I haven’t joined as many online networks as Stowe Boyd, but I have noticed that they’re oddly hollow. When I joined 43 Things, I thought we were going to work together on something, but it never jelled.

Link: Get Real by Stowe Boyd

Peter Kaminski of Socialtext provided me some real leverage in my thinking about social networks. At the American Cancer Society Innovation Conference, he characterized social software as technology that allows people to create together. That insight immediately helped me understand the distinction between the social networks I want to continue on with (Plazes, Flickr, NetFlix Friends, and many others) and the ones that I am planning to drop out of (LinkedIn, ZeroDegrees, Orkut, and a long, long list of others). I want to stay where I feel that I am creating something with others, and I will drop out when I don’t.