ME and Ophelia

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GOOGLE TIP-TOED INTO THE HOT MARKET OF ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS
With the quiet launch of Orkut.com on Thursday

Sebastien Paquet blogs out of Quebec. He sure has an interesting blog (well, to my mind anyway). Here is Seb's post on Group Blogging and group voice. Plus, three pieces I'm posting for future reference:

Firstly, below news of Google's social networking service, Orkut. Not yet had a chance to read it all. Curious to see if it might have anything to do with the rumour I blogged on Jan 12, that Google may hook Blogger software to a Friendster-type network (via an acquisition) to tap into the open standard driven computing world.
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GROUP BLOGGING AND GROUP VOICE
Many 2 Many: a group weblog on social networking

Secondly, this post written by Ross Mayfield for Many 2 Many, a group weblog on social networking: "Google is working on a social networking service Orkut. Here's an article, another, and the site.

Excerpt: The wires are buzzing with news of Orkut, a social software/on-line community initiative 'in affiliation with Google'. Variously reported (see here, here and here), and sparking some strong comment: GigaOm says this recent development scares the living..."
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INTERVIEWING WEB HEADS
Netwoman regularly interviews female bloggers

Thirdly, Seb's post "Interview with a web head" points to under the iron's series of interviews with people of the web. Seb says he loves these because the question-answer dynamics give you a different view than what you get from reading their weblogs. He's thinking of interviewing his favourite bloggers. Great idea. I too love reading bloggers' interviews. Honest dialogue. No spin. Normal conversation. More personalisation. Getting to know others. Creates a sense of community.

Tracy Kennedy's Netwoman blog, regularly features interviews with female bloggers. Each of the interviews, conducted by email, are based on the same topic and set of questions. Last month, Tracy emailed me for an interview which I've agreed to do. Hope to make a start on it soon. Meantime, I'm keeping an eye out for more survey information on estimated numbers of male and female bloggers. Recent survey figures from Perseus don't sit right with my impressions. I'm working on a post to explain why.