[Air-L] Social network site nomenclature

[Kevin Guidry]

On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 11:28 AM, Nicole Ellison <nellison at msu.edu> wrote:
>
> 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).

   And I (and likely others) very much appreciated that you explicitly
defined and discussed your chosen terminology.  I suspect that part of
the answer to my original question is simply that many people are not
as careful and intentional with their terminology, uncritically using
whatever is most comfortable and familiar to them as colored by their
discipline and experiences.

> 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.

   That's very interesting and very helpful!  I have personally leaned
towards "service" as I have always felt that "site" was too closely
related to (and perhaps derived from) "website" and thus too limiting.

   Thanks all for the very informative and interesting (and ongoing)
responses and conversation!  It's definitely opened my eyes a bit and
exposed me to some new ideas.


Kevin