39. A method for managing the interaction of participants in a social network utilizing computers having nodes and storage comprising the steps of: in a social network having linked computers, gathering information for at least two participants on the social network via at least one of the computers, and assigning each participant to a computer node; identifying an original state for each computer node via at least another of the computers; identifying similarly-situated participants by identifying similarly-situated computer nodes in the social network via the at least another of the computers; managing interaction of the similarly-situated participants by managing the computer node assigned to each of the similarly-situated participants via at least one of the networks; for each of the computer nodes having a new state at some point in time that is a change in state from the original state, identifying the new state for each of the computer nodes having the new state via at least another of the computers wherein the new state is different than the original state and indicates a state change; storing on the storage, information about the identified state change; and providing an interface for sharing information about the original state, new state, or state change with plug-in tools, applets, or applications.
39. A method for managing the interaction of participants in a social network utilizing computers having nodes and storage comprising the steps of: in a social network having linked computers, gathering information for at least two participants on the social network via at least one of the computers, and assigning each participant to a computer node; identifying an original state for each computer node via at least another of the computers; identifying similarly-situated participants by identifying similarly-situated computer nodes in the social network via the at least another of the computers; managing interaction of the similarly-situated participants by managing the computer node assigned to each of the similarly-situated participants via at least one of the networks; for each of the computer nodes having a new state at some point in time that is a change in state from the original state, identifying the new state for each of the computer nodes having the new state via at least another of the computers wherein the new state is different than the original state and indicates a state change; storing on the storage, information about the identified state change; and providing an interface for sharing information about the original state, new state, or state change with plug-in tools, applets, or applications. 45. The method of claim 39 wherein the identification of similarly-situated participants is based at least in part on the change from the old state.