and traction for larger investor types.
- Jason Cronkhite
well... I instinctively take a different view on that. Not to say you are wrong, I am just really aware of the 'politics' of collaboration, the realities of project 'execution', and the realities and importance of I.P. protection for investors, even if it may become a public company (which by the way is a VERY expensive process to go through and carries with it a raft of responsibilites...
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- Simon Edhouse
point well taken simon, agreed. so, let's see if dave wants to help assemble the core group, open discussion, have a meeting of the minds in-person and push things forward.
- Jason Cronkhite
Just opened a private group, "User Ventures" and sent you an invite, Simon/Dave.
- Jason Cronkhite
"Jason assembled a great group of heroes, known as the Argonauts after their ship, the Argo. The group of heroes included the Boreads (sons of Boreas, the North Wind) who could fly, Heracles, Philoctetes, Peleus, Telamon, Orpheus, Castor and Pollux, Atalanta, and Euphemus." http://bit.ly/9LTx9
- Simon Edhouse
Nick, I have no qualms of opening up the group after those who plan to contribute help to establish a framework for the group. Foundations must be part of anything new even user centric organizations. So, if being an active contributor to help users suits you the group needs you and any other user advocate for that matter.
- Jason Cronkhite
Another axis to think about is whether a particular idea even needs to be owned by a single entity, public, or otherwise. Chances are, if you're inventing another communication protocol/network to piggy back on the internet/web and ship data around, it isn't always necessary to have a single point of failure. Rather, you're taking a fault-tolerant network protocol (TCP/IP) and layering...
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- Ray Cromwell
Ray, just reached out to Charles Armstrong of Trampoline.
- Jason Cronkhite
Interesting points Ray, and yes, the technology idea you outline is in accord with some of the ideas we have been building on... but inventing another open protocol does not necessarily a profitable people's Company make. - and Nick, as regards the irony of a private discussion... Sometimes you have to be smart... and being 'smart' is also about being prudent and careful.,
- Simon Edhouse
I agree, but some things are commodities/public goods and not really something that should be walled off just to try and extract profits. (Which I'm not against, I just think there are plenty of other things to make profits on than setting up more toll bridges) Would RSS have taken off if a single company owned it and all feeds had to be hosted through their domain? Maybe, but I think we'd all be worse off than the current situation.
- Ray Cromwell
Yes... I agree, and this is a very interesting area. - Probably the only way I can get us out of this log-jam is to go deeper and state that I am interested in two key symbiotic projects. One being an open platform, and the other being a separate (and at arms length) vehicle to redefine the way commercial contacts between buyer and seller, or advertiser/vendor and viewer/client are conducted.
- Simon Edhouse
Simon: you are a jerk if you think I do this to "seek the limelight." I shared OTHER PEOPLE'S posts here more than 21,000 times. That is called sharing. I travel the world and point my camera at OTHER PEOPLE. Building communities is hard work and the fact that you have started this project by being an asshole does not bode well for its future.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
I went and looked and Simon never even participated here. Two likes. What a jerk.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
Now you're talking Dave. Let's get a publicly owned social media provider. But how?
- Mark Essel
Without question I'd like to see something like what Jason and Simon are discussing. I can't help but write about it on a regular basis. Robert I can imagine some who don't follow you regularly may not be familiar with your sharing, constant video/blogging and social media dedication. They could perceive your ubiquity (at least within certain circles) as being a glory hound. I see otherwise. You get it man and we all benefit from your work.
- Mark Essel
Mark: I agree, but I won't help a guy who questions my integrity and is a jerk. Maybe if he apologizes. Plus he's already proven he doesn't participate so WTF does he know about building a community? Geesh.
- Robert Scoble
If I may... this is a fantastic political opportunity for all of us (bystanders like myself, geeks and users). I can hardly follow half the things you write (although I google most of it), but I watch the process as an experiment on "Open" Democracy through Open Source. My best wishes on its success no matter who partakes. If there is anything a civilian can contribute, please don't hesitate to ... well poke. :-))
- constantinos alexacos
Robert: I'm looking more towards Brian Hendrickson & Dave if this concept is to move forward. I bumped into Brian quite randomly while chatting about open social media, and have been banging my head on some web programming that Brian is sharp enough to explain in a feasible way in short order. If an open crowd funded business is going to develop it'll be on the backs of developers. I hope I get to help out with the movement.
