DISSERTATION

How can we improve the visibility of the Southampton Solent University

through online activities?

Some means of online communication=> petite phrase d'intro, expliquant ce que tu

vas présenter et pourquoi! + note tes références en bas de page
EXPLAIN WHAT’S ONLINE COMMUNICATION MEAN

Social Network Websites

4.1.1 Definition

Social network websites are websites where people connect with friends.
Those people are person, bodies, or institutions, they which keep relationships
between themselves, straight or indirectly through series of relations.
Social network websites give the opportunity to people without technical
competencies to broadcast texts online and interact with their friends, for free or
practically.
Each social network website is done with its own facilities and possibilities and each
one for different objectives.

Originally, the social network comes from Frigyes Karinthy’s theory, “the six degrees
of separation”, in 1929 and later from the Stanley Milgram’s experiment, “a small
world”, in 1967.

Frigyes Karinthy (1887-1938) is a Hungarian author, poet, translator and journalist.

Thanks to his short story “Chains” in 1929, he created the six degrees of separation
concept: according to him, everyone worldwide can be connected with another one
person by an association of private relationships with outside five other people.
=> reformule avec tes propres mots.

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Afterwards Stanley Milgram (1933-1984), who is famous especially for the Milgram
Experiment about the obedience to authority, took up the idea from Karinthy with
regard to the six degrees of separation concept in 1967. He wanted to authenticate
the Karinthy’s concept with an experiment.
He asked to people picked at random to send a package to the same target person
they didn’t know. Those people had some information about the target person, like
his occupation, the college where he studied but they didn’t have his name and
neither his address.
Those people had to send the packet to an acquaintance of their network who might
be the right person to bring the packet closer to the target person.
In conclusion, to reach the target person, it needed 5,2 intermediate people on
average.

4.1.2 Historical

In 1980, the setting up of the Bulletin Board Systems (BSSs) allows users to
share software and data. Considering the high cost of the connections, most of the
use of BSSs was in local communities.

At the end of 1980s and the beginning of 1990s, AOL (America Online) gives the
possibility to connect oneself to Internet, create an user profile, send private and
public messages, and post events.

In 1995, Classmates.com is created in the United States. It’s the first website which
comes close to the definition of modern social networking websites. It enables to the
Internet surfers to meet up with schoolmates.

In 1997, SixDegrees.com is get online. It’s the first to make use of the six degrees of
separation concept. This social network website called upon the users to depict on
the Internet their direct social links. They were able to be reunited with close relatives
registered on the website, or they could invite their connections to join the website.
The aim was to discover the network of indirect relationships available outside of the
first circle of acquaintances. Each member had the opportunity to contact people
pulling them apart up to 3 degrees.

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SixDegrees.com permitted to create an user profile, invite friends and gain access to
friends’ profiles from 1998. It’s the first social networking website allowing surfing in
other user profiles in order to widen its own network.

In 2001, SixDegrees.com closes owing to the over-request of indirect relationships

called social spam.

In 2002, Friendster opens the modern time to social networks. This website uses
same means as SixDegrees.com that is the creation of a profile, friends lists, the
access to these ones, as well as the six degrees of separation concept but it owns
communication and extra contents sharing tools. On Friendster we can share
photos, music but also videos.

In 2003, a new kind of social network website is created: LinkedIn. It’s a professional
network website for businesspeople who want to meet other professionals.

In 2004, Facebook, the social networking website famous all over the world is
established by a student of Harvard. At first it is opened only for students of Harvard
University, before opening in 2006 to the general public.

Since 2006, several other social network websites appeared everyone with their
advantages, their own aim and their own target audience.

In 2010, LinkedIn had 65 millions of users in more than 200 countries in the world
and Facebook numbered 400 millions of users since February 20101.

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www.facebook.com/press/releases.php?p=154995

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 Timeline of the creation of the major social network website2:

Commentaire?

2
http://les-reseaux-sociaux.blogspot.com/

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 4.1.3 How do social network websites work?

According to Danah M. Boyd and Nicole B. Ellison3, the main component in social
network websites is the visible profiles. In these profiles, we can consult a list of
Friends who are also users of the same social network website.

After being registered on the website, the user needs to fill in a form with questions
about its age, location, education, interests, and so on.
In most websites, the user has also the opportunity to fill in a part of its profile with a
few words about itself. Moreover one can upload a profile picture in order to the
other users can recognize it.

Once the first step is done, the latter can identify other people on the network with
who it is already in relationships. To add somebody in its friends’ list, the requesting
person has to validate the relationship between itself and the person who has
requested it to be friend: it is a bi-directional confirmation.
People appearing on our list are called “friends”, even if they are not really friends
but rather professional acquaintances or something like that. In some social network
websites, they are called “contacts” or “fans”.

Through friends’ lists, we can see friends of our friends. Thanks to this way, we have
then the occasion to spread our own network.

As regards the visibility of the user’s profile, this one decide whether it wants that its
profile to be accessible from search engines or whether it wants limit the access on
its profile only to its friends on the network, or only to people being a part of its
friends’ list.
The profile visibility is one of the first characteristic which distinguishes each social
network website: each has its own factors of visibility by default.

In most social network website, users have three manners to interact with their
peers.

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Social Network Sites: Definition, History and Scholarship, Danah M. Boyd and Nicole B. Ellison, Michigan
State University, 2007.

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At first, they can talk with each other online. That is called “the chat”.
Then the user can write a public message to a friend, everybody can see it. It is
called a “comment” or a “post”.
Finally, the third solution is to send a private message to a friend. Nobody sees it
except both concerning people. This system looks like an electronic mailbox.

4.1.4 Professional uses and opportunities

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4.1.5 Some examples of social network websites
LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Flickr

Utilization

Number and
kind of users

Advantages

Disadvantages

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4.1.5.1 LinkedIn
LinkedIn homepage:

4.1.5.2 Facebook
4.1.5.3 Flickr
4.1.5.4 Twitter

Search Engine Optimization

4.1.6 Definition
4.1.7 Natural Search Engine Optimization
4.1.8 Search Engine Marketing

Advertising