My Blog

Online communities and Linkedin

daviduk — Mon, 16 May 2005 09:56:19 GMT

I just have read this morming an article in the Northwest Herald tribune "www.nwherald.com" - www.nwherald.com/BusinessS...on/310975295343801.php - , on the second birthday of Linkedin. In this article we can learn that Linkedin have currently 2.5 million users around the world. Even if this information is already known, this article is very interesting and explain clearly and exactly the platform Linkedin "www.linkedin.com";, I acknowedge that sometimes it hard to define this directory :) Linkedin is an online social networking tool, not doubt about this fact, but in contrario of others online social networking tools, i don't think that linkedin is an online community, like but with some nuances Viaduc "www.viaduc.com" one of the leading " online social networks" in France - even if it's different since some months with the "HUBS"' introduction that means forums. In my point of view, one of the strengh of the online social networking tools is to build an online community for the companies and create strong links inside for the members. In this case, i can see only a directory like Yell "Yell.com"; and not at all an online community which provide a lot of interaction between the members for developing the relationships between people who know each other but also between new people. Linkedin like a lot of "online social directory" allow us to use as for Yell.com our phone, here the "email" for creating a contact. The game of the introduction, it's quite strange in my side, some it's interesting but sometimes, we prefer take a direct contact with someone else, in this case it's impossible... Why limited the interactions? Is it really for creating more strong relationship with people, or it's more a kind of business model for the future... The creation of added value is very limited, even if Linkedin use perfectly the online social networking tool and the marketing for developing its job service. I think clearly that we need to be more clear about the terms online community and online social networking. In my side the real value are created in an online community, and the online social networking it's just a tool which allow to develop better online communities, and develop a strong pool of users, and allow them to have different sort of ties and improve them. if one sticks to a definition of the "communities" , we need to have a grouping of people, in a same location, who share a same interest, until now it's ok ...the only problem is about the interaction. In my sense, we are very far away from real interaction, with real exchanges, and we aren't in presence of an online community. I would like to have you point of view on this subject.

online communities and their different aspects

daviduk — Sat, 07 May 2005 19:10:49 GMT

i'm interested in the online communities now since 6 or 7 years, and have developed a background in the different Internet issues. I'm interested by this specific subject of online communities for its differents aspects and the interaction between them. When we read the litterature about online communities, i have the impression that a lot of authors try to analyze only one aspect : Sociologic issues, technologies issues, or business issues. In my side, by my research and my experience, i'm not really agree with these approachs of online communities, like in general by the approach of online social networks. I'm agree about the sentence of Miranda Mowbray ( HP researcher) in her book about Online communities who statut that online community is an human issue and not a technology issue, now the technology and the usuability need to be particularly performant for support the interaction between the different members. In my point of view, online communities are clearly a human interaction, but without technology and usuability there are no online communities. For understanding, the online communities in my sense ,it's interesting to analyze the interaction between the sociology, the business and the technology, for adapting each domain and try to develop strong online communities. e.g: if we decide to develop an online community of practice, an online community of interest, or a sort of online community really developped currently like the online dating communities, we need to considerate each time these three aspects. For developping or analyzing an online communities, we need to think about why and how we want to develop this community. I would like to share with some of you your experiences, your analyze of online communities and social networks in general.

a weekend in Birmingham

daviduk — Sat, 07 May 2005 15:11:33 GMT

After have had a very excellent weekend with a bank holiday the last week and a long walking near Bristol, this weekend, i'm staying in Birmingham, for developing some php scripts for a little personal project. I can recommand the book from Wrox about PHP5, Apache, MySQL, Web Development, it's an excellent book for beginner and more...