Lesley Anderson

 What is Social Networking?
How does it compare with your ideas about online communities? 

My initial thoughts about Social Networking centred on groups of people meeting together to form links or friendships that have common ideas or interests. Online Communities, immediately brought to mind the online facilities that help people to make links or friendships - the websites that enable Social Networking to occur.  

I accessed the following websites, looking for some information to help me define Social Networking and found that my personal ideas of Social Networking were not all that different to what I read.

Directory Submissions.eu
http://directorysubmissions.eu/news/2009/04/22/social-networking-definition/

“Social networking is defined as the bringing individuals together into to specific groups, often like a small community or a neighbourhood.”

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers
http://www.successful-blog.com/1/what-is-social-networking/

“Most literally, social networking would be meeting and making connections and relationships - both business and social - online and offline.” 

In order to discover information about online communities I accessed the website http://www.ifsm.umbc.edu/communities/   (University of Maryland, USA) and found the following  basic definition of an online community -
“…any group of people who communicate with each other via computers.”

Those who belong to online communities may or may not have common interests or goals or simply be seeking interaction with others. Communities focus on a wide range of topics that could well be viewed as infinite - limited only by thoughts and imaginations of individuals involved.

They are supported by varying types of websites and software such as mailing lists, video conferencing, multi-player games, moos, bulletin boards and chat services in order to seek and share common ground and information.

Social Networking platforms such as Facebook, My Space, Twitter etc. provide individuals with easily accessible means to create or participate in Online Communities. They are able to pursue common interests and goals or simply interact and build relationships with others, effectively breaking down barriers of time and distance that may previously have hindered a community from existing and communicating with each other.