Activity One - Ego Surfing

This activity had us use a number of tools to find out what the web said about us.

Overall there wasn’t too much that I could find that was actually related to me, apparently my name is fairly common. I’d have to say this is a good thing, as it means I have more control over what people can find on the Web about me from now on.

Readings – Facebook’s Privacy Trainwreck – Exposure, Invasion, and Social Convergence

This reading, by danah boyd, looked at the effects of the introduction of the ‘News Feed’ feature by Facebook, which received significant negative feedback from users. Although the information that the news feed provided wasn’t private, users would actively have to search for it, rather than having a summary of all of their friends actions upon logging in.

In terms of our digital shadow, this is a great example of how our actions on the web may afford a certain level of perceived privacy, but can change drastically without the privacy settings technically changing.

boyd, d. Ellison, N. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html

Notes

Define

• Definition of Social Network Sites (SNS’s): “Web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.
• Designed to enable users to “articulate and make visible their social networks”, rather than to extend them through meeting new people.
• Rather than networking, users are more commonly communicating with people who are already in their social network (offline).
• Key aspect is visible profiles displaying a list of friends who are also members of the SNS.
• Profiles include descriptors (age, location, interests, “about me”, photos and other media).
• Visibility of a profile is dependent on individual SNS’s.
• Upon joining SNS’s users identify other users of which they have a relationship (“Friends”, “Contacts”, “Fans”). Majority of SNS’s require “bi-directional confirmation”.
• Most SNS’s also offer messaging/commenting systems, allowing users to communicate both publicly and privately.
• Some SNS’s evolved from other websites (QQ – IM service, LunarStorm – Community site, Cyworld – Korean forum, Skyrock – French blogging service).
• Profiles, Friends, Comments and Private Messaging are common features amongst SNS’s, however additional features vary significantly (e.g. video sharing, blogging, IM).

History

• First launched in 1997 (SixDegrees.com – supported profiles and listing of friends, ability to traverse friends lists in 1998).
• Key features existed prior to sixdegrees.com, however not combined.
• SixDegrees.com closed in 2000, founder attributed failure to the service being ahead of it’s time – many users did not have extended social networks that were online at the time.
• 1997 – 2001: number of community tools began combining profiles and publicly articulated friends.
• 2001 – Ryze.com launched aimed at business networking. First introduced to some of the founders behind tribe.net, linkedin and friendster. (Ryze.com ultimately failed)

Friendster

• Launched 2002, social complement to Ryze, to compete with Match.com.
• Designed to help friends-of-friends meet (for dating).
• Initial popularity among bloggers, attendees of the Burning Man arts festival, and gay men.
• Grew to 300,000 users via word of mouth, traditional press coverage began May 2003.
• Technical and social difficulties due to surge in popularity – servers and databases ill-equipped to handle rapid growth, resulting in regular downtime.
• Large increase in members due to media coverage resulted in cultural balance issues, coupled with social network collisions.
• Design issues (limiting viewing of profiles to four degrees), meant that users began ‘mass adding’ in order to expand their reach. Fake profiles also appeared, which outraged the community, however served to allow people to find people they knew via the “fakesters” friends list.
• Deletion of “fakesters” upset some users, particularly early adopters.
• Early adoptors left due to technical issues, social network collisions and lack of trust between site and users.

SNSs Go Mainstream – MySpace

• 2003 onwards – many new SNSs launched.
• Many focused on profile and niche audiences or demographics (linkedin/xing – business networking).
• Launched 2003, designed to attract former Friendster users.
• Grew rapidly when news of Friendster introducing membership fees prompted users to encourage friends to switch to other networks.
• Inde-rock bands (expelled from Friendster) were welcomed and MySpace contacted local bands to develop ways to support them through.
• Regularly added features based on user demand.
• Allowed heavy customization of profile pages.
• 2004 – massive signups via teenagers, MySpace consequently altered T&C’s to accept minors.
• Purchased by News Corporation for $580 million, resulting in massive media attention.
• Safety issues plague MySpace, site implicated in sexual interactions between adults and minors, resulting in legal action.

SNS’s worldwide

• MySpace attracts media attention in U.S. and abroad.
• Friendster gains traction in Pacific Islands.
• Orkut (Google) popular in Brazil and india.
• Mixi popular in Japan.
• LunarStorm – Sweden.
• Hyves among Dutch users.
• poland – Grono.
• hi5 – Latin America, South America and Europe.
• Bebo – U.K, N.Z, AU.
• Previously popular communication and community services implement SNS features.
• Blogging services with SNS features became popular.

Expanding Niche Communities

• SNS’s launched to support niche demographics, before expanding to broader audience (e.g. Facebook).
• Facebook originally designed for Harvard students only.
• Facebook expanded to other colleges and schools, and ultimately, worldwide.
• Religious SNS’s appear, as do activity centered sites.
• Government and military bans from accessing SNS’s.

Scholarship

• Studies regarding various aspects and influences of SNSs are emerging.
• Impression (identity) management looks at ways in which users present themselves on SNSs.
• Friendship performance looks at friends as identity markers for the profile owner, who they choose as their friends is one defining aspect of their identity.
• Studies or networks and network structure looks at behavioral data and provide large amounts of social interaction data.
• Research suggests SNSs primarily support pre-existing social relations.
• Privacy concerns, particularly regarding minors and safety.