Social Networking has become a fast growing part of our society. There are many different types of networks for every interest and category. Social networks exist for both personal and professional uses. Some of the popular networks that exist for more personal uses include facebook and myspace. Other sites which are used for more professional uses are ryze and linkedin. Many people use networking sites to not only communicate with others, but to obtain publicity and use the sites to promote their cause.
There are many sites that are relevant to different countries as well as interests and causes. For example, a popular networking site like myspace, in the U.S, may not be the most popular site in India. According to wikipedia, the most popular networking site for French speaking people is skyrock http://skyrock.com/ while Odnoklassniki.ru is one of the most popular networking sites in Russia. A list of different worldwide networking sites can be found here.
One problem I find with the internet is the idea of private property is left out. There is a study of property as it pertains to ideas expressed in digital form, it's called Intellectual Property. One of the best places to study about this is at the University of Nevada:Las Vegas school of Law. I found a slide show that goes through some ides in intellectual property.
A little information on some of the popular networking sites:
Myspace
Myspace is a well known networking site in the United States. Originally started in 2003, Myspace first users were e-universe employees. The employees held a contest to see who could get more people reigstered for the site. They originally used their list of 20 million users from e-universe to get the site started. Over the past 5 years, Myspace has grown tremendously. Currently, the content of Myspace includes many different features.
Features of Myspace:
Bulletins
Groups
Instant Messaging
Music
TV
News
Polls
Applications ( added to profiles)
Tom Anderson, the founder, talks about his successes
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking site designed to connect users to any and all of their friends. Beyond connecting with friends, its users can utilize the site for both the positive and negative. The site allows users to create groups, rally around causes, and even gain education regarding topics such as local and national elections.
In the YouTube video below, Jesse Hirsh talkes to CBC news anchor Nancy Wilson about the positive and negative uses for Facebook, as well as the amount of surveillance it allows between friends.
Ryze.com-
Ryze, obtaining its name by claiming that they help people 'rise up' through quality networking, is a business networking site with an open discussion oriented approach. Members produce a personal home page which is basically an online resume where photos and references can be posted. Members can search its entire membership by name, company affiliation, industry or title. Search forums and message boards are available. Guest books are on each member's home page where visitors can leave messages or start discussions. Ryze helps people make connections to help grow business, build careers, find jobs make sales and keep in touch with friends.
Newbie step by step blogspot on how to prosper on Ryze.
Bebo.com is another networking site that is ranked #1 in the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand and is ranked #3 in the U.S. Below a video that explains bebo.com more in depth:
LinkedIn is a social networking site that is business-oriented. When you create your profile it summarizes your professional accomplishments. It helps you to connect to former colleagues and other people that can help you in the professional world.
This youtube video talks a little bit about the ways people connect on LinkedIn-
Youtube-
www.youtube.com is a social netoworking site that connects people through the use of videos. On your profile, you can upload videos, favorite videos, subscribe to other users, and friend other users. The entire premise of youtube is to post videos on anything that you could possibly imagine, and that helps you connect with other youtube users. There are so many users and even more videos on youtube that you can basically find a video on anything. This link will lead you to a popular video on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch
Goozex
Goozex is a video game trading website. Basically what you do is acquire points by sending your used games to someone who is asking for them. You then can use those points to acquire games from other people. The more popular or newer the game is, the more points it will cost and sell for. The website makes money by requiring you to buy a token for each trade. I think a token is a dollar. The tokens are cheap. This way of getting new video games is cheaper than trying to sell them at the store and getting money back. You would probably get 30 dollars back on a new game if you sold it to the store. Games cost 20 dollars so you lose 20 dollars on that trade. Overall you spend 20 on the game plus tax. If you use goozex you will pay 1 dollar for the whole trade. It costs money to ship the game but that is usually only about 1 to 2 dollars which means you save 18 dollars by using this system. The only draw back is that you have to wait for your game to be "in stock" meaning that someone is available to send one. The positives are it costs less money and you can do it at your home computer.
Another feature of goozex that I like is that there is a forum you can talk about games on. You can also get support from moderators and response is usually timely. It is nice to be able to converse with people about a topic that you all are interested in.
The last thing I like about goozex is that you can rate games and review them. The site was fairly new when I first joined so sometimes I was the first rater on games. It feels good to be able to contribute to the site and help other people decide whether to get the game.
Pandora
Pandora is a personalized radio service that allows users to select whatever artist they prefer in which it plays one of the artists songs and after plays artists that are similar to the first one that you chose. Therefore, it allows the listener to discover artists that they may have never heard of before and works in the favor of the listener who is discovering great music while unknown artists are gaining fans and popularity. It is a social networking site in the way that you can create your own personal page where you can save a library of your favorite music, and connect with others by sharing the music in both of your libraries. Below is an interview with the site's creator about the usability of Pandora.
Social Thing!
Loic Le Meur, the founder of Seesmic, has his own online tv blog, not surprisingly! In this episod he talks with the founder of Social Thing, which is similar to Friend Feed but a tad bit more mature. Take a look to completely understand what I'm talking about.
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