[Air-L] Social network site nomenclature

[Fred Stutzman]

I use both "Online Social Network" and "Social Networking Site" in my  
writing.  In my taxonomy, OSN exists a level up from SNS, and I often  
use SNS as a direct object reference to a "site" - i.e. Facebook,  
Myspace.

However, as the term SNS has been defined, a number of sites that  
afford "social networking" do not qualify as SNS.  I tend to view SNS  
liberally and view that the definition of a SNS is in evolution.

The concept of an OSN was introduced to me by Howard Rheingold (using  
Wellman's work) in the Virtual Community.  I've always felt a strong  
affinity to the term as it is flexible and crosses sites/domains/ 
technologies.  That is, an online social network can exist in Facebook  
or Bebo as well as it can exist in a bulletin board, community forum,  
and so on.

The distinction I use when choosing the term is the scope of  
reference.  If I am writing about a "site," I'll often use SNS.  If my  
scope is larger, crosses modes, or describes a process-oriented  
approach, I'll use OSN.


On May 13, 2009, at 10:05 AM, Caroline Haythornthwaite wrote:

> 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
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> --------------------------------------
> 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
>
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--
Fred Stutzman
Ph.D. Student and Teaching Fellow
School of Information and Library Science, UNC-Chapel Hill
fred at fredstutzman.com | (919) 260-8508 | http://fredstutzman.com/