Social-network guru Boyd
Danah Boyd, a grad student at Berkeley (you can read her blogs Connected Selves and Zephoria) is featured in this New York Times story (registration required) on this Friendster/social networking expert with some interesting things to say about this phenomenon based on Lawrence Lessig's language.
Her irrepressible observations have made her a social-network guru for the programmers and venture capitalists who swarm around Friendster and its competitors....
Ms. Boyd explained Friendster this way: "It allows you to purposely say who the people in your world are and to allow them to see each other, through a connection of you." An individual registered at Friendster has a home page with photos, a brief profile and photos of people to whom they have agreed to link. That person can then browse his or her network or search it for dates or activity partners.