- Mark Essel
No, the IPO comes first, before anything else.
- Dave Winer
So public buy in before anything to buy into? Seems like tricky timing, but I see the point of that order. Get public ownership and direction driving the business forward from square 1. The IPO legal requirements are pretty involved, can they be met without a business structure?
- Mark Essel
Just to add my two cents: I am a relative small fry here in this big community and have been fortunate enough to have participated in interesting discussions with both Scoble and Dave. Both have found the time (at least to some degree) to engage with me and I have since wondered how they do it (or at least how much time it takes).
- Sean Powell
(Part 2) It seems based on these comments that something like this will need EVERYONE to actually be successful. With the advent of these technologies - friendfeed and (dare I say it) twitter - we now how the ability to truly get everyone involved and weigh in on decisions. That is the key here. Then we can help settle questions like: "Who decides where we go? What we do? Who's involved?" That last question should not even be considered. imho
- Sean Powell
Gee, calling people "jerks" and "assholes" is just too easy in this kind of forum isn't it? But you know Robert, I did not say that you had no integrity. What I was saying was that, if something like this were to develop in an integral fashion, as in [def:] "...necessary to make a whole complete; essential or fundamental", then its not about obtaining mass publicity first off... which...
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- Simon Edhouse
Simon, you wrote, and I quote "Pleeeeeese.... not Scoble. - Its gonna take buckets of wisdom, and patience and dare I say it, integrity."
- Robert Scoble
Dave, the idea of: "...the IPO comes first" baffles me. - IPOs are very expensive, and would only seem to raise the level of risk. - What is the reason that you take that position? - I think great companies are built on great ideas, and without the solid foundation of a 'great idea', I (and other's) would sense that its an ideologically driven foray... Foundations are important.
- Simon Edhouse
That, to, me, says you were saying that I didn't have any integrity.
- Robert Scoble
Simon: but your last statement is better. I still think your first statement was pretty damn rude, though, and when someone calls you on your rudeness, your first answer should be "I'm sorry."
- Robert Scoble
That's what my community website network is all about. See http://Frederick.com for an example. The site is owned by the community.
- Craig Shipp
IPO? The IPO market doors have been shut for sometime. Thanks for the chuckle.
- cheapsuits
yep... I'm sorry if that offended you, really. Loose words... I don't know you, and you don't know me. Over a coffee, we would probably have a chuckle and find quite a bit of common ground. Please accept my apology. It was an off the cuff remark, poorly executed.
- Simon Edhouse
Robert... gee I should have looked at your pic before insulting you! - Lucky I'm on the other side of the planet. ;) (I'm an Aussie, from English stock... fairly reserved, and nowhere near the buzzy west coast of the US. - so on quite a different frequency)
- Simon Edhouse
Apology accepted, now we can move on. Thanks!
- Robert Scoble
Ok... The trigger for this discussion was Dave's clarion call: ""we, the users, need to own a technology company -- and have it work to serve our interests..." ~ Its a meme that obviously resonates with many. There's been a shift to user-control, and libertarianism rolling forward for years on the web... and the implied friction-point (which is very real) is the tension between the Web...
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- Simon Edhouse
Has a company ever been "for the people"? In my view, businesses operate as a dictatorship 99% of the time. I just don't see how this would happen without the company being publicly traded on the open market.
- Bryan Penczak
Simon / Robert: Glad you guys made up :-) ... Simon, I am interested in your points of view and think there is a lot of merit to the visioning process with great leadership. I think Robert is one of the best evangelists for technology there is and letting the Scobleizer do what he does best has a time and place and I think Robert knows this and I'm sure he can move forward once there is...
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- Jason Cronkhite
Forgive me if I don't understand, but isn't the purpose of a company to make profits? Why not create a foundation akin to Mozilla or Apache instead? The closest service-oriented foundations I can think of are Wikipedia and Archive.org. It becomes interesting to me if we're talking about a services-oriented organization that provides end-user services built on top of existing and future...
