[Air-L] Social network site nomenclature

[Giorgos Cheliotis]

Hi to all,

I have been following the discussion with some interest, and I'm happy  
to find that my understanding of the terms pretty much coincides with  
that of danah. By the way, this is my first time posting to the list,  
so hello everyone. I'm an assistant professor of Communications and  
New Media at the National University of Singapore, currently also a  
visiting researcher at the Berkman Center in Harvard. Since danah  
added 'social media' to the mix, can I please ask the good folks on  
this list to provide their definitions of the term 'social media' as  
well? (in relation to SNS or in relation to 'non-social' media, if  
there is such a thing).

The reason I ask is not merely academic curiosity. I have agreed to  
teach a class on social media for the first time in my school and I  
think it will help in positioning this class vis-a-vis other related  
classes if I can collect some thoughtful definitions of the term and  
get some idea for what people think it should include. I'll refrain  
from providing my own version here because I'd really love to hear  
your perspectives first.

Thanks in advance,
Giorgos




On May 14, 2009, at 10:51 PM, danah boyd wrote:

> Here's an uber short definition for how I think about these terms  
> (concurring with many of the previous respondents):
>
> - Social network: ties between people, regardless of mediating  
> infrastructure [think what sociologists study]
>
> - Online social network: ties between people that exist within or  
> are created because of online technologies
>
> - Social networking: the practice of building one's social network,  
> regardless of mediating infrastructure [think what business  
> professionals are interested in]
>
> - Online social networking: the practicing of building one's social  
> network using online technologies
>
> - Social network site: websites that support the articulation,  
> display, and utilization of social networks [see "Social Network  
> Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship for a proper definition]
>
> - Social networking site: websites that center on the practice of  
> social networking, whether for business or pleasure [many  
> communities of interest, business networking, and online dating  
> sites fit into this category]
>
>
> In our JCMC special issue, Nicole and I explicitly wanted to pull  
> out the category of new sites exemplified by Facebook, MySpace, etc.  
> While they are a subset of online communities, they are both  
> structurally different than many of them and engender very different  
> practices.  We wanted to use nomenclature that captured those  
> differences.  Of course, plenty of folks continue to talk about them  
> as social networkING sites and academics, journalists, and marketers  
> frequently clump online dating sites and community sites into this  
> new glittery genre, but we were trying to explicitly avoid this.   
> There is no doubt that a whole lot of sites out there support  
> networking, but that's not what we were trying to highlight when we  
> put together the JCMC special issue.
>
> What this means is that I would call Facebook a social network  
> site.  I would call Match.com a social networking site.  And I would  
> call LinkedIn both a social network site and a social networking  
> site (depending on whether I was talking about the structure or the  
> practice).  I would talk about all of them as CMC and social media.   
> I would say that all of them support online social networks (and  
> social networks more broadly).
>
> At the end of the day, the big thing to me that makes a social  
> network site a social network site is the articulation, display, and  
> utilization of one's social network.  This requires a profile, but a  
> profile alone does not make a social network site.
>
> As for sites vs. services...  Originally, I was conceiving of sites  
> to be those website-only environments and services to be a broader  
> category that would include mobile apps, downloadable apps, etc.   
> But these lines are increasingly blurry.  Now that both FB and MS  
> have mobile apps and most mobile apps have a website as well, it's  
> hard to distinguish the two categories.  So I'm a big agnostic about  
> this.  My inclination these days is to call them all sites to  
> highlight the digitally mediated component of it (cuz services don't  
> have the same digital ring as sites), but I can be totally convinced  
> otherwise.
>
> Anyhow, I hope that helps.  I am totally welcome to critiques on how  
> I'm thinking about it but, in my head at least, there's some  
> coherence to these different categories.
>
> danah
>
>
>
>
> ------
>
> "taken out of context, i must seem so strange" -- ani
> http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/
> http://www.danah.org/
> @zephoria
>
>
>
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