A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as values, visions, idea , financial exchange, friends, kinship, dislike, conflict, trade, web links, sexual relations, disease transmission, or airline routes.
Social network analysis views social relationships in terms of nodes and ties. Nodes are the individual actors within the networks, and ties are the relationships between the actors. There can be many kinds of ties between the nodes. Research in a number of academic fields has shown that social networks operate on many levels, from families up to the level of nations, and play a critical role in determining the way problems are solved, organizations are run, and the degree to which individuals succeed in achieving their goals.
In its simplest form, a social network is a map of all of the relevant ties between the nodes being studied. The network can also be used to determine the social capital of individual actors. These concepts are often displayed in a social network diagram, where nodes are the points and ties are the lines.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
It is a kind of social networking site, and is generating huge amounts of buzz among the web's early adopters thanks to a simple conceit. All twitter.com does is ask: "What are you doing?"
The idea is that it offers a way for individuals to provide more detailed status updates to their friends, family and contacts. And, crucially, it delivers those updates across a variety of different media - either through its website, over instant messaging or by SMS to your mobile phone.
Since launching a year ago as a side project by the people behind the podcasting and audio site Odeo, Twitter has gained traction with a large number of Silicon Valley cognoscenti and some of the web's most high-profile names. Critics say it is another pointless distraction in a world already suffering information overload, and wonder how users manage to keep tabs on what they're really up to.
True, on first glance it is a baffling and seemingly pointless service - but underneath it proves intriguing, useful and addictive for those who live on the move. One observer called it "the Seinfeld of the internet ... a website about nothing". Twitter's backers have form in this area. One, Nebraskan Ev Williams, was a founder of Blogger.com, the site that kickstarted the huge growth of blogging in the late 1990s. Another, Biz Stone, was involved in the early days of Xanga.com - a MySpace-style affair that is now one of the top 50 sites in the world.
It is no surprise, then, that some believe Twitter's service is the logical evolution of blogging. The two platforms have much in common; and while blogging is still much derided, it has been adopted by millions of people.
Twitter has been growing fast too, and in recent times it has been doubling subscriber numbers every month. Its makers said that the past weekend saw the number of messages sent triple, thanks to the conglomeration of users at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. Some adopters have taken this growth as the reason to use it as a sort of "internet firehose", corralling quickfire opinions from around the globe.
The site isn't just populated by technoheads, however. It's also used by politicians (US presidential candidate John Edwards, for example), fictional characters (including Chewbacca and R2D2) and even the odd journalist or two (I have been using it for the past few months: twitter.com/bobbiejohnson).
The rapid-fire model may be superseded when internet access become ubiquitous, but right now Twitterers have found that a quick text message does the trick for them. It's even been the medium of choice for some breaking news announcements.
So will it be a useful addition to the web, or simply another MySpace-like black hole that sucks away at our free time? Nobody knows, but when the big decision does arrive, it's likely to be Twittered before it hits the rest of us.
The idea is that it offers a way for individuals to provide more detailed status updates to their friends, family and contacts. And, crucially, it delivers those updates across a variety of different media - either through its website, over instant messaging or by SMS to your mobile phone.
Since launching a year ago as a side project by the people behind the podcasting and audio site Odeo, Twitter has gained traction with a large number of Silicon Valley cognoscenti and some of the web's most high-profile names. Critics say it is another pointless distraction in a world already suffering information overload, and wonder how users manage to keep tabs on what they're really up to.
True, on first glance it is a baffling and seemingly pointless service - but underneath it proves intriguing, useful and addictive for those who live on the move. One observer called it "the Seinfeld of the internet ... a website about nothing". Twitter's backers have form in this area. One, Nebraskan Ev Williams, was a founder of Blogger.com, the site that kickstarted the huge growth of blogging in the late 1990s. Another, Biz Stone, was involved in the early days of Xanga.com - a MySpace-style affair that is now one of the top 50 sites in the world.
It is no surprise, then, that some believe Twitter's service is the logical evolution of blogging. The two platforms have much in common; and while blogging is still much derided, it has been adopted by millions of people.
Twitter has been growing fast too, and in recent times it has been doubling subscriber numbers every month. Its makers said that the past weekend saw the number of messages sent triple, thanks to the conglomeration of users at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. Some adopters have taken this growth as the reason to use it as a sort of "internet firehose", corralling quickfire opinions from around the globe.
The site isn't just populated by technoheads, however. It's also used by politicians (US presidential candidate John Edwards, for example), fictional characters (including Chewbacca and R2D2) and even the odd journalist or two (I have been using it for the past few months: twitter.com/bobbiejohnson).
The rapid-fire model may be superseded when internet access become ubiquitous, but right now Twitterers have found that a quick text message does the trick for them. It's even been the medium of choice for some breaking news announcements.
So will it be a useful addition to the web, or simply another MySpace-like black hole that sucks away at our free time? Nobody knows, but when the big decision does arrive, it's likely to be Twittered before it hits the rest of us.
