Open up Josh! by Jonas

Yesterdays news about Sweden’s largest media site, Aftonbladet , and their investment in a new community platform makes for some interesting thoughts.

The platform they chose is called XCAP and is developed by Josh. This platform is also used by a number of large existing communities. Such as FejmTV, Expressen Blogg and Sydsvenskan’s new community.

So here we have four of the largest Swedish sites (TV4, Expressen, Sydsvenskan and Aftonbladet) using the same community platform. And I still have to register a new account on each site. What is the value for each of these sites being closed in? I’m just not sure.

It won’t happen (largely because of the sweet atmosphere in the relationship between Bonniers and Schibstedt), but it would be interesting to see Josh opening up their platform so I could easily export information from my different accounts on these sites and also personalize it on which ever site I chose to use. That would generate more attention and engagement in the existing content than in the current walled-garden kind of situation. Guaranteed.

So Josh, what do you say?

[tags]Community, josh, aftonbladet, bonnier, schibstedt[/tags]

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September 6, 2007 / 3 Comments.

3 Comments

  1. Erik replied:

    I like the idea, but it would only solve the “problem” with the sites using that particular platform. I think a better solution would be a public service for user management focused on these kinds of web sites (e.g., facebook, match.com etc., where the user won’t risk their any money directly). It could be built around existing solutions like PGP, and then used by each site that want to make it easier for visitors to create a profile.

    September 9th, 2007 at 8:50 am. Permalink.

  2. Jonas replied:

    Agreed, for sure. The soluion proposed was just for that platform and not a solution that would help the problem of closed communities.

    It was more food for thought regarding how individual companies could, relatively easy, open up and increase value for the user.

    If I was working at Bonnier I would absolutely demand that users already having an account at one of the Bonnier ownend properties also would be able to use that on other Bonnier owned sites.

    I agree that’s not opening up. It’s more of adding value to the product that they offer. Not adding value to the web as a whole.

    September 9th, 2007 at 12:42 pm. Permalink.

  3. name replied:

    Incredible site!,

    May 4th, 2010 at 9:00 am. Permalink.

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