When Friendster goes mobile

Smart mobster Howard Rheingold wonders what happens when social networking (like Friendster, MySpace, LinkedIn,
Orkut, etc.) go mobile and get combined with cellphones, GPS, and location-based services:

Considering the popularity of today's deskbound social-networking software, will tomorrow's mobile-presence
enthusiasts want to know where their buddies' buddies' are? More likely,when social networking, mobile telephony and
locative media collide on the small screen, something altogether surprising will emerge, the way virtual communities,
online markets and self-organized dating services emerged from wired cyberspace. Right now, it's an easy bet that the
ability to know where your buddies are will become a necessity for the unwired population – less certain is whether
you will really want to know that the person standing in front of us in the elevator is a good friend of your good
friend. Personal issues of privacy, social boundaries and vulnerability enter the picture when you use technologies
to distinguish between the people you want to be available to and those you want to exclude.

If our female friends' experiences with Friendster are any indication (e.g. endless virtual harrassment),
the most immediate result of Friendster going mobile will be endless real harrassment.