forty three

... as in things, places and now people. let's face it, lists are in and I'm totally hooked.

i've been playing around with the beta-ish 43people (the latest offering from the gang at robot co-op), and I gotta say this just keeps getting better. the sites are clean, elegant and brilliantly tied together. though I knew it was in the works, I got an email today saying that kris knew me. So, I clicked the link, and sure enough, I was logged *magically* using my 43places/things identity and instantly started marking the people I knew.

what's the point though? I mean, at some level - who cares what I want to do (or have done) and where I want to go (or have been). I'll be honest... I'm not sure I really know. But, I find myself bouncing around the 3 sites adding things here and there... and all of a sudden I've got a nice list of things - and start to see others with the same interests, desires, and where they've been, what they've done, who they know etc. What good is that? Well, besides proving once and for all that the Pacific Northwest tech scene is this insanely small, incestuous group of brilliant people that just keep turning out neat stuff... it makes the rest of the world just a little bit smaller.

social software - not pounded down your throat in terms of how many friends you have and how many groups you can get invited to. but, a little more organic. as in - these people are connected to you because they're (at some level) kinda like you. kind of like what I think last.fm is doing with music.

of course, 43* is also killer, 'cause all they're stuff is not only all AJAX-y and slick, but they expose web services for everything. data in. data out. this is where I'd say something about web two point oh, but you get the drift.