I am really enjoying the conversations, heated opinions, and name calling that has occurred over the last couple of weeks around the issue of data portability (aka Facebook versus Google) and the uproar over websites like Friendfeed and Disqus that shift conversations/comments from a blog to a third-party websites.
There are many an eloquent writers who will do more justice to these particular arguments than me and in fact, I have included links to a few of the posts below and linked to some of the people in the conversation as well.
However, I wanted to offer this argument:
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana
This entire conversation reminds me of America Online. I was employed by AOL from the mid-90s through early 00’s. You can make all the bad comments you want about AOL (Internet for Dummies, The Internet with Training Wheels, etc.), but there was a time where we were certainly the most powerful company on the internet.
In my mind, AOL was Google before Google was cool. We had fantastic employees who were smart as hell and we worked out butts off. We had great leaders like Steve Case and Ted Leonsis who kept us motivated and on track. When you told people you worked at America Online, there response made you feel like you were someone special. You felt like you were changing the world and in many ways we did.
However, let’s take a quick look at where AOL went wrong and how it compares to what is happening today.
Proprietary System
One of the key failures for AOL was not changing its proprietary content system (Rain Man) to the more internet friendly HTML language much earlier. It is well known that we eventually did change, but it was too late to ensure that our users had access to the services and content that they really wanted and eventually left to find. To use the training wheels analogy, we had literally millions of members ready to ride their bikes and we couldn’t find the wrench to take off the wheels. If we had the wrench, and we made it easy to come and go, I believe many of them would make their way home.
Dear Facebook - Your users are going to grow and change. They are going to want to do new things that you are not going to want to provide for a variety of reasons. However, experience has shown me that if you provide sticky content, create a community, and your website is easy and fun to use, that even if they leave; they will also come back. If you don’t make it easy for them to try out other services, eventually they will make the same choice millions of AOL subscribers made in that they will leave to find “their” internet and not the one you are providing.
Adaptable and Innovative
I’m still amazed how stubborn AOL was about sticking with the same subscriber based business model when the horse had not only left the barn, but had crossed the field and was heading down the road before change really began to occur.
Now, I do understand the pull of billions of dollars in revenue and I also understand wanting to protect that revenue stream for as long as you can. But, AOL needed someone to grab them and drag them kicking and streaming into the 21st century. I believe you need to be working your current revenue stream for all it is worth, but at the same time a key group of leaders needs to have one eye on the future. Those same leaders have to be willing, and be supported, to push the company in a new direction a little earlier than the company will feel comfortable. That way you will find yourself on the horse leaving the barn, while you are still getting strong revenues necessary to fund the new innovation.
Dear 1.0 Bloggers - The horse has left the barn. The disappearance of partial RSS feeds was your first hint and websites like FriendFeed and Disqus, and the conversations on Twitter should be a slap in the face. Please, like Duncan Riley at The Inquisitr, who had a great post about his change of heart regarding FriendFeed. It it is time to embrace these innovations and jump in with both feet. Focus on the user. Listen to what they want and figure out how you can deliver it to them in the best possible way. Great writing and interesting content have to be there, but if you want more people to listen to what you have to say, they aren’t going to come to you anymore. You have to go to them. People like Robert Scoble, Louis Gray, and Hutch Carpenter are showing you the way. The horse has left the barn, but you can still catch-up if you can get yourself unstuck.
