CS5038 The Electronic Society

CS5038 The Electronic SocietyLecture: Social Networking Lecture Outline

• Social Networking Service• Social Networking Sites

– Bebo

– Friendster– MySpace

• Social Networking Feature• Business Model• The future of Social Networking• Social Networking 3.0

Social Network Service

• A social network service – focuses on the building online social networks – for people who share interests and activities– or for those interested in exploring the interests and activit

ies of others

• The usual internet things can be done in one place– uploading music, videos and photos, – updating blog

• No tricky programming to learn, no software to load • Contact all your friends

– and all their friends' friends– all the friends of friends of friends

• MySpace, Bebo, Friendster and Facebook

Bebo

• Jan 2005 , husband and wife team Michael and Xochi Birch

• 40 Million users• Features : profile , picture , blog ,quiz, music• Business Model : Advertising, e.g. Google Ads• Target population : teenagers (10-20 yrs)• Social effects : Ireland

Friendster

• Designed by Jonathan Abrams in 2002 • Considered as the top online social network service un

til around April 2004• Reasons

– Demand too high– servers were very slow – users less interested in logging into their pages every day– Poor human computer interaction

(such as tailored to users’ needs)

MySpace

• Owned by News Corporation• Local versions• Features : profile for companies• Target population : 20-30 yrs• Business model : e-advertising arm of Fox

Interactive Media (owned by News Corporation)• Concerns : commercialisation• Security • MySpace overtaken by main competitor Facebook

in April 2008 (based on number of visitors)

Features

• Allow users to create and join virtual groups

• Share common interests or affiliations

• Upload videos

• Hold discussions in forums

• Artists have become their own agents– musicians are their own record labels – video makers their own broadcasters– everyone has become their own publicist

Business Model

• No charge for membership• MySpace and Facebook sell online advertising on thei

r site• Huge amounts of data from members

– can be utilised for targeted advertising and marketing

• Other ways to make money: – Facebook’s Marketplace: members can buy/sell products,

find jobs and etc. – LinkedIn makes money by charging $10 for each message a

user wants to send to a potential employer through the network.

History and Future of Social Networking

History of Social Networking

• Social Networks 1.0

– OneList, ICQ, Evite

• Social Networks 2.0

– Friendster, Orkut, LinkedIn

• Social Networks 2.5

– Bebo, MySpace, YouTube

Social Networking 3.0

• Existing Problems– Each site is independent, does not open onto the world– Users may have identities on different social networks– Each identity was created from scratch

• Social Networking 3.0– Freeing up data from independent sites– Allow members to link up to each other at different sites– Use single global identity with different views– Connect to any site using an Open Identity standard

(OpenID) and get access to forum, blogs, wiki etc– Also: object centred rather than person centred– Data mining fears…

Sectors finished…

Let us recap: What is eSociety About?

What is eSociety About?

Electronic

TechnologyHuman

Society

Some definitions…

• Technology: the art or science of applying scientific knowledge to practical problems

• Technology: a broad concept that deals with a species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt to its environment

• Society: an extended social group having a distinctive cultural and economic organization

• Society: a grouping of individuals, which is characterized by common interests and may have distinctive culture and institutions.

Technological and social developments through the ages…

Technological and social developments through the ages…

Development of farming

Technological and social developments through the ages…

Settlement

Technological and social developments through the ages…

Settlement

They interact and feed each other – technological and social development

Technological and social developments through the ages…

Development of money

Technological and social developments through the ages…

Specialisation

Technological and social developments through the ages…

Specialisation

Some unexpected, like traders

Technological and social developments through the ages…

Development

of Writing

Technological and social developments through the ages…

Specialist knowledge

Mathematics

Scribes

Education

Classes

…

So technology is the motor for major social changes

Now technological change is so fast and profound interesting times for society

We are only at the beginning of this social change

phone

screens

fast data transmission and processing

large databases

search

Encryption

Specific technologies were necessary for specific sectors

Sometimes one is driving the other

Much has been discovered very recently

Freedom of information

Censorship

Freedom of speech

Blogging

Technology provides a new opportunity + society makes use of it (in unforeseen ways)

=Society changes

Society has a new need

Technology fills the gap

Music

Movies

TV

Web 2.0

Again…

Technology provides a new opportunity + society makes use of it (in unforeseen ways)

=Society changes

Society has a new need

Technology fills the gap

Why study eSociety?

Learn about effects on societyLearn about new/old needs of societyLearn about non technical challenges

Looking at the big picture maybe you can see the patternhelps you predict

how technology will changehow society will change

business opportunity (Google, eBay, Amazon, Youtube)social engineering opportunity