Yesterday saw the announcement of Google+ – Googles new attempt at social networking. It looks pretty cool and being a signup junkie I am definitely looking forward to trying it out.
The problem I am having with Google+ however, is that it does not solve the fundamental problem with online communities of today – the fact that they are centralized. Just like with Facebook and other social networks you are either in on their conditions or you are out. Vic Gundotra of Google said that “we believe online sharing is broken” and I can not agree more. But the solution is not to sacrifice more privacy and choice in favour of convenience and novelty.
What I would love to see instead of these walled social gardens is more investment in the growing movement of open standards. With freedom of choice and interconnectivity between choices comes even more opportunity of doing really cool stuff.
Architecturing modularity and platform independence is harder but when has that ever stopped us?