On Social Networks

Since [tag-tec]social networks[/tag-tec] are a steady buzz these days the excellent article referred below helps to understand the fundamental elements of online social networks by going back to research papers and linking their outputs to real world examples.
For designers/facilitators of [tag-ice]online social networks[/tag-ice]: take care that the flourishing of disconnected sub-networks is supported and that the big-component zombie doesn’t get all the fresh meat. Otherwise innovation is missing in the long term. And of course don’t forget those single nodes – the users that just joined – and make it easy for them to hook up with those sub-networks.

Social Networks And Group Formation: “When designing your social network, be aware that most of the network will be outside the giant component. In a sense, social networks themselves are thousands of sub-networks. The more mechanisms that you provide for those sub-networks to flourish, greater the overall network growth. Social networks are fundamentally virtual [tag-tec]ghettos[/tag-tec]. Networks like MySpace and [tag-tec]Facebook[/tag-tec] that encourage ghettos grow the most. [tag-tec]Ning[/tag-tec], which lets you create your own network and join others too, cleverly understands this concept and leverages it.”

• Also quite interesting is this take in social capital that resides on social networks (found it in the comments).
• Academic research on social media: mostly different kinds of analytics

[tags]socialnetworks[/tags] [tags]research[/tags] [tags]socialcapital[/tags]