The Social Web:To Graph or Not to Graph?

Kevin BradshawCEO/Founder, Zendit

Turing Festival, EdinburghAugust 2011

About Zendit• Formed 2009• Previous : i-play, PlayPhone,

Limewire, Buzzd• Digital engagement products• Cloud platform• Services on all digital devices• Self-funded and profitable (almost)

Quiz:Describe Facebook,

without using the words“social” or “network”

Disclaimer• I’m 41 with a wife and a 2-year old• I’m generally a bit grumpy anyway• Have been in tech startups for 15 years• First company sold for $100M• But I didn’t get much of it• All of it has gone back into other startups• Start-ups are really hard, then Google

does it• It’s lunchtime and I’m hungry too

Alternate titles

Facebook:Are we “friends” now?

LinkedIn: Is this networking?

Twitter: Is that pseudo-code?

Google+: Most people I know are squares,

they don’t fit into circles.

Suggested Circles• People Who Just Woke Up

And Are Overly Optimistic About What The Day Holds For Them

• Inexplicably Shirtless Profile Picture People

• Bible Quoting Relatives• “Tao of Pooh” Quoting

Relatives

• Girls Who Link To Every Cat Video In The History Of The Internet

• TGIF! Dude• Old High-school Friends

You Wouldn’t Recognize If They Were Sitting Next To You

• Relatives Who Quote Anything

• Anyone Who Quotes Anything

Source : WSJ and Author

What is the social graph?• Exposing connections connections–Who follows you on Twitter and who follows

them–Who’s your friend on Facebook and who are

their friends• Exposing connections connections content–What’s on your friends wall?

• Billions of $ bet that this is valuable• Is it?

We want to talkBut we are not having

conversations

Opinions• Many social networks are not very social,

they are just marketing channels – personal or corporate

• We’re mostly lonely• Or we are looking for endorsement of

opinion• Unlikely to spend time with these people in

real-life• Don’t care about my friends friends• Don’t want to follow my toothpaste on

Facebook, it seems a bit silly

Directions• Ad-hoc groups and topics• Non-persistent relationships• Easier (by-product) OR harder (no

broadcasting) to drive influence• Contextual – especially local• Productive – especially rewarding

A couple of new services

Zendit Beerdog

Zendit: Ad-hoc, local, contextual, “harder”• No social graph– no wall– no friends– no broadcasting

• Find or start a conversation nearby• Public or private – and changeable• Add people, add stuff – images, video and

chat• You need to choose who is in a

conversation• You can remove a user from a

conversation

Splash

Personal

Nearby

Conversation

Options

Beerdog:Local, focused, “easier”, rewaring• I want a beer• I want it now• It had better be good• My friends know about beer, I’ll see what

they are drinking and where• I am totally uninterested in anything else

right now, get me a beer

Splash

Activity

Beer

Dog

Summary• Growth of major social networks

based on the social graph• But I don’t find them very social and

there’s a question over how valuable the graph is

• Interesting services coming which do and don’t use a graph

• Interest-focused, ad-hoc, location-aware services are emerging