In a recent post on SezWho, Richard MacManus from Read/Write Web highlighted one of the comment ranker’s advantages:

Note that Greg’s SezWho profile can be utilized over other sites too - i.e. his profile is not centered around R/WW, but around Greg himself. In other words, it is a distributed system that can be used across multiple sites.

Why is this important? For the same reason that single sign on is important. For the same reason that RSS feeds are important:

Click To Play

The value of the filter being wrapped around the user rather than around a website can’t, in my opinion, be overestimated. Last month I described mywebDNA as providing the user with Relevant Eyes, that you can take with you anywhere you go, and at the risk of being insufferably self-congratulatory, I think vision is a useful metaphor.

If you have poor vision, do you think it would be more effective to wear glasses or to adjust the focus of everything around you? What if your vision was different from the person next to you? You couldn’t adjust your surroundings; you’d have to adjust your eyes, with glasses or contact lenses. The ability to carry that filter with you eliminates your dependence on the world around you being in focus.

When I go from one website to another, I still have the same pair of eyes, the same values, the same interests. I am still the same person. Doesn’t it make sense that I should carry the same filter with me wherever I go? Why should I go to one site and be ranked one way and then have to start from zero on another site?

When you think about two or three sites, perhaps it doesn’t seem so daunting. But what about if you’re visiting 20 sites a day, or 200?

Your day might look like this: you start with a site like del.icio.us to find some interesting sites. Then you visit each one, signing into a different system (TypeKey or some such) whenever you want to comment. Of the sites with ranking systems, you may comment a lot on one and be highly respected there, and not at all on another, where your comments aren’t worth anything.

Doesn’t the SezWho model make more sense? Build your reputation and take it with you. Your activities on one site follow you to another. You are the same person on ReadWriteWeb as you are on the VortexDNA blog. Isn’t this more akin to the way the offline world works?

What do you think is the barrier to implementing these distributed systems?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 at 10:04 am and is filed under People matter, VortexDNA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.