As further proof that “there’s something going on here,” the NPR radio show “On the Media” today ran a report on social networking. Friendster and Columbia University’s Smallworld project were featured. The coverage was evenly balanced between the academic basics of social networking and its more popular “finding dates” spin. Poor Jonathan Abrams — the backdrop for story was a running theme of Friendster’s overwhelmed servers turning away devotees hoping to get online and check their social nets; I imagine the access spike following the broadcast didn’t help matters.

From the On the Media website (audio and text transcripts to be posted within the week):

Friend of a Friend

Would it be possible to create a family tree consisting of friends rather than relatives? What would it look like? The growing ranks of people registered on social networking websites like Friendster.com are getting a glimpse. Friendster maps out the connections within groups of friends, and in doing so provides a graphic representation of the highly inscrutable social movements of homo sapiens. Jad Abumrad reports.

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