Posted By
Jamie Beckland on 03/15/2010
The big idea at SXSW that I have been excited about is the
future of location-based services (LBS). We are all checking in on Foursquare,
but what does it really mean? The conclusion I have come to is that LBS are
just a platform. We need to build usable apps and features on top of the basic
concept of checking in.
I have also realized that no one has the answer to what
those platforms will be. We are still wrestling with the social implications of
being able to expose so much information about ourselves that is public by
default. Here at SXSW, danah boyd talked
about the shift from default-private to default-public and how shifting rules
on platforms pisses users off. This is exactly the problem. We need to burn
through a lot of Web services before one hits the sweet spot on how to monetize
LBS. Will VCs have the risk tolerance to keep plowing money into these startups
to move the needle forward only slightly? And what will happen when a 15-year-old
upends all of them with something startlingly simple—and obvious—but that no
one has done before? (See Chatroulette,
started by a 17 year old).
All of which is to say that the "next big thing"
is further off than it used to be. We went from social networking to real-time
information in about two years. But as we exploit these technologies, the
remainder of what has NOT moved into the digital space becomes smaller, and the
problems more intractable. That means that we are going to need more time, more
money, and more smart brains to figure out how to solve these problems.
Which means that SXSW will only continue to grow. This year,
Interactive is larger than Film and Music combined. It's spilled all over the
Hilton. And it will only get worse in the future. That will cause increased
fragmentation.
Tags: Social Networks
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