How Niche Social Networks Work

I'll tell you. My name is Chris Poulett. I'm an editor here, and with me is Jonathan Strickling. Hey there. And the reason I was doing the spy thing was because we were talking about when we were coming up with podcast ideas, this brand new thing that the US government has called a space. It's a it's a network for spies, not just not just a network and online network,

and not just an online network and online social network. Yeah, this is going to be a classified classified That's why it was in the news, right, classified social network for spies. Not you know, it shouldn't laugh. We're you know, we couldn't get on it. You know because we're not spies. Do you know that the lead Seriously, you're making some big SIPs right now, I could right now be repelling

into somebody's office. But yeah, this is this is a US government project and they're supposed to it's supposed to enable sharing of information between different agencies, so different spies within those agencies, right, so you're going to be able to connect and share what what the latest information is. And this is actually a huge deal if if it's real.

I should say, we have a little bit of a a small dose of skepticism here at how stuff works about this, but it is kind of a huge deal in the sense that traditionally a lot of these agencies UM don't have a lot of interdepartmental uh communication between them.

I mean, they're they're actually some pretty uh interesting things you can read in history, like the history of the FBI or the history of the CIA, where you find out that had one agency had the information another agency had, than certain things could have been prevented or avoided or um or perpetrators could have been caught faster. So it's

communications a big deal. I mean, how do you facilitate communication between different agencies UM that by their very nature, are not communicative because it's it's if you're a spy and you talk a lot, you're not a very good spy, are you. Well, they're they're spending five million dollars according to the AP article I read about it, and a pilot version is supposed to be going online this December, and they're going to be adding more features over the

coming year. There's no word on whether Scrabulous will be part of that, right or your favorite tune playing in the background of your profile page, that's true. I bet the James Bond theme is really popular. Yeah, yeah, that and the man from Uncle Um. But yeah, that you you bring up a good point. I mean, James Bond is sort of not a good example because you know he's out there, you know, some very smartly dressed uh, you know, ordering martinis in a way that no one

else does. Uh. You know, he really stands in here, and the bad guys always go, hey, you're James Bond. I mean that just doesn't seem to to help you stay anonymous. He's not Clandestine's sure, no, not so much. That's good to tux though, you know that's true, But so it'll be I guess we'll probably never know if this is successful or not. At least if you know, if it works, we won't know if it doesn't work. Everybody, m it's it's. Some people have been kind of describing

this as sort of MySpace or Facebook for spies. Um. Others say that, you know, that's that's probably going a little too far. It's more like some sort of spy wiki where people can share information and keep each other informed. Um. I've got a concern about this particular endeavor. Yeah, it turns out that stuff online isn't always safe. I hate that. Yeah, all right, stop it, sit down and hold onto your hats. Um, yeah, it's. There are these folks out there called hackers, and there

are a subset of them called crackers. And crackers like to crack security. They like to find ways into places they're not supposed to get into. Some of them just go in to look around see how things work, and you know, they're satisfied once their curiosity is has met, and then they leave. U ER's are much more likely

to mess around once they get in there. You know, they'll they'll start looking into secure files and learning information, and some of them will even either use that kind of ability to sabotage and endeavor or they'll decide to steal information sell it to the highest bidder. I mean, even if you're an independent cracker, that can happen. But then think about it, the United States has got a few countries that are not that um happy with us.

I mean, it's just true that their their countries out there. Yeah, and even your friends often want to know what you're really up to. So even someone who might be an ally might say, you know, we really would like to know what they know. So making an online social network for spies, don't you think that would be a huge incentive for these people to to try and zero in target it and and infiltrate it. Yes, if it's if it's real, right, then then it would be a very

desirable target. Yeah. And if it's not real, it would be a very desirable target. Right. So here's uh, here's Poulett's pet theory, which you know what sounds better and better to me every day. Let's let's go into it. I'll let you set it up. It's since you you were the first one to talk to me about and I was like, wow, that makes so much sense. I can't believe that it didn't occur to me. Well, uh, you know, in this case, a space might be more

aptly named bait space. Right, it's the online honey pot Yep, it's the cheese on the mouse trap. Can we get some more analogies? Thank you, I'm sure we could. But if you get what we're saying, uh, it's it may be a ruse to try to lure in uh enemies of the state, to get them to to break in and identify themselves in some way. It's a trap, right, exactly, the old admiral at bar it's a trap. Yes, just trade sit back to the origin and the and then you've got the You've got your enemy of the state.

Right there you go. It's Um, that's a good theory. I mean, I don't know that that's the case. It may very well be this is all on the up and up in a clandestine way, but the way sounds yeah, because right, And I'm not going to hack into it, no I have. I have no desire to get on another government list. I hate that, I said another government list. We'll let it that out. So, Okay. The interesting thing about a space is that it's it's not going to appeal to everyone. Even if you could get in, not

everyone would want to get in. And that's because it is one of a growing number of social networks that we think of as niche networks right, that cater to a very specific audience, like catster, for example, or dogster. Yes, let's please tell me about catster and dogster. Cat owners and dog dog owners or you know a lot of

them portray themselves. I'm not sure if are playing some elaborate cat and mouse game with your computer, but you know you got fluffy online, you know, saying well, you know, I like chasing mice and spending long mornings sleeping in the sunlight, eating smelly fish yep, and licking my pause. Good, good, safe. But yeah, not everybody's a cat or dog owner, so you're not gonna And there are those of us who are cat owners and dog owners who go, yeah, I

really don't need to create a profile from right. Do you think do you think that catster has trolls that are dogs entirely possible or or rodents you know, or I don't know, But there are all kinds of things. It's not just for you know. You might think, well, that's kind of cute, and a little silly, but there are all kinds of other things that that are you know, a little more serious. Yeah, I actually I have one that's kind of a There a lot that that's been

off from hobbies. It makes sense, you know, because you have things like Facebook and my Space. They often have groups where people can form a group and people who are interested in the same thing can all kind of connect to each other, sort of like the old used net groups were back in the days of text, right. But it's you know, since it's since it's not geared specifically for that hobby, it you have just a sort of a limited amount of things that you can do

on those sites. It just wasn't intended for that. So that's why people go out and they'll they'll build a niche site. Um one that I thought was really interesting, you know what. It's so bizarre that I think this is interesting because it's it's a hobby that I don't do. I've got many friends who do this hobby, but I never thought about picking it up myself. But it just it's interesting to me that there's a social network for it.

