Re: What is a social network?

Tim,

my next sentence in that email was:

 > On the other hand is this XG about the emerging Social Web, which is
 > more than just SNSs. To my understanding every site is "in" which has social
 > features.

I quoted Boyd to disambiguate social sites in general from SNS. Are you d'accord 
with this?

Greets,
Alex

Tim Anglade schrieb:
> Hi all.
> 
> Le 9 juin 09 à 16:09, Alex Korth a écrit :
> 
>> Hi Christine, all,
>>
>> this is an issue that I also see as being not clarified here: what 
>> services are in and which are out? We should not re-invent the wheel 
>> here. There is a definition of Social networking sites (SNS) by Danah 
>> Boyd [1] which I like and which we could consider using:
>>
>> "We define social network sites as web-based services that allow 
>> individuals to
>> (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system,
>> (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a 
>> connection, and
>> (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by 
>> others within the system.
>> The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to 
>> site."
> 
> I strongly disagree with a definition in such terms. It cuts off most 
> BBS and anonymous social networks (which are a very interesting, if 
> hardly categorizable trend in current models).
> 
> The most obvious counter-example to Danah Boyd's definition is 4chan. It 
> exhibits none of those features yet it's almost impossible to argue it's 
> not “social” or a “social network”, as it has shown (sensible) 
> discussion, group emergence and active collaboration.
> 
> The removal of profiles and “friending” may be enough to remove 
> “network” from “social network” for some but I, for one, would argue 
> that a platform without explicit profiles and friending is still an 
> (implicit) social network that deserves to be studied and treated as such.
> 
> 
> Cheers,
> Tim
> 
>>
>> On the other hand is this XG about the emerging Social Web, which is 
>> more than just SNSs.
>> To my understanding every site is "in" which has social features. To 
>> provide, access and share these features and their content is what I 
>> am interested in.
>> I think we need to clarify our visions of the emerging Social Web to 
>> improve the fundament of our work in this group.
>> Should we have a wiki page for this? For now, find my 2 cents here 
>> [2]. What is your visions?
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Alex
>>
>> [1] http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html
>> [2] http://socialconnect.info/trac/wiki/VisionVault
>>
>> Christine Perey schrieb:
>>> I was asking myself, when populating the list of 30 popular community 
>>> services: What defines (for those of us in this W3C XG) a service as 
>>> being unequivocally on the list and why?
>>> Do we all have the same definition of social networking? Judging from 
>>> the services on the first list on this wiki page [1], probably not.
>>> I suggest that we take a stab at a W3C Social Web XG 'accepted' 
>>> definition of scope.
>>> Playing the devils' advocate here:
>>> One of the problems with a public/published W3C definition of "social 
>>> web" or "social networking" is that it may need to be examined 
>>> regularly and modified/updated. Where will the boundaries every end?  
>>> Social networking ("community") features are beginning to permeate 
>>> many other (previously non social) digital services. There are 
>>> already and will be more social "features" added to everything.
>>> Some examples:
>>> + a music (or any entertainment content) service where people rate 
>>> the tunes, movies, etc   + a weather service in which you can see the 
>>> weather near your friends,
>>>  + a local nightclub search service on which you see where your 
>>> friends have already congregated,
>>>  + an auction service on which your friends or taste neighbors offer 
>>> opinions/advice before you conclude a purchase
>>> Take this out into the distance and what you have is an infinite list 
>>> of socially-aware services. Everything is social...
>>> [1] 
>>> http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/socialweb/wiki/TopSocialNetworkingSites
>>> Christine Spime Wrangler
>>> cperey@perey.com <mailto:cperey@perey.com>
>>> mobile (Swiss): +41 79 436 68 69
>>> from US: +1 (617) 848 8159
>>> from anywhere (Skype): Christine_perey
>>>
>>

-- 
Alexander Korth
alex@ttbc.de
m +49-1577-1704501

Received on Tuesday, 9 June 2009 16:25:41 UTC