socialnetworks
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The math of social networks
A social network is constituted by a number of units (nodes) that are connected to each other by a defined relationship -- for example, "x cites y", "x sends 5 email messages a week to y", "x and y belong to an organization in common." There are a few wrinkles -- the units may be persons, organizations, cities, journal articles, or other types of entities; the relationships may be uni-directional or bi-directional; and the linking relationships may represent categorical relationships or intensity relationships. "x and y are friends" is a bi-directional relationship; "x and y are close friends" is a bi-directional relationship recording intensity. Some of the basic questions about a social network are easy to formulate but difficult to assess. Basically, we would like to know what groups of individuals are unusually closely interconnected with each other, relative to the average for the population as a whole.
A Social Network Development Model
Way back in the social networking Dark Ages, OK - October 2005, I published a "A Virtual Community Development Model" with sports metaphors for each stage. Looking back today I think some of it still applies to the development of those social networks driven primarily by shared interests/knowledge (rather than by relationship building). But see what you think? Read A Virtual Community Development Model About Ken Thompson
Key Video From The World Economic Forum’s Social Networking Powerhouse Panel
Each year the World Economic Forum at Davos holds number of technology focused sessions. Last year I moderated a high profile discussion about the next digital experience . This year, Loic Le Meur is hosting a discussion on the growth of social networks. Participants include Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn, Greylock), Owen Van Natta (MySpace), Gina Bianchini (Ning), Evan Williams (Twitter) and George Colony (Forrester Research) and Don Tapscott (nGenera).
Social Networks for Things
At the recent DLD Conference (Digital - Life - Design) in Munich, Germany, Esther Dyson moderated a panel on the Internet of Things . The subject of the discussion was giving identity to things , just as people have an identity. In essence, creating social networks for things.Well this is interesting in the context of the net-gen discussion: “The traditional early-adopter model would say that teenagers or college students are really important to adoption [...] Twitter, however, has proved that a site can take off in a different demographic than you expect and become very popular.” says Andrew Lipsman at a recent New York Times article . What comes up over and over again in Q&A at some of my presentations is the net-gen dispute, the argument being that young people are more fluent with these social media tools due to their somewhat special relationship with technology. As a net-gen insider, I think the whole net-gen conversation regarding age as a demographic is misplaced. The question is about people who have grown up familiar with technology and those who have not.
Adult-driven growth in social networks
You’ll see one day when you move out it just sort of happens one day and it’s gone. You feel like you can never get it back. It’s like you feel homesick for a place that doesn’t even exist. Maybe it’s like this rite of passage, you know. You won’t ever have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it’s like a cycle or something. I don’t know, but I miss the idea of it, you know.
Thinking about social objects
Global Guerrillas: THE BUBBLE
Nearly the entire world's population of 6.7 billion is now mediated in some form -- via phone to radio to TV to Internet -- and a majority have been mediated by two-way technologies. For example, over 60% of these people or 4 billion now have wireless phones up from 15% in 2002, and another billion will have them in a year). It's extremely hard now to find a sizable population from the Niger Delta to the Swat Valley in Pakistan to the favellas of Sao Paulo that haven't been fundamentally changed through connection to the global media sphere that: Shapes their perceptions Drives organizational design and interpersonal contact Reorganizes their view of the world There's no reason to think it will stop here.
There are many things I admire about my friend and colleague, David Weinberger : his intellectual curiosity, his generosity with his time and guidance, his sense of humor… One facet of David I most admire is his willingness to think in public. Most people who speak for a living (as David does, and as I aspire to do) use well-worn and carefully roadtested material. David is brave enough to put new ideas in front of audiences and work through new ideas, live and in public. And we’re lucky enough at the Berkman Center lunch today to hear his new talk, “What Information Was: Bits, Links and the Iron Rule of Irony” , an exploration of issues that David is starting to think about and wrestle with. David starts with the provocative question, “How did we become the information age?”
David Weinberger: what information was
Whereas in postmodernism, being was left in a free-floating fabric of emotional intensities, in contemporary culture the existence of the self is affirmed through the network. Kazys Varnelis discusses what this means for the democratic public sphere. Not all at once but rather slowly, in fits and starts, a new societal condition is emerging: network culture. As digital computing matures and meshes with increasingly mobile networking technology, society is also changing, undergoing a cultural shift.
The meaning of network culture - Kazys Varnelis
Overview While social media use has grown dramatically across all age groups, older users have been especially enthusiastic over the past year about embracing new networking tools. Social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older nearly doubled—from 22% in April 2009 to 42% in May 2010. Between April 2009 and May 2010, social networking use among internet users ages 50-64 grew by 88%--from 25% to 47%. During the same period, use among those ages 65 and older grew 100%--from 13% to 26%.
Older Adults and Social Media | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project
I spend a lot of time in LinkedIn groups and have learned a bit about maximizing their potential as conversation-starters. Here are 15 of my favorite tips. Please add your own as comments.
Paul Gillin on Social Media and the Open Enterprise
The 12 Best Ways To Customize Your Facebook Pages
When a service such as Facebook limits users’ creative freedom, it is inevitable that other add-on services will overcome this limitation. This is why then, we see more and more Facebook tab apps that give us more control and freedom when it comes to customizing a fan page or a personal profile. I can’t really understand why Facebook doesn’t create an editor that lets users create a super fan page. I can only guess they don’t want to deal with it and prefer their uniform design, which may be boring but at least it is consistent and familiar. Instead, Facebook lets other people get creative and offer an array of Facebook related apps built on the API. In any case, you must know this by now: A personalized page can drive more attention and probably, more traffic to your brand.After 150, Facebook friends are meaningless
(PhysOrg.com) -- According to Oxford University's professor of evolutionary anthropology, Robin Dunbar, after you have amassed 150 friends on Facebook, any more are meaningless because the human brain can only remember 150 meaningful relationships anyway.Facebook and the brutal economics of connection - How the World Works
“Economics,” writes Edward Glaeser in the Tuesday New York Times, “should be seen as a discipline that has spent centuries chronicling the enormous gains that come from people connecting with each other.” There is much to unpack in Glaeser’s thesis, but before we do so, let’s also bring the antithesis into play via an article published in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal by Elizabeth Bernstein: “How Facebook Can Ruin Friendships.” Too much exposure to the trivial or unnecessary details of our friends’ lives, says Bernstein, “can hurt our real-life relationships.” When people connect with each other, they suffer losses as well as gains. Developing nation software engineers use new communication technologies to undermine the earning power of developed world programmers, while yet another status update about your cat’s latest hairball undermines the social contract.by Joe McKendrick Social enterprises don’t just spring out of some primordial corporate soup, they need good leaders to get them to the promised tribal lands. And we’re not talking about aggressive, power-obsessed leaders — the new leaders for the Business 2.0 organization need to be willing to let their communities take the lead with new initiatives. Our FastForward friend Francois Gossieaux, along with co-author Ed Moran, has just published a new book that leads managers and business leaders through this new connected economy, titled The Hyper-Social Organization: Eclipse Your Competition by Leveraging Social Media. There are many great points raised in the book, and I’ll focus on Francois and Ed’s discussion on what it takes to manage and lead a Hyper-Social enterprise.