why i hate web 2.0, part n of x

One of the product people at work sent this link around.  The quote she passed around sent me straight into throat-punch mode:

Myspace is the digital ghetto.  It's ugly, nasty, and brutish.  But it's got soul and character.  Interesting conversations happen there.  In other words, it's messy.  And, in large part, that's why it's rocked - messiness explodes value creation at the edge.

LinkedIn is clean, smooth, and streamlined - and utterly devoid of any possibilities for meaningful interaction.

But this in itself begs a deeper question. Why didn't LinkedIn ever learn to get messy?

Comparing LinkedIn to MySpace is like comparing an escalator to a jetpack.  There is no meaningful analysis to make.  Yes, the Business 2.0 piece that sparked this mess was brutally inane (and i'm not just saying that because LinkedIn is nominally a Visible Path competitor), but Umair's response is almost as fatuous.  He completely fails to support his "MESSY ROX LOL" theory, which i rather offensive because it's so transparently dotcom-boomish; using MySpace as an example of successful 'messy' is like dropping a flat of eggs to illustrate the old "you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette" saw.  I want this sort of specious thought to dry up and blow away.

why i hate web 2.0, part n of x

One of the product people at work sent this link around.  The quote she passed around sent me straight into throat-punch mode:

Myspace is the digital ghetto.  It's ugly, nasty, and brutish.  But it's got soul and character.  Interesting conversations happen there.  In other words, it's messy.  And, in large part, that's why it's rocked - messiness explodes value creation at the edge.

LinkedIn is clean, smooth, and streamlined - and utterly devoid of any possibilities for meaningful interaction.

But this in itself begs a deeper question. Why didn't LinkedIn ever learn to get messy?

Comparing LinkedIn to MySpace is like comparing an escalator to a jetpack.  There is no meaningful analysis to make.  Yes, the Business 2.0 piece that sparked this mess was brutally inane (and i'm not just saying that because LinkedIn is nominally a Visible Path competitor), but Umair's response is almost as fatuous.  He completely fails to support his "MESSY ROX LOL" theory, which i rather offensive because it's so transparently dotcom-boomish; using MySpace as an example of successful 'messy' is like dropping a flat of eggs to illustrate the old "you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette" saw.  I want this sort of specious thought to dry up and blow away.