Special Interest Social Networks
Brenda F. Bell
ACGNJ Main MeetingNovember 4, 2011
HISTORY OF ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS
Earliest Online Social Networks
• BBS’s– Routed discussion groups (e.g., Fido.Net)
• Online Services – AoL, Prodigy, CompuServe, GEnie
• Usenet Newsgroups (e.g., AlterNet)• Internet Mailing Lists (e.g., LISTSERV)• Online chat (e.g. AIM, IRC)
The Second Era: Multi-Mode Sharing
• Added photographs, hyperlinks, chat to mailing lists and forums
• Added Web interfaces• Community members may choose to
establish/include interactions from unrelated services (i.e., mailing list and related IRC room)
• Examples: eGroups (later Yahoo Groups)
Modern Social Networking
• Multi-mode: messages, photos, videos, blogs, chat
• Private messaging as well as broadcasting• Status and/or mood updates• Default setting is “share everything”• Examples: MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn,
Google+
GOING PRIVATE
Private and Special Interest social networks in the post-Facebook world
Why Go Private/Special-Interest?
• Common interest community– Special or “offbeat” interests
• Medical, political, professional, fannish
• Concentration of information– Important updates don’t get lost in a stream of
chatter• Hazards of sharing too widely
– Discrimination– Comingling of possibly-conflicting interests
• Work, family, hobbies, religion
• Facebook’s changing privacy standards
Advantages of Special-Interest Networks
• [Administrative] Targeted audience– Similar interests, issues, solutions– More effective monetization
• [Administrative] More granular control– Membership levels (free, basic, full-service)– Tighter content, mode/component control– Add novel and specialty interaction types
• Less chance of unwanted disclosure– Protected demographics– Alternative lifestyles
SOCIAL NETWORKING PLATFORMS
Basic Platforms
(These do not provide forums or allow inline integration of multiple media types)
• Yahoo Groups– Share e-mail, photos, links, calendar, profiles– Other Yahoo properties (Flickr) have group-limited
sharing available• Google Groups
– Share e-mail, MIME attachments, calendars– Other Google properties (Picasa, GoogleDocs,
YouTube) extend and customize group-sharing options
Streaming Media Platforms
• Ustream– For live and recorded streaming video– Live videos include option of simultaneous text
chat– Video stream can be embedded in other sites
• BlogTalkRadio– Live and recorded audio stream, listener phone-in
numbers, simultaneous text chat– Sometimes used as an adjunct to an existing
community
Building Networks From Scratch
• Drupal – Open Source content management system– Used to run communities, blogs, forums, etc.– Examples: dLife, dLife Community
• Ruby on Rails– Open Source development framework– Used for content management systems and
communities– Examples: Diabetic Connect, Geni, Ravelry,
Justin.TV
Advanced Social Networking Platforms
• Ning– Most-widely used social networking platform– Supports user profiles and status updates, blogs,
photo/video/event sharing, discussion forums, featured content, integrated news content, integrated chat, private messaging
– User-optional Facebook, Twitter integration• Grouply
– Similar to Ning, but includes free networks– Examples: New York Renaissance Faire
Ning Networks
• TuDiabetes• Diabetic Rockstar• WEGOHealth• The Twilight Saga• Examples in other spaces:
http://about.ning.com/spotlight/ • More about Ning:
http://about.ning.com/product/
Other Special Interest Social Networks
• Livestrong– Health, diet, and fitness tracking– Site developed using DemandMedia tools
designed for brand and content management• Map My Fitness
– Fitness-specific mapping and location sharing– Fitness tracking and training– Site developed using a number of standard Web
tools, including MySQL and PHP
GOING BEYOND A SINGLE NETWORK
Carving out your own special-interest social space
Multi-Platform Communities
Some users are active in multiple venues– Monetized own-domain or mainstream-hosted
blogs (Blogger, WordPress)– Special-interest groups and social networks for
outreach and support– YouTube or Vimeo for videos and vlogs– Twitter for blogpost broadcasting and real-time
chat– BlogTalkRadio and other podcasting platforms– Flickr or Picasa for cross-network photo sharing– Facebook and LinkedIn for general outreach
Keeping it Together
• Keep identical or similar usernames across all communities for your interest
• Don’t use your real name if you want to limit who sees your special-interest activity
• Create an interest-based username from– Your blog’s name– Your site’s name or domain name– Your interest
• Cross-broadcast new content to all of your communities for that interest
Keeping it Separate
• Use separate usernames and identities for your professional, family, and hobbyist activities– Exceptions:
• If your special-interest is career-related, use your professional identity
• If you represent your special-interest “in real life”, you may not be able to separate it from your family and/or professional identities
– Be careful what you post under which identity– If you’re caught out, admit it.
SUMMARY
Special Interest social networks
• Cater to targeted or limited interest groups• Combine a variety of social and information
services• Can be developed using one or more
software platforms• Are designed for member-to-member
interaction
They provide
• Information and sharing based on common interests
• Greater user-controlled privacy than Facebook
• Specialty social applications• Targeted opportunities for monetization