:: Social networking in the information age

When we think about relationships, generally we think about "human relationships" such as:

> Professional associations
> Romantic relationships
> Familial relationships

Technologists, database developers, and web designers have shown us that there are many other relationships to be drawn based on data relationships, meta information, and other interesting anecdotal information.

Here are some examples of "data driven" relationships:

1. The tactic of "rating" products, services, and items, has extended to the rating of people (on dating sites, etc.). Individuals may now be grouped together through a shared, subjective, community rating.

2. Sites like MySpace solicit pieces of information from members such as: interests, favorite movies, favorite music, etc. When a visitor to a MySpace profile clicks on one of these "favorite items" of an individual, he/she is presented an index of all MySpace members who have also presented the selected item as a favorite on their respective profiles.

3. Broadband video networks such as YouTube enable members to create their own channels and playlists that are publicly accessible. Additionally, users may "tag" content with subjectively-based keywords. These community driven means of "flagging" information serve to organize information in new ways, and become methods in which to encounter relationships amongst individuals.