Innovations in online social networks
SixDegrees, Ryze, Classmates, Friendster - opinions vary as to the first social networking website, but the fact remains that they are here to stay (with the occasional flame out). With evolution comes specialization, and we now have SavvyHer for 40+ women, Dopplr for frequent travellers, hi5 for Latin Americans, Ravelry for people with fabric hobbies, or even Petnopolis for pet lovers. Personally, I prefer the clean crisp interface of Facebook.
As the choices for the internet user increases, so does the engagement that the sites offer, and the USP for each of them. Take GaiaOnline for instance, where you can create avtaars and interact with other avtaars. A unique innovation is the way the company distributes its virtual gold currency: instead of selling it for real money (as with There) or allowing its trade on the open market (as with Second Life), Gaians are automatically given gold for participation: You get gold for posting on the Forums, for riding events, for uploading content, for exploring the world. Subscribers are rewarded for engaging in Gaia, in other words— and the reward incents them to engage in Gaia even more [Via GigaOm]
One of the hottest startups in Silicon Valley today, Pownce, is backed by Digg’s Kevin Rose. Pownce allows you to send text messages to individual friends 
or groups of friends on Pownce as well as post microblogs, or short announcements, to the larger Pownce community. You can also send your friends links, invitations to events, or files like photos, music or videos. This combination of file sharing with social networking is what sets Pownce apart - apart from the fact that currently entry to Pownce is by invitation only.
According to this article from Red Herring, social-networking site Bebo debuted the new online video serial KateModern only last week, but already the fictional main characters have extended the drama of their daily lives into the comments, polls, quizzes, and other areas of the Bebo site, interacting with real-life Bebo users and creating a richly drawn world where real and fake become difficult to decipher. Bebo is hoping that by scoring an exclusive for KateModern, it can profit from the experimental form of interactive storytelling emerging on the web and show that in a competitive online video landscape, social-networking pages can become the natural home for interactive serial dramas.
Related reads:
A death knell for email?
Are hobby social networking sites the solution?
A Social-Networking Service With a Velvet Rope
Filed under: Digital culture, Trends
Ravelry is not for fabric hobbies, it’s for those people with fiber abilities like Knitting, crocheting, spinning, etc… people who sew with fabric are welcome too, however it’s not a fabric hobbie site.