The Rise and Fall of Friendster

In that sense, tribe and orkut fall into the same category. myspace could be said to be social networking plus blogging, but wouldn't that be a pet rock set inside an ant farm ?

I don't think these are points that are Friendster-specific.

You're right to the degree that the other sites resist becoming in-depth aspects of people's real world lives.

MySpace is moving pretty quickly into a music-scene oriented SNA, for example, which is a good example of augmenting social communities that already exist. Adding blogging does increase the likelihood of doing something meaningful.

Ultimately Google will figure out how to link various offerings together -- like gmail, googlism, and orkut -- in interesting ways that likewise will reach critical mass.

Friendster is just the poster child for the algal bloom, boom and bust, faddism that seems to be surrounding much of the frenzy animating the incipient backlash around social networking. So my comments aren't Friendster specific per se, but they can be most obviously attributed to Friendster because of the excesses there.

As just one example, the hordes of Asian and Pacific teenagers that are coopting the Friendster system -- adding fakester identities for parents and teachers which they treat like effigies, castigating them through negative testimonials -- is just one example of how dynamic social systems can grow away from their intended putpose. But, on from another perspective, such activities look like a cancerous growth that can disable the system for more "productive" uses.

It's disappointing how resistant the founders of these systems are to outside counsel. My experience and that of others more expert has been that offers of help to reconceptualize and redefine "social networking" as it takes place in these environments go unheeded or actively refused. It's almost as if they will themselves into oblivion, so disappointing is the ultimate outcome of all of this effort. Almost like a real person picking up the gun, pointing it at one's head, and pulling the trigger.

VCs are supposed to provide "adult supervision" but in this case, as in the case of the dot-coms, they've done little more than learn the buzzwords and dole out cash.

I'm unconvinced that sufficient awareness exists among the engineers who dream up these networks to put them to good social use, and since they're not open to social scientists and others mucking about with their creations, no happy ending seems apparent to me.

Bring back The WELL.

Tracked on July 19, 2004 05:37 PM