A social network service focuses on building and reflecting of social
networks or social relations among people, e.g., who share interests
and/or activities. A social network service essentially consists of a
representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links,
and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are
web based and provide means for users to interact over the internet,
such as e-mail and instant messaging. Although online community
services are sometimes considered as a social network service in a
broader sense, social network service usually means an
individual-centered service whereas online community services are
group-centered. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas,
activities, events, and interests within their individual networks.
The main types of social networking services are those which contain
category places (such as former school-year or classmates), means to
connect with friends (usually with self-description pages) and a
recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many
of these, with Facebook, Bebo and Twitter widely used worldwide;
MySpace and LinkedIn being the most widely used in North America;
Nexopia (mostly in Canada); Bebo, Hi5, StudiVZ , iWiW , Tuenti ,
Decayenne, Tagged, XING; Badoo and Skyrock in parts of Europe; Orkut
and Hi5 in South America and Central America; and Friendster, Mixi,
Multiply, Orkut, Wretch, renren and Cyworld in Asia and the Pacific
Islands and Orkut and Facebook in India.
There have been some attempts to standardize these services to avoid
the need to duplicate entries of friends and interests (see the FOAF
standard and the Open Source Initiative), but this has led to some
concerns about privacy.
Although some of the largest social networks were founded on the notion
of digitizing real world connections, many other networks as seen in
the List of social networking websites focus on categories from books
and music to non-profit business to motherhood as ways to provide both
services and community to individuals with shared interests.
History
The notion that individual computers linked electronically could form
the basis of computer-mediated social interaction and networking was
suggested early on. There were many early efforts to support social
networks via computer-mediated communication, including Usenet,
ARPANET, LISTSERV, bulletin board services (BBS) and EIES: Murray
Turoff's server-based Electronic Information Exchange Service (Turoff
and Hiltz, 1978, 1993). The Information Routing Group developed a
schema about how the proto-Internet might support this.
Early social networking websites started in the form of generalized
online communities such as The WELL (1985), Theglobe.com (1994),
Geocities (1994) and Tripod.com (1995). These early communities focused
on bringing people together to interact with each other through chat
rooms, and share personal information and ideas around any topics via
personal homepage publishing tools which was a precursor to the
blogging phenomenon. Some communities took a different approach by
simply having people link to each other via email addresses. These
sites included Classmates.com (1995), focusing on ties with former
school mates, and SixDegrees.com (1997), focusing on indirect ties.
User profiles could be created, messages sent to users held on a
“friends list” and other members could be sought out who had similar
interests to yours in their profiles (Boyd & Ellison 2007, p. 3).
Whilst these features had existed in some form before SixDegrees.com
came about, this would be the first time these functions were available
in one package. Despite these new developments (that would later catch
on and become immensely popular), the website simply wasn’t profitable
and eventually shut down (Boyd & Ellison 2007, p. 3). It was even
described by the website’s owner as "simply ahead of its time." One
such model of social networking that came about in 1999 was
trust-based, such as that developed by Epinions.com. Innovations
included not only showing who is "friends" with whom, but giving users
more control over content and connectivity. Between 2002 and 2004,
three social networking sites emerged as the most popular form of these
sites in the world, causing such sites to become part of mainstream
users globally. First there was Friendster in 2002 (which Google tried
to acquire in 2003), then MySpace and LinkedIn a year later, and
finally, Bebo. By 2005, MySpace, emergent as the biggest of them all,
was reportedly getting more page views than Google. 2004 saw the
emergence of Facebook, a competitor, also rapidly growing in size. In
2005, Facebook opened up to the non US college community, and together
with allowing externally-developed add-on applications, and some
applications enabled the graphing of a user's own social network - thus
linking social networks and social networking, became the largest and
fastest growing site in the world, not limited by particular
geographical followings.
