(2007-03-13) Haque Ning Mistarget

Umair Haque thinks Ning has picked the wrong target. The SmallWorld strategy - which is what you are employing - is a fundamental mismatch for the markets you are targeting. You are trying to solve problems that don't exist. There is already a micro-Virtual Community for almost everything under the sun.... You've given us a great example of the next great error: choosing the wrong edge strategy. You've chosen Network-s, when you should have chosen Community-s. Now, this might seem trivial. But it's emphatically not. The consumers you're targeting have already made their choices: they've chosen communities... Why do the economics of communities, rather than the economics of networks, dominate interaction in consumption microniches?... Network-s are as different from communities as Market-s are from networks. Each relies on a hugely distinctive - and mututally exclusive - form of Collective Intelligence, which drives different sources of value creation. (Virtual Community, Network Economy, Market)

An older piece (PDF) discusses these, but doesn't clarify to me the point above.

• Market: Google AdWords (Advertising Value Chain) (focuses on transactions where Money changes hands)

• Network: MySpace (Music Industry Value Chain) (I guess ITunes would be the Market player?) (focus on Social Networking, Weak Ties, sharing information pointers)

• Community: Wikipedia and Craigs List (focus on Barn Raising/Mutualism?)

I'm not sure anyone is treating these as cleanly distinct. This reminds me of Marshall McLuhan's hot/cool Media distinction: it would be amusing to see votes by groups of which media "have" which quality - I don't think you'd find much consistency...

Dec'2007 update: I don't think even Umair has a clear distinction in mind. I think it's more important to focus on these being similar flavors of the Network Economy.