Socialist Roots to the Social Networks
by Aner Ravon

This contribution was originally entered as a comment by Spock. I thought his words were important enough to be added as a stand alone posting:

“Social” is the new buzz, I agree. It’s been around since the early days of the internet, but these days there is a new kind of “social” force on the web. Blogs, photo sharing, content-oriented encounters, social networks are all the initial forms of the new social revolution. It goes way beyond just making connections. Maybe even better described as “socialist”, not just “social”. There is a fundamental shift of power in the way the web is created, drvien and used. Society, communities, individuals and the networks they create take center stage side by side as equals with the old monarchs - centralized service and information providers, corporations, merchants and customers.

However, as far as personal networking is concerned, I don’t believe we should expect an all-in-one service. I make a distinction between making new connections, and maintaining useful ones.

Meeting new people will always remain roughly similar to what we know. The majority of your useful social encounters will take place either in an environment specifically targetted at meeting people with a very specific purpose (speed dating, trade shows, pick up bars), or by “chance” as a result of a shared interest or activity. Services such as LinkedIn and Match.com definitely take the first role. Capabilities built into other services such as blogging, forums, and even shopping take the second. Both elements are cornerstones of the “social” revolution on the web.

I think it’s not just chance that you prevented you from finding that “more personal network”, as you say. An all-in-one service will be too big, too unpersonal, too complex - but mainly too pointless. We have no problem using multiple contexts to meeting people in the “real” world (yes I still use that word) - why should it be any different on the internet? I don’t mind making connections in many places - as long as I can MAINTAIN the ones I want easily. For me, instant messaging, email and phone calls are the best tools around for maintaining connections, and I don’t feel I need anything new for that purpose.

One could also argue that there is a limited amount of attention a certain person can give to other people. I believe that beyond a certain threshold, the more connections one has, the more likely it is that the quality of ALL his connections will drop. One of the biggest challenges social users and the social web faces is balancing the expansion and maintenance of your social network with the need for these connections to be meaningful, useful and enriching. My personal experiences is that this is far from trivial (more on those maybe another time ).

Aner Ravon
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