While mainstream social networks like Facebook and Myspace get lots of attention there are lots more niche networks quietly going about their business.  One of the most interesting is Odadeo, a social network aimed at fathers.  While women have long found mutual support through online networks, mirroring the mainly female-centric parent support groups offline, there hasn’t been much in the way support for fathers on the internet.  Odadeo changes that and throws some very interesting and original ideas into the mix, too.

Currently in private beta, the site aims to answer the question “How am I going to be a better Dad?”.  In order to help men achieve this aim there’s an imaginative range of features on offer.  Heading these up is the ‘DADSDAQ’, a graph that tracks how many promises users keep for their kids. Maybe you’ll pledge to take your children to the park once a week, or read them a bedtime story more often.  This is a fantastic application of Web 2.0 ideas and shows that these technologies can be used to make family life better.

There’s the chance to get advice from other Dads too, using Twitter-style micro posts in a forum environment.  The micro-blogging approach extends to status updates which allow multiple people to be updated via SMS or the web as to what the kids are up to.  To extend its usefulness, Odadeo allows for child-related media sharing too.  Users can set up pages for each of their children, allowing videos, photos and the like to be shared in a controlled way.

The self-improvement approach of the DADSDAQ is a refreshing take on social networking.  It shows there are few limits to the different directions social media can be taken in.  It also shows that there’s more to proactive fatherhood than breaking into Buckingham Palace in a Batman suit.  It’ll be interesting to see how it develops when it moves into public beta.  There’s no word on when that’ll be as of yet.

Invite Codes: I’ve got 25 invites to Odadeo to give away.  If you’re a father and want to try out the service head over to their site and use 14sandwiches as the invite code.  Be quick though, when they’re gone they’re gone!