One of the interesting things about social networking is the "network effect". it is essentially the impact an additional user of the network has on the value of the network.
(1)
#digitaleconomy

What FB and twitter have done is monopolised the conversation. The problem isn't one more social network. The problem is to get people on it, who will debate, and confer, and interact (2)
#digitaleconomy

when people congregate and converse, and create communities of interest - be it #batman or #Babri - the network works (3)
#digitaleconomy

But the moment the civility and norms that govern society break down, trust declines and there is anarchy. That is what you have seen happen to the big sites. You don't trust what is on it. (4)
#digitaleconomy

The moment trust goes, community goes. What you have left are warring tribes, with tribal rules of combat.Winner takes all.
(5)

the reason i see a migration is because the sense of community is gone. You no longer recognise the place. And, you really are not sure you want to be part of such ugliness. (6)

But, we still need that sense of community. of congregation. of exchanging ideas. without the fear of having to deal with the virtual equivalent of lots of people screaming at you (7)

it will be interesting to see how @Mastodon uses this to scale up. to build the federated universe.
it is exciting because this is what the internet was meant to be.
democratized. (8)
#digitaleconomy