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- Ankush Narula
from iPhone
Ankush, I think the differentiation is that users contribution to these companies are not being rewarded. Why can the users as well as founders not be rewarded when they are essentially building the value of the company together. Companies cannot become valuable without customers so, they need each other and if users/customer bring up the valuation of the company why not have the...
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- Jason Cronkhite
But what's the end goal? Rewards or integrity? You have to find a balance in any for-profit venture. However, non-profits are driven largely by vision and integrity (ideally speaking). So let me ask some more questions. If you're laying down your money as a user+investor, won't your interests change from time to time? If you actually take a company like this public who controls the...
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- Ankush Narula
Brian... Wikipedia is a pretty good example of a company that operates for its users and is almost totally dependent on its users. However, it has no real business model, but retains a hugely valid place in most of our lives. - There is however an answer to the current dilemma/stalemate that folks here have been yearning for, and it is perfect and simple. In a nut-shell I would call it:...
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- Simon Edhouse
...and now its 4.00am down under, and I have to hit the sack... G'night fellow travellers.
- Simon Edhouse
Simon... if we're talking alternatives to client-server the only one that I can think of is true distributed peer-to-peer. So perhaps a collective of such companies working together under an umbrella would be very effective since we would see many various incarnations of user+investor style companies. Interesting...
- Ankush Narula
My only concern there, and its a well researched concern, is about secuity of the core protocol. there's a huge amount that can be 'open' on top, but the base transport protocol, sitting on TCP/IP needs to be super-tight, and solid. best kept as a trade secret, inside an ultimately publicy owned Company, that has rules to prevent corporations ever owning more than 10% of the stock. If...
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- Simon Edhouse
Update, I contacted Charles Armstrong, CEO of Trampoline last night and he's interested to join and learn more about this. He may be popping in soon.
- Jason Cronkhite
Dave ---- If I may comment about your original post sorry!), I found the post pretty inspiring. I advise on social media for an agency (no flames, please) and one of the things I talk about is "sensible" and "realistic" ROI. What I mean is very clear: we're not going to use bullshit metrics like "awareness" or "impressions" to measure whether or not our work had an effect on the brand....
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- Michael E. Rubin
Ankush... had a quick look, but immediately I see a big discord with what I've been thinking/planning. i.e. "You can upload any file of any size"... that is a continuation of the situation that has got P2P systems into so much trouble, and stigmatized the technolgy. Its great in one sense, but it invites Piracy, copyright theft etc etc. P2P is THE logical system for the internet, (its...
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- Simon Edhouse
Public shell looks like a good alternative, is it too early to bring VRM ideas to the promised land scenario?
- Alberto Saavedra
gee, don't get me started on VRM... nice philosophy, but very naive. (uh oh, 4.24am... damn) Bye...
- Simon Edhouse
The users owning it - it's the Open Source model!
- Marcos Marado
from fftogo
Update after hearing back from a finance friend and reading some more on public shells, they have an history of association of use by folks who abuse the system and they are hidden liabilities (I'm still in the dark on those liabilities).
- Mark Essel
We touched on 'GOOG' & 'Business Models' yesterday... my observation about the prevailing status quo paradigm for web-advertising is summarised here: http://friendfeed.com/simoned...
- Simon Edhouse
hmmm... ok, if the concept of "Web Advertising" elicits such a nonplussed reaction, reflect on this: Contacts between vendor and buyer, and the drawing of these two parties together via promotion or request, is the basic process that 'Advertising' tries to achieve. However, as Danah Boyd highlighted in her December 2007 blog piece, (Who clicks on ads? And what might this mean?),...
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- Simon Edhouse
Wow, I *really* like this idea. So outside the box. I hope this gets explored more seriously down the line...
- Carter Rabasa
My guess is that you closed the comments to not have to dive straight into a discussion of open source vs a People's Software Company.
- DGentry
I love the idea, but there are some built in problems. When 'the community' contributes, who judges the value of anothers contributions to a project? Perhaps some of the ethos that went into the recent Netflix Challenge could be incorporated: reward comes to those who actually accomplish a subjective goal; not to those who spend the most time. Great discussion starter, however. (Also,...
