People Don't Like To Share - Unless There's a Payoff

A few years ago I designed a program called OllieNet.  It was based on a flawed concept that a group of like-minded business people will share information freely.    OllieNet was a TBN (trust-based network) that was like an ultra simple LinkedIn.    It allowed a private groups to share trusted contacts.  We thought it was going to be a real hit but learned that people generally don't want to share -- unless they get something for it, which is no longer sharing. 

We thought OllieNet in real estate offices would find a niche promoting local skilled trades.  Take your entire little black book of people that can get things done for you, then put'em all online so everyone in your office can share.   That's not going to happen.

The OllieNet approach worked like this.  You entered a contact and then rated how well you knew the contact via a "trust score" of 1-10 where 1=you just met them, a 10=you've called them at 2am, drunk.   A contact could be public or private, meaning that your mom, even though you could  call at 2am, only you would see that contact.   This took a business directory to the next level, by making it invite-only and connecting each contact to someone in the core group.   A contact without a connection to a core member was called an orphan and would never show in trust listings.

It was like Outlook(r), but one where you could rank groups.   Looking for the best roofer in the neighborhood, click on Roofers and it would list them by strongest connection.   As long as you trust the owner of the contact, then the roofer should be pretty solid.

But none of this worked because people generally don't care about  building a community of service providers -- unless the network is very tightly controlled to prevent abuse and freeloaders.   e.g., Even here in ActiveRain you get "creative" members (even cute ones) spewing off-topic banner ads.  Members like that need to be gently reminded how it works ... or get the boot.

Even in LinkedIn, you see how this trust-based concept starts to crumble when connections become large. I have 23 connections -- which is getting up near my trust limit.  But I look at all my connections... I ask a question and my answers can come back from any of my 71,000 "connected" people.   (I know LinkedIn is not a TBN, just making a comparison)

LinkedIn is an interesting tool and while I can't say I've not yet found or been found by anyone there, from a social networking perspective, it's now too interesting and pervasive to ignore.