This week saw some interesting developments in social networks.
Why join MySpace and Friendster when you can easily create your own social network with the newly re-launched Ning. Now anyone and not just developers can easily create and maintain their own social network. You can see a video interview with the two founders of Ning (one of which is Marc Andresson who founded Netscape). There is also a brief video by Gina Bianchini (The other co-founder of Ning) showing how easy it is to create a social network using Ning.
The other interesting development is the integration of social networks and mobile phones with the recent beta release of Jaiku. Brady Forrest of O’Reilly Radar previews Jaiku and has the following to say:
The client app is available for Nokia Series 60 phones (over 100 million deployed). Once loaded it checks the contact database and checks for fellow Jaiku members. Once members are found they are added to your network and their listing gains a lot of new data and functionality. It gives you the following additional information about your Jaiku contacts:
- Availability - Green if the phone is on; Red if their phone is off. Also lists phone status such as silent, talking, and ringer on.
- Latest Post - Just like on IM, Jaiku users can set a status message that can be viewed by any of their contacts. They can also route other feeds to their status message (like their blog or Flickr feed). This can be done via SMS, the Jaiku website, or their newly released API.
- Location - User’s location is listed as the cell tower’s name. The name comes from Jaiku users. The one for ETel is “SFO Marriot - SFO Airport” The cell towers aren’t geocoded (though that may come in the future).
- People Nearby - This shows other nearby Jaiku users (this is detected via BlueTooth).
- Calendar - What you’re doing next