Maintaining the Strong Ties: Community vs. Social Networks 4 by MikeW on 06-30-2010 11:51 AM - last edited on 08-15-2010 09:53 PM
Michael Wu, Ph.D. is Lithium's Principal Scientist of Analytics, digging into the complex dynamics of social interaction and online communities.
He's a regular blogger on the Lithosphere and previously wrote in the Analytic Science blog. You can follow him on Twitter at mich8elwu.

This post is the 4th installment of my miniseries exploring the relationship between communities and social networks. Each article builds on concepts that are established in the previous. So, if you missed any one, I recommend reading them before you move on. 1. Community vs. Social Network 2. How Do People Become Connected? 3. From Weak Ties to Strong Ties
Previously in this miniseries, you’ve learn that weak ties can form two ways: in communities and through social networks. But weak ties are developed into strong relationship in communities. This post will explore what happens after a strong relationship is established. Communities Need Social Networks to Maintain Relationships
You may recall from previous discussions that any individual is often part of many overlapping and nested communities, because people have many different interests, preferences, skills, etc. So we can create weak ties and build relationships in many different contexts. These are really different relationships even though Facebook simply lumps them together with one identifier ‘friends’. They really should be categorized a little more; such as siblings, beer buddies, badminton pals, chess club friends, foodie network, movie junkies, nature explorers, CA trail hikers, etc. Moreover, people move to different towns, switch jobs, change interests, or move into different stages of their lives, so people are constantly leaving communities and joining new ones. So, how do people manage all the relationships they developed across different communities? And how