Social networking began to flourish as a component of business internet
strategy at around March 2005 when Yahoo launched Yahoo! 360°. In July
2005 News Corporation bought MySpace, followed by ITV (UK) buying
Friends Reunited in December 2005. Various social networking sites have
sprung up catering to different languages and countries. It is
estimated that combined there are now over 200 social networking sites
using these existing and emerging social networking models, without
counting the niche social networks (also referred to as vertical social
networks) made possible by services such as Ning.[18] Twitter, launched
in 2006, has as recently as 2009 eclipsed many other social network
services and—although lacking in some of what were considered the
essential aspects of a SNS—has allowed add-on services to connect and
supply these services via its public API.
An increasing number of academic commentators are becoming interested
in studying Facebook and other social networking tools. Social science
researchers have begun to investigate what the impact of this might be
on society. Typical articles have investigated issues such as Identity
(Boyd 2006), Privacy, E-learning (Mazer, Murphy & Simonds 2007),
Social capital (Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe 2007) and Teenage use.
A special issue of the Journal for Computer-Mediated Communications was
dedicated to studies of social network sites. Included in this issue is
an introduction to social network sites (Boyd & Ellison 2007, p. 3).
A 2008 book published by Forrester Research, Inc. titled Groundswell
builds on a 2006 Forrester Report about social computing and used the
term "groundswell" to refer to "a spontaneous movement of people using
online tools to connect, take charge of their own experience, and get
what they need—information, support, ideas, products, and bargaining
power—from each other."
Several websites are beginning to tap into the power of the social
networking model for social good. Such models provide a means for
connecting otherwise fragmented industries and small organizations
without the resources to reach a broader audience with interested
users. Examples include Getinvolved.ca, SixDegrees.org, TakingITGlobal,
Care2, Idealist.org, WiserEarth, OneWorldTV, FreeRepublic, OneClimate,
Causes and Network for Good. The charity badge is often used within the
above context.
In general, social networking services allow users to create a profile
for themselves, and can be broken down into two broad categories:
internal social networking (ISN); and external social networking (ESN)
sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Bebo. Both types can
increase the feeling of community among people. An ISN is a
closed/private community that consists of a group of people within a
company, association, society, education provider and organization or
even an "invite only" group created by a user in an ESN. An ESN is
open/public and available to all web users to communicate and are
designed to attract advertisers. ESN's can be smaller specialised
communities (i.e. linked by a single common interest eg
TheSocialGolfer, ACountryLife.Com, Great Cooks Community) or they can
be large generic social networking sites (eg MySpace, Facebook etc).
However, whether specialized or generic there is commonality across the
general approach of social networking sites. Users can upload a picture
of themselves, create their 'profile' and can often be "friends" with
other users. In most social networking services, both users must
confirm that they are friends before they are linked. For example, if
Alice lists Bob as a friend, then Bob would have to approve Alice's
friend request before they are listed as friends. Some social
networking sites have a "favorites" feature that does not need approval
from the other user. Social networks usually have privacy controls that
allows the user to choose who can view their profile or contact them,
etc.
Social networking sites typically have a section dedicated to comments
by friends. On Friendster, this section is called "Testimonials". On
Facebook, this section is called "The Wall". In the beginning, this was
a feature that encouraged people to write messages about the person in
the profile. But over time, people started writing creative
testimonials back, creating a form of conversation.
Some social networking sites are created for the benefits of others,
such as parents social networking site "Gurgle". This website is for
parents to talk about pregnancy, birth and bringing up children.
Several social networks in Asian markets such as India, China, Japan
and Korea have reached not only a high usage but also a high level of
profitability. Services such as QQ (China)(which has more than 100
million users), Mixi (Japan), Cyworld (Korea) or the mobile-focused
service Mobile Game Town by the company DeNA in Japan (which has over
10 million users) are all profitable, setting them apart from their
western counterparts.
Some social networks have additional features, such as the ability to
create groups that share common interests or affiliations, upload or
stream live videos, and hold discussions in forums. Geosocial
networking co-opts internet mapping services to organize user
participation around geographic features and their attributes.
There is also a trend for more interoperability between social networks led by technologies such as OpenID and OpenSocial.
