Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law

Social networks by invitation only- my views

Social communities such as asmallworld are by invitation only communities. I was invited by my friend Wanja probably 3 years ago and I now count 246 friends. It took me 2,5 years to achieve "invitation" status which means that I can now invite 5 people to join the network.

Asmallworld is a website for socialites, businessmen, and jetsetters and I was amazed how many asmallworld members I met during my travels over the years. It almost seems as if they all move in the same circle of friends and holiday destinations starting from Miami Music conference, onto Oscars in Los Angeles and Cannes Film Festivals and the of course the summer in St Tropez and St Barths for New Year, etc.

Whilst I really enjoyed Asmallworld in the beginning I am now clearly lacking the time to really take advantage of the facilities of the website.

Asmallworld does not only inform you about the best restaurants, hotels, spas, etc in each city but also keeps you up to date on the social calendar of the year and it also offers business platforms which can from time to time be quite useful.Overall the website can be better described as an invitation-only concierge website with social networking applications.

Even if I am not a great fan of social networks in general, I have to admit that asmallworld is my favourite one....

The website is easy to use and very organised with consistent quite subtle graphics. The different sections of the website are not always as interlinked as they should be and the navigation could be better.
Please see below how asmallworld introduces itself:

"Welcome to ASMALLWORLD
ASMALLWORLD is a private online community, which is designed for those who already have strong connections with one another.
We allow our members to connect, reconnect and interact more effectively with like-minded individuals who share the same circle of friends, interests, and schedules.
Membership
We have imposed certain criteria in order to keep the network exclusive. To join, you need to be invited by a trusted member.
If you have not received an invitation, you can ask your friends to invite you. If you have no friends who are members yet, please be patient."

http://www.asmallworld.net/

Please find below a businessweek article about asmallworld:

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/nov2007/id20071114_257766.htm

Fashion business to business (b2b) website- good website

In January 2007 lexposure.net launched.


"Lexposure.net is the first social and business platform custom-built for people in the fashion and creative scenes. We designed it to be the leading networking and information website for the fashion and creative scene. Whether you're a photographer, model, designer, hair or makeup artist, editor, booker or producer - anyone can have his own account on Lexposure.net. Elegant, intuitive and easy to use, Lexposure.net is where work connects with your online life and your ideas come alive. Users can upload portfolios, share information and link with potential partners. They can check individual activity feeds, featured members and wall posts in user profiles or mini portfolios, and communicate through the message centre, forum and pro forum or their friends' and partners' networks."
http://www.lexposure.net/

Whilst doing my research for week 3 in which I have to describe which websites I consider as "good" and which websites I consider as "bad" and why, I found out about the launch of lexpousre.net. This is a quite revolutionary site for the fashion industry. It stands out because of its structured design which makes it very user friendly. Information is easy to access and the graphics and visuals underline the content rather than distracting from it. It is easy to navigat through the site and to different sections of the site are related to each other. The runway pictures are slightly bigger than on comparable sites such as style.com, etc. which makes the website easier to work with. The different sections of l'exposure are interlinked and information and data access is made extremely easy for the user.

It amazes me that one of the most visual and elitist industries (the fashion industry) is now beginning to use online tools to arrange castings, to send portfolios and to showcase profiles. This will eventually make the life of not only models but also photographers and stylists far easier and the industry more effective. I am excited to see where this development is going and how it will change the way people communicate with each other in the fashion industry.

L'exposure is not only showing all the latest campaigns and catwalks, but it is also providing information on who was the photographer, who was the stylist, the hair and make up artist and the model involved in this campaign. Lexposure then links you to these people's profiles and you can contact them directly.

This is a revolution in the fashion industry since the access this information used to be very hard to access. This is democratising the fashion industry.

Whilst the fashion industry used to be a very elitist industry, the internet is causing a major shift through websites such as l'exposure.net.