The evolution of social networking
by marcolandry ~ April 9th, 2008. Filed under: technology.With the introduction of mashups and the availability of APIs for various social networking sites it is difficult to focus on how these sites will evolve with time. Just think of how much more powerful these sites would be if they could provide you with real time information about people around you.
Imagine this, you walk into a meeting with several people you never met before. You then activate the discovery mode on your PDA and all of the sudden you can access the profiles of all the attendees to determine what you have in common with them, their role, experience and areas of expertise.
Technology wouldn’t be a problem to get this done now - we have the hardware (PDAs with GPS, wifi and bluetooth), we have the networking sites (LinkedIn, FaceBook) and the glue for all of this could be a combination of mashups, XML/KML and presence technology (Unified Communication). Privacy issues would be in my opinion the biggest road block to implement such a concept.
For more info, take a look at the post from Michael Arrington - I Saw The Future Of Social Networking The Other Day
