Social Networking design patterns: Scratchy would be all over these

Again a great link off of BoingBoing (thanks to Cory and the crew). There is a group looking into the design patterns (=templates) for building social networking software. They have a website here:
Designing Social Interfaces (a wiki that you can help build over time!).
The core authors, Christian Crumlish and Erin Malone, also are doing a book on this which is coming out from O'Reilly. At the top of the wiki, they describe what a "pattern" is--a definition that will sound familiar to anyone about level 2 of the Game:

"A pattern describes an optimal solution to a common problem within a specific context.

A pattern is not a finished piece of code or design. Rather, it reflects the sum total of a community's knowledge and experience or expertise in a given domain.

When we talk about patterns, we often start by noticing social behavior patterns. These are patterns in what people do, with or without interfaces designed for those purposes. These patterns are interesting and fun to talk about and they help us understand what's likely to happen, but they are not the primary focus of this project.

The patterns in this collection are social design patterns (a.k.a. social user experience design patterns). They are interaction pattern [sic] for people designing social interfaces."

Since I'm on a team designing a social network platform, these patterns are extremely valuable. I've been enjoying the wiki, and will be buying the book as soon as it is out!