A Small… and gated World

Social networking is all about staying behind a computer while having the feeling to still be connecting with other human beings. While MySpace is typically open to anyone, at the opposite end of the spectrum exists a community you can only join if you’re invited and it’s called A Small World, or ASW for short.

Nobody knows for sure who’s active in there but there have been media reports about Paris Hilton and Naomi Campbell being members. This online community, created by the Weinstein Company (generally known for their movie ventures) expects the small membership base to help create closer ties between members. Around 130,000 people are allegedly members but the Weinstein brothers would like to grow that number in the lower millions, in the coming years.

This international network is meant to share information that might come in handy for anybody with lots of money and very little free time. Matters as mundane as choosing the best restaurant to eat snails, in Los Angeles to more commercial interests like where to find a 60 ft yatch already anchored in the Meditarranean sea are the bulk of what supposedly available, in A Small World.

It’s always assumed this information is correct because no media, including Expensive.Name, is being granted access to see, first-hand, what’s really in there. You’re free to watch the CNN and CNBC interviews, for added insight on this.

On her web page, for instance, Naomi Campbell is said to describe herself as a "busy worker" instead of all the other things that would come to mind considering the recent legal ramblings she’s been into. In other words, this is probably just another place to show off as well as ask about anything glitzy, expensive and more often than not, largely unknow to the general public.

While there have been members raving about A Small World’s ability to help them find reliable photographers for their wedding or even nannies for their kids, it’s pretty clear such "quality services" can be found elsewhere, just as easily.

Perhaps the people who get invited (read: sucked) into this social network feel some kind of peer pressure to actually invest time in it and eventually sprinkle a little dough around so some level of spin enhances their actual or perceived "reputation", in the group.

Without going so far as to say this whole thing is about the "herd mentality" where everyone wants to be there because everybody who seems to be anybody is already there, the fact that it’s private says a lot about how narrow the networking can get — it’s like digital inbreeding on steroids.

The whole thing and the mentality behind it appear to be the web equivalent of a gated community. People should rightfully ask themselves why they would trade their current access to a world of unlimited discoveries for a limited, secretive and closed community?

If the members of A Small World are having a blast burning their money among themselves, good for them. Happy people are always good for our planet’s karma but "gated web sites" (like ASW’s) look like the metaphorical equivalent of lonely islands within a sea of exciting… and unlimited discoveries.

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