Easy upgrade to Facebook

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 by Dave Winer.

When someone lists you as a "friend" on Facebook you get to confirm it. That's good. 

When you click on the "Confirm" button, you get a list of choices that almost never seems to have the right choice. Does that mean you don't have a relationship with the person? No. It means that the list of possible choices hasn't been updated since Facebook was opened to people outside the education system. 

For example, Jeff Jarvis requested that I confirm that he is a friend. Of course I'm going to confirm that, because there is a relationship between Jeff and myself that should be part of my social network. In this case, Jeff is part of my blogging network, and I am part of his. We point to each other frequently. When we run into each other at a conference we have friendly words for each other. If you want me to introduce you to Jeff, I can probably do it, and vice versa. Also, Jeff has introduced me to a company I subsequently invested in (not something students usually do).  

Jeremy Allaire is also in my queue, and is verified immediately. What's the relationship? We were both early relatively successful web developers. We once, jointly, floated an interesting proposal for a tech standard that didn't go anywhere. I'm a founder of and pundit in a field that Allaire has started a company in (and raised a prodigious amount of money). He probably reads my blog.  

And there's the "delighted by" checkbox for women I'll never date (too young, live too far away, etc), but who nonetheless flatter me by requesting friendship.  

Another checkbox -- "fantasizes about."  

PS: For extra credit, relationship-defining should be part of Facebook's open architecture.