Too Many Social Networks?

I just read David Warlicks' post - I Just Don’t Get it Yet — Social Networks where he discusses his recent experience with several Ning generated social networks including: I’ve joined Library 2.0, School 2.0, and Classroom 2.0.

He then tells us:

I must confess that I am a little under-impressed. I have a personal page, just like my daughter’s Facebook page. I have an unflattering picture of me there, a place to put a blog, a profile (which I’ve scaled way back), a picture of Steve Hargadon (best part of the page), and something called a Chatter.

The Chatter intrigues me, but it appears to be only for people who visit my page, and I don’t think I’ve visited the pages of any other users. I guess I’m a real digital recluse. There is a forum, with some great conversations, but it’s a forum. Nothing new there. Now let me repeat. I accept that I may simply be overlooking something here that’s hitting me over the head, but I’m to dull to know it. So please explain.

I've tried out several social network tools and have had a similar reaction. I already have a blog and participate in a variety of discussion groups, so while theoretically if a critical mass of people joined the network, I would join to be able to participate - but - that's not really going to happen. If you watched the Brandon Hall network fail or have participated in Elgg then it shouldn't really come as much of a surprise that all of the recent Ning networks are going to get a similar reaction as David's.

I'm convinced there is something around social networks that will take off, but any network that is a closed system needs something as a hook to achieve critical mass. If it's an open system, i.e., can include my blog, my LinkedIn connections, my comments, my bookmarks, etc., then it's a much more natural take off. That's why I think that folks like MyBlogLog have the potential (but it's only potential right now) to really take off.