Metafluence

The Jobs/Gates D5 interview and the future of relationships in computing

Ok, this post is going to wander a bit, but I wanted to get these thoughts out. I just watched the D5 interview with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. It’s always a pleasure to watch some of the most influential people in the computer’s development come together on stage to discuss the state of the industry. I think the part that I was most moved by was their discussion about the future of computing as it pertains to clients and cloud services. Both Bill and Steve feel strongly that we’ll continue to see rich client features that will integrate with cloud services. I feel this way as well, largely because there will always be tasks that will be better supported by local resources.

However, for me it is not very interesting to think about client services vs. cloud services. I think the software and technology development of the future will be ruled by some very smart people that are already deeply entrenched with a few shining stars to be the exception. Nevertheless, they are both becoming ubiquitous and moving toward commodities, and some parts are already there. They are businesses that are dominated by margins and operational efficiencies and not the wild frontiers they once were.

What is emerging out of this more distributed technology landscape is what you do with all of it. In today’s world, it’s not very interesting that you have a content management system that powers your blog. Ten years ago that would have been a very strong competitive advantage. Now what makes your site standout from the others is the content on the site and your connections to the rest of the online and offline world. It’s not enough to have the best technological solution for a known problem to have the highest installed user base. The reality is that people don’t have time to evaluate the countless technological advances. What we do have time for is to listen to the advice of our trusted friends and family.

MySpace didn’t become the most popular social network on the planet because they had the best technological solution. They hit the top because they used to throw parties in West Hollywood and all of the social wannabes flocked to the site to glom onto to the scene. Eventually, MySpace hit a tipping point and became an international phenomena. There are many more examples like this, but the real take away is that communities form around a scene. Scenes are driven by a few core people that for various reasons lead the others. Markets are scenes.

If you want to make money online in the future, don’t invest the majority of your budget in hardware and software. Spend your money on creative content that will be desirable to scene leaders. Spend money on developing relationships with the influencers and figuring out where the influence for your market comes from. A few of my friends run a fashion ecommerce site and much of their online sales come from a handful of blogs that plug their product. There are a ton more blogs that send them traffic, but no sales. Identifying who their money referrers are has allowed them to deepen those relationships and therefore sell more product.

It’s not enough to know how to set-up and design a blog, you have to know how to use it. You have to know how to be social online. You need to make friends and build partnerships. You need the competitive intelligence to identify who the scene leaders in your market are and then connect with them.

Look for employees that have online social skills and networks of friends. Developers and designers are still important, but there are more of them than there are great social socializers.