When WhoGlue started, the term “social networking” didn’t exist.  Over the past 10 years, several factors have enabled the plethora of social networking sites to flourish (namely, broadband access and a critical mass of websurfers).  Suddenly, it became easy to share your entire life with the world.  What a cool concept!  Hey, my mom would love to see these pictures of her grandkids at the pool.  (Hmm, if she can see them, so can the rest of the world…I hope that creepy guy who lives in a van down by the river doesn’t have an account on this site)  Aren’t these pictures of last year’s holiday party great?  I bet Bill will never forget his disco moves with the boss’s wife, and now they’ll live on forever.  And here’s my niece…all grown up and in college already.  Wow, look at that new tattoo and piercing…wonder if my sister knows?  Ha ha, isn’t sharing great?

WhoGlue has always been about leveraging the power of human networks, but we’ve had a different philosophy.  From day one, it’s been our belief that individuals need to retain the right to control access to their own information; no exceptions.  I don’t know anyone who brings their Rolodex to a conference and hands it to anyone who asks, nor can I imagine that most people would share pictures (and the names) of their kids with total strangers.  It’s actually quite simple; online behavior must be able to mimic physical social interaction, or it will cease to be useful over the long term.  Our philosophy wasn’t too popular early on…conventional wisdom (and venture capital dollars) said to get as big as possible as quickly as possible, and capture as many eyeballs as you could along the way (hey, we’ll figure out how to make money eventually).  We took the long view and concentrated on supporting organizations that had a legitimate and credible affinity among their members.  It’s our goal to be the technology enabler behind the scenes for member-based organizations; not to compete by becoming a separate destination for their members. 

Recently, the big social networking sites have begun to realize that it’s not just about making it easy to share information…it’s also about making it easy to control access to that information.  We figured that out a long time ago; as a matter of fact, we filed for a patent called “Distributed personal relationship information management system and methods” (remember, this was before “social networking” came into vogue) way back in 2001.  In the simplest of terms, individuals must be able to choose who can see what.  It’s not about sharing with the world…it’s about appropriately sharing based on a level of trust and an existing relationship.  Shouldn’t you decide if a co-worker or a high-school classmate can see pictures from the family vacation, or if business competitors can see your contact list?  It seems so obvious now, but the big social networks have only recently started to figure it out. 

By the way, that patent was granted in July 2007…