7.2 Social Technology Comes of AgeIn Chapter 2 you read about the interactive web associated with user involvement and collaboration. This collaboration happens through interactive web services such as Wikipedia (an online encyclopedia) and Facebook. These web services provide users with a way to share information, exchange ideas, and add or edit content in collabo-rative articles. The social web is one of the most publicized and successful uses of the internet.

How the Social Web Was BornSince the early days of the internet, when it was used only by government and educa-tional researchers, through the first few years after the internet became available to the general public, people have been interacting online through tools such as discussion boards and email, but the social web took that interaction much further. The con-cept of online interaction came into its own in 2001, and understanding the trends it describes is important in understanding how the social web came to be. In the late 1990s, the open source movement allowed individuals to contribute to the source code of free software, such as the Linux operating system. Open content is to the social web what open source was to software development—it means that people can freely share their knowledge about topics in online collections, such as Wikipedia.

In 1997, at about the same time that the open source and open content move-ments were growing, one of the first true social networking sites, SixDegrees.com, appeared. Although other sites already existed that allowed users to create profiles

Social sites allow users to share ideas and content online.

with information about themselves and compile lists of friends, SixDegrees was one of the first sites that combined the use of profiles and searchable friends lists into one service. Social networking was born.

SixDegrees failed, perhaps in part because its concept was ahead of its time. In 1999, online journals called blogs (a term created from web + log) began to sur-face online, facilitated by blogging sites such as Open Diary and Blogger. Blogs

Adapted from “Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship” by Boyd and Ellison, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication.

FIGURE 7.1 Launch Dates of Social Networking Sites

became one of the key tools for online social interaction. A few more social net-working sites appeared throughout the late 1990s, many incorporating a blogging component, until, in 2003, the phenomenon exploded with sites such as MySpace, Flickr, Facebook, and LinkedIn all launching within months of each other. Google+ was launched in 2011, amassing over 10 million users within the first two weeks. Figure 7.1 presents a timeline of social networking sites.

Overview of Social Technology TodayToday, the social web can be accessed by a variety of devices, such as smartphones and gaming devices. These devices allow over 2.5 billion people to connect with their social sites to post text, video, and photos and interact with their friends on the go. Certain social media services, such as Snapchat, are accessible only via apps on mobile devices—their content cannot be viewed using a browser.

If you perform a search using the terms “social web,” you will see the incredible variety of social sites and applications available to you. The functions of these sites and applications are as varied as the people and organizations who use them. Social causes use the social web to muster support in times of crisis, such as raising money to help victims of natural disasters. Businesses use social marketing, driving their branding and sales messages to the public by participating in all kinds of social networking sites. Politicians hold online dialogs on political and social issues to gather votes and sup-port. Artists create musical and visual pieces by sharing media and building new pieces of art collaboratively. Political demonstrators all over the globe have used social media to organize their efforts and communicate about incidents and developments.

The social web is growing and evolving rapidly, with changes happening daily. Functions and features of the different social websites overlap, making it challeng-ing to define the technologies precisely. However, grouping them into the following broad categories provides a way to examine them and understand their value in our digital world:

• blogging• social networking

The social web makes it possible for streams of information and connections to travel across the globe.

• social bookmarking• wikis• media sharingEach of these categories of social media is explored in this chapter in terms of how

the technology works, who uses it, and for what purposes.

The Future of Social TechnologyBy the time you read this chapter, social technology will have changed. That’s one of the most exciting things about web content driven by the masses: it morphs very quickly because anybody can suggest an idea that becomes the next great trend, rather than having trends dictated by businesses or the media. Still, it’s possible to speculate about some future directions for the social web that are already emerging.

One predicted trend is the ability to carry your identity (the profile you create when you join a service) with you from site to site. There will be a connection among all the social sites you now use separately. You will have one set of friends who have access to your page and one set of preferences (such as privacy settings). Currently, you can see the potential of this kind of system in the ability to sign up for or into multiple sites using your Facebook credentials. Social media and messaging are avail-able on mobile devices. Social messaging has evolved as a component built around social networking platforms such as Facebook Messenger. Businesses can use social messaging to connect with customers.

Another trend is the ability to gather together content from a wide variety of ser-vices. For example, a service like HootSuite allows you to create categories of informa-tion and post updates on a variety of services, such as Twitter, Facebook, and more, in one action.

“ Social networking in the enterprise will break down . . . barriers and provide equal access to information across levels and job functions.”—Luosheng Peng,

CEO, GageIn

Khan Academy is just one example of a site that provides students with videos, practice exercises, and assessments for free.

It’s been suggested that in the future, all websites will have social networking fea-tures, and in fact, that movement is already underway. For example, Outlook.com, which started as an email and calendar service, now allows you to build a friends net-work, as do some bookmarking sites. You may also be able to use your social media account to log in to interactive features of other media websites, such as the com-ments feature for online newspapers. Social media has become a real-time reporting tool. In 2017, news about Hurricane Maria in the US spread quickly as Puerto Ricans used social media to raise funds to aid those in distress. Recent changes in government regimes in the Middle East spread through the use of social media sites such as Google Crisis Response, which allows people to get news updates and share emergency-service data in critical times. What could that mean to the way we share knowledge, do busi-ness, become aware of global social causes, and report the news?

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HootSuite is a social relationship platform that allows users to control their various social media profiles from one secure dashboard.