Assignment 2a, Social software and Web 2.00 – Study a Social Network

Describe (in your blog) the characteristics of a social network and explain why social networks have such relevance and impact today.

“No person is separated by more than six degrees from another!” Kevin Bacon

I personally think we can consider this sentence as a pillar for establishment of all social networks. In social networks everything is a matter of connect. Everything here is about make a connection, like connecting people, connecting groups, connecting ideas… etc.

As a definition for social networks, SNs, they are defined as Web sites that provide virtual community for people interested in a particular subject, to increase their circle of acquaintances, activities and connections. There are dating sites, friendship sites, and sites with a business purpose and hybrids that offer a combination of all above.

What differentiates a social network from an ordinary website is that social networks are user-based communities that help people to make new relationships and expand existing relations. Sometimes social networks can help individuals emotionally because they virtually feel themselves among their friends and peers. Sometimes people get addicted to their social networks and their online friends more than their ordinary friends. It will be a psychological topic to find the reason for this situation and I don’t want to go that side.

“Knowledge is the result of social interaction and language usage, and thus is a shared, rather than an individual, experience.” (Dolittle, P.1999)

Social interaction creates opportunities for individuals to gather information about everything from sports to politics, from art to physics etc. They also can share their knowledge with their friends and peers. The knowledge allows them to live beyond personal resource constraints(McClurg 2003). Online social networks are changing the way people communicate, work and play, and mostly for the better. Social-networking sites’ impressive growth has attracted much attention because the sites have made people’s personal relationships more visible and quantifiable than ever before. They have also become important vehicles for news and channels of influence (Martin Giles 2010). These characteristics make SNS very good for businesses.

Create a list of social network sites and make a short description (perhaps you have already done this in the previous assignment)

Facebook.com: the most popular social network website with more than 600,000,000 users all around the world. In fact we can consider Facebook.com as the third populate country in the world!

linkedin.com: is a networking resource for business people who want to connect with other professionals. In fact, LinkedIn contacts are referred to as "connections." Today, LinkedIn boasts more than 30 million members.

twitter.com: A micro social blogging system in which users can communicate through a maximum of 140 letters written as an update. It’s one of the most popular website around the globe. Twitter is the ninth most popular site in the world according to the three-month Alexa traffic rankings. The site has been online for more than eleven years. 

friendfeed.com: "FriendFeed.com is launching the most intuitive interface I’ve seen yet for sharing information with your friends." - VentureBeat (Eric Eldon). This growing social network provides a simple place for sharing file, pictures and personal writings. Its platform is more like twitter because it is a micro blogging system but it also provides the attachment ability.

This website is very popular at my country as the youth sometimes call it FerFer that is a abbreviation for friendfeed!

myspace.com: MySpace is a free online community composed of personal profiles aimed mostly at a younger membership. A MySpace profile typically includes photos and information about personal interests. MySpace launched in 2003. Though it no longer resides upon the social networking throne in many English-speaking countries – that honor now belongs to Facebook in places like Canada and the UK – MySpace remains the perennial favorite in the USA. (Christopher Nickson, 2009)  

Orkut.com:one of the first but not the best! Orkut is one of the pioneers in social networks market. After a while google purchased it. Now it is not as popular as facebook.com and myspace.com etc.

In my country, Iran, there are a bunch of social networks only in Persian language, Farsi (Persian). So they designed just for users who know Farsi. However, based on alexa.com statistics the high ranked SNS in Iran are also those which are popular in the world.  Some of the most popular ones are as below (click on names to see related info at Alexa.com):

Cloob.com: This SNS is like Facebook.com in terms of structure and features. Although it tries to offer lots of features that a user might need but the language barriers limit its growth because the target market is only Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. They have added some features more than normal features other famous SNS provide for user under a shelter to make competitive advantages in compare with global SNS leaders. Some of these features are social bookmarking, games, forums, directories, stores, video uploading etc.

Balatarin.com:  Balatarin which means the highest in Persian, is the most popular web 2.0 website in Persian. It helps its users to find the best links on the Internet that interest Iranians around the world. Registered users can post links to interesting articles. Those links initially go to the "recently posted" page. Once a link gets enough positive votes, it is moved to the top of the front page, which provides more visibility. (About us-Balatarin.com)

Iranproud.com: is a very popular Iranian social network which user can share their movies and videos. They also can give their viewpoint about each movie. The website also offer more features like micro blogging system, forums, chatting.

Doreh.com : You can call it the Persian version of classmate.com. The main idea is to provide a place for finding your old friends or classmates and share memories and stories. Recently the board of directors decided to change the marketing strategies and expand its market. They are still working!

Choose a social network to join

Since social networking is one of my interests, I have accounts in some of the most popular Social networks like Facebook.com, linkedin.com, twitter.com, friendfeed.com, digg.com, orkut.com, myspace.com and couchsurfing.org… etc.

Among all mentioned above I chose couchsurfing.org to introduce at my assignment 2b because I recently have joined it and try to understand its features and atmosphere. This social network belongs to Couch Surfing project which tries to” Offer profile listing, discussion groups and a place to arrange free accommodations around the world”. People who want to travel to other countries can find free hosts at their destinations, share their experiences, and find useful information. Here you approximately can find all information related to your travel.

Create a list of criteria that you will focus upon while studying your social network.

At this study I will focus on topics below:

•  What is the reason for establishment? (Vision and mission)
• How does it work?
• Number of users and other interesting statistics
• Features
• Security 

Participate actively for at least 6-8 weeks.

I have joined this social network about 1 month ago (02/02/2011, 5:51 am!!!). You also can join CS and add me to your friend list! My pleasure!

Assignment 2b, Social software and Web 2.00 – Study a Social Network

2b. Share your experiences

Once you have finished assignment 2a it is time to share your experiences with your fellow students. Present a summary of your experiences and your reflections using a slide cast or a video clip. Choose a software for your presentation and you can get guidance in this from your work in part 1,2 and 3. If you choose to record speech we recommend that you use a headset of good quality when you make the recording (USB- headset is to prefer). Video can be recorded with a usual web camera or mobile phone.

You can see my presentation here (at Scribd.com)

You can also download my presentation here (MEGAUPLOAD)

You can also download my presentation here (MediaFire)

See here for more info

References

Dolittle, P. (1999) Constructivism and Online Education. Available:
http://edpsychserver.ed.vt.edu/workshops/tohe1999/text/doo2.pdf

Wenger, E. (2005) Communities of practice a brief introduction Available:http://www.ewenger.com/theory/communities_of_practice_intro_WRD.doc

Martin Giles, “A special report on social networking: A world of connection”, Jan 28th 2010, the economist, Available:
http://www.economist.com/node/15351002?story_id=15351002&source=hptextfeature

 

McClurg, S. D. (2003). "Social networks and political participation: The role of social interaction in explaining political participation." Political Research Quarterly 56(4): 449.