Social Networking Watch

Andreessen Gets into Social Networking - Ning.com

AP -- Feb 28 -- The Netscape Communications co-founder is trying to help Web surfers build online communities outside the walls of social networking leaders MySpace.com and Facebook.com. Ning.com is finally ready to make its big push with a free toolkit designed to make it easy to launch a social network with videos, photos, music, forums, personal profiles and blogs. Andreessen is convinced people dislike the big social networks' one-size-fits-all approach. "This is the next logical step (for social networks)," said Andreessen, 35, who is Ning's CTO and primary financier. Ning hopes to make money through advertising and fees for premium services. FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO NEWS

Mark Brooks: Joe Suh's MyChurch.org helps churches set up their own social networks and Clarence Wootton's Collectivex.com also allows people to set up their own social networks for free or a small fee. The growth of social networks was fueled by 'connectors' with their extensive networks of friends. Some of those connectors will be growing a little bored with MySpace by now. It's last years night club. They want their own nightclub. So, Ning.com, MyChurch.org and CollectiveX should have a healthy future. They won't put MySpace out of business, however.

11th Internet Dating Convention & Social Networking Conference

PR NEWSWIRE -- Oct 25 -- The Online Dating Conference and Social Networking Convention will cover issues of business management, marketing and new technologies for the industry and will be the largest business event for online personals and internet communities. Speakers will address issues on increasing revenue and improving customer retention. The event will be held on January 15-16, 2007 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.  Speakers include:

• Susan Mernit, Director Global Product, Yahoo! Personals
• Mark Brooks, Editor, Online Personals Watch
• Karen Olcott, Director, Business Development & Partnerships at MSN
• Markus Frind, Owner, PlentyofFish
• Amy Gibby, President, eCrush
• Jonathan Caputo, CEO, Developer Shed
• Michael Jones, President, Userplane
• Clarence Wooten, Founder & CEO, CollectiveX
• David Ring, President, Sparta Social Networks
• Peter McGreevy, Attorney at Law

FULL ARTICLE @ PRWEB

Mark Brooks: This convention will be all about serving users better, and making more money!  Everybody will be there. The venue has been upgraded to the Miami Convention Center. Niiice. iDate comes of age. 

PR NEWSWIRE -- Oct 25 -- The Online Dating Conference and Social Networking Convention will cover issues of business management, marketing and new technologies for the industry and will be the largest business event for online personals and internet communities. Speakers will address issues on increasing revenue and improving customer retention. The event will be held on January 15-16, 2007 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.  Speakers include:

• Susan Mernit, Director Global Product, Yahoo! Personals
• Mark Brooks, Editor, Online Personals Watch
• Karen Olcott, Director, Business Development & Partnerships at MSN
• Markus Frind, Owner, PlentyofFish
• Amy Gibby, President, eCrush
• Jonathan Caputo, CEO, Developer Shed
• Michael Jones, President, Userplane
• Clarence Wooten, Founder & CEO, CollectiveX
• David Ring, President, Sparta Social Networks
• Peter McGreevy, Attorney at Law

FULL ARTICLE @ PRWEB

Mark Brooks: This convention will be all about serving users better, and making more money!  Everybody will be there. The venue has been upgraded to the Miami Convention Center. Niiice. iDate comes of age. 

Social Networking Silver Bullet

READ/WRITE WEB BLOG -- Oct 4 -- Social networks are becoming an important ingredient of all sorts of consumer experiences. Here are a few social networks worth keeping an eye on: LinkedIn - For business networking. CollectiveX - Team collaboration. Michael Arrington (TechCrunch) said CollectiveX is social networking "the way it should have been done in the first place." PeopleAggregator - A meta social network system which enables you to connect other social networking services together. Wetpaint - Free hosted websites. A combination of "wikis, blogs, and social networks." e.g. WikiFido. Multiply - Sharing your life, with privacy. Imeem - Allows sharing blogs, photos, audio, and video.

What we require is a system that connects all social networks.  i.e. Social groupware - like CollectiveX and PeopleAggregator. FULL ARTICLE @ READ/WRITE WEB BLOG

Mark Brooks: Social networking will follow the same trajectory as internet dating. More niche sites will emerge. Users will have a presence on mainstream sites and add personas on niche sites. 'Profile portability' is needed but has never happened for dating sites. The sites want to lock in their userbase.  Social networks, similarly, want to lock in their userbases. But they will take more heat from users for not allowing profiles to be ported to other sites. People like PeopleAggregator's founder (and Macromedia founder) Marc Canter have been pounding on the table for open networks and profile portability for a few years. Marc decided, if you can't join them, beat them, and developed PeopleAggregator independently.

READ/WRITE WEB BLOG -- Oct 4 -- Social networks are becoming an important ingredient of all sorts of consumer experiences. Here are a few social networks worth keeping an eye on: LinkedIn - For business networking. CollectiveX - Team collaboration. Michael Arrington (TechCrunch) said CollectiveX is social networking "the way it should have been done in the first place." PeopleAggregator - A meta social network system which enables you to connect other social networking services together. Wetpaint - Free hosted websites. A combination of "wikis, blogs, and social networks." e.g. WikiFido. Multiply - Sharing your life, with privacy. Imeem - Allows sharing blogs, photos, audio, and video.

What we require is a system that connects all social networks.  i.e. Social groupware - like CollectiveX and PeopleAggregator. FULL ARTICLE @ READ/WRITE WEB BLOG

Mark Brooks: Social networking will follow the same trajectory as internet dating. More niche sites will emerge. Users will have a presence on mainstream sites and add personas on niche sites. 'Profile portability' is needed but has never happened for dating sites. The sites want to lock in their userbase.  Social networks, similarly, want to lock in their userbases. But they will take more heat from users for not allowing profiles to be ported to other sites. People like PeopleAggregator's founder (and Macromedia founder) Marc Canter have been pounding on the table for open networks and profile portability for a few years. Marc decided, if you can't join them, beat them, and developed PeopleAggregator independently.