[fr] Plus que de savoir quels parfaits inconnus sont à l'endroit où je suis, je voudrais savoir quelles personnes avec lesquelles j'ai des liens faibles ("weak ties") sont dans le coin. Quelqu'un qui a commenté sur mon blog, par exemple, ou qui a participé à la même conférence que moi.
Kevin Marks says we need a Weasley’s clock 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‘s talk at SHiFT encouraged me to take a second look at my Plazes account, 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 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.