David Weinberger has picked up on an article by Esther Dyson about privacy concerns in relation to online social networking in a post that goes on to question the authenticity of relationships forged through these services.

In response to David's post, Stewart Butterfield responds that LinkedIn, Friendster et al are as interested in meaningful relationships as Starbucks are the development of in social capital within the "third place" - which is a convoluted way of saying that it is just business!