Social software and google’s Orkut

So I've now signed up to Orkut.com from google.com. As I'm interested in how it compares to Wallop and Friendster. Gareth was messing with it and showed us that half of the more vocal members of the BBC new media are already on there. Actually looking at it, I did a search for BBC and got tons of groups sorry communities. Slaves of BBCi is where the newmedia people hangout. Owned by Tom coats of plasticbag

Generally it seems ok, tons and tons of questions could be answered, but I opted for a more secretive approch, only giving up name, work number, date of birth and city. Some of the drop downs ignoyed me slightly. For example – am I african american? I don't bloddy think so! Black yes not African or American! Typical American view. But also all the towns and stuff can only be filled in if you live in America. At least Meetup.com has a more balanced view of the world. Talking of which I listened to Scott Heiferman from meetup.com talk about it on Social Computing Symposium – Keynote: New Dynamics of Using Online to go Offline. Interesting the idea and the risks taken.
Back to Orkut a bit, the interface is yuk! Really need a way to allow you to upload your own stylesheet or pick a style?

Oh yeah my username is cubicgarden by the way, if you want to add me as a friend…

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Author: Ianforrester

Senior firestarter at BBC R&D, emergent technology expert and serial social geek event organiser. Can be found at cubicgarden@mas.to, cubicgarden@twit.social and cubicgarden@blacktwitter.io