If you spend your time making websites or platforms that enable people to connect it is easy to get lost in the numbers and get carried away with things that don’t matter.
What do I want from the social web in 2009? The same thing I wanted yesterday!
More making, more sharing, more value. Less web commentary, more real stories.
Last week Steve was telling me about his most recent Rentoid story. A guy from California was on a surfing holiday to Australia and was traveling down to Bells Beach, which is just down the road from us.
This guy found Steve’s surfboard listed on the Rentoid website and he rented it for $100 for the 3 days he was going to be there, along with a $100 bond. This surfer was absolutely thrilled because he couldn’t bring his own board with him on this leg of the trip and he didn’t want to rent the typical crappy learners foam board that you would find at the shops near the beach.
With every transaction you get to meet the person you are dealing with when you hand over the item, so this guy also got the heads up on all of the good local surfing spots from a local surfer and Steve now has a friend in California he can go surfing with next year.
The Rentoid website played a major part in fulfilling one of this guy’s lifetime dreams!
Craigslist is another great example – it is undoubtedly ugly and deceptively simple, but it is very usable and useworthy. Craig was being served by a girl in a local coffee shop who, when she found out who Craig was, said “You make my whole life work. I got my first apartment, this job, last job, my first sublet, and my boyfriend from craigslist!”
As humans we are social beings, and we relate to each other through stories. They give us reasons to believe and spread ideas. You don’t need an expensive website with all the bells and whistles to create value, it just needs to be Usable and Useworthy. This is the reason many simple websites work so well.
Simple web platforms make amazing things happen.
We need to give people a platform to create :
More making, more sharing, more value. Less web commentary, more real stories.
If you have a good story, please share it in the comments below.
By Ross Hill - January 4th, 2009 at 11:44am with 3,262 views - chris saad rentoid steve sammartino
