[OT] PING

[Mark Wieder]

Chipp-

Sunday, September 5, 2010, 8:04:56 PM, you wrote:

> Any early thoughts on Apple's new social network? It seems to be getting some concerned reviews.
> http://bit.ly/dn5AON

Hadn't heard about Ping until your note, but I like Eric Schwarz's
comment (pasted here because I can't figure out how to set a link to
it):

"There is a fundamental openness and chaos in a community, they feel
they must suppress that lack of control. They don't like chaos. A
community is created by its audience. Apple wants to control ALL
aspects of their products. When your product is a community that won't
work. When your product is a community your product is mostly created
by its users."

...maybe it's because I've just spent a virtual weekend deeply
immersed in Burning Man, but the idea of creating a social network
from the top down is just weird. Schwarz's quote sounds to me very
much like a description of the community of this list.

-- 
-Mark Wieder
 mwieder at ahsoftware.net