A challenging view on Facebook's potential

The ever challenging Economist offers an interesting alternative view on the current social graph-meme, that presents the mapping of human connections as equivalent to the efforts of the Renaissance mapmakers. (and indirectly has lead to the $100 billion valuation of Faceook)

... unlike other networks, social networks lose value once they go beyond a certain size. “The value of a social network is defined not only by who's on it, but by who's excluded,” says Paul Saffo, a Silicon Valley forecaster. Despite their name, therefore, they do not benefit from the network effect. Already, social networks such as “aSmallWorld”, an exclusive site for the rich and famous, are proliferating. Such networks recognise that people want to hobnob with a chosen few, not to be spammed by random friend-requests.

Read the whole article here.

The Economist's view is not entirely new of course but still offers interesting innovation routes for FB-application developers that want to remain true to their belief in Facebook. Given the quick proliferation of FB in Europe and the dillution of the quality of one's contacts, I can imagine that the first filter-applications are just around the corner.

Via Luonblog