Joachim Vlieghe

" I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot. " JDS

“Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media” - Andreas M. Kaplan & Michael Haenlein

Central issue: “The concept of Social Media is top of the agenda for many business executives today. Decision makers, as well as consultants, try to identify ways in which firms can make profitable use[1] of applications such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, Second Life, and Twitter. Yet despite this interest, there seems to be very limited understanding of what the term ‘Social Media’ exactly means; this article intends to provide some clarification.” (AKMH, p.59)
   > Problem: loss of control over brand image/identity
   “(…) businesses have increasingly less control over the information available about them in cyberspace. Today, if an Internet user types the name of any leading brand into the Google search, what comes up among the top five results typically includes not only the corporate webpage, but also the corresponding entry in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. (…) Today, however, firms have been increasingly relegated to the sidelines as mere observers, having neither the knowledge nor the chance–—or, sometimes, even the right–—to alter publicly posted comments provided by their customers.” (AKMH, p.60)
           » Remark: The idea of centralized control over brand image/identity is, I believe, a misconception of the process of identity formation. A brand image is established not only by the ideas spread by the company, but also by the individual interpretation of these ideas by consumers and the ideas they add or spread themselves about the brand. While the increased amount of UGC has made users opinions more visible to companies, it has probably made the influence of users comments only slightly more pertinent. (Although, of course, I cannot say this with absolute certainty…)

Definitions:

• WEB 2.0
  ”Although Web 2.0 does not refer to any specific technical update of the World Wide Web, there is a set of basic functionalities that are necessary for its functioning. (…) we consider Web 2.0 as the platform for the evolution of Social Media. (…) Web 2.0 represents the ideological and technological foundation (…)” (AKMH, p.61)
• User Generated Content (UGC)
  ”UGC can be seen as the sum of all ways in which people make use of Social Media. (…) According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2007), UGC needs to fulfill three basic requirements in order to be considered as such: first, it needs to be published either on a publicly accessible website or on a social networking site accessible to a selected group of people; second, it needs to show a certain amount of creative effort; and finally, it needs to have been created outside of professional routines and practices. The first condition excludes content exchanged in e-mails or instant messages; the second, mere replications of already existing content (e.g., posting a copy of an existing newspaper article on a personal blog without any modifications or commenting); and the third, all content that has been created with a commercial market context in mind.” (Ibid.)
• Social Media
  ”(…) Social Media is a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content.” (Ibid.)
     > Remark: In a previous post, I contested this definition for several reasons.

Observation:
”(…) there is no systematic way in which different Social Media applications can be categorized. (…) To create such a classification scheme, and to do so in a systematic manner, we rely on a set of theories in the field of media research (social presence, media richness) and social processes (self-presentation, self-disclosure), the two key elements of Social Media.” (Ibid.)
   > Classification:
               - Media richness // social presence allowed
                 “Applied to the context of Social Media, we assume that a first classification can be made based on the richness of the medium and the  degree of social presence it allows. With respect to the social dimension of Social Media, the concept of self-presentation states that in any type of social interaction people have the desire to control the impressions other people form of them (Goffman, 1959). On the one hand, this is done with the objective of influencing others to gain rewards (e.g., make a positive impression on your future in-laws); on the other hand, it is driven by a wish to create an image that is consistent with one’s personal identity (e.g., wearing a fashionable outfit in order to be perceived as young and trendy). The key reason why people decide to create a personal webpage is, for example, the wish to present themselves in cyberspace (Schau & Gilly, 2003). Usually, such a presentation is done through self-disclosure; that is, the conscious or unconscious revelation of personal information (e.g., thoughts, feelings, likes, dislikes) that is consistent with the image one would like to give.” (AKMH, p.61-62)
               - Self-disclosure required // self-presentation allowed
                 “Self-disclosure is a critical step in the development of close relationships (e.g., during dating) but can also occur between complete strangers; for example, when speaking about personal problems with the person seated next to you on an airplane. Applied to the context of Social Media, we assume that a second classification can be made based on the degree of self-disclosure it requires and the type of self-presentation it allows.” (AKMH, p.62)

[1] Remark: let us not forget that much of the research on Social Media is aimed at marketing policies and generating profit.

cognitivedissonance:

Julian Assange vs. Mark Zuckerberg

Nice dichotomous presentation of identity construction in times of legislative wars over freedom of content and practice on the Internet. Makes me think of the closing paragraph(s) of the famous “Hacker’s Manifesto” of Loyd Blakenship.