Lately, mobile social networking has become popular. In most mobile
communities, mobile phone users can now create their own profiles, make
friends, participate in chat rooms, create chat rooms, hold private
conversations, share photos and videos, and share blogs by using their
mobile phone. Mobile phone users are basically open to every option
that someone sitting on the computer has. Some companies provide
wireless services which allow their customers to build their own mobile
community and brand it, but one of the most popular wireless services
for social networking in North America is Facebook Mobile. Other
companies provide new innovative features which extend the social
networking experience into the real world.
Another social networking feature in a professional aspect is
Linkedin.com. This social network allows professionals to exchange
information, opportunities, and ideas. Professionals are able to stay
informed with new knowledge about their field.
As the increase in popularity of social networking is on a constant
rise, new uses for the technology are constantly being observed.
At the forefront of emerging trends in social networking sites is the
concept of "real time" and "location based." Real time allows users to
contribute content, which is then broadcasted as it is being uploaded -
the concept is similar to live television broadcasts. Twitter set the
trend for "real time" services, where users can broadcast to the world
what they are doing, or what is on their minds within a 140 character
limit. Facebook followed suit with their "Live Feed" where users'
activities are streamed as soon as it happens. While Twitter focuses on
words, Clixtr, another real time service, focuses on group photo
sharing where users can update their photo streams with photos while at
an event. Friends and nearby users can contribute their own photos and
comments to that event stream, thus contributing to the "real time"
aspect of broadcasting photos and comments as it is being uploaded. In
the location based social networking space, Foursquare gained
popularity as it allowed for users to "check-in" to places that they
are frequenting at that moment. Gowalla is another such service which
functions in much the same way that Foursquare does, leveraging the GPS
in phones to create a location based user experience. Clixtr, though in
the real time space, is also a location based social networking site
since events created by users are automatically geotagged, and users
can view events occurring nearby through the Clixtr iPhone app.
Recently, Yelp announced its entrance into the location based social
networking space through check-ins with their mobile app; whether or
not this becomes detrimental to Foursquare or Gowalla is yet to be seen
as it is still considered a new space in the internet technology
industry.
One popular use for this new technology is social networking between
businesses. Companies have found that social networking sites such as
Facebook and Twitter are great ways to build their brand image.
According to Jody Nimetz, author of Marketing Jive[30], there are five
major uses for businesses and social media: to create brand awareness,
as an online reputation management tool, for recruiting, to learn about
new technologies and competitors, and as a lead gen tool to intercept
potential prospects. These companies are able to drive traffic to their
own online sites while encouraging their consumers and clients to have
discussions on how to improve or change products or services.
One other use that is being discussed is the use of Social Networks in
the Science communities. Julia Porter Liebeskind et al. have published
a study on how New Biotechnology Firms are using social networking
sites to share exchanges in scientific knowledge. They state in their
study that by sharing information and knowledge with one another, they
are able "increase both their learning and their flexibility in ways
that would not be possible within a self-contained hierarchical
organization." Social networking is allowing scientific groups to
expand their knowledge base and share ideas, and without these new
means of communicating their theories might become "isolated and
irrelevant".
Social networks are also being used by teachers and students as a
communication tool. Because many students are already using a
wide-range of social networking sites, teachers have begun to
familiarize themselves with this trend and are now using it to their
advantage. Teachers and professors are doing everything from creating
chat-room forums and groups to extend classroom discussion to posting
assignments, tests and quizzes, to assisting with homework outside of
the classroom setting. Social networks are also being used to foster
teacher-parent communication. These sites make it possible and more
convenient for parents to ask questions and voice concerns without
having to meet face-to-face.
A final rise in social network use is being driven by college students
using the services to network with professionals for internship and job
opportunities. Many studies have been done on the effectiveness of
networking online in a college setting, and one notable one is by
Phipps Arabie and Yoram Wind published in Advances in Social Network
Analysis.
A social network hosting service is a web hosting service that
specifically hosts the user creation of web-based social networking
services, alongside related applications. Such services are also known
as vertical social networks due to the creation of SNSes which cater to
specific user interests and niches; like larger, interest-agnostic
SNSes, such niche networking services may also possess the ability to
create increasingly-niche groups of users.
