Deirdre Breckenridge, author of "PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences.": Is the research you provide a lengthy process?

Neal Gorenflo, FAS.research: In general, we want to deepen our understanding of how social networks operate and how to apply what we learn to important problems.  While we’ve focused mainly, but not exclusively, on solving business problems, we hope to find our moment to make a big positive difference to how people lead their day-to-day lives.

Not surprisingly then, we are doing more thinking about applying social network analysis to the design of social networking platforms.  It’s clear to us that the usefulness of seeing them from a technology or as mass media perspective has almost run its course.  As the technology becomes commoditized, and that is happening fast with the emergence of private label solutions, people are realizing that it’s the social architecture of these systems and how you manage the community that deliver the most value, not the technology.

And we are not interested in them as another diversion, as entertainment, as simply media.  We are interested in designing social networking systems that help people create value in their day-to-day life online and off.  We see social networking as a great coordinating technology that can help people organize themselves into geographically-based mutual aid communities where all types of resources are shared, where the value and pleasure of social interactions is radically increased, where a culture of democracy and civic engagement can thrive, where people can better enjoy and enhance the natural and human splendor of their local communities, and where the social architecture of sustainability can show itself.

We think social networking has come at the right time, when combined with a shift in values that place a premium on authentic, self-organized experiences, can facilitate the social changes necessary, at the scale and speed that is required, to promote true human fulfillment, the byproduct of which will be social justice and environmental sustainability.

We are at a juncture where we, as a global society, have the power to either destroy ourselves or create an unprecedented global renaissance, an explosion of creativity in every field from every corner of the world the likes of which the world has never seen.  The first chapters of both scenarios have already been written.  We think social networking is one of the tools, if used wisely, that can help us ensure that our future is a bold tale about global renaissance, a continuing exploration of humanities role in this universe.

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