AGLOCO is trying benefit from the “Social Media” phenomenon of MySpace and Facebook for example while also differentiating itself. They raise some interesting points. I think that there’s a large movement of people who feel that it’s increasingly difficult for individuals to protect themselves against the vagaries of the economy. The “game” always seems to be rigged - against them and for large corporations.
The software is still being beta tested and I’ll let you know about the rollout of their toolbar. But I think they may be able to tap into a vein of discontent. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.
As a social network, it has the possibility of being incredibly viral. The heart of the AGLOCO system will be a tool bar system and you can see why they’re trying to get that up and working as the priority.
But from the perspective of people who hope to tap into the potential of this economic network… piggy backing on another social networking system like MySpace may be the way to really make this work. AGLOCO basically says that your income doubles for every 5 folks you recruit (or something like that).
In reality, that statement will have certain assumptions behind it that may or may not be true for you. MLM’s old “You get 5, they get 5, each of them get 5 more” doesn’t really work in practice. It’s more like “You get 100, they’ll get 25…”
All you can control is getting people in at the front end and them aiming to support them in their recruiting efforts somehow.
For most people that will mean exploiting other social networking tools to make the economic network take off I suspect.
This is from AGLOCO’s official blog:
Many of us are familiar with online social networks, such as MySpace and Facebook, as well as online professional networks, like LinkedIn and Doostang. These networks are based around communities communicating with one another in the personal (social) or professional environment.
AGLOCO is an Economic Network. An Economic Network is based on similar roots, but also adds the driving principle that individuals who have joined together as a group can be economically stronger than the individuals alone.
This is the driving principal behind any group trying to become stronger by joining forces: business groups (like trade associations and the Chamber of Commerce), countries (like the formation of NAFTA and the EU), or people (like labor unions and buying co-ops).
For individuals it is simple. They can demand more from the entities that had been controlling them and finally achieve the power they deserve. Much like segments of the labor force saw they were being exploited 100 years ago, today we see the Internet consumer being economically exploited by many Internet companies. AGLOCO wants to change that.
Individual Internet Users are already creating value all over the Internet, and only now are they coming together as Members of AGLOCO to claim that value. The purpose of an economic network is for the Members to acquire as much of the value they create as possible, and they shouldn’t have to change their Internet usage behavior to get it.
This is the whole basis for creating this company. The Internet holds many unique and valuable ways for individuals to “interact with each other and with groups.� Wikipedia is showing this with free access to information on the Internet. AGLOCO can accomplish the same thing with free access to value created on the Internet.
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