(2007-09-12) Boyd Multiply Vertical Social Networking

Stowe Boyd considers the positioning of Multiply (demographic-targeted Social Networking), wondering whether verticals are appropriate in this field. People’s social networks are not neatly parceled into demographic slices. A 30-something dad with kids may spend a bunch of his time palling around with other 30-somethings, but also with people through work, and family members of all ages. Ditto his wife. Ditto his 50-something dad. I agree, unless you're specializing based on deep features that are specific to some group/purpose, more services is the wrong direction. (On the other hand, if we had an Open Social Networking Model EcoSystem, then maybe you'd have vertical networks from which a user could easily cross to other networks, etc.)

• counter-argument: but maybe it makes sense to weight user's "close-ness" on some arbitrary factors to pre-feed a Social Network Context...

Related: piece on Peer Clip, a Social Bookmarking site focused on MDs.