(Post) MBA Blog

My last evening in London was not expected to go with a bang, despite it being New Years Eve. A quiet evening with friends was all I expected, or wanted for that matter.

Instead, after starting the night off in South Kensington, we took in a tour of the city via a number of friend's pads and ended up at Hoxton, trying to find a club, as I vaguely recall (it was about 3 am by this time).

We couldn't find the place, so, wondering what else to get up to at this late hour, we turned the corner and stumbled across an extremely dodgy warehouse party going on. Of course, we jumped right in! At £3 a pop, how can you go wrong?

Personally, I thought warehouse raves went out in the early 90's. Perhaps this was a post-modern re-enactment, a recontextualisation even!? More likely the police realised they had better things to do fishing drunk tourists out of the fountains in Trafalgar Square.

So my buddy and I spent the better part of 3 hours taking as much hardcore techno, drum and base - and whatever else they've managed to come up with since the last time I listened to this stuff - as we could. And we felt young again!! (No, It wasn't the chemically induced kind of feeling either).

Mind you, we also felt a little itchy, being surrounded by hippies and rave monkeys who looked like they'd just hiked in from the nearest forrest. So we got out of the place, all five floors of underground heaviness, and hit Brick Lane for a cracking Salt Beef Bagel, dripping with grease!

That was my new year's and I loved it! London still has some tricks up its sleeves!

But after a week of London madness, I was ready for Cambridge once more and last night, I arrived back and was glad for it.

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Those that have had their ears to the ground may have picked up a new phenomenon on the Web grapevine lately - Online Social Networking (OSN) - like real-world networking, but, erm, online. I picked up on it a couple of months ago, although I remember the original prototype (Six Degrees) a few years back. Join the network and see how many people are between you and Kevin Bacon!

No sooner does blogging explode and blogger.com itself sell up to Google, (and Google announce an IPO), does a new phenomenon rise from the flames of the dot-com bubble like an overcooked Thanksgiving turkey, I meant phoenix! Yep, that's what I meant: rising like a phoenix.

The web never ceases to amaze me. The boundless optimism, the sheer energy devoted to finding new ways to help you:
a) make money by selling stuff or getting a better job
b) get a date
...and that's largely what it revolves around. This cheeses me off a little, but it won't stop me jumping on the bandwagon! I've paid my dues - I set up eVolunteer.org.uk a few years ago, so I can grab a piece of the action with a clear conscience!

So what is my take on this new area (sarcasm aside?):

What are the main uses?
As mentioned, making business connections and finding new friends (read: dates). At the moment this is purely B2C (remember that term?) but look forward to OSN being used as a knowledge management tool in the enterprise. And that's my prediction - you heard it here first! The three main uses are:
a) Searching out others with common interests, that ultimately you can sell to (tribe.net)
b) Searching out others who we may like (friendster.com)
c) Searching out others who may be able to help us (linkedin.com)

How will they make money?
Unlike others, I think they can make money, a lot of money. I think this field will exhibit significant barriers to entry once people are locked in to one or two sites. a $15-30 p.a. subscription fee will be more than acceptable to those making new business and romantic contacts, for sure, such as in the case of friendster.com and linkedin.com. Others, like Tribe.net will make money by charging people to sell things online, in the form of classified ads.

Where is the value?
The value is in trust, and that's a huge proposition on the net. The value is trust because we are more likely to trust other who are themselves demonstrably trusted by others. The cultivation of a personal OSN shows a number of things:
a) It shows you are not a random, untrusted source
b) It allows friends and colleagues to write about you in the form of testimonials
c) It provides the possibility that you are actually connected to me through a mutual friend
...all this provides trust, which makes the money-making propositions on the part of the main OSN sites all the more realistic.

So, for those that want to learn more about OSN, and there will be many of you especially of you're going into anything remotely innovation oriented, you can flick through these articles...
Social Networking Press:
http://www.redherring.com/ (needs free registration)
http://webreprints.djreprints.com/866641400895.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/BUSINESS/12/01/globaloffice.biz.web/index.html
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7307344.htm
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,61227,00.html
http://www.tribe.net/tribe/servlet/template/pub%2CAbout.vm?section=AboutPress&article=Press001
http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=39344

You can also take a look at these main OSN sites:
Social Networking Sites:
http://www.tribe.net:
aimed largely at hedonists who want to find each other, as far as I can tell.
http://www.myspace.com:
free disk space realigned to cash in on OSN.
https://www.linkedin.com/network:
make contacts with people who don't want to know you! yay!
http://www.ryze.com/:
Ryze helps you expand your business network
http://www.Itsnotwhatyouknow.com:
how true, how true...
http://www.friendster.com/index.jsp:
For dating or making new friends. Let's face it, for dating.
http://www.meetup.com:
Meetup is a free service that organizes local gatherings about anything, anywhere. In England, we call it "Going to the Pub".
http://www.ecademy.com/:
Connecting Business People in an Exchange of Trusted Networks
http://www.everyonesconnected.com/:
Meet people through friends you already know whether to date or just have fun
http://www.hi5.com (acquired http://www.sona.com):
Meeting new people, connecting with friends, and sharing ideas
http://www.ringo.com/:
The new, easy way to meet people, acquired by...
http://web.tickle.com/:
Learn surprising things about your friends » See who they know » Meet new people


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If there's one thing I love about London it's the pirate radio. For those that are unfamiliar, it's a great London tradition, stretching back at least 25 years. Temporary radio masts spring up at the top of tower blocks, electricity cables are mysteriosuly diverted, the turntables start going round and then...musical magic!

You can work through the dial and come across at least 5 or 10 pirate stations, especially on the weekends and holidays. May I suggest 102.4 FM, sir? Or perhaps 102.0? The choicest underground house and garage for the masses!

Why are pirate stations great? They are mostly commercial free, they are run by people who love the music they play and they are important voices for local communities. And very often, many of the great dance tracks of our time start off with airplay on the pirate stations, either being requested by listeners of not making the cut. Pirate stations are the open source of the airwaves.

London, you may suck at many, many things, but you know your music.

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