- Twitter will become a blend of home shopping network, daytime TV, and tabloid news. That might be quite profitable.
- There is money in sane social communication, but there isn’t big money. In particular there isn’t publicly traded corporation money.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
