What does social networking software do?
The answer is obvious: social networking software allows people to form ‘networks’ of virtual relationships of various kinds, which are often meant to be translated into real space-time relationships. What is remarkable about social networking software/ services is that they offer services that are otherwise available separately. One can always join or form a group on Yahoo, or somewhere else, share photos, even music etc. By Judith Meskill’s count on the social software blog, there are about a hundred social networking services available. There is a detailed description of about a hundred SNS available here. One Issue in ‘Networking’ The crucial issue is, strangely, one of privacy, or choice: one wants to make friends, but only with certain kinds of people. On Google’s Orkut, for example, membership is by invitation only (but one can always ‘buy’ an invitation!). There seems to be a conflict between making friends, on a social network as wide as possible, and keeping to one’s choice o