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- Rex Hammock
Rex, you're making it too complicated. Employees are compensated the usual ways, with salaries, benefits and stock options. Management decides what to pay them. The board of directors does what boards always do. But here's the difference: 1. It's a public company. 2. No funny business as with Google's equity. The public shares have full voting rights. Further the public owns a...
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- Dave Winer
I turned off the comments because I wanted the discussion to take place on blogs.
- Dave Winer
We've been acquired by Facebook! We are really excited about joining the Facebook team. (Note: FriendFeed will continue to operate - see the blog post for details)
- Bret Taylor
from Bookmarklet
I am hoping this will lead to nice integration for cross posting! Currently using Twitter App on FB to post and I hate those ff.im links that end up on Facebook.
- Ivan Zlatev
it was good while it lasted, Friendfeed. :(
- holly
"FriendFeed.com will continue to operate normally for the time being. We're still figuring out our longer-term plans for the product with the Facebook team." Those are NOT encouraging things to read as a FF user.
- Scott of Two Countries
Sniff... not sure if I'm excited about this. But I have enormous respect for the FriendFeed team... so, I assume they believe in the move as more than an exit strategy.
- Michael Leggett
@#$& that's all I have to say. For now.
- Zachary TG
Facebook should have been aquired by Friendfeed. Why they hell would you give up your better product to a worse one? Did none of you give a shit about this service to begin wiht?
- Matthew DeVries
Coolest web 2.0 site I've ever seen & used. I hope things don't derail. Ads will be coming soon, which is fine, but.... then what 's next? Please no quizzes!
- Ben Hanten
Who would have thought that after Facebook were shamelessly being "inspired" by FriendFeed, the inevitable would have happened?
- Tyson Key
I'm pissed off. I wan to throw away the whole Internet :
- DarkBls
Hey guys, keep in mind that Facebook is blocked in workplaces across the nation. 250 million casual users commenting about last night's party does not intelligent conversation make.
- Hector
I really can't see how FB would buy FF only to shut it down. There are way too many innovations and features FF has that FB honestly needs. I'm looking forward.
- Harry Wolff
Oh, this does not make me happy. Not at all! I've stayed off of Facebook intentionally and FriendFeed is my favorite social network. This is like when the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees. :>(
- Larry Hawes
i have stopped using FB for the most part and liked FF alot more. now FF will go the way of FB. screwed again.
- Joe Silence is not dead
Congratulations. Enjoy the new challenges of acquisition, and I'm looking forward to the result!
- Wade Dorrell
Berge Gazen beat your score in Mafia Wars
- Berge Gazen
Enjoy your fat paychecks, guys. You've sold us out.
- Akiva Moskovitz
Bravo Bret! Been following your successes ever since we had the opportunity to work together on the YellowPages.ca / Google Maps Canada deal. Congrats!
- Sebastien
I wished it was Google or even Yahoo!, instead...
- Tyson Key
i really hope ff stays as it is. fb is kinder carder while ff is a great tool.
- jkkmobile
Not sure what to make of this. It could eiter be a big win or a huge fail.
- dorn
It could have been Microsoft, which would have been worse for everyone. :(
- Tyson Key
Can I take this opportunity to say I HATE facebook?
- Alex Scrivener
seems the only ppl happy here are the ones in the biz or who stand to profit from the merger.
- Joe Silence is not dead
I guess we should get ready to get poked by our supposed friends and have various shit thrown at us? Plus 5,000 requests by apps that nearly all suck.
- Joey Gibson
There is zero way this could have been a win for anyone, but the now rich founders.
- Matthew DeVries
If I have to go to FB to use FF then it's a lost cause
- Randy Pollock
Painful. And apparently I completely misunderstood what FF was trying to accomplish both technically and as an organization. I guess Facebook must have dangled a pretty big bag of money in front of them.
- Ken Sheppardson
FriendFeed is Dead! Long Live FriendFeed! :/
- Tyson Key
I will reserve judgement, i don't like or use FB but if FF maintains it's current goodness i don't care who cuts the checks.
- Steve C
I hope this doesn't turn into an APP filled hunk of crap. I love FriendFeed, it was the untouched gem of microblogging. I don't want Mafia Wars invited in my FriendFeed!!! Congrats on the sale though.
