Join? Well, if you have to ask ...

By Thomas Crampton International Herald Tribune

MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 2005
PARIS Beware the virtual bouncer. This social-networking Web site for the international jet set will expel you for trying to meet people you don't already know.

"We are not about being snobby - we just want everyone to be compatible," said Erik Wachtmeister, founder of the site, www.aSmallWorld.net. "Our members are people with large personal networks, frequent travel and highly active socially."

The idea for the site came to Wachtmeister, son of a former Swedish ambassador to Washington, during a pause in a wild boar hunt in a German forest in 1998.

"In traveling extensively to the world's social hot spots for many years, I realized there was a community of global nomads who hang out together," he said. "I decided to make a business out of helping them meet and find solutions to their common problems."

Those problems, judging from postings on the Web site last week, are not like those found in your average tech-heavy chat room. One member posted a query for the best tailor in Hong Kong; another query, about traveling from Paris to Monaco, prompted telephone numbers for helicopter services from the airport; and one posting revealed how to circumvent the Cuban embargo in New York: "There's a cigar store right in front of Cipriani downtown. It has the biggest selection of Cuban cigars, but it's very hush-hush."

Unlike other social networks, aSmallWorld, which says it has 75,000 members, allows them to interact with people in a purely social context, according to some who have joined.

"Sites like Linked In or openBC, I use for work contacts, but this is the site for social life," said Francesco di Valmarana, a London-based vice president of a Swiss private equity firm. "I have managed to sell both concert tickets and charity ball tickets when my plans changed at the last minute."

Not everyone agrees that exclusivity makes for a better network. Joe Hurd, vice president for business development at Friendster.com, a social network that says it has more than 20 million members, criticized the exclusivity of aSmallWorld...............