Saturday, August 18, 2018

Random thoughts on replacing Twitter

  1. Twitter will become a blend of home shopping network, daytime TV, and tabloid news. That might be quite profitable.
  2. There is money in sane social communication, but there isn’t big money. In particular there isn’t publicly traded corporation money.
  3. With current software and hardware stacks a base social network doesn’t have to be very expensive. I suspect without video storage and without advertising it could be done for $20/user a year and perhaps less.
  4. A consortium of newspapers, foundations, and universities with some grant money is enough to develop and support a standards based solution. Remember USENET* was basically supported by universities. USENET was also an open standard.
  5. USENET didn’t have to support a billion users though. A sane social communication network will require either an ad model similar to 1980s newspapers or user fees. I like the idea of free read access for all, contribution requires subscription ($20/year), people can donate subscriptions (free pool).

And that’s all the time I have to think about this for now …

* Still around, by the way. Searchable too.