SaintSal

When I first wrote that post, years ago, I expected most people to ignore it as tinfoil-hat stuff. But as time has passed, people are becoming more aware. (Also, the implications are becoming more costly.)

I no longer write off the non-technical public as "they don't understand/care."

This gives me hope that alternatives can work, even alternatives that require network effects. (Though, I think the best alternatives won't be another social network but something more akin to easy ways for people to run their own group communications. I don't think a me-too will win here, but something more of a leap-frog.)

Also students are highly reliant on it. These types of loose connections but strong network effects are hard to break.

However... > Way cheaper than sending out a snail mail newsletter or even managing an email list.

This is true less frequently. Facebook used to be a good organic channel to build, but now FB is forcing more payments, by forcing ads to FB pages, and then again for boosting posts on those pages. Plus, the costs are rising.

> Groups of people who had lost contact in high school have gotten back in touch in retirement

I experienced this too, but I also had a controlled test, since I wanted to track down some high school friends who weren't on Facebook. Turned out not to be so hard, and caught up with a bunch of other old friends along the way. :)

Sometimes the alternatives offer other advantages we don't see if we frame the problem as replacing what we have now exactly.

Even if you provided a fake name, you still agreed to the TOS, so they can proceed as if you're still bound by the legal implications.

As for replacing a personalised news feed, I still use Twitter and find that email newsletters, especially curations like getrevue keep me well-informed on professional news.

As for a personal feed, I found that Facebook wasn't really that great - lots of noise and I still missed things I thought were important. I haven't found a replacement, but didn't feel the need to replace something inadequate.

Still, it's really nice that it still gets attention from the HN community, and even nicer that each time, the discussion is more productive and inquisitive.

There are marketplaces to buy and sell consumer data orginally started around credit agencies and direct mail companies, then growing with the browser toolbar industry when Internet Explorer was big - now they're filled with more information than ever before.

http://www.propublica.org/article/everything-we-know-about-w...

When I worked for a direct marketing arm of the agenccy JWT, we had a bunch of "list augementation" services for our clients' customer lists. Back then, they were used to derive and clean contact information, and glean insights into people's psychology via course methods like correlations to their postal code. (This was surprisingly accurate in Canada, but didn't work as well with US ZIP codes.)

That said, I'd love to hear from a modern insider too. I've just extrapolated.

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/02/03/facebook-linkedin-g...

I think I had a few more in the sources section at the bottom of the post too.

I'm sure you're a nice person. I also honestly think that Facebook, the NSA, Al Jazeera and even Cheezburger are full of nice people who want to make the world a better place. (Maybe not FOX news though. :) ) That doesn't necessarily condone what their organisations do.

Some of the stories I've heard around African Fintech point to a more grounded approach, with systems built around political redundancy and growth coming from old-fashioned cashflow.

I'm hoping to learn more about this, as there's potential for us to learn, not just teach, and potential for these companies to jump the chasm into Western markets, where the finance system is getting shakier.

Perhaps the first Antifragile Fintech startups will come from emerging markets.

I like this attitude. A lot of our accelerator clients ask us with a kind of cultural change, from bring protective of ideas, to being open and inclusive. This is easier when there's a local community of experience tech founders to connect - so we can include the new founders and they feel safe sharing.

I'm wondering how/if AKDN has a similar goal, or if they look for existing, indiginous attitudes that help others take on the right attitudes...

We've done a decent amount of training for general entrepreneurship in London, so I'd keep my eyes open for ways to help general entrepreneurs too.

In the same way that the likes of M-PESA enabled a group of tech founders, like in the pan-African transaction networks for example, there are untapped needs in food distribution and other "last mile" inefficiencies where tech could help. My feeling atm is that we can borrow lessons from vertical accelerators like HealthBox, for example, and speed up the time to get to a rapid field trial.