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Social networking refers to the connections made between people who share commonalities such as interests or mutual friends; social networks can be used for a variety of purposes such as to make new friends with shared interests, to share information and knowledge with others and form communities (Reed et al, 2003). Social networks differ from business networks as these relationships are formed for social purposes rather than strategic business and commercial reasons.
=== History ===
Social networks have become a popular research topic within the fields of sociology, anthropology, social psychology and organisational studies (Wikipedia, 2005). Much of this research has demonstrated that social networks work on a variety of levels and come with varying degrees of functionality and size. Social networks can be as small as family connections (strong ties) to worldwide networks (loose ties) and play a significant role in human interaction and communication (Wikipedia, 2005). Loose ties are believed to be more beneficial to participants as wider social connections are more likely to be open to and introduce new ideas and opportunities than strong tie networks.
Social networks gained widespread recognition following the small world phenomenon hypothesis of Stanley Milgram (Wikipedia, 2005) who researched and discovered that there is a worldwide chain of acquaintance of (on average) six people, this theory coined the term “six degrees of separation�?. Most online social networking websites revolve around this premise to create a circle of friends.
=== The Role of the Internet ===
The Internet has become a popular medium for the formation of social networks; from 2002 to mid-2004 (Reed, 2003) the Internet became the home to more than 200 social networking sites such as Friendster and MySpace and has provided many platforms for the establishment of social networks. These virtual communities began by the founders initially sending out messages to their contacts to become members and then these new members repeated the process and so on, allowing the network to grow. New members create an online identity by filling out a personal profile and answering questions about themselves. Once a member they can then search and find new contacts within their friends contacts lists, so that everyone that they communicate with is an acquaintance and not a complete stranger. Since its original conception, social networking websites have added supplementary services to members such as address book updates, viewable profiles with pictures albums and introduction services (Wikipedia, 2005) and more recently in early 2005, pioneering site Friendster introduced a blog service for its members.
Blended networking is another recent edition to social networking websites. Blended networking involves face-to-face contact as well as online communication; the two elements are designed to compliment each other and further social connections.
Jordan, K., Hauser, J. and Foster, S. (2003) “The Augmented Social Network: Building identity and trust into the next generation Internet,�? First Monday, vol.8, no.8, retrieved October 13, 2005, from http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_8/jordan/index.html
Reed, D., Le Maitre, M., Barnhill, B., Davis, O. and Labalme, F. “The Social Web: Creating an Open Social Network with XDI�?, Planetwork Journal retrieved October 13, 2005, from http://journal.planetwork.net/article.php?lab=reed0704&page=1
Wikipedia (2005) “Friendster,�? retrieved October 13th, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendster
Wikipedia (2005) “Social Network�? retrieved October 13th, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network
--Lisa Hitchcock 20:46, 27 Oct 2005 (EST)
