Social Web Essay

Journal of Computer Engineering

1 (2009) 3-11

On Social Network Web Sites: Definition, Features, Architectures and Analysis Tools
Vala Ali Rohani Department Of Software Engineering Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology University Of Malaya Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia V.Rohani@perdana.um.edu.my Abstract Development and usage of online social networking web sites are growing rapidly. Millions members of these web sites publicly articulate mutual "friendship" relations and share user-created contents, such as photos, videos, files, and blogs. The advances in web designing technology and fast growing usage of online resources prompted web designers to improve features and architectures of social web sites. This paper, with the experience of the authors in developing the Iranian Experts Social Network containing above 120,000 official members, describes the features of Social Web Sites (SWSs) and proposes a taxonomy and comprehensive definition in designing such social networking tools. We then present different SWS architectures and also introduce some useful tools for social network analysis. Keywords: Social network web site, Social media web site, e-society, Social Network Analysis. Ow Siew Hock Department Of Software Engineering Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology University Of Malaya Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Show@ um.edu.my

1. Introduction Using IT Solutions and Web based applications in daily life of people cause the generation of wide range of social networks. The study of social networks is an almost natural approach to collaboration. In general, a network comprises of a set of nodes and a set of ties representing some relationship between the nodes. The nodes in social networks are most commonly individuals, organizations, or societies, and the ties often represent collaboration as the particular type of relationship between the nodes [6]. MySpace and Facebook are some examples of these new technology approaches and each...