Saturday, March 20

Snam, snam, snam, snam...

Fast Company taught me a new word this week: snam.

It's short for "social network spam" -- those annoying, impersonal messages from social networking services like orkut, the "online community that connects people through a network of trusted friends." (The "snam" story is so far only available in the paper version of April's Fast Company so don't bother trying to find it via the link above.) This past week, I received three invitations to join orkut. I haven't acted on any of the invitations, other than to write my trusted friends a personal email thanking them for the invitation but explaining my reservations about the entire schemed.

There are a few things about this snam business that stick in my craw. I mention a few of them here. I know a few folks on this blog use orkut or perhaps some other online social networking service but I'm not convinced they're good tools for strengthening social networks in cyberspace.

Opinions, anyone?

posted by Andrew | 10:25 AM | |