Comments on: Facebook Family Groups: A Smart Move

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 07:46:25 +0000

great post, i’m checkin’ out family groups now, i’ve used fb’s friend list to communicate w/my family in thepast…

By: Callalilly

Callalilly — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:41:39 +0000

I just created a facebook family group, and it is forcing me to “friend” anyone I want to add.

By: fred

fred — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:15:48 +0000

That’s true, but I would disagree that family isn’t well-bounded. Familial ties are well-articulated and I would think, at least in the beginning, family groups would operate on first- and second-order ties. At this level, we have a strong sense of who belongs and where we belong. With in-laws and all of that, people may end up in multiple family groups, but the family element is atomic and articulable, which I think will assist users in making sense of these groups. Of course, with 170MM users over the globe, definitions and norms around families will vary, but I see this product as primarily focused on the families of early adopting Facebook users.

By: Scott Golder

Scott Golder — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:30:33 +0000

Hmm. I think the bigger problem is that a family isn’t a well-bounded group and transitive relations don’t work. Though A is related to B and B is related to C, A is not necessarily related to C. Cousins, for example. People would end up having to join multiple family groups to account for the parts of their kin network that don’t overlap.