CML Earth sunset

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CML Earth – the sudden disappearance of a social network

Yesterday Novartis Oncology sent out an email to the subscribers of a small global community called CMLEarth.

Dear Subscriber,

Since the launch of CML Earth in December 2008, the mission of the social network has been to provide members of the CML community with a place to give and receive support, make valuable connections and share personal experiences, and connect with members for further support.

At this time, Novartis Oncology, sponsor of CML Earth, has decided to close the social network. The platform is not optimized for current technologies (such as mobile devices and tablets), which compromises the user experience and lessens the value of the platform.

Thank you for your participation, dedication, and support of the CML community.

Sincerely,
Your CML Earth Team

CML Earth was designed to support a small global community of patients, healthcare professionals and patient families – all of whom were dealing with a rare form of leukaemia (Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia).
novartis
What’s interesting about this is:

  • How sudden the shutdown seems to have come
  • Where was a migration strategy? There was a community that had value to each other, if not to Novartis, what about having a Facebook group that they could self-administer?
  • That there wasn’t an opportunity to hand the community over to the members, nor a migration strategy articulated to say form a Facebook group, there are a number of existing groups on there

It also is a classic example of the transitory nature of platforms. What seemed hip just a few years ago is now a technology that is no longer supported (Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight – not that Silverlight was ever hip outside Redmond, WA).

It was even odder, that this decision was not shared on the home page of CML Earth, here is a screen shot that I took this evening.
CML Earth

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