meet me

Social network theory views social relationships in terms of nodes and ties. Nodes are the individual actors within the networks, and ties are the relationships between the actors. There can be many kinds of ties between the nodes. In its most simple form, a social network is a map of all of the relevant ties between the nodes being studied.
These concepts are often displayed in a social network diagram, where nodes are the points and ties are the lines.

Small or open community?

As far as I may have noticed, more "open" networks, with many weak ties and social connections, are more likely to introduce new ideas and opportunities to their members than closed networks with many redundant ties. Finally, if your network is "closed" around people you know, you're likely to know thinks you already know, whereas if it's "open" to people you meet, (thanks to the connections to other social worlds) you're likely to have access to a wider range of information. It is better for individual success to have connections to a variety of networks rather than many connections within a single network.

Social network theory produces a new way of being in touch with people : the attributes of individuals are less important than their relationships and ties with other actors within the network. That is to say that social networks' spreading leaves less room for individual value.

Yet the success of MSN Messenger, MySpace, Friendset, Hi5 proves that people enjoy "meeting" and talking with people they don't know.

Would they enjoy being nodes?