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Social Networking with your DNA
October 30th, 2007
I’ve had my head down all day focused on the task of putting the finishing touches on the Trend Spotting in the Age of Social Media presentation for IIR’s Future Trends 2007 Conference. While searching for the perfect example of a social networking website, (realizing all the while a perfect example doesn’t exist, users determine what perfect is for them), I ran across Ancestry.com, one of the largest online genealogy search sites. Although I don’t think it is the quintessential social networking site it certainlyoffers a novel twist on the idea.
Ancestry.com is now offering DNA testing to help users find relatives. For $200.00 USD you can order a DNA test kit, return your cheek swab and receive an online report showing your DNA Haplogroup. Your results can then be compared to Ancestry.com’s DNA database which aims to house50,000 genetic profiles within six months.
According to the Financial Times Ancestry.com is creating networking groups that will allow haplogroups to share their common interests. Those with a common surname could also form a group and pool their DNA resources to work out how they are related. This kind of testing will make it possible to identify distant relatives that you could not find any other way.
Now we have one more thing we can do with our genome, network with it.
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