One of the most common situation while developing and releasing a new certain kind web application is know as the empty database or cold start problem. Whether it is a social network or a content share driven platform like Vimeo or Scribd, you’ll only attract a large number of users with a good quantity of valuable content and users.

By Ms.Abitibi at Flickr.

Besides that, there are some situations when your application will only be useful after you harvest a enormous amount of information. Maybe you’re trying to create a local news website that runs nationally and you need to get news from almost every town, or build a encyclopedia like Wikipedia that doesn’t appeal anyone with a few dozens of articles. In this case you’ll need to do some crowdsourcing. As good as it may sound, it’s a very hard thing to do. Unless you already have a large and dedicated community and/or a powerful behind you, stimulating a large enough group of enthusiasts to work on your behalf it’s not a simple task.

The best advices is given on an article named The Del.icio.us Lesson by Bokardo, where it states:

Personal Value Precedes Network Value

The one major idea behind the Del.icio.us Lesson is that personal value precedes network value. What this means is that if we are to build networks of value, then each person on the network needs to find value for themselves before they can contribute value to the network. In the case of Del.icio.us, people find value saving their personal bookmarks first and foremost. All other usage is secondary.

So, if you’re trying to build a social network around some specific subject, do a little research first: what do your future users really need? If you want user to share videos, try and give them some tools to edit and promote them besides just enabling them to put them on your website. If you users to give you their reviews, make sure they can everyone else’s reviews and access the latest information about new releases. It’s all about understanding the user mind and show what you product can do to them, not only what they will build for others. Then you can unlock the power of masses to create unique value to your application.

If you enjoyed this post, consider subscribing to my RSS Feed