Continuous Partial Friendship

As I was contemplating whether to return to the reception at the conference or go out with friends, I came across David Weinberger's musings on Twitter in which, with apologies to Linda Stone, he coined the term Continuous Partial Friendship.  It seems a good way to describe what happens when one acquires hundred if not thousands of connections in the social graph that thanks to technology can be maintained far longer and more widely online than in the offline world where they started.

Thanks to Stowe Boyd for pointing me to Stephanie Booth who discussed this phenomenon in detail and credited David Weinberger.