[Air-L] Social network site nomenclature

Wed May 13 08:28:51 PDT 2009

I agree with much of what Caroline and Fred have posted regarding the  
definitions of and distinctions among SNSs and OSNs. I don't use the  
term OSN because the sites I study are not "online social  
networks" (as opposed to "offline" social networks?). I don't think it  
makes sense to ask an undergraduate Facebook user to distinguish  
between their online and offline social networks as we tend to see  
hybrid communication patterns in this population. With earlier techs,  
such as newsgroups, this notion made more sense.

On the network vs networking issue: danah and I discuss this in our  
2007 piece, arguing for "network" as a term that more appropriately  
describes the way in which users are articulating existing  
relationships as opposed to using the sites for networking purposes  
(that is, making new contacts). My colleagues and I will be presenting  
a paper at the upcoming ICA conference which offers some empirical  
support for this observation in regards to FB use. I see "network"  
used more than "networking" in the papers I review, but most of them  
use the boyd & Ellison definition (which is probably why I get them)  
so take that observation with a grain of salt. In the past year or  
two, I typically have not seen "OSN" used to describe sites like  
Facebook.

Re: site vs service - good question. danah may want to chime in, but  
my sense is most users think of these as sites (places) as opposed to  
services, thus "site" seems to resonate with me.

Thanks, Nicole

On May 13, 2009, at 10:55 AM, Linda.Olsen at infomedia.uib.no wrote:

> 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
>>> _______________________________________________
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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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>
>
> _______________________________________________
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  * * *
Nicole Ellison, PhD
nellison at msu.edu