Umair Haque thinks NIng has picked the wrong target. The Small World 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 Commun Ity-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 (Advertis Ing 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)

• Commun Ity: Wiki Pedia and Craigs List (focus on [Barn Raising]/Mutual Ism?)

I'm not sure anyone is treating these as cleanly distinct. This reminds me of Marshall Mc Luhan'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.

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