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Tech Tip 116 - Demystifying Social Networks |
By
Kimmy Powell |
Sunday, Mar. 11, 2007 |
 It wasn’t so long ago that bulletin board systems (“BBSes”) were all the rage. Offered free of charge by hobbyists or as part of subscription services by dial-up Internet service providers such as CompuServe, BBSes were the true precursors to MySpace. Members met people in their communities, participated in message board discussions, published articles, downloaded software (shareware, freeware, and pirated) and played games. By the late 1990s,  however, BBSes were all but defunct, replaced by the newer, hipper and easier-to-use social networks.
Times have changed, and it’s all about global Internet meet-ups instead of traditional face-to-face meetings and hanging out at the mall. People from wide-ranging locales connect and share information with those who share the same interests, facilitating a mass “spreading the word” phenomena through community forums and message boards. Meeting others with like interests has never been easier than behind the safe confines of keyboard, mouse and monitor.
 Social networks come in two flavors. The one most familiar to us is the “friend-of-a-friend” network (FOAF), exemplified by MySpace and Friendster, the “connect and share” networks. The other type is a spin-off of the FOAF and known as social bookmarking. Social bookmarking websites are Internet services sites that promote the sharing of Internet bookmarks, links and feeds with other online users.
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Features of FOAFs |
FOAF social networks make getting connected relatively pain free. The only thing you need to start an account is a valid email address. Once you log in, you create a profile and customize a personal page using ready-to-use templates (HTML coders may be able to create their own templates). What you put on the page depends on how you want to be perceived – most people create glamorized personas of themselves. Once the page is in place, you can invite friends to join your group of friends and thus expand your network. You can also participate in discussion boards.
 Most social networking sites now include features such as the ability to upload personal pictures, post blogs (personal web logs resembling diary entries), searches through classifieds or other public message forums, and music and video uploads (a premium feature on some sites, but with the evolution and popularity of video networking sensation YouTube, this capability should become standard fairly soon). Recent safety and privacy concerns making the news (in part, stemming from child predators on MySpace) have pushed most of these sites to offer privacy controls that screen those potential friends, requiring your permission prior to access.
The majority of FOAF networks are free and open to the public. One primary drawback is that each network is proprietary and they are not interconnected, just like the old BBS days. You’ll need to sign-up and create separate profiles for each network. Another drawback or benefit is the free and open environment. This means anything goes; essentially, you can say, do and be anything your heart desires. The bad part of this “can do” attitude is that what you say and do online stays on public record, which could come back to haunt you. And because anything goes, the person behind the profile may not be who he or she claims to be. Be on the safe side --exercise caution and think before you click. |
Popular Networking Sites |
 The first social networking site to burst on the scene was 1995’s Classmates.com (www.classmates.com). Registration was free of charge and joining up gave members the ability to create personalized profiles with photo uploads, search for and connect with long lost acquaintances from school (elementary, high school college, work, and the military), read and post messages to forums, send emails to other members and get updates on upcoming reunions. The site later charged for some of these functionalities (the ability to communicate between members and create private groups). At its height, more than 40 million people were active on the site.
 The next phenom was 2003’s Friendster (www.friendster.com), currently boasting 30 million users. Registered members share photos, post blogs and messages to forums, search the classifieds and join groups and discussions. Friendster had been popular with the twenty-somethings in Europe, Asia and North America, supplanted by the arrival of MySpace with its video and music-sharing capabilities.
MySpace (www.myspace.com) is the most popular of the social networks, and with good reason. Its treasure trove of features include user blogs, message spaces, the ability to post pictures, music and videos, create and join groups, announce reunions and upcoming events, post reviews, and maintain favorites listings. MySpace is open to anyone and is heavily used as a marketing tool for musicians. By February 2006, the more than 70 million users had made MySpace the 10th most visited site on the Internet.
