The Future of Social Networking

In early March of 2008 Charlene Li, online social network guru and VP of Forrester Research discussed what social networks will look like in the next 5 to 10 years during her keynote presentation at the Graphing Social Patterns conference. In a nutshell, Charlene predicted a couple of key points:

• We will stop using several identities for our user profiles. Instead each of us will create one universal identity (similar to Open ID) using one central email address or mobile number.
• All of your personal relationships (family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, etc.) will be inter-connected on the web.
• Websites and web portals will incorporate users social data into their website to personalize each users web experience. For example, I would be able to track what books my friends are buying on Amazon, what organizations they made onlines donation to, compare my stock portfolio’s performance, etc.

While there are some wonderful benefits to having Open ID’s and personalized website experiences, how comfortable are people with the idea of having our personal networks and the companies that run websites and portals track our every move online, purchases, and interests?

Check out Charlene’s blog summary of the future of social networking and her slide presentation.