I promised a longer and more thoughtful review on how and why Ether has the potential to be a disruptive force.
I’m often challenged to find innovative solutions for clients who, by desire, accident or illness, find themselves in need of self-employment. One of the largest barriers for these fledgling entrepreneurs to cross is what I’d like to call the fright line – they like the idea of starting their own business, but they are afraid of doing so because the mechanics of the process seem dauntingly high.
When challenged on their “fear factor”, I tend to hear some common objections – fear of failure, lack of funds, lack of time, lack of ideas, insufficient knowledge – basically, the fear of the unknown “awful event” lurking behind a dark corner. Technology has and hasn’t helped – while the Internet has increased awareness of self-employment tools and opportunities, it has come with a side helping of spam, scams and schemes that scare sensible folk.
At the same time, because these are sensible folk, they quickly see the potential of the internet, even if they’re still cautious about the actual mechanics of making it work for them.
Keen was a great idea, but when it launched way back in 1999, most of its ideal target market wasn’t ready for it, nor was there really a critical need for it, then – we were at the dawn of the knowledge economy. The convergence of wider broadband adoption, beefier equipment, outsourcing, downsizing and drop in technology costs led to the blogosphere and social networking sites so popular today. As people’s level of comfort online increased, participation has likewise increased, leading to the earliest phase of the knowledge economy.
Tristero made a recent post at Hullaballo aptly titled: On The Internet No One Knows You’re A (Singing) Dog (emphasis mine) that explains this more eloquently than I can:
For me, the most interesting aspect of blogging has nothing to do with anyone’s accomplishments but rather the present quality of their thought and the extent of their knowledge. While it is much less true now than it was in the olden days five years ago, it is still the case that prior reputation counts for much less in the blogosphere than it does Out There. You are read, or not read, based entirely on your ability to persuade from post to post. And in order to be persuasive, not only must you be a decent writer, but you damn well better know how to back up your assertions with convincing, relevant, links. Whether you’ve got a doctorate in political science from Stanford or are an 11 year old afraid to come out of your bedroom really is besides the point.
That is how it should be. If it does anything, blogging can make hash of the rhetorical fallacy of appealing to authority. One’s authority as a blogger, to the extent anyone has any, comes entirely from the merit of the posts. And that is wonderful. You don’t read Josh Marshall’s blog because he’s got a reputation as an ace reporter. You read his blog because with every post, he reports. He is actively making a reputation in a way that, say, a NY Times reporter doesn’t have to. The mere act of being hired by the Times confers (even now, of course) an authoritative reputation, whether or not it is deserved. To put it into big words: At its best, blogging transmutes reified power – authority – back into something contingent. Authority is no longer a noun, but a verb. You earn your reputation with every word. It’s never assumed.
Ether offers subject matter experts who happen to also be bloggers an additional option for monetizing their site. Just as low/no cost content management software and blog software led to an explosion of authors, so too could Ether lead to an explosion of new consultants. Why do I think this is so disruptive? Two reasons, really.
For one, it lowers the cost of entry, which means that it will fuel additional growth down the road. For the other, Ether has focused on providing the infrastructure and tool set, not a centralized directory. This means that a blogger with even a small core audience has an opportunity to use Ether’s tools – they’re not size or audience dependent as advertising is.
Still not sure? One last morsel of food for thought, then.
When eBay launched in 1995, they set off the first avalanche of casual online sellers. A recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 17 percent of Internet users — 25 million people — sell goods and services online. At the end of 2005, they had over 68 million users buying and selling tangible goods from each other.
Creating a simplified way to sell knowledge was a logical and overdue step on the economic evolution of the net – tying that into the traffic and authority of blogs and websites will once again alter the face of online commerce.
Now, go disrupt something!
Update: I just heard from Ether and I am going to be part of the Beta test of their latest version, so stay tuned for more information. For those who have emailed me to ask, no, I am not being paid for my comments – I do not have a consulting relationship with either Ether or Ingenio.
Ether | Web 2.0 | Monetization
