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QuBe from Quintessentially is an elite social network that I stumbled across. It has close ties with the real world and offers its members various levels of membership that offer various levels of kickback at a variety of venues, parties and restaurants (I think).

The reason that I say I think and that I do not know is that their registration costs look like this:

Apparently the membership is strictly limited and monitored and the network is leaning more to a “club” than a network. Members can apply and if successful, receive all the necessary paraphenalia and the “Beyond Black” credit card.

From the websites benefits section:

The Benefits

Quintessentially is a club, a club created entirely to make life that much easier, that much richer and that much more fun for all its members. We believe we have an irresistible package of offers, privileges, bespoke services and access to inside track information, which will make your annual fee seem like the best deal you’ve ever done. These benefits are only a selection of what we are capable of and you can always ask the team at Quintessentially if there are benefits at thousands of other places currently not listed in the Guest area of the site. To find out more about them click on the links below.

The site and its features seem to operate in over 80 countries where all benefits are offered. Have a look and if you think you are worth the ride, then send in an application. Let me know how it goes when you get it in! There is definitely a “club” feel to the site and I am aware of a few South Africans who are on the site and making use of it.

Change.org is a social network that I think is fantastic. It is not trying to get you to talk about how drunk you got last night, how many people you slept with and who you are in love with. Change.org wants you to talk about politics, about change and about social injustices.

Yes this is a bit of a dramatic cause to be blogging about so early in the morning but one that is close to my heart and my political views. Silence is not the solution here, awareness is. Visit Change.org now, screw Facebook and their pseudo important agenda’s. This is a site worth networking through.

The theory of six degrees of separation is a fairly well known one. For those of you who are in the dark, this is a theory that states that [almost] everyone in the world is no more than six steps away from every other person in the world. It’s a pretty nifty theory I think.

The reason that I am talking about this theory is that many people know the theory in relation to Kevin Bacon (the actor). I have heard that every person in the world is within six steps or less of Kevin. Firstly I always wondered how is that actually possible, prove it. Then I would wonder why the theory uses Kevin Bacon and not, for example, James Dean?

Anyways, The Oracle of Bacon is one hell of a cool site that illustrates links from any Hollywood star, dead or alive, to Kevin. Go ahead, make my day, try and find an actor alive or dead without a link to Mr Bacon, I don’t think you can do it.

Then on to more pressing and interesting business:

Six degrees of seperation and social networks

For a while now I have been wondering about the myspace/facebook/social network craze that is about. I wonder why, I wonder how, I wonder how many and what is it that these people are after. I think that the six degrees of separation is a very good explanation of what keeps people coming back.

I have just over 160 friends on Facebook. If you don’t think I do, go check my facebook out. Now let’s put this theory to the test. There are approximately 7000 South Africans on Facebook. If I have 160 friends and counting and you multiply each person by 6, you get 960. That is an immediate network of 960 people that I know through my network of 160 (that’s one step). If each of those 960 people multiply by 6 and extend their network to 5760 then within 2 steps I know 5760 people. One final example: take those 5760 people and extend their network by 6 and you get 34 560 people. There aren’t even close to that many people in SA on Facebook.

(Disclaimer: My mathematical understanding of six degrees of separation might be completely out of whack, but for the purposes of this post you just need to understand the principal of what I am trying to get across)

I firmly believe that it is this theory that makes social network sites such as Facebook successful. If I had no desire to push my network to the extend of its network then I would have no drive to use these sites. Six degrees to keep social networking sites running.