« Bloggerhood is Powerful! | Main | Open-Media.org » Social Network Thanatos and Eros JiveNo sooner had I responded to John Barlow's invite to join the new social networked called Multiply than I got an LOL message from Adam Greenfield, who had just post-mortemed the social network thing. Adam refers to the strongest indictment of all, which is something that I call the "so-what factor": you've spent all this time on your social-networking site of choice, building out a profile and establishing threads of affinity, joining groups and posting testimonials. So what? What's the return on your investment? What have you gotten for all that effort? In my case, the answer is clear - very little but headaches.Adam makes it clear that he's speaking for himself, and I don't share his well-articulated skepticism, though I can't say I get a lot out of the social network sites. Every time I register at one of these sites and look around, I find somebodies I've lost track of, and that can be a plus for me. I also find it cool that people post images – often very good digital photos, so my online life is increasingly visual. I've also formed a better sense of the working relationships among people that I know. That can be useful. I guess I'm not disappointed because I don't have high expectations for social networks. I certainly don't see them as viable business unless they're placed in a specific useful context. LinkedIn is the one system that might make it as a business, because it's very focused on support for business relationships, and forming the kinds of connections that have value people will pay for. jon posted this at 8:18 PM |
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Comments
Jon,
IMHO, the common view of the likely applications for these SN platforms is myopic, because it's always assumed to be on the public internet. In contrast, viable applications for SN tools that are placed upon a private corporate intranet are much more plausible. The later continues to be to focal point of my GeoNetworker International research at http://geonetworker.webhop.net
regards,
David H. Deans
Posted by: David H. Deans | August 11, 2004 5:36 PM
I don't see so-called "social networking" as something that you expect ROI from. It is just entertainment. At least, that's what Orkut became for me. I have a few recent posts about Orkut and Multiply on my blog that explain my point of view.
I'll tell you one thing I've found Multiply good for: by checking out JPB's contacts and then checking out each of their blogs, I've expanded my Bloglines reading list. I feel like JPB has "pre-screened" these people for me. If he knows them, they probably have something interesting to say. You, for instance.
Posted by: Laura | August 13, 2004 6:55 PM