Same remark as with the previous categorizations…

1. Youth – e.g. Arto, NationX, SKUM, LunarStorm, Bebo
2. Friendship – e.g. Facebook, Friendster
3. Games/fun – e.g. Habbo Hotel, Netstationen
4. Business/CV – e.g. LinkedIn
5. Music – e.g. LastFM, MySpace, myvoice
6. Video/entertainment – e.g. YouTube, Vix.dk
7. Photos – e.g. Flickr
8. Pets – e.g. Catster, Dogster
9. Religion – e.g. MyChurch, GodTube
10. Academic/professional – e.g. KForum
11. Political – e.g. Radikale.net
12. Libraries – e.g. Vores Bibliotek
13. Discussion – e.g. Mingler
14. Death – e.g. Mindet.dk
15. Enemies/hate – e.g. Enemybook, Hatebook, IFHY (I Fucking Hate You)
16. Anti-social - e.g. isolatr, NoSo, Snubster
17. School – e.g. HG Space, Ekademia
18. Design – e.g. Threadless, NotABrand
19. Children – e.g. GoSupermodel
20. Blogging – e.g. Blog.dk
21. Sleep and wake up – e.g. Sleep.Fm

Interesting comment found below the blogpost:

“To generalize, let’s consider two types of social networks: ego-centric and object-centric. An ego-centric social network places the individual as the core of the network experience (Orkut, Facebook, LinkedIn, Friendster) while the object-centric network places a non-ego element at the center of the network.”
Source: http://chimprawk.blogspot.com/2007/11/social-network-transitions.html

I don’t think this categorization is completely accurate - as are the previous categorizations I’ve posted (part1 - part 2 - part 3) - but it is a start.

1. Blogs — Yes, your blog is a type of social media. The most popular free blogging platforms are WordPress.com, TypePad, and Blogger. I highly recommend a self-hosted site with WordPress.org installed.
2. Social Networking Sites — Focuses on building relationships among people with similar interests and activities. Examples: Facebook, MySpace, Friendster
3. Social News — Users submit and vote on news stories. Examples: Digg, PopURLs
4. Social Measuring — Measure the quality of submitted content. Examples: Technorati, BlogPulse
5. Microblogging – Differs from traditional blogging because the content is delivered in short bursts of information. Example: Twitter
6. Social Bookmarking — Allows users to share, organize, search bookmarks of web resources. Examples: Del.ici.ous, Diigo (formerly Furl)
7. Social Q&A – Users can submit or answer questions. Examples: Answers.com, Yahoo! Answers
8. Video Sharing — Users can upload and comment on videos. Examples: YouTube, Vimeo
9. Photo Sharing — Users can upload and comment on photos. Some photo-sharing sites offer a user license agreement that allows bloggers and website owners to use images. Examples: Flickr, PhotoBucket
10. Social Search — Some search engines have evolved beyond providing search results into to a social media communities where users can create profiles and interact through email groups. Examples: Google, Yahoo!
11. Professional Networks — This type of social media site is a virtual Rolodex, enabling business professionals to recommend one another, share information about industry-related events, post resumes, and other features. Examples: LinkedIn, Plaxo
12. Niche Communities — Niche networking has grown beyond the message boards of old into full-fledged communities. There is no “leader of the pack” in this category, but here is a list of social media niche sites maintained by Traffikd.
13. Social Email – Newly released Google Buzz has transformed Gmail into a stream of consciousness for email contacts. Always the educator, Darren Rowse of ProBlogger has been conducting a great series with his Buzz followers as we all learn this thing together. If you’re new to Google Buzz or interested in giving it a go, I suggest you follow Darren.
14. Comment Communities — Even blog comments have hopped aboard the social media bandwagon through sites such as Disqus. (Note: My friend Rajeev Edmonds recently wrote an informative guest post about customizing Disqus comments.)
15. Regional Social Media Sites — This type of social media site is growing in popularity as the world wide web seeks to become more personal. Contributing to news sites, such as Examiner.com, are a great way to position yourself as an authority within both your community and your niche and make a few extra dollars at the same time. I’m the Little Rock Blogging for Business Examiner. Click here to learn more about writing for Examiner, and tell them Linda Fulkerson sent you!
16. Podcasting Communities — Podcasting communities are social networks that help connect podcasters, advertisers, and listeners. Example: Blubrry.com
17. Blog Networks – Similar to niche communities, blog networks are usually a large collection of blogs. Sometimes they cover a broad arena of topics, others are small and more tightly focused. Although anyone can read the blog posts (sometimes registration is required), many blog networks provide exclusive content and require approval for bloggers to join, which gives those who are accepted a certain level of prestige. Examples: Gawker, b5Media, 9Rules
18. Blogging Communities — Broader than niche communities and not exclusive like blog networks, blogging communities encourage bloggers to share and interact with one another as well as create regular blog posts. Examples: BlogHer, LiveJournal
19. Presentation-sharing Sites — Sharing presentations online is becoming a very popular way to set yourself apart from the crowd in your field. There is also a lot of good content available on presentation sites that bloggers can link to and share with their readers. Examples: SlideShare
20. Content-driven Communities — Also known as “Wikis.” This type of social media is popping up everywhere. The largest and most well known, of course, is Wikipedia.
21. Product-based Communities — Many sites that started as a means of buying and selling products online have incorporated the community aspect into their sites. The biggest sites in this type of social media are Ebay and Amazon.com.
22. Review & Recommendation Sites — You can review almost anything in an online community-based setting now. Twitter asks “What are you doing?”, but Shelfari (and other book review communities) asks “What are you reading?” Travel recommendation communities are extremely popular. Examples: TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet, Where I’ve Been
23. Social Media Sites that Defy Definition — There are several social media sites that march to the beat of their own drum. Squidoo comes to mind. (No, I haven’t forgotten I’m supposed to create a lens and write about my experience there, but seriously, life has gotten in the way of many of my projects lately. If you’re my friend on Facebook, you know.) At first glance, StumbleUpon seems to be a social bookmarking site, but the site is marketed as a “Channel Surfing” site. Do you know of other unique social media sites that don’t “fit in” to the above categories?
24. What other types of social media sites are you aware of? List them in the comments. Also, please share which types you prefer and how you use them.

