Ghosts of Social Media Past: Jaiku’s Constant Reminder

With every celebration of the popular social network, the faint Cassandran winds howl “What will you do when it’s gone?”

I say faint, because nobody seems to see an imminent demise for Facebook or Twitter, and conventional wisdom tilts to Google Plus getting bigger rather than failing to gain traction. We shouldn’t have to worry, right?

Yeah, we should:

I was reminded of Jaiku recently when someone brought it up in conversation. Remember where we went as a backup in the early, outage-spotted days of Twitter? It was our rallying point, much like for a grade-school fire drill. RIP, Jaiku;

Or perhaps you chose unwisely in the “Great Location-based Services War”;

I have already talked about Utterz here. I had the foresight to back up all of my photos to Flickr (which in turn are backed up on hard drive), but all the audio I once posted is gone. Forever

I’m not saying Facebook is going away. But in each of these cases, what was your backup plan? You can argue that this be great isn’t truly an “owned platform,” but I back this up also.

I’d rather keep my social networks portable than rely on a platform being there forever. It’s like the idea of a church; the people are the church, not the building.