Building It Better
March 22, 2005 | 
23 Comments
Summary: Some thoughts on the future of the Web, small teams, Flickr, MySpace and building better Web sites and applications.
My head’s literally been swimming with ideas and questions after SXSW. It’s an exciting time. People in the know are doing thing. There is a great DIY attitude going on amongst Web professionals and as a result, some great things are on the horizon.
As well, I’m sure many of you know that Flickr (my favorite Web application ever) has been purchased by Yahoo!
What does this mean? Well, for one thing, that the folks at Yahoo! are smart. It also means that a great idea, done well, will pay off.
It’s not enough just to have a good idea anymore, you need to be able to execute that idea better than your competition. On the Web this means knowing your customers, staying focused, keeping it uncomplicated and moving quickly. It also means that there is great opportunity for those in the know to turn their passions into something great.
Big things can happen when you get it and work with passion
One of the more popular sessions at SXSW was Jason Fried’s “How to make big things happen with small teams” (PDF) (Some reviews here) and there is good reason for that popularity, even if you don’t agree with everything Jason talks about.
In particular I liked this:
Build half a product, not a half-ass product.
37 signals is doing great things with Basecamp. Not perfect (what is?) but very good. I’ve used many project management tools and this one is better than the rest, hands down. And it’s not done yet.
Why is that?
Because, at the core of it all, it was built by people who get it and people who have a passion for what they’re doing. The idea wasn’t anything amazing, but the execution of that idea was.
A quick bit about MySpace — to help illustrate the point
I’ve been thinking for years about the lack of a good, centralized community for music on the Web. Recently I did some searching and didn’t really come across anything I felt captured the ideas, the passions and visions I had for this community. During SXSW I learned, for the first time, about MySpace, who was supposed to be doing something similar, so I decided to check it out.
What I found was distressing. Here is a service, that is pretty much a glorified Friendster, that seems to be doing, business-wise, very well. There is all kinds of hype right now about MySpace and their new “music focus.”
They were being talked about, and you could see their “identity” all over SXSW. They even made the local evening news. Things are happen’ for MySpace (and in particular MySpace’s new music focus) and it…basically sucks. Considering the money involved, this should be shocking, but it’s not about the money, obviously. It’s been proved over and over that money doesn’t always equal success on the Web. It sure as hell doesn’t mean “better.”
(One of the reasons why I think a small team like the guys from Business Logs can be successful is that they’ve got the knowhow and the passion to do what companies likeWeblogs Inc. much better. It has little to do, at this point, with the money. Money is important, no doubt, but there is more to it than that.)
MySpace trying to leverage their community to focus around music was a good idea, as was mp3.com, yet it’s not done well on so many levels I can’t begin to get into here. But don’t worry, I will. I did some field research while on the street during SXSW and it turns out I’m not the only one who thinks they’ve missed the boat. I still need to get through it all, but it’s interesting stuff.
My guess is that because of that, once the hype dies down, they’ll suffer and they’ll never do the idea of an amazing online music community justice. MySpace is no Flickr, that’s for sure. People use MuSpace because there simply are no alternatives — once again, we’re beggars on the Web.
A new, smaller, better, .com boom?
Well, I don’t know for sure, but I’m optimistic.
MySpace, from what I can tell, was born out of the old-school, .bomb way of thinking. This is why I feel they’ve either got to make changes or they’ll suffer. We’re learning that small teams of passionate and talented people can really make things happen on the Web. The success of Basecamp is proof of that. The success and purchase of Flickr is proof of that. They knew what their customers would like, took all sorts of best practices, built them simply and well and, boom!, went big time. Just like that.
Ideas + Passion + People Who Get It = Good things.
I’ll leave you with a quick snip from How to Start a Startup, a great read about startups by Paul Graham:
In particular, you don’t need a brilliant idea to start a startup around. The way a startup makes money is to offer people better technology than they have now. But what people have now is often so bad that it doesn’t take brilliance to do better.
Amen.
Update: Just a quick related tidbit. I posted a short summary over at Open House on some of the themes that came out of my discussions during SXSW on online community.
Filed under: Web General
Comments
1. David Appleyard said:
A great article. It’s clear to see that you’ve been inspired by the conference :) - Lots of interesting links and content, well put together.
