Niche networks and all that Ning

Ive been thinking a bit over the last week about niche networks. At sense we have created and used some on a number of projects now and they seem to tap into something. Clearly social networking over the internet is here to stay and while Facebook and the like continue their stampede, smaller niche and close community networks are sprouting up. Ning enables anyone to set up a social networking site about anything they wish for any amount of friends. This is all well and good but it does get my luddite heart ticking a little regarding where its all going and really what its 'social' impact is going to be.

I read all sorts of articles and have seen countless YouTube videos of sparkly teethed Americans from Sunnyvale talking about what users really want in a social network...and every time I hear them say it, I cringe. I don't think they really know what people want let alone need. I hate sounding like a naysayer but, at heart, i think i am.  The way these social networks are marketed reminds me of those 1950's adverts for gadgets to assist the wife at home. Technology to make your world better, to transform your somewhat dull and boring social life into a shinny halo of social goodness. A techno-social transfiguration. Its not so much a lie, but its certainly not the truth...dont ask me what is.

DNA social network

Two companies now enable you to hook up with strangers not based on common interests or location but on the  common markers of your DNA. In laymans terms, this means how much swabs from your cheek look alike at a genetic level.

The original article can be found from the New York Times online here

This is a snippet:

GeneTree.com and Ancestry.com’s
new DNA Ancestry project both begin with a $100 to $200 DNA test. Once
in the system, users participate in online DNA matchmaking games. At
Ancestry.com, you see a Google map of the world populated with little
figures representing your genetic relatives. Click on an orange-man dot
in Australia, and you might find a second or third cousin. So what if
the science isn’t so precise? He’s blood, so you might as well “friend”
him. Meanwhile, the Silicon Valley start-up 23andMe — co-founded by
Anne Wojcicki, the wife of Sergey Brin,
a Google founder — promises to take DNA-based social networking one
step further by enabling users to make detailed comparisons of their
genotypes.

Clearly this is another step up on the ladder of genetic comodification. The question is, what happens when all this ends up in boots for £5.99?

Projectile

The other night i projectile vomited for the first time in my life... quite a refreshing experience. I ate a dodgy bacon and potato ommlete and then 20 minutes later was was exhaling it all again. The body is an amazing thing