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a "social" site without real time chat is not that social... that is why huminity is the more faverable site

you can see your social network online at Huminity . They use a simple Google like interface (Google of people?) and show nodes and links maps of social networks. i think its the only "open" social network since in others u need to register before you can take a peek.

see contacts branching in huminity . Their new site allows you to search an see a zoom out of social maps. huminity's site layout is much more google like then this un-accepting-new members-site :) ... whats the use of the PR when you cant get in?

In case of slashdotting. No favors They've decided to go it alone, without venture capital. Meet some Israeli bootstrap start-ups. Batya Feldman 1 Dec 0316:54 In recent years, there have been quite a few entrepreneurs wandering around with good ideas (at least in their heads), but unable to raise capital. There are no more angels willing to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars. The number of venture capital funds making seed investments has sharply contracted, and those still willing to invest do so only after long and painstaking study, especially in cases of entrepreneurs without prior experience.

The chasm between the supply of technology entrepreneurs and the demand for them is evidence that the great high-tech and venture capital crisis did not suppress the spirit of the average Israeli entrepreneur. Last week, Walden Israel general partner Eyal Kaplan told "Globes" that following a lecture at the Israel Center for Management (MIL) start-up forum, he was handed 17 business plans by new companies seeking financing. The situation is similar at other funds that have announced plans to make seed investments.

But it turns out that there is another way, too: "bootstrap companies" in the venture capital jargon. These are entrepreneurs who simply go it alone rather than making the rounds from one venture capital fund to another. To those who wonder, the phrase originated in the tales of Baron Munchausen, who described how he saved himself from drowning by using his own bootstraps. Translated into the language of high-tech, the concept refers to a company that finances itself. No venture capital and no directors. Can you imagine?

It was possible to find such Israeli companies in the late 1980s and early 1990s, before the domestic venture capital industry began to flourish. Dov Moran's M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers (Nasdaq: FLSH) and Yanki Margalit's Aladdin Knowledge Systems (Nasdaq: ALDN) were just two of the companies that established themselves almost without external financing. They developed an idea, then a product, and initial sales were miniscule. Company growth was directly related to success on the market.

"The funds were in the bunker"

Nir Ben-Halevy and Oren Rossen are the entrepreneurs and sole employees of start-up Huminity. Rossen was previously an analyst at Investec Israel (TASE:INSI) and Ben-Halevey was a member of the high-tech team at Deloitte and Touche - Brightman Almagor. Over a year ago, they decided to found a company based on the concept of a social networking product that combines chat and instant messaging, enabling users to share their personal networks.

After a brief round among the venture capital funds, they realized that they could not raise money and decided to go it alone. Ben-Halevy reminisces, "A year ago, it was simply impossible to raise money from the funds. They had gone down into the bunker. We believed that if we had a working product, their attitude might change. We believed that we could get it up and running on our own."

Ben-Halevy and Rossen left everything behind, moved to Turkey to lower costs and for the past year dedicated themselves to developing the product. Last month, they announced that they had raised $2 million, at a company value of $10 million, after money, from the same venture capital funds they had approached previously. The deal is now being closed. This time, they came to the funds with a working product and 400,000 registered users.

"We did everything very cheaply. We developed the product on an open source code system. It's true that Oracle's (Nasdaq:ORCL) system is more stable, but on the other hand we don't pay a $5,000 a month license fee," says Ben-Halevy. Huminity's open code-based product also allows the company to obtain the help of the operators com

So I read "the team has now raised millions for their company." Yeah right, that's why they are living in t-shirt hell.

Some one sent me Fiendster a joke-friendster web site some time ago... I am a Huminity freak myself. Do I like to see myself in the center of all my friends or can it be that those connections maps they show are hypnotizing :)?

In a social network, and it doesn't matter if it's friendster or Instant Messenger or any other kind, each person is naturally part of the verification of the people that are connected to him. If people that you don't know connect to you in ICQ for example, then you disconnect from them. If the friendster network is not that intuitive, then it has a serious malfunction. Connections should be symmetrical, like they do it in Huminity Huminity - this way, people actualy validate the other people that are connected to them.... otherwise, it's not a social network... it's a joke.

Fake VIP's are part of every free accounts network ... I think I saw Bush part of this cute network too :).

In a social network, and it doesn't matter if it's friendster or Instant Messenger or any other kind, each person is naturally part of the verification of the people that are connected to him. If people that you don't know connect to you in ICQ for example, then you disconnect from them. If the friendster network is not that intuitive to make people disconnect from fakes that are connected to them like a cancer, then it has a serious malfunction. Connections should be symmetrical, like they do it in Huminity Huminity - I ran it on the Linux emulator, and it works great.

One word Huminity. If you are looking for social networking this software got it all. With a great "spider" maps drawn to navigate + show connection and with chat features huminity is superior.