Anthony Doesburg: Network newcomer tries stirring the social stew

Could a Kiwi Ashton Kutcher please step forward? You're wanted by an earnest group of social-networking entrepreneurs in the bushy Auckland 'burb of Titirangi.

In fact, the four directors of RealStew Connect, an online venture group whose ambition is to be as big or bigger than Facebook, would probably send any Kutcher clone packing - unless he shared their ideals about sharing.

The Hollywood celeb's name comes up in connection with Twitter - Facebook and Twitter being the benchmark in any discussion about social networking.

As RealStew director Andrea Webley talks bravely about taking on the established social networks, she notes that Twitter gained an unfair advantage when Kutcher came along in April last year inviting his fans to make him the first person with a million followers.

Kutcher cracked the million mark and in that month Twitter added about seven million new users overall. Since then, according to analysis by RJMetrics, Twitter's growth has steadied at about 6.2 million new accounts a month.

Twitter's grand total is around 100 million, although RJMetrics reckons about 40 per cent have never sent a message, or Tweet, and a quarter have no followers. Facebook, meantime, has about 400 million users, with another 50 million-plus people playing FarmVille, a game accessed through Facebook.

Are Webley and fellow RealStew directors Sean Gribben, Paddy Delaney and Shaun Wood put off by those numbers? Not at all.

RealStew Connect will get as big as its members allow it to, says Delaney, somewhat cryptically. "I believe it can [be as big as Facebook], and if it is, then that is what it should be. Our ambition is to be as big [as Facebook]."

The cryptic factor is explained by RealStew's founding principle. The four directors - Webley and Gribben are Kiwis and the other two South Africans - are adherents of anthroposophy, the philosophy developed by Austrian Rudolf Steiner a century ago, perhaps best known for the alternative schools that bear his name.

Anthroposophy is a spiritual belief system, but not a religion, RealStew's directors are at pains to point out. It underpins their fledgling social network to the extent that RealStew is set up so that members get a share of any money it makes.

The network's 4000-word terms and conditions document explains how revenue earned from advertising and other sources will be divided up (it could do with a good proofreading, by the way, though that's a minor sin compared with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg allegedly once describing people as "dumb f**ks" for trusting him with their personal details).

RealStew is organised around noticeboards. Members can set up a noticeboard on any topic, and invite other members to join. Messages can be posted to a noticeboard, with text and image attachments, among other file types. Advertising will be targeted at noticeboards based on their topic and the geographic location of members.

Delaney's remark about RealStew becoming as big as members allow hints at the way in which members will be recruited. Effectively, the revenue-sharing formula provides a financial incentive to get members to join your noticeboard, since the more members you have links to, the more you stand to earn.

It's complicated, and before anyone suggests that it sounds like pyramid selling, Webley says they have a legal opinion that advises otherwise.

Unlike other social networking sites, Gribben says, they've thought about the money side from the outset.

"We've started off with a business plan, and that business plan is sharing the revenue with the people who use the site."

According to the fourth director, Shaun Wood, the financial world as we know it is headed for extinction, which will force people to rethink their economic future. "RealStew Connect is not necessarily going to play a part in the change itself, but I believe it will be well positioned to offer a viable alternative."

Then there's privacy. Keen to highlight Facebook's recent lapses on that score, the RealStew crew say there's no chance member details will pass into unauthorised hands.

Members will have to opt in to share information, as opposed to Facebook's requirement that they opt out to keep it private. Second, no member information will be provided to any third party.

What about competition from other aspiring social networks? The New York Times reported last month about Diaspora*, a bunch of students with big dreams, a catchy name and an online fundraising drive to develop an alternative to the centralised network design of Facebook - and RealStew.

RealStew looks to have a head start. It claims to have spent about $250,000 developing its site and has more than 4000 members in half a dozen countries.

If an Ashton Kutcher stand-in comes along, who knows how big it might get?

Room to Grow

Twitter: 100 million users
Facebook: 400 million users
RealStew: 4000 plus users