Posted on March 22, 2005 09:39 AM | #
2. Greg Hinch said:
I completely agree with you about Myspace. It sucks. And I use it all the time. Why? Because it’s where all the people are. There are vastly superior services. Friendster for one. Orkut is even better. But everyone seems to have flocked to Myspace. All of my friends, no matter how computer illiterate, are on it. Somehow it came out and everyone jumped on, because at the time Friendster was crap, running JSP, and very slow. By the time Orkut came around, no one wanted to switch over (believe me I tried), and it was too late.
Posted on March 22, 2005 10:12 AM | #
3. jaboonday said:
I noticed that you mentioned in this article that you find that there is a lack of good, centralized music communities on the web. What features, what functionality, what options are you using to evaluate what you’re looking for in a music community? It would seem that the amount of time it takes to download and listen to a song, the amount of time it would take for normal users to upload even a decent number of songs, and many other issues make it difficult to create a site that features music as its main content, even with an increasing number of homes across the world connecting to the web with broadband services.
In my experience, the best community-based websites for music are loosely moderated fan websites, such as okayplayer.com. The fanbase for a group such as the roots is highly diversified, and the group increases this diversity by featuring up-and-coming artists and signing up other popular artists for featured placement on their website. So, instead of just going to okayplayer to discover information about The Roots, I can also found out what D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, Common, The Jazzyfatnastees, and Talib Kweli are working on.
The diversity of the artists on the website brings in a wide range of fans, none of which have the exact same tastes in music. Therefore, taking a trip to the forums will expose visitors to even more musical genres. Broken beat, electronica, rock, jazz, punk, world, reggae, it all gets discussed and shared on those forums, and the loose moderation of topics and posts on the website prevents censorship that would otherwise stifle the community aspects of interaction on the site.
I know you were thinking more along the lines of web-based applications, but in this case I’m not sure that’s suitable for music content. It fits the paradigm of viewing pictures, reading mail, viewing maps, and managing time, but that’s because the media involved in such operations can be viewed within the context of the web application, and the presentation of that content can be viewed concurrently with the metadata that corresponds with it. In this respect, music is unwieldy; it takes too long to download, and the way you experience it (by listening to it) takes it out of the context of the application in which you’re viewing it.
Posted on March 22, 2005 10:15 AM | #
4. Lance E. Leonard said:
I’ve been struggling with my “place in this world” lately. I think I’ve come to finally realize something in the past week that I’m sure many others have long before I did. Your article points out that from a business perspective and a consumer perspective, the companies that “get it” end up on top.
I think from an employee’s perspective it’s exactly the same. The company I work for (I just might get dooced for being as vocal as I have been lately) just doesn’t “get it.” There’s a reason 37signals has been labeled one of the dream jobs by many in our profession. They get it.
Posted on March 22, 2005 10:20 AM | #
5. Garrett said:
I think you’re absolutely right, Dr. Keith. I think the biggest reason some of this can happen is that the technology is making it increasingly easy to build rich and functional applications. You don’t have to have a DBA, Sr. Engineer, Site Developer, Visual Designer etc.
The easier it is for a couple of people to pick up some technology and start building, the more useful applications will arise.
I know I haven’t stopped building and tinkering since I got back from SXSW. So many ideas, so little time.
Posted on March 22, 2005 10:25 AM | #
6. Keith said:
Greg – Do you think you’d ever switch to something else? Doesn’t sound like it, and I see why. I guess you can hope that MySpace improves. The thing is that what I was hoping for was something music focused, which MySpace is not and is trying to be. However, as large as MySpace is, I think there is still room for targeted Web communities – Flickr, again, comes to mind!
jaboonday – Okayplayer is much more along the lines of what I’m thinking of, but not exactly. I’m not going to go into it too much here, but it’s not about sharing music exactly and while I do like the community aspect of sites like Okayplayer, I’d like to see something more along the lines of Friendster, but with a music focus.
