The Five Percent Rule: So Far So Right
Lately, I’ve been talking a lot about participation.  Unless there is self-interest involved, which there is in places like social networks like mySpace and LinkedIn, most people are lurkers (me included).Â
In an interview, Marc Canter said that “Five percent of the populace (probably even less) can create. The others watch, listen, read, consume.” So far, I can confirm that.
So far, we’ve let a few hundred people in Boxxet and while our numbers are small, we are seeing about five percent playing a larger role than the others. Of the rest, about 2/3 read and rest have done a little something (we try to make it very easy to participate). Â
The good news is that five percent can really make an impact and we are seeing it in the quality of the information in some of our Boxxets.  And our system learns from the participation so that five percent makes a very large impact.Â
For all of us, designing social applications, we should start designing around this number. And I would assume it to be a ceiling, not a floor or average.
4 Comments so far
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I absolutely agree about the 5 percent creating. I’m just starting to use boxxet and finding it is fairly easy to participate. Could you elaborate any on what you mean when you say the system learns based on participation? Does it use participation to improve its own filters?
By Niraj Sanghvi on 03.17.06 10:17 am
Sure, Niraj:
The participation within Boxxet does a few things.
1) SORTING: It manually sorts the current information (higher-rated goes up the list)
2) FILTERING: The system learns how to filter the content better, so marking a irrelevant story on, say, the TV show “24″ can teach the system not to let that type of story in later.
3) PREFERENCE: Also participants may prefer certain kinds of content, certain sources, or certain story types. Boxxet will learn from that and rank accordingly the new stuff it finds.
I am glad you are finding it easy to participate. That is our goal. As our user base settles down, we would love to drive the participation rate up. But like you said, 5% is realistic and we should plan for no more than that.
By You Mon Tsang on 03.17.06 10:26 am
Seems like the filtering and preference steps are very closely linked (as performing opposite functions). I imagine the filtering mechanism must be pretty complex then. I look forward to seeing it in action as the participation/userbase grows.
By Niraj Sanghvi on 03.17.06 11:33 am
Perhaps the 5% is the level of creativity given a blank page. What if systems (Boxxet included) were designed to prompt creativity along chosen lines or through multiple methods. The 5% may be a result of the structure, not the content of the individuals. Change the structure and get 15% and you have outdone your assumptions by 300%. Just a thought.
By David on 11.15.06 6:50 pm
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