[Air-L] Social network site nomenclature

[Linda.Olsen at infomedia.uib.no]

Hi Caroline.

To me, your definitions make very much sense, and very nicely sums up  
some of the throughts I have had on the subject myself, but have not  
been able to articulate well enough. Well done. Personally, I see the  
term SNS as reserved for online settings, though I realize it could  
apply to offline settings as you mention.

I do, however, have some issues with regard to the appropriate use of  
the term SNS. Should the N stand for "networking" og "network"? Should  
the last S stand for "site" or "service"?

I have for many years used the term "social networking service" when  
studying LinkedIn. To me this has made sense, as LinkedIn both  
supports the explicit act of networking and acts as a service for this  
purpose. As such, I have also used the term "social networking  
service" when describing other SNSs such as Facebook. Some reserachers  
have, however, argued that sites/services such as Facebook are not  
primarily for networking, but for maintaining social networks and that  
"network" therefore is more appropriate and would give a  
broader/better description of such sites/services. I have given it  
some thought and see the point that is being made.

When it comes to the term "service" or "site", I have stuck with  
service as I see LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter etc. as providers of some  
sort of extra service to their members, beyond that of ordinary  
websites.

I would love to hear yours, and others, throughts about this subject!

:-)

Linda

Siterer Caroline Haythornthwaite <haythorn at illinois.edu>:

> As one who tries to make a clear distinction between "social networks" and
> "social networking", let me see if this distinction makes sense to others.
>
> Social networks are created and maintained by ties between people. They are
> studied using social network analysis, a formal set of techniques now being
> more widely used and identified under the label of "network   
> science". There is
> no online or offline separation for social networks -- they exist, emerge and
> are maintained based on ties between people whether these happen via online
> and/or offline means.
>
> Social networking I take to mean a deliberate, active pursuit of   
> ties with other
> people -- from the business sense of social networking as something you do to
> make and keep business contacts, to the friend making in MySpace, Facebook,
> etc.
>
> Social networking sites (SNSs) are online sites which provide the technical
> infrastructure for social networking. While the term is used, and I'd say
> reserved for online sites, the concept of a social networking site could also
> apply to offline settings as well -- after all, what is a pub for if  
>  not a social
> networking site.
>
> And, yes, social networks emerge and are maintained through social
> networking via social network sites. The distinction is that social networks
> emerge in lots of ways, not *just* through the deliberate strategy of social
> networking, nor just through social networking sites.
>
> Comments please as I really do try to make these distinctions clear and bug
> people not to call my work 'social networking'!
>
> /Caroline
>
>
> ---- Original message ----
>> Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 22:25:00 -0400
>> From: Kevin Guidry <krguidry at gmail.com>
>> Subject: [Air-L] Social network site nomenclature
>> To: air-l at aoir.org
>>
>> All,
>>
>> Much of the available research refers to services such as Facebook and
>> MySpace as "social network(ing) sites/services (SNS)."  Let's ignore
>> for the moment the differences between those four permutations as I'm
>> more interested in learning about why some researchers use "online
>> social networks (ONS)."  SNS seems to be much more common,
>> particularly in the wake of the late 2007 JCMC special theme issue
>> focusing on SNSs.
>>
>> Given that both terms are still in use, is there some sort of subtle
>> cultural or discipline-based divide of which I am unaware?  Or is this
>> just an oddity that isn't important or indicative of anything more
>> than personal preference?
>>
>>
>> Kevin
>> _______________________________________________
>> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
>> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
>> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at:
> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>>
>> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
>> http://www.aoir.org/
>
> --------------------------------------
> Caroline Haythornthwaite
> Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Science,   
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 501 East Daniel St.,   
> Champaign IL 61820
> haythorn at illinois.edu OR haythorn at uiuc.edu
>
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at:   
> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/
>