Yahoo! 360° - A New Model for Online Sharing
游牧人Roger
husband, a father, game player, and a pioneer of virtual worlds. For
more than 30 years, I've been connecting people with each other using
computers as the mediating technology..." Along the way, I've been
sharing my experiences with family, friends, and colleagues. Now, I get
to tell you about Yahoo! 360° -- a new model for online sharing that's
easy and convenient for everybody.
During my years of online community building, I've seen many types of
social software emerge: email, chat, instant messaging, forums, groups,
multiplayer games, blogs, and twikis (to name a few).
Until now, most social software worked on a shared view, what I'd call
a we-centric model, where every participant sees the same information
as all the other participants. We all see the same posts on a message
board, the same conversation in a chat room. In effect, communications
are either public or private.
These days, as we publicly post more of our opinions, photos, and
sensitive information on the net, there's growing concern about spam
and other threats to our privacy. And there's a need for tools to help
us manage real-world relationships that are becoming more and more
digital. The time is right for me-centric community - a way for you to
get the information and connections you want, without giving up control
of your information. Yahoo! 360° lets you control not just what you
see but what others can see about you.
For example, I have different types of relationships -- friends,
family, coworkers, IM buddies, mailing-list co-members, blog
subscribers, etc. I want to share some of my info with some of these
people, and some of it with others. Some stuff may not be appropriate
or of interest to everybody.
On Yahoo! 360°, you can keep it simple and use the same settings for
all your contacts, or you can decide how others experience you by
grouping the people you know into me-centric communities (called
categories). You set how different groups of people can contact you
(via IM, email, blog comment, etc.), and you decide who can see your
reviews, photos, and other personal stuff.
I've created categories for work (360° Team, Management) and personal
use (Family, Gamers, Alumni) -- it's easy for me to move people around,
or add them to multiple categories. The categories are invisible to
everyone but me. For example, my family can see my personal contact
info and photos, and my manager can check in and comment on my blog.
:-)
We're extending the me-centric approach by integrating your Yahoo!
360° identity controls with other Yahoo! services. For example, you
can choose to display your Yahoo! 360° nickname and photo in your
Groups. When you search on Yahoo! Local, the businesses with reviews
written by your friends show up prominently.
The Yahoo! 360° team is excited about the official invitation-only
beta starting today. Please sign up to be on our beta waiting list.
We'll let you know when we open the beta to a larger audience.