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Why some social network services work and others don't — Or: the case for object-centered sociality
A while ago I wondered how our relationship to social networking services will change when instead of adding new contacts, we begin to feel like we'd be better off cutting the links to the people who we actually don't know, stopped liking, or no longer want to be associated with for whatever other reason. I was reminded of this on reading that Russel Beattie has now decided to link out of LinkedIn. He explains:
Yes, I thought about just deleting the people I didn't know, but each deletion of a contact requires an individual request to customer service (it's not just a check box and submit operation) so I finally just decided to cancel the whole thing. I think in general, people who would want to use this service are pretty contactable without using this system, no? ... And if you're a hard to reach person, you're most likely not using this sort of thing anyways. Anyone can contact anyone in five hops, so what real use is it?
I want to use Russell's question about the 'real use' of LinkedIn as a window into what I think is a profound confusion about the nature of sociality, which was partly brought about by recent use of the term 'social network' by Albert Laszlo-Barabasi and Mark Buchanan in the popular science world, and Clay Shirky and others in the social software world. These authors build on the definition of the social network as 'a map of the relationships between individuals.' Basically I'm defending an alternative approach to social networks here, which I call 'object centered sociality' following the sociologist Karin Knorr Cetina. I'll try to articulate the conceptual difference between the two approaches and briefly demonstrate that object-centered sociality helps us to understand better why some social networking services succeed while others don't.
Russell's disappointment in LinkedIn implies that the term 'social networking' makes little sense if we leave out the objects that mediate the ties between people. Think about the object as the reason why people affiliate with each specific other and not just anyone. For instance, if the object is a job, it will connect me to one set of people whereas a date will link me to a radically different group. This is common sense but unfortunately it's not included in the image of the network diagram that most people imagine when they hear the term 'social network.' The fallacy is to think that social networks are just made up of people. They're not; social networks consist of people who are connected by a shared object. That's why many sociologists, especially activity theorists, actor-network theorists and post-ANT people prefer to talk about 'socio-material networks', or just 'activities' or 'practices' (as I do) instead of social networks.
Sometimes the 'social just means people' fallacy gets built into technology, like in the case of FOAF, which is unworkable because it provides a format for representing people and links, but no way to represent the objects that connect people together. The social networking services that really work are the ones that are built around objects. And, in my experience, their developers intuitively 'get' the object-centered sociality way of thinking about social life. Flickr, for example, has turned photos into objects of sociality. On del.icio.us the objects are the URLs. EVDB, Upcoming.org, and evnt focus on events as objects. LinkedIn, however, is becoming the victim of its own cunning: it started off thinking it could benefit by playing up the 'social just means people' misunderstanding. As Russell put it,
That was the "game" right? He who has the most contacts wins. At first you were even listed by the number of contacts you had, remember?
Reid Hoffman's choice (however unintentional it might have been, I don't know) to encourage the use of LinkedIn as a game is what activity theorist Frank Blackler would call the introduction a 'surrogate object.' The surrogate object is actually not sustained by the economic, technical, and cultural arrangement that the activity relies on to sustain itself. Playing 'Who has the most connections wins' might have been fun to some people for a while, but it was not very valuable to the users and developers as a collective in the long run. Now LinkedIn is trying to change the object of sociality that it offers, and persuade people to re-orient their networks around their actual jobs. (Don't get me wrong—I'm the first to support Reid and his team on their endeavour to make LinkedIn more useful as a medium for job-centered sociality!)
Last but not least, we can use the object-centered sociality theory to identify new objects that are potentially suitable for social networking services. Take the notion of place, for example. Annotating places is a new practice for which there is clearly a need, but for which there is no successful service at the moment because the technology for capturing one's location is not quite yet cheap enough, reliable enough, and easy enough to use. In other words, to get a 'Flickr for maps' we first need a 'digital camera for location.' Approaching sociality as object-centered is to suggest that when it becomes easy to create digital instances of the object, the online services for networking on, through, and around that object will emerge too. Social network theory fails to recognise such real-world dynamics because its notion of sociality is limited to just people.
