Social Networking's Future

[Kristijntje]

Looking at all these types of social networks, I see 4 questions that will drive the evolution of net-based social networks:

  1. When will the novelty of the medium recede and let the basic motivations come to the forefront? These issues go way, way back. The Freemasons secret handshake was an early solution to the trust issue. When I looked at the social networks that have existed in the real world throughout history and asked "what is different this time?" the answer was "it’s the medium, stupid." (Marshall McLuhan was a clever guy). The evolution of consumer behavior on the Internet has tended to go from "wow I can do that, way cool" to "so what, what does that do for me?"

  2. At what point do visibility and trust collide? I think this is the critical question determining the business value of social networks. There is an implicit assumption that Metcalfe’s Law applies. However if trust erodes, what’s the point of a network? The social network is valuable because it is exclusionary...

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