Weak Ties [en]

Kevin Marks says [we need a Weasley’s clock](http://epeus.blogspot.com/2006/09/geolocation-and-privacy.html) rather than a Marauder’s map. I generally agree with this. Most of the times, I’m more interested in knowing where (and when) the people I know (or the people I have weak ties with) are, than in knowing which complete strangers are where I am (or in letting complete strangers know who I am).

Unfortunately, in most systems, it’s too much work to get people on your “buddy list”. [Stowe](http://stoweboyd.com/message/)’s [talk at SHiFT](http://strange.corante.com/archives/2006/09/29/shift_stowe_boyd_we_make_our_tools_and_they_shape_us.php) encouraged me to take a second look at [my Plazes account](http://beta.plazes.com/user/StephanieBooth), which I had more or less given up on using because it systematically placed me at the other end of the country when I logged on.

I might be very interested in knowing I’m geographically close to somebody who commented on my blog, or on whose blog I commented. Or somebody who was at SHiFT but that I didn’t actually get a chance to talk to. What if a system like [Plazes](http://plazes.com) was capable of doing that?

I finally understood at SHiFT what weak ties were, and I think this idea has all to do with them.

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