Last Friday, C (aka Patient Zero) and I were taking a little internet walkabout and I ended up at Ryze. I was wondering if it was still around and it IS!!!! I was saying how Ryze was the first online social network - and she was saying that Friendster was the first social one because Ryze was "business networking". Well anyone who was on Ryze in the early days knows that it had a different ... ahem, reputation. I consider it was the first social network for all practical purposes.
So when I came across my old (le original heathervescent) social network identity it was a trip down memory lane. I wondered what happened to Ryze. Why is it not being used? I created one of the first (beta) "tribes" (before tribe). Then I started skipping through my friends profiles. Ryze is where I met C. Imagine my delight in reading the friends of my friends and finding people I didn't know then, but do know now. Two stand out - Scout and danah (don't kill me for linking to your profiles). When I met Scout in person at New Years and we shared a few words, we found out we had circulated in the same circles when I lived in the Bay Area, but never actually met. What a delight to meet someone new from a common circle. danah has gone on to be one of the de-facto voices on social networks and teens. I didn't meet her until we were in the same session at Blogher last year. Two people I could have met 5 years ago.
But isn't it interesting? where we started and ended up? Like ourselves, the social networks are evolving and changing. And that is the most interesting part of the internet. The easy creation of an personality snippet in time. And the ability to go back to that snippet and remember.
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