Fixing .Mac - Idea 7: Enhance & Encourage Sharing

Apple's nebulous .Mac services were introduced in What the Heck is .Mac? In 10 Reasons Why Apple Can Kickstart Web 2.0 I presented why Apple is uniquely poised to actually deliver .Mac services well worth the price of admission. In this series, I'll describe features I think Apple needs to add to their .Mac service to move it from "web hosting and email plus" to a complete suite of services that are valuable, obvious, and will sell themselves to potential .Mac subscribers. Plus, I want to use them!

Idea # 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 : Enhance & Encourage Sharing

Borrows Ideas From:

Plaxo, Del.icio.us, Flickr

Apple's already delivered the basis for easily sharing content using iPhoto, iWeb, and iCal. Imagine the option of richly tying it all to .Mac members’ profiles. Think of discovering someone in your network of friends who takes incredible photos; if they are sharing their pictures publicly, you could subscribe to their photocast feed and be updated as they post new shots.

What a great way for members to discover other’s work and advertise their own, whether it’s a podcast, a blog, a photocast, a great set of bookmarks, an event calendar, or a virtual business. Unlike being an artificial online pseudo-community, Apple could create a framework for their .Mac members to make it easy to network and mingle, in order to meet the friends of friends who have unique talents, or share similar interests, or have complementary needs.

Why Apple Can Deliver this:

Apple can build upon existing services because Apple has (1) the users, and (2) owns the platforms to roll it out. The system is (3) given away for free, as part of .Mac. Apple knows how to run business both (4) online and (5) face to face, and users (6) trust Apple with their purchases. Further, Apple has proven they can build things that (7) work, are (8) usable, (9) very cool, and (10) will actually get finished.

Here's how it works:

Trusted network associates, like the "friends" of existing network sites, could be granted broad access to personal contact information (like Plaxo), shared calendars, a selection of Safari bookmarks (like Del.icio.us), shared photocasts (like Flickr), as well as access to collaborative shared documents or podcasts (which are essentially subscriptions to documents).

With further integration of Apple's desktop applications, trusted friends could get subscribed access to contact information that syncs right into their Address Book when changes are made. Or imagine similar subscribed bookmark sharing features built into Safari.

With expiring certificate keys, .Mac users and .Mac Groups could grant other .Mac members (or members of the general public) provisional access to their content either for a limited time, or as a paid subscription.

Sharing Incentives

Reputation is one principle that incites users to contribute to a network. Here's another: money. Members could employ the .Mac micropayment system behind iTMS and the Finder Store to tip each other with iTMS content or even a buck or two. That photographer who post great photos? Anonymously leave her a few bucks, or credit for a couple music tracks, or leave your name with an iCard thank you note, or get her something from her wishlist.

Apple itself could reward users who contributed to the .Mac community by giving away iTMS content to members with highly ranked reputations, or highly rated content submissions.

Rather than simply selling music from the major labels, Apple could create, sponsor and recognize various communities of music, art and production that would also serve to sell iPods. Interestingly, Apple's already doing this for podcasts in the iTMS, encouraging free access to, and easy publicity for, aspiring podcasters.

Bang! Imagine Apple becoming a patron of the arts, creating directories of user created movies, photos, comedy, and garage band tunes created to share.

But wait there's more.

More ideas for .Mac: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8. Let me know what you’d like to see from Apple.