June 15, 2007
hallam foe and “kula”
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Thanks to Everyone who came along the Hallam Foe movie screening last night. It was a blast.
Thanks to Robert Bruce for the nice write-up of the evening. And thanks as well to David Brain for capturing some rough video footage of the Q&A session afterwards on his mobile phone. From Left to Right, that’s me, Jamie [lead actor], David [director] and Sophia [lead actress].
[MEANWHILE:] The Guardian’s Kevin Anderson [who also attended last night’s screening] has a nice synopsis of Jaiku Founder, Jyri Engstrom’s “Social Objects” idea.
Something about sites like Flickr that you will be using these sites for years to come.
The sites that work are built around social objects.[…] MySpace. What is the real focal object? Music. Once they lose that focus, it is in trouble.
How does one build a useful service around social objects? Five key principles.
1. You should be able to define the social object your service is built around.
2. Define your verbs that your users perform on the objects. For instance, eBay has buy and sell buttons. It’s clear what the site is for.
3. How can people share the objects?
4. Turn invitations into gifts.
5. Charge the publishers, not the spectators. He learned this from Joi Ito. There will be a day when people don’t pay to download or consume music but the opportunity to publish their playlists online.
Besides being a web 2.0 entrepreneur, Jyri is an anthropologist. So at the London Jaiku geek dinner last Tuesday, I asked him about the connection between Social Objects and its correlation with Malinowski’s “Kula” [Malinowski was the father of modern Anthropology, by the way]. Jyri repsonded that this was very much the case. So much so, in fact, that one of his great friends and mentors, the aforementioned Joi Ito bought an island in Second Life and named it “Kula”.
Kula. Social Ojects. Objects of Sociability. Call it what you will, I think so much of what we’re trying to understand about the web, the future, and yes, MARKETING, stems from this very profound insight from Malinowski in the early 20th Century, that good folk like Jyri and Joi are now helping to shed new light on.
[Bonus Link:] Video of Jyri’s talk on Social Objects at the geek dinner. One of the best talks I’ve heard for a while.
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Hey Hugh — thanks — event last night was great! Hallam Foe, the movie. was brilliant!!! can’t wait for it to be nationally released!
5. Charge the publishers, not the spectators. He learned this from Joi Ito. There will be a day when people don’t pay to download or consume music but the opportunity to publish their playlists online.
I understand Andrew Keen is eagerly awaiting the arrival of that day.
Music? I thought MySpace was about hooking up?
Thanks for a great evening on Thursday Hugh. It was great to catch up and the movie was awesome! Rock on…
[…] amazing goals/kills from video games shared on YouTube and game communities, these are the real social objects, not the titles they originate […]