Does This Sound Fun, Or What?

Remember two years ago, when people still talked about "Social Networking" websites? Places like "Friendster" and "Orkan"? The idea, near as I can figure it, is that people were supposed to sign up, put a "profile" on the site, and talk their social circle into adding their own profiles to the site, so they could socialize? Sort of like they already did in real life, but online? Or something like that? I'm sure I'm missing something.

Maybe it was that they were supposed to write stuff or search for stuff on other peoples profiles, and discuss things. Sort of like blogs, I guess, with a captive audience...or...?

Or they're supposed to meet each other. Sort of like online personals. Or maybe like the MOB. Or...

OK, I'll admit it. I don't get "Social Networking" sites. But there's apparently a lot of money in them.

Including money that is buttressed by the taxpayer:

Minnesota's largest public-radio network, which recently launched the cutting-edge "Current" radio station, is again venturing into trendy waters -- this time on the Internet.

American Public Media Group (APMG), parent company to Minnesota Public Radio, has invested almost $1 million in the for-profit, Boston-based Gather.com. The new venture is a "social networking" website devoted to creating an online community of public-radio listeners.

This might not be as dumb as it seems at first blush.

Work with me on this one.

If I've noticed anything about the Volvo-driving, Alpaca-wearing Highland Park "Don't Park The Bus" set, it's that they're fundamentally hive creatures. That's why if you go to email discussion forums like E-Democracy, they are dominated by lefties; there are rules, and there's a place for everyone and everyone is in their place. People of a less-orderly lefty bent flock to places like Daily Kos or Democrat Underground, which are huge, but still essentially hives.

So, if you're Bill Kling, sitting on a taxpayer-supported fortune and looking for ways to insinuate your empire more deeply into more peoples' lives - why not exploit that hive instinct?

"We think we can take audiences beyond what we give them in public radio and connect them with a whole lot of people who have similar interests," said Bill Kling, president of APMG. "We hope there is a point where they actually get involved in activities with each other -- to take a tour of Italy, or live in a compound in Santa Fe."

"We can't do that in public radio," he said.

Well, it's part and parcel of what Public Radio does; take a segment defined by its sense of innate personal, cultural and intellectual superiority, and give them a special place to go - a place with the ostensible mission of bringing news and culture to the hoi-polloi, but whose main focus is to serve as a special place for those who just need to feel above and beyond them; a place where everyone may not know your name, but they speak the same language and know the same codes.

It's also a substitute, in a sedate, MPR-friendly way, for the bumptious, meritocratic world of the blog; social connection without all that pesky dissent that National Public Radio dislikes so much.

If you're Bill Kling, reinforcing that is just good taxpayer-supported business:

Gather.com, set to launch in December, will operate along the same principles as MySpace.com and Friendster.com -- fee-free sites where people can establish their own home pages listing their personal and professional interests, keep blogs and communicate with other site members. Revenue is generated by selling advertisers space on those venues.

Social networking sites, with their young-skewing participants, have become red-hot commodities of late. MySpace, which has almost 30 million members, recently was purchased for $580 million by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

However, Gather may be different. MySpace caters to teens and young adults and has been described as having the personality of a teenager's poster-papered, music-filled bedroom. Gather, designed for public radio's older, more sober audience, might more resemble the parents' book-lined study.

Or a commune in Santa Fe.

When it comes to ensuring the future of his taxpayer-supported empire, Bill Kling never sleeps.

Posted by Mitch at September 8, 2005 04:55 AM | TrackBack