Tools for the household, not the individual
If you look at most any Web-based tool, the core concept is almost always focused around an individual. An individual signs up for an account then adds content or manages a profile or does an activity of some sort. Consider three Web-based services that are used regularly in my household:
NetFlix
My wife and I share an account, where she’s told me her username and password (she created the account originally). One of us will go into the site under the single account and add movies to the queue, rate movies, and review recommendations. Then the other person comes in and does the same thing. But since my movie taste and my wife’s are quite different, the recommendation engine certainly freaks out. Not to mention that we both re-arrange the delivery queue… which can be the cause of spousal abuse if you’re not careful. (She doesn’t take kindly to the queue shuffling!)
Flickr
While we have one set of photos at home, digital or otherwise, we both have our independent Flickr accounts (both Pro accounts). Since we each have our own networks of friends, and each have certain photos we do or don’t want to share only withe those networks, two accounts makes perfect sense. Except that a majority of the photos we both upload are duplicates from the other person’s account.
BookMooch
This fantastic book swap site is based on a simple concept – give a book away without charging and paying the shipping yourself, and in exchange you get a point you can use to get a free book of your own from another user. Since my wife and I live in the same house and have a single pile of books to give away, we both find ourselves logging in under my account (I originally created the account). The problem is that I get all the mails, even though she may be interested in books she’s mooched. If we spilt into separate accounts, then who gets the points for the redemption? She reads more than me, but what if I needed a book right away and didn’t have any points left but she had plenty?
So this leads me to wonder why more Web services… heck, any Web services don’t do a better job targeting the household rather than the single individual. Sure, it adds complexity, but what helpful complexity it would be! Certainly the household approach wouldn’t work in all scenarios, and would simply add pointless complexity in others. But I’ve already pointed out three examples above where it might work wonderfully as a core part of the concept.
As we all start living more and more of our lives online, we have to remember that we’re social entities by nature, and that "social" thing applies as much (or more) to the homefront as it does to complete strangers.
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UPDATE: It just dawned on me that this concept already exists – Windows (or any operating system). On the same computer, you can setup multiple accounts, each of which uses the same set of shared resources (i.e. the computer and software), but the views of those resources can be customized. Mom has a user account, Dad has a user account, each kid has a user account.