Posted on March 22, 2005 10:28 AM | #
7. Ryan said:
I forwared your article to myspace along with my own complaints with the site. I dont use it at all because it breaks every time I visit it, the funny part was the contact form gave me an error when I tried to send it the first time. But at the same time, I used flickr to manage the photos of a site I built for a local record company, the djs complained because you couldnt right click and save the full size picture, there are ways around that but it still speaks to the fact that even the best application is not for everybody. Not to point out the obvious, but I think sometimes people in this industry can get a little pushy when it comes to what we think is best, I have had to catch myself sometimes.
Posted on March 22, 2005 11:01 AM | #
8. Keith said:
Ryan – Oh yeah, totally. I mean I love Flickr, but it’s not perfect. Then again, how old is it? For how young it is, you’ve got to admit it’s freakin’ awesome. How’s that for pushy. ;)
But I totally feel you. This is why I don’t like MySpace for music, they are trying to take something and make it into something else. It just doesn’t work very well.
Posted on March 22, 2005 11:09 AM | #
9. Chris Vincent said:
I completely agree with you on this. A better product does not always mean success; factors like ubiquity, timing, and early attention always play in more heavily. To get something like MySpace, you don’t need a better product—you just need a product.
That aside, I think you should really go with this “Dr. Keith” thing that Scrivs started up. :)
Posted on March 22, 2005 11:10 AM | #
10. Greg Hinch said:
I would most definitely switch if there was a general shift away from Myspace. But I don’t know if there will be. I really hope it gets better. The offices are like a mile from my house in fact, maybe I should barge in there and force my services upon them :)
In fact I was the first of my friends to discover Friendster, and I got some of them on it, but it was slow and none of us liked that about it. Then I found Myspace and it did basically the same thing so I convinced them to switch. I realized it was pretty terrible, but at the time so was Friendster. All this was happening right after my college graduation, and it seemed like every time I ran into someone from school, they were on Myspace and we added each other the second we got home. When I finally got into Orkut, I tried desperately to get people to switch, but it was too late. Myspace had grown out of control and there was no way people were leaving.
Posted on March 22, 2005 11:37 AM | #
11. Kyle said:
You really should look into facebook… just pretend you’re in a college. It’s the best community site I’ve ever seen (similar to myspace, but 100x better). www.thefacebook.com
Posted on March 22, 2005 12:36 PM | #
12. Darren said:
I’ve probably missed the boat…but I’ll leave my $0.02 anyway.
Down here in New Zealand I find it very very difficult to find people who get it. There are a few of them - but they’re either unemployed or miles away from Auckland (where I’m writing this comment). The company I work for is totally in the old school mindset, and its so frustrating.
I’ve managed to get them to use web standards at least…but as for using awesome technology and methodologies to create a beautiful Web2.0…they have a lot to learn.
Having said all that - I’m pleased to see there is a shift towards more user-centric, smart web applications in general…
The web is slowly moving away from being a Marketing Platform with more n more people realising that it’s the perfect development platform for this ever-shrinking ‘gloabl village’. To be able to accesss your email, photos, links, and diary from anywhere in the world is totally the way to go.
Go Web 2.0!!
Thanks for writting this article, bro. Its a keeper!
Posted on March 22, 2005 02:02 PM | #
13. Keith said:
On a related note, I just came across this from Scott Andrew, an artist who uses MySpace and other community music sites:
This sentiment is all too familiar and is just one small, yet significant, example of how they are missing the boat.
Also, shouldn’t these bands have rss show feeds, I mean…?
Posted on March 22, 2005 04:53 PM | #
14. gb said:
I’ll have to echo the comments made about myspace. Everytime I use it, something is broken. The code is a garbled mess, customisation has broken down to the level of shoving hacked up CSS into a profile area, and, well, it’s written in ColdFusion (no offense, CF guys, but it’s a really poor choice for a site of its size/scope). I end up using it because (once again) all my friends seem to use it, and for some of them, it’s the only method I have to ever get ahold of them. My friend and I often lament the sorry state of myspace, wondering if the “Tom” fellow just wasn’t ready for it to grow as fast as it did.
For as much as I can’t stand myspace, it really has done a lot of good for bands I associate with. Good friends of mine have had the popularity of their band (and show attendance) skyrocket since they started using myspace. I would love to see a more competant group come along and introduce a musically angled myspace alternative, one that could mirror the success, but at the same time work without major frustration.
