Welcoming Ello
In the last couple days, Ello became our new favorite social web topic. A lot of smart people, including a bunch of dear friends expressed their concerns. They’re mostly valid… yet, I think we should welcome Ello.
Let’s start with the begining: I do not have a Ello account, and I don’t need one. I do not know anyone working for Ello and I don’t know anything about their intentions or their chances of success…
Ello took funding
Aral was very vocal about his, echoing Andy’s points: Ello took funding and hence, it’s doomed.
I’m sorry, Paul, but by taking venture capital you have made a crucial mistake that is incompatible with the goals you set out in your manifesto and I will not support yet another venture-capital funded network only to be disappointed at the time of the inevitable exit.
I think Aral raises a lot of valid questions, and yes, investors are looking for a return on their investment. However, that does not necessarily mean that they’re looking for an exit which will compromise Ello’s initial commitment: strict privacy, no ads…
History is on Aral’s side: there is a strong ad-centric force that pulls many VC funded companies. Yet, there are other ways than to sell the company to advertisers. There are other business models which can align the user’s interests and the company’s need for profitablity. It’s also entirely possible to imagine that, eventually Ello becomes a profitable business and that they pay back their investors using dividends. It’s usually not as spectacular as a $1Bn sale to an incumbent, but who said that the good way is the easy way?
Also, we do not know the terms of the investment (or do we)? There are cases where investors don’t get an extremely favorable deal where they are eventually in a position where they can steer the company. It’s also possible that they got common shares, with not specific rights associated and that they remain minority. It’s rare, but that happens (it did to me).
Ello is a closed silo
I am too very concerned by this. Dave’s tweet hit the cord:
Yet, here again, I believe there’s hope. Of course, I would be extremely excited if Ello introduced RSS/Atom feeds, not so much if they introduced an API (because APIs are yet another form of lock-in). However, I also know that having feeds or an API is not synonymous with success, and that these might not be the highest priorities in the earliest days.
Maybe, at some point, Ello will open up, if enough people ask for it over and over again.
Competition and Federation
Eventually, I think we’re missing the point when we’re dooming Ello and killing it. At this point, the alternative to Ello, as it has been to Diaspora, App.net or other attempts is the status-quo. The alternative is the ever growing hold of fewer and fewer players: Facebook, Twitter or Google.
So, yes, I’m welcoming Ello, as a new idea, a new player, a little bit of fresh air. I’m welcoming Ello as something which will raise awareness around the failures and missed opportunities of the existing options.
People moving over to Ello will find new ways of building a social network, new interfaces and maybe, they will start to see how sad it is that we have so many amazing networks that do not allow us to communicate accross them, as if we’d needed account with TMobile, Sprint or ATT to talk with our friends on each of these networks.