- Jay Farmington
@Philipp: until the new masters start flexing their muscles and bringing in their own people to enforce their own vision.
- Joe Silence is not dead
I read the blog post and one statement stands out to me "FriendFeed.com will continue to operate normally for the time being." The time being. This is not just bad, I think it may be #FAIL
- berchman
Facebook obviously liked FriendFeed a long time ago. Why would they have copied so many features (feed item comments and the "Like" action, to name a couple) otherwise? It was only logical for this to happen eventually. Doesn't mean I like it, but acquisition is part of the game. I have the same feeling I did when SocialThing! was acquired by AOL, though.
- Voyagerfan5761
"Relationship Status: It's complicated" comes to mind. ;)
- Tyson Key
Wow, I finally sign up, and read this. This could end up being a very bad thing for FF fans: "Your FriendFeed friend just signed up on this poll, would you like to too?"
- Brian Bommarito
Congrats guys. And thanks for your continuos effort in helping promote and integrate web services, like mine, Wakoopa. That's awesome and I hope FB gets better because of it.
- Robert Gaal
This will give FriedFeed the attention it deserves. Otherwise it would have been a geek thing forever.
- Michael Netsch
Will there be a super poke feature launched tomorrow?
- Matthew DeVries
aw, this sux!! Congrats to the Friendfeed team though!
- acedanger
Does this mean that we'll be seeing an influx of webcam spammers, a la Twitter? Along with abolishment of the rooms feature, crappification of the search feature, and more "privacy features" that really just put more nails in the openness coffin?
- Tyson Key
Some people will do whatever their friends request........
- Michael Muller
I really don't see why people would be anything but excited about this Facebook freindfeed deal. Great news as far as I am concerned. The Friend feed team is going to go over facebook and make it that much easier to connect, share... isn't that what the social web is about?
- Kevin Murray
I know a lot of people who use Facebook and enjoy it and that's fair enough. It's just not my cup of tea. The chaps from Friendfeed will get rich and the technology will get absorbed in Facebook but I can't see Friendfeed continuing in anything like it's present form.
- Paul Nash
Don't be so negative, something good might eventually come of this...
- Tarmo Aidantausta
Congrats! I know you all must be crazy excited right now.
- Michele Lorito-Chase
chance for FriendFeed to become more mainstream... congrats FriendFeed team!
- Jeroen De Miranda
Nothing could make me happier than if they integrated the good tools from FriendFeed into Facebook, which is where all my friends are. So a big "yay!" from me.
- Ian Betteridge
happy for you guys, but not for all of us
- Flavio
congratulations. this is going to be interesting.
- Dave Beckett
I think I preferred the non-mainstream version of FriendFeed...
- Tyson Key
I'm turning on my black shirt, my black trouser, my black socks, my black shoes. Although I probably must be happy for you.
- Ton Zijp
NASTY NASTY BAD BAD. But we'll see...
- Daniel Morgan
Given that the FriendFeed team has never been anything but awesome & respectful of its community, I think it's unfair for people to assume that the Facebook acquisition is going to change that.
- Jess Lee
Why in god's name are we flying over this shark?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
- Matthew DeVries
Facebook is like a giant who listens to nobody. Please keep your attitude but I don't think you will be able to do so.
- Burak "cyrus" Bayburtlu
I don't know, Like it? or dislike it?
- Ömer Balamir
What happens to all the content that we've created and imported here, and the associated metadata? Will all that disappear into the ether?
- Tyson Key
If the FriendFeed guys can make FaceBook useful and responsive again, this seems like a pretty positive step!
- Robin Barooah
Robin, the Facebook users don't want that I'm afraid.
- Rutger Blom
I have big loss of data concerns. See http://ff.im/6pHjo Is there any way to archive all my FriendFeed posts, likes, comments, and pictures (friendfeed-media.com) off-line? Can some Archive.org-like snapshots of FriendFeed be made (Once a month starting Sept 2009)? I'd like to see the cross-links between my posts & other people's posts, even in 2020. -
- Mitchell Tsai
Mitchell: the FriendFeed site is not shutting down. Your data will not go away any time in the near term future - we are committed to our users.
- Bret Taylor
I just overheard a coworker mention FriendFeed. This is how the world ends...
- CannonGod