360Hubs, "a developer of turnkey Web 2.0 business collaboration software" has an equity stake in a new company launched yesterday, OffsetX, an "action-based social network."
With a name obviously based on the green trend of purchasing carbon offsets to reduce the damage done by things that harm the environment, OffsetX features news feeds, user polls, and other tools to allow users to create their own groups to lend support to a cause and encourage others to join their efforts.
If that sounds familiar, it's because it's a stand-alone version of Facebook's Causes application with a few features added and a trendy name. The biggest problem that I had with the name was that it requires me to complete a mental translation with every view. Offset McCain is really an Obama supporters group, made even more confusing by a picture of an angry John McCain. In appealing to a mainstream audience, it may have a sort of "Fight Club" appeal, but the overall "see? it's the opposite" cute factor gets old quickly.
Operating as a stand-alone network may also prove problematic for the site; with so many users already on Facebook, it's much easier to use the existing Causes application to rally supporters due to the extensive built-in audience.
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Comments
One of the interesting features of OffsetX is the "create your own offset" capability, which offers any user to create and launch their own full-featured communities with all of the same bells and whistles of these initial political sites. This comes in handy when applying the OffsetX concept to college sports rivalries, where being against another team is often as compelling as being a fan of your own. Now even smaller rivalries and causes can have a home of their own.
I signed up, and see a totally different, yet better and more robust application than Facebook's causes. With FB, one can only blog, donate, or gather "online" around a particular cause. I see OffsetX as a much better solution (minus their number of users as it just launched compared to FBs mega-base), as it allows for users to make "Actions" behind their cause, interests, or ideas. However, I do feel that a Facebook integration of some sort would be powerful. Looking forward to their "Sports" rival offsets - which they state is coming soon... Overall, this is an inspiring idea, and I see where it can be sticky and addictive!
My biggest problem is the "yet another social site" when so many online don't WANT another social network to join. If I'm an Obama supporter, why do I want to use OffsetX instead of the personalized site I can create on MyObama.com, which links automatically to all the rest of the campaign information?
In addition, the "offset" moniker may be trendy, but it assumes that people are hip to the "offset" trend. I don't have a lot of faith in the general Web populace who are required for any site to achieve critical mass, and I think it's far too confusing creating "offsets" rather than fan or supporter groups. In addition to Causes, Facebook also offers pages, which can also accomplish much of the same thing.
Cyndy - Nice reply! I can appreciate your point, yet I think you might be overlooking a big part to their concept. Yes, you can create a "MyObama" page for example, but that's it. You're not going to have your other interests / "offsets" within your MyObama site. OffsetX gives you the ability to manage all topics in a single profile. Yes, FB has the causes tied back to your page, but look at the limitation we have with the causes - posts, donations (some places), recruitment. MyObama, and like networks are too specific and miss the room to expand (Politics, Sports, Humanity, Environment, Businesses, and the Create Your Own). I totally get it - and yes it does take a minute to click, but it seems entertaining. I have my offsets for my sports rivals, businesses that I have had bad experiences with (e.g. Babies R Us, Target, etc), and laughed my head off at the "Offset Tom Cruise" page. I also see the serious side in the Caylee Anthony missing child case, and how current event issues could be a play here... Remember, people said Facebook was a copy-cat of MySpace! :)
Thanks Cyndy for writing this, and to the people that posted comments. Stephen - you nailed the concept! Cyndy - I'd be interested in speaking to you further if you'd like to learn more about the overall idea and company goals... Who knows, you might get a better picture in your mind. :) Again - we appreciate the time you took in writing this!
Mike Smith
CEO / OffsetX.com
msmith@offsetx.com
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