Social Networking

Social networks and online socialization have been around a lot longer than Facebook and MySpace, but today these networks are becoming huge stores of trust, commercial activity and data—lots of data, rich with valuable context. Like the word "blog," "social networking" is more loaded and bloated than the average friend list. This exercise exists to enrich your understanding of the functional building blocks of an online social network.

objectives

Create your own social network, or presence on an existing social network

requirements

Choose one of the following:

  1. Create your own online social network (e.g. at ning.com)
  2. Add social networking features to an existing website (e.g., using Google Friend Connect, or a similar service.)
  3. Create a presence, not just a profile, on a social network (e.g., a Facebook page)

Populate your social "space" with content that's compelling to your network's members: video, pictures, discussion posts, and anything else you think will drive interest and capture attention

Syndicate content from an online source (e.g., your blog, twitter account, anything with an RSS feed) to your social "space."

Syndicate content from your social network back to your blog, (e.g., via a widget or badge)

Participate in or join at least one of your colleague's social "spaces"

first steps

Determine which social network you will use, or which service you'll use to create your network

Create some original content for your network/space and upload it

Select the content you want to import (e.g., blog RSS feed, flickr photo stream, twitter feed, etc.) and get the necessary addresses to import into the social network/space

Find some code to embed a widget or badge from your social network onto your blog.

Visit the submissions for this page to find a colleague's project to join

grading

50 points possible

Up to 10 points for each requirement

Points off for cutting corners or other evidence of a lackluster effort

Creativity is welcome and encouraged: try editing the video, adding effects, recording it from a live stream or cell phone, or any other idea you have.

deliverable(s)

  1. NEW: Click here to submit your exercise
  2. Post a response to this exercise with a link to your social network/space/page/blog
  3. Respond to at least one of your class colleague's submissions by replying to their comment on this assignment page.
  4. Rate this exercise and explain your rating with comments about specific strengths/ improvement ideas. Anonymous posts are perfectly acceptable, just log out of the site first.
  5. UIUC Students: Tag the link “ADV400E4” on delicious.com
  6. SU Students: Tag the link "IST400E4" on delicious.com

resources & examples

Facebook | Social networking service and platform

MySpace | Social networking service and platform

Ning | Social networking service and platform for creating your own social network

LinkedIN | Social networking service and platform

Google Friend Connect | Free service for adding social networking to any website

Your Link Here | post any useful sites you found in the feedback forum for this page

NEW SUBMISSION PROCESS: Make sure you use the new submission form to submit your work for credit. Everything else should be the same, except now I will be accepting submissions through that form instead of reviewing the comments for this page. Contact me with questions.

response