Its often the case that early adopters are blasted for being part of the echo chamber or that products that initially target early adopters won’t translate into a mainstream audience.
I like products that build around early adopters and engage with an active community of users. It’s a great way to start. And there are plenty of success stories that followed that path.
And while those of us that are early adopters run the risk of being too optimistic – I would much rather hang out with those folks than the pessimists.
Over the weekend Alex Beam at the Boston Globe wrote a tough piece about Twitter. He’s entitled to his opinion about Twitter. There are plenty who probably share that view I imagine.
But the zinger in the article is when Alex states:
I think Twitter belongs to the category of Paradigm-Changing Technologies That Can Safely Be Ignored, like MySpace. It’s so 2002, no one goes there.
Huh? MySpace is a big deal. Many folks go there and while it may not be the darling of the tech blogs it’s a huge. They have 73 million users in the United States alone and revenue is large by any standards.
So while its easy to say negative things about new products and services, I have a suggestion for those that look at the glass as half full. Dare to be an optimist. Think different.
It’s more fun at least :)