For a much more elaborate academic argument about object-centered sociality, see the chapter on 'Objectual Practice' by Karin Knorr Cetina in The practice turn in contemporary theory, edited by Theodor R. Schatzki, Karin Knorr Cetina, and Eike von Savigny (London 2001: Routledge.)
April 13, 2005
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Why some social network services work and others don't — Or: the case for object-centered sociality:
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Comments
Wow! Great read!
I've been considering the convergence of Google Maps, Flickr and Camera Phones as an infrastructure for new social software.
Very soon, camphones will be cheap and plentiful, integrated into whatever piece of hardware we like to carry around. Thousands shots with GPS enabled Phone cams, posted to Flickr, will be accompanied with the longitude/lattitude co-ordinates.
From above the trees or rooftops of some spot you're interested in at Google Maps, get your latitude and longitude, go to Flickr, run a search on that. You will soon tap into ground level photos of that very spot as thousands of people fill in the last mile.
Other Social Software Apps
Google Maps merged with recently released prisoner data, Wireless hotspots, nearest grassroots recommended restaurants, cash machines...
Wireless access, Google maps, and tagging will create sticky location based fountains of useful knowledge.
This is one to watch. There's no telling what will spin off next.
Posted by: Ted Holmes | 13 Apr 2005 21:04:57
excellent article, and *very* useful for me - thank you. manual trackback: http://www.helge.at/archives/00000204.php
Posted by: helge | 13 Apr 2005 21:23:37
there already is a location-centered social network service. it's called Dodgeball, and it connects people through texting from mobile phones.
unfortunately, Dodgeball is only supported in selected cities, and is limited to locations that are restaurants and pubs (what Dodgeball calls "venues"). also, Dodgeball's Boston subsite (the one i use) has very few people signed up ~ at least when compared to the New York, London and Dublin subsites.
here is my profile at boston.dodgeball.com:
http://boston.dodgeball.com/social/profile.php?id=25181
Posted by: christefano | 13 Apr 2005 23:38:57
I enjoyed your article. I have recognized that Flickr and del.icio.us are successful social networks, and you article has crystallized the reason for that (there must be some shared interest or activity among the people involved).
May I offer another successful social network: blogs, and the people who leave comments.
Posted by: Jonathan Aquino | 14 Apr 2005 05:53:20
I'm not sure that Foaf doesn't allow at all the building of objects centered social networks. Foaf has the properties foaf:currentproject, or foaf:interest, which anyone can use to describe projects or interests. The only difference between Foaf and Flickr or del.icio.us is that Foaf uses URL, and not tags. It seems to me to be more semantic. Foaf is also a decentralised project : you'r not closed in a single community like Linkedin. But what reminds true : There're not a lot of tools (semantic search engines) which can today use Foaf files.
Posted by: Pascal G | 14 Apr 2005 07:53:59
FOAF and blog links only work for web developers and bloggers; a social network should be built from one central space -- a site -- to get the most members.
MySpace, currently dominated by high school and college kids, uses "groups" but doesn't link them to individuals in a social network. Friendster and Tribe did this too, with even less integration. If each social contact was tagged with one or more groups, the network would be more object-oriented.
Myspace revamped its "colleges" feature a few weeks ago. I've found contacts through my school's page, which I think is just what we want from an object-centered network.
Posted by: Nick Douglas | 14 Apr 2005 13:12:00
v nice !
+ manual trackback:
http://www.purselipsquarejaw.org/2005_04_01_blogger_archives.php#111348427113779528
Posted by: Anne | 14 Apr 2005 16:44:03
I completely agree. I've been a member of several social networks over the years and the glue that holds them together is a shared contemporary interest.
Even better is an innovative use of the system:
http://www.broadbandstars.co.uk/2005/04/ask_flickr.html
Posted by: Colin | 14 Apr 2005 21:30:17
With the profileration of social network software
my problem is: how do I manage my network of social
networks ...
