People or Program?
Friday, December 11th, 2009 - 4:26 pm - Not-Sales
Recently DARPA put on a contest to see how quickly people could find 10 weather balloons they “hid” across the US. The team that won did so in an unusual manner, they asked everyone else to do the work for them (see more details at Science Friday).
This team proved something that has been bouncing around my head for a while now. The true power of social media is in the people. The programs that power Twitter or Facebook or even Google are awesome engineering feats and all, but if no one was using them to answer questions, organize events, or spread the news they would be irrelevant.
This is why things like Aadvark are going to be awesome. People are the important parts of the technology – never let the geeks around you forget that.
Hell yes! People are the most important part of social media technology. The coolest technology in the world might as well be a doorstop if no one wants to use it.