Few social networks currently charge money for membership. In part,
this may be because social networking is a relatively new service, and
the value of using them has not been firmly established in customers'
minds. Companies such as MySpace and Facebook sell online advertising
on their site. Hence, they are seeking large memberships, and charging
for membership would be counterproductive. Some believe that the deeper
information that the sites have on each user will allow much better
targeted advertising than any other site can currently provide.
Social networks operate under an autonomous business model, in which a
social network's members serve dual roles as both the suppliers and the
consumers of content. This is in contrast to a traditional business
model, where the suppliers and consumers are distinct agents. Revenue
is typically gained in the autonomous business model via
advertisements, but subscription-based revenue is possible when
membership and content levels are sufficiently high.
On large social networking services, there have been growing concerns
about users giving out too much personal information and the threat of
sexual predators. Users of these services also need to be aware of data
theft or viruses. However, large services, such as MySpace and Netlog,
often work with law enforcement to try to prevent such incidents.
In addition, there is a perceived privacy threat in relation to placing
too much personal information in the hands of large corporations or
governmental bodies, allowing a profile to be produced on an
individual's behavior on which decisions, detrimental to an individual,
may be taken.
Furthermore, there is an issue over the control of data—information
that was altered or removed by the user may in fact be retained and/or
passed to 3rd parties. This danger was highlighted when the
controversial social networking site Quechup harvested e-mail addresses
from users' e-mail accounts for use in a spamming operation.
In medical and scientific research, asking subjects for information
about their behaviors is normally strictly scrutinized by institutional
review boards, for example, to ensure that adolescents and their
parents have informed consent. It is not clear whether the same rules
apply to researchers who collect data from social networking sites.
These sites often contain a great deal of data that is hard to obtain
via traditional means. Even though the data are public, republishing it
in a research paper might be considered invasion of privacy.
Privacy on Facebook is undermined by three principal factors: users
disclose too much, Facebook does not take adequate steps to protect
user privacy, and third parties are actively seeking out end-user
information using Facebook. Every day teens go on social networking
sites and reveal their most inner thoughts for the whole world to see.
Information such as street address, phone number, Instant Messaging
name are disclosed to an unknown population in cyberspace. What's more,
the creation of a Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc. account is a fairly
easy process to do and no identification is required, which can lead to
identity theft or impersonation. "For the Net generation, social
networking sites have become the preferred forum for social
interactions, from posturing and role playing to simply sounding off.
However, because such forums are relatively easy to access, posted
content can be reviewed by anyone with an interest in the users'
personal information". Privacy on the net is a rare thing these days
and ultimately it is left to the user to be responsible and improve his
or her privacy online.
Following plans by the UK government to monitor traffic on social
networksschemes similar to E-mail jamming have been proposed for
networks such as Twitter and Facebook. These would involve "friending"
and "following" large numbers of random people to thwart attempts at
network analysis.
There has been a trend for social networking sites to send out only
'positive' notifications to users. For example sites such as Bebo,
Facebook, and Myspace will not send notifications to users when they
are removed from a person's friends list. Similarly Bebo will send out
a notification if a user is moved to the top of another user's friends
list but no notification is sent if they are moved down the list.
This allows users to purge undesirables from their list extremely
easily and often without confrontation since a user will rarely notice
if one person disappears from their friends list. It also enforces the
general positive atmosphere of the website without drawing attention to
unpleasant happenings such as friends falling out, rejection and failed
relationships.
Many social networking services, such as Facebook, provide the user
with a choice of who can view their profile. This prevents unauthorized
user(s) from accessing their information. Parents have become a big
problem to teens who want to avoid their parents to access their
MySpace or Facebook accounts. By choosing to make their profile
private, teens are able to select who can see their page and this
prevents unwanted parents from lurking. This will also mean that only
people who are added as "friends" will be able to view the profile.
Teens are constantly trying to create a structural barrier between
their private life and their parents.
To edit information on a certain social networking service account, the
social networking sites require you to login or provide an access code.
This prevents unauthorized user(s) from adding, changing, or removing
personal information, pictures, and/or other data.
