Yesterday I read VentureBeat's story about Convore (article here), and it reminded me how most of "new and innovative" social media applications are just recycled versions of older ideas. Some get it right (Facebook and Skype), some don't (Convore, Diaspora and Google's Buzz).
Convore is apparently meant to be an improved version of IRC (Internet Relay Chat) with public and private chatrooms. Instead it seems like another version of a traditional online discussion forum, only more confusing. The basis of IRC is the ability to create chatrooms (channels) by just joining them and the real-time discussions either in the channel or in private. In most discussion forums the admins have created a few areas, where users can post their discussions. In Convore, the users can create these areas by themselves resulting in a mess with many similar areas. The users also create chatrooms in each area, so finding an appropriate place for discussion can be difficult. There is also no private messaging system in place, which exists in some form in almost all discussion forums. Convore does offer message archives, which IRC doesn't include as default, but which discussion forums have. In short, Convore takes features from IRC and discussion forums, smashes them up, and creates a mess.
Diaspora and Buzz try to copy the success of Facebook. Buzz came around first, and the whole idea is to share links with friends and then comment on them. It came around a year ago, and it still hasn't caught on even it's available to everyone with a Google account. The friend-system has had a lot of problems (connecting you automatically to nearly everyone, want it or not) and the whole thing has been complicated to use, even it has gotten better from the first few weeks. Diaspora on the other hand is supposed to be the real alternative to Facebook, and it promises not to share your information with anyone without your permission. It is still work in progress, but at least now it seems to lack the fun part of Facebook. Not just the (usually annoying) games and apps, but also the groups, pages and photo albums. I have a few friends there, all social media pros, and most have just stopped using it after a day.
Of those who have recycled old ideas and got them to work, Facebook is one of the obvious ones. It's just a step up from Friendster and MySpace. Another success is Skype. Voice-chats are nothing new, since we did it with friends in 1998, but the technology behind it has changed. Webcams have also been available long before Skype. One can argue though if plain chatting is considered social media...
Convore
Buzz
Diaspora
