Matt Hatfield, executive director of digital rights group Open Media, welcomes newer social platforms — along with Tribela, there's another Canadian initiative called Gander Social — that are creating more intentionally designed online spaces where people can gather."A core problem with how online spaces work right now is everyone is in the same room at all times, [like] being in a bar and a comedy show and a church and a policy shop," he said. "And we don't do that with other real-world spaces." Hatfield does foresee the "network effect" — a platform's value based on number of users — potentially being a challenge for the newcomers. "If you're the only one in town who has a telephone … it might not be a very useful device because you just can't connect to many people through it."