Posted by: Gerd Kortuem | 19 Apr 2005 20:10:59
Hi. Very interesting post, and I've much sympathy with this viewpoint. As one of the creators of FOAF, I do think you mischaracterise the FOAF approach somewhat. Easily done; our website is pretty crappy. The FOAF design very carefully makes sure that FOAF files can describe far more than people and typed relationship claims linking them. FOAF only has 'foaf:knows' as a built-in relationship (though various parties have defined extensions for more detailed claims, eg. 'friend' --- whatever that means ---, family relationships etc). Given a choice between claiming friendship versus showing it, I find the latter more interesting. FOAF is structured to allow for describing the photos, events, collaborations etc that are the evidence friendship leaves in the world, rather than crudely taxonomising classes of friend.
http://rdfweb.org/2002/01/photo/ has some (pre-Flickr) notes on the photo aspects of documenting social life. Or there's a quick transcription of my 2004 Etech talk online at
http://rdfweb.org/people/danbri/media/2004/02/11/etech/foaftalk.txt
which touches on these points:
[[
There's a couple of styles of using FOAF.
There's a couple of styles of social networking sites. And we tried to
architect FOAF to be neutral between them, although I think there are
some cultural biases in the FOAF crowd towards one of them.
So, you can be very explicit in a FOAF file. I could say: "Edd's my
friend",
or I could say "Edd's my _best_ friend". Or I could say "Edd's my
arch-nemesis". I could plug in any set of interpersonal relationships
that someone else out there decides to make available.
That's a very... articulated, social networking site style of talking
about sociality.
There's also, and my biases lean this way, a more kind of implicit,
evidence-based approach. So we talk about: Liam and I work for the same
organisation. Or... Libby and I went to the same school. The two of us
co-authored a document, and so on. So you describe facts about the world
which have associated with them implicit information about your
relationships to someone.
]]
Hope that helps some.
Posted by: Dan Brickley | 20 Apr 2005 10:06:49
Great article! I think blogs are especially interesting in the respect that they facilitate both object oriented sociality and people oriented social networks.
Another manual trackback:
http://www.valt.helsinki.fi/blogs/jjmajava/objsoc.htm
Posted by: Jere Majava | 20 Apr 2005 11:35:18
Do you think another theoretical lens to look at this is through the concept of 'affordances' (as used by Norman and Dourish, for example)? I think focusing on the object (or the people, for that matter) can potentially mislead us to attribute some fixity or centrality to it while theoretically contemplating it. On the other hand an affordance, defined as a 3-way relationship between the environment, the actor, and the activity, can help us map the shifts, displacements and balances between objects that a change in one element has on the others. Just a thought.
PS. I'm glad I found your blog. I think we share many interests.
Posted by: Ulises | 21 Apr 2005 13:00:38
Christefano: I agree that Dodgeball is a good example of the current state of mobile social softwares. The problem that I pointed out is that MoSoSos suffer from the lack of a quick and easy way to capture and tag locations, which are one promising--though not the only possible--new type of object for online sociality that networked mobile devices can potentially create. Although the use of Dodgeball is growing (hats off to Dennis and his team!), it hasn't skyrocketed yet, and I think that is so because most of us feel that it's just too clumsy to announce our location using text input, especially with current mobile phones. Although iMode is generally more usable than SMS, Imahima (Dodgeball's Japanese precursor, founded by my good friend Neeraj Jhanji back in 1999) continues to suffer from this same problem even though it has a menu-based interface. For a brief English description of Imahima see: http://www.imahima.com/www/en/ps/service_imahima.html
As I see it, the trouble with announcing location is that it should be made on an opt-in basis to maintain workable privacy, but the action of 'opting in' has to be kept really quick and simple in order for the service to truly work. I tried to solve this problem for one specific place, our social club (Aula) in Helsinki, by linking the RFID readers that controlled the doors of the physical space to the Aula blog and eventually to SMS services as well. See: http://www.zengestrom.com/blog/2004/01/is_there_a_busi.html
The next iteration was the recently launched Nokia NFC shell, which can be used to announce location by touching a tag with the phone. See:
http://www.ecyrd.com/ButtUgly/Wiki.jsp?page=Main_blogentry_010405_1
But the problem in using NFC tags to announce location is their short read distance (which does work to their advantage in some other use cases). With proper marking the tags are pretty easy to spot on consumer products because products have a limited surface area, but very few of us are ever going to bother searching for a tag the size of a quarter in a space as big as a café. Even when we do, there's no guarantee that we'll remember to touch again to log out on leaving the space. Our ethnographic study of Aula shows quite well that that is the case (I'll blog the link as soon as we get the new Aula site up and running). The way the development seems to be going now is that touching tags will become a way to initiate other local wireless connections, such as Bluetooth or WiFi.
