banannie

I’ve been using Seesmic for a few months now, and it’s fascinating watching a culture growing around the users. Seesmic is simply a tool, of course, but a tool used by humans, and as with any tool used by humans, it’s never quite as simple as you might think it would be.

For the uninitiated, Seesmic is a new social networking service created by entrepreneur Loic Le Meur, which allows you to quickly post video from your webcam to the internet. More specifically, it functions a bit like a public chat room, or more accurately, like Twitter. Your video is added to an ongoing stream of videos, and often other users will reply, and conversations will develop. I’ve posted a few Seesmic videos over the past month or so that you can take a look at if you like.

Seesmic is currently in closed “pre-alpha” (their term) testing. What this means is the user base is severely restricted (in number anyway) and the software is still in the early stages of development. Users have been invited in to give the developers real-world activity and feedback to work with.

Within the limited Seesmic user base, there’s an even smaller number of active users- people who post more than once per day, who actively participate in the ongoing discussions. It’s been fascinating watching cultural habits, norms, and biases grow in this new community.

The community itself is diverse in some ways, but in others, not so much. Members are from all around the world, particularly the US, UK and France. The youngest account holder I’ve come across is 15, and there a quite a few retirees as well. Recently the ability to follow videos in your preferred language(s) was added.

Yet most users have a few things in common: interest in new technologies and social networking, as well as blogging or podcasting. At least once a day the conversation revolves around what Seesmic is, what it should be, how it can be improved.

It’s these conversations that reveal some of the cultural norms that are developing in Seesmic, for better or worse.

Some say Seesmic is a conversational tool only. Others see it as quick easy way to push out content, but not necessarily gather feedback (the videos can be embedded into a blog or other website.) There’s been discussion about whether the users who don’t engage in conversation are using Seesmic the wrong way.

There was conversation today regarding a recent “requirement” that new users “dance by your third video.” It’s meant to be a welcoming, playful request, but some are feeling pressured by it and either dance under duress (!) or abandon the site entirely, or so it would appear. (For the record, I have not danced, although I’ve enjoyed watching others dance. It makes me sad that people have felt pressured.)*

There’s also concern about “inappropriate” content. Seesmic will need to deal with that as a business, of course, because they can be held liable for copyright infringement, or suffer backlash if they allow content considered by members to be offensive. Seesmic will have to set up Terms of Service and probably some sort of community rules before they open the service to the public. But how much of a say should the community of alpha testers have in what those rules should be? Should adult (non-pornographic) content be permitted? What about hate speech? Outside of the legal requirements, where should Seesmic draw the line for allowable content? In my experience with traditional forums, users don’t like too many rules, but they don’t like be be confronted with content that offends them either. There needs to be a line of some sort, but can it be a flexible line?

Some of these issues can be mitigated quite a bit by a better user interface, and I know the Seesmic team is hard at work on that. Hopefully there will be the ability to block users as there is on Twitter. There should also be a way to favorite posts as well as flag them for inappropriate content (so they would then be looked at by a moderator.) Channels for people who share common interests would make a big difference, as would threaded conversations. While I don’t see the need for some of these tools on Twitter, the time-sucking nature of watching videos on Seesmic make them more important and should make Seesmic more user-friendly.

These are just some growing pains, and they’ll disappear or be solved over time. It’s going to be interesting to watch how it all continues to evolve!

*editing to add- I don’t think the “dancing thing” is specifically what the issue is, because in time dancing would most likely be replaced by something else- you must sing, you must wear a silly hat, etc. It’s more about not putting expectations and demands on new users, even in fun, but rather helping them feel comfortable in the community.