« Microsoft Social Computing Symposium | Main | Flashback » More on Social NetworksI was at a meeting this morning where several people who are involved in the Austin business scene gathered to discuss social software, with Matt Pardo and David Deans opening the discussion. Matt, who has a web development company called VelocityStorm, is a very smart guy – we've been working together on the Technology Committee for WCIT 2006, and I'm impressed with his organizational skills and his grasp of various web and social technologies. David and I met while I was working on the Wireless Future project. He's a polymath considering many aspects of technology, marketing, and entrepreurial endeavors. We exchanged email over the weekend about business models for sites based on social network technology, and talked a bit more about that today. The gist of the meeting, though, was what value, if any, is there in using web tools for social network development. I wasn't sure that the value is in development... my thought is that these sites help sustain and work with members of your social network. They're all beta to some extent, though, still experimenting with features, waiting to see whether people will hang around and whether there's a clear business model. We discussed how Ryze may actually be sustainable based on payments by gold members and revenues from non-virtual events. Honoria and I met later in the day to hash out ideas for a social network seminar we've been planning for a couple of months. The technology, we realized, is beside the point. What we really want to do his convey the concept of social networks and their value, and help people find their way into productive collaboration based on relationships that may or may not be mediated by technology. I have to admit, though – it's hard for me to get the technology out of my head. (Meanwhile it's increasingly easy to find critics who're slamming the "artificial social network" meme as pointless. I'm not feeling the same cynicism – as someone said today, "friend of a friend" systems that help us define and work with our social networks seem an extension of the Internet, which is one big pile of social software. Someone who reads my blog regularly emailed me today that she's uncomfortable with social network sites, that she sees them as a waste of time and an invasion of privacy. This is worth discussion some more, but I'm too hungry. jon posted this at 8:07 PM |
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Comments
I don't share your correspondent's discomfort with social networking software - I just think most of it has its priorities in the wrong place. As I wrote today:
http://birdhouse.org/blog/archives/001261.php
The only social networking app I've seen get it really right (that is, the only one to foster and sustain genuine community, with "stickiness" and longevity and an overall ongoing warm fuzzy feeling), is LiveJournal. All the rest of them seem to place the connection in front of the conversation, which is ultimately boring.
Ironically, LJ has been around longer than friendster and all the rest, and has (AFAIK) never billed itself as social networking software.
LJ never gets credit for its role in the blogging revolution, and never gets credit for its role in the social networking scene, even though it arguably does both things exceptionally well (but with its own set of warts, of course).
Posted by: Scot Hacker | March 31, 2004 12:23 AM
Scot, I've always thought LiveJournal was well known and got quite a bit of credit, but as software for the journaling community, which is arguably larger and tighter than the blog community, but because the focus is more "personal," it doesn't get the same media buzz as the blogsophere. But screw media buzz, right?
Posted by: Jon Lebkowsky | April 3, 2004 9:26 PM