« Dean, Software, and Democracy | Main | Eastern Standard Tribe »

Orkutting Up

dana boyd posted a little diatribe about the knew social network site Orkut, a new Google project that feels like a beta test of concept and functionality to me. Marc Canter says he was banned from Orkut for reasons unknown; he suspects because he added 300 people right off the bat, but you'd think they would dig that, no?

To get on Orkut you have to be invited by a member, and people are auctioning invitations on ebay. Talk about easy money.

Back to danah - she doesn't dig Orkut for several reasons, including the invitation requirement, which feels elitist to her. I most dig her last three points:

5) Hell, haven't we learned ANYTHING? We still have articulation. But worse, now that everyone is paying attention to this, the network isn't growing naturally. You jump on. Fast. And connect to everyone you recognize. WTF? And what the hell are you supposed to DO once you get on the damn thing?

6) And boy is it irritating that everything is broken. I know it's an alpha, but it's too popular to withstand the interest. Can't change picture on certain parts. Can't delete account. Can't get rid of picture. And what's up with the regular crashes?

7) And then there are the Terms that show contempt for academics. There's a blanket ban on robots, collecting information, reverse engineering, and other "unauthorized" use (hello, fair use). You can't even link from the damn thing (i.e. i can't identify myself outside of the constraints of Orkut... like on my own site or identifying a research project in which i'd like people to participate. Thus, i can't use a social networking tool to fucking social network). Of course, there's not much appreciation for anyone else either. THEY OWN EVERYTHING YOU POST!!! You CAN'T OPT OUT! Complete registration only.

And don't worry... they can modify the ToS without any notice.

jon posted this at 8:46 PM
Share on Facebook| email to a friend

 Subscribe to RSS feed for Weblogsky