The Beginning of Something
As portfolios wither and funding dries up, I doubt I'm alone in wondering what the future of social networking sites is. MySpace and Facebook turn in disappointing ad revenue and with near daily reports of layoffs in Silicon Valley are there going to be enough opportunities to remedy this?
And what if the two giants of online social networking are forced to shift their offering to squeeze out some dollars - or even cease operating? Who would be in a position to take their place and what would happen to our copious data on these services?
Maybe this is the ideal time for social and politically-conscious (and thus probably low-cost/low-revenue) services to begin to compete. Something in the mold of Riseup or Indymedia with more of a user-centric perspective could probably gain some ground if things really turn for the worse with the big two.
This may be a possibility and an opportunity, but I'm not betting on it any time soon.