i met lane becker at sxsw– here’s a picture of us on stage at the heather gold show:

lane is in green, i (characteristically) am wearing the gray sandals. (note: this picture was taken by micki krimmel, who said i had the best quote of the show. i walked around on a cloud for the rest of the day after i read that.)

i met lane right before the show, i saw him in the audience and went up to him because he had asked an interesting question at one of the panels i was at that day and i wanted to discuss it further. i had no idea he was one of the guys behind adaptive path, which is probably a good thing, for if i had known it’s unlikely i would have had the courage to talk to him about my ideas. he could not have been nicer to me, and so i’ve been a big fan ever since.

his new company, satisfaction, had a great post today on the digg user revolt. i have been fascinated by this story (not quite as fascinated as techmeme has been, but still.) ever since i wrote my first constitution at the age of nine (it was for my third grade class, and was designed to put a check on the unbridled power of the girls), i’ve loved thinking about and designing systems that allow people to interact in order to achieve a common goal.

the general theme i’ve seen in the revolt posts is that this is the ‘end of digg’.  i’ve been thinking just the opposite– i think digg will become stronger as a result of the revolt.  the revolt was a clear illustration that there are checks and balances in the digg system: while digg-the-company has the ability to change particular policies or aspects of the voting algorithm, digg-the-community has a very clear veto-power that they can use to reject decisions that they don’t like.  i think this is hugely significant– users in editorial-driven systems like slashdot or the daily kos can write journals or diaries and complain all they like about site policies they don’t like, they don’t have any actual power to effect change.  the end result of this is that users eventually get frustrated and leave and the site stagnates.  the digg community has a much more powerful outlet for venting their frustration, and the net result of this is that digg-the-company is forced to change to match the ideals of digg-the-community.  regardless of what you think of the decision the community made, this is what democracy is all about.

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