The social network space for people with diabetes lags well behind the Internet's superb ability to provide information. Websites like HealthCentral far exceed the older sources of information that we have -- including our health care teams, our books, and our magazines -- in the quantity and often even the quality of information that we seek about diabetes.

But the Internet hasn't been doing a good job in connecting the real people who have diabetes with other real people. Those of us who have diabetes often feel isolated from our communities because of the special need we have to control our condition. Many of us, particularly those who live in small towns or rural areas, don't have anyone with whom to discuss our dietary, activity, and medication requirements.

Local support groups often fail to provide positive reinforcement when they exist at all. Many of us in fact lack that option within a reasonable driving distance.

Support and communication are functions that the Internet can provide to people with diabetes on a much larger scale than even the best local support groups. But even the so-called social networking sites are instead top heavy on information.

My own website, mendosa.com, since 1995 has focused on providing information to help people with diabetes control it. While it provides some interaction through the comment function, which HealthCentral also uses well, my site is information heavy. Just like the other 300,000 website about diabetes that other people have created in the past 15 years.

Now, however, a true social networking site for people with diabetes has surfaced. This site, MyDiaBlog, is in beta test right now, but is already looking great.

A computer whiz named David Wolf created MyDiaBlog as a gift for a friend and for the entire diabetes Internet community. "I have a young friend who has type 2 diabetes who told me that there wasn't any social networking website that she could relate to," he says. " She asked me to build one, so I built it."

David called me from his office in Bremen, Germany, to tell me about MyDiaBlog. The driving force behind the site, he said, was his disappointment with the existing diabetes websites from the perspective of true social networking.

"A true social networking site," he says, "is built upon the ability to connect with others, using a variety of tools such as blogs, forums, instant messaging, in-site email, videos, photos, comments, and other clever tools such as YingYang. The site's members also need to be able to establish groups, create events, and make requests, rather than just receive masses of information. I think people want to talk and not just to get information."

David’s vision is to see that the website will organically grow, develop, and be directed according to what the community wants. He wants it to always be a friendly and positive place to share ideas with other people.
 
He says that his challenge was to create a true social networking diabetes site that was intuitive and easy to use, was free of advertising, and was one that offers the highest levels of privacy. He is committed to delivering a safe, friendly, and positive social networking space for all those who have been affected by diabetes.