To return to the question of potentially successful location-based services: I think that Plazes is one of the more interesting examples of the new wave of MoSoSos because despite its shortcomings, it's clearly trying to become a platform for other developers -- and although that strategy alone won't guarantee success on any level, I think it will be an essential move more generally for the players in the social software industry. See: http://plazes.com and Eric Wahlforss' critique: http://eric.wahlforss.com/articles/archives/000026.php
Posted by: Jyri | 21 Apr 2005 22:21:16
Very interesting article. I agree absolutely that successful social networking sites need to have a clear object - something more specific than "come and hang out" or chat. If you take a very broad view of what constitutes a social networking site - simply a website which enables communication/sharing between users - then it seems to me that all successful examples have 2 things in common:
1. They have a clear OBJECTIVE/PURPOSE - something that people want to do
2. They are optimised for that purpose - with appropriate functionality for that objective/purpose.
Posted by: Karl | 4 May 2005 17:40:05
About using "Flickr for maps", I suggest to have a look at http://geobloggers.com/?lat=40.440556&lon=-79.996111
Photos geotagged on Flickr shown on Gmaps!!!
For geotagging photos you find great and easy tips at http://steeev.f2o.org/mt/2005/05/geotagging_flickr_with_google_maps_and_greasemonkey_part_2.html
Posted by: paolo | 9 Jun 2005 18:03:44
Jery, I can concur with almost everything you suggest in this piece with what I see on my sites Dogster and Catster. Everyone's involvement in the sites all revolves around their love of animal companionship. They have almost no interest in talking about other thing or transfering relations into real-life, but they spend hours sharing and enjoying what they all have in common. The best part is I've come to see they are from all walks of life, but I would imagine the average user would not guess that.
It's been 18 months since I launched Dogster and it's hardly a fad. Each month our rate of new memberships increases, as do our page views and overall participation. 500 new pets were added today and I suspect 500 more will be added tomorrow. From all we can tell only a fraction of those interested in our sites have found them.
It's taken a ton of work to keep the purpose and community on axis, but what a pleasure. We add a new feature set and we get 1,000 separate thank yous.
PS: Your site design is a joy. Makes me wish I never started using a RSS reader.
Posted by: Ted Rheingold | 10 Aug 2005 08:23:44
I find it strange that your critique of LinkedIN is based on other's evaluations of it. Though I am a LinkedIN newbie, I would like to relate a single day in my "networking" experience using the service.
I have had a linkedIN account for a while, when a friend invited me, she was looking for a job. But last week, when a mentor of mine, asked me to link-in to his network, my perspective changed dramatically! At once, his deep network was available for me to browse. Wow! He was connected and had some interesting names on his list. A number of his "network" were mutual friends. Several were CEO's and VPs within businesses I was actually working to get hired by.
And here is where LinkedIN shines beyond any other network I have been part of. Business! Through my friend I was able to request an introduction to this contact, write that person an email and with my friend's approval--send this message directly to the VP of X corp.
And something amazing happened! I was doing this from a wired coffee shop and thus was rather excitable... so excuse my enthusiasm. I had applied via X corp's website for a position that looked interesting in the early morning. Later that morning I was browsing the network of one of my contacts... and ping, there it was! The co-founder and CEO of the company I had just applied to was listed in my friend's contact list! I wrote the intro email, related my recent resume submission and interest in his company; my friend forwarded the email with a short note about how he knew me; AND 30 minutes later (I almost spewed my coffee) I got an email directly from the CEO.
"I got your note and have forwarded your resume to my partner who is hiring for the position. Thanks and if you don't hear from her soon, please let me know. And there was his real return email address.
