Facebook, Facebook, Facebook.
Does anyone still remember Second Life? Looks like the media forgot all about it these days...
In Second Life, the graphical designers were kings.
They created places, objects, clothing, and actually everything in the virtual world.
The got virtual money for their work, that sometimes translated to be real money.
In Facebook - the programmers are the kings.
They create the interaction channels and enable rich communication between people in the platform.
Small application developers get almost no money except some ad revenue to cover the hosting fees. If they do get money - it's a valuation of their application that's virtual nontheless. They can sell their apps, but unless they're RockYou or Slide, they won't see a lot of money from it either.
So What's the next hype?
And what other differences exist between the two platforms?
Is one hype more realistic or profitable than the other?
(Some thoughts that came up in my head after hearing Dov Alfon's lecture, entitled The Tangible Web.)
Dor Rotman.