A Social Software Weblog reader, Cliff Figallo, tips me that
Grouper.com, a private P2P provider (self described as
"part peer-to-peer file sharing, part audio streaming, and part communication software with a
dash of social networking), has "...cleaned up its act and added many socially valuable features."
Cliff also says that: "...It's conceivable - as these interfaces are used and improved - that we'll reach a tipping
point where more users - especially young ones - opt to spend a lot more time in private P2P social environments than
out in the public arcade of the Web and email…"
Cliff's opinion seems to dovetail nicely with another story I was reading this evening, where Molly Wood's
Eulogy for Usenet,
bemoans: "...the sad, under-the-bridge seedy neighborhood that used to be Usenet…"
Transitions.
But, I won't be trying out Grouper anytime too soon since they don't have an OS X version.
