Heretical Notion: Do Social Networks Really Work?

The always-thoughtful Albert Ruesga has a great post up over at White Courtesy Telephone that really goes to the heart of the matter on using social networks and online communities to get real work done. He tells the sad tale of "Joe Sector" (love the name) who goes "in search of wisdom, but the results are less than satisfactory." Four scenarios that are probably familiar to all of us always seem to crop up:

1. Light’s on but nobody’s home   Joe submits a question to a listserv here, a message board there, but can’t depend on getting a timely answer (or any answer at all). Sometimes it takes days to get a response. In any event, Joe wants something that feels more like a real discussion.

2. The wrong people at the right time   Joe has to contend with the usual trolls, flamers, and ninnies who throw discussions off-topic. He visits various chat rooms and networking sites for activists, but, as is often the case, few people are present and contributing, and the best minds and moderators are absent.

3. Drive-by commenting   Joe finds a few warm bodies willing to engage in a discussion of the upcoming election, but they keep straying off-topic. Because nobody really “owns” the discussion, it gets sidetracked easily.

4. A million vases for a thousand flowers   Nancy, a communications wizard, likes to hang out at Omidyar.net, but Mary, a master strategist, would never darken Omidyar’s cyber-door. She much prefers Change.org. And so it goes. Joe has to visit twenty sites to have a prayer of finding the best wisdom on the upcoming election.

Then there's part two, which takes the question further: "We fill with frenzied points and clicks the time we might otherwise spend banging our collective heads against a shared problem." A heretical notion? I'm not so sure - I've had the same experiences as Mr. Sector, and I'm sure you have too.