Personalization vs. Socialization

Ross Mayfield offers an insightful critique of the limits of personalization, which has long been seen as the premier way to make content more valuable. This is a very good point — the flaw with the “daily me” is that it restricts my information flow to things I know aready.
I think they go together nicely. Social filtering lets you branch out, experiment, grow, and learn from the tastes and interests of your friends and colleagues.
Personalization is still needed to manage focus amid vast quantities information, even considering the collaborative input of friends and colleagues. I value Ross’s links on social software and business trends, and Rick’s political tales, but would less interested in socially filtered feed of sports scores. (Sorry guys!).
I think about it with a spacial metaphor. You want a familiar starting point, and a set of directions to explore, where the interests of your social network represent roads out.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *