The ShenBot

Although there were some particularly interesting news bits online this past week – Yahoo was rumored and then confirmed to be laying off what could end up being thousands of people; a lot of money was handed out in VC rounds to companies like Slide and MixerCast raising the question of whether widgets are going to become passé or whether they will be turned into fancy ad solutions; and maybe most notably that the DGA reached a deal with the AMPTP making the writers wonder “Why the hell are we still out here walking around?” However, the most fascinating news to me this week was about saving Scrabulous – the Scrabble knockoff application that has achieved unadulterated Facebook stardom since its release last year.

This news may have gone unnoticed to those who have yet to discover the magic that is Scrabulous. Simply put – it’s not only a highly addictive game to play online (or on your mobile phone if you have a BlackBerry), but it’s the perfect paradigm for a successful application in this new space: it is an easy-to-understand game that keeps users coming back again and again to make their move as games are “turn based,” not to mention it’s highly social as users can chat with one another in a special chat window displayed on each game board. The application has over 600,000 active daily users, and apparently a hugely loyal fan base. Of course, it also happens to be a lot like Scrabble.

Last week, Scrabble founders Hasbro and Mattel threatened to sue Facebook claiming copyright infringement if the application is not removed by the end of the day on 1/22/08. It didn’t even occur to most Scrabullati (as many of the Scrabulous addicts call themselves) that Scrabulous creators Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla did anything wrong. Of course, in 20/20 hindsight it makes sense why the old world toymakers would be throwing a fit – except for the fact that hundreds of thousands of people now have a renewed love of their original product and some are even proclaiming having gone out to purchase said original product solely on account of having fallen in love with Scrabulous. But, that’s another discussion for another time.

What is interesting to me about this particular piece of news is the backlash that it has had within the Facebook Scrabulous community. The reaction has been so fierce, that it literally made mainstream news appearing in such publications as Wired, The Telegraph, BBC News and more. A group on Facebook called “Save Scrabulous” now has close to 50,000 members and a petition started online has over 7,000 signatures. All since last week.

I can’t put my finger on exactly why this is important yet, but I know it is. Forget about the potential business implications – translating non-online businesses into an online model – and what that means for those who are slow on the uptake. But in many ways, this feels like the birth of the next generation protest. The sit-in is dead and the Facebook protest group is alive. In other ways, to me this sums up why social networks are important – they allow for people with a common interest to all come together more effectively and efficiently to fight for that in which they believe. Scrabulous is almost a trite example of this as, well, it is just a game (although I personally take it very seriously). But using this as a model for other causes – political, religious, human rights – it’s mind blowing to think of the kind of power that can be generated by the Net. What is yet to be seen is does this power of the masses online translate into effect in the real world? It is yet-to-be determined how this will play out, but I think all the key players involved should make their move wisely, though – they may be setting a precedent for much larger issues they can’t even yet fathom.