Caryn's+Best+Practices+entry

Best practices

[1]

=Facebook=

As one of the world’s most successful social networks Facebook can greatly inform our public space project.

Description

A former Harvard student Marc Zuckerberg launched Facebook in February 2004, the social network quickly spread to dorm rooms around campus [2]. Now popular site recognizes more than 30,000 schools, colleges, universities, organizations and companies in both the United States, in Canada and a number of other English speaking countries [2]. A 2005 survey found that approximately 85% of the students who were part of supported college networks had a Facebook account, and of those 60% accessed the site daily. [3] The features of Facebook is what allowed the social network to grow so quickly. Features such as photo sharing, groups, events and communication were integrated within the lives of their target market [3]. Within the social network 1.5 million photos are uploaded to the site everyday from various electronic devices [2]. Users can create new groups within the network in addition to joining and participating in exciting groups on the site. These groups can be used of University collaborations of projects, by providing a method of working within a closed discussion. Facebook’s events features allows user to organize, take part in and plan events together, with others in the network, joining wit others who may have similar interest and hobbies [2].

Facebook Group Image [4]



Facebook Profile Image [5]



Insights Aimed mostly at college/university students Facebook has the same demographic as our system. As we set out to assist in creating a more unified campus community Facebook is an example of people from similar networks, be it location, interests, or classes collaborating in order to share information. The events features could influence our project greatly, as events on the network are exposed and accessible to all people within the network, providing information about events on or off campus. By providing a live feed on the home page information is constantly being updated thought the system, which acts as a constant source of the most current information. Another feature of Facebook that could be adapted to fit within our social system is the feature of the mapping system. This mapping system which is used on Facebook to show where a specific user has traveled to, could be adapted to show favourite places to sit on campus or the locations of different campus activities.

resources: [1 ] [|Facbook Logo.] Google Images. 25 Oct. 2007 [2] __"Facebook - the Complete Biography."__ Mashable Social Networking News. 21 Oct. 2007 [|.] [3] [|"The Facebook Years."] Blogger.Com. 21 Oct. 2007 <[|http://seo-space.blogspot.com/2007/09/facebook-years-everything-you-need-to.html>.] [4] __[|Facbook Group.]__ Google Images. 25 Oct. 2007 [5] [|Facebook Profile.] Google Images. 27 Oct. 2007