For example, why is it the Asian social networks were able to monetize relatively easily while Facebook and MySpace are still searching for a profitable model? Perhaps there is a fundamental difference in the way Westerns use social networks compared to those in Asia? Maybe here in the West we tend to use social network sites as an excuse “to talk about me!” while Asians use their social networks as “Guanxi” exchanges that allow them to negotiate influence and favour?
And, why does the power of FLINK! and its influence on the search engines seem to inevitably lead to a “Ponzie” network? A network where the most popular nodes become even more popular as each new entrant promotes itself by connecting to the most popular nodes. And, if the “Ponzie” network is inevitable online how about in the real world? Should we be thinking in terms of the six degrees of separation or in terms of navigating the “Ponzie” network?
When Stanley Milgram ran his original 6 degrees experiment with the 160 chain letters he discovered that 3 names appeared on over half of the returned letters. So perhaps the real message behind the six degrees experiment wasn’t that everybody is randomly connected to everybody else via six degrees of separation but that there are people out there who seem to know “everybody” and these “high value nodes” are in reality to glue that binds the network by providing the relationship superhighways that strength and fast track the interconnectivity across the network.
What’s more, if you could identify who these “high value nodes” are within the community, then you could probably significantly reduce the 6 degrees of separation to perhaps 2 or 3 steps.
This then becomes the true value of networking in both the online and real worlds. Making sure you are connected in someway to one or more of the “High Value Nodes” within the network. And this I suspect is where we will see the real value of Facebook and Twitter being revealed: In the mapping and monetization of the social graph to discover who and where the “high value nodes” are in each of the social networks.
At the moment we have a number of impressive Visualization Tools for Facebook (e.g. Nexus, PeopleMaps and Microsoft’s Pivot), Email and Twitter (e.g. HiveMind, Follower Wonk and Twiangulate). We even have Cruxlux to map the Six Degrees of Separation between us and anybody else in the world. What happens when these visualisation tools go mobile?
What happens when we no longer have to point, click and discover who our next friend will be but simply have to scan the crowd with our phone to discover the “high value nodes”?
Imagine being able to program your mobile phone with a list of names and then being able to search the conference room or exhibition hall in search of people who can negotiate a meeting with one or more of these names. Imagine a future where you can use your mobile phone to send these “high value nodes” gifts and invitations to arrange these meetings or join you at your table.
Now imagine sitting at a table in a crowded piazza in Rome, Milan or Venice, drinking you coffee and using your “Hi-Tech” networking, designer sunglasses to scan the passers-by for “high value nodes”. All the time receiving real-time audio-visual information feeds on their individual digital identities and network connections being displayed on the 3-D display and the sound system embedded in the sunglasses.
This I think puts a whole new perspective on the future of people watching and the value of mapping and visualising the social graph. Particularly if the glasses provide a real-time audio-visual feed back to your digital identity recorder.
Again I wonder: This is a future not too far away from today but do we really want to go there?
Further Reading
Posted on April 4, 2010
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