Aswath Weblog

Distributed Social Directory is the Real Trouble

I posted the following entry at EnThinnai blog. Please visit there to post your comments.

Daniel Berninger periodically writes in GigaOm under an evocative banner called “Here Comes Trouble”. These posts follow a familiar pattern: Historically the business model (invariably referring to the traditional telecoms) has been to have a control over the users, usually aided by monopolistic and regulatory environments; given the distributed nature of IP Communications, such control is not feasible; so the telecoms are under threat by upstarts. And here is the clincher. Almost invariably he will conclude with one of the upstarts will end up having full control. Even though he invokes distributed nature of IP, he replaces one ubiquitous entity with another. He has done the same thing with his recent post where he seems to suggest that the traditional telephone directory will be replaced by a “social directory” created by merging the telephone directory with the social networking model. Not only that. His concluding sentence is noteworthy: “However, Google’s revenue represents less than a third of what the declining telephone directories generate in the U.S. alone. Riches await the infocom company that achieves gatekeeper status for the Internet’s communications applications.” Let me repeat for emphasis. He thinks that there is an opportunity for a gatekeeper in IP Communications. EnThinnai is betting against that.

Dan suggests that traditional directories and their online versions can not handle currently available multiple communication modes. So he suggests that the optimal solution is “a user-generated directory in which individuals own and update their own listing.” EnThinnai, which has been operational for a year, does exactly that. He further states that the access to the directory needs to be restricted. He thinks, “[t]he social directory could implement an invite authentication process like any other social network.” Here again EnThinnai is ahead. EnThinnai users will have the ability to control who can access when and which contact information. However, we disagree that there will be a single or even handful of gatekeepers. We are striving to provide a mechanism for each individual to run their own EnThinnai and control their own directories. We do not just mouth “Intelligent at the End” mantra; we believe in it.