Online social networking has evolved immensely over the past 5 years. This first part in a 2 part series is meant to explore the past of social networking and where we are today. In my second part that I will post tomorrow, I will discuss what I believe is the future of social networking. While most of this information will be old news to you it is meant to set up my post for tomorrow. Period One – Anyone and Everyone Most people agree that the first large site deemed “social networking” was Friendster. Friendster made the “friend...

I ran across a post on Steve Rubel’s blog, Micro Persuasion, talking about a new social networking startup named Palopia. Palopia founded by a group of USC business students, states on their website: “Palopia is a social networking portal made by real students for real students with real lives. It’s not just about profiles and comments anymore. We’ve spent long days and nights figuring out what needs to be better to make our online lives easier, more rewarding, and more enjoyable. We built our network from the ground up–understanding what our...

Hello everyone. My name is Brian Balfour and I am a 23 year old entrepreneur. To read about my history please visit the about section of this site, or you can read my entrepreneurship blog at http://www.brianbalfour.com. Social Degree is aimed to be a blog about the extremely hot sector of online social networking. Ever since my first startup, Celestine Inc., I have taken special attention to the social networking scene. One of my first ever projects was a social networking site aimed towards college students. At that time MySpace and Facebook weren’t even alive. Now with...

All you really need to know is that I’m addicted to technology, startups, entrepreneurship, product management, and marketing.  Below I provided some more info on the companies I have started, but if you really want to get to know me, visit my contact page and email me.  I’m currently located in Boston, MA but travel to Los Angeles and the Bay area quite often. Viximo (present) - Founder and VP Product Marketing I founded Viximo in September 2007. Viximo is a fifteen person startup located in Cambridge, MA funded by North Bridge Venture Partners and Sigma Partners. Ed Anderson and...