J. A. Barnes, in 1954, coined the term Social Network to refer to a map of the relationships between individuals, indicating the ways in which they are connected through various social familiarities ranging from casual acquaintance to close familial bonds.
Little did Barnes know that, five decades later, social networks, with the Internet as catalyst, would change the dynamics of interaction. Social networking on the Web has dissolved boundaries around the traditional physical networks.
There's no dearth of social networks on the Internet. This book is about using the Elgg social networking platform to create, run, and manage your own social network. To understand why you'd want to do this as against to using one of the publicly accessible networks, you have to understand what these networks are good for, and what their weak points are.
The idea behind a social networking website is simple—to 'hook up' people with similar interests. It works pretty much like a physical social network. You meet people, establish connections, keep up with the contacts, and continue the relationship. In a professional setting, many connections are established by intermediaries. These are people common to both parties involved, and facilitate initial contact. But there's a limit to physical social networks that you can be a part of.
This is where social networking over the Internet is so revolutionary. It allows you find like-minded people, beyond your physical network, and across timezones. You can simultaneously be part of an unimaginable number of social networks formed around fairly common topics like bands or a particular celebrity, to some obscure topics like a specific kind of hairdo or an element in the periodic table.
And you don't have to spend an awful lot of time looking for simpatico people. Online social networks allow you to search a network using particular key terms.
The best thing about social networking on the Web, is that it has been evolving with the times. As they grow, the pervasive social networks offer new opportunities for everyone—from school going teenagers to multinational corporations.
So you all know what social networking on the Web is, and have probably used at least a couple of these services to keep in touch with friends and ex-colleagues. But before you get down to building your social network, spend some time analyzing the purpose, intent, and the audience makeup of these social networks. Once you understand these, you'll be able to customize your network, accordingly.
In very simple terms, there are two kinds of social networks:
1. The indifferent social network: These are the ones you've all probably used. MySpace, Facebook, Orkut are all examples of the indifferent social network. These networks have no bias, or prejudice, against their users. Whether you are joining to reconnect with old friends or to make new ones, you are welcome all the same. They don't give preferential treatment to users of a particular profession and are, in fact, totally disinterested in what you do. You get the idea! I am sure you are on one such network and so are your peers.
2. The niche network: On the other hand, you have discreet networks like Within3 [https://www.within3.com/]. Within3 is a community of physicians and health researchers. As per its website, Within3 also helps members recruit patients for clinical trials, and keep them informed of the latest medical advancements. Registration on the website is by invitation only, and is open for physicians or researchers in the health sciences, or for students training for an advanced health science degree. But registration-by-invite isn't the distinguishing feature of a discreet network. It's their scope, which is big enough for the members, but limited for a general audience. An example of this is U.S. Presidential candidate Barack Obama's social network MyBarackObama [http://my.barackobama.com/]. Anyone can register on this network, but you wouldn't find many Republicans there, now would you?
This book will help you build your own niche social network. Niche doesn't necessarily mean small. Dedicated networks can have as many members as publicly accessible social networks. The idea of running your own social network isn't to give MySpace or Facebook a run for their money. A customized social network is a virtual manifestation of scratching a common itch.