[from the Collapsed Selves blog]
As if anyone needed any more proof that Friendster networks do not actually represent one’s social network, two people this morning decided to sell their Friendster network on eBay:
Friendster Network Coolest Guy Association
Elite Friendster – meet Hipsters, Musicians!
Google cache raises copyright concerns is an interesting news.com critique of what happens when copyright lawyers realize what Google is doing. [When will we get that our copyright/IP laws need some major revising for the digital age??]
…
As seemingly benign and beneficial as it is, some Web site operators take issue with the feature and digitally prevent Google from recording their pages in full by adding special code to their sites. Among other arguments, they say that cached pages at Google have the potential to detour traffic from their own site, or, at worst, constitute trademark or copyright violations. In the case of an out-of-date news page in Google’s cache, a Web publisher could even face legal troubles because of false data remaining on the Web but corrected at its own site.
For this reason, search experts and copyright lawyers expect the issue to come up in a court of law, joining the leagues of copyright disputes that have surfaced because of technology innovation.
…
Cultural familiarity with Friendster has reached the point where horoscope writers are using it as commonly understood language. From the Seattle Weekly:
Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
Whether you sign on to Friendster or just lay it out on a piece of paper, I want you to list all the people you know this week, and the people they know (that you know about). It’s important that you see how you affect the world, without even trying-just by being. Everything you do is rippled out through your friends, to their friends, to their friends, and so on. Get my drift yet, Libra? I’m doing my best to counteract your absolutely false self-denigration. All I’m trying to say, really, is there’s no way you could not matter, no matter how hard you tried. You’ve already irrevocably changed our world-almost entirely for the better. We, the friends of your friends’ friends, thank you. Now thank yourself.
In case you’re bored, Friendster traffic is really interesting.
Cynthia Typaldos has a great visual entitled “12 Principles of Civilization.”:
In discussing Ringo, Clay Shirky addresses his concern that our friends’s trust are not transitive:
A is my sister. B is me. C is my meth dealer. D is his “debt collector.” My relationship wiht my sister includes her trusting me not to introduce her to known criminals. Any service that proposes to remove me from deciding which introductions to broker doesn’t get my business.
rands [15 March 2003] – commentary from various technical users, contemplating what can be done with Friendster data and whether or not there is a purpose to returning
“‘friendster has already came and went with my crowd.’
I find this comment interesting because I think it’s a flaw in the friendster model… there’s no reason for me to go back when I’ve got all my friends linked. Sure, I can wander the friend tree, but they don’t make it easy… ”
tourist sans camera [26 June 2003] – “Friendster Introduced Me To My Own Friends”
“Here’s where the Internet transcends reality: it’s like each of your friends through a party, and you got to meet and talk to each person there, and were subsequently invited to each of their parties.”
Most are aware that i’ve been watching Friendster’s evolution with a keen interest, asking questions and reflecting. An academic analysis of what’s going on is by no means ready (although it’s definitely brewing). All the same, i realized that i should start consolidating the material that i’ve been reading, start throwing out a few ideas and give myself a public play space for reflecting on what’s floating in my head and showing up in conversations .
Thus, introducing:
jill walker [28 April 2003] – a great academic discussion about Friendster
Friendster’s “killer ap” is “The swelling joy that fills my heart every time I look at the pictures of these, my good friends. (Awwwwwww…)”. – Adam Greenfield
“Ah, Friendster testimonials are clearly an artform in themselves. I misunderstood the genre at first, and wrote sensible ones – there’s obviously no need for this, as you’ll see if you find one of those pages with dozens of one-liners from various friends.”
Dave Weinberger [15 April 2003]
“First, to jump into Friendster, I have to make explicit a social network that at its heart and at its best is implicit. There’s an online social network lying unearthed in my inbox and outbox. Why do I have to reassemble it, person by person, for Friendster? And if Friendster doesn’t work out, do I do it again for the next attempt? That would be a pain in the ass.”
“Then Friendster asks me to describe myself. Gender, age, occupation all are no problem. But then there are my interests, my favorite music, favorite TV shows and “about me.” I don’t actually have an internal list of favorite music so I can’t simply make explicit what was implicit all along. I’d have to fabricate a list and do so pretty much without context.”
“”Making explicit” rarely means simply unearthing what’s lying there unearthed. It means creating something new. That’s why the best service technicians aren’t necessarily the best teachers: there’s no such thing as humans doing a “data dump.””
“Lets not confuse one’s public face – from your own internal representational systems and thoughts. No one ever bent your arm to join, but when you did you inherently accept the rules of that “world”. They’re into flirting there and they’re just trying to coax you into playing along.” – Marc Canter
Michael Connor O’Clarke [12 April 2003] – “How to Lose Friendsters and Influence People”
“The whole thing was starting to genuinely creep me out. Positioned as “a social and business networking service”, I think Friendster is quickly revealing itself as less a viable business networking thing; more of a meeting ground for desperate horndogs, hose beasts, and wannabe swingers too clueless to realise there are already thousands of real swinger sites online.”
“Point is: I think I’m getting all the Friend mojo I want through just being online, thanks very much – don’t need no aspartame-flavoured Friendster sweetness to help me along here. Friendster aims to solve a problem I just don’t have.”
gothamist [2 July 2003] – asks what are the Friendster protocols and social norms?
Phil Gyford [23 December 2002] – Friendster vs. FOAF
Jeremy Zawodny [8 May 2003] – Linked In vs. Friendster
Matthew Linderman [18 June 2003]
“The cult certainly seems to be growing in my neck of the woods. I didn’t even know what it was until a couple of weeks ago and now I hear it mentioned often. Interestingly, it’s usually by non-techies that I would never expect to use such a service.”