Flickr democratized pictures and the sharing thereof for the masses-I can get pictures from strangers and view them and re-use them (depending on their privacy settings). But the power of my personal network seems more compelling. I talked about how LinkedIn tries to sell the fact that my network can help me get a job. But the online network power goes further. The Pro Bowl is today. One of my Facebook friends (a buddy from college whom I haven't seen or spoken with in years) is in Hawai'i. He's going to the Pro Bowl. But, he also knew (or stumbled upon) where the AFC squad was practicing this week and snapped some pictures. Here I am miles away, and someone I know/knew personally, can be providing the inside stream. Getting pictures shared via the internet is old news. Friends and family have done that for years. What is new (to me at least) is the number of people involved and the looseness of the connections. I didn't ask for those pictures. He didn't specifically post them for me (see above: haven't spoken in a long time). Because you can maintain these loose connections online, you end maintaining connections that otherwise would be probably severed. I might see him at an alumni reunion (unlikely) or catch an update from a FOAF (friend-of-a-friend: FOAF is an internet social networking standard). But neither of these places would I get a play-by-play of a family vacation: it probably wouldn't "rate" high enough to talk about (unless it was recent). Online however, the friction of sharing is so low that it does rate. And, since he wants to share it with family members, he does, and I get to pop my head into their virtual vacation-picture-slide-show-in-the-den. I was commenting to someone this week on the new way of maintaining those loose connections. This is an example of someone I knew previously and, who, without Facebook, I would have no current connection with.