So I finally read the "Long Tail" -- not the book mind you (which in ironically in the Amazon top 10 right now in spite of it being a book about the lack of importance of the top sellers anymore) but the original Wired Article: http://wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html
Obviously it's hard to argue with any of Chris's assessments in the Long Tail. In fact, the Long Tail really explains a lot about the online world -- especially areas like Myspace, youTube, and Facebook.
One of the great things about networking sites like Myspace is that you can connect with anyone, anywhere, that has the same ideas and interests as you do. In the old days, people formed clubs. You need 4-5 people in your general area where you could meet with to talk about different subjects. Thus, the Chess club was born. You could have a club about anything as long as 4 or 5 people thought it was worth their time to talk about it.
The rules are the same for Myspace - -but now you can take geography out of it. Now you only need 4-5 people in the entire world who care about something, and an online club can form. You can have a club for people who died their pit bull purple, or who follow an unknown punk band, or play some game invented by aborigenies. It can be anything, and geography is unimportant. So when you used to be the only person in Kansas City that cared (and thus, club meeting were quite boring), now you can meet with anyone anywhere on the subject. That's pretty cool. And as long as there is a club, more people will find it and join.
The internet has allowed us to connect with people that share our unique interests. Chris talks about it in terms of selling books and CDs -- but it works for everything. And as people have more diverse interests, and "clubs" about these interests, we're exposed to more and more opportunites. It's pretty cool. It does have its problems, which I'll write about later this week, but it has great opportunities.
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