I am not a fan of the term social network as it is only part of what happens in social software. The social network is the connection between people, hopefully to a granular level so that the person can have the services work as a proxy for them, if they trust the service enough.The digital representation, or capture of the relationship status is the social network and the connection’s connections are also relevant in the social network. But, social software should be a lot more than just these statements.I agree with AG in part, but the social interaction with social software researchers was my sole reason for joining Facebook. The only interaction I had with them was a conferences and occasional e-mails. The social software researchers are discovering things that have been missed by the designers and developers of the social software tools, which when understood and accounted for are making for improved services. It allows for people who are geographically disparate to find people near in thought and share ideas and interact (on rudimentary levels compared to face-to-face communication, but distance puts those restrictions in place).