Ming the Mechanic:
Orkut

The NewsLog of Flemming Funch
 Orkut2004-01-25 08:13
5 comments
picture by Flemming Funch

Orkut is a new online social network. And I need another one of those like I need a flowerpot stuck on my head. It is getting a little irritating to go through the same ritual every time, of looking for people you know and inviting others you think might be interested. That should really be automatic.

Most recently I had joined OpenBC, which I like. Has some features I like better than Ryze and not a lot of annoying "You'd actually see the results of this search if you were a GOLD member" messages. And a predominantly European focus. Got some very good contacts out of that already.

And then Orkut is announced Thursday. Interesting phenomenon about how quickly things happen, and how somehow that network happened to right away seem more compelling, even though the features are not all that different from the other ones. For one thing, it is affiliated with Google, done by one of their employees, supposedly in his spare time, so it got a lot of exposure. And then it is by invitation only, which somehow makes it seem a slight bit more attractive, and might make it more likely that one feels obligated to invite all one's friends, so they aren't left out. I got the first invitation at 2AM. And didn't realize right away that the network had started the same day. But now, two days later, *everybody* seems to have joined it already, and it is buzzing with discussion groups and so forth. Well, *everybody* who normally is active in that kind of network. Which is a large group, but still largely the same faces.

In 1995 my vision was to make a network of networks. Social network servers, where people could join the node that they were most attracted to, and there would be a way of linking them all together, so you could find each other even if you didn't join in exactly the same place. Well, I didn't quite figure out how to do that technically, so it became "just" one server with a particular social network. But now that it is a mainstream idea, embraced by a lot of techies, somebody really ought to figure out a way that they'll all interact with each other.

Network connections should be more like a commodity. Like e-mail addresses and accounts. You'll choose a server and a client that has the features you like, but you should really be able to link to people on other servers as easily as on your local server. It should be controlled more by my local address book and preferences than by a particular server. I should be able to find people across all servers, and be able to find the special interest groups they've set up. That'll take adherance to standards. And some new ones are needed for the people networking thing. FOAF seems to be one of the more promising attempts in that direction. We need a set of Open Network standards that all these networks would have a competitive advantage in adhering to.


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5 comments

26 Jan 2004 @ 05:50 by ming : scalability
I guess it is good they dare take it down and fix things. I was getting worried about it myself when I saw how rapidly it was growing. And some people seem to have found some loopholes, like the ability to send mail to everybody in the membership, which is not good.  


26 Jan 2004 @ 17:52 by eric @62.134.77.51 : Applying this most meaningfully
CAN YOU THINK OF OPTIMIZING THE GLOBAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN YOUTH LEADERS and youth committed and networking worldwide for saving the planet. there are 33,000 members in a youth leaders online community, and they have grown by 6,000 since i registered in november...
I wonder how they will do in a while, and am working with some of them of briging all this into schools worldwide, which will trigger a huuuge amount of communication probably... still wonmdering what MAGIC ideas might add to making this undertaking even more functional...  



28 Jan 2004 @ 03:07 by Lars Hinrichs @213.39.157.216 : openBC
Thanks for joining openBC, Lara Hinrichs, openBC  


9 Mar 2007 @ 13:27 by babbar sher @202.133.77.34 : i want emotion of orkut
plzzz plzzz i want emotions of orkut  


28 Mar 2007 @ 04:21 by anna hassan @202.154.237.230 : emotions
giv m3 da orkut emotions facility...  


Other stories in
2010-07-10 13:01: Strong Elastic Links
2010-07-08 02:27: Truth: superconductivity for scalable networks
2010-06-27 02:28: Be afraid, be very afraid
2008-07-06 23:20: Laws of social networks
2008-06-20 15:40: Peer material production
2008-05-06 13:57: Why can't we stick to our goals?
2008-02-21 21:16: Open social networks
2007-11-08 01:49: The value of connections
2007-11-07 00:51: Diversity counterproductive to social capital?
2007-07-13 23:42: Plan vs Reality



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