SNA 1.2

Social Media - New Technologies of Collaboration

1.2.1 Introduction to the “Terrain of Interaction”

• Sociotechnical Infrastructure: Social media platforms act like physical buildings. Just as a circular seating arrangement encourages different participation than rows, the design of a digital platform (e.g., Twitter vs. a Blog) influences how people interact.

• Relational Data: Online tools produce massive amounts of data about who knows whom, who talks to whom, and where people hang out. This data is the foundation for Social Network Analysis (SNA).

• Augmenting Intellect vs. Social Experience: Early pioneers (Bush, Engelbart) wanted to augment individual intellect; modern social media focuses on augmenting social experience and collective intelligence.

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1.2.2 Social Media Defined

• Definition: Online tools that support social interaction by transforming monologue (one-to-many) into dialog (many-to-many).

• Core Function: Allows users to collaboratively create, find, share, evaluate, and make sense of information.

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1.2.3 Social Media Design Framework

To compare different tools, the text provides six key dimensions:

1. Size of Producer and Consumer Population:

   • Small-to-Small: Instant Messaging, personal email.

   • Small-to-Large: Popular blogs, YouTube videos, celebrity tweets.

   • Large-to-Large: Wikipedia, eBay, massive multiplayer games (MMOs).

1.2. Pace of Interaction:

- **Asynchronous:** Email, forums (delayed, encourages careful contribution).
    
- **Synchronous:** Chat, IM, video calls (real-time, rich reaction).
    

3. Genre of Basic Elements: The type of “digital object” exchanged (e.g., 140-character tweets, photos on Flickr, 3D avatars in Second Life).

4. Control of Basic Elements: Barriers to entry (registration, credit card validation) and governance (centralized “benevolent dictators” vs. distributed systems like Usenet).

5. Types of Connections:

   • Explicit: “Friending” or “Following.”

   • Implicit: Inferred from behavior (replying to a post, “favoriting” a photo).

   • Directed vs. Undirected: Following on Twitter is directed (one-way); friending on Facebook is undirected (mutual).

   • Weight/Value: Measuring the intensity of a connection (e.g., 10 messages vs. 1 message).

6. Retention of Content: Ranging from permanent histories (Wikis) to fleeting, unrecorded exchanges (some IMs).

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1.2.4 Social Media Examples & Networks Created

Category	Key Property	Type of Network Created
Threaded Conversation	Asynchronous; email, forums.	Reply Graphs: Connects senders and receivers.
Synchronous	Real-time; Chat, IM, Texting.	Conversation Networks: Based on active exchange.
World Wide Web	Hypertext; URLs.	Hyperlink Networks: Analyzed via PageRank.
Collaborative Authoring	Wikis, Google Docs.	Co-authorship Networks: People editing same pages.
Microblogs	Brief (140 chars); Twitter.	Follower/Retweet Networks: Directed ties.
Social Sharing	Content-centric; YouTube, Flickr.	Affiliation Networks: People connected by shared tags/interests.
Social Networking	Profile-centric; Facebook, LinkedIn.	Social Graphs: “Friending” and professional ties.
Online Markets	Transactions; eBay, Amazon.	Trade Networks: Connecting buyers and sellers.
Idea Generation	Voting/Challenge sites.	Voting Networks: Who voted for which ideas.
Virtual Worlds	3D Environments; Second Life, MMOs.	Spatial/Proximity Networks: Who is near whom.
Mobile/Location	GPS-based; Foursquare.	Geographical Networks: Connecting people to places.

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1.2.5 Practitioner’s & Researcher’s Summary

• For Practitioners: Success requires matching the specific tool dimensions to the desired audience and understanding the “etiquette” of that community.

• For Researchers: We are in a “Golden Age” of social science. Challenges include:

  • Motivation: How to get people to participate voluntarily.

  • Governance: How to manage malicious behavior and community norms.

  • Scalability: Finding the limits of how large these networks can grow before they break down.

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