How to network: the reality show
: VentureBlog gives good and practical advice on how to network (rule No. 5: Don’t ask for anything but advice). Compare the social-network software products out there to this spec for real life. They don’t match up. That’s a problem for the social software companies.
: See also Clay Shirky’s excerpt of Seb Paquet’s summary of Danah Boyd’s smart talk at ETech on social software. These social software things aren’t capturing the social interaction that happens in real life; they are creating a new and different interaction as people play the software like a game. And that’s fine if it’s a game you want to start. But these guys are fooling themselves if they think they are using technology to replicate and improve upon real life (that is, VisiCalc replicated and improved upon cipherin’; Microsoft Word replicated and improved upon typing; Quark replicated and improved upon print design; Blogger replicated and improved upon publishing).
: See also the InternetNews report on the panel Fred Wilson attended last week, in which the honest social-software exec admits to no revenue.
: It was at that event that social software company Visible Path announced a $3.7-million funding round led by the often-smart Kleiner Perkins. Unlike the other social-software products, this one is about selling, not shtupping.
