There's a ton of alumni networks on Facebook that seem to be operating sort of successfully. Are you talking about reducing the feature set? As for the ads ser

There's a ton of alumni networks on Facebook that seem to be operating sort of successfully. Are you talking about reducing the feature set? As for the ads service, I'm not sure if you're talkinga about something like addiply, which is a UK-based attempt at hyperlocal advertising that avoids the Adsense model. http://www.twadservices.co.uk/cufc/taintro.php http://www.twadservices.co.uk/cufc/taintro.php The guy who started it was profiled in this piece in Britain's Guardian newspaper: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2008/dec/04/startups-advertising http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2008/dec/04/startups-adv... I would think you would need some kind of background in advertising and be the kind of person who doesn't mind knocking on a lot of doors to attempt this kind of venture. Here's their self-description. Sounds like what you're talking about (let me know if I misunderstood): "We empower both the local/niche publisher and the local/niche advertiser to source and place perfectly-targetted, digital advertising themselves without third party intervention." I don't see why this would not work even better in the US but it remains to be seen whether Addiply will have any success - it seems like an uphill battle to me.