Web 2.0 Service: Anti-Social Networks

As I mentioned in the post earlier, there has been a counter movement to the globalization of personal information. While blogs, MySpaces, and Facebook profiles have had the tell-all to the world, it is most natural to have a feeling of being too exposed. While work-related hirings/firings may be dependent on online information and privacy concerns/stalkers may come into play, it may not be the only reason. Global networks come with a host of problems - they remove a notion of individuality since so many others are similar, it displaces real relationships with fake superficial notions, create a niche culture of its own, and ultimately becomes a popularity contest. So how about "anti-social networks"? Retaining useful information for the sake of keeping constantly updated contact information, socialize with known outside sources, it may be a good idea to keep this private.

A personal private network, complete with all the bells and whistles of modern social networks, may be the next step in networking. With less contacts but with more time invested, it may open up different applications and increased relationship building. More contact may be encouraged through common causes, viewpoints, and even common friendships/enemies. Social games could be played online as a way to enhance relationships rather than replacing relationships. Closer relationships may also lead to increased amount of contact information, which could be utilized in multiple forms of contact - a "contact stream" of text messages, video conferencing, webcams, phone calls, voice messages, and instant messaging could be hosted on the server, accessible at any point from virtually any device. New friends may be introduced by others from a multi-way conversation or a co-op social game. Automatic privacy controls could be implemented as a multi-tiered system of increasing personal information. It may also be great if this would eventually be implemented physically with Microsoft's Surface to be used at bars or even a personalized number to give out instead of a phone number.

Feel free to add/comment.