I was recently invited to join a new social network similar to Friendster. It’s called orkut. Odd name, no? It’s actually the first name of the engineer who created it, Orkut Buyukkokte.

I had joined Friendster but then dropped out, because I found it time-consuming without the rewards that connecting via blogging provides. I also was being contacted by some fairly odd folk. Now, I’ve nothing against eccentricity or even serious weirdness, but I wasn’t connecting with people I felt shared a common interest. (However, I recently received an invitation to join again and may give it a second go.)

Then I was invited to try orkut. I have to say, I like it so far, particularly because one can join a number of communities. For instance, I belong to communities of orkut members who share an interest in books, dealing with depression, libraries, Macs, self-employment, the INFJ personality type, meditation, Taoism, psychology, cats, marriage equality, feminism, Austin, Good Eats (the food show), and freelance writing.

The only concern I have is about the potential for unwieldiness. As my friend Dave wrote in an email to me, “The system almost has to limit options just to keep the noise level down, or it’d fast become like an overworked mailing list or, gods forbid, like Usenet. It is fascinating stuff, however.”

I agree. I haven’t figured out what practical benefit it has for me, as I’ll not be using it for finding a mate. However, I’m always interested in seeing how networks form and communication flows.