Is there something that we as end users can do, in regards to social networks?
I have been mulling over the problems with social networks, and the desire by the users for better privacy control.
My first thought is: You get what you pay for. The companies that are providing a service to us for free, in exchange we view advertisements.
I learned the hard way, because I was all for free services, especially e-mail. I had been using one of the most popular free e-mail providers, until my account was hacked, not due to my own error, but due to a glitch in the service, that the hacker exploited to gain control of my account. The lack of customer service woke me up to the fact that free means lower quality of service ( sometimes ).
My question is: If you want better control, and better quality. Why not take control of it yourself? Perhaps find a group of like-minded individuals, go to service that offers a premium upgrade, and start your own social network? Maybe each member could pay $1.00 a month to defray the cost of the service upgrade.
Ideally, this service would be able to integrate all of the major services such as Orkut, Geni, Twitter, Buzz, Friendfeed, Flickr, Meebo, Myspace, Youtube, Ping, Posterous, Stumbleupon, Categorian, Delicious, Digg, etc... ( I realize I am leaving out some excellent services ) , "if" the services offer an open API, or OAUTH to integrate their services.
Also, a big plus would be if the service offered a way to import everything you have posted from the various sites that you have belonged to, ie.: photos, blogs, contacts, etc... .
My one big BUT is: If the social network could keep it simple, to not overload the site with so many bells & whistles that the users' web browser would freeze up. There are some of us out there that still use dial-up, not due to choice, but because that is the only option available. Those of us that are on dial-up, enjoy surfing the net, but don't enjoy the web page taking forever to load.
I for one would be willing to join such a site.
I believe Multiply & Ning may offer the possibility of doing something like this, and there may be other services out there that I don't know of.