In the space of a few relatively short years the Internet has grown into the biggest global communication highway the World has ever known. It has allowed us not only to communicate with each other but to pass on information, making the planet more democratic, open and united like never before. The World has become one big social group, trading goods, keeping in touch with friends and reporting news, it is now more than ever a much smaller place.
The Internet has allowed our ‘family’ to connect within a network of social groups and has given rise to websites whose sole purpose is to cater for the interaction between family and friends and even business. Most people who have used the Internet in the last ten years will have heard of My Space and Facebook, two of the biggest social network sites who have created a link between millions of people around the globe where immediate interaction can take place. The potential for business was and still is enormous which has led to huge interest in the social network database of potential customers. Recently Facebook sold part of its business for hundreds of millions of dollars just simply for this reason of a link to millions of account holders. The social group was successful and powerful, unfortunately only one or two people shared in the prosperity and wealth that Facebook created.
My idea of a social group is a one where everyone has a share, we share ideas, we share information, we share our souls sometimes and talk about what is in our hearts. The question I ask today is, do we share in our own destiny as human beings? or are we a resource to be used? If we share everything then surely we should share in any wealth created as a group and if this happens to be financial then we should share in any profit. Charles Handy, a management guru when talking to business owners said, ‘People are our most important resource, we need people, without them we are nothing’. A logical social step is to share, so how can this happen on todays Internet? The answer I believe is..
ZURKER.. I have recently opened an account with a brand new social network site called Zurker which is currently in beta testing mode and will go public in April 2012. So what is the difference between Zurker and Facebook or any other social network arena. The main difference is you can own a part of the company by inviting other people to ‘sign up’ or you can also buy vShares which are virtual shares. These shares will turn into real shares once there are 1 million vShares taken, the company or cooperative as I like to call it will then go public and 1 share will be worth ‘£1′ if you are part of the UK Zurker, $1 in the USA and so on. Zurker is split into countries such as USA, UK, India, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Philipines, World and Europe at the moment. I think this is an improvement on Facebook as each locality can manage its own trends and likes within that domain.
It has what they call a ‘connect’ as opposed to Facebooks ‘friend’, this is also split into a ‘subscription’, the difference is you can ask someone to connect and vise versa, if you want a one way ‘follow’ this is called a subscription. When you ‘like’ something this is called a ‘zurk’, which is an improvement on Facebook’s ‘like’ button, if someone is telling you about a bereavement or similar that you can’t possibly like there isn’t an alternative option. There are of course more differences such as the layout which I believe is easier to understand, if I am using it, it needs to be ‘idiot proof’ which gladly it is, essentialy the main difference is you can have ownership of the company via vShares. The concept is new and includes benefits for all, I firmly believe that not only potential wealth creation but more importantly ownership of the most up to date and democratic social network site in the World can bring people together in a fair and caring way that sets an example not only for friends and family but politicians and big corporate business who are and always will be part of the same community, we are one big family and I am proud to be part of a new revolution called Zurker where… ‘all your dreams can come true’. Check out some other thoughts from Zurker users here.
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