(Assuming one has sufficient incentive to persist in exploring it.)
Many moons ago I participated in an online survey called the Small World Project. The purpose of the study was to test the ‘six degrees of separation’ theory.
We find that successful social search is conducted primarily through intermediate to weak strength ties, does not require highly connected “hubs” to succeed, and, in contrast to unsuccessful social search, disproportionately relies on professional relationships.By accounting for the attrition of message chains, we estimate that social searches can reach their targets in a median of five to seven steps, depending on the separation of source and target, although small variations in chain lengths and participation rates generate large differences in target reachability.
We conclude that although global social networks are, in principle, searchable, actual success depends sensitively on individual incentives.
Social networking is one of the big things right now. I tried Friendster and Orkut, but then rapidly lost interest. I already connect to those I know via phone, email, or in person. Seeing the set of people who know who you know is interesting, but not very useful.
The study pretty much confirmed what I discovered on the social networking services: large social networks are built through weak connections. People try to connect to as many as they can, so lots of people are added as friends. It was binary, with nothing to signal the strength of the connection.
The study found that successful message chains are more often formed through professional connections rather than friends or family. This gets at my perceived value experience of services like Friendster. When asked about the value of such a service, my usual reply was that I might be able to find a couch to sleep on in some foreign city. Beyond that, I didn’t see how it was any different from other self-selecting, self-categorizing community sites. There was no incentive for continued involvement.
I’m not looking for a hook-up. I have a few close friends, I’m not looking for more, and even if I were it wouldn’t be online. Here’s what I do need:
- I need a system that knows who my contacts are and updates their information when they do it, not when I get around to it.
- This data must be available to all of my devices (laptop, desktop, cellphone, IM client, etc.)
- Accuracy ratings/checks for weaker connections and for those with whom I have not communicated in a while.
- A spectrum of relationship types and strengths. Close friend. Immediate family. Person I met on the plane.
- Ability to publish my calendar publicly, with events categorized. Each event can be tagged with a certain level of relationship, to be seen only by those with access. For instance, a medical appointment might be viewable by immediate family and close friends, but not plane person (who may see that I am busy).
- Ability to schedule events with others.
- Again, calendar data has to be available to all of my devices.
- Various bits of my contact info may be available based on status, like the events. Work phone is ok for everyone, cell phone not so much.
- It should be an extensible system, capable of accepting additional namespaces, so that I can add work-related data.
- It should have a trust rating built in, so that I can rate how much I trust 1st degree contacts, and a variable weighting system for assigning trust to n-degree contacts.
- Ability to stamp things other than people as trustworthy, so that my acquaintances can benefit from my good judgment, a
nd vise versa. - Open standard, so that numerous clients can plug into it (or at least reverse engineer it, a la most IM networks).
- As easy and ubiquitous as email.
- Secure from spam, identity theft, government agents, aliens, etc.
- Scalable and searchable over a broad set of criteria, with some good data mining thrown in to call my attention to relationships that may not be apparent to me.
A nice addon would be a GUID or URI that works like the CD music database. All of my devices broadcast it routinely and listen for others. Like iTunes, the client remembers which ones it has come in contact with, even once. Maybe they are contacts already in my database. Or maybe they aren’t and, after repeated encounters, the client starts to infer connections based on location data, time data, and calendar data.
Such technology would certainly carry privacy and security concerns, but as long as I control the off switch and the tech is well built, I’m not too worried.
So does that exist yet? If it does, let me know. If it doesn’t, please invent it, patent it, and then write me a check. I know about XFN. That seems like a good start, but it is a little too geeky for my tastes. What’s that? Oh, no, I’m a total geek. But most of the people I’d care to network with aren’t.
