Is Google+ a Cathedral Or a Bazaar?

An anonymous reader writes "With its recent mass suspension of accounts, Google has highlighted its desire to create a social network that is very different to the way many (including those whose accounts were suspended) would want to see it. The metaphor of the Cathedral and the Bazaar used for software development can be applied to the two types of social networks being proposed by Google on the one hand and the pseudonym supporters on the other. Google's Cathedral model emphasizes order and control whilst the bazaar model supports users who can be anonymous, have multiple identities, interact with anyone they please, and remain unobserved."

Comments

Why not both?

[wiedzmin]

Why not allow both and let the userbase sort out who they do and do not add on their professional (cathedral) and personal (bazaar) accounts? Because frankly, we already have a cathedral (LinkedIn) and a Bazaar (Facebook), so if Google wants to attract those users, they better be flexible enough to accommodate them.

Cathedral

[halfaperson]

Not that I think the "Catherdral vs. Bazaar" comparison is really that appropriate as a tool for measuring social networks (and it wasn't intended for that either), but using Google+ will always be - no matter how you twist and turn it - on their rules and conditions. And this regardless of wheter anonymous accounts are allowed or not. The only way to have a truly "bazaar" social network model would be using decentralized nodes. I admit I don't know much about Diaspora, but wasn't that one of their selling points?

Choice is good

[gregfortune]

This is a social media environment that I might actually join and one I may let my children join. Linkedin is the only other "social media" account I have and I will never have a Facebook account and shunned MySpace when it was introduced. For me, the lack of any social decency that stems from anonymity is simply not worth it. If I'm going to build relationships with people (isn't that the point of social media?), I'd like to have reputation as collateral for bad behavior.

Perhaps we will return to a point where people think before they speak/post and self censor out of respect for their fellow man. For my tastes, the streets of the Bazaar are pretty filthy but to each his own.

Re:I'm Confused on the Article's "Cathedral"

[vlm]

Its bizarrely backwards. Talk about getting it backwards.

The Cathedral was built by anonymous toilers. No one really knows, or frankly cares, who carved and placed that individual block in that unnoticed wall centuries ago. This is an anonymous social network.

The Bazzar is staffed by human beings. Not interchangeable human cogs like a starbucks, but real individuals. Farmer Albert trades corn for Blacksmith Bob's farmtools. The important part is a Bazzar is based on real names with real reputations and a 1:1 match between them. This is the G+ social network model where, for better or worse, your real name attaches to your online reputation. Almost all of the time its better; some of the time, for some people, it could be worse. Oh well.