http://community.brighton.ac.uk/jd29/weblog/21155.html

Full story at: http://jondron.cofind.net:80/frshowresource.php?tid=5325&resid=1356

Some sensible thoughts on building social sites that work, some of which mirror my own.In brief, Dion summarises these as...

* Ease of Use is the most important feature of any Web site, Web application, or program.

* Open up your data as much possible. There is no future in hoarding data, only controlling it.

* Aggressively add feedback loops to everything. Pull out the loops that don’t seem to matter and emphasize the ones that give results.

* Continuous release cycles. The bigger the release, the more unwieldy it becomes (more dependencies, more planning, more disruption.) Organic growth is the most powerful, adaptive, and resilient.

* Make your users part of your software. They are your most valuable source of content, feedback, and passion. Start understanding social architecture. Give up non-essential control. Or your users will likely go elsewhere.

* Turn your applications into platforms. An application usually has a single predetermined use while a platform is designed to be the foundation of something much bigger. Instead of getting a single type of use from your software and data, you might get hundreds or even thousands of additional uses.

* Don’t create social communities just to have them. They aren’t a checklist item. But do empower inspired users to create them.




Created:Sat, 02 Feb 2008 12:49:13 GMT