Here are some of my thoughts relating to your idea and, also, some thoughts on the importance of understanding some basic ideas on human behavior because the internet is the derivative of human behavior and capitalism.
The setup
The action
The outcome
Stanford professor Rene Girard's chief explanation of human motivation is centered on a literary theory that all desire is "mimetic," or imitative, sparked by the desires of other people. Conflict arises not when individuals are different but when they're similar, when they want the same thing. The theory particularly resonated with the brushfire creation of startups in the dot-com boom.
Facebook’s growth is beginning to plateau. Currently, the theory is used for the development of user growth on the social networking site.
Paypal wasn’t a fluke, Facebook wasn’t a fluke… both are transaction based sites, both did their best to answer the question: What do people really want?
I believe Ebay is a model that won’t be successful for you…
In the science of [humanity] and culture today there is a unilateral swerve away from anything that could be called mimicry, imitation, or mimesis. And yet there is nothing, or next to nothing, in human behavior that is not learned, and all learning is based on imitation. If human beings suddenly ceased imitating, all forms of culture would vanish. Neurologists remind us frequently that the human brain is an enormous imitating machine. To develop a science of [humanity] it is necessary to compare human imitation with animal mimicry, and to specify the properly human modalities of mimetic behavior, if they indeed exist. –René Girard, 1978
Imitation is often thought of as a low-level, cognitively undemanding, even childish form of behavior, but recent work across a variety of sciences argues that imitation is a rare ability that is fundamentally linked to characteristically human forms of intelligence, in particular to language, culture, and the ability to understand other minds. This burgeoning body of work has important implications for our understanding of ourselves, both individually and socially. Imitation is not just an important factor in human development, it also has a pervasive influence throughout adulthood in ways we are just beginning to understand... –Susan Hurley & Nick Chater, 2005
Currently, Facebook is struggling to create a new identity. It wants to move past the destination site simulation and become a portal in which their users can navigate the Net. They want to flex for user growth. Not an easy task. Are you aiming for a windowless storage closet website, or website with a constant changing matrix of fresh streaming information content that will balance social and relational dilemmas with equal importance? I believe that baseball cards are an independent and alternative monetary system that has a built in exchange rate. Can you make your website a service with a cause? If you can, then you will succeed! Good luck.
The setup
The action
The outcome
Stanford professor Rene Girard's chief explanation of human motivation is centered on a literary theory that all desire is "mimetic," or imitative, sparked by the desires of other people. Conflict arises not when individuals are different but when they're similar, when they want the same thing. The theory particularly resonated with the brushfire creation of startups in the dot-com boom.
Facebook’s growth is beginning to plateau. Currently, the theory is used for the development of user growth on the social networking site.
Paypal wasn’t a fluke, Facebook wasn’t a fluke… both are transaction based sites, both did their best to answer the question: What do people really want?
I believe Ebay is a model that won’t be successful for you…
In the science of [humanity] and culture today there is a unilateral swerve away from anything that could be called mimicry, imitation, or mimesis. And yet there is nothing, or next to nothing, in human behavior that is not learned, and all learning is based on imitation. If human beings suddenly ceased imitating, all forms of culture would vanish. Neurologists remind us frequently that the human brain is an enormous imitating machine. To develop a science of [humanity] it is necessary to compare human imitation with animal mimicry, and to specify the properly human modalities of mimetic behavior, if they indeed exist. –René Girard, 1978
Imitation is often thought of as a low-level, cognitively undemanding, even childish form of behavior, but recent work across a variety of sciences argues that imitation is a rare ability that is fundamentally linked to characteristically human forms of intelligence, in particular to language, culture, and the ability to understand other minds. This burgeoning body of work has important implications for our understanding of ourselves, both individually and socially. Imitation is not just an important factor in human development, it also has a pervasive influence throughout adulthood in ways we are just beginning to understand... –Susan Hurley & Nick Chater, 2005
Currently, Facebook is struggling to create a new identity. It wants to move past the destination site simulation and become a portal in which their users can navigate the Net. They want to flex for user growth. Not an easy task. Are you aiming for a windowless storage closet website, or website with a constant changing matrix of fresh streaming information content that will balance social and relational dilemmas with equal importance? I believe that baseball cards are an independent and alternative monetary system that has a built in exchange rate. Can you make your website a service with a cause? If you can, then you will succeed! Good luck.