No word from the company yet. That was Friday and today is Saturday. But give me ONE example of a social networking community that works like that and I am IN!
Anyway, if you are looking for work, wanting to expand your business opportunities, I can't think of a better service than linkedIN. See ya there!
Posted by: J Mac | 15 Apr 2006 16:31:43
Very interesting article.
I had to blog about it.(http://www.resonancedesign.blogspot.com)
What I find most interesting about it is indeed the fact that there has to be a value creation that is beyond the mere publishing or connection. The LinkedIn.com example very much reminded me of the Orkut.com hype to create networks of "friends".
The online games and/or MUDs where most of these modern forms of community websites derive from have a very simplistic yet impressive by impact system of object creation or value creation. Magic objects and 50th level magician characters are traded online for physical world currency on Ebay, and physical fights over killing a Lineage character show how emotionally or financially attached people can get to their digital community.
The objectifisation(?) of content in the form of emotional or financial impact into the physical world is one of the most impressive phenomena blurring the borders between digital and physical, which has been part of my research as an artist for the last 5 years.
Picking up on the last part of the above article, my recent project is about the exploration of how much geographic location can have an impact on value creation. If anyone wants to comment on that you can check http://www.project-80days.blogspot.com for further details or email me, I am happy to get a conversation started about this.
marCus
Posted by: Uncle Unvoid | 25 Oct 2006 10:46:36
Sometimes I wonder if people who are spending so much time on the web forget the basic norms of everyday life. Essentially this is all just common sense: go to any local community centre, and you will see basketball clubs, knitting clubs, book clubs etc. I would propose re-naming the theory: "Having something in common is nice online too"
Posted by: Dan | 3 Feb 2007 12:36:55
Thnaks for the Links.
Posted by: Rechtsanwalt Strafrecht | 19 Apr 2007 02:14:52
Thx for list of links, great work
Posted by: filmiki | 19 May 2007 09:45:29
Dude -- great post. Very, very smart. Thanks!
Posted by: Zachary Thacher | 12 Sep 2007 15:42:57
my empirical intuition leads me to exactly the same conclusion: social networks are nothing else but groups of people linked by 'something' they have in common, whatever this 'something' is: a common passion for football, friendship, seeking new job opportunities, looking out for a partner, you name it. in that, i fully agree with you: there needs to be an 'object' in its loosest sense for relationships between people to emerge and hence networks to form. no object, no network. hence, no potential for a service that, literally, has no object…
however, many services do have an object, yet some seem to fly way better than others. my explanation to this rests on how the networks these services build upon rank in terms of INITIMACY between their members (whereas jaiku is a service bringing something extra to *existing* networks of people - friends, colleagues, etc. -, me.dium is in contrast a service whose value arises out of people sharing similar interests but *not knowing*, a priori, each other) and their associated level of ACTIVENESS (compare the number of daily micro-interactions you have on IM or jaiku vs. the number of links you post on del.icio.us for your friends…). to my understanding, these two dimensions move together: the greater the intimacy between members of a network, the greater their likelihood to actively participate in that network. hence, services that target this kind of networks (examples run from IM to Habbo, or Jaiku) have probably greater chances to meet success than services that built upon much ‘looser’ networks (from me.dium to del.icio.us).
having said all this, the explanation you put forth, that ‘when it becomes easy to create digital instances of the object, the online services for networking on, through, and around that object will emerge too’ definitely carries power in it. economists would refer to this as transaction costs: the lower the cost of transacting, the higher the propensity to make a transaction. which would explain why services whose main transaction mechanism remains as simple as typing (such as IM or jaiku) are still finding wider audiences than services which are more demanding to operate (such as me.dium or del.icio.us).
Posted by: xavier | 14 Sep 2007 20:36:01
Very interesting article.
Essentially this is all just common sense: go to any local community centre, and you will see basketball clubs, knitting clubs...
Posted by: Elliot | 2 Nov 2007 21:38:19
I agree! A true social network is a network of people connected or bound by a specific interest.
Posted by: Dan | 4 Dec 2007 04:04:03
