I was born in Great Yarmouth, a town on the East Coast of Norfolk. The town is essentially built on a long sandbank formed at the confluence or rivers flowing from the Broads. The tidal Breydon Water lies behind the town. Small boats navigate its narrow channels to move between the Broadland Rivers. My room overlooked the sea and the ships in Yarmouth Roads. As a child I spent many hours wondering where they were going and what was over the horizon. One day I found out. Our old Wolseley was lashed to the cargo covers of a Dutch freighter the Superior Producer and we set sail for Rotterdam. The MV Superior Producer is now a diving attraction in Curacoa. My father had a mildly dissident nature and he didn’t see why he should drive 70 miles to the Harwich ferry when Yarmouth had a perfectly good port (it would have been a shorter journey for Chris, who coincidently also comes from East Anglia). Something in this early biography might explain why I’m not a clubby kind of guy; Why I recoil from “exclusive offers”; And why I found it easy to agree with Jon Udell’s recent comments about closed social networks such as LinkedIn and StumbleUpon. Indeed, I had previously enthused about CoComment’s potential for powering dynamic social networks. I discussed Jon’s article with Rick Moynihan, a hidden hand behind much of Calico Jack’s Web facing activity. Rick, who originally introduced me to Jon’s blog, was totally in accord.

The problem is that we might, in part, be wrong. There are contrary opinions from both business and social perspectives. Networking has always been an important aspect of business and Alain Lefebvre’s book les réseaux sociaux makes a strong case for professional social networks. As the founder of 6nergies, his knowledge is based on substantial practical experience. Alain has a clear style of writing, so his book is accessible to anyone with a moderate grasp of French. The Financial Times Magazine (October 27th) had an article by Graham Bowley titled “The high priestess of internet friendship”. It reported an interview with Danah Boyd. Much of what was said about kids and networking wasn’t entirely new to me - Calico Jack has been working with Ian Pringle, a member of Norman Lewis’s group at Orange. Norman would certainly eschew the title of high priest (I’ve no idea how Danah views the corresponding epithet). Apart from anything else the role rather rules out meaningful debate. Norman is nevertheless an acknowledged expert on the subject - Ikasai’s notes from the same event provide a slightly different perspective. What did strike me though from the interview with Danah Boyd was the observation that many people are using social networking software to reinforce existing relations rather than to make new ones. Perhaps we’re innately clubby after all. Marshall Kirkpatrick’s TechCrunch interview with SixApart’s Andrew Anker highlighted the twin issues of privacy and control. The title of Marshall’s piece “There is still room for more and better social networking” probably sums up the message here too. I’m convinced that the next generation of social networking applications will find ways of straddling the open and closed views. But to do this they will need new technical approaches capable of rapid adaption to both changing social trends and individual concerns. Chris’s recent post on mass customization gives some idea on how Calico Jack is approaching the problem (look towards the end). In the meantime I’m remaining in the open network camp. I can’t quite bring myself to rescue my orphaned LinkedIn profile - though 6nergies might be more fun.

As a footnote I should make clear that I am still enthusiastic about CoComment and the position laid out here does not in any way alter my view of its potential.