 A host of other sites arrived on the scene in 2004. The notables among this group are Facebook (www.facebook.com) and Flickr (www.flickr.com). The brainchild of a Harvard University student, Facebook caters to the college crowd, but has expanded to be more inclusive. Facebook membership entitles you to create a customized profile, participate in forums, upload photos, and create and join groups. The Facebook community was originally centered on company, region or school. Currently, 2.3 million photos  are uploaded daily and Facebook enjoys its status as the 7th most visited site in the United States. The other 2004 newcomer, Flickr, took social networking to a new level by focusing its networks on photo sharing. Members join, upload and share their photos with keyword tagging added to enhance the photo’s online searchability. Flickr is primarily used by bloggers as a photo repository and was acquired by Yahoo! in 2005.
 Businesses and professionals even started to take advantage of social networks. At LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com), members may locate professional references, classmates, and coworkers, while employers have the ability to scour membership directories for new hires and consultants. Access to resources is controlled; only those who have pre-existing relationships with other members may join, although guests may read selected postings.  Another network with the same concept and professional bent is Ryze (www.ryze.com). However, unlike LinkedIn, Ryze charges a fee for membership.
 Search engines jumped into the act, setting up their own networks on top of existing services with varying degrees of success. Google’s Orkut (www.orkut.com), originally an invitation-only network but now open to all, never quite found a following in the United States, succeeding instead with Brazilians. Yahoo 360  (http://360.yahoo.com), similar to MySpace, was built to integrate into Yahoo’s existing functionalities like Messenger and Flickr while offering features such as LAUNCHcast, an application that facilitates the sharing of music and station links. Even MSN and AOL chimed in with Windows Live Spaces and AIM Pages.
 A newcomer gaining fast popularity is Xanga (www.xanga.com) and the information-intensive FAQQLY (www.faqqly.com). Xanga possesses much of the functionality found in MySpace, but it has gained a strong foothold among teenagers who refer to themselves as “Xangans” and call their pages “Xanga Sites.” FAQQLY takes social networking in a new direction by emphasizing connectedness based on FAQs, or frequently answered questions. Users log in and create keyword lists in subjects that they are curious  about and receiving answers from other FAQQLY members. FAQQLY members are recognized for their expertise. This promises great collaborative potential in the future.
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 Inspired by the cyberpunk generation and spinning off the theme of being somebody you’re not are the 3D online virtual worlds (known today as MMORPGs, or “Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games”). Trendy among teens, twenty- and thirty-somethings, online virtual worlds come complete with their own laws and rules of engagement. An example of one of these online virtual worlds is San Francisco’s Second Life (www.secondlife.com), which currently boasts 3.8 million members after busting onto the international scene in 2006. Second Life’s “Sim City”-like community is created and maintained exclusively by “residents” (members). Residents hang out with other residents via chat rooms and game rooms, and conduct businesses transactions with one another using Second Life’s own currency standard - the Linden dollar. Basic membership is free at Second Life, requiring just a valid email to join. However, access to functionalities such as the right to own land requires premium-level membership – just like real life. Second Life has become so popular recently that US Internet searches for the term “Second Life” nearly tripled in October of 2006. Major international brands including IBM, GM, Dell, Nissan,  Reuters, and Adidas are taking it so seriously that they’re building virtual factories, producing virtual cars and other products for sale and use by residents of the environment, and even holding press conferences and filing news reports from this “alternate universe”.
Other online virtual worlds require the purchase of store-bought or downloaded software packages and a valid credit card to join. Sony Entertainment’s EverQuest (www.everquest.com) and Blizzard’s World of Warcraft (www.worldofwarcraft.com) are examples of these types of networks.
Social networks are great places to meet new friends who share common interests, but as with anything involving strangers, be wary. Its popularity with teens and the twenty-something crowd means that parents should monitor and instill the necessity of keeping contact information private and out of sight of strangers. Remember, meeting people is fun and easy, but do think before you click! |
1 Source: Revenue - the Performance Marketing Standard. Volume 4, January/February 2007, p. 116. |
On
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