Comments on: Imagined Identity: Envisioning the Future of Social Networks

By: fred

fred — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:53:00 +0000

Certainly – the core value of “remix culture” seems to be creating third spaces. Trebor Scholz and other critics would argue, and I would agree, that these third spaces advance capitalistic agendas – vendors are certainly interested in leveraging api’s and streams and repurposing them into their own places. And in many contexts, those can be a value-add. For example, we’d much rather follow our Facebook friends via Newsfeed than browse everyone’s profile every day. Same thing with my Flickr contact network, and so on.

My personal argument is against the automaticitiy of the spaces. Whereas a curated space emphasizes the select content of a curator, the firehose approach is technological – it lacks the human intervention and editing process that allows selective presentation. All of this, obviously, can be controlled in software, and if FriendFeed does catch on I assume norms will emerge, but I don’t see a solution yet. Nor do I see anything innovating or particularly time-saving about the approach.

By: Factory Joe

Factory Joe — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:31:00 +0000

Just a point of clarification — why aren’t social objects in FriendFeed simply recontextualized in a stream of “actions” that your friends have taken? I agree, and originally opposed, the commenting-out-of-context aspect of FriendFeed, but now appreciate it considerably, like going to an art museum and commenting out loud, in the context of others, and having people I don’t know respond to whatever I say…

Isn’t that also somewhat valid? To create “third” contexts for these social objects?

By: Dr Mum

Dr Mum — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:24:00 +0000

Numerically I have a very small sphere of influence myself. The usual family and friends and a few like-mindeds. But they are spread out all over the world.
I am about to become a grey nomad myself and I imagine social net- working will become essential to me rather than just necessary.
For “on the hoof” interconnectivity one has to have an encyclopedic knowledge of all the layers of systems and its bloody complex.
What I am trying to say is organic growth is hidebound by technical complexity, not by human behaviour.

By: Bertil Hatt

Bertil Hatt — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:20:00 +0000

As always, thank you for the labeling: it comes handy for a discussion we are having right now — precisely to figure out how a Mobile network could work.

There are tons of things that could be implemented (thanks to geo-loc, mostly) in a MoSoNet, but Twitter or the mobile end of Facebook seem convincing to me. I really beleive that efficient, mature social networks demand complex personal structures, and need a large screen for settings — hence the success of two ideas that are not purely mobile.

I was surprised to see how few Twitter accounts are private, probably meaning most people use it as a micro-bloging platform rather then an “close” network. I sincerly beleive that with a less intrusive end then SMS, a Twitter-like app can be a great socail app.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:00:00 +0000

There are now thousands of social networks that cater to a whole variety of subjects. These smaller, focused sites allow users to connect with like-minded people and give advertisers targeted demographics. Niche social networks are also good for marketers who have a product or service they want to promote that relates to a particular interest. A good place to find such sites is a search engine that caters specifically to social networks such as http://findasocialnetwork.com

By: Henriette Weber Andersen

Henriette Weber Andersen — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:16:00 +0000

I think that social networks need to have both in order to scale. Both the local and the global. But the local is the most important to me as well – as well as the social objects present

By: fred

fred — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:15:00 +0000

David,

That’s a perfect illustration of what I’m talking about. The idea that your network is comprised of people you know, who are close – and knowing that your online production is supplementing your relationships with them. It is very powerful.

By: David

David — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:11:00 +0000

I’m not sure if this is what you are thinking in terms of “closeness” but Twitter to me has been a revelation in being local. Organically the majority of folks I am communicating with on Twitter live within a 20 mile radius of me… or have some connection to that area. Further, my connectivity to my local area has grown because of this. I know I’ve mentioned this to you before – but it still surprises me as no other participation in online communities has accomplished that for me.