I really enjoyed Stowe's post on Get Real questioning the value of the social network as we know it. I tend to agree with him on a few of his points. I feel the 'social network' as we know it is a monolith of data that really is only useful to the few who are looking to mine it for personal gain. In this I imply that people looking 'activity partners' have much more value to extract than those looking to have a big network for the hell of it. I am not saying that there is no value to be derived but at some point we have to wonder why we are placing ourselves out into the ether.
However I think that the future is smaller, more nimble ad-hock networks that grow and fade based around events. I feel that we will be able to tie in these networks to advocacy and fund raising events, and in the process leverage more value out of the participants than ever before. These new amoeba networks will Be and flow with the events that they are designed to support. As the event and network age and grow they will go through the same growing pains as any community and I think that is an interesting lens to view a network through. Pointless collecting of friends is pase and the next wave will bee activity and event driven networks helping people to harness their peers and make an impact.
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