The other day I commented about OSN2005, an online conference about social networking.

One of the guest authors there is Andrea Baker. She has a book entitled "Double Click: Romance and Commitment Of Online Couples". There is a discussion about this book as part of the forum. The comments I added about how my wife and I met online as well as a reference to the story of the 'Pina Colada' song being acted out with less beneficial results can be read below.

Various comments:

I met Andrea Baker at the first Association of Internet Researchers conference in Lawrence Kansas. This was when I was in the midst of a relationship that had started off when a woman named Kim responded to a personal I had put up on AOL. I related some of this to Andrea back then. (I don't know if Andrea remembers this.)

Kim and I sent a few emails back and forth. We moved to Instant Messenger and then to the phone. Kim was not much of an online person. She had responded to the personal on a lark, so we took the relationship offline fairly quickly.

Now, I am a panelist in the politics section. Kim is now my wife and the two of us were very involved in the Dean campaign. Afterwards, Kim ran for State Representative, after having never been involved with politics.

For Kim and I, our initial connection, as well as the friendships we made doing online politics have been incredibly rewarding.

For others, it has been less so. Yesterday, Kim and I heard a story on the radio about a Jordanian couple that met online. It was a re-enactment of the famous 'Pina Colada' song, with a less beneficial outcome.

More information can be found here.