A small world
Exclusivity is success. I already said that. And another great example can be found at: a small world.
I first saw this kind of behaviour with gmail’s invitations. Everyone wanted one, and after two weeks, everyone needed one. Nowadays, all you hear on the internet major trend sites have the words “myspace” or “community” within. Global reach can be a path to money and success, but exclusivity can lead towards efficiency and quality.
As usual, when something is exclusive, it immediatly creates a necessity to be reached. What I like of A Small World is their original way of avoiding overgrowth. First, they just allow registration on invitation. But not everyone inside the community can invite. Only senior members with enough connections inside have the right to invite people in. And what is better, you can just become a connection of someone if you actually meet in person. I would like to know how they check that.
I think that is so hard to get in there, and so hard to get to have the power to invite people that anyone willing to destroy the system would be traped inside the exclusivity and would require other people to suffer as he/she did to reach his position.
September 5th, 2006 at 14:25
This is all pretty nice and charming, but the “exclusivity” can, and will probably turn up side down into the worst nightmare for the web’s survival. I mean, those people who are already close friends or know each other fairly well (both phisically and in terms of what they like/enjoy and do not like/enjoy) are not in an urgent need for such a service. I do see a very clear objective in Linked-in type services, but ASmallWorld is much more fuzzy…
September 5th, 2006 at 15:42
I would generally agree, but I know someone in the network who told me about people in aSmallWorld wanting to help other VIP people to create networks in other countries. For instance, some VIP from Barcelona willing to go to Tokyo would connect with a aSmallWorld japanese member in other to benefit from its benefits.
I don’t know if there is a feedback grade or evaluation method for this kind of collaboration in orther to gain experience within the community. If there isn’t it would significantly help to win useful members.
FYI, I heard of someone (rumor not sustained) that aSmallWorld will begin chargin its customers a monthly fee.
September 13th, 2006 at 13:34
I am a member of asw and what Pau says is partially true. I don’t know how the majority of people use it but here’s a glimpse of the utility I find in it.
- Forums: some forums have a high participation rate and the “walled garden” nature of the community ensures some quality in the answers. Also, given the socio-demographics of the community (mostly jet-setters), it is more appropriate for a certain type of discussion. Examples are travel advice, business development…
- City guides (edited and reviewed by members): I found them quite reliable
- Friends of friends are often people you know but do not necessarily have the email - that’s a nice way of contacting directly these people but it is of course limited by the walled-garden approach (but at the same time, it is what allows one to have access to contacting people directly)
Of course it looks like a snobbish community at first glance, but it is so far the best effort I’ve seen to avoid the kind of problem you would find at Orkut, Friendster, multiply and others…
Another “closed” community that is making a lot of noise is www.beautifulpeople.net , he he - check it out!
September 13th, 2006 at 23:17
I know a member of asw. She told me about how she could organize a trip with some friends to Croatia thanks to a member of asw that found her all the interesting contacts and activities. She also found a great appartment in Paris, where she shares the rent with my girlfriend and where I spent a great time last weekend!
I would love to get in this community. Above all I would really like to know how their promotion system works and how relationships are used within the community. Services and revenue sources are another interesting case study I would like to analyze in there!
Jean Marc: Get me in there now! jejeje
September 18th, 2006 at 16:22
Pau: I don´t think you get an invitation if you want to analyze asw ;-) Its not like we want to be a case study object, don´t we. Btw. it is not allowed to talk about whats going on on the community outside of asw so i don´t think you get further information. There had been some members who breaking that rule and they got banned. Personally i dislike the kind of hype about invitations because it attracts people who wouldn´t fit in.
October 16th, 2006 at 13:51
The network business…
My Space, HI 5, Linked In, Facebook … all of them has 2 things in common: building a network and the use of the Web 2.0.
In the opening talk of the first Web 2.0 conference, Tim O’Reilly and John Battelle summarized key principles they be…