Enter the Super Network

Facebook on Second life link your real friends and your virtual friends

Even the best Science fiction novels could not predict the future of humanity, interconnected as they are today.

The future of Social networking provides us plenty of surprises; what about talking to your friends online, while you are viewing your banking movements ! Imagine your are calling someone on Netlog via Skype and chatting with someone on Linkedin and Facebook simultaneously while you are working on Twitter and Xing or on Viadeo sharing files on Huddle or Weplus ! All that on the same network, a super network using 3D graphics such as second life, pc or mobile with portals through different networks interconnected for one purpose; to  serve you !

This is not far from the truth, nowadays the online gaming industry has provided some interconnection between games, in order to switch between games bringing over your friends.  Social networks are now entering into a mature faze, where they are monetizing their applications.

Only the biggest players will emerge from the crowd. This means that over hundreds of social networks, only a few will remain online to provide the user of all its necessity. Already today you can see some kind of a collaboration between social networks that allow users to add API’s from any network. In the future all networks are going to be merged into one network with all kinds of applications, from your office working station to a playground. The user will connect to the network and do everything it does both in the real life as virtual.

Second life is doing some steps towards collaboration with social networking sites such as Twitter, where you can connect in order to keep in touch with your projects. More and more applications will be added into the virtual world of second life.  You will be on second life to visit shops online, buy clothes on virtual ebay, playing games, network with your friends online , through a portal that gets you to Facebook 3D on your mobile, seek business opportunities through Linkedin 3D or find a job on Secondlife  Careerbuilders Portal. Another next level of web 3.0 application will be that people will share documents on 3D level through online platforms, working on their virtual office.

The world is changing tremendously, the economy is transforming towards a global networking collaboration, modifying to a complete new angle of the old hierarchical model of the Twentieth Century !

The changing in the economy is radical, more and more open source software’s are gaining notoriety. The way we think about an economic model of profits based on demand is changing drastically.

In order to understand the economic changes we must overview what was the economic model till now:

You invent a product, you sell the product with a profit margin in order to compensate the costs of production, use some marketing and sales and sell the product. Build a company with a capital that is based on bank loans, stock shares and sales revenues.

A simple product has a value on the market.  The problem is that millions of people entered the global market with little purchase power.  Now Both companies and consumers want to pay a low price to acquire a product ! In order to do that, you need to lower the costs of production. Previously companies closed their plants in their developed countries to move and rebuild them in the developing countries, but this was just postponing the problem. After the internet bubble in 2001  services and software’s were suddenly available for low prices or even for free on the market due to open source development.  Companies such as Microsoft suffered from this change.  It became known as the Web 2.0 economy “share, develop, collaborate, free”.

Companies need to accept the fact that they can lower the price of products such as low cost flights.

On the other hand consumers want to have quality from their products, the only way you can do that is to monetize the new web 2.0 economy.

The next step will be the collaboration between all networks, providing both quality of products and services for a low price.

Now after that the next step will be something similar to the matrix simulated world where people plug themselves into it, working and living into a virtual real world where it will be difficult to tell the difference between the real and the simulation ! I hope this time we will be conscious of the fact that it is still a virtual world !

Snapshot from facebook link on secondlife

Do you want to build your social network?

Thinking of building a social network

When we see the huge success behind several social networking sites, we cannot hide behind our desire to create one of our own, telling that its a goldmine to be explored.  The truth is, it is not so easy. Facebook has its success, due to its unique way to present its applications to its users. Linkedin has its success because it is the first  site to mix your profile and your career path in order for you to promote  yourself and your business to the world. Myspace is a place where you can upload music, videos, get to know people with the same passion as you.

Every social network has its own way to contact its users.   SO, if you want to create a social network platform you need to create something Unique, not like facebook or myspace or netlog. Creating an original general site is the only way to distinguish from the others. You don’t need to register to another social network if all of your friends are already on facebook, if the answer is yes, I will register, how many of my friends will follow me?

But if you create something completely different, than maybe it will grow.

Another problem is technology, unless you are a programmer yourself and you have time, you can program the site with all its complexity. The technology behind web 2.0 is more complex than just creating a website with html or css language, add with some flash or javascipts. NO, interactive web needs a platform with more memory than you ever could imagine. PHP, CSS, RSS, XHTML, wiki, JAVA are few of those web 1.0 and web 2.0 languages you can use in order to create your social network site.

I have interviewed many of the founders of social communities sites and the major problem is to keep on with the sustainability of the site. It means that you need to keep buying servers in order to keep up with the growing number of profiles, sometimes without receiving any money from advertisement . Wikipedia for example, since it is a not profit organization receives donations from its users and developers ! mass collaboration !

Facebook has monetize it with its applications (that for some are merely recognizable as advertisements)

Linkedin has recently started with advertisement but receives part of its revenue from companies who would like to use this professional tool to promote its employer branding and premium membership, which allows a better use of its applications.

