I really appreciate the 37 Signals philosophy. I was discussing with a colleague today, about how to embed social interaction/ advice/ communication into an application.  The colleague was (rightly) pointing out the risks and as noted here it can result in less communication.

When we set out to build Basecamp we decided that it was going to be about communication, not control. It is our belief that when you collaborate with trusted parties it’s important for people to be able to communicate any way they see fit. Preventing someone from saying or doing something often breaks these free flowing communication channels and introduces miscommunication or silence – two cancers of collaboration.

Source: Control vs. Communication – (37signals)

The challenge for social networking is to produce relevance.  As Stowe says social = about me.  Unless social interaction is relevant then I won’t participate.  This is the conundrum of social networks.  While it appears to be a community, the reality lies in the individuals attraction to the network.

Back to the colleague discussion.  Control.  How much control is a fine line between brilliant relevance, vs personal disaffection for a myriad of reasons.

Relevance will only be achieved if the participants can interact on their schedule, with results that satisfy their needs.  This adds complexity to the design of social networks that produce simplicity in execution.