Social Networks as Walled Gardens

In an article, Facebook-Based Applications Can Now Run on Other Sites by Heather Havenstein, Computerworld, IDG, quoting Sean Aune, said

...Aune added that Facebook is looking to stem criticism for being like a
"walled garden in that things do go in but nothing comes out.

However, the social network is like a walled garden, which is part of its power to filter information through the social network instead of searching. This could balkanize the web, turn it inward, where people only see content posted by friends and their subscribed networks. But this is not too different from how people use email discussion groups, forums and other social media. The web could end up becoming a network of social networks and search engines might become either dinosaurs or searching the social networks instead of indexing random public web pages.

The social network empowers users to manage who can see their content instead of just loosing it on the web. This can reduce the power of serendipitous finds of information, which is one reason the web was so successful, but like the Creative Commons, it does empower users to control how their own content is used, by potentially allowing them to specify where their content is seen or distributed, whether kept private, shared with friends or with groups or other networks. We already see this model forming in Facebook, which allows users to say how and where their posts are distributed, to friends or selected groups.

I welcome the opening of the Facebook network and we hope to participate through our social networking site connecting independent farms to consumers, farmfoody.org.