The Social Media Tetris

It can be argued the world of social media is helping us gradually bring down the number on the famed six degrees of separation that separates everyone from everyone else. If people connect and share more, among people they know, among people they don't know yet, as shared interests and activities are discovered, as people interact more, that number goes down. Right? I think so.

One thing I have noticed on Highlight is when you come across a "stranger" the app tells you have so many common friends and shared interests, data it pulls from your Facebook profiles. The shared interests part is intriguing to me. I still wish AirTime had taken off, because people would talk more. A Skype based "AirTime" might be a better idea than the video based attempt. But is Skype giving API issues?

There are downsides. You can end up with flame wars. People can act nasty online. I am so glad the game Ingress a few days back added the capability for you to be able to block users in the COMM, the Google game's public chatroom, if you will, (although I have uninstalled the app from my phone, but there are still close to 150 portals in the city that bear my name.)

Social media taken to new heights could do for world peace what heads of state holding summits could not. Trade and travel are major peace moves. More people interacting more often leads to a general increase in welfare overall. I think that statement is but common sense.

Facebook Groups should add elements of democracy to it. A group should be allowed to elect its leadership, and vote on issues. I am surprised that feature has not showed up yet. A lot of organizations would thus engage in Facebook voting. Heck, that feature would get really interesting for groups with a million members or more. Skype enabled conference calls for Facebook Groups would be another positive addition.

You have Snapchat for friends. What about Snapchat for strangers? Or a public Snapchat? Photos still destroy themselves, but the world saw it first. And a board for the most popular snaps perhaps?

Sean Parker's Misadventure: AirTime

The AirTime I got to know was a video chat site where the video simply did not work. I tried a few times and gave up. This has not been a failure of the idea.

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AirTime: Gone Bust?

AirTime has not delivered on the fundamentals. Frankly, it does not work the few times I have tried it. Or I'd use it often. The vision is compelling.

After Splashy Introduction, Airtime Seems to Deflate

Right now, people do not seem to be loving Airtime .... Airtime has around 20,000 daily active users and 110,000 monthly active users ..... In early July, the site had around 200,000 daily active users, but that number has gradually tapered off since then

I hope they fix it so it becomes usable.

For now shows Sean Parker might have gone a little rusty as an entrepreneur. But kudos for making the jump.

I think AirTime still has a shot.

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AirTime's First Big Mistake

AirTime is not out yet, so I have not seen what it is like. But early word is Sean Parker is building AirTime to rest on the Facebook platform. I believe that is a fundamental mistake. Facebook mapped the social graph of people you know. The random connections space, by definition, is a different animal.

Sean Parker has been so close to Facebook for so long it seems he is incapable of escaping Facebook's gravitational pull. Every startup he has been associated with post Facebook has clinged to Facebook. Causes and Spotify come to mind.

I get the impression AirTime is going to be born with a handicap.

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Finally. This could be big.

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“Facebook is about identity, the people you already know,” Parker said back in October. “It has little to do with people you don’t know.”

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My Take On AirTime (4)

My Take On AirTime (4)

Image via WikipediaGoogle Hangouts is not it, not by a wide margin. And Chatroulette was more like Lycos. AirTime might end up the Google of the random connections space. But there is no given, even if the founder is Sean Parker. But I think this team has a shot.

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You see a big screen, a full screen, a near full screen. And in there you see a random person on the service. Could be anybody from anywhere. That randomness has got to be the starting point. I mean, we are talking world peace. The social graph that Facebook has mapped is like the solar system. The random connections space is the size of the Milky Way. But it has to be done right. There is enough broadband globally that this application could fly.

So you start with that random person, and the option to click next and move on to the next random person. But you also want the users to have the flag option to not end up with Chatroulette like penis problem. If you got flagged by 100 users, chances are you have been flashing. The flag option, the block option. You block when you don't want to see that person ever again, you flag when you think that person should not be on the service.

My Take On AirTime (3)

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeMy Take On AirTime (2)
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AirTime will stand at the intersection between software/internet and group dynamics in the raw. That is an exciting proposition to me.

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Also the timing will be right. As broadband's speeds get faster we will increasingly feel as casually about videos as we do about photos today. I am predicting an Instagram for short videos, for one.

AirTime's launch will open a whole new era of web innovation. This will be new territory. It will be almost as fundamental as Google's search and Facebook's social, if it is done right. AirTime's social will be of a vaster scope than Facebook's social.

But it has to be done right, and I am angling for a formal advisory role. I have been "advising" all sorts of startups for free here at my blog. But now I seek an advisory role, something formal. It is because when it comes to group dynamics, I am as good as they come. I know group dynamics like Bill Gates knew software. Or, rather, I know group dynamics like Sean Parker knows music and software. I am that good.

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My Take On AirTime (2)

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What happens when you let a billion stranger faces collide? That is group dynamics heaven.

It has to start at the random connection level. There is a random face, there is no user name. And there is the next button.

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The social graph of AirTime is going to be the mother of all social graphs. (I borrowed that phrase from Saddam Hussein who used to talk in terms of the mother of all battles.)

But then you don't want it to be completely random. I should be able to say narrow my pool down to people in New York City who are interested in technology. So it's still random, but it is random inside a particular city, and to a particular topic of interest.

And the block feature. You block someone you meet and you never have to see them again. And if that person gets 99 other blocks by other people, he/she (likely he) gets booted off the service. A good use would be to get rid of the penis problem. An abuse case will be ethnicities that hate each other. I don't like your kind. Off you go into oblivion and loneliness.

People, simply use the next button.

Suddenly the remotest town on earth (with broadband) is going to feel like a metropolis. You can meet as many people as you want. An end to loneliness as we know it.

Sean Parker's AirTime Could Net Him Tens Of Billions

Sean Parker is a billionaire already at a net worth of over two billion. The guy is 31.



Napster, Facebook, Plaxo, Causes, Spotify, AirTime. Before today I did not even realize Causes was his thing. You live and you learn. Plaxo was annoying, don't you think? And yet that is the company he is most proud of.

I learned of AirTime very recently. But you only have to do a search on the term Chatroulette at this blog to get a feel for my passion for the topic. Just like the Google guys gave jobs to people like Vint Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee, Sean Parker should rope in the Russian dude, give him a small cut, not legally required, but might be beneficial.

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The social graph that Facebook has mapped is not really all that cutting edge. I mean, I already knew these people. I did not need help knowing them. But I do need help, a lot of help, getting to know people I don't know, I might never meet. AirTime could help map that uncharted social graph, and that is big.

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In many ways I am looking at AirTime as Sean Parker's first startup. This is the one he gets to do his way. This is the one he gets to own a big chunk of.

I really like this guy. He is always thinking big. He paints in broad strokes. His visions tend to be sweeping, panoramic. Not for him is incremental innovation. He is always wanting to do the next big thing. And now through AirTime he is trying to tackle the most virgin aspect of the web. The landscape of what he is trying to navigate is so shapeless right now.

Maybe the guy should rope me in in some kind of an advisory role. I could not think of a better preparation as I gear to launch my own microfinance startup. I think I am in a position to contribute.

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