The relative freedom afforded by social networking services has caused
concern regarding the potential of its misuse by individual patrons. In
October 2006, a fake Myspace profile created in the name of Josh Evans
by Lori Janine Drew led to the suicide of Megan Meier.The event incited
global concern regarding the use of social networking services for
bullying purposes.
In July 2008, a Briton, Grant Raphael, was ordered to pay a total of
GBP £22,000 (about USD $44,000) for libel and breach of privacy.
Raphael had posted a fake page on Facebook purporting to be that of a
former schoolfriend Matthew Firsht, with whom Raphael had fallen out in
2000. The page falsely claimed that Firsht was homosexual and that he
was dishonest.
At the same time, genuine use of social networking services has been
treated with suspicion on the ground of the services' misuse. In
September 2008, the profile of Australian Facebook user Elmo Keep was
banned by the site's administrators on the grounds that it violated the
site's terms of use. Keep is one of several users of Facebook who were
banned from the site on the presumption that their names aren't real,
as they bear resemblance the names of characters like Sesame Street's
Elmo.
Citizens and governments have been concerned by a misuse by child and
teenagers of social network services, particularly in relation to
online sexual predators. A certain number of actions have been engaged
by governments to better understand the problem and find some
solutions. A 2008 panel concluded that technological fixes such as age
verification and scans are relatively ineffective means of apprehending
online predators.
A common misuse of social networking sites such as Facebook is that it
is occasionally used to emotionally abuse individuals. Such actions are
often referred to as trolling. It is not rare for confrontations in the
real world to be translated online. Online bullying (aka
"Cyber-bullying") is a relatively common occurrence and it can often
result in emotional trauma for the victim. Danah Boyd, a researcher of
social networks quotes a teenager in her article, Why Youth (Heart)
Social Network Sites. The teenager expresses frustration towards
networking sites like MySpace because it causes drama and too much
emotional stress. There are not many limitations as to what individuals
can post when online. Inherently individuals are given the power to
post offensive remarks or pictures that could potentially cause a great
amount of emotional pain for another individual.
Interpersonal communication has been a growing issue as more and more
people have turned to social networking as a means of
communication."Benniger (1987) describes how mass media has gradually
replaced interpersonal communication as a socializing force. Further,
social networking sites have become popular sites for youth culture to
explore themselves, relationships, and share cultural artifacts"A
Privacy Paradox Many teens and social networking users may be harming
their interpersonal communication by using sites such as Facebook and
MySpace.
Social network services are increasingly being used in legal and
criminal investigations. Information posted on sites such as MySpace
and Facebook has been used by police (forensic profiling), probation,
and university officials to prosecute users of said sites. In some
situations, content posted on MySpace has been used in court.
Facebook is increasingly being used by school administrations and law
enforcement agencies as a source of evidence against student users. The
site, the number one online destination for college students, allows
users to create profile pages with personal details. These pages can be
viewed by other registered users from the same school which often
include resident assistants and campus police who have signed-up for
the service. One UK police force has sifted pictures from Facebook and
arrested some people who had been photographed in a public place
holding a weapon such as a knife (having a weapon in a public place is
illegal).
Social networking is more recently being used by various government
agencies. Social networking tools serve as a quick and easy way for the
government to get the opinion of the public and to keep the public
updated on their activity. The Centers for Disease Control demonstrated
the importance of vaccinations on the popular children's site Whyville
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a virtual
island on Second Life where people can explore underground caves or
explore the effects of global warming.[51] Similarly, NASA has taken
advantage of a few social networking tools, including Twitter and
Flickr. They are using these tools to aid the Review of U.S. Human
Space Flight Plans Committee, whose goal it is to ensure that the
nation is on a vigorous and sustainable path to achieving its boldest
aspirations in space.
The use of social network services in an enterprise context presents
the potential of having a major impact on the world of business and
work (Fraser & Dutta 2008).
Social networks connect people at low cost; this can be beneficial for
entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to expand their contact
bases. These networks often act as a customer relationship management
tool for companies selling products and services. Companies can also
use social networks for advertising in the form of banners and text
ads. Since businesses operate globally, social networks can make it
easier to keep in touch with contacts around the world.
