Web 2.0 & Social Networking

PJ DillonNovember 2nd, 2006

Outline

• Web 2.0 Overview• Web 2.0 Examples• Social Networking• Social Networking Software

– Site– Online Dating– Mobile

• What’s in Common• My Project

Supporting Web 2.0• Refers to light-weight business models providing

services rather than software products• Server-side web applications provide light-weight

user interfaces– User interacts through a web browser– AJAX utilities provide rich user experience

• Development and updates evolve continuously– “Perpetual beta”– Users interaction drives software changes– Users act as co-developers

• Database– Store, organize, and manage user data– Data changes quickly

Web 2.0 Mechanism• Provide data management services

– Service evolves with user experience– Users determine how they’ll use the service

• Users act as data sources– Provide content

• Richness of content grows as more people contribute– Data gains more meaning/relevance– Utilizes the “collective intelligence”

• Syndication– Don’t dictate how data is used

• Reuse– Incorporation into or combination with other services

Web 2.0 Services• Google

– Mail, maps, calendar, word processing, spreadsheets, etc• SourceForge.net

– User-created open source software project• Amazon

– User reviews, “People who bought this item also purchased”• eBay

– User generated auctions• BitTorrent

– Collaborative file storage and transfer• Wikipedia

– Collaborative Encyclopedia• YouTube

– Video sharing• Mapquest

– Online maps and directions• Paypal

The Blog

• Personal web pages have been around since the dawn of the web

• The web log altered the paradigm– The personal web page in journal form– From static web content to continuously updated

content

• RSS provides the static link to this ever changing content– Provided the first mechanism for syndication– Separates content from any fixed display of it– Alerts interested users to new content

The Blog

• Linking became the currency of the “blogosphere”– Authors include links to other blogs in their own– Back links let an author count how many people

linked to his blog– Collective intelligence syndicated the best content– Formation of communities

• Social Networking

• Notice the implicit association– Blog still associated with the person– Each blogger creates a personal profile

Social Networking

• Involves the formation of interpersonal relationships– Business, academic, dating, hobbies, sports, and

activities• In the context of Web 2.0

– Web service provides representation of these real world relationships

• Friends, business partners, or teammates– Organize digital information relevant to or indicative of

these relationships– Context provides the means to find and create new

relationships with different people

Social Networking Services

MySpace

• The flagship social networking site

• Open registration with an email address

• Users create personal profile– Displayed as personal website– Customizable HTML using style tags– Becomes content of the system

MySpace Services• Friends List – link to other friends’ pages• Favorites List – link to other peoples’ pages• Messaging – email-like• Groups – link to others with common interest• Blogging• Events – link to others attending an event• Bulletins – Broadcast messages posted for friends • Entertainment Industry

– Artists, Movies, Comedians advertise themselves on their pages– Link to favorite artists as a friend– Incorporate songs into profile

• Videos– Users can upload home videos– Incorporate into profiles

• Professional Networking– Link to particular schools, colleges or companies– Self-tagging into a taxonomy of professions

Facebook

• Quintessential continuous development site– New services and updates have been incrementally added over

the last year– Services are provided without knowing how they’ll be used

(poke)

• Broader Social Networks are organized into high schools, colleges, companies, and geographic regions– Registration is restricted to email address indicative of

membership to the respective network– Geographic regions have open registration

• Users create personal profile– Content for the system

Facebook Services• Friends List

– link to other friends’ pages– Crosses network boundaries

• Messaging• Poking• Groups• Blogging• Events• Pictures

– Upload and group pictures– Tag friends in images

• Current Status – current activity or personal state• Professional Networking• Bookmarking• Update Feed – aggregates changes to friends profiles for convenience• Mobile Phone Access

Other Social Networking Sites

• Classmates.com• Friendster• Mooble• Orkut

– Google’s invitation only, trusted friends site

• iSocialite• There at 100’s

– All with pretty much the same features

Online Dating Websites

• Essentially social networking for a particular focus

• Users create profile– Most elaborate profiles

• Services– Searching– Messaging– Winking/poking

• Generally more static content and simple services

Special Social Services

Flickr

• Have already seen Picture Sharing– Main content

• Profile– Partially drawn from Yahoo! ID

• Contacts List (Friends)

• Messaging

Del.icio.us

• That’s the URL: http://del.icio.us• Social Bookmarking

– Users browse web, find interesting site– Save link to del.icio.us– Tag link with keywords– Send links to specific friends– Save commonly used bookmarks