It's Ravelry now ravelry that's spelled r A V E L r y is an online social network dedicated to knitting, really knitting. I was I was convinced it was going to be about Maurice Ravel. No, sad, I'm sad to to disappoint you there, No, but it's it's knitting. And I've got some of friends who knit. We have a couple of people here in the office who are fantastic knitters. Um and uh nice because I'm just gonna let me weave my tail. So but this is a very popular

social networking site. And only is it popular, they're very very careful about who they let in. They want to make sure it's people who are really who really are enjoy the hobby and will commit, will contribute to the community. I don't really want trolls making fun of your hobby, and you don't you don't want someone just joining and then just quitting because they're they're doing things like trading tips,

they're trading patterns, they're talking about their projects. So there's a waiting list to get on this and and it's a long waiting list. It's not and you can you can actually submit your emails so that you can find out occasionally where you are on the waiting list. Um, it's uh, they take it very seriously, and you know that might sound silly to someone who's who's not into the hobby, but when you think about it, it really means that you've built a solid community under you. So

I actually think that's quite admirable. I mean, you know, I'm I'm honestly not making light of ravelry idea. Well, they're they're all kinds of different social networks out there, and you'll you'll find uh, almost anything, you know, based on what your interest is. If you uh, if you

look around, you'll find something that's related to it. It might be a niche group on an existing network like high five or work it, or you know, some of the others trying to mix in some others besides my space and right for our friends and other countries who don't use that them so much, um, but you know you can. There's even a a news site called mashable dot com that really focuses on social networking and social networking issues and new kinds of sites and new technologies

behind it. A lot of sites are are WICKI centric, you know, they're not. They're a little less social like adding friends, but you do contribute to the greater body

of knowledge. Um, you know, Wikia dot com has all kinds of different wikis that are created by fans of TV shows and movies and different uh cultural phenomena that that that people like to share bits and pieces of trivia with one another and sort of build up something because you know, there there may not be an existing encyclopedia of knowledge about your favorite TV show, but you know, people start going, oh wait, wait remember an episode six, And so the fans can really get together and share

that information with one another, which is which is pretty awesome because sometimes uh, you know, you may not have your friends at work, or that the people you hang out with, um normally may not be into the same exact show or the exact same hobby as you. So

this is this is a good outlet. Yeah. And and you can see social networking things popping up from other sites that were not originally a social network site, like the Internet Movie Database or chud is Cinematic Happenings under Development. These are both you know, film sites, um, that have had a community grow up around them and um, they've

really kind of embraced that whole social networking. Uh. Then there are other niche sites Chris Parrello just recently launched He's a He's a blogger in a television show host. He recently launched geeks, which is for people who are passionate about certain things, um like mostly tech and things like that, but other subjects as well. And uh, my favorite new one that I learned about is um Actually the network isn't new, it's just new to me. Is

a small world dot net? Have you heard about this? Okay, a small world dot net is for really affluent people. It's invitation only. There are three thousand members are so, uh to give you an idea of what kind of site this is, They're one of their major advertisers that puts ads on that site. Cartier. Really yeah, when I'm saying affluent, I'm talking big Bucks. So we're talking the American Express card holder, right, we we would be considered in oka d which is not our kind, dear, that

would be where we fall in that. I don't think I'll be invited into a Small World dot net at all. I was gonna say anytime soon, but let's just be honest here. Well, I was reading just the other day that IBM is actually supporting social networking. It's created a center called the IBM Center for Social Software. It's sort of a I don't know, an incubator if you will, for for social networks and social uh software. And that just goes to show you how serious this is becoming.

And of course you have Google supporting open Social, which is the whole idea about having one place to have all your your information so that you can lug into these different niche social networks without having to create a profile every single time, because you might have three or four different really strong interests and you want to belong to these these different networks. But it does get a little frustrating to create a profile all the time, you know,

over and over and over again. Well, I guess uh, we could talk about these all day. There are literally thousands of social networking sites on there. Definitely some of them are are fully fledged like MySpace and Facebook, and others are just sites that happen to have a message board or forum or chat room or something like that. Um, so rest assured if you have an interest someone out there as a social network for you. I think it's

pretty safe to say. And and although boredom sometimes forces us into you know, searching out social networks as we're trying to find something to do with our time. Boredom can do other things as well. Boredom can cause us to search out things like social networking sites and games and things like that. But it might actually cause you to do something else. Um, I'm sorry, I was not

paying at Yeah, just kind of dripping off there. Well, you might want to You might want to look into that because we have a great article on the site called Can You Die of Ordom? Written by Kristen Conger, one of our colleagues here, and uh, I highly suggest you read it because you know your life may depend on it. It's nothing if if nothing else, it's something you can do when you're bored. That's right. Yeah, if you're bored, read that. That'll make you feel better. There

you go. Awesome. That's live right now on how stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think. Send an email to podcasts at how stuff works dot com. Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you