In the last two weeks I have blogged about two sites that I over-enthusiastically called “Facebok for Sailors”. I need to be a better self-editor! First there was Boaters.tv, a video podcast that will eventually become more of a social networking platform. Then there was Sailtrac, a Google maps mash-up with a Facebook-like community. Well, I just heard about a third one called Tripsailor.
It’s a German-based site (I think) in the very early beta stage. You can see their vision in this prototype page about sailing in the Baltic. I really like the simplicity of this site. It seems easy to use, share stuff in different media and if they get it going like Facebook it could be very successful, but…
…that’s a pretty big if.
While I hope they all succeed, I am not sure that the online community of sailors can accommodate three social networks. Each one has a different tack (no pun intended): Boaters.tv combining a video magazine and a community; Sailtrac, a good mapping app and Tripsailor a simple Facebook-like interface. My concern is that the online sailing community is still quite small – maybe in the tens of thousands.
It’s exciting that the online sailing community could be expanding beyond blogging into a broader and even more vibrant community. My question is how will these three (and I am sure there will be others) will support themselves and build critical mass?
What does everybody else think?
I guess my question would be whether sailors need their own social networking site(s) or whether it’s more likely that sailing communiyies will develop on one or more of the mainstream sites. For example, apparently Facebook has a thriving community of Sunfish sailors swapping photos and chatting and doing whatever social networking activities sailors do on social networking sites. As a former (and maybe future) Sunfish sailorI guess I should go and join them…
It’s a very good question. I have tried the sailing groups on Facebook and frankly havent got much out of them but that’s not to say they can’t work. My beef with facebook is that the interaction between people is very transactional. Blogs are generally more thoughtful because a lot more work goes into making them. It’s going to be very interesting to see how this pans out
What an interesting topic, and how interesting that I have come across it. I am working with a group right now building a boating community (we are catering to all types of boaters) And of course we have asked ourselves the same question, is there a big enough population out there? Do enough people want to participate? Our site is still in the beta phase, but you are more than welcome to have a look or even come aboard. http://www.boaterscommunity.com (sorry for the plug) I am interested to see where this conversation goes. Thanks for writing on the topic!