John Breslin - Introduction / overview

Slide 2: Welcome to WebCamp • WebCamp is a free Web interest event (à la BarCamp) • The first one is today  • The idea is that there will be a number of these events themed by topic (since there are many Web interests) – Today’s event is about social networks! 2

Slide 3: What is DERI? • Digital Enterprise Research Institute • Established at NUI Galway in June 2003 • One of the largest “Semantic Web” research institutes • About €25 million in funding from EU FP6, SFI, EI • Now has 85 members (staff and students) • Three main research clusters: – Semantic Web – Semantic Web Services – E-Learning with Semantics • About 100 project partners 3

Slide 4: Internet access via wireless • Open-access using the SSID “DERI-Open-Wireless” ))) ((( 4

Slide 5: Food (not free I’m afraid) • • The DERI Café Westwood Hotel – Downstairs – Just across the road • • Breakfast until 11 / 11:30 In case downstairs is full! • Coffee • Sandwiches and hot food – During lunch hours 5

Slide 6: We all live in a social network… • …of friends, family, workmates, fellow students, acquaintances, etc. • Friend of a friend, or “dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean leí” • Theory that anybody is connected to everybody else (on average) by no more than six degrees of separation 6

Slide 7: What are social network services? • Idea behind social networking services (SNS) is to make these real-world relationships explicitly defined online • Wikipedia: – “A social network service is social software focused on the building and verifying of online social networks for whatever purpose.” • Surf from your list of friends to find friends-of-friends, or friends-of-friends-of-friends for various purposes • Most allow content generation and sharing • Features: – Network of friends (inner circle); person surfing; private messaging; discussion forums; events management; blogging and commenting; media uploading 7

Slide 8: Trying to make friends without a SNS Latvia Uldis Valdis DERI Met John Marc Clare Bros John C Andrew Dublin Marc and I already had friends in common! I later found out my cousin Ailish also knows Andrew. The “small world” phenomenon… 8

Slide 9: History of social networking services • Up to 2002: – OneList, ICQ, Evite • 2002 to 2003: – Friendster, LinkedIn, MySpace • 2004 to 2005: – orkut, Facebook, Bebo • 2006 to 2007: – YASNS, BYOSN – Ning – Konsort – AroundMe 9

Slide 10: Big social network services • MySpace 130,000,000 • Hi5 50,000,000 • Xanga 40,000,000 • Classmates.com 40,000,000 • orkut 36,532,811 • Windows Live Spaces 30,000,000 • Friendster 29,100,000 • Reunion.com 25,000,000 • Bebo 22,000,000 • BlackPlanet.com 18,000,000 • Cyworld 15,000,000 • Facebook 12,000,000 • LiveJournal 10,921,263 • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites 10

Slide 11: VC and sales of SNS sites • Friendster – $13M VC • Tribe – $6.3M VC • LinkedIn – $4.7M VC • Bebo – $15M VC (target audience is 10-20 years) • MySpace – Sold to News Corporation for $580M (target audience is 20-30 years) • Friends Reunited – Sold to ITV for £120M • Facebook – Purported $1B offer by Yahoo!, $1.6B actually available for deal, $2B wanted by founder 11

Slide 12: Distributed social network with FOAF • Can use FOAF to describe social networks across a number of services, and OpenID to provide single signon • Picture shows aggregated data of both my work colleagues and my online friends 12

Slide 13: General interest / technical talks in the AM Valdis Krebs Conor Hayes Jill Freyne OrgNet DERI, NUI Galway UCD Andrew Page Mark Tarbatt Gabriela Avram Bigulo Generator UL 13

Slide 14: Breakout sessions on social networks in the PM 1. The future of social network services (improving interfaces to simulate real-world interaction; distributed social networks and reusable profiles; object-centered sociality; etc.) • Moderated by Ina O’Murchu 2. Trust, privacy and reputation (identifying reputable, reliable sources of information / services in social networks; privacy issues; profiling customer behaviour) • Moderated by Conor Hayes 3. Evaluation strategies for social networks and for systems that build upon social networks – Moderated by Knud Möller 14

Slide 15: Principles of the birds of a feather discussions 1. Whoever comes are the right people 2. Whatever happens is the only right thing that could have happened 3. Whenever it starts is the right time 4. When it is over, it is over 15

Slide 16: The law of the two feet • If you find yourself in a place where you are neither learning nor contributing, it is your responsibility to leave and go to wherever there is greater potential for learning and contributing 16

Slide 17: Breakout session topics proposed so far 1. The future of social network services • DERI Seminar Room 2. Trust, privacy and reputation • DERI Meeting Room A 3. Evaluation strategies for social networks • DERI Meeting Room B 17

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