After seeing this thread between Dave and Mike – twitter.com - I thought I'd ask: is the medium the message? How do you successfully differentiate yourself from Facebook Groups, List, Events, and Comments?

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When people ventured out into the Wild Wild West, it was pure anarchy. You could get away with murder - until certain infrastructures were put into place (like a sheriff.)

The Internet is like the Wild Wild West. But over time, you can see certain infrastructures being put in place. AOL created the roads, Facebook created the Town Square, PayPal created the bank, Twitter created the newspaper, Path is creating the home, and Skillshare is creating the school.

We still need a sheriff.

What role do you see this "sheriff" playing? And Facebook seems like an ambitious real estate developer. They may have built the Town Square but you better believe they're zoning adjacent condos. Is that OK? Or, better yet, is that "good" for the Internet?

I think Mike hit the metaphor on the head.

On the contrary, Facebook is NOT a town square. In fact there's little sense of community at all. It's centered on individuals and their friends which is a very self-serving, egocentric model that does little to help people actually work together, as would a town.

It's not like I don't love it; I'm just as needing of praise and self esteem as anyone else. But I do not define a "town square" this way and I believe something like Skillshare, for example, is among the many missing links.

I don't think Town Square is right, we're more into City building.

Agree that all of these services need to exist, in a healthy, functioning city.

Josh: (Beta feedback) The UI feels like I'm being prompted to respond to myself. Diversify tips and make them more fun, or don't show the same thing every time. just a few times to get started.

Justin, beta feedback is duly noted.

Dave, Mike, and Eric– would you ever consider building your products in Facebook's "city"?

If not, do you think you all can co-exist?

I already do build in Facebook's city. They've built a phenomenal infrastructure that makes real identity the center of the web. I'm really excited that it actually worked and exists now as our new baseline. But it's only a baseline in my mind...a stepping stone in the right direction though.

Yeah, to expand a little here, in my original comment on this I said that Facebook is building cities not town squares. Which I think is the best metaphor.

What's unique here is that Facebook lets each person create their own city with just their own people in it. You only see their content in your feed for example. I think the internet is missing a 3rd place where we meet and mingle with the people who aren't already in our cities. Where travelers go to meet locals, and where strangers become friends. Not sure if this is new serendipity engines, conversations / forums (that usually devolve), or what.

Agreed. That's what I've built :)

Agree with the Facebook / City analogy. I had that in my original tweet to Dave.

You can also think about the city already existing and Facebook came in and took over all the corners (The Wire reference)

Josh, it sounds like we need bars and a Starbucks in each city :)

Funny. I know Eric because I took his Skillshare class (thanks, Mike)! And as Eric pointed out during his presentation, the class itself was a micro-community that connected people who previously didn't know each other (Eric and I, for example).

Mike, does Skillshare have plans to bring the offline communities that you are creating online?

And what is Twitter's place in this city?

Twitter might have started as the city's newspaper as Mike says but it has evolved into being the city's busy farmer's market, shopping mall, and fairground where everyone - whether large or small - is vying for everyone else's attention.

And Instagram is the city's scenic 17 Mile Drive - captivating views of flora and fauna.

...or just regular trash in the subway, but made artsy through intense zoom and built-in filters :)