A panel speaking about Second Life and the rest of the virtual Web at Stanford
University's AlwaysOn Summit challenged the conventional wisdom of these
communities as entertainment sites for the young, and said they would
increasingly be used by an older, more business-focused demographic.
The very definition of the term "social networking," used to describe sites
like Facebook and MySpace, will probably change to address the broader needs
of businesses and other, more "serious" communities.
"You won't find the name social networking anywhere on our site," said
Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz. "I do think the name has become a stigma
that can prevent [social networking] from spreading to other communities."
MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe insisted he had nothing to do with coining the term
social networking, which he agreed was an outdated description for a site like
MySpace, where most users are over the age of 35.
This inevitable evolution in the way social networks are used has already
spawned a flurry of application development, much of it aimed at enhancing
wireless access. "We already have a bunch of users in Japan who only access
the site over wireless," said DeWolfe. He predicted application development
would accelerate as the social networking demographic continued to mature and
diversify. —Andrea Orr
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I have tried all the social networks. I actually like Congoo the best because I use it for news. The other ones are either too noisy or too young. My profile is here: http://www.congoo.com/user/publicprofile?profile_id=1665525