Social Networks

[Tom]

'Friendster is the new Google'. Social Networks are said to be the 'next big thing' for cyberfolk. See wired.com (http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,59650,00.html). A combination of blogging and networking, people are using them to find people who share their interests. Its a little as though this Forum was opened, on an introduction basis, so that any of us could send in the email addresses of friends with interests in the subjects which interest us. Microsoft and Google experimenting with the service. See: Friendster (http://www.friendster.com/index.jsp) and Orkut (http://www.orkut.com/) and .Blogsphere Map (http://blogosphere.headmap.com/friendster/dav.html)and Microsoft's Wallop (http://mywallop.com/). It seems to me that any educational community, like Bentley School, would benefit from an online social network, though they would need to be closed.

See also Microsoft's vision of how this type of network might develop Microsoft Social Network Project (http://www.research.microsoft.com/scg/)