Two "Online Spin" articles about social networking.

• The future of social networking interoperability, open ID etc
• On iVillage's chance of success with social networking - this in reaction to the Ad Age article
  • Some nice points :

...the question I keep coming back to is this: Does a content-rich portal like iVillage guarantee the formation of sustainable online community? To date, the answer is a resounding no. In order to understand what’s ailing iVillage and every other content producer, search engine or portal attempting to grow a social networking community around their online traffic, one has to understand two rules: 1. Using content to create community and using community to create content are two extremely different beasts. 2. Creating community for the purpose of monetization first doesn’t work in the long run (unless you think you can beat the gods at chess).

and a great quote about building prairies fromCompeting on the Edge (a book I'm going to order)

“Assembly doesn’t work, or at least not for a prairie. A prairie is something that grows. It has to start small. It has pieces that interact and build on each other. Once it is ‘up and running,’ the prairie works as a complex system that is dependent on the intricate interaction of all the components of the system. A prairie cannot be brought to life with on ‘abracadabra,’ one wave of the magic wand.”