One example of social networking being used for business purposes is
LinkedIn.com, which aims to interconnect professionals. LinkedIn has
over 40 million users in over 200 countries.
Another is the use of physical spaces available to members of a social
network such as Hub Culture, an invitation only social network for
entrepreneurs, and other business influentials, with Pavilions in major
cities such as London, UK. Having a physical presence allows members to
network in the real world, as well as the virtual, adding extra
business value.
Applications for social networking sites have extended toward
businesses and brands are creating their own, high functioning sites, a
sector known as brand networking. It is the idea a brand can build its
consumer relationship by connecting their consumers to the brand image
on a platform that provides them relative content, elements of
participation, and a ranking or score system. Brand networking is a new
way to capitalize on social trends as a marketing tool.
Many social networks provide an online environment for people to
communicate and exchange personal information for dating purposes.
Intentions can vary from looking for a one time date, short-term
relationships, and long-term relationships.
Most of these social networks, just like online dating services,
require users to give out certain pieces of information. This usually
includes a user's age, gender, location, interests, and perhaps a
picture. Releasing very personal information is usually discouraged for
safety reasons. This allows other users to search or be searched by
some sort of criteria, but at the same time people can maintain a
degree of anonymity similar to most online dating services. Online
dating sites are similar to social networks in the sense that users
create profiles to meet and communicate with others, but their
activities on such sites are for the sole purpose of finding a person
of interest to date. Social networks do not necessarily have to be for
dating; many users simply use it for keeping in touch with friends, and
colleagues.
However, an important difference between social networks and online
dating services is the fact that online dating sites usually require a
fee, where social networks are free. This difference is one of the
reasons the online dating industry is seeing a massive decrease in
revenue due to many users opting to use social networking services
instead. Many popular online dating services such as Match.com, Yahoo
Personals, and eHarmony.com are seeing a decrease in users, where
social networks like MySpace and Facebook are experiencing an increase
in users.
The number of internet users in the U.S. that visit online dating sites
has fallen from a peak of 21% in 2003 to 10% in 2006. Whether its the
cost of the services, the variety of users with different intentions,
or any other reason, it is undeniable that social networking sites are
quickly becoming the new way to find dates online.
The National School Boards Association reports that almost 60 percent
of students who use social networking talk about education topics
online and, surprisingly, more than 50 percent talk specifically about
schoolwork. Yet the vast majority of school districts have stringent
rules against nearly all forms of social networking during the school
day — even though students and parents report few problem behaviors
online.
Social networks focused on supporting relationships between teachers
and between teachers and their students are now used for learning,
educator professional development, and content sharing. Ning for
teachers, Learn Central, TeachStreet and other sites are being built to
foster relationships that include educational blogs, eportfolios,
formal and ad hoc communities, as well as communication such as chats,
discussion threads, and synchronous forums. These sites also have
content sharing and rating features.
[edit] Medical applications
Social networks are beginning to be adopted by healthcare professionals
as a means to manage institutional knowledge, disseminate peer to peer
knowledge and to highlight individual physicians and institutions. The
advantage of using a dedicated medical social networking site is that
all the members are screened against the state licensing board list of
practitioners.
The role of social networks is especially of interest to pharmaceutical
companies who spend approximately "32 percent of their marketing
dollars" attempting to influence the opinion leaders of social networks.
A new trend is emerging with social networks created to help its
members with various physical and mental ailments. For people suffering
from life altering diseases, PatientsLikeMe offers its members the
chance to connect with others dealing with similar issues and research
patient data related to their condition. For alcoholics and addicts,
SoberCircle gives people in recovery the ability to communicate with
one another and strengthen their recovery through the encouragement of
others who can relate to their situation. DailyStrength is also a
website that offers support groups for a wide array of topics and
conditions, including the support topics offered by PatientsLikeMe and
SoberCircle. SparkPeople offers community and social networking tools
for peer support during weight loss.
This page was originally found at Wikipedia.