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The Enginet

THE PERPETUAL MESSAGING MACHINE

Enginets are digital networked applications for networked media– today primarily the Web and mobile wireless. These applications are sometimes referred to in the press and industry as Web 2.0 applications, web engines, networked engines or “enginets”; though there exists methodology that transcends the de rigueur moniker of Web2.0, offering a sustainable approach to designing and building enginets that is applicable to any “version” of the Web or wireless infrastructure.

Youtube, myspace, match.com, eBay, flickr, facebook, prosper, linkedin, and zillions of other “sites” on the web all have more in common than not. They are all networked engines, or enginets. And they are a handful of representatives of a massive population of less visible, but proportionally successful enginets in the world.

But an enginet doesn’t have to be digital; but it *does* have to be networked.

Mark Kay cosmetics was an enginet for their reps and customers. So was Amway and other networked marketing schemes.

Sports are enginets for enthusiasts.

Pokemon trading cards were a brilliant analog enginet. As was the original Dungeons and Dragons.

And alternative reality games (ARGs) show great potential at taking enginets to a whole new level (more on that in a later blog).

But web and wireless technologies lower the friction to building engines of engagement. These digital enginets have are not defined by a particular feature or function like “social networking,” ecommerce, VoIP, peer-to-peer distribution, search, video streaming or any of dozens of buzz words. Those are features, not mature enginets… and they can’t standalone for very long. They *must* evolve into a more mature, full-featuring engine of engagement. Witness the evolution of eBay (which started with a simple auction feature), google (which started with search), myspace (started with user-generated profiles, or social networking), facebook (same), etc. They all *start* with a core feature or function, but they have to evolve and grow into a multi-functioning coral in order to survive.

A true enginet:

  • Captures and nurtures an “archetypal behavior” (blogging, searching, dating, auctioning, socializing, buying/selling, advising etc), that originates in meatspace (real world) or can only exist virtually (online).
  • Creates a framework of rules, guidelines, social morays and features/functions that engender the archetypal behavior
  • Targets a particular demographic or psychographic
  • Evolves, by design.
  • Activates audiences as *more* than simply a consumer—also as a producer, director, creator, distributor, marketer, vendor or exhibitor.
  • Builds in motivators for audiences to take on more than just the consumer role.
  • Becomes self-perpetuating (though not necessarily “profitable”) at some point in its lifecycle (hopefully sooner than later).
  • Has feedback loops for the audience built-in.
  • Belongs to the community, not to you. Don’t ferget!
  • Can be guided, but not controlled.

More on the enginet at “What is an enginet?”