An approach to ‘the role of the librarian’…

Transcript:

Imagine for a minute that you’re a librarian, but not a normal one. You’re a librarian for every book in the world. People depend on you everyday to find the exact book they need. How do you do it? You need a system. You need to know what’s inside every book and how books relate to each other. Your system needs to take in a lot of information and spit out the best answers for patrons questions. It’s not an easy job.

Search engines like Google and Bing are the librarians of the Internet. Their systems collect information about every page on the web so they can help people find exactly what they’re looking for. And every search enging has a secret recipe, called an algorithm, for turning al that information into useful search results.

(…)
Third, links between websites matter. When one web page links to another, it’s usually a recommendation telling readers: ‘this site has good information’. A web page with a lot of links coming to it can look good to search engines. But some people try to fool the search engines by creating or buying bogus links all over the web that point to their own website. Usually search engines can detect when a site has a lot of them and they account for it by giving links from trustworthy sites more weight in the recipe.

Fourth, the words that are used in links matter too. If your webpage says Amazon has lots of books and the word books is linked search engines can establish that Amazon.com is related to the word books. This way, when someone searches for books that site will rank well.

Lastly, search engines care about reputation. Sites with a consistent record of fresh engaging content and growing numbers of quality links may be considered rising stars and do well in search rankings.

The Hype Machine follows music blog discussions

Every day, thousands of people around the world write about music they love — and it all ends up here.

What is it?

The Hype Machine keeps track of what music bloggers write about. We handpick a set of kickass music blogs and then present what they discuss for easy analysis, consumption and discovery. This way, your odds of stumbling into awesome music or awesome blogs are high. 

Why?

We are creating tools that empower independent voices that write about music. We think a select group of passionate people can produce more engaging conversation than a huge social mob, or a rigid hierarchy of editors. We amplify their posts and the audio they choose, to help this vibrant culture spread.

Oh yeah, music runs in our veins. You already figured that out though.

How does it work?

The Hype Machine tracks a variety of MP3 blogs. If a post contains MP3 links, it adds those links to its database and displays them on the front page.

Those tracks are NOT available for download, but you can preview them via the play buttons that are next to each track.

The blog that posted a particular track is identified under every track by name so you can read more about why they posted it. If you enjoyed a track someone posted, stop by and let them know!

You can purchase CDs and individual tracks by using the “amazon” and “itunes” links that appear next to most tracks. Each purchase you make supports both the artists and The Hype Machine. Please buy and enjoy.