Another weakness is the cost of creating such platform, starting with a minimum of 10,000 $ for programming.

The jungle is tight and there is little sunshine left to grow.  Few have failed and have perished in the race.

According to Lorenz Bogaert, founder and CEO of Netlog, at the moment we are assisting to a mature face of evolution of online social networking, the whole is becoming monetized.  The only possible way to gain profit is by finding ways to monetize its use, like opening a shop inside a shopping mall and make it profitable.

A few have done it with linkedin such as the registration to groups such as InvitesWelcome.com (Open Networkers) or GroupLinked.com or LION500.com (Open Networkers) and TopLinked.com (Open Networkers).

I would not recommend to build a social network but if you need to create one, a niche than I would recommend Linkedin groups or NING, which is a online self building social network with all its feature, it is free but  you cannot gain money cause you do not own the site.

Facebook, the new social revolution 2

You can use Facebook for different purposes, besides finding your old classmates you can use Facebook for business purposes as well.  Different online job sites are all ready connected to Facebook to post and redirect its users to find jobs. Careerbuilders like as many others use facebook as a job interface.

Indeed those career sites know the power of social networking and its exponential growth of population around the globe.  more than 150 million people connected to Facebook are today and future talent potential.  Myself working for one of the biggest industrial companies in Italy as a talent scouter use Facebook to find talents.

How to find a job:

You can attach one or more jobsites as an application to your profile. You have to type the keyword jobs than click on application on the results menu.

A menu appears with a wide range (more than 500) of job applications:

The list is ranked based on the activity and the number of clicks on the feature.

This list provides you with a brief description of the application and its purpose.

How to apply online:

First choose the site that matches your needs and click to view application.

n.b. Not all applications can be added to your profile.

When you click on view you have an overview of latest feeds of the jobsite.

You can also become a fan of the application and therefore contribute to its popularity.

The page for application is purely branding the trademark.

These applications are developed by the careersites itself. These companies pay facebook for the visibility. Facebook developers provide them with page building tools in order to create a jobsearching tool for every profile. Depending on the application you can only search for a job if you add as an application to your profile.

The application page looks exactly as a group page or a fan page. Users can join the application such as fans or groups. You can even rate the application.  Add discussions, and comment the application on “Reviews” or on the “Wall” .

The jobprovider is presented with a glossary for the page.

Once you have add the application to your profile, you will find an icon of the application  under your page next to applications, or when you click on applications, scroll up on the menu.

on this image you can see two job on this image you can see two job on this image you can see two job on this image you can see two job

application, one by careerbuilders and the other by jobs/indeed.

Every application is used in a different way due to the fact that it has been developed independently  by the jobsite itself.

Also beneath on the menu bar you can find the icon of the job application.

Once you add the application you can start search jobs !!

How can I do Business with Facebook?

Before I talk about business, let me give you a tip first. Web 2.0 is about sharing, collaborate and interact with everyone into ecosystems with common goals and opportunity. Folksonomy are providing rich contents for everyone to share this knowledge, while contributing to development of science, business, entertainment and art. This means that whatever you want develop, you will have to be involve inside one or more groups with common interest. If you are a musician than you will be tend to joint a group of musicians that share the same passion you have for a particular instrument or music style, if you are a chemical engineer than you will rather go to a group that gather other chemical engineers like you, all with the purpose of sharing knowledge, perhaps ideas and new developments.

Facebook is not yet prepared to a more professional use of the site because it does not contain a search option for professional use. The only way you can gather business networks is to create groups which people can identify, you can either create a group where people will not be joining the group without the administration permission or a  free joining group.

Besides groups you can add a fan page of your brand, such as coca cola who add a fanspace on Facebook, it has more than 2.5 millions of fans !!!

this will boost the trademark but also its employer branding noticing its creative, young and innovative approach.

Facebook, the new social revolution 1

Facebook

The real reason for the success of Facebook is not so much the interactivity between networkers but the fact that you could find a friend that you haven’t seen for a long time !!

Other tools on this site permits its users to discover other friendships an communities. In fact the facebook culture is in fact a social revolution in many cultures where debates and discussions are taking place about the utility of the website. Some argue that the loneliness of the millennium man forces him to find shelter into virtual worlds. Others tend to emphasize the social revolution add by an awareness of self being and involvement in the creation of a mass connection. nevertheless the fact that you are in the form of a profile or avatar.

Facebook is at this moment the most visited social network site and it is the fifth most clicked website in the World Wide Web according to the Alexa’s ranking .

What is Facebook?

