Social networking

Draft

Definition

Social networking is the practice of expanding the number of one's business and/or social contacts by making connections through individuals. (Whatis.com)

In educational technology, social networking refers to the professional or education/pedagogical use of social networking software.

One may distinguish two basic genres

• Social linking platforms that mostly just promote links between entries describing persons (profiles). A well known platform for professionals is LinkedIn.
• Social network sites: Platforms that let people create media-rich webpages and manage "friends" on the same platform and that can have various access to contents. The best known example is probably Facebook and pioneers were Frienster and MySpace. A variant of these are platforms to create networks, e.g Ning.

Social network sites

According to Danah Boyd, social network sites can be defined through three features: profiles, friends and comments.

Standards

• FOAF, a RDF standard for linking people (for which various applications exist)
• API standards to script platforms like Facebook and Ning (more details needed plus links to other web 2.0 standards)

Examples of social networking platforms

Examples of linking platforms

• frienster,
• Tribe
• LinkedIn, a friend-of-friend professional network.
• Orkut
• StudiVz - (StudiVZ Wikipedia) Social Networking platform for students.
• Cestagi - a collaborative platform that amalgamates interdisciplinary communities. Also allows to manage a CV.

Examples of platforms to promote various exchange

Platforms

• See the software section

Services

• Think.com
• Facebook (not just homepages for the idle, it does have some interesting features and networks, including an API)
• youfig

Examples of mashups built on top

One of the problems with social networking is that your friends or yourself are present on different platforms. One way to keep in touch is to use a mashup application that integrates elements (e.g. the latest messages).

• Socialthing.com Quote" See everything that's going on with your friends in all the sites you use ..."
• Pingfm (allows to post message to over 30 different social networks) ... noise multiplier :)
• Hellotxt (same as Pingfm)
• unype is a location-based social application platform. It interfaces persons connected to various social software (facebook, Ning, twitter, etc.) via google earch in a chat. See the untype blog for details.

Institutions and people

• www.academia.edu (shows researchers around the world in a 'tree' format, organized according to which institution/department they are affiliated with. Also shows interests and you can upload papers).

Software

See Wikipedia's Social network hosting service for a larger list.

Portalware to do it yourself

• Oxwall
• Diaspora (Wikipedia)
• onesocialweb An attempt to create a distribution solution based on the Instant messaging XMPP standard.
• socialengine (commercial, $250 as of Jan 2011)

Services that allow creation of your own network

(social network hosting)

• Ning (commercial only since spring 2010)
• wall.fm free tool for creating custom social networks. Software is based on Oxwall portalware
• mixxt, Ning-like social networking creator. The free version has advertising and includes a good list of tools.
• Services like LinkedIn or Facebook (to some extent only)
• webs, website building tool with templates. Includes social tools (blog, forum and profile pages)
• Spruz Ning-like social networking creator. The free version has less features, e.g. no video upload (but one may insert you tube videos). Also read How is Spruz Freemium Sustainable?.
• SocialGo (free version with ads and limited features)
• group.ps (spends time loading a flash animation)
• Igloo Software (free version available)
• BigTent (a group organization tool, i.e. only members can access your site)

Links

• Social Networking in Schools Gets a Boost from NSBA

• Schoolboards: net danger over-rated; bring social networks to school

• Comparison of social networking software (Wikipedia)

• Thoughts on the Social Graph by Brad Fitzpatrick and David Recordon, 2007-08-17

• The Next Evolution of Facebook Platform by Bret Taylor, April 21, 2010. (short description of some FB components).

References

(missing)

• Boyd, Danah (2007). Social Network Sites: Public, Private, or What?, The Knowledge Tree, 2007.

• Churchill, E.F.; Halverson, C.A. (2005) Guest Editors' Introduction: Social Networks and Social Networking, IEEEExplore,9 (5). 14- 19 http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MIC.2005.103.
  • See the full special edition of this this special issue.

• Lada Adamic, Eytan Adar, How to search a social network, Social NetworksVolume 27, Issue 3, , July 2005, Pages 187-203. doi:10.1016/j.socnet.2005.01.007

• Liccardi, I., Ounnas, A., Pau, R., Massey, E., Kinnunen, P., Lewthwaite, S., Midy, M., and Sarkar, C. 2007. The role of social networks in students' learning experiences. SIGCSE Bull. 39, 4 (Dec. 2007), 224-237. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1345375.1345442

• Pei-Luen Patrick Rau, Qin Gao, Yinan Ding (in press), Relationship between the level of intimacy and lurking in online social network services, Computers in Human BehaviorIn Press, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2008.04.001.