If there is going to be a business venture based on advanced social technology, we must consider the question of public disclosure. If the venture is to be successful, not too much should be disclosed up front to the general public.
I decided to post the fact that there will be a completely interactive real-time and personalized question-and-answer interface instead of user profiles to be filled out. That is almost revealing too much already. Other social networking services could easily decide to use this approach, though I doubt they would be as sophisticated as what I plan.
I also decided to post a few words about the chaining method for growing social networks. This is less likely to be understood by potential competitors, so I decided to mention it.
I do not want to say much more. I do not want to tell people any more details about the user interface for fear that the competition would adopt them.
I don’t know how to interest potential partners and investors without telling them more, so I propose the use of non-disclosure agreements. But even that may not be enough. Sometimes only a hint is necessary.
A cautionary tale is the story of Smalltalk, Apple and Windows. The management at Xerox PARC asked Adele Goldberg to show Steve Jobs of Apple the Smalltalk system with its revolutionary windows interface. Goldberg refused, saying that would be giving away the shop – even a brief demonstration would be enough to show Apple what to do.
Xerox management ordered Adele Goldberg to give the demonstration, which she was coerced into doing despite her protests. Steve Jobs saw a well-developed windows interface, the first one ever developed, and the rest is history. Everyone knows Apple and Microsoft’s Windows, few have heard of Smalltalk.