Wiki Vive Wiki
Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly.
Wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself.
Like many simple concepts, "open editing" has some profound and subtle effects on Wiki usage. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by nontechnical users.
Wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself.
Like many simple concepts, "open editing" has some profound and subtle effects on Wiki usage. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by nontechnical users.
Historical Note. The first ever wiki site was created for the Portland Pattern Repository in 1995. That site now hosts tens of thousands of pages.
Good blog
The Internet contains nearly 3 million active blogs, according to one recent count, with topics ranging from politics to movies, to food, to the emotional ramblings of high-school teens.
With so many blogs, how does one become popular? What qualities will distinguish a blog from the massive congestion in the blogosphere?
Blogs become successful because of specificity and passion, according to Kevin Donahue, co-creator of Fanblogs, a college football blog described by Forbes.com as the best blog dedicated to a single sport. Have a single focus about a topic you really enjoy, and put a little of yourself into it,” he says. Fanblogs prospers because college football already has a loyal fan base. “And that passion translates into a loyal readership.”
Reader comments are a significant factor in blog popularity, according to several bloggers. Hart Brachen, creator of the snarky, ironic blog The Soxaholix says, “People who leave comments build the community aspect that really helps a site become more than just one blogger writing into space. Comments let you know what’s working and what’s not, and inspire you to keep at it.”
Daniel Kasman, a writer for the popular film discussion blog MilkPlus, agrees. Posted comments will keep a blog “fresh and full of discourse,” he says.
Lockhart Steele, the managing editor of blog publisher Gawker Media, says that after a blog develops an audience, readers will submit tips and fact-check stories. They basically “do all of the work for you.”
Dedicated readers also keep a blog’s integrity in check. “Repeat visitors feel an ownership and loyalty to the blog,” observes Fanblogs’ Donahue. “They will police comments, pointing out when someone is out of line.”
But before a blog is able to rely on its readers to help it succeed, a blogger must sometimes wait months, or even years, before a regular following develops. While some bloggers believe that they’re going to attract regular commenters within days of launching their blogs, Holiday of Fanblogs says, “it doesn’t happen like that.”
Modifying a quote from the movie “Field of Dreams,” he says: “If you build it, they will come … slowly.”
With so many blogs, how does one become popular? What qualities will distinguish a blog from the massive congestion in the blogosphere?
Blogs become successful because of specificity and passion, according to Kevin Donahue, co-creator of Fanblogs, a college football blog described by Forbes.com as the best blog dedicated to a single sport. Have a single focus about a topic you really enjoy, and put a little of yourself into it,” he says. Fanblogs prospers because college football already has a loyal fan base. “And that passion translates into a loyal readership.”
Reader comments are a significant factor in blog popularity, according to several bloggers. Hart Brachen, creator of the snarky, ironic blog The Soxaholix says, “People who leave comments build the community aspect that really helps a site become more than just one blogger writing into space. Comments let you know what’s working and what’s not, and inspire you to keep at it.”
Daniel Kasman, a writer for the popular film discussion blog MilkPlus, agrees. Posted comments will keep a blog “fresh and full of discourse,” he says.
Lockhart Steele, the managing editor of blog publisher Gawker Media, says that after a blog develops an audience, readers will submit tips and fact-check stories. They basically “do all of the work for you.”
Dedicated readers also keep a blog’s integrity in check. “Repeat visitors feel an ownership and loyalty to the blog,” observes Fanblogs’ Donahue. “They will police comments, pointing out when someone is out of line.”
But before a blog is able to rely on its readers to help it succeed, a blogger must sometimes wait months, or even years, before a regular following develops. While some bloggers believe that they’re going to attract regular commenters within days of launching their blogs, Holiday of Fanblogs says, “it doesn’t happen like that.”
Modifying a quote from the movie “Field of Dreams,” he says: “If you build it, they will come … slowly.”
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is a neologism for the act of taking a job traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people, in the form of an open call. For example, the public may be invited to develop a new technology, carry out a design task, refine an algorithm or help analyze large amounts of data.
The word was first coined by Jeff Howe in a June, 2006 Wired Magazine. Though the term is new there are examples of significant crowdsourcing projects as early as the eighteenth century. In 1714, the British Government offered a public prize for a solution to the longitude problem. In the 1800s, the Oxford English Dictionary was written from volunteer contributions of millions of slips of paper. Recently, the Internet has been used to publicize and manage crowdsourcing projects.
The word was first coined by Jeff Howe in a June, 2006 Wired Magazine. Though the term is new there are examples of significant crowdsourcing projects as early as the eighteenth century. In 1714, the British Government offered a public prize for a solution to the longitude problem. In the 1800s, the Oxford English Dictionary was written from volunteer contributions of millions of slips of paper. Recently, the Internet has been used to publicize and manage crowdsourcing projects.
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