Social Network can be define many ways. However, it is ultimately collection of Individuals, collection of people. We have social networks even in childhood. We have relatives and friends and we communicate each other that makes a social network. Individual becomes a member of a social netwok or many netwoks. if we consider above example the way we are interacting with friends is not the same way that we are interective with our relative. Which means we already members of two networks.(wiki, 2009)
As a result of Information Communication Technology (ICT) Social Networks expose to internet users as well, then it becomes Online Social Network. For an example facebook and myspace are famous online social netwoks. now you can understand how fast these network can be expanded. For an example if you have university group, and assume one of your university group member is a very good fan of the facebook or myspace, then it will be introduced to you and you become a member of another social network then you can interact with more that people than before and exchange ideas academic stuffs and everything and anything.
http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/
you can have more idea about social network by looking at this video
http://www.commoncraft.com/video-social-networking
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good intro on social networks and a link Thilina!
ReplyDeleteHi friend
ReplyDeleteI have created a common blog!!!
So have a visit on it
Thilina,
ReplyDeleteGood article on social networks. Reading the linked article, I wanted to caution on the dangers of online social networking, but hey, the article did the caution on my behalf where for instance it has said:
'The dangers involve online predators or individuals who claim to be someone that they are not'
The video was direct to the topic. However, both video and the link concentrated on online social networks, although this is goog in as far as the relating it to our course.
But let me add a bit of what I understood social networks to be in the wider context. Accorking to Wikipedia, a social network (SN) consist of not only individuals, but groups, tied by one or more types of interdependency such as vision, ideas, kinship, values, trade etc. These individuals or groups are known as nodes, while the relationships beteen nodes are known as ties.
SN play critical roles in solving problems or boosting the success of an individual.
Social analsyts can analyse the whole social network in different dimensions e.g from whole to individual behaviour. Such analysis sometimes help explain real life phenomena which would otherwise be difficult to comprehend.
The shape of a social network helps determine its usefulness to individuals. Smaller bounded networks are less useful compared to larger unbounded networks.
SN analysis differs from the traditional social scientific studies. In the later, it assumes that individual characteristics e.g friendliness, shyness etc. matter, while the former emphasizes the ties in the network, subordinating individual characteristics.
In organisation context, social networks are used to examine interactions between organizations. For instance, someone at the centre of many ties in the network is seen more powerful than the actual job he performs.
SNs play a significant role in business performance, employee recruitment, information gathering to fend against competition etc.