Social

Stephen Cahill, Brian Collins, Kevin Cooke, Alan Crean, Derek O’Reilly

Social Spaces

Henri Lefebvre emphasised that in human society “all space is social”

A social space is physical or virtual space such as: • A Social Centre • An Online Forum or Community • Public Places, Websites or Shopping Malls.

For this presentaon we will be focusing on Social Cyber Spaces Physical to Cyber History of Social Spaces

• Ancient cavemen wrote on their cave walls.

• Fast forward a few thousand years and we are all doing it on a computer screen in the form of a wall

A Historical Perspecve Cyber Social Spaces 1997-1998 - SixDegrees.com allowed users to create profiles, list their friends and later, they could surf their Friends lists 1997-2001 – Community tools began supporng various mixes of profiles and publicly linked friends e.g. AsianAvenue, BlackPlanet and MiGente Early 2000’s - Social networking sites (SNSs) developed as a major online phenomenon since the bursng of the Internet bubble

2001 - : The Korean virtual world site Cyworld was started in 1999 and added SNS features in 2001

2002 - The rise and fall of . Issues encountered technology and social difficules 2003 - Many new SNSs were launched, prompng social soware analyst Clay Shirky to coin the term YASNS: “Yet Another Social Networking Service.” The majority of sites were profile-centric What happened to MySpace?

• Founder Tom Anderson • MySpace was founded in 2003 to compete with sites like Friendster, , and AsianAvenue, offering online social networking services. • Rumours started that Friendster was to adopt a fee-based system • Friendster members posted messages encouraging people to join alternate SNSs

MySpace was able to grow Indie-rock bands who were rapidly by capitalizing on expelled from Friendster for Friendster’s alienated members failing to comply with profile And then along came Facebook….

• Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dusn Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, all of whom were students at Harvard University. Facebook became the largest in the world in a very short space of me. Facebook overtaking MySpace!

• When….? • How….? • April 2008 • A number of reasons: • New innovaons • Custom Facebook names • Facebook Connect • Twier-esque live streaming updates • Significant growth in mobile usage • Users feel a real sense of ownership over • Facebook itself, not just the informaon they share Facebook v MySpace

• MySpace suffered from poor design • Facebook started out originally for college students when it first came out – exclusivity • MySpace allowed people to put up their own messy, clunky websites • Facebook has a nice clean design that sll allows a good degree of personalizaon but without a radical alteraon of the basic look • Another thing that happened was that Facebook was the first to implement Apps. Facebook v MySpace What users said “I got a Facebook account because MySpace became a deserted wasteland that nobody visited anymore; everybody said "Oh, I'm only doing FB now!"

“I do like the Facebook interface beer. Some peoples' MySpace pages are just painful to look at and impossible to read”

“I would hesitate to click on someone's MySpace page because of the load mes with all the stuff they stacked on it. Facebook had no such problem. Any wonder why FB got bigger?” Businesses using Facebook as a money-maker • Facebook is a huge markeng mechanism for companies and prospecve companies • Largest social networking website – 600+ million users - it’s far reaching • Communicaon – Facebook is being used as email with the use of Facebook messaging. • Business page on FB can be used as support pages • FB page can be used as a source for feedback on your product or service • Larger number of fans of product or service you have, the more popular your product will become, and more fans will join it through referral • Ranking in search engine can be helped by having a FB business webpage • Facebook social plugins – FB funconality can be added to your business website • Drive traffic to your business’ website from your FB page

• Inbox • Acvies • Projects • Profile • Suggesons • Files • Groups • Announcements • Applicaon • Chat • Trending • Versioning • Resources • Praise

1. Geng you out of your email inbox 2. Central feeds from groups, projects, company 3. Always on 24/7/365 4. Shared global environment 5. Collaborave workspace 6. Resources and Networking Yammer

80K Microso Launched in Companies $1.2 billon in 2008 using in 2010 2012 Yammer Queson – will your office space be in the cloud?

Xbox Live

Xbox Gaming network With Kinect • Add friends • Video chat • Send messages • Watch movies • Create pares • Listen to music • Play games together • Surf the net • Voice chat • Enjoy Apps

• 45 million users • 1 billion turnover per year • 13+ • 15-24 biggest category Weibo – what is it?

• Weibo is Chinese word for “micro blogging”

• First Weibo site- Fanfou - was launched in Beijing in 2007.

• Highly similar to Twier. (140 characters).

• 2006-09 – other weibo services - Jiwai, Digu, Zuosa and Taotao.

• Chinese govt. shut down these sites in 2009 (aer Umruqi Riots)

• Sina.Com setup weibo.com in 2011

• 2012: Over 300 million micro bloggers in China -40% of Chinese internet users, 34% of mobile internet users!!

Weibo v Twier

• Threaded Comments – similar to Facebook.

• Rich Media – ability to insert pictures, videos, music.

• Micro Topics – unique pages to discuss parcular topics.

• Trends Categorisaon – “Board of fame”

• Hall of Celebrity – categorized e.g. entertainment, sport..

• Medal Reward System – fun, and good for marketers…

• Style Templates – 60 to choose from…. Why has Social Space become popular? The creaon of a pseudo-personality

Online Social Space Allow us Freedom to 1. Do what we want 2. To say what we want 3. To be what we want

Erving Goffman-The presentaon of Self in Everyday life

Challenges faced by Social Space

A perspecve on it’s Future

Funconal/Healthy Dysfunconal/Unhealthy • Educang and Informing • Producon – Corporaon People. abuse of workers, market • Bringing people together. manipulaon. • Protecng cizens rights. • Dominaon – Government Control, control of cizens. • Sharing and transfer of informaon. • Power. Cyber bullying, • monitoring of cizens. Examples of Dysfunconal Site Providing Negave Support Cyber Bullying On The Net Young Suicide

Future Trends Social Sites to Watch out for Chirp Flayvr

Medium Thumb Conversaons

Soluons Healthy Browsing/Interacon

The Five Principles Social Networks are all about bringing us together

• Social Networking is like a new baby learning to walk, the baby falls many mes before it finally takes those first tentave steps.

• Mistakes will be made before we get it right. Conclusion

• We are generang • Social Space is not new Network Space at unlike physical space. a rapid rate. • It can be healthy, polluon free or it can • How we manage our be liered with rubbish Social Space is a and every so oen reflecon of the values needs a good cleanup. of the Society we live in. • What do we want our Spaces to reflect? Freedom or Tyranny?

Quesons?