Proposing a category scheme for Social Networks
I am trying to deepen my understanding of “social networking” by creating a classification system based on the user goal. As a test of the system, I have looked at many of the http://mashable.com/2007/10/23/social-networking-god/ examples to see if they would land neatly in the scheme.
Proper taxonomies are parent-child or type-subtype, where each subtype has the same properties or behaviors as the parent plus one or more additional properties.
I grant that this will not be an orthogonal taxonomy – there will be shared properties of course among siblings – I am attempting to classify a top level according to primary user goal – what sites would appeal to a player if they have a particular objective in mind?
LinkedIn for example would classify as Personal/Professional Marketing, but as one joins LinkedIn groups and makes contacts it can appear more like Shared Project or P2P.
BTW, to classify as an OC, I posit that players must have access to the social graph. An online job or resume bank therefore would not be a community, as a job seeker cannot befriend, and access the profiles of, other job seekers. Yahoo Groups and Google Groups likewise do not fit as a VC or an OC because the members are not directly knowable to one another within the group structure.
So here are the top-level categories with some of the http://mashable.com/2007/10/23/social-networking-god/ sites dropped in. In 90 minutes of reading the GOD list I found none that did not fit. The GOD list categories would be subsumed beneath these.
P2P. Objective: Knowing other individuals.
FaceBook, most avatar chat, Jambo, Amiglia, CafeMom, Cingo, Famster, Kincafe…
Personal/Professional Marketing. Objective: Persuading others to back your social agenda, furthering your career.
MySpace, LinkedIn, ImageKind, Doostang, mediabistro, Ryze, XING, Twitter…
Entertainment. Objective: play and win online games, listen to music, watch video…
World of Warcraft, Pandora, YouTube…
Shared Project or Support. Objective: cooperatively creating and learning approaches to RL activities such as work-related strategies, stock trading, horse betting; providing mutual support for RL problems a la an encounter or therapy group.
Connectbeam, MothersClick, Parentography…