Elastic Social Networks

- By Manas Garg

(1st of June, 2011)

Social Network(s)

Social Platforms

Leaky Abstractions

Source

Social Platforms Today

• Online Social Platforms are simplified

“models” of “real” Social Networks

• A Social Model defines a set of rules for users

to interact with each other

o Types of relationships

o Privacy aka Rules of Content Visibility

o Rules of Communication (who can talk to who?)

• Different Social Platforms with Different

Models “co-exist”

Evolution of Social Platforms

• Emergence of Social Platforms in niche

areas

o Smaller number of potential users

o Stronger sense of belonging

o “Common Interest” as the binding force

• Seeding of connections from big

daddies(Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter have

APIs)

• Different “Social Model” for different

platforms

Challenge for New Platforms

Providing value to users even at a smaller scale

Challenge for New Platforms

Big Daddy Newbie

Challenge for New Platforms

Big Daddy Newbie

Lots of Connections. High likelihoodto consume & communicate

Challenge for New Platforms

Big Daddy Newbie

Few connections, less likelihood toconsume & communicate

Real Social Model

Socializing as it happens

• People “just” run into each other

o Socialization is spontaneous

o You don’t need crowd to have company

o Subtle/Explicit gestures to engage and

disengage

• People communicate and the connections

get formed

o People don’t “create” connections before they

communicate

Elastic Social Networks

• Term “Elastic Social Network” was formalized

by Color (early 2011)

• An emerging method for modeling Social

Platforms

• The rules (privacy & ability to communicate)

are evolving

• The model has been around, the term is new

Early Implementations

What are the Likely Characteristics of

Elastic Social Networks?

Connection follows Conversation

Grouping Beyond Connection

• Multiple ways to bring

people together

o Not just “connections”

o Parameter based (all blues

together)

o Heuristics based (A likes

B, A likes C; B might like C)

Signal Based Recommendations

• The system collects &

analyzes behavioral data

• Tracks your level of

engagement with others

• Determines the likelihood

of you getting along with

a person

Driving Forces

• Upcoming Social Platforms need to find their

groove

o New platforms must provide ways to form new

connections instead of just leveraging existing

ones

o New platforms must deliver value even with

smaller number of users

• Existing Platforms need to stay relevant

o Need to go beyond “connection” and look at

“quality of connection”

Challenges

• Alternate ways to present content

o Reverse Chronological “News Feed” not as

relevant in Elastic Networks

• Algorithms to bring people together

o Requires a self-learning, recommendation engine

• Abuse control

o “Connection” based model is inherently abuse

resistant

Summary

• Social Platforms are simplified “models” of

real Social Networks

• Elastic Social Networks move beyond

“connections” based Social Model

• Elastic Social Networks present opportunity

for new Social Platforms

• There are usability, privacy & technical

challenges in building Elastic Social

Networks