Social Networking

If you are in the IT world or are a so-called Net savvy person, you must have heard about the word "Social Networking". It sounds great, although what does it mean really? And is it only restricted to sites like MySpace and Orkut and Facebook? Or can it be applied, is it being applied to intranet applications, for bringing people together within an Organization?

This blog is just a collection of some information, ideas that I found – a high level overview, to shed some light on the very frequently used term "Social Networking".

What is a Social Network?

"A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as values, visions, idea, financial exchange, friends, kinship, dislike, conflict, trade, web links, disease transmission (epidemiology), or airline routes" - This is what Wikipedia has to say about "Social Networks". The concept of social networks and social network analysis has been around for quite some time, bringing about a major change in the fields of sociology, social psychology, economics, organizational studies etc., helping social scientists to understand how organizations work, how networks or groups of people within an organization influence the organization in turn. Just to make this point a little more understandable – the size of a social network is a good indicator of its usefulness, its reach and the impact it will have. A small, very highly connected network will be less useful as compared to a loosely connected network, where people within the group have connections to networks / groups outside the home network. More open type of networks as the latter one result in introducing and sharing of newer ideas and opportunities, bringing people with different facets and capabilities together.

In simple words, a "social network" is an association of people drawn together by family, work or hobby. The term was first coined by professor J. A. Barnes in the 1950s, who defined the size of a social network as a group of about 100 to 150 people.

What is a Social Networking Site?

A social networking site is a web site that provides a virtual community for people interested in a particular subject or just to "hang out" together. Members communicate by voice, chat, instant message, videoconference and blogs, and the service typically provides a way for members to contact friends of other members. Examples of public social networking sites of course are Orkut, MySpace, Facebook etc.

These sites build on the Web 2.0 model, propagating the use of the Web as an application platform, helping members to share content of any form by forming online communities and are typically supported by an Ajaxified / rich / easy to use user interface.

Social Networking within Organizations

Public social networking sites are the "in things" anyhow – but what is gaining momentum now is the use of social networking sites or applications within organizations, to help employees share data, content, information, in the form of documents, videos, photos, presentations, making finding relevant people within the organization easier, and helping automate a lot of manual workflows and business processes within an organization by making use of a social networking platform.

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) fits this scenario and provides a lot of built-in features that will make building social networking applications. More on this in the next blog.