This new wave of web apps and the like is encouraging, though. I, too, love Flickr, as well as AudioScrobbler (shame about the name, though). My friend’s company is releasing a set of web apps for bands/venues/labels, and from what I’ve seen, they look to be really handy. Then you have stuff like gmail and basecamp, and you start to wonder why great things like this didn’t happen sooner?
Posted on March 22, 2005 08:09 PM | #
15. Keith said:
gb – Oh yeah, “Tom” – everyone’s friend – really threw me off when I signed up. I like AudioScrobbler as well, but yeah, maybe a rebrand is in order. LOL.
I took a peak at NowOnTour and it looks nice. Seems like it’s not really targeting the fans though. Probably a good thing for them actually. Then again, finding easy, up-to-date tour information can be a real pain.
What is nice is that it’s targeted and not over-done. Hopefully it’ll stay that way. Thanks for pointing it out.
With all of this stuff, and I’ve looked at a bunch, there is still a lot of room for a really great music community application. Flickr for muisc. Rockr? ;) Nah…but something. I’ve got some ideas…
Posted on March 22, 2005 10:11 PM | #
16. jimmyd said:
Am I the only person who dislikes Flickr? I think it’s a good idea, but I’ve always found it to be ridiculously slow.
Posted on March 23, 2005 08:36 AM | #
17. pat said:
Should I say it? Ok, I will. There is the soft porn aspect of myspace that everyone is missing (or not admitting too). Guys join bands to get chicks. Guys like pics of chicks. Chicks dig bands. Myspace brings ‘em all together. Enough said.
Posted on March 23, 2005 05:43 PM | #
18. Kyle Bradshaw said:
On a side note to the Flickr / Yahoo deal. I got an email from shutterfly (a site I HAD to sign up for to download a friends pictures) and I realized how out-of-no-where Flickr came to be. Proper execution is everything on the web. Make something everyone loves, enjoys, and wants to use, but moreso, get all their friends to use - that is how the future killer apps on the web will be decided, Flickr, Google, etc. Do 1 thing, do it well.
Posted on March 24, 2005 09:32 PM | #
19. Eduard said:
Oh WOW that MySpace site could win a few awards for web razzies… I don’t think calling it the worst is bad enough. :-)
Posted on March 25, 2005 02:15 PM | #
20. Dan Hartung said:
Heck, you should have seen MySpace last year – it was even worse! And that’s when it was overtaking Friendster! They definitely have a “good enough” application there, proving that adage once again. What has taken them beyond Friendster is the actual ground-level utility, with the blog features that Friendster is just now adding and the targeting of music and bands as a focus.
I don’t think it’s “the” community online, I don’t see why there can’t – and won’t – be many of them in years to come. Actually, they’re going to have to develop stickiness to stay in the game. Right now the hassle of signing up for these sites and finding your friends is a bar, but in the future that sort of thing is going to be a lot more automated.
Posted on March 26, 2005 04:37 PM | #
21. gb said:
pat:
Oh, yes… Myspace is the internet jailbait scene, for certain.
Posted on March 26, 2005 11:40 PM | #
22. Jason Marble said:
Most of MySpace’s success came from a simple mistake they made when developing the site. What was that mistake? They didn’t put any restrictions on the html that could be placed within your personal information. So, MySpace was basically the first semi-fully customizable Social Networking site. Pluss, it used to be really fast. Now its often quite slow.
It’s been around since September of 2003 I believe. They can’t keep up with how fast they’re growing. Too bad they didn’t do a better job making it. But, they have the commuinty, now they just need to do everything they can to keep it. The site needs to be improved.
Yahoo!’s entering the game with Yahoo! 360. I’m curious if and how they might tie in Launch.
Microsoft tried with MSN Spaces, but god it’s a piece.
If I had the time and the resources, I could build the sickest Social Networking site in the world. Right now I’m just kind of limited to watching all these sites come out and laughing at their mistakes. Haha, yea, you know what I’m talking about.
Even though MySpace is shit, it is the shit.
And if you’re curious, here’s me on MySpace ;-)
Posted on March 27, 2005 11:28 PM | #
23. Lynn said:
well myspace just sold to Robert Murdoch for $580 million.
Posted on July 19, 2005 11:53 PM | #
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