The Largest Social Network In World, Untapped

By Steve Poland • May 12, 2007

I was at Web 2.0 Expo last month in San Fran and during a press interview sit-down session, Tim O’Reilly said something that was a “wow” moment for me — I just had never really thought about it. What he said was that the largest network of social connections are the phone companies.

Think about that — the phone company knows who you call, how often, how long the conversations are … it knows who you text message, how often, etc. From that data, it can start making connections — not only to people, but also to businesses. The data behind the phone companies is vast and untapped — but I think from the outside (you and me), it’s difficult to get access to that kind of data, or become a link between people making phone calls.

Maybe there could be a piece of software that could run on your cell phone, which could report this kind of information back to an information service (that I’m speaking about). Or if you have an account with your carrier online, then you could supply your login/password to a service, and it could auto-grab your phone records — then start making connections amongst everyone … there could be privacy settings that don’t disclose phone numbers, and/or a manual approval process before any data is exposed (so that if there are phone calls to people that you don’t want others to see, those would be removed before connections are made).

I’m thinking some kind of big Geni service — something super viral. The program could even auto-dial any phone number in your records and use an automated message that says, “This is (service name) calling on behalf of (recorded name of the user) …” and could then ask questions about the relationship with that individual, and/or record audio comments by that user (hello, VXML). (Or the individual could specify relationships with these people).

What ideas does this give you? What could be a useful service based on this data / network? We already have MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn … but none of those allow you to specify service businesses that you use. Maybe this data could be used to make my IDEA #5 - Video & Audio Ratings of Transactions (Businesses/Products/People) come into fruition?

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IDEA #36 - Social Audio / Video Recommendations Problem: I’m out and want to rent a movie, or buy a movie / CD / book — I’d like recommendations from friends or people with similar tastes as mine. Solution: Dial a phone number...
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Comments

8 Responses to “The Largest Social Network In World, Untapped”

Ryan on May 12th, 2007 6:47 pm (perm link)

I was suggesting the same kind of thing yesterday on my site. The market for phone based networking apps is so untapped. Everyone has been trying to get internet apps on their phone. How about phone based apps that use the current phone system to exchange infomation. Like sms on steroids? Sms is not GPRS data. Why could’nt you build other services like this?
ELY FALL on May 12th, 2007 9:34 pm (perm link)

@ RYAN,

You are right and there are a few applications that deliver sms using GPRS. I have a partner who developed an application that sends sms, voice messages, mms and email using GPRS.The only problem is the users must have the same app on their phone. It has a huge potential.
Robert Dewey on May 13th, 2007 10:27 am (perm link)

It sounds too complicated (in terms of non-geeks trying to use it), but at the same time I think it’s something that people would WANT to learn how to use. O’Reilly also talked about something similar, but using e-mail.

There’s no reason why an existing network can’t already do this; but I would much rather see an open or non-proprietary company take a stab at it.
Robert Dewey on May 13th, 2007 10:32 am (perm link)

Damn, I hate when this happens! I leave a comment and then it doesn’t show up.

To sum up what I had said previously… I think this is a good idea, but it might be too complicated. However, I think it’s something that people would WANT to learn how to use.

There’s no reason an existing network can’t already attempt this… However, I’d like to see a startup or some other non-walled-garden take a stab at it.
Rahul Pathak on May 14th, 2007 1:27 am (perm link)

I wonder what Skype is doing with this info
Dave on May 14th, 2007 9:58 am (perm link)

No worries, the government has already done this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/29/us/29nsa.html?ex=1179288000&en=40cde483eea7364a&ei=5070
rulepark on May 15th, 2007 8:55 am (perm link)

Phone 2.0? The next generation of WAP?? 3G ?? But all these datas are private and confidential. Legal issues are the problem here. I would not want any of my conversation turning into a virus, spreading around, let others listen it.

Would u?
Paul on May 18th, 2007 1:45 pm (perm link)

Sure phone companies have this information and they do use it for data mining (and tracking criminals etc). Knowing how they use this information, I for one, do not want to allow another third party auto-grab my phone records.

There are data mining products, for mobile phone companies anyway, to determine socially connected people. You can use a data warehouse analyse all the Call Data Records (CDRs) for a specific subscriber and determine their call network. Some people generally stand out as hubs of information and can be targeted with promotions etc