Stretching the Social Layer Idea
Tier Three Design, or if you like you could call it a social layer, is going mainstream. I even blogged about it recently -- something I don't do until I'm confident the idea is well on its way and there's no competitive advantage to holding onto it.
(As an aside, I realize that last comment runs somewhat counter to the "transparency" you associate with a blog. But nurturing new ideas is my stock in trade, and I have to be careful with my intellectual property. Still, it's a personal problem because it means my blogs are always six months behind.)
Don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming any original insight here -- certainly not of the conception kind. People were talking about the "social web" back in 1998 with surprising prescience overall, even if the the details didn't turn out as was envisioned. (It seems "software agents" remain a bad prognostication bet.) There have been lots of others.
Anyway, at this point, it's getting hard to ignore the writing on the virtual wall.
Chris Anderson, for instance, has recently referred to social networking as a "feature, not a destination". That understates the case, but it's headed in the right direction.
In a similar vein, Steve Rubel recently expressed his view that "portals will win the social networking wars". Actually, I don't quite know what he means by "win". If he means continue to play a big role, I'm there. If he means dominate to the exclusion of many others -- I think he's wrong. (My bet, there will be countless "successful" social networking endeavors. Human associations are infinitely variable.
So, perhaps it's time to stretch the idea just a bit further. I say the "social" layer will envelop not only web sites, and many web services, but even traditional desktop products.