• Friends list (Network)• Tagging• Link descriptions/commentary• RSS feeds

“Folksonomy”

• Opposed to a taxonomy– Predefined, rigidly structured classification– Attempts to cover all possibilities– Single item can fall into a single classification only

• “Folksonomy” describes user-defined tagging– Used by Flickr, del.icio.us, etc

• Undefined, unstructured grouping– structure and grouping arise as users participate

• Adds meaning to each tag

Xanga

• Blogging social networking site• Users create profile• Other Services

– Messaging– Groups– Picture sharing– Music sharing– Video sharing– Blog subscription

Mobile Social Networking

• A large number of social networking sites are designed for use with a mobile phone– “MoSoSo” – Mobile Social Software

• Use multiple technologies– Bluetooth Personal Area Network– Text messaging interaction– Specialized mobile software– (Mobile web)

• Often involve location/geographic based services

Dodgeball

• Text messaging based interaction with central service

• Open registration with email address and mobile phone– Linked with Google account

• Create profile– Designed to be viewed on mobile phone

• Users define location based Venues• Set current location using mobile phone

– Text message sent to each of the user’s friends with location of the user

– Geotagging yourself

Twitter

• Text messaging based interaction with central service

• Open registration with email address• Simple service to let others know current activity

– User sets description of current activity– Text message is broadcast to each of his or her

friends– Like Facebook’s status service with added text

message broadcasting

• User creates small profile and list of Friends

Socialight

• Software application running on mobile phone• Mobile geographic tagging and retrieval

– Web 2.0 city guide• Users create

– Venue descriptions or reviews– Pictures

• Upload content to service tagged with geographic position

• Users query service for stored information near their current location

• Users are also notified if friends or friends of friends are nearby

• User profiles and friends list

Plazes

• Mobile laptop software• Service maintains a worldwide database of WiFi hot spot

locations• Users register with email address

– Create profile– Build friends list

• Uses MAC address of network hardware to determine users location– If not known, user defines place

• Lets friends know when they are in proximity• Can include Trazer in other sites to let friends know

where you are at all times (Yikes!)• Mobile phone software is planned as well

Rabble

• Special mobile software application– They actually charge a monthly service fee

• Create location tagged media with phone– Blog, pictures, favorite places, events– Upload with phone

• Search for content tagged around you• Acts as a media mobile blog

– Constantly updating mobile information– Subscribe to other’s information “channel”

• Integrated with other blogging services

What’s in common?

The Profile

• Every service attempts to establish identity– Most need a confirmed email address– Some use cell phone or bank account– Link to and use Google or Yahoo accounts– Ultimately create username and password for future

log

• A profile is then associated with each user– Displayed for other users– Varying degrees of access to profile information

Profile Commonalities• Personal Information

– Name, Age/Birth date, Gender, Height, Ethnicity, Home town– One or more profile photos

• One main photo– Current Residence or Address– Sexual Orientation, Relationship Status, Interested In/Looking for– Behavior

• Drink, Smoke, keep pets, engage in controversial activities– Religion

• Contact Information– Email Address– Instant Messaging IDs

• AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, Jabbar, IRC– Skype– Mobile Phone, Land line

Profile Commonalities

• Personality Information– Interests– Activities/Hobbies– About Me– Looking For/Who I’d like to meet– Favorite Music/Movies/Books/TV Shows/Quotes– Skills/Expertise

• Networking Background– College – Majors, Minors– High School– Companies– Courses– Profession self-tagging

The Problem

• Separate databases store almost exactly the same information

• Attempt to create an online representation of a person– Online presence

• Updating the information becomes cumbersome– Must visit each system separately

• Friends of a user have little or no knowledge of content provided by other services

My Project• With an open standard

– Tag common profile information with MWAC tags– Present an XML document containing all the information

• Much like RSS• Each service that requires a user’s profile information can syndicate

the document– Present it however the service needs– Poll for updates to the document

• Back links provide means of finding other services of which the user makes use

• Issues– Identity and Authentication– Privacy– Not every service needs access to the same data

• User may want different data displayed for different services

My Project

• Designing a Web 2.0 service could mitigate these issues

• Provides easy update of Profile information

• Let’s the user define access privileges to each service requesting data

• User can also define a profile context– Services restricted to particular context

Extensions & Other Applications

• Extension for Intellectual Property• Linking with “Real World” identity information

– Bank accounts– Government ID– Using existing services

• Live Resume• Applications

– Employment– College/Graduate School/Fellowships– Grants

• Research Papers– Bibliographical information