July 22, 2009 14 Comments

Black Box Republic Shows Some Velvet

blackboxrepublic My friend Sam Lawrence has come out of hiding and launched his Black Box Republic. Part social network, part reputation engine, part event planner, part virtual currency and marketing platform, I am nothing but 100% optimistic for what he has. First, you should understand that this is a sex-positive site. No, it’s not a porn site. Instead, it’s a site geared for folks who travel in more sex-friendly circles. Here’s the write-up from the landing page:

Black Box Republic

What makes this fascinating to me is that it points to my long-standing belief that “velvet rope social networks” is the big trend in 2009. Instead of “commons-minded” sites like Facebook and Twitter, which are interesting enough, Black Box Republic is something a lot more intimate that has its members at heart. It’s built with a lot of weight put on reputation and a system called “vouching,” where members allot authority on each other with their “vouches” or votes.

The super duper exciting stuff will be forthcoming, but after a very long talk with Sam as well as April Donato (cofounder and VP of digital relations), I’m excited to see where they talk this.

Because, if you squint, you can see the OTHER kinds of communities such a system will benefit. Sports comes right to mind.

Get your Black Box on, and best of luck, Sam, April, and team.

Related posts:

  1. Still on the “New Black” Kick
  2. How Facebook Connect Points the Way Towards Velvet Rope Networks
  3. Black River Blues
  4. Find the Best Shows for Me
  5. How Cirque Du Soleil Shows Social Media Love

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  • http://www.sdgagency.com cesarabueg

    Hhhhmmm…interestingly intriguing and tantalizing at the same time. I like the vouching system thing you mentioned. So this life secondlife.com meets authenticity with a dash of ning.com commonality.

    Tried signing up, but server was temporarily down as I was clicking and sorts.

    Hopefully you can give us another tidbit when it does come out. Thanks.

  • http://blog.eyeviewdigital.com EyeView

    I like the idea of “velvet-rope social networks”, I'm just not sure what the velvet rope will be used for in this one!

  • charlesneville

    BBR looks very interesting and they highlight the very problem of facebook – there aren't that many logical ways to make new one-to-one connections with people. There's something similar to what you're talking about already in existence in the Czech Republic. Seznam.cz, the dominant search engine here (much to GOOG's annoyance), have a wide-open social network where people can meet: http://seznamka.lide.cz/ (literally meeting.people.cz) – it's categorised for dating, hobbies, travel and more. On the lide.cz site people can have personal pages, sort of like blogs. This has been around for ages and I've often wondered why something similar never took off in other countries.

  • http://www.facebook.com/rusty.speidel Rusty Speidel

    Amen. Sports DOES come right to mind–we're already doing it at Rowdy.com for auto racing.

  • http://www.undeniableprofits.com/ Alvin Tan

    Sex-positive site? It is something new to me. Thanks for sharing this. Cheers!

  • lizEwards

    It's interesting. I mean both the BBR and “velvet-rope social networks”. Connecting with people via social networks is not a new idea, but there is still a lot space to develop based on it. I'm keeping an eye on this trend, and thank you for the sharing!

  • cyuskoff

    is the logo what I think it is??? ha

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  • karlfoxley

    A very interesting idea… I like the term 'sex-positive'. I'll be looking forward to reading a review (by you) when the site has launched.

    Karl

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  • http://twitter.com/fireshark911 Edwin Anderson

    One more retweet from fireshark911

  • http://www.facebook.com/candace.locklear Candace Locklear

    Excellent post, Chris. I would expect that you would totally get it, too. Sam and April are doing really groundbreaking stuff that will definitely fill a need and advance how we connect with others online in a more REAL way. Hallelujah!

  • http://www.facebook.com/candace.locklear Candace Locklear

    Excellent post, Chris. I would expect that you would totally get it, too. Sam and April are doing really groundbreaking stuff that will definitely fill a need and advance how we connect with others online in a more REAL way. Hallelujah!

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