Posted in Investing Portfolio Company Technology
The Internet of People
Since the mass adoption of services such as LinkedIn and Facebook people have increasingly come online using their real names. There has been a shift from representing yourself as angrybear101@aol.com to using your actual identity. This phenomenon is culturally more important. I like to refer to it as the Internet of People, compared to the the original Internet of Data or The Internet of Things. It is significant: it involves people that have rights, emotions, intentions, and other attributes that toasters, phones, and databases do not. It will lead to a changed understanding of information rights, privacy, and what is creepy and what is acceptable.
At its core I see four fundamental pillars: Identity, Trust, Reputation and Influence. Yes, social networking is part of this, but this perspective gives a different, and I would say more informative, way to look at the space. Here are a few thoughts:
- These four pillars will become increasingly important to two different constituencies: advertisers that want to reach consumers, and individuals themselves;
- Game dynamics can be applied to “manipulate” or “guide” people into certain behaviors that can then be measured in real-time – shopping and flash-deals come to mind;
- Regulation will have to play catch up – this is not longer cookie tracking it is stalking;
- People will be rewarded for the data they surrender: a better table at a restaurant, front row seats, free goods, if they can influence others to follow their lead.
Companies will grow up over the next few years to address these needs. Watch this space as it is going to be very, very interesting.
Frameworks like John's four pillars are great - not just because he makes a cogent case for what I believe is a transformative, multi-generational shift in the importance of digital identity, but because people are empowered like never before to create, manage and leverage their identity online for both personal and professional purposes.
So "The Internet of People" is a wonderful phrase - when you look at the Web through this lens, it reveals interconnected pillars around which tremendous value creation will occur.
I encourage people in business and my friends to think hard about their digital identity - to manage it, to be authentic and to understand that they don't want to wake up one day and ask themselves - what happened? How did I become invisible in this increasingly digital, hyper-connected world.
PhilipHotchkiss Increasingly people will be forced to manage their online identity for advantage online and in the real world. I really like your description of this as "a transformative, multi-generational shift in the importance of digital identity", but it could reach further and impact peoples motivations and reach further than digital identity to offline identity as well. Even if it does not go that far it is transformative vs. today.
I definitely agree on your point about trust. There's going to be a push and pull between advertisers wanting more data and consumers wanting to maintain a certain level of privacy and security even if there's a incentive to surrender it. I think services that allow people to manage their accounts and data trails on dozens of websites will become important as well. Opt-in/out has become a very sensitive issue and I think there will be a demand for services that put more control over the data back into the hands of consumers.
Nguyen_Lan Analytics will be key here.
Great post, John. "and reach further than digital identity to offline identity as well." It seems to me that it has happened already -- with the mainstreaming of video sharing and tv blogs like stocktwits.tv, there is a "bringing to life" quality of these personalities moving from avatars with a conscience to real people.
What continues to amaze me is the sheer number of very smart people who have not even begun to create an online presence, and can't seem to understand the power of connecting via innovative ways online.
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