43 Things
43 Things or 43things.com is a social networking site that is built on the principles of tagging, rather than creating explicit interpersonal links (as seen in Friendster and Orkut). Users create accounts and then list a number of goals or hopes; these goals are parsed by a lexer and connected to other people's goals that are constructed with similar words or ideas. This concept is also known as folksonomy.
Launch
43 Things was launched on January 1, 2005, by the Robot Co-op, a small company based in Seattle founded by prominent blogger "Erik Benson", Maktub keyboardist Daniel Spils, and former Amazon.com and Microsoft executive Josh Petersen. The Robot Co-op hired 37 Signals to design the site's user interface. The site was developed using the Ruby programming language and the Ruby on Rails framework. The development of the site (and company) was chronicled on the company's blog. The first version of the site was released 43 days before January 1, with a stripped down text interface asking "43 days till the new year. What do you want to do with your life?" Hundreds of thousands of users browsed the site before the official launch - leading to news coverage in several countries.
Controversy
43 Things was given a prime spot in an article on tags written by Katharine Mieszkowski, a writer for Salon.com. After publication Mieszkowski received an anonymous email tipping her off to investigate how the Robot Co-op was funded. An irate Katharine Mieszkowski called 43 Things developer Erik Benson at his home at 7:45 am demanding to know if 43 Things was a front for Amazon.com. She published her version of this conversation in a follow up piece in Salon.com. That article included confirmation from Amazon.com and The Robot Co-op's CEO that internet bookseller and web giant Amazon.com was the sole investor in The Robot Co-op. Amazon.com declined to comment on their investment, but Mieszkowski speculates that they plan to use this site to further customize their individual marketing and site preferences for their users. Mieszkowski did not include material from her tagging article to clarify what the Robot Co-op was building. Mieskowski implied that Amazon is being somewhat underhanded in their use of an pseudo-independent site, as many users are entering data about their planned purchases, without realizing that they are giving this information to a potential marketing machine, rather than a social website; this is comparable to the practice of astroturfing that some companies use to pretend that a movement is independent rather than corporate. Mieskowski never investigated who the anonymous tipster was or speculated about their motivations (or intentions) in pushing this announcement out ahead of The Robot Co-op or Amazon.com's schedule. Prominent blogger Jason Kottke "clarified this controversy" by pointing out that the whole history of the site from inception to release was chronciled on a public blog, that the employees of the Robot Co-op all keep blogs, and that all the information on 43 Things is available to the internet. Thus Mieszkowski's "controversy" was arguably "astroturfeded" to try to generate additional attention. The next day, Salon CEO David Talbot resigned, denying his resignation had anything to do with Mieskowski's piece. The whole 3 day period led to a 35% increase in users of 43 Things. Amazon.com has not confirmed whether they are porting their whole website to use the Ruby programming language or if they actually let small companies they invest in make their own decisions.
External links 43 Things The Robot Co-op blog "Sociable Robots believe in 43 Things" from Seattle Times (December 27, 2004) Steal this Bookmark from Salon.com (February 8, 2005) Amazon's 43 Secrets from Salon.com (February 8, 2005) Tagging Amazon's Secret Investment from BusinessWeek (February 8, 2005) "Amazon invests in blogging site" from News.com (February 9, 2005)
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