Facebook was launched in February 2004 by the young student Mark Zuckerberg. As the true legend goes Facebook was made by Mark while attending the Harvard University.  Its co-founder is Dustin Moskovitz that had planned to resign in October 2008 to found a new site with a business approach. The website was initially for Harvard Students, but soon other students from other universities argued an for an expansion. Soon “thefacebook.com” ( its original domain name) became a golden business. In 2005 “thefacebook” became “Facebook”. The population on Facebook grows exponentially, by today January 2009 it has more than 150 million profiles. Facebook has received many offers by media and internet giants such as AOL and Yahoo . CEO and founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg has always stand his point to maintain his website. nevertheless Microsoft, has acquired a part of Facebook, i.e. purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $246 million, giving Facebook a total implied value of around $15 billion. What is Facebook after all: Facebook is a social network of people aged from 13 and older that enables them to create a profile with information regarding identity, such as name, birthday and place, political preferences, religion, location, etc. to sharing pictures and video’s using API’s ( programs that enables the intermingle of websites) or uploaded data from their desktop such as pictures or video’s.  By changing your “status” on your profile you can inform all the persons in contact with you to share your state of mind or your duty of the day. Sharing information such as events, groups to be affiliated or online communities hubs. Other features that keeps any profile alive and busy are online games and funny surveys. Facebook enables people to track others by a search menu. Due to privacy reasons people can only be tracked by name or email, school and country which can be very vague.

The home page provides the user with newsfeed of his contacts, with updates of any change in your contacts profiles, comments and status.

Other newsfeeds provides you information about messages, invitations to events, friendships and gaming tools called requests. applications permits you to navigate to groups, communities, marketplaces within your network (linked to a specific location that can be changed every 2 months). You can even invite your friends that are not yet on facebook, consult birthdays and have an overview of people connected with one or more of your contacts with the application called “people you may know“.

The application board:

Within the application you can only see the pictures of your contacts, thus not the contact of your contact to the second degree. you can only see an application of a second degree contact only if your direct contact comments on their picture or in a wall to wall conversation.

Contacts can be removed because you as a user have the freedom of choice whether you wish to be connected or not.

The invitation module does not recognize a person or an email that is registered to Facebook, this is in fact one of the many controversial issues of the fakes within Facebook, that allows double profiles to co-exist so called fakes.

This issue is putting several popular figures in a troubled situation because their profiles were used by wannabees that faked to be entertainers, actors, musicians, businessmen or political figures.

Also people tend to double their profiles, therefore I suggest to search for your friends first on Facebook, if you do not find them send them an invitation.

Facebook Menu controllers:

There are three important menu bars:

The first menu bar: permits you to toggle between the home page with all the updates and newsfeeds of your contacts and your profile your profile page that regards your wall to wall messages and your updates.

An other feature is “friends” where you can view all your contacts and their profile update.

“inbox” where you can view messages not only by your contacts but also by groups affiliated to you.

your name is also exposed on this menu bar but when clicking you are directed to your profile page.

“settings” allows you to change your profile settings aswell as your privacy settings.

the search tool allows you to search contacts, groups and communities inside facebook.

The second menu bar is more applicative inside  the home page:

The profile picture can be updated whenever the user wishes to, also it also proves the profile to be active.

The “Status” is a feature that allows your contacts to know what your are up to, business, private or simply your state of mind.

The menu below can pinpoint some applications and updates by your contacts, “newsfeed” provides you with an overview of your contacts activity.

“status updates” provides you an overview of the latest updates of status by your contacts.

“photos” your contacts latest photo albums

“posted items” provides you about information or events and posted items such as flyers.

“Live feeds” gives you an overview of the activity of your contacts like latest friendships or movements with facebook’s applications.

The second bar menu on your profile is slightly different:

This menu bar is more interactive since you can you use this application to change your profile by uploading pictures, create albums, change your status and share information about you.

“wall” is a feature that allows you to see your own latest updates and messaging board.

“Info” is a feature where you can put your own information concerning your life, experience, school you have attended, some people use this feature as their own resume in order to be searchable for business or career opportunities.

“Photo” allows you to classify your uploaded photos into albums and to tag people inside this photographs.

“tagging” is a concept that permits with keywords to expose items, texts or pictures within the website.

If someone is tagged he or she will receive on his newsfeed the information that he or she has been tagged by someone, sometimes by someone outside their contacts perimeter. This tools has permitted long time unseen friends to reunite on facebook by tagging old classmates on their school pictures.

“Boxes” provides you an overview of some affiliation towards some games within Facebook that by surveying and your results affiliates you with figures such as a car, a legend, a mythical animal, etc.

Other features are viewed by the plus sign which provides also an access to the “Super Wall” which is a feature where you can message all of your contacts at once.

The last menu bar :

Gives you an rapid iconic overview of some application and features for you to use on your profile.

the feature that is of real matter on this menu bar is the chat option.

By clicking on its icon you can view a private chatroom where you can chat with your contacts if they are online on the chat. Also this feature is not fully developed because you cannot simultaneously chat with everyone, and the connection can be interrupted if you travel through facebook. you cannot transfer data on the chat option.

People that use firefox as a browser can see how many people are online above the icon of the chat on the menubar.

These feature will be one that needs to be developed.