As Alvin Toffler first reported more than 30 years ago, we’ve evolved rapidly into “prosumers” – we take on a variety of service tasks on a voluntary basis for entities owned by others, throwing our own social capital into the marketplace. In theory, there should be a strong return on our donations. By building Pinterest (and Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn) we gain the currency of a lithe and utilitarian network, maintained by technologists and their servers, but dominated by the users. In Toffler’s vision, producer and consumer merged their interests to co-produce products and reap the benefits. Yet the pull of the marketplace and the demand for a big return on venture capital usually means that those who own the stock certificates for “social” services eventually make the hard calls about the evolution of those products, and the inevitable turn towards profit.
I’ve rarely seen this put quite so well as Tom Watson does here. There’s an implicit deal we make when we, the users, sign on to a new social network. And it’s a powerful argument for going in with our eyes wide open… and making sure we know at all times where the exits are.
Via Beth Kanter.
