Social networking - still a lot to be done …
I use Orkut. And some amount of LinkedIn. And I am satisfied with neither. Being in India neither MySpace nor Facebook are very popular and hence I have explored only the surface of those. Hence it is possible that some of my comments/critiques are invalid just because I am unaware of what already exists. But still I believe the domain of social networking has to deliver a lot more value than it currently does to customers to become a solid business proposition.
Let’s start with what current social networking sites achieve. They put people who I know, but haven’t been in touch with (either because I moved out or they moved out or both moved out from wherever the common place we first met was), back in communication. For some people (not for me) they also allow people, who have never met but have similar leanings to find, interact and know each other. So once the initial set of people that I know or I-once-knew-and-now-found-again is exhausted my primary motivation to visit the site back would primarily be for two reasons: communicate with these friends and find some more new friends.
On the first count – of communication – social networking sites run into a whole bunch of competition. From the emails to telephone, junta today has a myriad ways to converse with each other. Is there a clear advantage of using the social networking mode of communication? I would say anyone wishing for a public asynchronous mode of communication would find the “social networking” way unique. By public, I mean everyone sees your conversations allowing people to be viewers without actually participating. Being asynchronous, you have the freedom to reply at your leisure without the fear of the thread getting broken.
These traits however limit the content and participants of the resulting conversations. If you think, an email thread with five people is a nightmare think of an Orkut conversation amongst three people. Any thread of thought that involves ten replies back & forth becomes a pain to continue since both the content and context tend to get lost – first due to message traffic and second due to time. In email, at least the thread retains the content to recreate the context. Lastly, anything remotely private is strictly taboo. All of this together succeeds in driving away a lot of communication traffic away from SN sites. Being a platform for sharing media (audio, photos, video) and publishing (blogs) also adds to the host of communication services but the inherent challenges remain. If a social network is to become an online hangout spot for a group of people, the richness of communication allowed will factor in it big time.
Second is the issue of finding new people. That people can meet online and become friends or even accomplices in some crime sounds a far-fetched notion to me. But I will grant that it is possible. But do any SN sites aid such discovery? Before that do these sites even aid discovery of people I might know? LinkedIn does to an extent (showing you people from your earlier organizations whom you might know) but even they are not too great at it. For example, a person whom five of my current connections are directly connected to and who shared an organization with me in a similar timeframe has greater chance of being a future connection than one whom none of my friends are connected to but who is currently in my ex-workplace. Simple distinctions such as these do not exist today in LinkedIn. Friend recommendations just don’t exist in Orkut.
Coming back to discovering new people; the only way it seems possible to me is to supply a platform to form communities and start conversations in those communities. Orkut again does something very similar and people do end up meeting some likeminded people. But my experience tells me that those experiences peter out very fast; the conversations just don’t stick. I would remember someone from a one hour flight discussion on merits (or otherwise) of Indian cricket but not someone from Orkut with whom I discussed Kirkgaard over a month. When one is dealing with people this stickiness counts and SNs have to try much harder to generate it.
My final rant is slightly more technical. I hate multiple personality disorder – especially when it comes to managing them simultaneously. I am perfectly alright, if my friend wants to play online social games and joins xyz.com; but I don’t see a reason why to converse with him I too have to join the same. I am more than happy with my current set. Identity management is one thing that is troubling all the major service providers on the net today and is the driving force behind a few of the M&A deals but it is something that SN sites have to figure out faster than others. Because seriously with the service they are currently providing its just not worth remembering one more login/pass combination.
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Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth - Naguib Mafouz
In literary terms, there is very little innovation in this novel. The book essentially consists of a series of interviews conducted by Meriamun, who enraptured by the fallen city of Akhenaten decides to pursue the truth. Every interview goes over the basic plot - Akhenaten rebellion against Amun (the presiding god), the announcement of his new religion, his marriage to Nefertiti, their rule and shifting of the capital and finally his fall from power followed by Akhenaten’s death. The plot itself remains static and the different narratives do not fulfill the purpose of filling up gaps in this plot. Rather each narrative changes the setting and the dramatis personae; thus the causality that is implied by a linear historical narrative is fundamentally challenged. This more than anything else is the greatest achievement of Mafouz in this work.
I would not say, this is a great work of fiction. Mafouz himself has written much better. For the sheer beauty of his prose one need not look beyond Arabian Nights and Days: A Novel, while the aforementioned Cairo trilogy is a testament to his deep understanding of the Arab society. However, Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth, is not only a novel. It is also a subtle (but not damning, for the seeker of truth does not judge) attack on an establishment that chooses to see truth as it defines it.
