In this post about the need for a Social Networking Manifesto, Stuart at Unbound Spiral writes:
My Blog is Better at Networking
I know the humble blog has been held up as a social network many times. From experience my blog is much better than any of the SNS as a networking tool. One advantage my blog has over all the SNS is I can make connections with people that aren't in any network. I've found some of the non-blogger connections to be the most important of all. I've also found following up on trackbacks and comments much more valuable.
This is because blogs are inter- and intra-woven conversations, whereas most SNSs offer, primarily, he-she metalinkage. It's not seeing who I'm linked to and who they're linked to, who knows my friends, and who I know that knows them that I'm interested in.
It's what he thinks and writes about what she said about what I'm interested in.
I still don't see the usual SNS suspects aggregating around common areas of interests. Orkut almost did, but since everyone could define an area of interest (a community) on any topic under the heavens, the redundancy and rubbish became unwieldly to sort through. It got to be more fun just to look for funny community names and themes than actually joining and participating.
Anyway, READ Stuart's Manifesto For Social Networking Required post, wherein he writes the manifesto he was hoping someone would. It is fodder for much noodling and posting. Go forth and noodle.
